Witch, Fireball and Steam Evil God

Chapter 171 Lord of the Tide
"We are gathered here today to discuss the Deep Sea Council and the commission issued by VIP client Mr. Yug. He has recently encountered some strange experiences."

At the long-awaited senior management meeting of the Laosen Magic Technology Store, Ethan gave a speech first, pointing out the central topic of the meeting.

"Until then, I think there is a more worthy issue to discuss."

Rowena pointed at the white ragdoll cat on Ethan's shoulder and said with full fire, "Can you first explain why she turned into a cat again?"

As Winter's former partner, she knew that turning into a cat was a means of hiding her identity, and few people would pay attention to cats. But now that the charges against her as a member of the Violet Commune have been dropped, Winter is no longer the empire's most wanted criminal, and there is no need for her to turn into a cat again.

What's worse, after the cat came into the house, it curled up on Ethan's shoulder, looking listless.

The bad premonition is gradually being confirmed.

This made Rowena extremely sad. She didn't expect that even though she had been on high alert for so long, Winter still took advantage of the opportunity and broke the last layer of window unexpectedly while they were out for dinner.

"Rowena, you still haven't let it go?"

Bi'an continued that she was not surprised by this, and even felt that this day had come a little too late. Although she had never had such an experience, she had participated in many weddings of her subordinates. With the straightforward style of knights, they would usually go straight to the point within three days of confirming their affection for each other.

It's human nature, there's nothing to hide.

However, Rowena always looked so surprised that she was very confused. "Why do you react so strongly every time? Could it be that you are actually..."

At this point, Bi'an was suddenly stunned.

She had heard of such situations in the imperial capital. The chaotic private lives of the great nobles had long been the norm, and it was said that each one was more extravagant than the other. In this regard, she could only respect them.

"In that case, I don't have to hide it anymore."

Rowena's heart was set on fire, and her face darkened. "I lied to you about one thing and kept you in the dark. In fact, I've had dozens of love experiences, and they were all fake... What's with that expression on your face?"

……

The room was dead silent. Everyone avoided looking at Rowena. Even the golden hair on Ivy's head couldn't bear to look any longer. Rowena's desperate attitude made them feel inexplicably sad.

Only Rowena thought she had cleverly fooled everyone.

Even Bi'an, who usually doesn't care about such things, had already seen through Rowena's lies.

"Well, well, there is such a thing."

Ethan covered his eyes and said, with him taking the lead, Ivy and Bi'an both echoed him in a calm tone.

"I really didn't expect that."

"I was totally fooled by you."

Rowena's face glowed with relief. She said, "So, you should understand how I feel all along, right?"

"So, you've always had a crush on Winter?"

The other side asked doubtfully.

Hearing this, the cat with its head drooped suddenly raised its tail in shock and shrank into Ethan's arms in fear.

"how could it be possible!"

Rowena crossed her arms and said in a matter-of-fact tone, "I mean the feeling of seeing your friends making money is more painful than losing money yourself. I knew from the first day I met Lin Dong that she and I were the type who couldn't get married. But I didn't expect it, I never expected it!"

Her tone became more and more excited, and her body began to tremble slightly.

This girl doesn't even try to hide her jealousy!
Ivy was also shocked. In the imperial capital, even the most jealous noble ladies would often wish each other happiness on the surface, and then curse them in a corner where no one could see.

"In fact, you have a pretty good image, and you're a great mage, so there should be a lot of people pursuing you, right?"

Ethan: This is the truth.

Even when Rowena doesn't speak, she is still very charming. As long as she wants, she will never end up being single for the rest of her life.

"It's too much trouble. If you are alone, you can spend your own money, go wherever you want, and buy whatever you want."

Rowena said, "I am committed to spreading these positive ideas to everyone, but Winter betrayed me... As expected, betrayal from a companion is the most devastating."

“Who wants to accept your weird ideas?”

Lin Dong felt that Rowena had been talking so much, but in fact she just deserved a beating. This twisted mentality was easy to cure. She could just use ice arrows to hit Rowena a few times and she would be obedient.

But today... she was not feeling well. She had been feeling weak since leaving the palace, so she simply turned into a cat and let Ethan carry her.

"Rowena." Maomao's voice sounded chilling, as if she had suddenly turned back into the witch who killed people without blinking an eye. She half-closed her eyes and stared at Rowena. "Do you think I'm too good-tempered recently? If I don't prick you for three days, you'll be furious?"

"I think we should start the discussion from the current situation in the Western Continent."

Rowena coughed lightly, sat up straight, and immediately became as well-behaved as a model student in the academy.

Yes, the familiar feeling is back.

She knew that Winter was a very active person. When he said he would stab you, he did it without any ambiguity. Moreover... she actually felt that Winter's threat made sense. Ever since she went to Riverwood Town and met Ethan, her temper had improved a lot, so much so that it was a little difficult for people to get used to it.

If it was the winter before the Riverwood version, she would have started playing the ice hedgehog a long time ago.

Rowena's sense of crisis sounded an early warning, reminding her that it was time to change the subject.

Maomao glanced at Rowena and decided to let her go. She said, "The situation in the Western Continent is different from that in the Empire. There is only one path of faith. They are extremely xenophobic and do not welcome believers from any other paths to preach in their country. The Church has proposed to build a church in the Western Continent many times, but was rejected by the Deep Sea Council. There, using the power of other paths will be treated coldly, and even expelled in some cities."

In the Empire, even the most power-hungry Church will not openly exclude extraordinary people from other paths. In order to win people's hearts, the Church will even openly support some weak extraordinary forces. For example, the believers of the Hunting Goddess in the Hunter Guild of each city can get free treatment in the church after being injured while performing a mission.

"According to the classification drawn by the Empire, the Lord of Tides is listed among the true gods. It is said that He once solved the world-destroying flood and saved the Western Continent from sinking. However, the Deep Sea Council does not seem to accept the classification strategy. Apart from the Lord of Tides, they do not recognize any true gods or middle gods."

Winter participated in several talks when he was in the Council of Seven. "At that time, the Church and the Deep Sea Council had a very unhappy relationship because of the issue of faith. Representatives of both sides praised and criticized each other in diplomatic occasions, which also led to the closer relationship between the Lophik Consortium and the Deep Sea Council. Later, all diplomatic meetings were coordinated by representatives of the consortium."

The Deep Sea Council believes that the Empire's faith, represented by the Holy See, is decadent and backward. They only admire the Empire's military industry and hope that the diplomatic relations between the two sides can remain at the basic level of trade.

Bi'an asked curiously, "So, they also have a church there?"

"The Western Continent does not need a church-like organization. All the people living there are believers of the Lord of Tides. However, 'faith' belongs to our terminology. The people of the Western Continent never talk about faith. They believe that medicine, law, navigation, and steam technology are all the seeds of civilization, and the Lord of Tides is the founder of this civilization."

Mao Mao turned over in Ethan's arms, lying on his back, and changed to a comfortable position. "Yuge was grounded, probably because the Deep Sea Council thought he had learned the dregs of the Empire."

A mysterious nightmare, falling into the deep sea, a monster that lives in the depths of the ocean, about to awaken.

If we add the evil god, all the scenes described by Yuge seem to use the narrative style of the Eastern Continent Church. "Plus the ice arrow scrolls you sold him. I heard that he used those scrolls to solve many crises of sea monster invasions in coastal cities. This may make the parliament feel that he has been brainwashed by the empire."

The warriors of the Western Continent should have used steam technology, boarded warships, and fought sea monsters with cannons instead of releasing a large ice spike on the ocean.

Maomao thought for a moment and said, "Maybe you can get along with them. At least no one there will treat you like a god."

Ethan tried very hard to change the people's views of him in the imperial capital, but in Winter's opinion, the results were minimal.

The "Great Plan" corresponds to the holy scriptures of the Church. The Supreme Being is just a different name for the gods; there is essentially no difference.

Their greatest contribution was to abolish the Vatican's right to interpret all mystical matters, allowing organizations such as the Craftsmen's Guild to develop freely.

Deep-rooted ideas cannot be changed overnight. "But if we leave it alone, if the one giving Yug nightmares is an evil god, he will probably have an octopus face the next time we meet."

Now it seems that it's not just Lao Ba who has problems. Lin Dong feels that the aesthetics of all evil gods are a bit strange, and they only like elements like tentacles.

"So, how about a trip to the Western Continent?"

Ivy suddenly suggested, "The cabinet can send a team in the name of diplomacy. If you can see the steam technology with your own eyes, it may be inspiring."

Facing the impending doomsday, the residents of the Western Continent and steam technology may be able to become an important help, "but you have to be mentally prepared. It may not be easy to convince the people of the Western Continent that the evil god is about to revive."

Ivy felt that Ethan was probably the only one who could do this.

The people of the Western Continent would never buy into those vague concepts. If one wanted to convince them, one had to use the standards of the "objective world" to explain to them the principle of the existence of evil gods.

..............................

At the same time, in a not very spacious room, a man in a windbreaker was sitting opposite Yuge.

There was only one table in the room, which looked like an interrogation room.

This was not the first time Yug had come here and been subjected to the same interrogation.

The man was wearing a pair of gold-rimmed glasses and glanced down at the documents on the table.

Lily was waiting outside anxiously, pacing back and forth with her fists clenched.

This is the third psychological assessment, which will directly determine whether Master Yuge's house arrest will continue. The master's attitude is very simple - when Yuge can pass the parliament's assessment, he will regain his freedom.

As the chairman of the Deep Sea Council, he hopes that his son can abandon those unrealistic fantasies.

"Yuug, tell me about your nightmare."

It's the same opening line again.

Yuger still gave the same answer.

The man compared every detail and after routine confirmation, he suddenly said, "You may want to know this news. This morning, the patrol fleet sent by the Speaker returned to the port. They...didn't find anything unusual."

Hearing this, Yuge was stunned.

He didn't expect that his father would eventually send out a patrol fleet to verify the nightmare he had described.

However, even he could not determine the sinking direction.

Once the coordinates were lost, the ship would be completely lost on the sea. Although Yug wanted to see more clearly during each descent, all he could see was the endless sea.

The man added, "At least, it's not within our territorial waters."

This was enough to prove that Yuge was suffering from paranoia. He flipped open the first sheet of information and said, "These are your diagnosis results. Your doctor believes that you have a mental illness similar to sailing syndrome. Although this is not common in patients who have been sailing since childhood, it cannot be completely ruled out."

The man was well prepared and he had marked out all the important criteria for judging.

Everyone thought that Yug was ill and might never sail again.

The reason why such conversations took place three times was because Yuge was unwilling to accept the fact that he was ill and refused further treatment.

The man said, "This is my guess. The nightmare first appeared after you were forced to undergo a psychological evaluation. The result of that evaluation was terrible. The diagnostician believed that you were very ill and needed long-term drug-assisted treatment, but this could only alleviate your symptoms. Once you received treatment, it would be almost impossible for you to sail again.

"This is cruel for a man who loves adventure, so in order to fight against such an outcome, you imagined a monster that didn't actually exist and promoted the theory that a disaster was about to happen. But you know what I think is more cruel? You ignored your own mental state and took your crew members to die together."

There are many such cases.

The captain, who suffered from navigation syndrome, went mad during the voyage, and in panic caused the voyage to deviate from the course, taking the entire crew with him to their death.

In the eyes of others, Yuge was such a crazy captain who was trying to force his way to the nightmare sea area in such an unstable mental state.

"Yuger, let me tell you one more thing."

The man straightened up, his eyes as sharp as a hawk. "The reason you failed to sail successfully is because your crew reported you. They also believed that your mental state was not suitable for leading them on the voyage. I shouldn't have told you this, but after reading your medical records, I realized that concealing the whereabouts of the Glorious Sailor made your condition worse. You seemed to think this was a conspiracy against you."

He took out a mirror and placed it in front of Yug.

Although his hair and clothes were properly taken care of by the servants before he went out, it could not hide his pale face. His mental state was very bad and he looked like he had aged by ten years in an instant.

But that's not the worst.

Yug discovered that the image in the mirror had changed.

Black ink flowed from the corners of his eyes, black lines appeared under his pale skin, his face was stretched very long, and then tiny tentacles emerged from his mouth.

Yuge subconsciously put his finger on the corner of his eye where ink was flowing, but then he realized something and his whole body froze.

"Your maid said that you haven't been willing to look in the mirror for a long time."

The man said, "Can you tell me what you saw in the mirror? There was something left in the corner of your eye, was it blood? You should know that nightmares cannot reflect reality, unless there is a serious problem with your mental and cognitive state... Yug, don't you understand? We are all helping you, but you keep pushing away those who are helping you."

There is no need to continue this evaluation.

Yug's symptoms were so serious that they were obvious, and as the third evaluator, the man decided to communicate the matter directly with the Speaker. He did not think that the patient's opinion should be followed in this state.

Patients at this stage are often extremely mentally unstable, often accompanied by strong hallucinations, until they can no longer distinguish between fantasy and reality.

"You don't have much time left, Yug."

Yuge was a little dazed. He clearly saw that the skin of the man sitting opposite him turned blue, his mouth turned into wriggling tentacles, and the language he spoke became chaotic. It was a language he had never heard of before.

Cracks appeared in the walls of the assessment room, and turbid water seeped into the room through the cracks, increasing in volume until it completely submerged them.

Yuge closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths. When he opened his eyes again, the man had returned to normal.

"This may be your last chance, before it's too late."

……

Another bad evaluation, much worse than the last one.

Lily followed behind Yuge, and after hesitating for a long time, she whispered, "Master, even if you can't go to sea again, you can still do a lot of things, such as studying steam technology. Weren't you also very interested in those machines when you were a child? I have read some legal books myself, which are actually quite interesting."

"Lily."

Yuge suddenly stopped and turned his head. He seemed to see Lily standing in the water with something wrapped around her ankle. "Do you think I'm sick too?"

This was the first time he asked the other person this.

There was a long silence in response to Yug.

"Master."

Lily lowered her head as if she had done something wrong, "I just want you to be healthy and happy."

(End of this chapter)