Chapter 387: Twofold Tactics
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 387: Twofold Tactics
The pale yellow flowers still gave off a refreshing fragrance.
But now, those delicate petals were stained with blood-red spots, looking utterly eerie.
The Golden Orchid.
After Freya’s inexplicable gift earlier, Muen had looked up this particular flower.
It was a species native to the south, growing in a kingdom where it felt like spring all year round. Even there, it only bloomed briefly during the warmest days of the year.
The flower itself possessed no magical properties; it was simply prized for its fragrant scent, elegant color, and charming appearance.
Yet, this once delicate and harmless blossom had suddenly become a terrifying nightmare in the eyes of the group.
"I never expected to trip up in a place like this."
Margarita let out a bitter laugh. In a sense, her Death Contract Document was currently acting as an accomplice to their downfall.
However, compared to that...
Margarita’s brows knit together as she shot a sideways glance. "Paul, don't tell me you accepted a flower from her too!"
"Haha, how could that be? Princess, you know me!"
Paul let out a couple of boisterous laughs, his hands on his hips. Then, with a look of utter misery, he rested his longsword against Margarita’s neck.
"How could an elegant gentleman like me possibly refuse a gift from a lady? So, I’m sorry, Princess. Please, you must forgive me."
From his pocket, a pale yellow flower with blood-red spots poked its head out playfully.
"..."
This degenerate fellow always dropped the ball at the most critical moments!
Margarita ground her teeth. "You idiot, don't you know how to be on guard? Even if she hadn't shown any red flags before, Freya is my rival!"
"Of course I checked," Paul said, his expression turning serious. "I confirmed it very carefully—those Golden Orchids are just ordinary flowers!"
Margarita froze.
"These flowers are indeed just ordinary flowers."
Freya twirled a bunch of the quiet, elegant Golden Orchids, sniffing them gently. "You are all exceptional people. How could I possibly leave such an obvious opening?"
"So, rather than the flower itself, what actually matters is the act or the behavior of 'accepting a gift from you'?" Muen suddenly asked.
Freya gave Muen a beaming smile but didn't answer.
"So, what do you plan to do?" Margarita sneered. "Like the others, are you going to manipulate this idiot into stabbing me first?"
"No. If I wanted to stab you, I would have done it just now. You Saintess Candidates are different from the others; I have a great use for you. Naturally, I will treat you with the care one shows a guest."
"Since we're guests..."
Fei'er, who had been run through from the very start, painfully raised a hand. With a tearful face, she wailed, "Why did I have to get stabbed? Oww... it hurts so much..."
"Because Miss Fei'er’s magical attainments are truly formidable. Your gravity magic, in particular, would still pose a massive threat to me even in this situation."
"Fortunately, the weapon in that Miss Thunder Spear’s hand has a brief magic-suppressing effect, so I took the opportunity to make you settle down for a bit."
"..."
Fei'er opened her mouth blankly, tears shimmering in her eyes.
So, was it true that talented people were always singled out?
"You are all remarkable individuals, but you aren't invincible."
Freya gently tugged at the chains on her body. Since the caster, Margarita, was currently being held at swordpoint by her own knight, Freya broke free of the chains without much effort.
"Margarita’s knight is a 'fake' degenerate who looks loose but has actually rarely even held a girl's hand. After a careful inspection, he naturally accepted my flower."
Paul’s expression stiffened, radiating the awkward energy of someone whose middle-school diary had just been read aloud. His eyes shifted stiffly, and as expected, he met his princess’s contemptuous gaze.
"Miss Fei'er’s knight is an excellent adventurer, but he’s not particularly bright. A few casual lies were enough to disarm his suspicions."
"Tsk... if I’d known, I wouldn't have just looked at strength when hiring. Intelligence is a very important thing too!" Fei'er lamented, full of regret.
"As for Miss Annie..."
Everyone’s gaze couldn't help but fall on Annie, the haughty loli who had been uncharacteristically quiet since the beginning.
"Your knight is a war machine created by the Stone Cauldron Association. He only follows orders, so he naturally wouldn't accept my flower."
Freya covered her mouth and giggled. "However... it seems that the seemingly unapproachable Miss Annie only needs a few compliments to happily take a flower."
"..."
In the brief, eerie silence, a pale yellow flower gradually unfurled atop the haughty loli’s head, blooming and swaying gracefully.
As the flower bloomed, Annie bit her lip, her tightly strained face turning... crimson.
"..."
"However, among all the Saintess Candidates and knights, only Mr. Muen and Miss Liya have left me somewhat at a loss."
Freya finally retracted her gaze, looking at Muen, who still held his blade firmly against her neck.
"Mr. Muen has always maintained a strange wariness toward me. May I ask why?"
"Intuition."
"I see. What an unreasonable thing that is."
Freya sighed softly. "Mr. Muen is so unreasonable, and as for Miss Liya..."
She paused. "In the days before entering the ruins, Miss Liya was either hiding in her room alone or out shopping with you. I couldn't find a single opportunity to approach her alone. You two really do have a wonderful relationship."
"It's average."
"Heh, average?"
Freya’s gaze turned meaningful. She tilted her head slightly, seemingly uncomfortable with the cold blade pressed against her skin. "So, is Mr. Muen planning to wait until the effect of the Death Contract Document ends to cut me down directly?"
"Who knows?" Muen said expressionlessly. "Maybe I won't have to wait that long. I might just finish you the moment you show a single opening."
"I'm full of openings right now," Freya smiled. "Of course, so are you, Mr. Muen."
"Wha—"
Muen’s pupils shrank. A strange sense of crisis surged in his heart, yet he couldn't find the source.
But at that moment, he heard a sharp cry:
"Holy Light Protection!"
A sacred light descended, but it didn't fall on Muen.
Instead, it fell on Brian—who had been kneeling dejectedly at Freya’s feet, seemingly erasing his own presence entirely until now.
The light of the Holy Light Protection enveloped him, seemingly isolating something.
"Did you notice? As expected, Miss Liya’s perception is as sharp as ever."
Watching the girl not far away—whose face was solemn but whose gaze remained steadfast—Freya didn't make a move to counter. She simply waved her hand casually.
"Unfortunately, the spores have already spread. Anything you do now is meaningless."
"Spores? What spor—"
Muen suddenly felt an inexplicable chill seep from the surface of his skin into the depths of his body.
Following that was a numbness and stiffness, as if he were being frozen, losing all control of his limbs.
And he wasn't the only one. Muen noticed that those who had been backstabbed by their companions—those who were heavily injured but not yet eliminated—looked even worse.
"This is..."
Muen’s mind raced, instantly locking onto the target. "Blood? His blood?"
A surge of heat filled his eyes, and his vision sharpened several times over. He then saw velvet-like red mycelium drifting from the blood flowing out of Brian’s body.
Those filaments drifted everywhere, and wherever they landed on the bright, delicate petals, they formed those blood-colored spots.
So that was why Freya had stabbed her own knight at the very beginning?
She had actually sacrificed her teammate as an opening move to launch this nearly undetectable attack?
"Don't worry, it's just a toxin in the spores to keep you from moving temporarily. It's not an offensive measure; the loopholes in the Death Contract Document aren't that large. These temporary creations aren't capable of controlling you either."
Freya tilted her head, studying Muen’s face as if admiring his current struggle. She smiled. "After all, I can't control everyone, so I had to go through the trouble of making twofold preparations."
"Quite the scheme," Muen remarked, his lips twitching.
If only he had noticed as early as Liya...
No, even noticing early would have been useless.
Setting aside the fact that Brian’s diminished presence was a clear red flag, Freya had snuffed out any possibility of resistance from the start.
Her gift of flowers was targeted. Anyone who could still interfere with her from a distance while paralyzed—without triggering the Death Contract Document—had been dealt with first.
Like Fei'er, who could use gravity magic.
Like Ellag, who could use illusion magic.
As for Liya...
"Alright, it seems no one has any means of resistance left."
Freya pointed a finger, and the Holy Light barrier around Brian suddenly collapsed. As a Saintess Candidate herself, she could naturally manipulate Holy Light.
"The fun game of playing house is over. Would everyone please exit the stage voluntarily?"
Freya stepped past Muen and looked at the others.
She folded her hands over her stomach, her posture elegant and her smile sacred, looking like a true Saintess had descended.
"You..."
The ugly muscular man’s expression contorted and trembled as he glared at Freya. "We trusted you so much! Why? You want to eliminate everyone else this way to become the Saintess? Do you think the Church will allow this? Even if you're the only one left, you'll never—"
"Even now, you still don't understand?"
Freya pressed a hand to her forehead in exasperation. "My goal was never the position of Saintess."
"What?" The ugly man froze.
"How dull."
Freya sighed again and continued, "Could you please be a bit more proactive? You should still have basic motor functions. If you don't hurry, something bad might happen."
"Something bad?"
The ugly man seemed to feel something and looked down abruptly.
At his wounds, the granulation tissue that had been rapidly recovering thanks to his powerful martial artist physique was now visibly writhing. They looked like tiny tentacles, as if they had gained their own sentience, twisting and extending in different directions.
"As expected, ordinary people are quickly corrupted."
"Corruption?"
The ugly man’s expression turned to pure terror. He roared at Freya in a rage, "You? It was you? You actually... actually... Are you insane? The Church won't forgive you! For a Saintess Candidate to do such a thing... the Church will definitely tie you to the stake and—"
"Ah, ah, no need to say more. I've known that for a long time."
Freya reached out, pulled a teleportation scroll from the ugly man’s robe, and crushed it. With a flash of light, the furious man vanished from the spot.
"What a noisy man."
Freya then looked at the others. "Do the rest of you need me to help you as well?"
The others looked at each other. With the ugly man’s miserable state as a precedent, they didn't dare hesitate any longer. One after another, they activated their teleportation scrolls and chose to be eliminated.
Soon, only a few people remained in the once-crowded area.
Freya returned to Muen. Seeing so many people eliminated, the gentle smile on her face hadn't changed in the slightest.
"Finally, there's Mr. Muen. You really are dangerous, so could you please leave as well? Don't worry, I'll take good care of your little Saintess for you."
"That sounds like a Minotaur line stolen right from a yellow-haired guy like me," Muen sneered.
"Minotaur?"
"Never mind, just pretend you didn't hear it. But before that, can I ask you a question?" Muen’s smile vanished.
"Of course, please."
"These eerie methods, and that familiar scent of a scheming old bastard..."
Muen looked Freya in the eye and asked seriously, "Miss Freya, you wouldn't happen to be... a believer of the Love God, would you?"
"The Love God?"
For the first time, a flicker of genuine surprise appeared on Freya’s face.
But very quickly, that surprise melted into the slight curve of her lips.
"As expected of Mr. Muen. To think you'd... guess half of it correctly so quickly."