Just as if this day didn"t have enough of twists and surprises, the owner of this new voice that dared to b.u.t.t in the proceedings of my trials, was no one else than Gabriel himself! As soon as people realised who was trying to squeeze in-between them in order to reach the central square, the crowd itself loosened up, allowing their missing leader to approach me and instantly fall to his knees.
"This humble subject report to the master!"
Just a single look at his face, and then his entire body told me quite a lot about what this poor man had to go through to reach this place. When I left this dimension the last time, his age was barely showing due to the positive influence of this place on all my subjects, with their own energy efficiently nouris.h.i.+ng them and keeping them healthy, yet despite all that influence, right now, he was nothing more than just a wreck of a human.
From all the wrinkles of his face that reappeared in the time that I was away, I could tell that he was living in constant worry, while his malnourished body gave the evidence to how painful time he had ever since he left.
"Raise, my loyal subject. Before I even ask how did you get there in such opportune timing, would you mind elaborate on what you said just a moment ago?"
Just thinking about what he told, was enough to put me back on the track. If his words were true and meant what I could guess they did, then not only did this princess managed to successfully manipulate me into following her flow, but all her actions were actually aimed for this very moment, as if she expected that at some point, not only I would return but judge her actions sternly as well!
"Sir, while I didn"t hear everything that was said here with how late I was to the event, I managed to hear this traitor claiming that I simply left this place without relaying any further orders. And that is a complete and utter lie!"
With his agitation shooting through the roof, Gabriel raised his head and looked at the princess with his eyes filled with hate. Considering how calm and composed he always was, even when he had to imagine that I was taking him as the sacrifice for the sea monsters so that my own pa.s.sage would be undisturbed, seeing him so full of the negative emotion as he cast his eyes on the princess, my mind s.h.i.+fted once again, returning to its initial state of blaming the princess for all the evil that happened.
"While it"s true that I set on a journey in order to complete a detailed map of this entire place so that your lords.h.i.+p, upon return, could decide how to make the best use of it, I left my trusted helper, one I recruited for my help as soon as I was appointed the position of the overseer of those lands and people, to pa.s.s the orders to all the other retainers that helped me fulfil my duties to the best of their capabilities. And guess what? He was killed by this princess herself!"
Hearing Gabriel"s recount, at first I was quite happy that we finally got the last piece of evidence or rather, a statement required to punish the princess for all her crimes, before the untrusty part of my mind realised one inconsistency in Gabriel"s words.
"Gabriel, while I do not wish to put your words into doubt if you left this place right away, how could you know that she killed him? If you saw it with your own eyes, I doubt you would just leave the place and continue on your journeys!"
As I said those words, rather than his face turning blank with a surprise and fear of being discovered, Gabriel looked at me with a stunned look on his face, but rather than being fearful, it looked like I managed to actually surprise him!
"My lord… Could it be that you don"t know about the communication stone?"
What? I knew that all sorts of spiritual stones existed and could be used to either power the magical tools or simply refill one"s magic reserves, yet communication stone? Considering how even the cultivation realm didn"t have such thing available for the ma.s.ses, how could I ever expect that this backward society of the refugees could have access to such complicated and expensive tool?
"Would you like to elaborate on the topic of this communication stone? And most importantly, how could it make you see what happened to your helper?"
Instead of openly admitting to the lack of my own knowledge, I pushed the topic on the details of said stone, both in hopes of learning something new that could be potentially useful for me, but also in hopes of obtaining some concrete evidence that could be used to end this lengthy trial and punish the princess already!
"Sir, one can make the communication stone by infusing own blood with as much energy as it can possibly contain, mixing it with the blood of the other party and allowing it to coagulate in two, hard stones. While it was initially used by craftsmen in order to better relay the secrets and the details of one"s work to their direct disciples, yet seeing all the benefits of using it for the sake of pure communication, as soon as I became the leader, I made sure all my helpers were directly connected to me! Otherwise, I would never dare to leave this place just like that, with no way of pa.s.sing my orders in case something tragic would happen!"
Just like that, the whole situation became almost entirely clear. While I was still clueless about how exactly did that communication stone work, this was something that I could test in a matter of seconds. Gesturing at Helia, I pulled out a knife and just before cutting the skin on the inside of my hand I repeated the steps that Garbiel claimed to be necessary.
Instantly catching up on my intention, Helia took the knife from my hand, swiftly cutting her hand as well, and letting a few drops of her blood to fall down on a small hole in the stone where my own blood rested, before jogging away and hiding behind a nearby pillar.
After waiting for a moment, I saw the blood turning from liquid to a solid form. Pulling it out already, I crushed it to create two stones, figuring out that in order to establish proper communication, both parties had to be in possession of the said stone. As soon as I felt it became hard enough to safely toss it around, I threw it above the heads of the crowd towards the pillar behind which Helia hid.
Seeing how her hand instantly swept through the air and grabbed the stone, I turned my back to her before focusing on the other part of my stone in my hand.
In an instant, I felt like if my vision suddenly split, with the main part still remaining as it was, but with a strange overlay appearing on top of it, making it hard to discern what I was really seeing. Only when I fully focused myself on the stone, did the vision cleared up, replaced by what I could see if I were in Helia"s position.
But that wasn"t the end of it!
Not only were my eyes tuning in to her own body, but all my senses also started to merge with hers as well, feeling the light gusts of wind on my skin for the first time since my resistance statistic made me unable to experience such delicate stimulus!
At the same time, I could feel how Helia tuned herself more for the communication stone as well, feeling as if a foreign mind suddenly a.s.saulted my own body in a silly attempt to take over. But just like I was unable to make Helia"s body move, she could control only her own limbs.
As if to make a point, she suddenly raised her hand, only to bury it brutally in her own stomach, suddenly a.s.saulting my mind with a wave of a light pain!
Wait, if this stone could transmit everything…
Then it was no wonder that Gabriel"s face turned to this state after being forced to experience the death of his retainer with his own mind!