Seeing Marianne suddenly appear, Celitia immediately became nervous.

"Where's Sophia?" Celitia desperately looked behind Marianne. "Did she come too?"

"No, don't be nervous," Gorman comforted her. "Sophia isn't here."

Completely ignoring what they were saying, Marianne's eyes held only Celitia.

She stumbled forward two steps, her voice full of trembling: "Celitia?"

It seemed Marianne had heard most of their conversation.

Celitia silently looked at Marianne.

If these eyes came from demonic inheritance, then this light gray long hair might come from her mother's genetics.

This was the bloodline this body couldn't abandon.

"Your Majesty the Queen...?" Celitia finally called out to Marianne.

Hearing her call, Marianne, who had been frozen in place, was immediately awakened.

Marianne rushed over without hesitation and hugged Celitia tightly.

"Celitia... my daughter..."

She cried and laughed, holding Celitia tightly like holding a treasure that had been lost and found again, unwilling to let go for a long time.

While Celitia's hands remained stiff, hanging at her sides, motionless.

Feeling the trembling of the woman before her, Celitia finally raised her hands and slowly hugged her back.

She still remembered that warm scent like a mother's that she had felt from Marianne back then.

What she had thought was an impossible dream had somehow become reality one day.

But she couldn't indulge in it.

No matter what, she couldn't indulge.

After Marianne had cried enough while holding her, Celitia slowly spoke:

"I'm very sorry, Your Majesty. Could you promise me not to tell Sophia about all this?"

"Even at this point, are you still only thinking about Sophia?"

Marianne glared at her through tear-filled eyes. "All these years, you've suffered so much injustice. Don't you care? Don't you want to clear your name?"

"There's no injustice. All that is in the past, and I'm living well now."

Celitia insisted, "Besides, this isn't just for Sophia, but for myself as well."

She and Sophia had just reached a new stage in their relationship.

Celitia absolutely didn't want any incidents to occur that would disrupt their relationship.

Now, the only thing Celitia was grateful for was that she and Sophia had no blood relation.

As long as they could keep this matter secret, everything would be fine, right?

These words left Marianne helpless: "Child, why are you still so stubborn?"

Celitia didn't respond: "Will Your Majesty the King and Queen agree to this request of mine?"

"Do you plan to keep hiding this forever?" Gorman asked.

Celitia glanced at Gorman coolly: "The one who's been hiding things all along is clearly Your Majesty yourself."

As soon as she said this, Gorman immediately became embarrassed, looking carefully at Marianne.

"Did you hear all of our conversation just now?"

"Yes, though it looks like you weren't planning to keep hiding it anyway."

Marianne's smile was slightly dangerous. "Right now, you're not even bothering with disguises anymore."

"Actually, it's nothing much. My mother was a genuine princess of the previous generation, and my father was a demon whose whereabouts were uncertain."

Gorman awkwardly touched his head, his tone weakening somewhat, finally not so righteous.

"Hiding it from you all was mainly because I was worried about getting you involved in trouble."

"And now you're not hiding it anymore?" Marianne asked.

"Because things have gotten a bit out of control." Gorman smiled bitterly. "If I keep hiding it, I might get you all involved in even bigger trouble."

"What trouble?" Marianne began to worry.

Gorman didn't answer her immediately, but turned to Celitia, who remained silent, his tone very serious.

"I maintain my viewpoint, Celitia. I believe that hiding the truth from Sophia alone is not good for her."

At this point, Gorman did soften his tone somewhat.

"But I can agree to your request. After all, these matters have nothing to do with Sophia, and I don't want her involved in trouble."

Celitia sensed something: "You have conditions?"

"Of course." Gorman nodded. "I'm still trying to deal with the pursuit from that world. At critical moments, I might need your help, my daughter. This is condition one."

"What world?" Celitia thought of that dreamscape. "An alternate dimension?"

Gorman thought for a moment, chose some easy-to-understand vocabulary, and slowly explained:

"You can think of the world we're currently in as the surface side of the world; while the other side is the inner side of the world. The dreams we have sometimes connect to the inner side of the world. Positive energy rises and remains on the surface side; negative energy sinks and belongs to the inner side.

For a long time, demons have lived on the inner side, feeding on that negative energy. The surface and inner sides of the world achieve stable circulation. But for some reason, in recent years, the inner side has gradually become unstable, and some demons have escaped.

Pure demons have no fixed form and feed on the negative consciousness of living beings. To better enjoy feeding, they often deliberately cause trouble."

Gorman paused slightly to give Celitia time to understand and digest the information he had just shared.

"Currently, the demons are roughly divided into two factions. One part consists of conservatives who honestly stay on the inner side, maintaining their original way of life.

The other part consists of radicals who advocate taking over the surface world and turning it into their paradise."

Celitia looked at him: "Then which faction are you?"

"I'm just a half-demon, not really belonging to any faction."

Gorman smiled bitterly.

"Things became like this because I made an enemy of the radical faction's leader, and he made my life miserable. He's always enjoyed making me run around in a sorry state. Demons are creatures like that—they feed on negativity and gain power from it."

After hearing Gorman's account, Celitia remained silent.

"Can I really be of help with this?"

"Of course you can. You should have confidence in yourself, Celitia." Gorman smiled. "You carry the aura of that goddess. Being chosen by Her, you're surely destined for great things."

"That goddess?" Celitia asked. "Is it the 'Goddess of Fate' Hilo that we commonly worship?"

"No, the demons worship a different goddess." Gorman shook his head. "That goddess's name is the 'Goddess of Night' Chloe."

Celitia was speechless.

To actually hear the name of a deity she'd never heard of before—if the human church knew about this, they would 100% treat it as an evil god and heresy.

And then there were demons, the surface and inner sides of the world, conservatives and radicals—it was beyond ordinary trouble.