Rivers of the Night

Chapter 824: Sharp

Theron quickly raised a hand.

Daisy’s eyes narrowed as she looked over to him, but she decided not to do anything after it looked like Theron wasn’t doing anything out of the ordinary.

If Theron tried to humiliate the General in a war of words, though…

Daisy shook her head. Ridiculous. Ameridia wasn’t just a warrior. That alone wouldn’t be enough to have had the success she had. She ran circles around much more mature and seasoned people her whole life, let alone this brat.

General Ameridia was expecting the wave of disgruntlement, but she didn’t expect for someone to do something like raise their hand before the backlash could even come.

Her gaze met Theron’s, but his smile didn’t fade.

“Yes?”

“I’m a bit of a country bumpkin. I have no idea what a Bloodline Sample or a Soul Mirror Test is. Can you explain, please?”

“A Bloodline Sample Test matches your Bloodline against a tree of samples the Resistance Army has access to. The Soul Mirror Test is used to measure lies and truths.”

Theron blinked.

Well, that was quite the problem, now wasn’t it? This was the most efficient way for Theron to learn what was going on fast enough for him to make a decision about how to move forward.

Now that he knew the definitions, it was easy for Theron to cross-reference with the science he had and understand how these technologies might work.

And he came to one easy conclusion.

Either one of these tests was a huge issue for both him and Ayame. But probably especially so for Ayame.

The Bloodline Sample Test essentially used a database of Bloodlines. Bloodlines didn’t just come from anywhere, they were the product of mutations, growth, and evolutions across generations.

Whenever Clans intermingled, a mother did the deed with a father, or a great treasure was swallowed, there would be small changes to a Bloodline.

Every time this happened, a small tag would be left behind.

If you took a Bloodline Sample from someone—something that would certainly be a painful process by Theron’s estimation—you could then track the changes that caused their Bloodline to reach its current state.

Essentially, it was like the most complex family tree there was.

On the one hand, this sort of practice was impossibly beneficial. Understanding the intricacies of what crafted your Bloodline improved your own understanding and helped you to maximize how you progressed forward.

The trouble with this, of course, was that individual Clans didn’t have a large enough database of Bloodlines to cross-reference with. And using organizations that did was as good as being “tagged” and “bagged.”

For this reason, no one used the practice of Bloodline Sampling widely despite how useful it would be.

Giving someone this information about your Bloodline would leave you far too vulnerable.

Theoretically, from this sort of information, one could make predictions about where a Bloodline would evolve in the future, or figure out what weaknesses they had now, or even concoct a poison specifically designed to wipe out your Bloodline in particular.

This was the sort of decision the youths here couldn’t even make for themselves. They would certainly have to return and speak with their families.

And this was obviously something that General Ameridia knew. In fact, maybe she didn’t care to recruit even a single person.

Theron was pretty sure of this conclusion because this alone would have been enough to turn everyone away. Yet she added the Soul Mirror Test on top of that.

It hardly needed to be explained why Ayame couldn’t take the Bloodline Sample Test. The moment she did, her lineage would be revealed.

It was either she wouldn’t match up properly to any of the Clans the Resistance Army had samples of, or the Resistance would have some Demon Corps samples she would match up to just enough to reveal her identity.

But even if by some miracle they made it past that, the Soul Mirror Test would reveal everything.

The Soul Mirror Test obviously worked like the Dagger Call Platform. Theron remembered clearly being told that General Ameridia had an item that reminded them of the Dagger Call Platform.

What was the Dagger Call Platform used for originally if not forcing people to tell the truth in exchange for pain?

But the words Soul Mirror seemed to tickle something else in the back of Theron’s mind. If he had to guess, there was definitely something deeper here.

Regardless, if Ameridia had a reliable method of ensuring they told the truth, it was all over.

Theron, though… he felt a little bit of excitement he couldn’t explain.

What a smart woman.

She was preemptive and always prepared. The mission of the Demon Corps wasn’t even meant to set out now. Theron’s appearance had sped up their timeline.

If Theron had to guess, they had probably only just decided to do this complete overhaul. News shouldn’t have even spread yet. But Ameridia was already prepared for countermeasures, knowing that her enemies would target her.

She would rather not recruit and add lifeblood to her army at all as opposed to leaving her flank open to weaknesses.

She was almost scarily competent.

In fact, she was probably smart enough to also know that there was no test in the world that was infallible. She could guess that the number of enemies she had would find a way around at least some of them.

But as expensive as it was to conduct these tests, she also bet it would cost even more to evade them.

She was bleeding her enemies dry, and most importantly of all, the number that managed to make it through would be so small in number that she would be able to personally monitor every one of them herself.

That was to say that even if Theron managed to find a way through these tests…

He would then be under Ameridia’s heavy scrutiny every moment of every day. The dedicated attention of such a powerful Saint…

So why was his excitement increasing?