Chapter 899: Underworld Imperial Guard

Dorothy did not encounter any difficulties after entering the Shenggong. On the contrary, throughout the journey, every staff member—whether they were guards or civil officials—looked at her with eyes filled with excessive longing. Whenever she passed by, they would all stand tall with chests puffed out, looking as spirited and high-spirited as soldiers undergoing an inspection.

This actually made Dorothy feel a bit uncomfortable.

Fortunately, although this Pandora City of the Underworld was countless times larger than the small city in the Witch's Night, the structure of the Shenggong, as the core institution, had hardly changed.

Relying on her memories from the Witch's Night, Dorothy quickly and familiarly found the office area of her good sister. However, when she arrived at the entrance, she found the office door tightly shut; it seemed there were guests inside.

"No wonder I didn't see Dinisha waiting for me when I walked in today."

Dorothy thought to herself.

During her previous visits, she would see that familiar figure of the "White Hei Wuchang" as soon as she opened the door. Today, however, she saw nothing upon opening it, which actually made her feel a bit unaccustomed.

She had originally been quite worried that her good sister was still angry and thus intentionally being cold, but now she realized she had misunderstood.

"Prime Minister, do you need me to request an audience with Her Majesty for you?"

A guard on the side noticed and took the initiative to ask.

"No need, my business is not urgent. I'll just wait outside."

Dorothy hurriedly stopped them.

Although the two sisters had not yet laid their cards on the table and were still hiding behind the "Hei Wuchang" identities, in reality, they both knew each other's true selves.

The Home Witch naturally knew that her good sister, as the Witch King and the Lord of the Underworld, must be extremely busy with a thousand tasks, unlike her own idle self. Naturally, she felt embarrassed to directly disturb her sister's work, especially since she had come today purely for Alice's little private matter.

Thus, Dorothy sat down in the guest area nearby. As soon as she sat down, several attendants nearby began serving her tea and water, followed by various high-end snacks, providing top-tier treatment. If the conditions of the guest area hadn't been limited, Dorothy truly suspected this group of guards would have prepared a state-level banquet for her.

Dorothy: "..."

Being served like this by the attendants, the Home Witch could no longer deceive herself.

Although she had long since tested the authenticity of the Witch's Night and basically confirmed that it was definitely not a simple student trial, but rather something that had undergone a mutation and turned into reality.

But now, are you Underworld witches simply not even acting anymore? I really haven't prepared myself to lay everything out on the table yet, okay?

So...

"Do you all recognize me?"

The Home Witch directly caught an attendant witch who looked very capable and asked.

This attendant witch was a ghost witch, about 1.75 meters tall, wearing a uniform modified from a nun's habit, and her translucent figure was very graceful.

Hmm, not attached to a mechanical body, but able to act independently in a ghost form; this indicated that this attendant witch was at least not a newly deceased spirit, but an old employee who had worked in the Underworld for quite a long time. She might even be a civil servant witch cultivated in the Eternal Jingtu of the Underworld.

Such a person was already quite knowledgeable about the situation in the Underworld and was a good subject for questioning.

Being caught and asked by Dorothy, the attendant witch was also stunned, then became a bit nervous, but ultimately spoke up to answer.

"Prime Minister, all the undead witches in the entire Underworld are believers of the Mechanical Sect. How could we not recognize you, our Pope? Although young witches like us are actually seeing you in person for the first time, we have grown up listening to your deeds and teachings, so it is inevitable that we are a bit excited. We may have disturbed you, and we are truly sorry."

She apologized with some trepidation.

Home Witch: "..."

Young witch?

Dorothy glanced at the attendant miss in front of her.

Although the attendant miss was indeed quite young, looking to be about twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old—a big sister in her prime—judging by the mana pressure on her, she was a Peak Rank witch. And how many Peak Rank witches are truly young?

Moreover, although catching a Peak Rank witch at random as an attendant might give one the feeling that Peak Rank witches are becoming as common as dogs, the problem was that she was currently in the Underworld Shenggong. This place, together with the Mechanical Sect across from it, formed the power center of the Underworld.

The defensive strength here was actually benchmarked against the Imperial Palace of the capital, Pandora, in reality.

Although Dorothy had never personally been to the Imperial City of Pan Duola, nor had she seen what the current guards of the Demon King's Palace looked like, based on the descriptions she had seen on the Mana Web.

Let's just put it this way: even the two guards standing at the outermost gate of the palace walls would have to be Peak Witches.

The guards responsible for protecting the palace are known as the Imperial Guard; this is a special battle group that exists independently of the witch military system, does not go to the front lines to fight, and does not participate in battle group rankings or anything of the sort.

They have one, and only one, mission: to guard the majesty of the Witch King.

The personnel composition of the Imperial Guard is somewhat similar to that of the Inquisition, yet the standards are even more rigorous than those for the inquisitors of the Inquisition.

Inquisitors follow family or master-apprentice succession rules similar to the Embroidered Uniform Guard, but in reality, they are left to fend for themselves during childhood, and only when they have grown to a certain level are they recommended by their elders to participate in the assessment.

The recruitment source for the Imperial Guard is even more stringent, targeting only those powerful and loyal ancient witch families, because only the offspring of these ancient families possess the sufficient talent to become Imperial Guards, and only these bloodlines, whose loyalty has already been proven, are worthy of serving by the side of the great Witch King.

Moreover, witches are born with knowledge; some genius witches even begin to form memories while still in the womb, and therefore, the selection of the Imperial Guard truly begins from the womb.

The Imperial Guards responsible for recruitment will come to check as soon as the fetus's talent manifests but before consciousness has yet been born. Once the fetus's talent qualifies, they will take the mother away directly and send her straight into the Imperial Guard training camp to receive professional prenatal education, ensuring that the first thing this future new recruit hears from the moment their consciousness is born is the greatness of the Three Kings, rather than the glory of their witch family.

And after the fetus is born, they are immediately taken away from their mother, the mother is then sent back to the family, and the child continues to receive various training in the camp.

Generally speaking, this training continues until the new recruit has engraved absolute loyalty to the Three Kings into the depths of their bones and soul; only then are they allowed to have a certain degree of freedom, such as going home to visit relatives.

Unfortunately, most Imperial Guards have no concept of family at all, nor do they have any concept of familial affection; that so-called home visit is actually a test, and once the new recruit develops any attachment to family affection, they are judged as unqualified.

Because loyalty that is not absolute is absolutely not loyalty.

A truly qualified Imperial Guard has only the glory of the Three Kings in their mind; everything else is vanity.

In short, only those candidates who have undergone various trials and passed all of them will become true Imperial Guards, and this pass rate is truly shockingly low.

Just the seed fetuses with the potential to become Imperial Guards are already one-in-a-hundred-thousand geniuses, and even among such geniuses, the number who can successfully ascend to become Imperial Guards is about one in ten thousand.

That is a probability of nearly one in a billion, and even in the current most prosperous era of witches, the total population of witches is only 50 billion.

Therefore, the number of Imperial Guards is quite scarce, and such high standards dictate that every Imperial Guard is basically at the strength of a Peak Witch at the very least.

Even though the Witch World has been passed down for over a hundred thousand years, it is said that the total number of Imperial Guards accumulated over all these years is still only about 1,000 to this day.

Hmm, from this, it is evident that these Imperial Guards are quite precious.

And such precious Imperial Guards naturally enjoy the highest level of treatment; every Imperial Guard's equipment, such as staves and battle robes, are exclusive sets customized by masters, the kind that start at Legendary equipment, while other things like potions and summons are all fully stocked—anyway, if money can solve a problem, then everything is fully stocked.

Therefore, every Imperial Guard is also a "pay-to-win" player among "pay-to-win" players; each one is even more extravagant than the people of the Golden Township, which is truly enviable to others.

However, although the Imperial Guard looks very cool, it is actually quite miserable; after all, they are not easily allowed to leave the palace, and their entire lives will be spent serving around the palace, equivalent to being imprisoned there.

To have peerless martial power yet be unable to roam the battlefield and achieve great things, to have ultra-gorgeous equipment yet be unable to go outside and be worshipped by the masses, to have world-shaking wisdom yet only be able to wither away guarding the palace walls.

This is the bitterness of the Imperial Guard.

Of course, these legends about the Imperial Guard were all seen by Dorothy on the Mana Web; she herself does not know if they are true, but she saw the guards of this Netherworld Shenggong with her own eyes just now.

Hmm, truly Peak Witch starting point.

And that fanatical gaze of longing and admiration that looked at her as if she were a god...

Damn, this girl wouldn't happen to be my Imperial Guard, would she?

Dorothy's inspiration struck, and she felt a bit of a toothache.

Judging from the introduction of the Imperial Guard, every Imperial Guard is an absolutely loyal fanatic, long since brainwashed to the point where only loyalty remains in their minds, and if the Netherworld's Imperial Guard is also a similar existence, then that could explain the fanaticism of those guard witches when they looked at her earlier.

And the real Imperial Guard is just brainwashed in a training camp, but in this Netherworld, there is also the Mechanical Religion as a religious aid.

A combination of fanatics and zealots—this is hopeless.

But I am not the Witch King, so what do I need an Imperial Guard for? My dear sister, do you have a feeling of predestination here?

Dorothy was speechless in her heart; she even quietly looked up at the hat-wearing Senior Sister above her head. She always had a feeling of "the husband is being cuckolded," after all, this one is the future Fourth King.

The Senior Sister doesn't even have an Imperial Guard yet, and she has one first—what kind of situation is this?

And as their eyes met, the Home Witch saw the sadness and envy in Senior Sister Fan Ni's eyes, which immediately made her feel restless.

Sigh, my dear sister, you have really caused me a lot of trouble.

Senior Sister, you must believe that I am absolutely on your side; I have no ulterior motives, I am the truly loyal one, heaven and earth can testify.

"Senior Sister..."

Dorothy just wanted to open her mouth to express her loyalty, but the Senior Sister had already blocked her mouth with a tentacle.

"Alright, Qian Bao, I understand you, and I'm used to it."

Senior Sister Fan Ni said this with a smile.

And on the Home Witch's neck, Ye Meng Jia De opened her eyes to look at the two, then closed them again to doze off.

Dorothy, whose words were blocked, had no choice but to close her mouth after pulling out the tentacle; she looked back at the attendant lady in front of her—oh, it should be the Imperial Guard lady.

And from the fact that this Imperial Guard lady could stand guard at the door of the dear sister's office instead of the door of the Shenggong, it can be seen that even among the Imperial Guards, this lady is a powerhouse.

Well, after all, she is a top-tier Peak Witch.

A top-tier Peak Witch who is probably not far from being a Sage.

Such a powerhouse should have been famous, but unfortunately, she is an Imperial Guard destined to be nameless, not to mention that she is also a Netherworld Imperial Guard, which makes her doubly transparent.

"Can you tell me your name?"

Dorothy thought for a moment, then said so.

And upon hearing her words, the Ghost Witch was stunned for a moment, then her semi-transparent body actually trembled and swayed, but it soon returned to calm; she just stood straight, then said her name loudly.

"Netherworld Imperial Guard Deputy Commander, the hound chasing death, Roberta, pays tribute to you."

"Hmm, Roberta, I've remembered it, very happy to meet you."

The Home Witch also nodded and said so.

However, hound...

Dorothy looked at the top of this Imperial Guard lady's head and behind her, but did not see any dog ears or dog tail.

Well, it's probably just a title, not really a Dog-Person Witch.

Besides, the Dog-Person template is not a powerful template; it really doesn't match the strength of this Miss Roberta, at least it should be a werewolf...

Uh, Werewolf Witch?

Dorothy frowned; she remembered the purpose of her coming to the Netherworld today.

"A powerhouse like you is only a deputy commander? Then how strong must the real commander be?"

She seemed to say this just because she was moved by the feeling.

And to this, Roberta bowed and said.

"I am very sorry, Prime Minister, Lord Cerberus has been in a deep slumber for a long time, she may be temporarily unable to see you."

Dorothy: "..."

Cerberus?

The three-headed hellhound? The gatekeeper of the Netherworld? Is it the dog I'm thinking of?

The Home Witch's heart shook.

Hmm, in this Witch World, there are always some people's names that give her an inexplicable sense of déjà vu, like Nidhogg, like Ye Meng Jia De, and now adding a Cerberus doesn't seem like much.

And just as she was deep in thought, the door of the office next to her opened, and two figures walked out from the door.

One was the dear sister Dorothy was familiar with; she was still in a white dress, with the mask of White Hei Wuchang on her face.

And the other one beside her...

Uh, that was also an acquaintance of the Home Witch.

That was a beautiful white-haired girl, but although her appearance was young, her majestic temperament and deep eyes already spoke of her extraordinary nature.

"Qiong."

Dorothy remembered the girl's name, and then she realized the girl's identity.

That was the founder of the Netherworld who was once as famous as the Red Moon Sage Lilith, and also one of the oldest Sages.

The Eternal Sage—Qiong.

And the Home Witch's murmur also made the girl look up; she glanced at Dorothy, then a smile appeared on her originally expressionless face.

"Welcome home, Lord Dorothy."

She said so.

Dorothy: "..."

No, are you guys really not even pretending anymore?

It was fine when others called me Prime Minister before, but here you just call me by my name directly.

The Home Witch looked speechlessly at the dear sister beside her.

And Miss Shepherdess looked at her with the usual doting gaze.

Sisters looking at each other...

Qian Bao, hurry up and prepare warm clothing, otherwise others will add clothes for you.