CHAPTER 566: CHAPTER 76: THE ORIGINAL WORLD LINE

"Do you know? Among your companions, I’m most familiar with Crescent," the Banshee Queen said, sitting on Aske’s shoulder and gazing at the Spiritual Tree ahead.

"Oh," Aske said.

"Of course, her former name was Peggy," the Banshee Queen continued. "I met her in Jerusalem. At that time, Constantinople had already fallen, and a large number of Solomon Sect citizens were either forced to convert or enslaved and taken back to Jerusalem."

"She was a Transcendent, though tainted by the Blood Clan, possessing only fragmented Extraordinary Traits, not even reaching Lv.1. But ultimately, by virtue of her Transcendent status, she wasn’t captured by the Seljuk army as a slave but wandered with the ships."

"At that time, I had just killed the Undead Wizard who tried to enslave me and fled south to Jerusalem, where I encountered her at an inn by the roadside."

"When I met her, I was engulfed in the confusion and anxiety of having killed someone for the first time, not knowing where to go. Then I saw her, casually like killing a chicken, she twisted the innkeeper’s neck and drank his blood."

"I asked her, hey, what did this man do to offend you? Why did you kill him?" the Banshee Queen chuckled. "Guess what she answered?"

"I don’t know," Aske said.

"She said that feeling the blood flow down her throat made her feel alive," whispered the Banshee Queen.

After a moment, she spoke again:

"The Undead, you see, are quite fragile beings. We need no sustenance, but we can’t enjoy the pleasure of food; we fear not the cold, yet we can never feel warmth. Why we live is the ultimate question that our Undead Clan forever seeks to answer."

"Although she said that, she actually had no fondness for blood-drinking. I could see that she was just looking for a reason to have something to strive for, but such pursuit itself brought her no joy... Consequentialists would firmly believe she was evil, but in my opinion, her nature wasn’t bloodthirsty, nor should she be stained with those sins."

"So, I’m quite happy to see Peggy as she is now... This is how she should be. After all, living in this world for love is far better than living a life of aimless stagnation."

"So I should thank you, Aske," the Banshee Queen touched her hair.

"What is Peggy’s name on your side?" Aske suddenly asked, "Besides Crescent, a term of endearment, what is her formal name?"

"Blood Drinker," the Banshee Queen replied. "Just the nickname Blood Drinker, no real name. After all, we the dead have little need for social interactions."

Blood Drinker... Aske recalled, she was a mission NPC in the Undead Empire located at a Tunisian port, often giving passing players some pirate-clearing missions.

That person was shrouded in a black robe from head to toe, never revealing her true face, but her voice was quite pleasant. Some players tried to attack her, only to be instantly killed, and their bodies desecrated in the Bone Dungeon by the Undead Patrol, stripping them of 10% of their Extraordinary Power, an utterly pitiable fate.

Aske realized that person was actually Peggy... He understood and then asked:

"Then why do you call Eleanor ’Naive Sofie’?"

"Hehe," the Banshee Queen chuckled and said, "In our world, Emperor Otto of the Divine Luo Empire has a daughter named ’Sofie.’ Every time there’s a conflict between the duchies, Her Highness would rush over to mediate and pacify the situation. That’s why everyone calls her ’Naïve Sofie,’ ’Kind-hearted Sofie.’"

Aske: ..........

Holy shit! The Divine Luo’s Princess Sofie! No wonder Eleanor looked so familiar to me... How did she end up in my team! Wait, shouldn’t she be from the Weisbach family of Bavaria?

"It is said she was fostered from a young age," the Banshee Queen saw through his thoughts and replied, "Of course, she probably doesn’t know. Later, after the Empire’s failed crusade against the Church Court, Emperor Otto was forced to abdicate in favor of Prince Little Otto. The Saxon family then brought Sofie back from Bavaria and reinstated her as the Empress in order to form a political alliance with the Weisbach family and stabilize the rule of the Iron Throne, which had already begun to falter."

"How miraculous," Aske exclaimed, "I had no idea that my team had so many... important people."

"Hehe," the Banshee Queen smiled inscrutably.

"Among the remaining people, do you recognize anyone?" Aske asked.

"The girl with flaxen hair, she must be Nora from the Lixini family, right?" said the Banshee Queen, "I’ve seen her, but I’m not familiar. In my world, she’s a Cardinal in charge of the Church Court’s medical health department."

"The one with black hair is Theodora, initially the Co-Ruling Emperor of Eastern Luo, but she was stripped of her monarch status by her sister and confined to a monastery as a nun. Up to the point when I came here, she seems to still be unmarried, quite pitiful."

"As for the white-haired Norman woman and that little girl, I don’t recognize them," the Banshee Queen thought carefully and then said, "You should know about Camellia, the Enchanting Demon Queen’s daughter, who in my timeline has already become the new Enchanting Demon Queen, with the title ’Bloody Rose.’"

"Ah, I remember," Aske replied.

In the early phase of the fourth expansion, immediately after the Empire’s failed campaign against the Church Court, Purgatory’s Jailer organization discovered the Divine Luo Empire and claimed that, on the edges of Purgatory in Lingbo City, the Enchanting Demon Queen had dispatched a Mind Mage years ago to stealthily bewitch Emperor Otto.

This then set the stage for the "Invasion of Purgatory" expansion pack. At that time, the Saxon family urgently needed to divert the Empire’s internal focus away from the Emperor’s defeat, while the Church Court, after the Empire’s surrender, also needed to find a suitable reason quickly to appease the numerous nationalists and royalists within the Empire who were outraged by the signing of the defeat treaty.

So, almost in perfect sync, they proclaimed that "the previous Emperor’s crusade against the Church Court was under the Devil’s bewitchment," and then began the campaign into the Purgatory Plane. The eventual outcome was, with the players’ help, Lingbo City was overrun, and the narrative had the current Enchanting Demon Queen killed off.

Then, in the fifth expansion, Lingbo City welcomed a new successor, the new Enchanting Demon Queen known as "Bloody Rose." She was even more outlandish than her predecessor. After all, although the Horse King was fully sensored, there was a hazy beauty that stirred the imagination. But this Bloody Rose not only dressed properly but was also wrapped up tight from head to toe.

This extremely normal and unflattering attire, paired with her unique character design—every behavior, tone of her voice, and even every smile and glance was incredibly alluring—quickly hit the excitement buttons of a large number of players.

The result was not only that she quickly garnered a legion of "zealous Believers," but she also dethroned Theodora within a few months to become the top1 most popular NPC on the forums, with various fan works about her popping up like mushrooms after the rain.

Unfortunately, this Enchanting Demon Queen lived deep in the palace and never allowed players to stay in her presence for more than ten minutes, otherwise, her popularity could have risen even further.

Now, Aske realized belatedly that the game company must have been scared by the Horse King incident and thus directly set her Enchanting Demon daughter to have "fear of men," to prevent players from interacting too much with her and taking liberties (like kneeling under her skirt to press against her feet and getting it spread around by some that your game is unhealthy).

Thinking this, he looked at Medea with a sympathetic gaze. Girl, do you know why you have fear of men? It all started with a group of irate older brothers furiously taking the game company to task over your mom.

Medea: ???

She looked at Aske confusedly, subconsciously activating her Mind Reading, only to find that his Mind Body was now shielded.

Needless to say, it was a protective Mind barrier from the Banshee Queen.