Starting with the defeated female knight

Even the most power-hungry person would feel their scalp tingle if they came.

This is a hopeless quagmire.

Everyone is falling, everyone is clinging to each other, everyone is hating each other, everyone is suffering from each other.

Cynthia is the one standing on the shore.

Her exceptional lineage qualified her to transcend the mire, and her excellent education allowed her to clearly understand what was happening in the empire.

But she can't do anything.

If she could, she would also like to reach out and help those people in the swamp.

But the problem is, as mentioned earlier, the people in the swamp are entangled with each other, hate each other, form a whole, and even drag each other down those who seem to be able to be saved.

As a member of the highest-ranking royal family, she certainly has the ability to lift up one, or even many, people.

But she couldn't pull everyone together.

It is even less capable of lifting up this empire that is already mired in a quagmire.

The more awake you are, the more painful it is; the stronger you are, the more powerless you feel.

It's true that I don't want to be a queen.

But if she really doesn't want to be in that position, she can simply refuse or leave early, and no one can stop her.

Unfortunately, she wasn't the type of person who could completely detach herself from things.

Or rather, if that were the case, she wouldn't have been chosen by the old king and cultivated so diligently.

So, it was destined.

As a princess, as a queen.

She was destined to perish along with the empire.

They see no hope and are forever trapped in a quagmire of suffering.

Therefore, she is used to being indifferent, she is used to being silent, and she does not like to interact with other people.

Because she knew that if she touched it, the hands in the swamp would drag her down with her.

Pain and ruin are secondary; if she loses the right to stand on the shore, she will never be able to pull the empire back up.

Even so, she didn't really know what to do.

After all, her hands were too small, and the empire was so vast, and the swamp so deep.

Even though she was still standing on the shore, she could only watch helplessly as the empire continued to fall.

At the same time, she alone experiences her own share of sober, conscious pain stemming from responsibility and blood ties.

There is no happiness in empires.

Everyone has their own suffering.

Even the most noble princesses are no exception.

Until that day, she saw that the amazing Henry had started his antics again.

He captured and collected the royal children, then asked her if she wanted to go with him, saying he could take her to a good place.

Weird.

Even for a genius like Henry, this behavior was bizarrely excessive.

So, out of curiosity and also out of caution, she went to the tentacle cave.

Then, the princess saw the tentacles.

Then, the story begins.

From suspicion and vigilance, to gradually letting down one's guard.

From unfamiliarity and resistance, to familiarity and even joking around.

Especially after seeing the changes in those children, especially after figuring out what the tentacles were doing, and especially after thinking about what impact these things would have on the future of the empire.

It's like a child standing on the edge of a swamp, watching people sinking into it and crying helplessly.

A passing tentacle crawled over, and after figuring out the situation, it stretched its tentacle into the swamp.

Then, under the child's gaze, he continued to exert force.

And then, they really did uncover those things little by little, gradually realizing the miracles that the child thought were impossible.

Finally, the child stopped crying.

So the child grasped the tentacle.

Trying to pull with him, they managed to lift the things out of the swamp.

And that's what was happening inside the Tentacle Cave at that time.

But if that's all there is to it...

The silver moon hanging high in the sky might grasp the tentacles, but it won't necessarily plunge you into the abyss.

What truly plunged Silvermoon into the abyss was the devouring of her by the tentacles.

Because of her identity and position, Silvermoon not only suffers, but is also lonely.

The old king did value her highly, but he regarded her more as his heir, or even as a tool to save the empire.

Although Henry could be trusted to some extent, he was a complete idiot, and the two didn't actually have much of a relationship; they hadn't even met many times.

As for the others, they were scattered about, some revering her like a silver moon in the sky, some wanting to support her and profit from it, some seeing her as the hope to save the empire, or perhaps some other reason...

But to Tentacles, she was his friend, his child, and his headmistress.

He would bring her along to class, joke with her, and give her a pair of glasses so she could wear them and pretend to be a little adult.

He would care for her like a child, pay attention to her situation rather than using her as a tool, and even visibly resolve the empire's problems.

Those are truly cunning tentacles.

First, it relieved her of the heavy burden on her shoulders, and then it touched the softest part of her heart.

Then he probed into the cracks in her soul, thereby delving into her heart.

Even during that chaotic battle between gods and humans before.

The other person stayed by her side, silently watching her, and providing assistance in a discreet manner when needed.

That was the first time she had ever experienced that feeling.

Is it love?

No, it's peace of mind.

There is also a strong sense of dependence.

The pure silver moon has fallen.

After being entangled by the tentacles in a despicable manner, she was torn down from the sky, her mouth opened wide, and she was swallowed whole.

Lazy? Averse to trouble? Don't want to be a queen?

To say there isn't is indeed impossible.

But given the current situation, wouldn't she be able to do the same thing if she just stayed quietly in the capital?

So actually, Tentacle misjudged one thing.

Or rather, they deliberately avoided this matter.

That means the reason someone went to Dawn City wasn't just to skip work.

More importantly, it's for a certain tentacle.

She came specifically for Green.

The excuses about not wanting to be a queen and being afraid of trouble are actually more like just that.

As for his self-disclosure after meeting the other three?

In the past, she would only show her imperfections, or even aspects that deviated from the image of Silvermoon, to Green.

But now, after entering the cathedral.

Based on the information gathered beforehand, and the observations made after entering the premises.

She realized that everyone here was "one of us," or at the very least, "one of us."

What should we put there?

Instead of going through all that polite talk and beating around the bush, it's better to just get straight to the point.

And clearly, her judgment was correct.

Even until she revealed it, the three people opposite her were still quite restrained because they had just met and were not very familiar with each other.

Even Aurora's "whoosh" sounds have decreased significantly.

But after the silver top stopped spinning.

Aurora blinked, looked at the tentacles beside her, and breathed warmly.

"So, you get that kind of treatment just by being a slave to the seedbed? Then I..."

It's okay, you don't need to.

After the treatment is over, you'll have a lot to suffer.

"Whew, I'm really looking forward to it..."

Faced with Aurora's strange words and actions, Grace tilted her head and chuckled.

Even the blood-red ocean in his eyes rippled slightly.

"Miss Aurora seems quite proactive."

"I should have brought my older sister along. She's great in every way, except she's not very good at acting cute with adults. She should really learn from Miss Aurora..."

After the Silver Moon began, both the Howling Monster and the Crimson Monster shed their disguises.

However, after the three of them revealed their feelings one after another.

They noticed that the girl who had been pulled over by the tentacles to greet them, supposedly one of the cathedral's managers, seemed somewhat embarrassed and blushed.

Upon realizing this, they all paused for a moment.

A little bit of unease also arose in my heart.

Wait, could it be that they misjudged something?

Could it be that this child, or this place, isn't...?

"Um... I'm not very good at this kind of topic."

Eve was telling the truth.

While she was indeed terrible in some ways, surprisingly, in other ways, Eve was abnormally normal.

Coupled with that harmless appearance, it's indeed hard for people to associate it with anything in particular.

Fortunately, she quickly added, "I don't usually get involved when people talk about these things," which relieved the other three.

It turns out this child is just naive...

They thought.

Then, out of consideration for Eve, he took the initiative to change the subject and started talking about other things.

As they chatted, it became clear that the three of them genuinely treated Eve like a clueless child.

One of the tentacles was starting to give way.

Seriously, why don't you guys form a band?

If something goes wrong like this, you can still say it was just something you did while playing in a band.

"A band?"

A huge bird's head poked out.

"Garman...Sir, would you...like to form a band?"