Chapter 505: The Amnesiac Princess Has Returned

Ashe's lips quivered. "Lysdia?"

He wanted to praise the name and say how beautiful it sounded, but something seemed to grip his throat, trapping the words inside. It felt as if a sponge had soaked up all his strength, leaving his voice clogged.

"That is not possible. You are Lys. Don't joke around. Besides, you are not some innocent little girl. You're a schemer and a little troublemaker. How could you possibly... how could you possibly... How could you possibly be the Gospel's First?!"

Ashe practically roared the last sentence. It was the first time he had ever shouted at the little girl before him. When he took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down, the cold morning air irritated his nose. He could not help but cough twice, coughing so hard that tears welled up in his eyes.

He wiped away the tears at the corners of his eyes with his palm, but the more he rubbed, the dirtier and messier his face became. He had spent so long rolling around in the rain the previous night. His battle against the Sacred Realm sorcerers had scattered shattered stone and thick sludge across the landscape, reducing the bridge before the parking platform to rubble. Afterwards, he had ridden his nearly wrecked Raven Aerial Motorbike all the way back to the palace. Grime already coated his skin, and smearing it around created an even bigger mess.

Ashe tried to clean his face with his sleeve. The corners of his mouth slowly lifted into a smile to mask the gradually fading light in his eyes. "Sorry for letting you see me like this. I am covered in dirt, I have not even taken a bath, and I just fell asleep sitting here. I am really sorry. Sorry..."

By the end, he could no longer hide the sob in his voice. He covered his face and bent down, unable to bear facing the person before him.

Lysdia pulled Ashe into her arms. "Affection is a comedy. It cannot flatten mountains or tame the world, yet it still brings you joy. Intelligence is a tragedy in the making. It forces you to witness the darkness of humanity, even as you hear its highest hymns. Combine the two, and tragedy is all that remains. You are too wise to ignore the truth, yet too tender to lie to yourself."

Ashe took deep breaths, forcing himself to regain his composure as he looked up at her. However, the moment he saw Lysdia's face, he broke down once again. It felt as if his heart had split apart, leaving him unable to breathe.

Originally, he thought he had escaped this fate. When he first lost Lys, he opened his mind and allowed Aine to invade him, not only to seek revenge, but also to protect himself.

As the Swordswoman once put it, "If it hurts, imagine you're someone else. Then it won't hurt as much[1]."

Only this time, no Aine existed to serve as his substitute. Ashe had to personally swallow the feast of fate served to him and witness with his own eyes just how cruel reality could be.

Only now did Ashe realize how terrible he had been toward Iger and Harvey. What right do I have to believe that I am any more normal than the two of them?

The only difference between them was that Ashe had only experienced the worst day of his life once. Yes. From the moment he saw the name of the Gospel's First altered, from the moment he saw her appear before him completely unharmed, from the moment he saw that familiar yet unfamiliar face, Ashe had already figured everything out. Lys had replaced him as the sacrifice to the Divine Spirit.

"Where is Lys?" Ashe asked hoarsely. "She is already gone, isn't she?"

Lysdia replied, "She is still here, just asleep. She wants to see you too, but she cannot. The Gospel removes all unnecessary noise until only the voice that perfectly matches its host remains."

"But how do you still retain your own consciousness?" Ashe regretted the question as soon as it left his mouth. "No, what I mean is..."

Lysdia smiled. "You do not have to apologize. I know the only person you care about is Lys. To you, I am just a stranger sharing her appearance. If possible, I would also rather have her remain instead of me. But only I fully meet the Gospel's requirements. If I gave this chance to her, the new melody would still wear her consciousness away. You would not want that to happen, would you?"

Of course Ashe would not. He had personally experienced that nightmare. Gospel Ashe had shattered his spiritual core, Aine had forcibly invaded his soul, and he had helplessly watched his own destruction unfold as control slipped from his hands. That feeling of being unable to do anything but wait for death... He never wanted to experience it a second time.

Lysdia explained, "As for why I can still retain my consciousness, it is because I am extremely similar to the Gospel. Factoring in a few unexpected encounters, I stopped the process when the Gospel was only one step away from completely merging with me.

"If we use clothes as an analogy, when the Gospel wears you, it feels uncomfortable almost instantly. That is why it must change you into 'Size Aine' before it can put you on. But when the Gospel wears me, it fits perfectly. So if I deliberately leave one button undone, the Gospel does not feel uncomfortable, and naturally, it does not rush to change me into 'Size Dine.'

"That is why I can retain my consciousness while still controlling part of the Gospel's authority and saving Annan and the others. However, this is only the Gospel showing mercy."

Seeing Ashe about to speak, she cut in before he could. "Twelve hours after the Gospel Rankings update, the rankings will become completely fixed. Regardless of how perfectly I fit, it will smooth out every wrinkle in the clothing and erase the final bit of noise in my mind. From then on, there will be no more Lysdia, only Dine."

"How much time do we have left?"

"Ninety-three minutes, which is more than enough."

Ashe no longer had the energy to pay attention to the meaning behind her words. He desperately searched for another way out. "Don't you still have an elder sister named Nina? Could you ask her to—"

Lysdia interrupted. "That is a lie. Nina has never been a candidate for the Gospel Rankings. She is actually listed on the Unattached Rankings... She is also my sacrifice.

"The Isa Imperial Family wants to ensure that every generation's princess becomes the Gospel's First. To achieve this, they find a way to have another princess with extremely high compatibility enter the Unattached Ranking. Sacrificing the latter's fate forges the former's glory.

"Nina really did live in the tower before. The fact that you could not find her means she had already left as one of the Unattached."

Ashe recalled Lys's wish. To abolish the Unattached Ranking.

Back then, he had asked no further questions. After all, he had wanted to erase that ranking as well. However, if he had asked more, if he had thought about it more carefully, would he have seen through Lys's lie? Would he have been able to...

"Regardless of what you did, she would have made me come out to save you," Lysdia said. "Someone had to suffer. She simply did not want it to be herself."

Ashe tugged at the corner of his mouth, as if trying to laugh. "I took care of her for so long. I stayed by her side for so long. I supervised her studies, played games with her... I treated her so very well, yet she was actually willing to let me be the one to suffer?"

"Forgive her final act of selfishness," Lysdia said.

"What about you?" Ashe asked. "What are you? Why can you replace Lys and push me out of the Gospel Rankings?"

She repeated herself softly, "I am Lysdia, the true princess raised by the imperial family to be the perfect candidate for the Gospel's First. The Lys you know is my younger sister, born while I slept."

Ashe froze for a moment. He pressed his lips together and gave a bitter smile. "No wonder. I always thought she did not look much like a princess. Turns out she really was not one."

"She was," Lysdia replied. "The time she spent with you was the happiest period of her life. She may not have been the Princess of Isa, but she believed she was your princess."

Ashe lowered his head, staring at the ground. "Running around with us, constantly wandering from place to place, living such a turbulent life... How could that be considered happiness?

"She never got to grow up. She never went to school. She never fell in love. She never made friends her own age. She never entered the Virtual World. She never properly explored Nabistin. She never got to visit the amusement park a second time. She never..."

Watching his shoulders tremble as he spoke of all the plans he held for Lys's future, Lysdia reached out and gently patted Ashe's head. "You do not need to punish yourself like this. It was not your fault."

Ashe remained silent for a long time before suddenly asking, "Will Lys really disappear completely? I mean, is there any way... Right, the Divine Lord's wish!"

Ashe fiercely wiped the dirt from his face and grabbed Lysdia's arms. "You can use the Divine Lord's wish to create a new body for Lys. No, you can directly reject divine possession, or perhaps—"

Lysdia shook her head. "The Divine Lord's wish belongs to the Gospel's First, but the prerequisite demands that the Gospel Rankings become completely finalized. Only after I fully turn into Dine can I obtain it. By then, my heart will no longer experience emotions like joy, sorrow, or selfishness."

Ashe retorted, "It does not matter. A contract exists between us. Just like Annan can control Aine to cancel the Gospel, I can control you to make you use the wish!"

Lysdia still shook her head. "No."

"Why not?"

"Because you and I do not have a contract."

"How can I not have a contract with you..." Ashe stopped halfway through his sentence. Then, realization hit him. "Could it be..."

"You only have a contract with Lys. If Lys became the Gospel's First, then yes, you could control her through that contract. However, I am the Gospel's First. You have no contract with me. Even if Lys replaced me, her personality would prevent her from ever becoming the Gospel's First. The identity of the Gospel's First would simply return to you."

The contract between Lys and Ashe existed separately. It was not a cruel trick of fate, but something they had planned long ago. Their purpose was to switch identities at the crucial moment, bypassing the contract's restrictions.

However, no one had expected that this contract would one day become so vital. The single-account binding that once seemed advantageous had instead prevented the contract from taking effect when it mattered most.

"Then let me become Aine! Let Lys control me and make the wish!"

Lysdia suddenly asked him a strange question. "Ashe, do you still remember the first nine rankings of the Woven Festival? Do you think you are someone willing to throw away your own life just to save an entire kingdom?"

Ashe fell silent for a moment. "Sacrificing myself just so strangers can applaud me... I do not think I could do that. Especially when people I still want to see exist in this world."

Lysdia nodded. "Exactly. Then why did the Woven Festival create a future where you, Mr. Harvey, and Mr. Perskin worked together to save the Gospel Kingdom?

"Even if Miss Annan caused the disaster, even if you eventually end up together with Annan, would you truly feel responsible for correcting her mistake? Miss Annan herself might not even believe she did anything wrong.

"The Woven Festival has already given us the answer regarding your abnormality. The person wanting to save the Gospel Kingdom is not you. It is Aine. In other words, Annan may have controlled you to cancel the Gospel system, but the Divine Spirit still resides within your soul."

Ashe's heart sank further as Lysdia went on. "Miss Annan harbors deep resentment toward the Gospel. Regardless of her feelings for you, her primary wish should be to destroy, banish, or seal away the Divine Spirit, not simply cancel the Gospel system.

"After all, as long as the Divine Spirit remains, rebuilding the Gospel is always possible. Not to mention, she would never want you to become the vessel of the Divine Spirit. If even the slightest possibility of preventing it existed, she would never allow you to bring Mr. Harvey and Mr. Perskin to save the Gospel Kingdom. So, Ashe, the feasibility of your idea is practically non-existent. Someone has to take up the identity of the Gospel's First. Even the Divine Lord's wish cannot change that."

"What if we change it to a wish for coexistence with the Divine Spirit? Destruction of the Divine Spirit is unnecessary. I only need to preserve my own consciousness."

Lysdia thought for a moment, then surprisingly nodded. "A possibility exists that this could succeed."

Ashe's eyes lit up. "Then—"

"That also explains why the Gospel would weave a future where you have improper relationships with Quinna, Nona, Evelyn, and others, and why people like Mr. Perskin would follow you."

Lysdia went on, "In the timeline where you became Aine, Annan should have wished for you to coexist with the Divine Spirit. In the end, however, you still merged with Aine, and Aine's will to save the world always remained dominant. The few times you appeared served merely to carry out the events woven into the rankings. So, I will not choose that path. That is merely a dead end where you cling to life a little longer."

"Can there not be at least one way out..." Ashe gritted his teeth, trembling. "Then let me—"

Lysdia interrupted. "Do you not still have people waiting for you? Even without Lys, many people still need you. But Lys has only ever had you. If she loses you, she will have nothing left. She was willing to let you suffer because she thought it was her only choice... yet can you really abandon her to spend the rest of her life alone?"

She smiled. "Niconala is Lysdia's Unattached, and in turn, Ashe, Lys is your Unattached. Carry her fate with you and leave this place."

"Leave?"

"Yes," Lysdia answered. "You must leave the Gospel Kingdom within eighty-nine minutes."

1. Refer to Chapter 34. ☜