When the plot-skips players into the game world

Chapter 396: Chapter 302: Lancelot’s Soul Shard Chapter 396: Chapter 302: Lancelot’s Soul Shard “That is…”

Hayna recalled the small dagger.

To alleviate the headache brought on by cognitive disarray, she said everything she could.

After listening to her story, Aiwass raised an eyebrow, the corners of his mouth curved up slightly.

Like a fox that had caught a chicken, he revealed a smug and ambiguous smile of delight.

Sherlock too, detected the loopholes in the story immediately.

“Heh…”

Sherlock scoffed, crossing his fingers and leaning back, “You really are slow, Hayna.”

“…What?”

“You said it yourself, that beautiful dagger is engraved with the curving Elvish Language,”

Sherlock inquired, “Was it a gift from your father?”

“Yes, he told me to keep it for self-defense,”

Hayna answered.

As she uttered these words, she suddenly realized something, “You mean…”

Sherlock cut her off directly, “Your father is a dwarf craftsman.

“He is a Transcendent blacksmith with a legacy, able to forge Extraordinary Equipment.

Even if he wanted you to have something for self-defense on your way to school, why would he give you an elf dagger?

Or rather, if he wanted to equip you, why only an Elvish Dagger?”

Blacksmiths take pride in their creations, and Dwarves are particularly confident in their smithing skills.

At the same time, Dwarves generally hold enmity towards Elves.

The Magnet Hammer is a typical Dwarf blacksmith.

So, under these circumstances, for a Dwarf blacksmith to protect his daughter, would he refrain from giving her any of his own equipment, instead giving her only an elf dagger?

“Moreover, that dagger was lost later.

But I forgot where it went, it was like it just disappeared one day,”

Hayna recalled what followed and immediately continued, “I was worried for a while at the time.

I was afraid my father would find out I had lost his item when I went home…

so there was a period when I didn’t want to go home, or rather, I didn’t dare to.

Because the dagger looked very expensive, I was really afraid.

“I had prepared lies.

Either I left it at school or I had lent it to a friend for protection.

If they didn’t believe me, I would say I injured someone and gave the dagger away as compensation.

“But when my father saw my empty waist, he didn’t ask me anything.

He never asked after that…”

“I was relieved at the time, but still frightened.

Always worried that this time my father had forgotten, or had drunk too much, and that the next time it might be discovered.

So I was still somewhat anxious…”

It wasn’t until much later that Hayna gradually got used to it.

But her awe for her father still etched in her heart.

It was that kind of fear that children feel when they know they have done something wrong and worry that their parents will find out.

“Did you lose it early on?”

Sherlock pressed, “Was it lost very early?”

Hayna contemplated for a moment, “Now that you mention it…

it should have been.

It’s been so long; I really can’t remember clearly.

However, I was quite…

lively back then.

“I remember I showed off the dagger to many people and even used it to carve into tables.

If I had kept it for a long enough time, I think perhaps I would have done other things with it.

But I didn’t, so I guess it was lost quite quickly.”

“I have a theory, Hayna,”

Sherlock said calmly, “Is there a possibility that the person who gave you that dagger wasn’t your father?”

“But…”

Hayna reflexively wanted to refute Sherlock.

But the moment she began to speak, she suddenly stumbled.

She distinctly remembered that it was given to her by her father.

Yet later, her father behaved as if he had completely forgotten about it…

And just as Sherlock said…

why would her father have suddenly given her an Elvish Dagger?

After the incident regarding “trees growing,” she suddenly wasn’t very confident in her memory.

“Is it my memory that’s faulty again…?”

“I think, probably not,”

Aiwass slowly began, ending the discussion between the two, “If I’m not mistaken, someone impersonated your father and lent it to you.

Or rather, their goal was to have you take it out of Eagle Cape Village.”

“Her?” Hayna caught onto something.

“…Smuggling?”

Sherlock also connected this behavior to something, “As if someone used Hayna to smuggle something out.”

Aiwass nodded towards Sherlock, “That’s about right.”

“You recognize that dagger?”

Watching Aiwass’s reaction, Sherlock finally understood why the fox had that delighted, chicken-stealing grin.

“Yes, I recognize it.

I’ve seen it, too.”

Aiwass nodded.

As he spoke, he took down the key to St.

Genvieve Chapel from his waist.

He held up the key, massive as a short sword, and asked Sherlock, “You know what this is, right?”

“A fragment of the Red-Handled Sword?”

Sherlock crossed his arms and fell into thought, “Is this the answer you want me to give?”

He paused, then suddenly his eyes widened, “Could it be…”

He remembered it too—

Because Sherlock had also seen that dagger—or rather, another dagger that looked very similar.

“Yes, that’s the one.”

Aiwass nodded again.

Then he turned back to Hayna and confirmed, “The dagger you mentioned has a blade blue-green as a lake surface, and when viewed in sunlight, you can see a gradient from deep blue to dull yellow from the side, right?”

“…Yes, that’s right.”

Hayna nodded.

Aiwass’s lips curled up slightly, “Then congratulations to you.

You have gained the recognition of the Holy Sword Arondight.”

Hayna fell silent for a while and remained unresponsive.

She was somewhat hesitant, “What Holy Sword?”

“The one belonging to Avalon’s founding monarch, Lancelot I—the Holy Sword Arondight.

It’s a sacred weapon of the same tier as my Red-Handled Sword.”

Aiwass spoke slowly, “Its distinct feature is its brilliance that resembles the light of the moon reflecting off the lake, and the blade bears engravings in the Elvish Language.

Much like how the Red-Handled Sword is sealed, Arondight was also split in two by Merlin, transformed from a longsword into two daggers.

“One of those daggers currently resides in Queen Sofia’s bedroom, passed down as a hereditary national treasure.

It should then be inherited by Isabel…”

The other…

serves as the true base of the Ceremony of Avalon’s Shadow and was stored by Merlin in some place.

It is used as an anchor to guide the resurrection of Lancelot.

Aiwass briefly explained the Ceremony of Avalon’s Shadow to the three of them.

The final step of the Ceremony of Avalon’s Shadow is to drive the dagger, passed down through the royal lineage, through the heart of a direct royal family member.

And the other dagger, which stores fragments of Lancelot’s soul, will correspondingly respond from afar, absorbing Lancelot’s whole soul into the fragment through the ceremony—similar to the curse dolls from the Path of Beauty.

Then, relying on the “mirror” principle of the Path of Beauty, the soul is transferred onto the other Arondight’s Dagger.

Quantum entanglement, that is.

——And now, that dagger has been stolen.

Hayna is that vessel.

“Does that mean,” Sherlock said in astonishment, “Eagle Cape Village is the base for this grand ceremony?”

“Entirely possible.”

Aiwass nodded.

What is stored in St.

Genvieve Cathedral is only Lancelot’s not quite dead “corpse”.

Aiwass and Sherlock had just been to that cathedral’s basement, they had even used it to conduct a ceremony.

There was no ceremony there.

But a ceremony must have a site.

As a ritual that has been running for hundreds of years, the Ceremony of Avalon’s Shadow must have a sufficiently stable base.

At the same time, it must be sufficiently hidden to prevent others from interfering with the ceremony.

As a large-scale ritual, it would also require a significant amount of space.

Taking all this into account…

“The secret might be in that Fairy Hole.”

Aiwass was somewhat excited, “I suspect that it’s where Merlin’s ceremony is hidden!

And now it’s very likely that it has been tampered with…”

After so long, he had finally touched upon a corner of the truth.

If Merlin’s grand ceremony was set up in or near Eagle Cape Village…

then everything connected.

Why there has been no development here for four hundred years, why my grandfather, a Fifth Power Level Curse Ritual Magician, chose to spend the rest of his life in such a trivial place, why the trees here grow so strangely yet are so unbreakable, and why Jacob could so easily conduct the “Swamp Man Ritual”.

And…

why the villagers here have sacrificed their names and almost seem immortal, guarding something.

Plus, why Hayna as the child of Twilight and Dedication, would exhibit traits of Authority and Transcendence—

Aiwass looked at Hayna.

If his guess was correct…

Hayna wasn’t her parents’ biological daughter at all.

She was very likely a clone—moreover, a clone with an altered soul.

Not the original form of the Swampfolk.

But the new form born after merging the “Newborn Ritual” and the reinitiated “Swamp Man Ritual”.@@novelbin@@

This could explain why she bears a striking resemblance to her mother and brother, yet her Path inclination is bizarrely skewed.

Transcendence and Authority.

Indeed, there is one person’s soul that would have such inclinations…

That is the Chief Knight Lancelot who strode forth to meet the Giants alongside Arthur, the founding monarch of Avalon “Lancelot”.

His Path attributes were Transcendence and Strength.

And after Arthur ascended to become the Silver-Crowned Dragon, the “Strength” aspect of his Path was purified into the more powerful Authority Force.

Thereafter, his bloodline inherited an intense Authority Force.

With the support of the Silver-Crowned Dragon, he selectively extracted the Transcendence from his bloodline.

And his wife Guinevere should possess the adaptability of Love and Beauty.

Hence there would be the occasional occurrence of natural inclinations toward the Path of Beauty with Sofia and Isabel.

If the soul fragment housed within Hayna was that of Lancelot, that would explain why she is so unique.

Arondight’s Dagger is not something anyone can wield.

It’s basically exclusive to the royal family…

Yet Hayna can use it.

But Aiwass was sure, she didn’t have a trace of royal blood in her.

From this perspective, the person who gave her the dagger should be Merlin’s ex-girlfriend…

the Angel Envoy of the Shadowy Celestial Marshal, Vivian.

For those of the Path of Love to change their image and appearance, it couldn’t be easier.

Therefore, Vivian must be Jacob’s collaborator!

“But why…”

Aiwass furrowed his brows again.

He suddenly realized something else.

If Hayna was necessary, then why didn’t Jacob value her as much?

Jacob even deliberately told Hayna stories about Arthur.

That was clearly to awaken Hayna’s Transcendent nature!

If Hayna was an experiment, then?

As an experiment to test if “a newborn’s soul can accommodate someone else’s soul fragments”…

At this thought, Aiwass suddenly fell silent for a moment.

He thought of himself.

Or rather, he thought of his own sudden awakening, yet bona fide…

——memories of another world.