After all, they couldn't understand why the Lord of the Holy City would allow such evil events to occur in this sacred city.

The Speaker knew, on the other hand, it was also to ensure she could sleep soundly that night.

The call from the Second Seat before his disappearance still echoed in her ears, his voice in the call sounded urgent, lacking his usual composure, as if he had discovered some terrible secret.

The Speaker immediately took it seriously; she canceled an evening engagement with the Holy City Navy officers and stayed alone in the office awaiting the Second Seat's arrival.

However, after an hour of torturous waiting, she finally confirmed a terrifying fact—a person, right in the First Special District of the Holy City, the core area of human power, had kidnapped the Second Seat scholar of the Origin Society, and possibly even... silenced him.

"I can provide you with more details, in fact, before the Second Seat lost contact, he called me to——"

"Sit."

A calm voice interrupted the Speaker's somewhat panicked words; she immediately stopped speaking, sat obediently opposite the white-haired girl.

"There is a reason why the Third Parliamentary Speaker issued a ban on navigation coordinate research. The meeting you held today severely violated the ban."

"Rest assured, we will never adopt those pirates' proposals."

Saying so, the Speaker was nonetheless flustered inside, knowing the First Seat wouldn't fail to see through such a simple political tactic, she allowed the pirates to talk nonsense simply to have the Third Seat find the long-missing First Seat.

The First Seat also isn't someone who likes idle talk or settling scores afterward.

If the First Seat felt annoyed with a council member, she would never discuss it with them, typically resulting in that annoying council member losing their position for unexpected reasons.

"How much do you know about the other side of the spatial node?"

"I... I don't know at all."

The Speaker shook her head anxiously.

That was a fact, whether there was a ban or not, she had no interest in understanding such specifics— as long as their starships could conduct interstellar navigation normally, she had no need to concern herself with navigation coordinates.

She thought a little and added, "But according to the Third Seat Lady, using a one-way navigation coordinate will cause a ship to be forever lost in the node space."

"Rowena's understanding is also limited."

Lindong shook her head, "Try imagining navigation coordinates as a door, what would that make you think of?"

"You can't enter without permission, otherwise it'd be..."

The next moment, the Speaker shuddered, her pupils constricted sharply, a terrifying answer came to mind thanks to her understanding of the First Seat, "Are you saying that what's on the other side would come here, and the Second Seat, he—"

"He's just the first one."

Lindong spoke calmly, "Soon there will be a second, and a third." 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

"What exactly is in there?"

The Speaker felt a tingling on her scalp, almost reminding her of the scary stories from her childhood, of monsters crawling out of closets in the dead of night.

"Generally speaking, it's filled with thoughts and emotions, physical entities find it difficult to sustain long-term in node space because once they enter it, they are consumed as nourishment."

Lindong paused, "And once they get enough nourishment, those void entities can even develop autonomous thoughts."

"Monsters that eat people."

The Speaker tried summarizing with her words, touching on her deepest fears—no one but her knew she'd been haunted by 'closet monsters' before entering the noble academy, unable to tell anyone about it.

She was born to inherit her family's responsibilities, any immature behavior would lead to negative judgments from the outside, and other family competitors would do everything to snatch what was rightfully hers.

Now, the First Seat and all-knowing, all-powerful Lord of the Holy City had become her only solace, otherwise the thought of a rift appearing at any moment, pulling her into a world full of man-eating monsters with countless black hands stretching out, terrified her to the core.

The Speaker took nearly ten seconds to calm down, singing prayers for the Holy City's Lord in her heart.

When she silently chanted the name of the Lord of the Holy City, powerful strength instantly filled her heart, even the air became sweet; the Speaker felt the Lord was with her, and those human-eating monsters lurking in the dark could never get close, the familiar sense of happiness pulled her back to reality, dispelling all fears and unease.

Until she once again looked at Lindong.

The First Seat's mocking smile once again hit her heart like a heavy hammer.

"He will fulfill all your terrible imaginings."

That short sentence was enough to send chills down the Speaker's spine, "It's a place that even the lighthouse of the Holy City's Lord cannot illuminate."

...............

Meanwhile, the culprit that "meets all human's terrifying imaginations," Ethan was in another room of the hotel, staring wide-eyed at a familiar face.

After several hours, he saw Rowena again.

But compared to the Rowena she knew, this version looked more mature, more fashionable, seeming smarter too than her friend.

"So, this is the capability of the flour element."

Rowena furrowed her brows, after repeatedly testing over a dozen times, even eating two extra hamburgers, she could only confirm it as magic completely beyond her comprehension.

This brought tremendous shock to her heart.

Do not underestimate the magic of creating a hamburger and fried chicken meal out of thin air, it fundamentally overturned the laws of physics as she knew them, if one could analyze the essence of this magic, it might mean a complete change in the world's physical theories!

"You mentioned... Lindong also learned magic over there?"

Rowena respected Ethan's naming, although it sounded odd.

"She is more adept at Ice Elemental Magic."

"What about me?"

She asked again, "I heard there's someone identical to me over there."

"She is a genius magician, currently serving as the President of the Astrology Guild, and has been the only Saint among magicians for nearly a century, which is quite an impressive achievement."

"Nice, fitting to my identity."

Even though she couldn't comprehend those specific magic terms, she could discern Lindong hadn't deliberately tarnished her image.

"And?"

"And, uh..."

"It's okay, feel free to tell me, I have strong acceptance."

"Some picky residents of the empire are concerned about Miss Rowena's mental state; perhaps because she's been single for too long, she develops a clear animosity towards all couples, enjoying ruining others' dates; maybe she needs a psychologist."

"Haha, that's not like me at all!"

Rowena burst into laughter upon hearing that, but her laugh sounded strange, laughing like she was angry, with her furrowed brows.

Realizing her awkwardness, she quickly added, "In fact, I've had dozens of romantic experiences, the couple stuff can't possibly affect me even by a bit!"

In that moment, Ethan was certain these two people were definitely cut from the same mold.

Because Magician Rowena also repeatedly emphasized to others about her more than a dozen romantic experiences, and insisted her ruining other people's dates was certainly not due to jealousy.

"Tell me about you and Lindong."

Rowena changed the subject, curiously examining Ethan.

"She is my lover."

"...Ah?"

Time seemed to freeze at that moment.

Ethan saw Rowena's face turn beet red, right down to her neck, as she tried to maintain a smile, but her smile could be described as grimacing.

At the same time, a wisp of green smoke appeared over her head.