Shadow of the Evil God

Foul smoke, carrying the ghosts of the dead, roamed the land, enveloping them tightly. After the corpse-eaters' lair passed, the remaining blood plasma slowly rose, entangled with the smoke, and eventually merged into the haze floating in the air, forming an unnatural cloud visible to the naked eye.

Cesar took a step back, stretched out his hand, and shattered the twisted figures that were entangled with him. He had just felt himself being swept upwards—these things were about to carry him up into the blood mist that obscured the sky.

Chapter 287 If You Love Me

The twisted figure shattered before quickly closing up not far from Cesar. Then, ignoring him, it ascended into the blood-red clouds, as if the haze of the Ghoul's lair was the final resting place for all dead souls. He saw two humans embracing each other, but he couldn't discern either person's face. He could only see their suspended bodies entwined like two copulating snakes. They clung to each other, coiling and tangling, devoid of bones or form. If they hadn't been clad in human skin, Cesar might have mistaken them for two snakes with human faces.

Cursed souls? What a nightmare scenario.

Nauzog was barely within old Sean's tolerance. If he let the corpse eaters and their nests go, old Sean might ask for his life.

Moreover, Cesar knew that the corpse eaters were looking for him.

He put the dog down on his back and patted her face. The dog hugged his neck and hummed twice, still looking dizzy, just like a real girl.

"What's wrong with you?" Cesar asked her.

"I still feel dizzy. The sensory stimulation is too strong..." she said.

"I'll pick up the pace, maybe even run over different terrains, jump back and forth, and use all four limbs. Can you hold my neck tight?"

"It's a little difficult now, Master!"

"Then tell me something," Cesar said. "Quick."

"Okay, then you open your armor a little and let me in, I..."

Though he couldn't comprehend the meaning of these words, Cesar fumbled to open his breastplate and leaned over her. She slid open like a rope, cupping his face with her fingers and creeping through the armor's openings, like water seeping through a crack. Though she was light and her skin still felt like the same girl, the way she slender limbs burrowed through his armor and wrapped around his body still frightened him.

"Listen up, dog," Cesar said. "I'm going to escape to a place where the blood mist can't reach me, so don't use your limbs to explore around and touch places on my body that shouldn't be touched."

The dog's cheeks also split apart, wrapped around his neck and drilled into the helmet. "I'll try," she said, "but it might be a little difficult."

"Is this considered difficult?"

"Of course!" she said. "If I can easily resist this, why can't you resist the matter of love? Now, master, I am completely in my armor. You can use me as your lining. Try it."

"I can't be one. My clothes don't have countless limbs, and I won't touch places I shouldn't touch. After we escape, you can make trouble all you want, but not now. Don't move anything, just hold on to me. Do you understand?"

"Then after we find a place to stay—"

This guy has absolutely no nerves.

......

Cesar grasped the defenseless head, and with a slight pressure of his fingers, he silently crushed it, feeling like crushing a watermelon. Then he supported the beastman's body and placed it firmly on the ground. He first tied a knot around it with grass branches, making a simple rope that would break soon, and then watched it slide down the edge of the valley, slowly and steadily, tightening the branches.

He calculated the moment for the knot to break and cause it to fall into the valley with a loud noise, then turned and walked away.

Breaking through the corpse-eater's hunting net was indeed easy, for he was surrounded by trenches and tunnels, and the battlefield was filled with corpses and the smell of blood. Avoiding the shaman's sight was also easy, for he carried the invisible assassin's blade, which could hinder any spell's detection and search. But after that, the hunt would return to its most primitive form - using the most ancient and traditional method to search for traces of the prey's escape.

The corpse eaters that arrived weren't just small groups of two or three, but rather a continuous stream of hunting teams. Each team consisted of shamans, flesh puppets, and a large number of corpse eater hunters, with even more hybrid beastmen scattered in all directions acting as their spies. If a hybrid was missing, a shaman would notice, and if a team was missing, more would fill in.

Cesar admitted that he had taken things too lightly beforehand, thinking he still had time to sleep, but now he realized that this was a mistake. Seeing the corpse eaters marching south in large numbers, he presumably assumed that they could not compete with the werewolves in hunting, relying solely on numbers. This was also a mistake.

Indeed, the number of corpse eaters was astonishing, but the strength of different numbers varied. The militia's large numbers meant internal chaos and imminent collapse, but their numbers meant a more complete division of labor and the most thorough pursuit that left no trace.

Throughout this process, simply hiding was meaningless. Creating false traces to conceal the real ones was crucial. Taking the initiative to attack, obscuring his presence with a thick atmosphere of blood and death was even more important. If necessary, he might even emulate those frenzied monsters and tear their corpses apart, scattering them in all directions. This might intimidate the hybrid beastmen to some extent, and in turn disrupt the corpse-eaters themselves.

Cesar suddenly lowered his head, and a poisoned spear passed by where he had just bent his neck. If he had not lowered his head, the paralyzing poison would have been injected into him.

It entered his body, forcing him to choose between sinking his consciousness and giving up his human form. The former would make it impossible for him to maintain lucidity, while the latter would be more extreme and would hinder his human thinking and sanity, and there was no guarantee that he would be able to resolve all external threats.

Having experienced fighting against Nauzog, he would never regard this method as a double-edged sword to win.

Cesar feigned alert, standing still. A moment later, the dog, carrying a hint of blood, leaped from the tree and landed on his outstretched arms. She hugged his neck and licked his face. The reason she stayed on the ground the entire time, clinging to his skin and burrowing into his armor, was, of course, to create the illusion that he was the only one escaping.

He had used this disguise to solve many problems, and this was just the most insignificant one, but...

"Hold me, Master, and kiss me. You promised." She licked the blood from the corner of her mouth and held out her arm to him. Her breath was wet, hot, and filled with urgency. Undoubtedly, this guy had recently caused more slaughter than she had in the entire year before. For the Faceless One, killing always seemed to go hand in hand with desire.

Even though the body was not far away and the darkness of the forest made him feel uncomfortable, he still had to do what he had to do, and he had to do it quickly. To be honest, Cesar was a little anxious. Seeing her pupils dilate, as if blood was oozing out, he didn't want to refuse any longer. He carried her to the tree, tilted her back toward him, and then pulled open their cloaks and pants, plunging deep into her hips.

This guy was naturally very light, but with his powerful thrust, not only did her snow-white buttocks rise high, but his entire body was also lifted high. Her legs dangled in the air, swaying constantly, her feet tensed and connected to her calves in a straight line. Then he raised his hand and slapped her round, perky buttocks.

The crisp sound spread out, and the dog let out a low cry, raising her hips higher and arching them slightly against his palm. A large amount of mucus oozed out from between the two petals, soaking the now abnormal snake.

What size was he now? Cesar had no idea, but the dog looked like a little girl to him. Perhaps he would have to wait until he could catch his breath and see Diana in the wilderness before he could return to his normal size. Until then, he would have to flee like this.

Cesar pushed all the way in, but pressing against the slippery soft flesh at the end wasn't enough. He kept pushing forward, splitting it apart and penetrating deeper, pushing against the dog's belly, causing a large bulge. The two soft pieces of flesh also tightened gently, biting his snake-like body, like the smooth little mouth when he went deep into her throat, wrapping around it and sucking hard.

Fortunately, she was a Faceless One and not a human, otherwise this would have made a human pass out under the tree, let alone get a response. He held his breath for a moment, and responded to her sucking fiercely several times. She hugged the tree trunk and moaned softly, while raising her hips higher against his lower abdomen, her golden hair fluttering behind her neck, brushing against his cheeks and chest like feathers.

Although the dog's back was facing him, its tongue stretched out long and wet, encircling his neck. It then wrapped around his neck completely and came back around. Cesar gradually moved his right hand upwards, cupping her erect breasts and playing with them. They felt plump and smooth, the skin as fat as fat, raised and rounded. He pinched the tips of her breasts with his fingers, pinching the two hardened nipples between his fingers and kneading them vigorously. Then he grasped them and lifted them up, causing them to release a large stream of juice.

Cesar held her buttocks with one hand and turned her around, asking her to face him. He twisted the bead with his fingers, and the juice immediately drew a beautiful line of water and fell into his mouth. The taste was quite sweet and smooth. He held her and caressed her, using her sweet juice to quench his thirst, while thrusting his lower body back and forth in her body.

Soon, her body temperature was rising, and her trembling soft flesh was getting tighter and tighter. Cesar held her buttocks with both hands, spread her tight buttocks, and penetrated it deeper, making her abdomen bulge out a large part.

The dog's buttocks opened softly in his hands, his body throbbing. He felt his entire lower body wrapped tightly around her, squeezing it with wave after wave, demanding release. Cesar suppressed his thoughts and continued to stir inside her. Soon, she poured a stream of warm mucus onto his swollen, unbearable snake head, and the wet, hot, and soft flesh on both sides pressed against him, sweeping from the snake's tail to the snake's body and head, squeezing tightly, and then squeezing again.

Cesar let out a long sigh, feeling like he'd just released the entire supply he'd been accumulating for who knows how many days. Once it had subsided inside her, he leaned against the tree, the creature hanging onto his arm like a koala. Her two moist lips gently closed around him, moving slightly to absorb every last bit of the slime, swallowing it completely. She also licked the snake clean, as if she'd licked it herself.

Gouzi stretched out her arms to hug him tightly, kissing him, wrapping her tongue around and around, practically twisting it into her long, snake-like tongue, savoring it carefully. When his tongue turned bright red, she pulled it back, still licking his face with a hint of unsatisfied feeling, her tongue resting on the edge of her lips, like a puppy. Cesar extended his index finger, and she licked it gently, sucking and licking at his lips.

"Master," she said seriously, "you can also hold me like this, although now

Not yet, but you will definitely want to later. When you held me just now, your arms were just about to break apart, weren't they? I think only then can you truly embrace me. If you loved me, you should hold me tighter, not just briefly like humans do, but give me everything about me..."

Cesar thought of the pair of undead whose deaths were so strange, and he couldn't help but shudder, asking her to stop.

Chapter 288: Advance Cavalry

......

Perhaps because hunting trips were too monotonous, unlike the mountain of tasks he faced in Gural Fortress, Cesar had more opportunities to lapse into confusion. During his escape, he gradually realized that he had never experienced war firsthand, nor had he ever put aside his own gains and losses to view war.

During the defense of Neuen, he was still naive, even young and impetuous, and simply saw it as a test, a life experience different from the past, just like the many tests he had experienced in Neuen. He escaped from Old Thane's castle, fought the White Nightmare at the bottom of the mines, and all of them were just different tests and experiences for him, just like war.

In reality, war is not a test, nor an experience, but a world governed by a different order. This world is utterly different from the one humans inhabit, as different as the wilderness and reality. In this world, morality is new, laws are new, and even the standards for judging good and bad have become completely different. The pits and tunnels that shelter miners and beggars in the city are matters of life and death in war. Killing, while a sin, becomes a criterion for determining a person's status and power.

In their original world, the Corpse Eaters would be terrifying monsters, met with the combined might of humanity. However, in the world of war, the Corpse Eaters are merely a minor nuisance in the midst of the conflict. War itself is the greatest evil, its death and destruction omnipresent. Even if the Corpse Eaters killed every human in their path as they marched south, the suffering and death they caused would be a mere fraction of the war's decades-long consequences.

Even if a beastman shaman sacrificed an entire town of humans just to raise a weakened Navzog, this was just a harmless incident during the advance of the battle line in the civil war of Olidan. The reasons for the war on both sides were simpler and more absurd. Usually, noble officers could not pay their salaries and allowed mercenaries to plunder land, sometimes the land of their enemies, sometimes the land of their allies.

It was still night, and dawn had yet to arrive. Before Cesar could exchange a few words with Diana, the dog shook him awake from the wilderness. Dark and silent, the Faceless Ones had already detected the enemy's presence. Constant danger kept him fleeing westward day and night, and with few places to rest, he couldn't sleep much.

He stood up to survey the landscape, realizing that the natural environment was changing as the road headed west. North of Gural Fortress lay a series of rolling low hills, with winding ridges and steep slopes. Most of them were devoid of greenery. Occasionally, tall grass and shrubs grew among the sheer cliffs and rock crevices, revealing a resilience in despair rather than lush growth.

But the west was different. Everything was green. The forest grew thicker from the fortress toward Clefas, and grass and trees filled every open space in sight. Cesar had just laid in a ruin covered with long grass, lush enough to serve as a bed, surprisingly soft to the touch. If the timing hadn't been wrong, the ancient ruins under the white moon would have been a perfect rendezvous, a place where both of them could sink into the melancholy of love.

Cesar lifted Isri's head and climbed a hill. When he reached the top, he expected to see a group of corpse-eaters hunting, but instead, he saw dozens of flickering fires advancing along a dark road in the distance. Based on their speed, Cesar assumed they were a cavalry unit. They were heading east, toward Fort Gural, the opposite direction from his own.

They were Cleface's advance guard, Cesar thought, there was no other explanation. Just as the army of corpse eaters sent out hybrid beastmen as their advance guard, Cleface also had his own advance guard.

Undoubtedly, the battle line north of Gural Fortress had completely collapsed, and this news had already reached Cleface. Judging from the advance party's position, he had likely already organized his own forces and was about to advance on the fortress. It seemed the old general was undoubtedly hoping to seize the opportunity presented by the fierce battle between the fortress and the corpse eaters to defeat both simultaneously. In this way, he could both destroy the empire's ancient enemy and save Princess Artinia, whom he cherished like a granddaughter, from a desperate situation.

Once this was accomplished, Clephas would guide their princess down a life path that only met his expectations. Artinia would either assist the prince named Trisius in ascending the throne, or accept his assistance and become empress. In either case, it would essentially be a puppet show, with the old general pulling the strings. Ultimately, the empire they would create would not be the Kasar Empire she envisioned, but the Kasar Empire that Clephas envisioned.

Clefas was a man of great faith and conviction. Cesar had clearly told Artinya that if someone spoke passionately about royalty, empire, dignity, and ideals like the old general, distinguishing between self and others with such firm and lofty words, and taking it upon himself to speak for others, people should be extremely wary of him.

Those who hold great faith but never examine themselves, only scrutinizing and judging others, often make disastrous decisions. Precisely because they harbor no self-doubt, they are more eager to search the hearts and minds of others. If they find even the slightest disagreement, they will question it, often leading to bloodshed.

Beneath a firm resolve often lies a sharp knife, and a passionate gaze signifies murder and coercion. Precisely because a person has so many ideals, their beliefs are swelling to the point of exploding, and they frequently relish talking about how they have discarded doubt, they will drag everyone into terror in order to exercise their supreme convictions.

Cesar had always believed that even if people abandoned religion, they would still create various false gods that were not gods in name only, and embrace them like hysterics. Clefus's mission was to force others to love his god according to his demands and in his own way. Anyone who refused would be killed, and anyone who did not fully resemble him would be forced to repent and correct himself. Repentance and correction, of course, meant that those who had made mistakes completely corrected the traits he believed were undesirable after repentance.

Was he exaggerating a bit? Perhaps. He was a skeptic, after all. He considered and examined all ideas, including his own. When he had spoken to the steadfast Sister Kallen, his words had already been tinged with prejudice. Now, after hearing Altinia's description of Clefas, how much more than prejudice was running through his mind?

Chapter 289: Fighting for the Princess

While Cesar hadn't met Clifas yet, he believed he understood him better than anyone who had. Through Artinia's detailed narration, he could fully grasp his authoritative presence and unwavering demeanor. He could even see things she couldn't, the dark side lurking beneath Clifas's surface.

He spent some time on the hilltop, watching Cleface's cavalry vanguard march eastward, approaching the Corpse Eaters' hunting party. He knew there was more than one vanguard, and even if most of the cavalry would fall into the Corpse Eaters' nets, some would always return with intelligence. They would relay their observations, informing Cleface that the Corpse Eaters had detached a force marching westward.

If Cesar were Cleface, he would have reconsidered the reasoning behind the division of the corpse-eaters. If he could capture one, he could question whether they were hunting a specific target. This meant that his presence would be exposed sooner or later. Of course, he knew he would inevitably be spotted by both sides; it was only a matter of time. If the situation became stalemated, he would try to muddy the waters until one side declared war. If the two sides engaged in a fierce battle, he might even resort to more drastic measures, perhaps removing some obstructing elements to maintain balance.

When he set out again, he saw a flash of blood in the distance, right in the path of the cavalry. It must be the corpse eaters and their flesh puppets. Even though Cesar had been running for a long time, they had maintained a constant distance between them, never falling behind. The wasteland was simply too vast, and because of this, the escape there lacked the suffocating and urgent feeling of recent days.

For Cesar, the hunt was a unique experience unlike any he had ever had before. Perhaps it was these different life experiences that made him the Cesar he is today—the many tangible feelings and thoughts that existed in his soul told him that there was always something he had not experienced, and there was always something he had not yet examined or considered.

He believed that if people were always satisfied with their existing beliefs and were always immersed in the past, the thoughts in their souls would easily turn into dogmas. In the end, it would not be their souls that would be sublimated, but only the thoughts that became dogmas and dominated their behavior.

In the distance, flames flickered, the air filled with blood, as if a battle was underway. Although Cesar was surrounded by the most outliers, and although Altinia had initially been a typical fanatic, like a young, feminine Clifas, in his eyes, Gouzi was still young, and Altinia was also young. They both had hope for change, and they were both listening to his words and making their own choices.

With this in mind, Cesar would not hand them over. He would especially not hand the princess over to Clefas to see her become what Clefas hoped she would become—or perhaps what she would have become.

He continued forward, eyes wide open after sleeping for less than half an hour in days, feeling the pale moonlight and sunlight alternate, washing over his weathered armor. Cesar couldn't explain the complex mix of emotions he felt for Altinia. With Diana, love and dependence were paramount, but with Altinia, his feelings were so complex that every time he was with her, he had to repeatedly weigh his actions against their consequences.

The impact of tutoring this unpredictable princess on him was unimaginably profound. The inherent responsibility and pressure had completely eroded his desire to find another student. So far, Altinya had already influenced his decisions and even the trajectory of his life. Of course, it could also be said that all of them, in their own ways, supported her path to the throne.

It was her path, not a path that Cliffords had marked out for her and forced her to follow.

Why was he thinking of Cleface again? Cesar thought he must be crazy, but the longer he thought about it, the more he realized that his attitude toward Cleface went beyond hostility on both sides of the war. During his teaching, he repeatedly emphasized to Artinia that Cleface's actions were madness, and each time she would outline the old general's actions in greater detail, asking him what exactly was wrong and what aspects needed more careful consideration.

At such times, her attitude was always serious, making him think that she was just describing the faces and outlines of the other side of the war, but things seemed to be more than that.

Indeed, with the approaching war, Cesar's teachings to Artinia had long been too urgent, lacking deeper reflection. He had never considered Cleface a teacher, believing he was merely oppressing the poor creatures with his fanatical beliefs, creating souls that lingered under immense burdens and pressure. But even in thinking this way, he subconsciously rejected the fact that Cleface's teachings were indeed effective.

The prince rumored to be marrying a relative of Artinia, Trisius, wasn't actually Cesar's competitor; old Clephas was. Without Clephas's scheme, this blood marriage was nothing. In other words, the prince was merely an accessory, an insignificant bargaining chip, used by Clephas solely for bargaining purposes.

This idea is very strange, but when you think about it carefully, it is quite reasonable. It plays a decisive role in the battle for Altiniya.

It wasn't about personal feelings, but rather what kind of emperor a person wanted to be and what kind of position they wanted to hold. Undoubtedly, Artinia was very similar to Clefas. She was a fanatic like Clefas, well-versed in history and military affairs, and she held a profound belief in the survival of the empire.

If Artinia was Clefas's granddaughter, she would have taken control of all of Clefas's troops by now, and might even be leading them south.

However, she wasn't. Therefore, under Clefas's leverage, she betrayed the chancellor and traveled south to Domini to study military theory. If nothing unexpected had happened, she would have most likely accepted Clefas's offer of assistance and inherited his army and territory through a blood marriage. For a political being, maintaining military power was paramount; minor personal relationships were of little consequence.

As a result, she met Cesar first, and that changed things.

Artinia's faith, once as resolute as Clefas', had subtly shifted, all because of him, because of Cesar. It was clear that the princess had two faces: one externally, always gentle and calm, with an elusive smile; the other, deep within, though less forthright, held her own beliefs, capable of maintaining a consistent firmness.

But lately, her inner face seemed to have changed, becoming less stable. Alternating thoughts tugged at her soul, tangling and twisting it, and this was reflected in her outward appearance in her gleaming eyes and her focused gaze, which fixed on Cesar's face as if to penetrate his pupils and penetrate deep into his bones.

Every statement Artinia made to Clefas was a veiled statement about herself—that she might be just as resolute, just as calculating, just as oppressive to her own blood relatives, just as indoctrinated to bring her children to live under the weight and burden of terror. Why not? When she said the outcome didn't seem to be any bad, she was saying just that.

He had led her to peel off her skin, remove her heart, and place it under the sun, judging her every thought and examining her every beat. The impact of this on a person was unimaginable, and César was the one who had such a profound effect on her. What did he symbolize to this soul undergoing such a sudden transformation? He couldn't explain it, but it was certainly not simple admiration.

If Cesar had followed Clefas's example and given Artinia another firm belief to worship, the feelings between them might have been simple admiration, but unfortunately, he did not. He let Artinia think for herself after she had experienced sufficient self-doubt and self-examination, and perhaps this was the problem.

The gentler and calmer her expression, the more difficult it was to guess what was stored in her soul. She had stretched out her hand to him on the couch and held his neck lightly, a small gesture that already had a profound meaning.

They both needed this war around Gural Fortress. Artinia needed to defeat Cleface and everything he represented before she could move on from her past beliefs and take the crucial step. Cesar also needed to sideline the old general and his ideals, ensuring that Cleface could no longer interfere with the princess, and that he was the only one who could guide her path.

In this way, she would not do anything wrong. Even if she did do something wrong, he would have enough time to help her make amends and would not have to watch her walk step by step into the abyss.

It seems that he is the one who has the most personal emotions mixed in with this war, not anyone else, but himself.

Over the next few days, the advance party sent by Cleface gradually grew in size, and Cesar realized he had crossed the wilderness and reached the border of the old general's territory. The corpse-eaters' hunting parties continued to advance westward, and all the advance parties sent to gather intelligence had become nothing more than corpses, unable to return any information. Cleface must have been puzzled as to what had gone wrong, but it didn't matter. Soon, it would be him and his army that would encounter the corpse-eaters. When the battle lines became so tight that they could no longer be easily separated, it would be time for him to withdraw from the battlefield and return to the fortress.

The real test will then come.

Chapter 290 School War

......

Once all the conditions were met, the beginnings of a school war would also emerge. Secular forces controlling the military, the name of the temple, and a secular war that could allow enough secular people to serve as cannon fodder—no doubt, they all met, Diana thought, and this was why her school had finally come to them.

Is there any place less human than the Yestren School? The Ghoul's Lair is certainly one, and maybe the Shisai School as well.

The meeting took place in the alderman's residence in Sodoris, but it was now a hospital. The once lavishly decorated banquet hall had been emptied out, its expensive furnishings sold, including the long banquet table, made of luxurious wood, which also fetched a considerable sum. The entire hall had been transformed into a vast treatment room, separated by a series of curtains and beds.

Diana glanced at the banquet hall filled with patients and tried to imagine how the local nobles once danced there, but she couldn't. The entire treatment room was filled with the stench of disease and the acrid smell of alcohol. Temple monks wearing masks came and went, discussing a series of diseases that were suspected to have spread from the corpse-eaters and hybrid beastmen to the human casualties.

As for where the wounded came from, it was naturally the donkey cart that Cesar helped Brother Miles transport on the northern front.

Delving deeper into these relatively recent epidemics and developing targeted preventative medications is part of the war effort, though it won't be overtly evident. Cesar said that some decisions have far-reaching consequences that manifest over time, beyond their initial apparent effects. Sodoris appears to be one of them.

First, it was just a unhappy Brother Levita, then a town where the local nobles and alderman's family completely withdrew, and then the Shawl Society intervened in a big way. Seeing that the Temple of Hiel expressed support, her school finally sent personnel to discuss the activities of the School of Hesay in Clefas.

Diana walked down the spiral staircase, around a corridor, and arrived at the highest point of the alderman's residence. She paused for a moment, waiting until she had overcome her discomfort before pushing the door open and entering. Today, this place is a newly built, elementary library, but before the alderman family fell, it was a place of pleasure with an unusually subtle reputation.

That very evening the alderman gave a banquet for his guests, and according to the soldiers who broke in, there were not only members of the alderman's family and their guests, but also more than forty handsome men and beautiful women who were brought by the guests and the host. They closed the shutters tightly, locked the door, and removed the huge gold and silver candlesticks from the table, forming a rather elaborate artistic composition on the floor.

Although the guests inside were frightened when the soldiers broke in and did not continue their actions, according to the banker Loretha, a middle-aged woman who was a frequent visitor to the alderman's family and brought the male favorite with her to attend the alderman's banquet, and she was even arrested there, they would sit at the dining table, drink and enjoy themselves, and throw apples at the more than 40 young men and women on the ground.

Young handsome men and beautiful women, either completely naked or wearing the scantiest pieces of cloth, crawled on all fours between the gold and silver candlesticks, picking up apples thrown by guests and hosts, fighting with each other like dogs, falling to the ground, laughing after grabbing an apple, or screaming when someone else snatched an apple.

Before long, a mass of naked handsome men and beautiful women would be embracing and writhing at the feet of the guests. The candlelight would illuminate the bodies, carefully selected from around the world, looking like a dream: some dark, some white, some even tinged with pink.

When she'd first mentioned this, the portly, middle-aged banker had been as cheerful as a child. She'd said that after spending enough time there, people stopped caring about gender, because both men and women were so handsome and beautiful that, in their trance, it wasn't worth worrying about. Some elderly aristocrats, unable to use their own sex, were keen to have young, handsome men enter their bodies through their backdoors, calling the objects that entered their decaying bodies "delicate, lively little birds."

At the end of the banquet, the guests would send out their strongest knights to each choose a pet of either sex to have sex with. The knight who emerged victorious, whose pet remained standing, would receive a reward carefully prepared by the alderman and receive unanimous praise from all the guests.

They called these contests the Knightly Games of Sodoris, and they enjoyed them very much.

Diana's face darkened the more she listened that day, but Altinya, on the other hand, was quite at ease. Not only did she listen to Rolisa's story to the end, but she also wrote a note afterwards, saying, "As the ancients said, within each of us lies the divine and the beast, tightly bound together in chains. If we turn forward, we will strangle our own souls; if we turn backward, we will become like those mad beastmen of the north."