Free Web NovelThere’s news?
Vieya was slightly surprised.
Half a year ago, she had asked Anna to help her collect every possible method or ritual related to resurrection. Since then, Anna had found quite a few.
Things like necromantic revival spells, trading with the Reaper said to dwell in the underworld, invoking the Time Dragon for partial temporal reversal, using fragments of memory crystals and alchemical dolls for pseudo-revival, or burying the corpse beneath the Elves’ Tree of Life and waiting for a new sprout to bear fruit...
But every one of those methods had flaws—or their cost was too great to bear.
Those revived by necromancy lacked sanity that could never be restored. The Reaper’s trace had vanished for nearly a thousand years, and his ritual required paying three unknown prices. The Time Dragon? If Vieya wasn’t mistaken, the creature she now sought to revive was precisely the Time Dragon.
As for pseudo-revival through alchemical dolls—completely out of the question, straight to the discard pile.
The Elves’ Tree of Life might work, but Flaviel’s body was missing—and resurrection through that tree would forcibly transform her into a half-elf, stripping away the original power of her demon bloodline.
Summing up all the methods came down to one sentence: they were feasible, but every one came with heavy drawbacks. The only potentially workable one was the Elves’ Tree of Life.
Vieya had written to ask Aislin’s opinion, but Aislin’s response was grim. Every use of the Tree’s resurrection cost it hundreds of years of recovery—an enormous price.
And worse, the Tree of Life had already been used once twenty-odd years ago.
The next time, they would have to wait two hundred years.
Vieya could only sigh. Hope rose in her heart again and again—only to be extinguished each time.
What tormented her most was not the effort itself, but the emptiness after every denial, that gnawing doubt whether anything she did would matter at all. Part of her time, time that should have belonged to her daughter, she kept stealing away for this—was this “perseverance” of hers just self-indulgent sentimentality?
But ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) none of that mattered anymore.
It didn’t matter at all.
After all, she was a slime now—she had more than enough life and time to spend.
As long as she didn’t forget Flaviel, then hope would never disappear.
But now—
Anna had brought new information.
Logically speaking, Anna had been busy these days training Jasmine’s magic. She shouldn’t have had time to moonlight as a detective.
Probably another of those ridiculous folk tales—like making a figurine and stuffing a dead soul into it.
Vieya wasn’t expecting much.
She stood up, glanced at her surprised daughter and the puzzled maids, and said quietly,
“If I don’t come back later, take Jasmine home first. Don’t worry about me.”
“Mom...”
“It’s fine, Jasmine. If I’m not back soon, I’ll bring you a cup of jasmine milk tea tonight,” Vieya said with a small smile.
“......” Jasmine fell silent. She thought her mom was being shameless again—but in a room full of people, no one could do anything about it.
She sighed, placed the shrimp she’d been holding back onto her plate, and said,
“Okay, but be careful, Mom. Come back soon.”
Vieya nodded, turned, and vanished from their sight.
...
The night wind was cool.
A round moon bathed the land in silvery light, while the distant tolling of the convent bell gave the night an almost dreamlike hue.
On the walkway outside the attic, Anna stood overlooking the city she had lived in for years. She hadn’t expected to stay this long—so long that she’d almost forgotten her original dreams.
“What is it? What kind of news is so secret that you had to meet me here?”
Vieya asked softly as she approached, standing beside Anna, both gazing over the moonlit town.
Anna glanced at the pale, graceful figure beside her and asked curiously, almost teasingly,
“I was just thinking—what kind of person could make you so obsessed that you’d spend all this time and effort searching for a way to bring them back?”
She paused, then added, “Is it Jasmine’s father? Or... someone else?”
“I don’t want to answer that for now.” Vieya leaned on the railing and exhaled slowly. “Just tell me—what surprise do you have for me this time?”
“Surprise might be too strong a word.”
Anna leaned her back against the railing, folding her arms like a heroine out of an eastern tale, closing her eyes for a moment as the wind brushed her hair. Her tone was concise. “Do you remember that underground dungeon that appeared a few years ago?”
“I know it...” Vieya gazed at the moon, her eyes distant. “That so-called treasure trove that drew almost every adventurer under the sun. But with the northern war dragging on, most of them left the south, so exploration has been moving painfully slow... Are you saying this has something to do with that dungeon?”
“Whether it does or not isn’t for me to say. That’s for you to decide.” Anna continued, “A few days ago, a party of adventurers cleared the tenth floor. You know how dangerous such expeditions are—the first nine floors were paved with countless lives.”
“But when they reached the tenth floor, they found people who were already dead. And they brought those dead people back to the surface.”
Anna took a breath and went on. “The families of the dead nearly fainted with terror—because those bodies had been cremated, funerals held, priests invited to perform rites. Yet the ones who returned from the dungeon, apart from not remembering what happened inside, were fully functional, alive, and remembered their families.”
“That’s impossible,” said Vieya. “Are you sure your source is reliable?”
“Positive. And since that first ‘dead man’ returned, more have followed—fully intact, resurrected.” Anna’s tone grew low. “The city nearest to that dungeon has gone mad. The people are saying those who came back are ghosts—vengeful spirits more terrifying than monsters.”
“But the families of the dead don’t agree. They think it’s a divine blessing. Even the priests couldn’t declare those people dead anymore.”
“Even the Church couldn’t tell?” Vieya asked.
“Exactly.” Anna spread her hands. “There might be something in that dungeon—something that stands opposite to death itself, or a special kind of energy. Maybe if you threw the corpse you want to revive into it—bam, the corpse would come back to life.”
She smirked, adding with a laugh, “Of course, someone as powerful as you could probably just extract that special energy, bring it out, press it right onto your wife’s body, and—bam—she’s alive again.”
“You came just to make fun of me?” Vieya asked flatly.
“Well, I’ve delivered the message.” Anna chuckled. “Whether you believe it or not is up to you. And anyway, you’re my boss. Without your support and backing, I couldn’t have built up my own little network this fast.”
“So if you do decide to go to that dungeon, let me know ahead of time. I plan to go too—and maybe grab a few resources while I’m at it. Keeping a team fed isn’t cheap, you know.”
Sighing, she pressed her palms together in mock prayer toward Vieya.
“Boss, bless me!”
“Fine. When I have time, I’ll go take a look with you.” Vieya asked, “Anything else?” frёeweɓηovel.coɱ
“Something else?”
At that, Anna suddenly looked awkward. Twirling a small golden braid hanging before her chest, she glanced aside and said sheepishly,
“Um... Boss, could you lend me a little more money?”
