Read Novel Full Chapter 1325 Clarification
Chapter 1325 Clarification
The Drowned King completed his slow circle around the mobile fortress until he stopped directly in front of Quinlan. "So this is what you wanted to show us? You can twist your junk of an armor, and a strange leaf child clings to you…"
He looked around, as if checking if anyone cared. None of his subordinates did. "So what? Is this supposed to change how we see you? You harbor grandiose ideas. Let me remind you how the world works: no one cares."
A muted hush settled over the clearing. Scar took a single step forward, leaving the pile of bones behind and planting herself between Quinlan and the towering undead king. The elite soul at her right mirrored her. Then another. In moments, the one hundred stood in a layered circle around the large carriage fortress upon which their master sat, protecting it from all sides.
Back when the Drowned King first arrived, the Elite Souls stood in their lines without much change in stance. He was an enemy. They were prepared to erase him. That was all. Their faces held the calm they used when carrying out a job, nothing more.
Thus, while they would do their utmost to destroy this undead as soon as the order was given, they would do so with a nonchalant expression showing no strong emotions.
It was business as usual.
But the longer the Drowned King spoke, the more their eyes narrowed.
And when he mentioned Rosie and Synchra as a junk of an armor and a weird leafy girl, everything changed.
While the newest members of the Elite Souls weren't acquainted with Rosie yet personally, everyone knew her name. She was the sole heir, the only child of their eternal master.
And those of them who have been in his service for at least a few days, those who had been around her, the memory that rose wasn't some vague impression. It was vivid.
When Quinlan was in his home, he liked to summon his Elite Souls and let them train, strategize, and do whatever they thought would make them stronger.
And during these times, a bubbly young lady would visit them.
Scar recalled the girl rushing toward her one morning with her leafy hair bouncing behind her. Rosie stopped a breath away, looked up, then wrapped both arms around Scar's legs with surprising force for her tiny frame.
"Thank you for keeping Daddy safe when I'm not there, Scar… I hope you will find joy in your new life…" she murmured into her armor.
Scar had stood stiff for a good few seconds before smiling, leaning down, and patting the girl's hair and promising she would not let harm befall her father.
The warmth of the bright, innocent smile that welcomed her words, accompanied by the happy giggling, was something Scar has not been able to forget even for a single second since.
Nozomi remembered a different moment. Rosie, after seeing the elegant refreshments the oriental soul created back when Quinlan took Vex, Ayame, Blossom, and Black Fang to the sauna, had approached Nozomi while clutching a tiny notebook filled with messy doodles.
"I want to surprise Mommy Ayame!!" she whispered into Nozomi's ears as if sharing a national top secret. "Can you teach me how to make a Fujimori drink and snack she might like?"
Shocked but overjoyed, Nozomi smiled and instantly agreed.
The oriental fire mage had tried to show the dryad, but Rosie kept dropping the herbs, mixing the wrong ones together, and squinting her eyes in focus as if analyzing how she could've avoided such an outcome.
Nozomi could still hear her determined little huffs.
Ito's memory came from the training field. He had been drilling spear patterns when Rosie wandered in with a stick she found in the garden, announcing she would "train like Mister Ito."
She tried to copy a simple footwork sequence. On the second step, her feet tangled and she pitched forward. The stick slipped from her hands and tapped the top of her head with a soft thud. Her eyes started watering as her pride was shattered.
But she wasn't a wimpy girl… So she tried again.
And again.
And again. Ito did his best to simplify the training regimen, even going as far as to do things in a way no sane warrior on the battlefield would. Because if they had, their enemy would laugh them right into the Goddess's awaiting arms.
But it was just not meant to be.
After the hundredth failure, the dams broke. In the next breath, with teary eyes, she bowed toward Ito and thanked him for the lessons, after which she stormed off toward the house while shouting that she needed her mothers immediately because her warrior career was over and she required extensive pampering or the world would literally end.
Ito snickered at the sight, which stayed with him more clearly than any battle in his hundreds of years spent fighting.
Memories like these flickered through the other Elite Souls one by one. The girl's voice. Her excitement. She made clumsy attempts to copy their movements. Her habit of thanking them for anything she thought counted as "big work."
And Synchra - despite having no face or voice - had earned herself a place among them as well. Unlike with Rosie, the Elite Souls never interacted with the armor on a personal level. But there was no need to, for their bond needed no conversation.
Quinlan treated her as more than equipment; she was recognized as a living entity, his trusted ally. But why would the Elite Souls think highly of Synchra? He had many allies, after all. It wasn't like the Drowned King insulted his wife or child.
The answer was simple.
Their purpose revolved around, first, obeying his words, but more importantly, keeping Quinlan alive. Every fight. Every formation. Every breath. That mission defined them.
Synchra served the same purpose.
She wrapped around him in every battle. She bore the brunt of attacks meant for him. She shielded the places they could not reach in time. She acted when they were too far away, covering the final gap between Quinlan and harm. They protected him from the outside.
Synchra protected him from the inside.
Two different roles. One shared duty.
And because of that shared duty, a strange connection formed without a single word spoken. A silent agreement. A mutual understanding between warriors who had never interacted was forged through the man they served.
And because of those moments and bonds, the shift in their posture now made perfect sense.
The Drowned King had dismissed the little princess as some oddity.
He spoke of Synchra as if she were discarded metal with a flame stuck inside.
That was enough. The Elite Souls didn't need Quinlan to speak for their reaction to form.
They simply waited for the next word.
Quinlan's eyes tracked the Drowned King without shifting his posture even a little.
"No one cares?" he echoed. "Undead might not care for good armor. And I know you have a natural distaste for nature." His finger tapped Rosie's leaf-covered hair once. "But you've crawled out of your burrow, Drowned King. You're in the world of the living now."
The Drowned King scoffed. Then, his eyes followed Quinlan's and turned, expecting nothing.
He expected nothing…
But his posture froze.
Because behind him, through the wide projection window, he saw movement in the Elvardia council room.
They were no longer calm members of a council nor the composed strategists he knew them for.
"Damnation."
He couldn't stop himself.
The dignified ring-shaped table had become a complete disaster.
Elves and dwarves shoved each other aside, elbows flying, scrambling over chairs and leaning against the projection as if trying to stick their heads through it. Several stood on stools. One dwarf had climbed onto the table itself. A pair of elven officers fought for space at the front, their foreheads pressed to the glowing image, eyes wide with fascinated disbelief.
They were all trying to get a closer look at the armor or the green-skinned girl.
The only ones still seated were the Elven Queen and Dwarf King, along with a handful of elder advisors who were too proud - or too physically stiff - to join the chaos.
The rest looked like spectators watching a legendary opera that had suddenly come to life.
The Drowned King stared at the scene, trying to process what he was seeing.