Vol 4. Chapter 47: Passing the Blame Again

After returning the now completely limp Holy Sword to its sheath, Lady Yumo turned around in disbelief and looked at the black-haired man standing not far away.

Her crimson eyes were filled with shock.

"You're saying... the Holy Sword went berserk because of Xiao?"

Out of the corner of her eye, she glanced at Audom, who was kneeling on the ground and trembling uncontrollably, and asked in a daze.

Compared to a moment ago, after hearing Audom's words, Lady Yumo had withdrawn the icy killing intent and overwhelming pressure of the Power of Shadow of Silence surrounding her back into her body. The blood-colored butterflies fluttering around Audom, seemingly ready to tear him apart and devour him, had also returned to Lady Yumo's side. Even the intense killing intent within her crimson eyes had completely disappeared...

With the oppressive aura gone, Audom gasped in relief. Freed from that pressure, his mind gradually regained its clarity.

And the moment he came back to his senses, a wave of regret surged madly through his mind.

He should have come up with some other excuse!

He shouldn't have directly revealed that the Black Rose Family was responsible...

Now that he'd said it aloud, who knew whether he would suffer some horrifying retaliation afterward?

Just thinking about that possibility made Audom begin trembling again.

But there was no medicine for regret in this world. Things had already reached this point, so all he could do was keep passing the blame... and hope that the girl before him would protect him.

If the girl in front of him wasn't some demon merely pretending to be innocent, then perhaps he still had a chance of surviving...

And so, Audom took a deep breath. Enduring Xiao's cold stare, he raised his hand and pointed at him.

"Th-That's right! The Holy Sword was very... very calm before! Even if the sword spirit occasionally misbehaved and caused trouble eight days a week, she'd never gone berserk and directly attacked someone before! But then Duke Xiao said he wanted to take the Holy Sword away for a while and train her! It must've been because of their training that Ishufiel became so violent..."

Although he kept trying to speak emphatically, under Xiao's piercing gaze, Audom's confidence and voice steadily grew weaker and weaker. By the end, his words were practically inaudible...

The elven prince no longer dared to meet Xiao's eyes and anxiously lowered his head.

Of course,

with Lady Yumo's superhuman physical abilities, she could hear every word clearly no matter how quietly he spoke.

At the same time, now that Audom was no longer maintaining his vacant expression, his face had become much more vivid and sincere. From Lady Yumo's perspective, his words didn't seem to be lies.

Watching Audom's frightened expression as he refused to meet Xiao's eyes, Yumo fell briefly silent.

A moment later,

the girl turned around and met Xiao's profound black eyes.

"Xiao, is what His Highness the Prince said true?"

Faced with the suspicion in the black-haired girl's eyes, Xiao felt his chest tighten.

Indeed,

after learning that Lady Yumo intended for the Child of Destiny to obtain a Holy Sword as her weapon, Xiao had directly "borrowed" the Holy Sword Ishufiel from the elves and thoroughly trained that masochistic loli Holy Sword.

He had altered her so that whenever someone from a race other than the elves pulled her from her sheath, she would immediately erupt with intense aggression.

Naturally, the reason he'd done this was to make the Child of Destiny die directly at the hands of the berserk sword spirit after receiving the Holy Sword.

However,

after learning that the Child of Destiny possessed divine power capable of protecting her body, Xiao had stopped expecting the plan to succeed.

What he had never imagined was that the Holy Sword he'd tampered with would actually be drawn by Lady Yumo herself.

Just how... had Lady Yumo found out that the elves had brought the Holy Sword with them...?

There was no doubt that the situation had already gone far beyond Xiao's expectations.

However, as the vastly experienced Duke of the Black Rose Family, Xiao naturally wasn't lacking in adaptability.

After realizing that Lady Yumo was suspicious, Xiao made no attempt to deny it.

Instead, he immediately dropped to one knee before Lady Yumo and lowered his head apologetically.

"My apologies, Lady Yumo. It is true that I trained the Holy Sword."

Under these circumstances, Xiao chose not to conceal the matter. Under Audom's somewhat astonished gaze, he decisively admitted that he had trained the Holy Sword.

However,

admitting it was one thing.

What Xiao said next made Audom's eyebrow twitch involuntarily.

The black-haired man shook his head, his expression filled with both guilt and confusion.

"Ishufiel's sword spirit was far too violent. I was worried that once she fell into the hands of the Child of Destiny, not only would she refuse to assist the chosen one, but she might instead cause enormous trouble for her. With that in mind, I brought the Holy Sword back to the Sadik Empire and attempted to reeducate her so that she could become a Holy Sword worthy of the Child of Destiny. I absolutely never intended to harm the Child of Destiny."

As he spoke that final sentence, Xiao even raised his head and met Lady Yumo's crimson eyes without the slightest trace of guilt.

Hearing Xiao's seemingly sincere explanation, Lady Yumo couldn't help slightly furrowing her delicate brows.

"I understand what you're saying... But why? Why did the sword attack me just now?... After all that training, how did you... somehow make her even more violent?!"

"My apologies... Lady Yumo... I don't know why this happened either."

"Huh? Wh-What do you mean?"

"After the training was complete, the Holy Sword's temperament had indeed become much calmer. She was no longer as violent as before and could communicate properly. I believed that the Child of Destiny would be capable of controlling such a Holy Sword, and only then did I return her to the elves."

As he spoke, Xiao looked at the Holy Sword in Lady Yumo's hands with mixed emotions, his profound eyes filled with incomprehension.

"But I don't understand either why she would... suddenly lose control and attack you, Lady Yumo... Perhaps... I made some mistake during the training process, causing Ishufiel to lose control just now. I truly am... deeply sorry!"

Intense guilt and melancholy enveloped the black-haired man, causing Lady Yumo's heart to tremble.

"Then why exactly... did she suddenly go berserk?"

Yumo narrowed her eyes slightly and stared in confusion at the Holy Sword in her hand, which had completely lost its ability to fight.

After all,

if she didn't know the cause, who the hell could say whether the Holy Sword would go berserk again later?

There was no way Lady Yumo dared give a Holy Sword like this to Mengxi.

That girl Mengxi...

Although she'd been making Yumo angry all the time lately, Lady Yumo still couldn't bear the thought of her getting hurt.

Besides,

Xiao had always been such a steady and reliable child.

If he hadn't trained Ishufiel to absolute perfection... there was no way he would have returned her to the elves, right?

The black-haired girl tilted her head thoughtfully, considerable suspicion still lingering in her crimson eyes.

"Could this child..."

...

Naturally, not a single change in Lady Yumo's expression escaped Xiao's notice.

Realizing that Lady Yumo still harbored doubts, Xiao imperceptibly revealed a trace of helplessness. Deep within his profound eyes appeared a hint of completely genuine guilt.

So Lady Yumo wouldn't discover the truth, and for the sake of their great cause...

"My apologies... I'll have to wrong you a little..."

Taking a deep breath,

in the next instant, under Yumo's astonished gaze, Xiao suddenly furrowed his brows and his pupils abruptly contracted, looking as though he had just realized something!

Then Xiao hesitantly raised his head and met Lady Yumo's puzzled eyes.

"Lady Yumo, I... I think I know what happened."

"Hm? You figured it out? What happened?"

"Actually, it's because...! Hmm..."

Just as the words left his mouth, Xiao suddenly swallowed the rest of his sentence and hesitantly glanced toward Audom nearby.

Seeing this, Lady Yumo naturally understood.

She immediately cooperated and turned toward Audom.

"Your Highness, I'm sorry... but could you give us some privacy for a moment?"

Audom: ?!

Audom was utterly baffled by what was happening, but he still obediently followed Lady Yumo's request and temporarily left the devastated garden.

To tell the truth, he couldn't wait to get the hell out of there...

After Audom left, Yumo suspiciously leaned down and moved closer to Xiao.

"You can tell me now, right? What did you figure out?"

"Actually, Lady Yumo, the reason Ishufiel went berserk after seeing you should be because of Lord Piere."

"...Hm? What?"

Lady Yumo's little mouth fell open, utter confusion written all over her face.

"Piere? What does that brat have to do with this?"

"I believe it's because several hundred years ago, Lord Piere once gave the Thirteenth Elf King a brutal beating. Afterward, as his weapon..."

Xiao attempted to begin explaining,

but before he'd gotten more than a few words out, Lady Yumo anxiously interrupted him.

"Wait! Wait! Xiao, what did you just say? Piere beat up the Elf King? When did that happen?! That brat actually went and bullied the elves?!"

The girl questioned him in shock, her crimson eyes practically filled with question marks.

In response, Xiao deliberately tilted his head in "confusion" and put on a puzzled expression.

"Hm? Lady Yumo, you didn't know? And... it wasn't only the elves. More than four hundred years ago, basically every famous power on the continent was beaten up by Lord Piere at some point... Hm? Lord Piere... never told you about that?"

"..."

As those words reached her ears, Lady Yumo immediately fell into an eerie silence.

The entire garden became deathly still.

Then,

an indescribable, nameless fury suddenly began blazing within Lady Yumo's eyes.

"Th-That damn brat..."

He actually...

hid that many bad things he'd done from me!!!