When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

#220 - A woman's red eye

When Horn opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was a red and yellow octagonal ceiling decorated with vines.

When he tried to turn his head, a tearing pain in his neck made him grimace.

"You're awake?"

Orange-yellow sunlight streamed through the window panes onto the marble, illuminating the symmetrical diamond pattern of black tiles.

On the marble floor, Horn saw Sylv sitting in a wheelchair, a blanket covering her lap and a book open in her hands.

Sylv turned her head to look at Horn, her tail twitching nervously. She wheeled her chair to the side of Horn's bed. "I'm sorry, I didn't expect what happened next."

"Don't mention it. I didn't expect it either." Horn touched the gauze on his neck, still shaken as he recalled what had happened.

The moment the astral rift appeared, he felt something was wrong. He wanted to shout, but his mouth wouldn't obey him, and he kept muttering things he didn't understand.

Most importantly, bizarre, slender characters began to flash before his eyes, intertwined with each other like spiral vertical lines and intersecting cracks.

If Jeanne hadn't decisively interrupted the ritual with lightning, Horn's soul would have been sucked away by whatever was in that rift.

Supporting himself on the bed with his hands, Horn endured the pain and looked around the empty room, finding only Sylv.

"Where's Madelaine? And Victor?"

"After you were medicated, many people came to see you. A group of elders and bishops nearly fought at the door to be the first to enter your room, but Little Jeanne drove them away." Seeing that Horn wasn't blaming her, Sylv's erect tail finally curled and wagged from side to side.

That afternoon, everyone learned about the explosion at the Aether Spire and how it injured His Holiness the Pope, so they rushed to visit.

Although Horn wasn't seriously injured, a crowd of people still came to pay their respects.

On one hand, they were trying to curry favor, and on the other hand, they were confirming that Horn wasn't dead. After all, Horn alone maintained the existence of the entire Papal State.

If he died, no one would have the prestige or ability to take over and unite the entire Papal State, and things would get out of hand.

"What about Jeanne?"

"Jeanne went to retrieve the Star-Forged Gear." Sylv guessed Horn's question and answered preemptively, "Last night's ritual was only half successful, possibly because the lightning interfered with it.

Under normal circumstances, the water in the Moon Pool would refract into transparent indigo light, but now it's cyan fluorescence.

We sent people to retrieve it, but the water in the Moon Pool started to discharge electricity as soon as it moved, so we had to let Little Jeanne, who isn't afraid of lightning, retrieve it."

The Moon Pool, infused with aether, is discharging electricity? Horn was dumbfounded. The water in the Moon Pool is discharging electricity? What kind of strange phenomenon is this?

Horn immediately wanted to get up and observe the scene, but he touched the wound on his neck and ultimately didn't move, instead silently pondering the meaning behind it.

Does this mean that aether is stored in water, and Jeanne's magic power, that lightning, is stored in aether, which is why it's discharging electricity like this?

But that's not right. The aether hypothesis states that when magic is used, magic power activates aether, which, to some extent, is 'igniting' aether.

Sylv's earlier example was a good one: aether is firewood, magic power is a spark. How can there be a fire constantly burning in the firewood without igniting it?

Horn thought for a long time but couldn't figure it out, so he turned his gaze to Sylv. "Sylv, do you remember my observation method and comparative experiment method?"

"Yes, I remember."

"Do you think Jeanne's situation can be reproduced?"

Sylv's wolf ears perked up like antennae. "If she can reduce the power of the lightning, I might be able to try, but you're not allowed to be there."

Sylv could roughly confirm that although the aether pump's alchemical ritual would affect Horn, it was limited by distance.

For example, when Horn passed through the Great Marsh earlier, the aether pump's alchemical ritual was activated once. According to the timing, Horn was in the southern Blackbone Marsh area at the time, but he wasn't affected.

This basically confirms that the astral rift's attraction to Horn has boundaries. As long as he stays far away, nothing might happen.

Sylv seemed to have thought of something. She perked up her wolf ears and asked Horn, "I forgot to ask, what exactly happened to you back then?"

Horn paused in his action of putting on clothes. "I saw something in the astral rift."

"What thing?" Sylv asked impatiently.

She had seen hundreds of astral rifts since she was a child, but this was the first time someone said they could see something in an astral rift.

After fastening the buttons on his shoulders, Horn was silent for a few seconds before saying, "An eye."

A woman's red-瞳 eye.

"Sylv, go and inform them that I can receive visitors." Horn told Sylv, using his collar to cover part of the bloodstained gauze.

Soon, a series of footsteps came from outside the door. Bishops, elders, and centurions came one after another, but Horn had specifically instructed them to maintain order and silence.

Horn directly had the guards inform them that anyone who dared to make noise would be locked in the small dark room for a day, with only water and no food.

The bishops and elders who had suffered naturally dared not be presumptuous again.

So first the bishops and elders visited, but after discovering that they were trying to stay to avoid military training, Horn kicked them out.

Then came the centurions from the entire Autumn Dusk Island. There were 48 of them in total, but only 30 on Autumn Dusk Island were able to visit Horn on the first day.

Logically speaking, each centurion is responsible for a district, and the population within the district is between 450-600 people.

Now that ten districts have been basically repaired, this means that approximately 5,000 people have moved into Insula apartments.

Horn was now injured and couldn't go anywhere, so he could take this opportunity to communicate more with these centurions who were local officials.

Thinking of this, Horn directly said to Bussac at the door, "Go and arrange for a few literate scribes, and then number the centurions and have them enter in order."

After saying this, Horn took out a few pieces of paper from the bedside table and handed them to Sylv. "You are my secretary-general, and you will record the main points of my conversations with the centurions."

"Okay." Taking the paper and pen, Sylv immediately perked up. This was her first job in her first profession.

There were still four days until conscription, which Horn could use to recover from his injuries. The tearing wound on his neck wasn't serious, and he also had a witch constitution, so as long as it wasn't a serious injury, his recovery speed would be very fast.

During this time, he would use it to communicate with the centurions and see the grassroots situation on Autumn Dusk Island.

So Horn's daily routine changed from handling government affairs and teaching classes to writing work manuals, plans, and textbooks in the morning, and having tea parties with the centurions and Sylv in the afternoon.

The days passed leisurely, like a wild donkey that doesn't stop running once it starts, just like Paslik's prostate often rebels. In the blink of an eye, the day of recruiting new soldiers arrived.

Horn, who had been lying in bed for four days, was finally able to get up. Although there were still intermittent scabs on his neck, they couldn't be seen if he wore a scarf.

"Let's go, let's go see how the new recruits are being recruited."