Little Tyrant Doesn't Want to Meet with a Bad End

Chapter 534.1: I Want It All (1)

Roel had chosen to vent his emotions through work, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t put the plan he had previously devised into practice.

Knowing that strength was his leverage in overcoming the crisis that would soon grip the Sia Continent, Roel didn’t stop channeling his Origin Attribute even while at work.

Even though he had reached Origin Level 3, it was a tall hurdle to make a breakthrough to Origin Level 2. It was the power level that was second only to the Race Sovereigns, after all. There was no saying when he could overcome this hurdle.

With this consideration in mind, Roel decided to prioritize re-establishing his connection with the Witch Queen, thus expanding the powers he could use from two to three. That was much more practical for his situation, especially when he knew that danger was looming close.

Unfortunately, like a stone thrown into the vast ocean, there was nary a response at all.

That was when Roel succumbed to his fatigue and began dozing off. Much to his shock, the moment he entered dreamland, he suddenly heard Artasia’s voice.

“Run away!”

Roel’s exhaustion vanished. He immediately jolted upright and carefully listened for further messages, but there was nothing else.

He heaved a sigh of helplessness.

Refusing to give up, he turned toward Artasia’s window and channeled his Crown Origin Attribute, but the window showed no signs of reconnecting. His inability to connect with Artasia meant that he shouldn’t have been able to hear anything from her.

It was almost as if what he had just heard was a hallucination arising from his exhaustion.

Roel frowned.

He had been feeling so palpably uneasy that he couldn’t even fall asleep, resulting in his weakened state of mind. It made perfect sense for him to hallucinate Artasia’s voice out of desperation when accidentally dozing off, and the evidence was pointing toward that too.

But he knew better than to blindly shrug off his concerns.

Admittedly, the most plausible explanation here was that he had been hallucinating. However, upon careful thought, he shook his head and trashed that explanation. His rationale behind it? The content of the message.

Had the words he heard been anything Artasia had said before, he would have convinced himself that it was just a hallucination conjured from his groggy mind. But that wasn’t the case.

‘Run away!’

Those were the only words he had heard in that instant. He was certain that they had come from the Witch Queen, but what was more important here was that this was the first time he had heard such words from her.

Sovereigns had their pride to uphold.

The Witch Queen was a much-feared existence in the ancient era. Beneath her playful exterior lay a huge ego. Roel had always paid close heed to it whenever he interacted with her. Even in a divergence of opinions, he never took a disrespectful or slighting attitude toward her.

Artasia was not someone who would compromise before an enemy, not to mention that Roel had been growing stronger with each passing day. Never had they encountered a situation so overwhelmingly desperate that it necessitated her to use such a term.

Hallucinations might be illusions, but they were conjured by the subconscious mind. Roel didn’t think that his mind would conjure a Witch Queen that blatantly defied his impression of her, not to mention that the words ‘run away’ were at odds with his drowsy mood.

On top of that, he was in the Ascarts’ manor, the place where he had grown up and felt the safest. It didn’t make sense for his subconscious mind to tell him to run away from here. In the first place, he wouldn’t have fallen asleep if his subconscious mind had detected danger.

Roel was now certain that the voice he had heard came from Artasia. He figured that she didn’t use their usual window of connection but some other means, which wasn’t surprising given that it was the Witch Queen he was talking about here.

As for her goal, it was to warn him of an encroaching threat.

Roel’s face turned dark. Artasia had been away for so long, only to deliver him an urgent warning just as he was plagued by a persistent feeling of unease. He didn’t think that there would be something this coincidental in the world.

The chances were high that he was already knee-deep in trouble.

Roel stood up and began pacing around with a tight frown, as he analyzed the significance behind Artasia’s words.

‘Run away’ was a straightforward term urging an individual to head to a safer location, but its usage seemed hardly appropriate for Roel’s situation.

He was currently in the heart of the Ascart Fiefdom, surrounded by powerful individuals and forces such as Carter, Alicia, the heretic army, and the fiefdom’s soldiers. It would be a stretch to say that its defenses were comparable to those of Holy Capital Loren, but there was no doubt that he was already well-protected here. There was hardly anywhere safer he could be at.

Due to that, he had no idea what to do with the warning the Witch Queen had given him.

Head to the Holy Capital alone on New Year’s Day?

That seemed to be the only feasible course of action. That was where his most reliable ally, Holy Eminence John Xeclyde, held station. The problem was that the journey would take three to four days, during which he would be vulnerable to attacks from his enemies.

If danger was truly pressing close, it might be wiser for him to hold his position and see how things went. Making a rash move out of panic wouldn’t be in his best interest.

Besides…

Roel heaved a deep sigh as he looked out of the window.

Even from a long distance away, he could hear the energetic calls of the vendors lined up along the busy streets, advertising a diverse assortment of products. This scene of prosperity was not something that could have been seen in Ascart City a decade ago. It was the fruits of labor of Roel and many other people.

If the encroaching threat was going to endanger this city too, Roel had to protect it and its people. That was his irrefutable duty as a proxy fief lord. He would never be able to live with himself if he left his people in the lurch.

Looking at the prosperous city before him, Roel’s expression slowly hardened in conviction. He spent a moment of thought before making arrangements.