After I left the World Tree Temple that was in the process of rebuilding, I warned my Familiars using our mental link to find Lilian.
After a few minutes, Hinata was the one who found her along with her first Student, Horn 1.
When I go to where Hinata warned Lilian was, I reach one of the pods made by Arachnees, just to make sure she wasn’t doing anything too private, I tell Hinata to see if they were all dressed, and Hinata sticks her head through the wall and takes it off saying that’s all right, so I walked in to find Horn 1 and Lillian looking at me.
“You have arrived at the right time, Holy Son.” (Lilian)
“I was thinking of calling you later.” (Lilian)
I enter and realize when I enter a sound barrier, so I sit next to Lillian and Horn 1 while Hinata lies with her head on my legs.
“Then I suppose you already know why I’m here.” (I)
“Yes, I was near the gate when the envoys started to arrive, I arrived in time to see the fight.” (Lilian)
“Associating the arrival of the Black Empire envoys with you making Hinata look for me was easy to think about what could be so urgent.” (Lilian)
“Speaking of which, this Specter has no finesse to investigate, she just walked in and said she found it before she left.” (Horn 1)
“I was just asked to find Lilian, so I did.” (Hinata)
“You did well.” (I)
Lilian tells me how was the combat between the two envoys of the Black Empire, it seems that one of them had arrived before and made an ambush seriously wounding the other, that’s why the fight took so little time.
“After that, I learned the rest from Horn 1.” (Lilian)
“I told you everything I knew, check this out.” (Horn 1) .𝓬ℴ𝓶
Horn 1 shows me a small broken crystal, it is smeared with blood.
“This crystal was given to several people trusted by the Queen, if the crystal she had been carrying all along was broken, everyone would know she was killed or captured as our crystals were also broken.” (Horn 1)
“As the existence of these crystals was a secret, everyone kept the crystals inside their own bodies.” (Horn 1)
“I felt the crystal break a few days ago during the Monster Wave, but I decided to wait until everyone was in a better state to tell you about it.” (Horn 1)
“Do you have one of those crystals too, Lilian?” (I)
“No, I didn’t even know Horn 1 had one of those crystals.” (Lilian)
“I thought this Queen of the Black Empire person was related to her.” (I)
“She is my niece.” (Lilian)
“If you’re wondering why I’m so calm, then I’d better let Horn 1 explain.” (Lilian)
Horn 1 looks at the broken crystal in his hand and then looks at me.
“The one who died was not the real Queen, she was a Homunculus created to look exactly like her.” (Horn 1)
“You mean someone else died in the Queen’s place?” (I)
“No, the Homunculus was just an empty shell, for a few decades Queen Melissa has been in a hidden place controlling her Homunculus from a distance.” (Horn 1)
“She probably woke up from her sleep by now, after her Homunculus was killed.” (Horn 1)
“I don’t understand…” (I)
For the Queen to have made a plan decades ago to use a Homunculus in her place, distribute these crystals, and probably other things I still don’t know about, means she expected this situation.
“How did she know something like this was going to happen?” (I)
“It was the Prime Minister, Duke Gregory Roux, right?” (Lilian)
“Yes, just as we predicted, he waited for you to leave beforehand, Mom.” (Horn 1)
“We’ve been watching him for years while pretending to do other missions, he’s always been a suspect, but we’ve never been able to find out what he was up to and who was on his side.” (Horn 1)
“It was after you disappeared that he started acting.” (Horn 1)
“That doesn’t make sense, how strong is he?” (I)
“Lesser Catastrophe Grade, but your progress in increasing your strength has been unnatural in recent years.” (Horn 1)
“If he’s that strong, then he had no reason to fear Lilian.” (I)
“It wasn’t me he was afraid of, he feared my ability as a spy, he knew that I knew a multitude of ways to deliver a last message before I died, it would also be impossible to capture me.” (Lilian)
“If his plans were interrupted because of an oversight, it would all be over, so he was always cautious around me.” (Lilian)
“That’s why you were forced to retire and we announced our departure after one last mission.” (Horn 1)
,m “They wanted to force him to act faster.” (I)
“Yes and it worked, but this Monster Wave seems to have been too much of an opportunity for him to pass up.” (Horn 1)
———–
I spent about 40 minutes talking to Lilian and her student to better understand the situation, during that time I started to better understand this guy Gregório Roux.
It seems that it was not out of ambition that he is carrying out this coup d’etat to take the throne of the Black Empire, his motivation comes from hatred for Humans and the Morror Continent.
I even found out he was helping that Demon who became King Makari, Lilian said there’s a good chance he’s responsible for freeing that crazy assassin we killed in Venon Stronghold City before coming here.
Also from hints of that Prime Minister experimenting with Kimera, it seems that after receiving the message Lilian sent when we were still on the Morror Continent, they were able to find more evidence about Kimeras’ study in the Black Empire, but were never able to make any connections with the Prime Minister.
———-
After talking to these two spies, I take them both to the Elf Queen Lolth to let her know about it, I want to get involved as little as possible in all this, but I have a feeling that the Elves will get involved since it was the World Tree that caused this Monster Wave.
Strangely after listening to what Lillian and Horn 1 said, Elf Queen Lolth just got a sad look.
“I knew that this man would one day do something extreme, but I hoped that after so many years of silence he had put the hate aside.” (Queen Lolth)
“…” (I)