Fleur's frustration mounted as she realized Ivaylo's schemes had manipulated her. Determined to uncover the suspicious man inside the ballroom, she ventured to the far right end of the castle. The horrifying sight of numerous corpses scattered in the corridor cemented Fleur's belief that she was on the right track and would find the culprit by tracing the trail of the bodies.
Though she did indeed discover the culprit responsible for the dead body, she was not the true mastermind behind the chaos. At that moment, Fleur did not doubt that Ivaylo was the one pulling the strings, deliberately leading her away from the ballroom.
'Probably, Ivaylo used the god's blessing of being able to hide his existence completely to trick me. But I've always been vigilant, so it's likely that when we went out of the ballroom and chased after the corpses, he was just standing behind the door with the person who can conceal existence!' Fleur thought.
Now, Fleur and Birawa intend to look for Ivaylo. And finally they returned to the ballroom. They saw that the left ballroom door (or the castle's right side) was now destroyed. Making Fleur sure that all her hypotheses were correct.
'?! I can't sense anyone's mana inside the ballroom!'
Fleur took out her long sword, which had a silver rose on its hilt. As she reached the destroyed door, she attacked the air.
-TWANG
The sword she drew hit something. Like a solid wall. Though there was nothing there.
"Sh*t!" cursed Fleur as if she knew something was there.
Birawa tried to touch the air Fleur was attacking.
"Something is blocking us from entering the ballroom, and it's powerful."
Fleur and Birawa could see what was happening inside, they tried to call out to the people inside, but there was no reaction.
"This must be one of the Dolls' blessings."
"And-"
ƥαṇdα- ηθνε|·ƈθm Fleur and Birawa were shocked because inside, they saw Swithian, one of the knights of rounds, holding Francis as a hostage.
"Swithian betrayed?!" said Birawa, shocked.
Fleur took a deep breath and released it, trying to calm herself down.
As we approached the building, I couldn't help but notice the imposing presence of the strong individuals inside.. Despite their strength, I tried to reassure myself that we had nothing to worry about. It was unlikely that they could see us or even leave the building.
However, my instincts told me that Ivaylo was not among them. I suggested we take a detour and head towards the left side of the building in search of him. "We know where we're going anyway," I added confidently as we changed our course.
"There are many strong individuals inside. Maximilian and some captains of the 12 Milite were among them. We shouldn't have to worry about what's going on inside. Maybe people inside can't see us and can't get out. My instincts told me that Ivaylo was not among them. I suggested we detour and head toward the left side of the building in search of him."
...
Inside the ballroom.
As soon as the deceitful nobleman burst into pieces, the others who had planned to lie to escape swiftly fell silent upon witnessing the severe ramifications of the dishonesty.
"As expected, humans will always lie when their lives are threatened. No matter what, lying is one way to live in this world."
Nishizaka looked at the other nobles and said,
"You should be grateful to this man. He has shown you the fate of those who lie."
Harald immediately asked Alicia about Nishizaka's god's blessing. Was it really the consequence of lies, or did Nishizaka have a god's blessing to blow up people's bodies?
"No, although she might be hiding something, but everything she said is true. I saw it in my appraisal. New data has been added; her god's blessing is made an isolated space and gives rules inside the space as she wants. But I believe the more unreasonable and the stricter the rules, the weaker the consequences for violators."
In this case, Nishizaka only gave a simple rule, "Don't lie," which resulted in everyone who violated it dying a horrible death. If she added the rule that "everyone should speak what they hide and not lie," then the consequences of violating it would be weak, such as knife cuts, overheating, or perhaps freezing.
'I can utilize these rules!' Alicia thought.
"I think I can answer. I've heard about Higashiro Yamanaka and the person who most likely knows about him," Alicia said as she walked up to Nishizaka.
"Is it true? Do you really know something about him?" asked Nishizaka.
Alicia looked at the blood clot beside her, thinking she could become that clot after she answered this question. But she had her own ideas about how to face Nishizaka's god's blessing. And if she let things go according to the Noctem Dolls' plan, it would definitely end badly.
Alicia made up her mind and said
"YES," replied Alicia.
When Nishizaka asked her, Alicia finally knew the conditions of the rules. Whereas before, many people lied, but only that one noble person exploded.
The condition is This rule only applies when you talk to Nishizaka. If you lie without speaking directly to Nishizaka, then the rule won't use. That's why when the short noble came forward, Nishizaka asked him again, "Is it true?" and now, when Alicia asked, Nishizaka also tried to confirm it and asked her, "Is it true?".
'At a certain time, I can lie if I don't speak directly to her. After all, it's just a matter of wordplay. All you need to do is not lie. But words can be embellished without lying,' Alicia thought.
"What's your name?" asked Alicia.
"Nishizaka," she replied briefly.
"Nishizaka, I can give you information related to Higashiro Yamanaka, but on one condition: You must answer all my questions," said Alicia.
"No problem. But is it true that you have information about him?" asked Nishizaka once again.
"Yes, I do."
In the room, everyone could feel a warning hung in the air: anyone lying would meet their death. Alicia waited with bated breath, fearing that the consequences of her words would be fatal. However, after a few tense seconds had elapsed, she realized that nothing had happened.
Meanwhile, Nishizaka concealed her emotions behind a mask, but her surprise was unmistakable.
"YOU KNOW SOMETHING?! ABOUT HIM?! HIS WHEREABOUTS?! HIS CONDITION?!" Nishizaka exclaimed in a rare show of expression. From the start, she didn't think anyone would know about her friend. But because Alicia's body now stands in front of her, without any sign of exploding, it led Nishizaka to believe that Alicia held the key to finding her friend, which she had been desperately searching for since becoming stranded in this world.
Alicia then covered Nishizaka's mouth with her index finger and said
"Answer my question first, and I'll tell you everything I know about him and what others know about him," said Alicia.
Nishizaka quieted her racing thoughts and attempted to regain control of her emotions. She knew she needed to suppress her nerves and return to her usual self as quickly as possible.
Alicia signaled Harald to do something so they could no longer make everyone a hostage.
Alicia's question was
"Why did Dolls attack the palace?"
Nishizaka answered to kill the king.
"Why do you want to kill the king?"
Nishizaka replied that she didn't know, and probably none of the other members knew either; the only one who knew the reason was their leader, Ivaylo.
'Ivaylo... he must be keeping important information to himself. Or maybe he predicted that Nishizaka would tell everyone else everything she knew, so he deliberately kept important information from Nishizaka,' Alicia thought.
To be sure, she asked other questions related to Noctem Dolls, such as
"What is the purpose of Noctem Dolls?"
Nishizaka replied that she didn't know
"Why did you enter Noctem Dolls?"
Nishizaka answered to look for her missing friend. She didn't want to explain why she had to enter Noctem Dolls to look for him.
Alicia eagerly implored Nishizaka to divulge the specifics of her friend's abilities - from the type of weapons they wielded to the god's blessing they have. However, Nishizaka's response was disheartening: she confessed to only being familiar with 4 of the individuals: Arthur, Elinor, Mary, and Ivaylo. And even then, she was unaware of the details of these 4 powers. It was then that Alicia's suspicions were confirmed - Nishizaka had likely been admitted into the room because Ivaylo knew she possessed the least information regarding the Noctem Dolls.
Finally, Alicia stopped to ask questions that Nishizaka couldn't answer. She went back to ask about everything related to the current situation.
"What about your plan? What is the makeup of your plan to attack the palace?"
Nishizaka answered everything. Starting with the massacre of the Erster family and then making them puppets to bring Ivaylo in. Then Elinor, who had the god's blessing of "emptiness", entered the castle without anyone knowing. They divided the team into four parts. Ivaylo, his doll, and Elinor in the ballroom during the party; Nishizaka with Ivaylo's doll in the ballroom after the party; Adam, and Ralph at the front gate; then those in charge of killing the king were Norman, Clarissa, and Arthur.
"What about you? What's your goal here?
The goal was to lock up all the knights, ten Mithril-level dungeon explorers, the princes, 12 captain milites, the head of knight Maximilian, and the strongest knights of rounds Fleur and Birawa. Ivaylo figured they would fail if the strong men in the room wandered around, so he locked them inside and made them not come out for 2 hours.
"Things didn't go according to plan. Fleur and Birawa left before Maximilian came in. So did the other queens and princes."
"What was that explosion? And what was its purpose?"
Nishizaka replied
"The explosion was to trigger panic inside the ballroom. Then, bait all the royal soldiers to go to the front gate."
"You're letting just two people fight the royal army?"
"No, two people are needed to fight the six rounds that will most likely come to the front gate. Meanwhile, the soldiers will fight the human puppets."
When she heard "human puppets," Alicia's skin crawled with fear. It was as if things she didn't want to think about flashed through her mind.
"W-what do you mean by human puppets?"
"Before the whitmoon festival started, the leader ordered us to spread the dolls all over the capital. I don't know how it works, but those dolls will turn ordinary people into dolls. Ordinary people will be puppets for two hours at most. And during that time, they will fight the soldiers to create a situation of mutual killing between the commoners and the soldiers."
"WHAT?!"
As Alicia heard that, a troubling realization washed over her. Tonight, the capital would become a site of immense bloodshed. She had dispatched Tobias and Sewel to check on the capital. However, Alicia couldn't shake off the fear that they might lose control and kill innocent people they mistakenly believed to be too far gone to save.
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