Mage Manual
Chapter 456 - 377: The Witch’s Concerns

Chapter 456: Chapter 377: The Witch’s Concerns

Ash had not doubted for the first time that his operators were real people rather than mere pieces of paper.

In fact, as early as when the Sword Maiden told him in prison, "You are not everything in my life, just an accident in my life. Even without you, I can still live well in places you don’t know about," Ash had never seen operators as mere data streams.

But since the Sword Maiden told him right from the start that to Ash, they were merely virtual memories... there was no reason for the Sword Maiden to lie to him about this, right?

Moreover, since they had never met in reality, Ash defined operators as follows:

Though they lived in their own unique storyworlds, they shared the same Void Realm with Ash.

This explained very well why they could form teams in the Void Realm and why Ash could influence them through "Aurora’s Mage Manual"—their storyworlds were a subdimension of the main world, where they were the fated protagonists, each with their own story lines. As a player, Ash’s task was to help them grow stronger and overcome various plot points.

Although their storyworlds didn’t overlap with Ash’s real world, the worldview settings were supposed to be the same, hence the Void Realm knowledge that the Sword Maiden learned in the Kingdom of Stars could be directly applied to Void Realm Exploration.

And those who had appeared in the Void Realm could be found in their storyworlds—for example, the Heroic Soul Commander Demilo who was killed by Ash and others, was discovered by the Sword Maiden to be related to Duke Vosloda in her world.

However, Ash’s naive thoughts were severely shaken in the amnesia cabin.

The Witch and the Gospel Incarnation looked exactly alike!

The Gospel Incarnation was real; the Empress’ Soul was the witness!

If one were to say that the Gospel Incarnation had no relation to the Kingdom of Gospel, Ash himself wouldn’t believe it!

In the Mage world, names were very important symbols; all Technique Spirits possessed their own names from the moment they were born, and their names were the cornerstone of Mage civilization. There were almost no differences in language and culture between different kingdoms because the names of Technique Spirits harmonized scripts, measurements, and phonetics.

This Gospel must certainly be that Gospel!

Thus, one could draw an obvious conclusion: the Witch was in the Kingdom of Gospel!

During the days when he hadn’t logged into the Void Realm, Ash had been contemplating a question—should he suggest meeting with the Witch offline?

Only by meeting the Witch in person could Ash thoroughly overturn his "storyworld theory."

But even before Ash could speak, the Witch herself burst out with a lot of explosive information.

Armored Saint, God of Mankind, Weaving Festival!

Weren’t these the series of events I had just experienced!?

Just when Ash excitedly thought he had encountered the "realization of paper personas," the Witch poured cold water on him—she said she was the number one in the two previous future rankings before the Weaving Festival.

Unless tonight, after leaving the Void Realm, Ash could see Hanna and Harvey merge to summon the Black and White Witch, then either reality or the Witch was definitely lying.

The Witch had no reason to lie, but reality had no reason to deceive Ash, so Ash’s "storyworld theory" stood firm once again—the Witch simply achieved dual number ones in her storyworld, which had nothing to do with Ash’s real world.

Additionally, the "Star Fall" event that the Sword Maiden just mentioned was also a strong piece of evidence; why did only the Sword Maiden encounter the "Star Fall," but neither Ash nor the Witch encountered it?

The most logical explanation was that this was an event unique to the Sword Maiden’s storyline, which happened only in her storyworld. Of course, Ash in the real world couldn’t see even a single meteor.

Indeed, there is no such thing as ’paper personas becoming real,’ is there...

That’s right, this is "Aurora’s Mage Manual," not "Aurora’s Girlfriend Manual"...

"As long as you get the most number ones on the rankings, you can make a wish to the Divine Lord?" Sonia said enviously, "There really are such good things!"

Diya smiled mysteriously and had an expression that said ’everything is under control.’

She was sure that the Sword Maiden had no way to find out about the Weaving Festival.

That’s right, the dual number ones were not her, but Hanna and Harvey, but how could the Sword Maiden possibly know? The Observer might or might not know; she was wondering if the Observer would expose her, but it seemed that the Observer was not interested.

As for why Diya would say such a thing, it was not out of vanity, but rather because she was too lazy to explain.

Essentially, she was a part of the Funeral Service Office, and now that the top two spots were occupied by people from the Funeral Service Office, her claim of achieving double first place wasn’t too far off.

More importantly, explaining in detail would be too much of a hassle.

From the beginning to the end, her goal was to infiltrate the Funeral Service Office and somehow seize Hanna’s final achievements, but explaining this would require introducing Hanna, Harvey, Igula, and others, and would also make Diya seem rather sinister—she still cared about her face, and was embarrassed to openly discuss her plotting for personal gain at the expense of others.

Moreover, since her intention was to steal the achievements of the Funeral Service Office, wasn’t their obtaining two first places essentially her victory?

And besides, Diya wasn’t there to complain.

After the incident at the Amnesia Cabin, Diya realized she had to reveal some truth to the Observer Sword Maiden, but she didn’t want to drag the Sword Maiden into her and the Witch’s war.

She and her sisters already had a way to defeat the Witch, they didn’t need any extra help.

By comparison, Diya just wanted to end this topic quickly and hoped the Sword Maiden wouldn’t mention it again in the future.

Although she wasn’t aware of it herself, she subconsciously regarded "resisting her grandmother" as a stain on herself.

It was her grandmother who had raised her.

It was her grandmother who had protected her.

It was her grandmother who had arranged her path as the God of Mankind, Incarnation of Gospel, and Empress Yisu.

If it were someone else, they might have ecstatically accepted this fate.

No, not even just someone else, on the night of the "White Fog Incident," aside from the Red Death Cultist firmly supporting Diya’s resistance, the White Queen and the Black Butler were not so resolute.

Diya faintly felt that her sisters siding with her was more about loyalty than reason; they might not truly agree with her standpoint in their hearts.

And recently, when the Armored Saint ceremony was mentioned, the joy in the Sword Maiden’s eyes slightly pained Diya.

Although Diya couldn’t see the Observer’s expression, how could the Observer possibly refuse Diya becoming a Divine Being with combat power?

Hearing Diya had a chance to control a Divine Being, their first reaction would definitely be to think about what benefits they could gain from it.

This is only natural, Diya didn’t want to blame them, but she inevitably had doubts—doubts about whether they were truly hoping for her successful resistance or actually hoping for her rebellion to fail, to be taken back by her grandmother to continue the Armored Saint ritual, and become a God of Mankind they could use.

The Witch even suspected that she was selected into the team by the Observer because she was designated for the Armored Saint ceremony.

She knew very clearly that most people wouldn’t approve of her rebellion against her grandmother. Aside from the nurturing she received from her grandmother, more importantly, this path was one of glory, greatness, and myth—a luck many yearn for but cannot obtain. Why would you forsake it so casually?

In this world, Diya could only be certain that Ash would stand by her side.

Because they had a Contract.

And moreover, because he was Ash.

Thus, Diya specifically consulted Igula, the Swindler, inquiring if there was a way to divert attention from her secrets.

Igula’s advice was, "You just need to act very sure and confident, and others will not get a chance to boast about you. Worrying pilgrims delight in misfortune, and their mortal enemy is named jealousy."

So Diya repeatedly emphasized that she would sweep the Weaving Festival, claiming all the top spots on all the lists... Sure enough, the interest of the Sword Maiden rapidly declined, merely listening politely as Diya boasted.

Once the two had finished discussing, they shifted their gaze to the man sitting in the front seat.

"Observer," Sonia casually asked, "have you come across any information these past days that you want to share with us?"

"These past days..."

Vatican Mura, Senheiser dreams, White Fog Incident, family rankings, and finally ending up in the hands of Belladett to be insulted this way and that by Miss Yvalin...

Although there was just too much to say, due to Hanna’s confidentiality Contract, Ash found what he could truly boast about was only leading the team in the successful completion of the Extreme Cutting Carp’s absolute expedition.