When the plot-skips players into the game world

Chapter 755: Chapter 138: Always on the Run Chapter 755: Chapter 138: Always on the Run Aiwass’s eyes widened slightly.

“—Inielis Vanhua.”

He whispered the name of Isabel’s mother softly.

At that moment, many clues intertwined in Aiwass’s mind.

Many things that had previously puzzled him finally connected:

He remembered clearly—Yanis’s teacher was named Bettina Dia Vanhua.

In the game’s original history, the fugitive Isabel, after performing a forbidden ritual and sacrificing her fertility, thus gained the inheritance of the Vanhua.

She afterwards became Queen Vanhua and rebuilt the Kingdom of Camelot.

And Bettina Dia had amberficated in 1704, while it was now 1899.

From her death to the present was one hundred and ninety-five years—exactly the time Yanis had disappeared without a word.

Inielis Vanhua was over two hundred years old twenty years ago… which meant that when Yanis left the Holy Nation, Inielis must have been a little girl.

Since Bettina Dia was already dead, the inheritance of Lady Vanhua could not be passed on…

at least Yanis herself could not be called “Yanis Vanhua,” indicating that Yanis did not possess the plant-manipulating inheritance ability of Lady Vanhua.

Not to mention Inielis, who could easily be cursed to death by the Bone Sculptor.

Since Inielis could inherit this surname, there were only two possibilities—either Inielis was Yanis’s junior disciple, and more fitting to the inheritance of Lady Vanhua than Yanis, or she was the daughter of Bettina Dia.

The latter was much more likely.

Because if their relationship was only that of a teacher and disciple, then by Isabel’s generation, there would be no direct link with Lady Vanhua.

Almost sixty years ago, Yanis had come to Avalon once before.

She left here like the free wind.

But about ten years ago, Yanis mysteriously returned to Avalon and stayed for a decade, which was entirely unlike her pursuit of freedom.

Although she claimed it was because of her friendship with Queen Sofia.

…But she had been traveling the world for one hundred and fifty years and couldn’t have been ignorant of human forgetfulness.

For Queen Sofia at that time, that was her old friend from fifty years ago in her long life of over sixty—the effectiveness of such a “childhood friendship” could hardly be significant enough to bind a fifth power level transcendent to this place for ten years.

And according to Aiwass’s observations, in another world line where Aiwass did not interfere, Queen Sofia would eventually take Minister Drost’s longevity medicine and embark on the Dusk Path, attempting to marry Isabel to Prince Star Antimony.

Yanis left Avalon because of this.

But what if…

Yanis’s departure was not, or not just because the Queen took the longevity medicine—but because the reason for Yanis’s stay here was gone?

And the most decisive—

Isabel, who had been taught by Yanis for years, had not learned any extraordinary skill from her.

Apart from the basics, Yanis had taught her almost nothing, only how to choose the path properties related to illusion techniques…

What if Yanis didn’t care about Isabel’s success in becoming a professional, nor imparted any extraordinary skill of the Path of Beauty, because from the beginning she assumed Isabel would become “Isabel Vanhua”?

If she were destined to be the heir, then the professional’s level would naturally not matter.

According to Prince Albert’s account, Queen Sofia was a quite tough and unfriendly queen.

Although his assessment might have been colored by his adolescence clashing with the queen’s menopausal period…

but there was another more likely possibility, which was that the queen was indeed tough in her youth.

However, she particularly designated Isabel, someone with a timid nature, completely lacking the demeanor of a queen, as the heir to the throne after the “Shadow of Avalon” ritual…

Keep in mind that without Aiwass’s intervention, Isabel wouldn’t toughen up until the collapse of Avalon.

So, how could Isabel ever assume the role of queen if such a downfall never came and without Aiwass’s help?

Apart from the “fleeting friendship” of over fifty years between Yanis and Sofia.

Could there be some sort of…

trade?

“Do you know…

Master Yanis?”

Aiwass suddenly spoke up, asking Prince Albert.

Prince Albert frowned slightly, “Of course I know…”

“—I mean, was Master Yanis in Avalon before you left Glass Island?”

“How could that be.”

Prince Albert blurted out, “If Master Yanis were here, how could Inielis have died so easily!

They were friends!”

“You know they were friends?” Aiwass pursued.

“When Little Isabel was four or five years old, Master Yanis came back for a visit…”

The decadent man fell silent for a while, then spoke up, “Because Isabel was very artistically talented as a child.

She specially came to check on Isabel’s talent and then left again.

Back then I didn’t know she was Master Yanis, but Innie and she talked in private for a long time.

“After Innie was murdered, I wanted to find Master Yanis to avenge her.

Because I remember she was supposed to be in Avalon.

But I looked for a long time and couldn’t find her.

Almost two to three years passed before I suddenly realized she had founded the ‘Glass Staircase Daily’ and settled in Glass Island for a long stay.

“—She must have come back for Isabel.

With her protecting Isabel, I could rest assured.

So…”

“So, you never came back?”

Aiwass laughed.

Prince Albert was silent for a while, then said softly, “In the first few years, I was actually…

waiting for my death.

I just didn’t want to die on Glass Island; I would rather die fighting scoundrels.

And after that…

it was because Yunus had died.”

“He died because of you,”

Aiwass said.

Prince Albert bowed his head, “Yes, I know.

That’s why since then, I’ve become ‘Yunus’.”

“…Compared to Albert, who would disappoint anyone, the Yunus who could make anyone happy seemed more valuable.

“I know I let Isabel down.

So I just…

tried hard to perform acts of chivalry.

I did my best to help the people across Avalon.

I defeated those bandits and villains and stopped those evil plans—but not for people’s praise of me!

I didn’t want to become famous, I only…”

“—you were just, not sure how to repay the guilt for running away,”

Aiwass interrupted, “Just like your focused attention on Anastasia’s matter.”

In that instant, Aiwass thought of Yanis fleeing from Pure White.

Although it was not the same thing, it was of a similar nature.

Both initially ran away because of something, and then continued to run away because they couldn’t face the consequences of that affair—immense shame and a sense of inadequacy forced Prince Albert to help others in order to relieve the pressure in his heart.

He gave all his possessions to the poor, leaving not a single coin on him, essentially ready to die at any time and place.

But he didn’t have the true courage to face danger…

just like his methods against those villains: initially, he wanted to die at the hands of villains, but in the end, he chose to run away.

But after running away, he felt guilty and tried hard to publicize the villains’ misdeeds, attracting fire to take them down.

Always running away, always regretting.

Always afraid, always compensating.

“Quite pathetic, Your Highness.

Are you that spineless?”

Aiwass said lightly, “Afraid of revenge, afraid of death, afraid to apologize—what else do you dare do with such a big body and strong muscles?”

“…I truly am a coward,” reprimanded by Aiwass, a junior, but Prince Albert simply acknowledged with his head bowed, “I lack talent, and I’ve only just reached the Third Power Level…”

“No, this has nothing to do with courage, Your Highness.

Nor does it have to do with strength.”

Aiwass’s calm words were sharp as a knife: “It’s about a sense of responsibility.”

On hearing this, Prince Albert finally fell completely silent.

Perhaps it was because he was too young when he fathered Isabel, or perhaps due to the lack of a father’s example to teach him, that even when he fled from the Hall of Silver and Tin, he was naive like a clueless child.

Prince Albert was not mentally prepared to be a father; he couldn’t bear the life and death of anyone.@@novelbin@@

That’s why he was tortured by Inielis’s death to the verge of insanity—he didn’t even subconsciously consider the thought of “running away with Isabel.” Because he was afraid of Isabel dying in front of him or due to his mistakes and powerlessness.

He dared not take responsibility for the life and death of Isabel.

The declaration of “renouncing the inheritance” sounded more like “running away from home”; the act of going out to perform chivalrous deeds with his brother was closer to “adventuring freely with a sword.”

—Frankly, Aiwass thought it was more likely he just ran away to play than “doing something meaningful before death.”

Until the death of Yunus left him all alone.

No one around him could comfort him anymore.

Only then did Prince Albert gradually start to grow up.

But in the end, he still chose to take on Yunus’s skin, still not daring to face others as Albert…

but pretending as if Albert had died.

Even though he gradually got used to loneliness, adapted to living alone, and learned to flatter and be diplomatic, those were all things that “Yunus” was originally supposed to do, Yunus’s life.

It didn’t signify that he had matured.

Because he was still running away.

The death of Inielis made him run away from the identity of a royal family member and from being Isabel’s father; the death of Yunus made him flee from the identity of “Albert.” Now that the curse has been lifted, he again plans to end it all, to atone for his sins—escaping from life.

He kept running away, absent from every occasion in Isabel’s life that needed a father.

Without a father to accompany him as he grew up, but he was even less resilient than his own daughter Isabel.

“Under the same pressure, threatened by the curse…

even the more desperate Isabel didn’t get crushed in the end, but you did,”

Aiwass asked, “What have you done?”

“…I only did one thing.”

After a silence, Prince Albert answered in a hoarse voice, “I left my necklace for her.”