Mage Manual
Chapter 551 - 447 The Princess is Still Here

Chapter 551: Chapter 447 The Princess is Still Here

The Funeral Ceremony attendees all paused in surprise, Igula hesitated and said, "Are you referring to the anonymous list that only the pitiful can ascend?"

"It seems you are not aware," Helaphis let out a sound of realization, "It makes sense, Purple Moth used to just run a small office, not knowing this secret is quite normal."

Hanna furrowed her brow tightly, "Besides not having a reward, what other secrets does this list hold?"

"You’ve got it wrong," Helaphis wagged her finger, "the absence of a reward is just a facade... Don’t just stand there, keep moving."

After the land-dwellers had huffed and puffed in activity, the Sea Witch continued, "You might think that those who make it onto the ’List of the Unfavored’ are all lonely and destitute orphans, right? In fact, in the past hundred years, the individuals who have appeared on this list often come from the direct lineage of powerful family corporations like Kaiserry, Mercury, Roland, and the like."

She paused, her voice a little somber, "My niece was also one of those listed. It’s one of the few lists we Sea Demons have access to."

This time, Hanna was genuinely surprised, "Could it be that the Gospel List intentionally hides the reward, so you all keep participating in it? Does being listed actually come with great benefits?"

"Rather than hiding the reward, it’s more like a reward that cannot be revealed," Helaphis said, "and there really is no benefit to being listed. Just like the rumors suggest, once a listed person becomes an adult, they just vanish one day without a trace."

"However, while there’s no benefit for those listed, there is for others."

Harvey spoke up, "I sense some unpleasantness here."

"Though the Unfavored are deemed unnecessary, they’re far from the age to die when they reach adulthood," the Sea Witch explained, "So when Gospel takes them away, they still have a long fate ahead of them, which Gospel then adds to the people they were once closest to."

"Could you please tell me what brand of ice cream ’Fate’ is? Or is it a type of mayonnaise?" Igula’s brow was tightly knitted, "Can fate really be added like that?"

"Let me put it this way," Helaphis said, "Suppose there’s a child who has 30 years left to live, will acquire carpentry skills in his future, and will earn a total of 20 Gold Coins. Then... snap, all that fate is added to you."

"You’ll have an additional 30 years of life, the opportunity to acquire carpentry skills, and you’ll come into an unexpected fortune of 20 Gold Coins. It’s as simple as that."

It’s as simple as that.

The Sea Witch said it in a light and breezy manner, but the attendees of the Funeral Ceremony all felt a chill in their hearts. Ash found it hard to believe, "Why would Gospel create such a list—"

"The original intention of Gospel was probably good," Igula said calmly, "the premise for transferring fate is that you were once the closest person to these Unfavored individuals... meaning, Gospel wanted to reward those who cared for the weaker members of society."

"It’s just that once the corporate families discovered this, they developed a new use for it."

Hanna said coldly, "Those families just need to find a marginal person—"

"No." Helaphis immediately interrupted, "You forgot, it’s the fate of the Unfavored that’s being added, so the richer their fate, the stronger the effect once it’s added. Those families wouldn’t look for marginal people at all, but rather..."

She paused, "If you observe carefully, you’ll notice that in the vast majority of corporate families, each generation of the direct lineage has many brothers and sisters. However, once they become adults, one or two children are never seen again."

Everyone was stunned by the revelation and took a moment to recover before Igula jokingly asked, "Does your becoming the First Sea Witch have any relation to your niece’s sacrifice?"

"It does," Helaphis said, "so my daughter is about to become one of the Unfavored."

Igula was taken aback, and the Sea Witch continued in a cold voice, "How could you exploit Gospel’s loopholes without paying any price? It’s not just us, nearly every generation of the Family Heads of those corporations has to sacrifice one or more of their favorite children to ensure the Unfavored’s fate is sufficiently substantial, enriching the others... Maybe it was unintentional, but the existence of the ’List of the Unfavored’ has indeed been effective in improving the quality of each generation of the family’s offspring."

Although Ash felt like cursing them for their treatment of the children, such an accusation seemed naive within the grand narrative of a millennia-long family development. Moreover, considering Igula was in combat, he restrained himself from hindering Rusted Crow.

"...How does this list relate to the apocalypse?"

"Don’t you think the ’List of the Unfavored’ stands out too much among so many normal lists?" Helaphis said, "Add to that the fact that the Gospel Society secretly transfers the fate of the Unfavored to others; it’s like a... an experiment."

"An experiment with Wonders!"

"For the All-knowing Weaver, the Unfavored are like lab rats, and what’s being studied is how to perfectly extract fate from the lab rats. That we benefit from it is just an insignificant byproduct!"

"With ordinary Mages being incapable of seizing someone else’s fate—let’s not even talk about taking fate, even touching the Fate Faction is beyond our reach! But if the All-knowing Weaver were to conduct experiments or develop wonders using the form of a list, then the opportunity arises for us!"

"Although the records from before the Yisu Dynasty are rather vague, after years of restoration, we’ve realized that during the era of chaos, the Gospel Society introduced many ’experimental lists’ which allowed ordinary Mages to use the lists to indirectly invoke Wonders, securing resources for themselves!"