Chapter 143

Chapter 143

Eve and Lorca emerged from the princess estate's underground prison, walking side by side. The sapphire recorder embedded in her collar had captured every word of the Dragon Maiden's recollections, spoken through "Luo Wenzhou."

The individual behind Luo Wenzhou's Spiritual State outburst had likely acted with enough stealth to deceive everyone present, including Luo Wenzhou himself. However, their actions couldn't escape the Dragon Maiden, who had been confined within Luo Wenzhou's consciousness all along. Perhaps that person never imagined Eve would take such an unconventional route, seeking verification from a Spiritual State.

Yet, Eve had no time for schadenfreude. She was still frowning, pondering the meaning behind the Dragon Maiden's opening words.

"You say..." Lorca was walking along normally when he suddenly heard the person beside him ask quietly, "—Is it possible that I’m really not human?"

"......" Lorca replied calmly, "Perhaps it truly is possible?"

Now it was Eve’s turn to be surprised. "Wait, you actually believe what that Spiritual State said?"

She found the Dragon Maiden’s words suspicious because she knew she had transmigrated into this world. Anything involving souls, spirits, or other metaphysical concepts made her a little uneasy. If she were to claim everything was normal—well, since arriving here, she hadn’t experienced any adverse reactions. But if she were to say it was normal... no matter how she looked at it, this situation was anything but normal!

Even Eve herself couldn’t clearly explain her circumstances, so if the Dragon Maiden had indeed noticed something unusual, she wouldn't be entirely surprised.

She was just puzzled by the Dragon Maiden’s statement, "We are the same kind of thing." After all, it couldn’t be that the Dragon Maiden was also a transmigrator, could it?

But after Lorca said he believed it, the situation felt different. Eve suddenly stopped walking, giving him a suspicious, serious look, as if she had just heard news of a friend being scammed out of two million credits and was simultaneously incredulous and desperately trying to help recover the money.

"Are you actually secretly calling me 'not human'?" Eve asked hesitantly. "Because something even scarier than a Spiritual State speaking is someone actually believing what it says."

—Eve’s standards were indeed flexible. For instance, at this moment, she conveniently overlooked the fact that she had personally gone to interrogate a Spiritual State.

"I’m serious, I’m not... speaking ill of you."

Lorca chuckled quietly at her expression before explaining, "The universe has more than just humans. And humans won’t always remain human. Let me ask you—if a living person is human, what is a dead person?"

"A corpse," Eve answered reflexively.

"Is a corpse human?"

"......" It was a philosophical question worth pondering, but Eve felt it probably didn’t count. "It’s no longer part of the living world."

"What about surpassing the ordinary human state?" Lorca nodded slightly and continued guiding her, "For example, a Five-Star Alchemist, or an S+-level conceptual spiritual power—do you think they still count as human?"

Eve couldn’t resist taking a jab at a few acquaintances: "Based on my understanding of those Five-Star Alchemists, at least half of them couldn’t be considered human even before becoming alchemists."

But she understood what Lorca meant.

He was using these examples to remind Eve not to worry too much about categories and labels. Even among humans, there are differences between existence and disappearance, limitations and transcendence. Besides, the Dragon Maiden’s words were vague—maybe she had sensed something familiar about Eve, or perhaps the presence of the Luna Butterfly had clouded her perception.

In any case, what did it matter?

Eve had long been aware of the most abnormal aspect of herself.

"Just being cryptic," she concluded, gritting her teeth slightly. "This Spiritual State is really too dishonest."

Spouting all that nonsense had almost made her believe she was some kind of chosen one with a special destiny.

As they were talking, an attendant from the princess estate approached them.

"Steward," the maid said with downcast eyes, speaking matter-of-factly, "the estate just received a formal visit request from the military—specifically, the Deputy Corps Commander of the Fourth Corps, asking if he may pay a visit."

Presumably, the Fourth Corps had finally realized that Luo Wenzhou hadn’t returned to the First Empire Academy with the other students but had been taken away privately by Eve. They were afraid she might uncover something, hence this sudden visit to gauge the situation.

For such a large corps, they were surprisingly impatient—just a slight stir, and they came rushing over.

"Tell them I'm not available," Eve snorted. "I don’t know what they’re thinking. I’m currently resting at the academy—how would I have time to return to the princess estate to receive military personnel?"

"Please relay to the Fourth Corps that the princess estate has no availability for guests at the moment and ask for their understanding. Also, rather than going around visiting, the Fourth Corps should focus on investigating why the students’ wristbands malfunctioned during the competition and how they plan to account for the high injury rate to the academy’s leadership and His Majesty the Emperor."

Eve narrowed her eyes, her expression half-smiling. "—If I were the military, I wouldn’t be in the mood to go around freeloading at a time like this."

The maid quickly withdrew with the message. Once she was gone, Lorca asked, "Have you already decided to make a move so quickly?"

"I’m worried that long nights bring many dreams—delaying things might lead to unexpected changes," Eve glanced at him. "The sooner an enemy dies, the more at ease I’ll feel, especially one as dishonest as this. But the Fourth Corps is backed by the Cavendish family and the Empress, and they might have other tricks up their sleeves, so for now, I plan to hold my position."

"A very wise choice."

Calm above all else, instinctively making the optimal choice, and absolute control—this was Eve Medici, the sharpest mind in the princess estate, impossible to fool.

Lorca felt relieved by her clear-headedness. Even though she had been momentarily confused by the Dragon Maiden’s inexplicable remarks, when it came to serious matters, Eve quickly returned to her most rational state.

-

After resting at the princess estate for another day, Eve found herself with rare free time. Since Qi Ying was away handling other matters, she returned to her old role, personally overseeing the daily work of the estate’s advisors and subordinates.

Compared to Qi Ying, who always wore a stern expression, Steward Eve, with her constant smile, seemed much easier to deal with. But everyone in the princess estate knew that was only on the surface.

When Qi Ying was around, even if she caught someone slacking off, she wouldn’t have the heart to say much. But Eve was different—as the one who handed out salaries and the de facto head of personnel, she had no reason to indulge these sly characters.

The result was that when Eve was present, even the cleaning robots moved 30% faster than usual. By the time she prepared to return to the academy, the subordinates seeing her off nearly shed emotional tears in the wind.

Lorca, watching from the window of the hovercar, laughed for a good while. "Your subordinates seem quite attached to you."

"They probably can’t wait for me to leave," Eve said irritably, shooting a glance at the group.

"Wanting you to leave quickly doesn’t contradict liking you," Lorca said with a smile. "Everyone listens to you, and Little Fu is also a very reassuring boss."

His words were almost too flattering. If Lorca weren’t someone who had just found an excuse to freeload at the princess estate for two days but instead a veteran employee with twenty years of service, it might have been more convincing.

Eve nodded and said, "You could consider working at the princess estate after graduation. I appreciate your way with words. If you join, I could make an exception and promote you above Sophia to be my first secretary."

—If nothing else, his skills in being helpful and cheering people up were quite impressive.

Lorca’s eyes curved into smiles. "That would truly be an honor."

Due to issues with the academy and certain unexpected events, the military training evaluation day ended on a dismal note.

In the end, Eve’s lead in destroying the wristbands resulted in the academy’s technicians, after finally repairing the signal network, being stunned to find that during the signal outage, everyone’s wristbands showed as eliminated—with only one exception: the top student of the Medical Department, "Lu Qing."

This person was practically a legend... Puzzled, the technicians recovered her wristband data and saw that from the very beginning of the competition, she had left the main group, thus avoiding the Mecha Department and Investigation Department’s ambush on the Medical Department. Later, when Luo Wenzhou’s Spiritual State went out of control, she was still outside and somehow inadvertently avoided the wave of wristband destructions.

There were pursuits from other departments along the way, but her strength was formidable. After defeating two pursuit squads, no one else dared to challenge her. Probably, they planned to wait for the main force to mobilize together. Even under these circumstances, her Spiritual State usage time was exactly at the 2-hour limit.

The technicians, of course, had no idea how much effort Qi Ying had put into fabricating this set of data. They didn’t know because Qi Ying hadn’t bothered much—after realizing that pretending to be Lu Qing would require continuously using her Spiritual State ability, the Silk-Spider, which would violate the 2-hour Spiritual State limit, she simply synced the Spiritual State data to Eve’s own wristband for convenience.

This resulted in various peak values being bizarrely inconsistent with the actual situation. After scrutinizing the data thoroughly, the technicians felt that something was off everywhere but, unable to find any technical flaws, ultimately had to grudgingly admit that this cunning Lu Qing had miraculously led the Medical Department to become the final winner of the competition.

The first-place department received full marks, while for the other departments, given the academy’s mishap, it wasn’t appropriate to make the students bear all the consequences.

The Command Department performed strongly and couldn’t in good conscience be given low scores;

The Melee Department and Mecha Department both had exceptionally outstanding students who, under normal circumstances, could have competed for victory, so the academy couldn’t blindly give low scores;

The Investigation Department had aligned themselves well, showing strong momentum early on. Moreover, due to Luo Wenzhou’s situation, they suffered heavy casualties. Even out of humanitarian consideration, they couldn’t be given low scores.

As for the Medical Department, although they were eliminated early, their chief stuck around—where the chief goes, the department follows. When one person makes it big, their whole crew benefits, and they were already the ultimate winners. What more needs to be said? Full marks!

......

The Weapons Department was eliminated the earliest and had no particularly outstanding students. It seemed they could finally be given the lowest score without feeling bad about it. But since all other departments had been treated equally, being too harsh on the Weapons Department didn’t seem right. Besides, it was a good thing the students came out unharmed—should the school really penalize the Weapons Department with a low score just because no one suffered severe injuries from a classmate’s Spiritual State outburst?

Whatever the reason, even if just to save face, they had to be given a courtesy score.

Upon closer reflection, this competition turned out to be a complete waste of time. Except for the Medical Department, every other department received a passing score. The only ones who got low marks were the relevant leaders in charge of the military training, whose annual performance evaluations took a hit. After stewing about it for a long time, the principal reluctantly signed off on the final report.

Eve wasn’t too concerned about the military training incident. Even before the competition ended, she knew that compared to the students’ results, the military and the academy faced bigger issues. In such a situation, as long as the school leadership hadn’t had their brains bashed in by the Dragon Maiden, they wouldn’t stir up trouble by giving students who barely survived a hard time about their grades.

Soon, her attention was grabbed by an official order from the imperial palace.

Long before this, Eve had known that, on the advice of Frigga Cavendish, the current chief commander of the military, the emperor had decided to select the best of the best from the First Empire Academy to train as future high-ranking military officers.

Perhaps shaken by this unexpected incident, and as anyone with half a brain could guess how the higher-ups would shirk responsibility, the emperor reluctantly accepted the lame excuse that "it was all the Alliance’s conspiracy." Out of a sincere desire to protect the empire’s future hope, he ultimately decided to launch the selection plan ahead of schedule.

The plan was largely similar to the previously released information: selecting a group of elites from the First Empire Academy with top comprehensive strength and suitable family backgrounds to undergo special training in the military. These students would not start from the lowest positions to accumulate merits for promotion like their predecessors but would instead begin practicing as mid-level officers. Their goal was to become strategic commanders, preparing for the increasingly urgent situation.

A new Zerg war seemed imminent, with Royal Zerg awakening one after another. The empire no longer had time to let these most outstanding young talents grow slowly. The most surprising part of this plan was that the emperor additionally approved allowing students to participate in the selection from their first year, as long as they were enrolled at the Empire Academy.

...Anyone with eyes could see the enormous benefits to be gained from this project. Once the official news was released, it sparked heated discussions throughout the First Empire Academy and even across the entire empire.

Some argued that this measure would intensify class solidification, believing that if the emperor truly intended to select talent, he should first set aside biases about elitism and provide more opportunities. Others supported the new project, arguing that selecting directly from the First Empire Academy would save resources and effort, directly identifying the most outstanding and talented young people in the empire.

However, these discussions mattered little to the students of the First Empire Academy. These young people, who had gathered the attention and expectations of the entire empire, were more focused on gearing up, wanting to seize this plan to accumulate capital for their futures.

Once selected, the kind of life of luxury and excitement that awaited them seemed self-evident.

In addition, many forces were keeping a close watch, waiting for the opportunity to pick the most favorable "investments" among these young people to benefit their own interests.

The ones everyone was talking about were, unsurprisingly, a few individuals. Among the discussion threads on major campus forums, the ones that inevitably came up were, of course, the department chiefs and vice chiefs.

More than two years ago, the Oliver Family, facilitated by Eve—who was then using the pseudonym "Lu Qing"—decided to adopt Alice as their foster daughter. The girl’s unique spiritual state and exceptional alchemy talent had already surprised them once. After entering the Empire Academy, Alice managed to surpass many seniors and secure the position of Command Chief, which was yet another pleasant surprise for the Oliver Family. After all, everyone knew that as the chief of the flagship department at the First Empire Academy, her future—whether in the military or politics—was clearly set for success.

After the new plan was announced, family head Oliver suddenly realized that merely being the Command Chief might not have been the ultimate goal Eve had in mind when she recommended Alice. From the beginning, it seemed Eve had always known just how astonishing the potential benefits hidden within this girl were.

What did Eve know?

...Just how incredible were her sources of information?

Family head Oliver didn’t have answers to these questions, but he keenly realized that he might need to reassess the value of this young partner.

However, at this moment, Eve was not as smug as they speculated, nor was she quietly preparing to pass the selection and break into the mid-to-high levels of the military to assist her superior, the Fourth Princess, in securing new gains in the power struggle.

Eve had encountered an unprecedented major problem—Qin Mengde had gone missing on the front lines.

Moreover, because she had been actively using information from the original book to change fate, Qin Mengde’s personality and destiny, as well as the career paths of other related characters, had been affected. As a result, amid this series of changes, she was caught completely off guard by Qin Mengde’s sudden disappearance.

This was also the first major issue since her transmigration that had completely slipped out of her control.