Chapter 1189: 176. A Simple Method

The fiery-red figure was right there.

No one knew when she had arrived, or perhaps she had been there from the very beginning.

She was completely out of place here.

Cries of defeating the evil dragon rang out without end. A flower-scented breeze swept past, yet it could not make that fiery-red hair stir in the slightest.

Those molten-gold vertical pupils watched all of this, yet not the slightest ripple appeared within them. There was only endless indifference and icy coldness.

That face... was still obscured by mist, impossible to see clearly.

"Miss Dragon..." Muen’s heart tightened, terrified that this lady’s anger would be ignited again, causing her to go straight over, kick the stage apart, and perform a live scene of the evil dragon’s descent.

...Fortunately, she did not.

Hamreign stood there, completely motionless, and did not appear angry.

It was just that, at this moment, Muen inexplicably felt that the fiery-red figure had once again moved away from this world.

Although she stood there, she was no longer affected by anything in this world. She stood apart from the world, alone and independent, yet also resembled an oil painting, with cold tones outlining a bone-piercing loneliness.

As though she had heard Muen call out to her, those golden dragon eyes finally shifted slightly and looked toward Muen.

"Didn’t I tell you? You’re not allowed to run around." She spoke, her indifferent tone no different from usual.

"I... wouldn’t really call this running around. I’m only gathering information."

Muen lowered Daphne from his shoulders and gently pushed her by the shoulder, signaling for her to go play by herself... Judging from the environment in New Tars, there was no need to worry too much °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° about the safety of a little girl like her.

"Then did you gather anything?" Hamreign did not even glance at Daphne and directly ignored all those shouts as well.

"Uh... I more or less feel that something is very wrong with New Tars." Muen scratched his cheek.

"Obviously."

"At the moment, I still don’t know what exactly is wrong, but I believe that as long as I continue working hard, I will definitely find a breakthrough."

"Still obvious."

Hamreign turned and walked away. Muen passed through the crowded people and quickly followed her.

The two arrived at a slightly quieter café beside the plaza. It also happened to allow them to continue keeping the entire area within view.

"What would the two of you like to drink?" The café owner walked over with a cheerful smile.

"Can I temporarily leave something as collateral? I didn’t bring any money." Muen took out a gemstone and tentatively asked, "I’ll bring money later to redeem it."

"Huh? What an interesting thing to say, sir. If you didn’t bring money, then you simply don’t need to pay for now. Who would need you to leave something as collateral?"

The owner did not even look at the gemstone, as though it were completely worthless to him, and chuckled, "If I really made you use something as payment, people would laugh at me once word got out."

"You really don’t want it?"

Muen’s expression became strange. He once again recalled the scene from earlier when he had followed Daphne through the streets.

"Aren’t you afraid I won’t pay?"

"Haha... I’m starting to wonder whether you injured your brain, sir. In New Tars, who could possibly be short of money? If you don’t pay, then you don’t pay."

"Then what do you lack?"

"We don’t lack anything. Everything here is abundant. No one needs to worry about not having enough to eat or warm clothes to wear. The reason I opened this shop was only to give myself something to do," the owner said. "Actually, even if I did nothing, I would still have enough food and warm clothing, but that would be far too boring. Many people here are like this."

"...I see."

Muen tapped the table and asked, "Has it always been like this here? What I mean is... has this place always been so beautiful and so abundant?"

"Hm? What do you mean, sir? Of course it hasn’t always been like this here. Where in the world is there a naturally abundant land? This place was once barren as well, with demonic beasts and monsters everywhere. It was the Great Heroes who saved us from suffering and helped us establish this beautiful city."

The owner raised his chin toward the plaza.

"See, isn’t that historical play performed every day? You really are far too poorly informed, sir."

"There are some special reasons."

Muen smiled.

"If it is convenient, let me ask one more thing. Did you truly manage to establish this city solely through the help of those Great Heroes, without any other power participating?"

"Well... the Great Heroes did mention that they received help from the Goddess," the owner thought for a moment and said.

"Oh?" Muen’s gaze sharpened. "Then why don’t you praise... or believe in that Goddess? I haven’t seen anyone mentioning her."

"You can’t."

The owner shook his head.

"The Great Heroes said that it is not yet time for us to believe in the Goddess, so for the moment, they cannot allow us to understand the Goddess’s glory and grace."

"Then when will it be time to believe?"

"The Great Heroes said that when the time comes for us to believe, we will naturally believe..."

"..." Muen frowned again.

What did it mean that when the time came to believe, they would naturally believe?

Could something like faith even be automated?

"You really are strange, sir."

The owner’s expression gradually became strange, but he still did not think in a negative direction. He merely felt that this very handsome man, who was also dressed strangely, had probably encountered some kind of accident and that even his brain had become abnormal.

How pitiful.

"The two of you can sit here without worry. If you have no money, the coffee is on me."

Seeing that the two of them had been sitting there for quite a while without any intention of ordering, the owner became even more certain of his guess. With a face full of pity, he went ahead and made the best coffee in the shop for the two of them.

He even gave them several servings of exquisite pastries along with it.

...

"...See? I told you there was a huge problem with this place. It’s practically like the utopia from a story."

After the owner left, Muen stared for a long time at the smiling face drawn with milk foam on the coffee and sighed.

"But where in this world could there be a utopia? Even if one existed, most of the time it would only be an illusion created by an Evil God to raise pigs."

"The food is all normal."

Hamreign picked up the coffee cup and gently took a sip.

"I have already confirmed it."

"As expected?"

Muen relaxed slightly again.

"It seems my previous attempt was not wrong."

"It is not only the food. All the people here are normal as well. There is no Pollution whatsoever."

Hamreign continued, "I roughly inspected the entire city. There is no trace of Evil God power anywhere, so it cannot be called an illusion either. The entire city is real. It is New Tars, rebuilt with the former Tars as its model."

"Not even the slightest trace?"

Muen became even more surprised. It was still normal that he himself had not noticed anything, considering the difference in strength, but if even Miss Dragon had not discovered the slightest abnormality...

"What about those light sources?"

Muen raised his head.

This place was surrounded by mist, probably the work of those survivors, and therefore sunlight from the outside could not enter either. What illuminated this place were the lights positioned on pillars at some of the street corners.

Those lights resembled tiny suns. Although they were not as bright as a real sun, at the very least, this place was not as miserable as Annabawei.

According to Muen’s experience... those light sources were extremely suspicious. They might very well be some kind of source spreading Pollution.

"There is no problem with them either."

Hamreign casually tossed something over. Muen hurriedly caught it in a fluster.

"A magic stone?"

He froze slightly, feeling the warmth of the stone in his hand.

Clearly, this was a magic stone used to emit light. For him, the son of a duke, it naturally was not something rare.

After all, wealthy people loved using this kind of thing for lighting. It was bright, stable, and produced neither odor nor smoke. Apart from being expensive, it had almost no disadvantages.

But...

"It’s only an ordinary magic stone?"

"Yes. My judgment should not be so poor that I would mistake it."

"Hiss... How extravagant." Muen sucked in a cold breath.

If all of New Tars’s light sources were illumination magic stones... enough magic stones to illuminate an entire city... wasn’t that far too damn extravagant?

Even he, the son of a duke, would not dare imagine such a thing.

Unless he sold everything his father owned, there was absolutely no way he could afford it.

"And yet this place is just that lavish. There is no problem with the food, no problem with the people... and now, there is not even a problem with the light sources."

Muen played with the magic stone, gradually frowning.

"In other words, this is simply a city with no problems whatsoever apart from being slightly too wealthy and its people being slightly too naive?"

"For the moment... that appears to be the case."

Hamreign said, "This place is extremely clean. So clean that it could be called completely spotless."

"This is truly damned strange."

A place that even Miss Dragon considered clean existed inside a festering sore of the world.

Even within a worldview where Evil Gods existed, this was far too bizarre.

And yet it existed.

Muen carefully thought about it again and said after some consideration, "Then could it be that those survivors of Tars truly built this place only to rebuild a new Tars? That is why they are unwilling to let the people here become Polluted, and even, just as that man said, do not allow them to believe in that ‘Goddess’?"

"It is possible."

Hamreign’s eyes flickered. After a pause, she said, "But the possibility is not great."

"...That’s true."

After all, according to what the owner had said, those Great Heroes had not "forbidden" them from believing. They had merely told them to believe when the time came to believe.

They had probably only told them the most basic things about that "Goddess of Light," but had not informed them of the details or proclaimed her grace the way missionaries would. Therefore, the people here probably only knew that a "Goddess" existed, while their concept of her remained very vague.

But they had still allowed the people here to know of that "Goddess’s" existence.

"So the most crucial issue now is finding those survivors..."

Muen’s attention once again shifted toward the plaza. At this moment, the plaza had become even livelier. It seemed that the play had reached another small climax.

But logically speaking, that story had already ended. What other climax could there be?

Curious, Muen listened carefully...

"They defeated the evil dragon! They defeated the evil dragon! They finally defeated the evil dragon!"

The children shouted excitedly, jumping for joy. On the stage, the heroes displayed their overwhelming might and were currently stepping on the evil dragon beneath their feet.

The evil dragon that had brought destruction was ultimately defeated by the heroes. New Tars finally regained peace and did not repeat the fate of the former Tars...

This was becoming more and more outrageous.

What exactly were those survivors trying to accomplish by deliberately passing down a story like this? Were they simply trying to anger Miss Dragon?

"Returning to our previous topic, the most important thing now is finding those survivors, right?" Muen found it somewhat noisy and silently closed the window, although he knew that this was useless to both him and Miss Dragon.

"Correct."

"Do you have any method, Miss Dragon? Can you track Priscilla?"

"I can sense Priscilla."

Hamreign calmly pointed downward, as though she had not heard any of that noise at all.

"She is right here."

"Here?"

Muen blinked and bent down beneath the table...

Naturally, there was no Priscilla there, only a pair of fair, jade-like feet extending from beneath the thorn-covered dress... After their dance last time, no one knew where the high heels had gone. Muen found this slightly regrettable.

Such beautiful feet, with nothing worn on them, truly were...

"What I mean is... I can sense that Priscilla is inside this city."

Muen raised his head and met those golden pupils, cold as ice.

"Isn’t... isn’t that also an obvious statement?" Muen smiled awkwardly.

Since they had already chased them here, who did not know that those survivors were hiding in the city?

"That mark was something I casually placed on her in the first place, so it is difficult to precisely locate her. In addition, those people have perfected the art of fleeing. After discovering the mark, it would not be difficult for them to conceal it slightly... Therefore, I can currently only confirm that they are inside this city."

Hamreign turned her head. Through the closed window, she seemed to take the entire city into her eyes.

"They are hiding inside this city. They could be any person in this city, or they could be hiding anywhere. This place was specifically constructed by them. It is their territory. As a group of rats who enjoy hiding, it is naturally impossible for them to counterattack me, but if they only wish to play hide-and-seek... it will indeed be troublesome."

"You mean... perhaps the purpose of those survivors in establishing this place was to play hide-and-seek with you?"

"It is possible."

"Then how are we supposed to find them?"

The corner of Muen’s mouth twitched.

"There are so many people in this city. How is this any different from searching for a needle in the ocean?"

"Actually, it is not difficult. The simplest method..."

Hamreign slowly turned her head, her gaze cold and ruthless.

"Slaughter the entire city. Leave neither chickens nor dogs alive."