Chapter 166

Chapter 166

I thought about it and decided to say something to comfort her:

"Don't be sad for people who are already dead. These are just the bodies they left behind. They died a hundred years ago."

"I know that!" Youngest Princess raised her voice slightly, then deflated a little. "I know..."

At that, Youngest Princess couldn't help but shoot another glare at the old servant standing silently beside her.

I didn't pay attention to the exchange between Youngest Princess and the old servant.

If the losing side had ten million survivors after the war, how many did they have before it started?

Conservative estimate — forty million? Fifty million?

That's already the population of an ordinary modern country. France, England — they have roughly that many people today.

What was the total population of the Kingdom of Salt and Gold?

What the Eldest Princess had done was essentially slaughter her own homeland down to the last person.

There was no reason for there to be that many prisoners of war.

Those ten-million-plus surviving rebels could only have been the ones who surrendered after defeat.

Maybe at the time, Youngest Princess still had some illusions about her sister.

Maybe Eldest Princess had made some kind of promise to get them to surrender.

None of that mattered now.

In the end, every single one of those so-called "rebels" — ordinary people — didn't make it out alive.

The Crimson Queen...

I shook my head.

When one person's power crushes an entire nation, does that give her the right to put everyone in that nation to death?

There would probably be all kinds of arguments about that — moral ones, ideological ones, practical ones.

But judging by what happened to Saltfort.

Yes.

When a single person's power surpasses a nation's, and that nation stands in her way —

Eldest Princess answered that question through her actions. Yes.

She didn't just have the authority to decide everyone's fate. She had the ability to carry it out.

But...

Something felt wrong. I sensed it instinctively, but I couldn't figure out what in the moment.

I shook my head to clear the noise.

I directed the crystal soldiers to lead the way, clearing traps and taking down the guardian puppets as we went.

Pushing hard through the floors, the number of crystal soldiers around me dropped fast.

At times, I had no choice but to fight alongside the other two.

Gradually, the number of crystal soldiers had fallen to just a few hundred.

But at least —

"We're here."

The old servant looked at the familiar hall ahead, her expression slightly dazed.

The lighting spell overhead lit up the empty hall clearly. Along the edges were stacks of books and documents — the ones she had sorted before leaving that afternoon.

"Where are the guardian puppets on this floor?" Youngest Princess blinked.

"This is the Ugly Knight's floor," I answered. "Which means..."

"We made it!" Youngest Princess's face lit up. "Finally! We're here!"

"Where's the teleportation array?" She looked around.

"Still up above."

"This way," I said. "Follow me."

I headed toward the staircase.

Youngest Princess tightened her grip on her weapon and followed close behind.

"Relax — no more traps or guards up ahead," I said as we walked, gesturing for her to ease up.

The three of us went up the stairs into the archive room above. Aside from the lack of lighting, it looked the same as before.

Documents and charts were piled everywhere. Some of them seemed to have been sorted and stacked together.

I picked up a file and skimmed it. Same as last time — the sheer density of specialized magical terminology nearly crashed my translation spell.

I laughed a little, shook my head, and put it back down.

I glanced over at Youngest Princess. She was staring at the file in her hands with much the same expression.

"Alright, let's go." I waved for Youngest Princess to follow the old servant.

The three of us made our way through the archive and up to the next floor.

Following the old servant up the stairs, we arrived at the crystal layer.

Under the bright glow of the lighting spell, the crystals all around us shimmered brilliantly.

Maybe it was just my imagination, but the crystals — which had been mostly clear with a faint blue tint — now looked murky inside.

I leaned in for a closer look.

Not my imagination. They really had turned cloudy.

The old servant seemed to notice too. She picked up her pace.

The three of us made our way to the door where the teleportation array was.

"Something's wrong." Youngest Princess hesitated, staring at the crystal door, which had turned almost completely black.

It was obvious — the Runic Array had shut down. The teleportation array that had once projected from the door was completely gone.

All that remained was a lone door standing by itself.

I stepped forward and walked up beside the old servant, then turned to ask:

"Madam... can you still fix it?"

The old servant stared at the door, eroded by the Shadow, and said nothing. She seemed lost in thought.

I frowned and looked down, thinking fast.

If the Runic Array couldn't be activated, the plan to reach the Crystal Lake — and the Sunsteal Runic Array — would fall apart entirely. Purging the corruption would be out of the question.

I clearly remembered the feeling from before, when I was on the front lines facing the black dragon's breath — that faint, thread-like connection between myself and this world.

If I was right, that was what the Youngest Princess called the anchor of identity.

If I had died there, I would most likely have been ejected from this instance.

The same went for the Youngest Princess — she could leave whenever she wanted.

If things went south, we both had a way out.

With that in mind, I turned to look at Youngest Princess, just about to tell her to get out of here now —

"I can." The old servant's voice rang out, clear and steady.

So much time had passed that it took me a moment to register what she was responding to.

I stood there for a second before remembering what I had just asked.

"I can repair this teleportation array." The old servant said it with certainty, and there was something like relief in her voice.

Like an old woman who had traveled through countless years and finally arrived at the end of her own road — looking back at the path she had walked, and letting out a quiet, peaceful sigh.

"Wait — what are you going to do?" Youngest Princess asked, startled.

I opened my mouth, but said nothing.

I already knew.

The old servant walked calmly toward the Runic Array, raising the short staff in her hand.

She turned back to look at the two young people before her, and a smile spread across her face — genuine, from the heart.

"Knight. Your Highness... I leave the Queen in your hands."

A rapid, resolute string of syllables rang out. A white light began to radiate from the old woman's entire body.

"Wait!" Youngest Princess realized something was wrong and shouted, "What are you doing? Stop!"

I grabbed Youngest Princess from behind, holding her back as she tried to rush forward and interrupt the old servant.

"Stop it! Don't do this!!"

The light slowly swallowed our vision.

"Sacrifice... activate!"