Although the mysterious woman spoke very softly, in this strange space, her voice seemed impossible to conceal, and her words clearly reached everyone's ears.
"What do you mean? You two sound like...the same person?"
He kept asking questions with amazement, his left and right hands repeatedly coming together and separating.
He temporarily gave up on thinking about whether this was some kind of subspace; whatever happens, happens.
The woman turned to Paul and gave him a mischievous smile.
" Paul Greiman, you guessed right, we've known each other for a long time!"
Paul's heart skipped a beat. It sounded like she knew him very well, but he knew nothing about her—except for her face, which was exactly the same as La Di's but with a very different temperament.
This is a bit annoying. Wait, it has horns on its head?
[I saw her, and you would never guess—that Queen looks exactly like someone close to you.]
[ La Di Gerard Setia.]
[Face shape, eyes, hair color... as long as you can notice the details, you can't tell them apart. Oh... except for the horns on the Queen's head.]
While at Crystal Radiance, Paul hosted Captain Gran, the legendary explorer who led a fleet to discover the New World and complete the first circumnavigation of the globe. He had just returned to Aldor from his second expedition to the New World and retrieved his companions who had been held captive by the natives during his first voyage.
The explorer described to Paul an incredible discovery he made in the New World: the local Serdan people were a horned humanoid race whose queen looked exactly like La Di.
Now it seems this is no coincidence; the mysterious woman before them matches Gran's description perfectly.
His gaze lingered on the woman's face for a few seconds before he tentatively asked, " A Serdan?"
"Haha, you guessed it!" The mysterious woman, or rather Queen Serdan, seemed quite pleased.
Catherine and Eileen were both taken aback. They knew about the New World and the Serdans, and as Paul's close associates, they naturally knew about the Serdan Queen as well, and had even joked about it with La Di.
La Di fell silent.
"What exactly happened? Why were we teleported here? Was it your fault?" Paul asked anxiously, then added, "Of course, I am very grateful to you, Your Majesty. You saved La Di in any way, and if you teleported us here, you saved us all."
He had intended to perform the local aristocratic greeting to the Queen based on his knowledge of the New World from Gran, but considering the awkward situation of both of them being "completely naked," he gave up.
Queen Serdan smiled. "Please allow me to remain a little mysterious. All I can say for now is that it's a protection, a mechanism triggered when [I] face imminent danger. More specifically… I have a feeling we'll meet in reality soon, but we'll see then. Of course, strictly speaking, because of another [me]." She pointed to La Di. "We've already met in reality."
Since the other party had said that, Paul didn't delve any further, but simply asked, "How do we return to the real world?"
Queen Serdan gave an apologetic look: "I'm sorry, uh... I forgot."
"You forgot?" Everyone was shocked. Were they going to stay here in this state forever?
The Queen frowned. "Do you think I wasn't surprised myself? I always thought this protective mechanism was just a myth! And then, just as I was about to retire for the night, it suddenly happened."
"I don't want to!" Eileen suddenly squatted down on the ground and burst into tears.
"We will definitely find a way back." Catherine remained very calm.
Paul didn't know whether he should be sad or happy. He was sad because he might be stuck here forever, but happy because he was stuck here with so many beautiful women.
Oh no… He quickly turned his back to everyone. Just now, the thought almost made him look foolish.
Queen Serdan crossed her arms over her chest and snorted coldly, "Now there is one more important thing: I want to take my revenge!"
She turned her gaze to the white-haired witch, Coleridge.
Collich broke free from Catherine's grasp in an instant.
She slowly straightened up, her icy blue eyes burning with a resolute, cold flame. The white-haired witch no longer concealed her naked body; the frost-like magical patterns on her pale skin were faintly visible, like winding cracks on a snow-covered plain.
"Kill me if you will." Her voice was as crisp and cold as shattered ice. " From the day His Majesty Antonio took charge of the Arcane Society, I swore to burn my life for His Majesty and my people." A last wisp of cold air condensed at her fingertips as she drew the emblem of the Gabella Empire crown in the air—a gesture that made Paul realize that it was not only a symbol of the empire, but also possibly a code of the Arcane Society.
She raised her head, her long, silvery-white hair fluttering like a battle flag in the mental space: "Since ancient times, we have been burned at the stake, tortured by iron maidens, and even children have been branded on their foreheads." Her icy pupils swept over the crowd. "What you are about to do today is but one of countless acts of revenge."
Collich then turned his attention to La Di.
"You're a spellcaster too, aren't you? Hmph, I had no idea there was a witch hiding next to Paul Greiman before I made my move!"
Her icy blue eyes swirled with sarcastic sarcasm, and a cold smile curled at the corner of her lips.
"How pathetic." Her voice was like shattered ice striking each other, filled with undisguised contempt. "A Spellcaster with such power is willing to grovel at the feet of a mortal who can't even chant the most basic incantation?"
La Di's fingers tightened slightly, but before she could speak, Collich continued to mock, " His Majesty Antonio leads the Arcane Society, fighting for dignity and freedom for all Spellcasters, while you—" she glanced at Paul with a sneer, "chosen to be a lackey kept by a mere mortal lord."
The temperature in the space plummeted, La Di's green hair moved without wind, and the magic patterns shone like burning on her bare skin.
But Collich was not afraid at all. Instead, she raised her chin, and frost was etched on her pale skin like spreading battle marks.
"At least I still remember the pride of Spellcaster," she sneered. "But you, La Di, have long forgotten who you are."
La Di's pupils contracted, and her knuckles turned white from clenching her fists so tightly. But in the end, she simply took a deep breath, her voice low and clear:
"My pride is never defined by others—and certainly not by you."