Chapter 190

Chapter 190

Maria returned to the Royal Palace first, while Tu Nan and Xu Duoyi stayed behind at the Church for the time being to clean up the aftermath.

Compared to earlier, the Church seemed rather cold and deserted now that the crowds had dispersed. The altar was littered with wood that had burned down to cinders.

The King’s charred corpse was still on the altar, temporarily left untouched.

“What should we do with this body?” Xu Duoyi asked.

“Bury it,” Tu Nan said with a frown.

Xu Duoyi suddenly tugged at her sleeve, pointed in a certain direction, and lowered her voice. “Look over there.”

Tu Nan followed the direction of her finger and looked over, somewhat surprised.

The Nun was kneeling in a corner of the altar. Things had been too chaotic earlier, and Tu Nan hadn’t paid much attention to her, so she had no idea how long the Nun had been kneeling there.

She was like a motionless stone statue.

“Nun,” Tu Nan said softly as she walked to her side. “Are you all right?”

The Nun lifted her head to look at her as if waking from a dream.

“I… I’m fine,” she said softly. “I’ve never been better…”

Tu Nan frowned, feeling that something was strange.

The Nun seemed different from when Tu Nan had first met her.

If she had to say what was different, it was this: the first time Tu Nan saw the Nun, she had felt like an NPC. But now, the Nun gave off the feeling of a living, breathing person.

“Could you help me up?” the Nun asked. “I’ve been kneeling for too long, and my legs are a little numb.”

Tu Nan reached out and helped her to her feet.

“Thank you.” The Nun nodded to her.

“If you’re very tired, you can go rest for a while,” Tu Nan said. “I’ll have someone clean this place up.”

“No need.” The Nun shook her head. “Cleaning the Church should be done by devout believers.”

“But you…” Tu Nan looked at her doubtfully. She could barely even walk.

“I no longer belong here.” The Nun’s gaze drifted into the distance, her voice sounding a little distant. “The flames have chosen a new believer. I can… leave now.”

A new believer…

Tu Nan immediately thought of the Church’s third Rule.

According to what the Nun was saying, the new believer was…

She turned her head and looked at the King, who had practically been burned into charcoal.

Tu Nan: “…”

By some bizarre twist of fate, the King had actually become the new believer.

She pointed at the King’s corpse on the ground and asked, “You mean he’s the new believer?”

The “Nun” nodded. She took off a necklace hanging around her neck. Tu Nan instinctively glanced at it. It seemed to be made of silver, with a Crow pendant hanging from the bottom.

Another Crow.

“What is that?” Tu Nan couldn’t help asking.

“It is the mark of a believer.” The pale-faced Woman slowly walked over to the King and placed the necklace around the charred corpse’s neck.

At some point, Xu Duoyi had walked to Tu Nan’s side. Her expression was grave as she leaned in and whispered by Tu Nan’s ear, “Did you see that Crow?”

Tu Nan nodded.

From the guide who met them at the very start of the Instance, to the Crow statue at the entrance of Fairy Tale Hospital, and now to this necklace, the image of the Crow had been appearing again and again.

This definitely wasn’t a coincidence.

What, exactly, did the Crow signify within the Instance?

The moment the Woman finished putting the Crow necklace on, the charred corpse on the ground actually began to move.

First it twitched. Ashes on the corpse rustled down, and then even its blackened skin began to peel away in large flakes, revealing skin underneath that was so white it seemed to glow.

It was an almost sickly pallor, without the slightest trace of blood. The blue veins beneath the skin were nearly visible, along with the blood flowing through them.
Xu Duoyi cursed under her breath.

“What the hell is that…?”

The “King” rose to his feet in a twisted posture. He still didn’t seem used to this body; every movement was stiff and halting, like a machine that hadn’t been oiled, letting out a series of creaks and groans.

The King’s once slightly plump body also seemed to have been burned lean, as if all the fat inside him had been scorched away.

The “Nun” found a cloak and draped it over the “King” for the time being.

“From this moment on, you are the new believer,” she said softly. “Your duty is to guard the god until the next… believer is born.”

No matter how you looked at it, the scene gave off an indescribable sense of Weirdness.

“Then where are you going?” Xu Duoyi asked her in a low voice.

“My duty is complete.” She revealed a smile of release. “I can be freed now.”

“Why do I feel like something’s not right…?” Xu Duoyi couldn’t help saying.

The Woman looked at them, the smile at the corners of her mouth widening bit by bit, gradually stretching into an arc far beyond the limits of the human face.

Her pale skin began to crack like parched earth, revealing the charred black flesh beneath. It was as if she had long since been burned to a crisp and then covered with a layer of skin, and now that outer layer was beginning to split and collapse.

It was not a pleasant sight. In fact, it was a little sanity-draining.

Tu Nan turned her eyes away slightly. By the time she looked back again, all that remained where the Woman had been standing was a handful of charred black ash and the clothes she had been wearing.

The “King” seemed blind to all of it. In silence, he began cleaning the altar.

“Let’s go.” Tu Nan took a deep breath, then waved toward the space behind the Divine Statue and summoned the Fairy Tale Compendium back.

Yes, there had never been any such thing as “the god’s whisper.” It had all just been a trick, pretending to be mysterious.

A breeze swept through, scattering the pile of ash on the ground into the wind.
—
The two of them returned to the Royal Palace.

Although Maria had already obtained what she wanted, she was still missing one formal ceremony before she could truly ascend the Throne.

Tu Nan guessed that only after this ceremony was over would her and Xu Duoyi’s Main Quest be considered truly complete.

But she still had one Side Quest left to finish.

She went to find Maria.

Maria was very busy. She was busy issuing orders to everyone above and below her, and she also had to be measured for the outfit she would wear at the imminent coronation ceremony.

When Tu Nan entered Maria’s room, the Tailor was taking her measurements. Beside her, another person had their head lowered and was reporting that Dennis was shouting and screaming in his room, declaring that Maria was a fraud through and through.

“Tell him that if he keeps shouting, I’ll throw him into the dungeon and let him scream to his heart’s content,” Maria said expressionlessly.

As soon as she finished speaking, she saw Tu Nan push the door open and enter. A faint smile appeared on her face. “You’re just in time. The Tailor can take your measurements too.”

Tu Nan walked over to the sofa at the side and sat down. She poured herself a cup of black tea, then watched Maria at her leisure.

Taking measurements for clothing was a skilled job, especially for an important day like a coronation. The Tailor’s movements were exceptionally cautious, measuring every detail carefully for fear that the finished garment would not fit.

“No need for me,” Tu Nan said, looking at them. “But there is something else I need your help with.”