Most importantly, the Evil Woman hadn’t even gotten what she wanted.
In the end, while his thoughts were still sluggish, Magic Elephant was slapped out of the arena with a single palm. Only after Gray Merchant rescued him from the green‑glowing eyes of the Void Magical Creature did he belatedly say, "I... lost?"
Looking at Magic Elephant’s dumb, blank expression, the blaze of fury that had already surged up into Gray Merchant’s chest still didn’t find an outlet.
He only pulled Magic Elephant along and returned to their side of the field.
After Grey Merchant came back, he glared viciously at the Shrew. The Shrew subconsciously wanted to say something, but when she saw Grey Merchant’s gloomy face, she shut her mouth.
The Shrew had seen this kind of gloomy and indifferent expression on Grey Merchant many times in the past and would not be intimidated by it. Because Grey Merchant’s personality had always been like this before.
But ever since a part of his memories had been taken away by the Mirror Bearer, Grey Merchant’s personality had gone through a complete 360-degree change, leaning more toward the gentle elegance he had shown long ago. This kind of ugly expression had almost never appeared on his face again.
Now, Grey Merchant was directly showing this expression to the Shrew, enough to show the anger in his heart.
Because the Shrew had deceived him.
The Shrew had never told him that the out-of-discussion method she gave the Magic Elephant would be the Ancient Gaze!
This was an ownerless organ that even Bloodline Wizards could use as their trump card at the bottom of the chest!
Obviously, the Shrew had seen that the space Apprentice opposite them didn’t have much to do with the Noah Clan. From the attitudes of the others and various details, he instead had a slight connection to Red Sword Docks, and probably didn’t have any powerful backing either. Most likely just a wandering Apprentice—maybe even that piece of Simos skin had been lent to him by Dox.
Once she confirmed that the other side probably had no background, the Shrew’s mindset changed. She not only wanted to obtain the Simos skin, she also wanted to use the Magic Elephant to kill the other party!
In the Shrew’s eyes, an Apprentice with no background dying was just dead. She could both gain spoils of war and save herself future trouble.
But what the Shrew hadn’t expected was that the one who stepped onto the field for this duel ended up being Vay, not Kaier.
After the duel began, the Shrew had no way to send a sound transmission to the Magic Elephant, which led to the Magic Elephant using the Ancient Gaze and screwing himself over.
The final outcome made Grey Merchant display extreme anger. But the Shrew didn’t care. From her point of view, everything was just bad luck.
Yet what the Shrew didn’t know was that if she had really managed to get Kaier killed—
It actually wouldn’t be any different from provoking the Black Earl. Because standing behind Kaier was also a bigshot-level figure: the "Voidwalker" Esos.
Leaving aside Esos’ attitude, if things had really gone the way the Shrew planned, Angel would have personally stepped in to take revenge for Kaier.
The reason was simple: Kaier was his mission target this time and couldn’t die; Kaier was the true owner of the key to the Remnant Site and couldn’t die; the Simos skin on Kaier’s body was also his—whoever tried to take it would die.
One could say that this time, the Shrew wasn’t suffering bad luck; on the contrary, fortune had actually turned in her favor.
However, the Shrew clearly wouldn’t appreciate this. Her thoughts now were more like: anyway, the Noah descendant didn’t die, and I even paid an ownerless organ—turns out I’m the one who lost out.
The disparity between people, the difference in the bottom line of being human, was vividly embodied in the Shrew.
Apart from the Shrew, everyone else’s feelings were different in their own ways, but they shared one similar question:
Why did the Noah descendant survive after being hit by the Ancient Gaze?
...
This question was actually also what Angel and Dox were curious about.
"So that’s why you, milord, were so calm—you gave Vay a trump card... Tsk tsk tsk, Vay used to look decent enough, but now he’s really miserable, huh. His whole body’s rotting meat. I guess he’ll have to live the rest of his life with an ugly face." Dox carried Vay down from the arena in a princess carry and laid him on the ground.
Dox treated Vay while continuing to crack jokes.
Only, after treating for a bit, Dox suddenly realized his treatment was having no effect at all.
Vay’s body was shriveling and failing at a speed visible to the naked eye. His eyes were gradually losing their light, as if at any moment they might completely lose their luster.
Dox had been mocking Vay before, but now he couldn’t laugh anymore.
He jerked his head around and looked at the Black Earl.
"He, h-he, what’s going on with him?" Dox’s expression held a hint of panic and anxiety; he was even stuttering.
The Black Earl ignored Dox, looking down from above at Vay, who still had a trace of One Thought left.
"Since you’ve already used it, have you made your decision?"
The Black Earl’s words came without any preface or follow-up, leaving everyone else confused; they didn’t understand what he was talking about. But Vay seemed to understand the Black Earl’s meaning. After a moment of silence, he said softly, "Milord, did Sister Ella also end up like this?"
The Black Earl: "Instead of worrying about Ella, you’d better worry more about yourself. The time you have to make a choice is running out."
Hearing the Black Earl’s words, Angel felt a faint confusion in his heart. Who was this "Ella" whose name Vay suddenly blurted out? Why would Vay be concerned about Ella at this time instead of himself?
While Angel was puzzling over Ella’s relationship with Vay, Dox on the opposite side mouthed a sentence silently to Angel.
—Ella is Vay’s older sister.
And his biological sister at that.
For Vay to say now that Ella was dead, what did that mean? That he felt Ella’s death was the same as his current situation? Dying in a duel? That shouldn’t be such a coincidence, right?
While Angel was pondering the relationship between Ella and Vay, the Black Earl continued, "If not for its protection, you couldn’t possibly have survived being blasted by the Ancient Gaze... Now, it’s your turn to make a choice."
The corners of Vay’s eyes were slightly wet. He didn’t look at the Black Earl again, but instead turned his head to Dox.
Vay’s lips moved lightly, as if he wanted to say something.
Dox thought Vay had some "last words" to entrust, and immediately leaned in.
However, when Dox’s ear moved closer, Vay spat on him, hard.
While Dox was still stunned, Vay mustered all his strength and roared, "Sure enough, meeting you is just bad luck! I clearly avoided you for so many years, and the moment I went looking for you, I got forced into a ruin expedition!"
"Now it’s over! I’ll definitely end up just like Sister Ella, not even able to say a single word, and become a living dead in such a muddled way! Damn it, damn you!"
After shouting and cursing a few times, he left Dox completely dumbfounded.
Only then did Vay turn his head to look at the Black Earl, a look of resignation on his face. "Go ahead. I don’t have any other choice anyway. A Puppet is a Puppet—at least my flesh will still be alive."
"Dox, from now on I might not be me anymore. Are you satisfied now?"
The moisture at the corner of his eyes finally turned into tears, slowly sliding down.
Vay closed his eyes, wanting to put on a look of bravely going to his death.
But by this time his eyelids had already disappeared and couldn’t close, so he could only stare as his lord detached from the stone slab and slowly flew toward him...