Yarra's Adventure Notes

"Ah, Lady Denia, although I’d rather not say it, I feel I must warn you," Pannis looked at Denia, blinked dully, and finally sighed as he spoke, "I was prepared to explain it all at once, but you interrupted me halfway through." 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

"Um, I think, from your account, one can already prove part of your speculation," albeit one of the oldest Deities, Denia didn’t pause for more than a second as though nothing had happened and solemnly said, "Indeed, this suggests that Danacus has not completely fallen asleep and still retains some consciousness; otherwise, he would not have been able to drag Lady Nellie’s soul into the battle. And you’re right about your understanding of the soul battle, souls do not lie. Danacus being at a disadvantage is not a pretense, which means the sliver of consciousness he has left in this world is very weak, so weak it’s almost on par with the soul of a powerful mortal. As for his remaining consciousness, it’s likely still dormant, not yet awakened."

"Wh-wh-wh..." Just as Pannis was about to open his mouth to express his thoughts, Catherine, who knew him well, covered his mouth first, averting the danger of his potential blasphemy. After sternly stopping Pannis with an angry glare from continuing his habitual mockery, Catherine slowly released her hand and asked before anyone else, "Lady Denia, what’s the point of Danacus doing this? If he wants to retain some Divine Wisdom, why doesn’t he allocate more will to stay awake? Then he wouldn’t be suppressed by Lady Nellie; maybe he wouldn’t even need his main body to awaken—just with that conscious will, he could reverse and devour Lady Nellie’s soul. I really find it odd that he would retain only such a tiny fragment of will awake, eh? Why are you all looking at me like that?"

The ’you all’ Catherine referred to naturally included Denia, but not only her; Flare and Pannis as well—all three who were much richer in experience and knowledge than the young girls—were looking at Catherine with a strange expression, as if staring at some peculiar creature. Catherine, familiar with Pannis’s typical reactions, realized she must have said something wrong. Had it been just Pannis, the knight girl’s fingers might have already pinched him, but in the presence of the Deities looking on, the girl felt her face burning and reluctantly blurted out with a red face, "Did I, did I, say something wrong? I really do find this whole thing strange."

"You’re incredibly sharp; that’s an excellent thought," Pannis said earnestly, nodding and patting the young girl’s shoulder as he asked, "Let me ask you something, do you really know what ’sleep’ means?"

"Eh?" Catherine blinked, confused as she responded, "Isn’t it just sleeping? Ah, no, that’s not right, a Deity’s sleep refers to a dormant state, similar to the concept of death for mortals."

"That’s right, it’s tantamount to the death of a mortal," Pannis sighed helplessly and said, "Your earlier question is like earnestly asking a dead person why they didn’t retain more consciousness after dying."

"Cough, cough, cough." Catherine started coughing dryly. Obviously, such a vivid description made the knight girl blush even harder. Clenching her teeth, she glared fiercely at Pannis and said with her face aflame, "I would never do something that stupid."

"Hehe, Kyle, stop teasing Catherine," Denia watched with a sly smile. Sometimes, having one’s faults pointed out jokingly by one’s own people is easier to accept than being directly criticized by strangers. The goddess understood Pannis’s protective intent behind his attitude, so she observed the scene like watching an amusing show, only speaking up now, "Catherine, Kyle is not wrong. Have you forgotten? He just asked us whether a deity could retain a part of their will while in slumber. He asked that because it’s difficult to do. Deities not powerful enough can’t even manage that step. Only those as strong as Danacus can do it. As for the extent of consciousness retained, it also relates to the deity’s own strength—it’s not something you can keep as much as you wish. Otherwise, why not just stay a hundred percent conscious and skip sleep altogether?"

"I understand," Catherine said, bowing her head. Although one hand was wreaking havoc behind Pannis’s back, she still spoke respectfully, "Thank you for clarifying that for me."

"It’s nothing, no need to be so formal," laughed Denia, shaking her head at Pannis’s pained expression and saying, "The barely conscious Danacus in a disadvantaged state, yet trying to pull Nellie into a soul battle, is indeed suspicious. We could strain to interpret it as him trying to control Nellie by instinct, using her hand to steal and destroy the Hunting Arrow, but this would be meaningless for Danacus. It would have been sufficient for him to drag Nellie into the first state you described, without having to actually launch a soul battle. Moreover, by doing so, he’s putting himself in grave danger, where a single misstep could badly damage his soul. So, this rationale is clearly insufficient. Looking at it this way, the guess that he hoped you would kill him might not be without merit."

"Yes, and I think he had two plans in mind when dragging Nellie into battle," nodded Pannis, speaking earnestly. "I reckon it was my sudden awakening and hesitation to attack that alerted him, prompting this response. On one hand, he hoped I would be so overwhelmed by Nellie’s instinctive attacks that I’d have no choice but to shoot the Hunting Arrow in self-defense. Of course, I wouldn’t actually aim at Nellie, but once I released the Hunting Arrow, maybe he had some way to weakly influence Nellie’s body, making it intercept the arrow. On the other hand, he must have lost hope in me and turned his sights on Nellie, first using the hatred from countless Twisted Souls entangling her soul to cloud her mind with intense disdain, then forcibly initiating a soul battle to create numerous opportunities to severely harm himself. To prevent Nellie from becoming suspicious, he would even need to put up a strong resistance, making it look like a real fight, not a suicide. Heh, it seems he already had emergency contingencies in case I refused to attack Nellie and didn’t put all his hopes on me. However, there’s one thing I can’t figure out—if attacking his soul would work for Nellie, why did he wait until now? Over the years, he must have had countless opportunities."