"Master, there are guests outside requesting a meeting." While Tsukasa was using a pen to draw Ancient Fairy Script (Runes) on paper, the quiet and well-behaved maid, Alice, entered the study to inform her of this. Outside, an old man had arrived with
a group of guards from the imperial palace, seeking an audience with Astrea.
After hearing Alice's description of the old man's appearance, Tsukasa immediately recalled that magic teacher from her memories and wore a look of utter disdain.
"I won't see them."
She could probably guess the purpose of the Empire's Chief Magician running all the way here, but unfortunately, neither the current her nor the previous Miss Astrea had any goodwill toward the Empire. Don't give her any of that nonsense about the Sword Saint being the Empire's Sword Saint; perhaps the previous Sword Saint did regard the Empire as his motherland, but she had no such patriotic sentiment.
Not to mention the excessive treatment the previous Astrea had suffered. Despite clearly paying the tuition fees, they refused to teach her magic, and even borrowing grimoires required additional payment. You're telling me this wasn't intentional?
Who would believe that?
Since the Empire gave her nothing and constantly obstructed her, why should she protect the Empire?
It's illogical.
Moreover, she was a Transmigrator.
She had never considered the Empire her motherland.
If there were an ancestral teaching in the Astrea Family saying that descendants must protect the Empire for generations, she might have given the previous Sword Saint some face, as the Astrea bloodline's cheat was indeed powerful enough.
But the Astrea Family of this world had no such ancestral teaching passed down, so she was free. Besides, the first Sword Saint might have been a Transmigrator as well.
After all, in her memories.
The previous Sword Saint had once told Miss Astrea that their family used to possess a dragon sword.
Only the one who obtained the dragon sword was qualified to be called a Sword Saint, so the previous Sword Saint once mocked himself.
They weren't actually true Sword Saints.
Because the dragon sword was missing.
The first ancestor seemingly didn't pass down the dragon sword, and if she guessed correctly, that dragon sword might still be in the hands of the Reinhard of some other world.
The Astrea ancestor should have been a Sword Saint from a certain generation who transmigrated here and then assisted the Emperor in establishing the Baharuth Empire.
Because many things about this family matched the family in her impressions.
Furthermore, another piece of evidence was that members of the Astrea Family would all receive a power called [Blessing].
Although innate talents existed in this world, and many even thought their family's Blessing was just an innate talent, according to the previous Sword Saint, Blessings and innate talents were two completely different things.
Because there was once a generation of Sword Saint who possessed both an innate talent and a Blessing; this was something only their own family knew, and outsiders couldn't possibly know it.
The previous Sword Saint's Blessing was the [Blessing of the Lake].
It allowed him to walk on water.
However, he was very unfortunate.
He died in a waterless desert ruin.
As for her.
Miss Astrea did have a Blessing.
But she didn't know what that Blessing was herself. The previous Sword Saint seemed to know something but hadn't told her, and he hadn't taught Miss Astrea swordsmanship.
It was precisely because of this.
Miss Astrea thought she might have no talent for swordsmanship and went to learn magic instead.
She resolutely refused to touch swordsmanship, fearing that those outsiders who wanted to mock her would find out she truly hadn't inherited any talent for it.
But looking at it now.
It probably wasn't that she lacked talent.
But rather that there was something wrong with her Blessing.
However, she thought about it.
It seemed the world she knew didn't have any terrifying Blessings either. The reason Reinhard was strong was that he could get whatever Blessing he wanted, and without any restrictions.
For example, a Phoenix Blessing that allows one resurrection; this Reinhard could turn that thing into an Infinite Phoenix Blessing, resurrecting an unlimited number of times. That's why Reinhard was terrifyingly strong.
In fact, as long as a Blessing existed.
Reinhard could directly obtain it if he wanted to.
But to say if there were any terrifying Blessings?
Sorry, she really couldn't think of any.
Tsukasa, who was deep in thought.
Soon forgot about what just happened.
Alice didn't stay to continue disturbing her master. Speaking of Alice, she was actually a magic doll that Tsukasa had created during an experiment while in the Sword Saint State, combining alchemy magic, doll creation, shadow demon summoning, and the basics of Necromancy Magic.
Although she was a doll.
Alice possessed a soul.
She could be regarded as a living being.
Alice's average stats were around 3,000 points.
After all, the level of the materials used wasn't high.
They were far from reaching the limit Alice could achieve, but currently, there was no way to obtain higher-level materials; after all, the human race in this world was a weak species. The highest-level materials in the merchant guilds were low-grade in Tsukasa's eyes, though she heard that Theocracy seemed to possess items powerful enough to change the world.
She didn't know if it was true or not.
After all, if humans were a weak race.
Such treasures.
Didn't seem likely to fall into human hands no matter how you looked at it.
But in legends, it wasn't as if terrifyingly strong human experts had never appeared in this world.
For instance, the former.
Thirteen Heroes.
Eight Desires Kings.
The six great gods and such.
The Thirteen Heroes appeared over two hundred years ago; they repelled
the Demon Gods that were invading the world at the time.
Demon Gods are characters above the Demon Lord Seed; for now, one could assume a Demon God's attribute values reached
As for the Eight Desires Kings.
Strong individuals who unified the continent hundreds of years ago.
They once repelled the Ancient Dragon King.
And killed one of the six great gods.
Ultimately, they perished due to internal strife.
The six great gods.
Gods worshipped by the human race of this world; although they seemed to be humans as well, with the limitations of lifespan and not true gods, their strength was very great. One of them alone could fight against the Eight Desires Kings who repelled the Ancient Dragon King, which was enough to show their power.
However, the information on these figures was collected through legends, so their authenticity remained questionable. Moreover, they were all dead, unlike the Ancient Dragon King who might still be alive.
These legends were unprovable.
But they weren't necessarily all false.
Because the waters of this world were very deep.
For example, the figures mentioned above.
Many of them appeared out of thin air.
And in these legends, a character as strong as the first Sword Saint was only equivalent to the strength of one of the Eight Desires Kings. As descendants of the six great gods, Theocracy might truly be hiding some terrifying trump cards.
Besides, the first Sword Saint could be a Transmigrator.
She herself was a Transmigrator, so it was possible that even more Transmigrators might appear in this world.
Perhaps some of the figures above were Transmigrators, and compared to other Transmigrators,
she felt she was incredibly weak.
Tsukasa wrote down these conjectures on paper.
Runes change; even with the same characters, if one doesn't have the correct decoding method, the true meaning cannot be deciphered.
Even for someone who had mastered the script,
it would be difficult to crack the meaning.
Unless the writer didn't keep it secret.
While Tsukasa was over there outwitting the air,
Alice returned to the front of the villa and said to the visitors who had arrived: "Please leave for today, everyone. Master is not available to see you right now."
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