Caroline: "Now tell me, who is this little wizard? Is he Naraku’s descendant?!"
Wise Sovereign: "...didn’t you say you wouldn’t listen to any explanation?"
Caroline: "Except for this."
The Wise Sovereign resisted the urge to curse, continuously telling himself: she is dead, she is dead, I should treat her calmly, yes, calmly.
After subduing his inner agitation, the Wise Sovereign finally spoke, "Rest assured, he is not Naraku’s descendant. But after ten thousand years, I believe Naraku might have descendants..."
"Shut up!" Caroline: "I won’t allow you to slander my Lord Naraku!"
It was clearly the truth, how was it slander, the Wise Sovereign felt somewhat at a loss...
But when faced with Naraku’s number one fan—"Flower of the Abyss" Caroline, he could only endure it.
Wise Sovereign: "As long as you’re happy. But, can you really bear to see your Lord Naraku single for thousands of years?"
Caroline snorted coldly: "Women are the deadliest poison. My Lord Naraku absolutely cannot, and will not, be tainted by such poison!"
Wise Sovereign: "...Aren’t you a woman?"
Caroline: "I am a woman, so I am also a poison. But my poison won’t harm Lord Naraku, only other men, especially those pretending to be young like you."
Wise Sovereign sighed helplessly in his heart. The ones he had the hardest time dealing with were women like Caroline—others saw her as unruly, but she found her own logic self-consistent.
Also, it had been too long since he last argued with Caroline. Her scathing words were still sharp, while he had grown much weaker... It seems that occasionally letting Caroline out is a good idea, just to bring a bit of liveliness to the quiet underground aqueduct.
Angel watched quietly as Wise Sovereign and Caroline debated.
Meanwhile, he reconsidered Wise Sovereign’s sculpting skills.
Earlier, he thought Wise Sovereign was Academy Faction, perfectly portraying the personality of the sculpted figure. Now, it seemed he misunderstood; Wise Sovereign might not be Academy Faction or Liberal Faction, but... Visionary Faction.
To sculpt a woman with a bold personality into a serene and tranquil lady—this is simply the work of a visionary.
Angel sighed silently, and his gaze towards Wise Sovereign grew more admiring.
Wise Sovereign noticed Angel’s gaze. Although he didn’t understand why Angel showed such an expression, he didn’t forget his main task.
"By the way, Caroline, let me introduce someone to you..."
Caroline: "I have no interest in unrelated people. Don’t bother me. I want to continue sleeping. This time, until Lord Naraku appears, I won’t wake up again!"
Wise Sovereign: "Wait, if not for my sake, you must consider Book Elder’s sake, right?"
Suddenly, the air became silent.
After a long pause, Caroline finally spoke: "Book Elder? What does Book Elder have to do with him?"
Wise Sovereign: "He comes from Barbarian Cave and has a rather good relationship with Book Elder. Didn’t you once receive a favor from Book Elder? For Book Elder’s sake, you can’t just turn and leave, right?"
Caroline: "Hmph, just because he’s from Barbarian Cave doesn’t necessarily mean he has a good relationship with Book Elder."
Though she said this, Caroline still asked Angel: "Hey, little Wizard, do you have a good relationship with Book Elder?"
Angel: "I don’t know what qualifies as a good relationship. If you consider harmonious interaction as good, then my relationship with Book Elder is okay. But if you mean close friends, then... no."
Angel spoke truthfully, but after he finished, Wise Sovereign and Caroline both fell silent.
After a long time, Caroline finally spoke: "Have you met Book Elder?"
Angel: "Yes."
"Have you met him alone?" Caroline asked again.
Angel nodded: "Yes."
The air fell silent once more, but this time the silence was quickly broken by a glow.
A statue on the table emitted a faint light, and then a human-shaped soul shadow slowly floated out of the statue, finally settling next to Wise Sovereign.
The soul was Caroline.
Previously, Caroline spoke from within the Soul Soothing Stone statue without manifesting herself. It was only upon hearing that Angel had met Book Elder that she showed herself.
It must be said that although Wise Sovereign was visionary in sculpting Caroline’s demeanor into a tranquil woman, he did not let his imagination run wild regarding facial features.
Caroline looked exactly like the statue, only proportionally enlarged.
And her demeanor was similar to her bold way of speaking; even without a physical body, her soul’s expression still carried a sense of unyielding independence.
After Caroline appeared, Wise Sovereign gave Angel a deep look and introduced: "This is my old friend, Flower of the Abyss Caroline."
After a pause, Wise Sovereign added: "Flower of the Abyss means a flower of Naraku City. Oh, this nickname was adopted after Naraku left."
Caroline rolled her eyes at Wise Sovereign: "If you don’t speak, no one would think you’re mute."
Angel smiled and didn’t comment. However, adopting a new nickname immediately after Naraku left... that does feel oddly familiar.
Isabella of the Black Castle also did something similar.
But Isabella took it a step further than Caroline.
After Isabel left, as Isabel’s disciple, she immediately changed her name to Isabella. She also changed her nickname to "Twilight Queen."
Isabel’s nickname, by contrast, was "Twilight King."
This move caused a sensation throughout much of the Wizards’ Realm at the time, turning the "Twilight Queen" into the subject of conversation in Black Castle for years.
So when Wise Sovereign said Caroline had changed her nickname, he wasn’t too surprised.
At least "Flower of the Abyss" could be explained as a flower of Naraku City, while the connection between Twilight Queen and Twilight King was one that could not be easily separated.
Wise Sovereign wasn’t bothered by Caroline’s attitude. After introducing her to Angel, he turned to Caroline again: "This is Angel. As I mentioned, he’s from Barbarian Cave. I’m sure you don’t care about his other information, but he helped me greatly while he was in the underground aqueduct."
"He’s an anomaly, the first anomaly the underground aqueduct has seen in a millennium."
Caroline: "So? What does that have to do with me?"
Wise Sovereign: "He has a few questions about the Pan-Dimensional Plane that I couldn’t answer, so I recommended you to him."
Caroline frowned: "So you woke me up for such a trivial matter?"
Wise Sovereign nodded.
Caroline rolled her eyes again, turning her head aside, not wanting to deal with Wise Sovereign.
However, towards Angel, Caroline’s attitude was a bit more gentle than before.
"Since you’re from Barbarian Cave, you can always ask Book Elder any questions," Caroline said coolly.
Angel: "Just as Ms. Caroline mentioned, the questions about the Pan-Dimensional Plane are trivial. If I bothered Book Elder with such questions, he would probably chase me out..."
"That’s true." Caroline changed her posture, crossed her arms, and said to Angel: "I once had an encounter with Book Elder, solving some long-standing puzzles. I respect Book Elder a lot."
"Since you have some connection to Book Elder, I can listen to what you want to ask."