Chapter 183: A Shadow of Tragedy

Although she didn't participate in the so-called team-building activity, Macauley's mood was still good today.

The youngest, Naluo, is nine years old.

This means at most six years, she'll be freed from caring for these children—and if this boss isn't just acting on a whim, she can save even more.

'Lex is about to graduate university; his intern doctor salary is three pounds a week. If he has any conscience, he might send home one pound a week.'

'Loren and Martha still have two years left; it doesn't matter—it's almost here.'

'Maybe not even six years—if this job lasts three more years, I can finally live for myself,' Macauley began to dream of the future, her steps light, but after a while she slowed and stopped.

What's the point of life anymore? She suddenly felt drained, exhaustion rising up.

Macauley's father was a Ruin soldier who died in the colonial wars of the Southern Continent; her mother took the pension and ran off with an Intisian. The woman who adopted Macauley was a merchant's widow, also a retired teacher.

Macauley's literary foundation came half from that kind old woman, half from school; years ago she had been a writer, but nearly everyone who knew of it had returned to the realm of the gods.

Back then, as a moderately known newcomer, she serialized two novels about romantic fantasies of young girls.

Thanks to her royalties, she had a decent income, among the better-off in the common class, though nothing compared to the rising star of recent years, Forsyth.

Perhaps fearing loneliness, the old woman adopted several more children while Macauley was at university abroad; gradually, people began abandoning children at her doorstep.

Before the foster mother returned to the realm of the gods, she asked Macauley if she'd be willing to raise all the children and send them to school.

No infants—only six-year-olds.

The young Macauley agreed without hesitation.

The old woman's savings and Macauley's royalties were meant to last until the last adopted children grew up.

But the Grain Law drove living costs higher; foreign grain didn't offset the shock to Ruin's market, and just then, worker unemployment and inflation struck.

Under pressure from reality, everyone stopped schooling for a time—until Macauley met that man—Tennison Gilbert.

A Sequence 8 Mind Reader.

The learned and gentle Tennison first won the children's trust, then entered Macauley's heart, and finally swindled all her pounds—even planned to sell her.

On that very day, Macauley drank the Sequence 7: Psychological Doctor elixir Tennison had acquired through human trafficking and fraud.

In her mind's flashback, she suddenly looked around in confusion—this was the final stop of the public carriage, still about ten minutes' walk from home.

To be honest, the place wasn't even home—just a burden of duty, a place of exhaustion, where she constantly used her supernatural ability to monitor the children's mental health.

She wasn't kind—just stupid. Stupid enough to believe the love stories in books could happen in reality, stupid enough to think pies would fall from the sky.

Now those stupidities had become elixir inside her belly—she must pay for her foolishness.

Thank the King for reclaiming education rights, enacting the Elementary Education Law, and establishing public elementary schools—another huge expense. Though life in Beckland grew worse by the day.

Without these children, wouldn't she have lived more easily? Wouldn't have believed Tennison's lies about 800 pounds making her a school shareholder, with free meals and tuition—ha.

Macauley pinched herself; a flicker of spirit returned to her eyes. The suburban neighborhood had many houses, but they were scattered far apart.

The street held many half-unemployed laborers doing temporary work and hungry children driven by others.

Ten minutes later, Macauley sighed, looking at the house ahead.

'Sister!'

She turned—Vina, thirteen, and Levi, ten, each holding a basket.

'What a coincidence,' Macauley smiled. 'What did you buy?'

'Black bread,' Vina lifted the cloth covering the basket—inside were several loaves of black bread.

'Didn't I tell you to buy white bread and meat?'

'Here,' Levi raised his vegetable basket.

'Only this? Today's Naluo's birthday,' Macauley's expression darkened.

'Sister… Naluo said he wants to save money for Lex's tuition,' Vina smiled. Her poor nutrition made her thin; her smile wasn't pretty.

Macauley's gaze turned blank and vacant—she seemed to see herself from over a decade ago.

She feigned exasperation, then smiled at the two children. 'We'll make up for it tonight. Come on.'

Macauley took the children's free hands, softly asking:

'Can you hold it with one hand?'

'Yes!'

Only when life eases a little do these children seem sensible and sweet—hope these years pass quickly, preferably in the blink of an eye.

Shh—

Boom—boom

The spiritual warning in her mind reacted—less than three seconds later, the whistling sound and explosion followed.

A house ahead erupted into a fireball; blinding light flashed, then a searing heat wave surged forward.

Houses on either side were engulfed in flames; farther ones were torn apart by the blast wave; wooden shards and fragments of clothing rained from the sky.

A burning timber clattered down beside Macauley, bouncing twice.

Thud-thud-thud!

Macauley staggered back in shock, falling to the ground with the two children.

Levi, clutching the bread basket, rolled his eyes and fainted.

Macauley wanted to scream—but the spiritual warning struck like a hammer, forcing temporary clarity; she rose, grabbed both children, and tried to flee.

The Sequence 7 Psychological Doctor differs from Sequence 8.

Her body grew healthier; though no visible muscle, her strength and speed far surpassed her Sequence 8 state—equivalent to human peak limits.

Her vision improved; even objects hidden in darkness became clearly visible.

Shh!

At the instant the whistling sound came, Macauley instinctively hurled the two children far away; the motion threw her off-balance. As she fell, she tilted her head upward—and saw a massive black object looming over her face.

Then, darkness.

Above the scorched ruins, Su Lin held a damaged spirit in his hand, reading the partial memories left behind and projected by that spirit's mind island.

"Only a Beyonder's spirit can persist this long." Deren Aiso used his Decree Mage ability to immediately forbid the burning of flames and the passage of life.

All spirits will return to the spirit realm that overlaps with reality; this is the law of this world. The spirits of ordinary people and Beyonders are both like this—it's only a matter of time.

But that is under normal circumstances.

That cannon shell was dropped by the fleet under a Sequence 3 War Bishop, and it carried Beyonder power in itself. The spirits of ordinary people dissipated in an instant, and the spirits of Beyonders would also fall apart into pieces.

The light flickered once, and the damaged spirit gained sentience, leaping a few times like a candle flame stirred by wind.

"Where is her home?" Su Lin's voice carried no fluctuation. "What about those children?"

"At the center of the explosion."

Deren Aiso paused, looking at the nearby residents laid out on the ground, among whom were two children hugging a basket—one had an iron rod stuck through the abdomen:

"There are survivors."

"The flesh is still here, and the spirit is still here." Su Lin glanced at those spirits piled up without will, wandering and dissipating at the same time: "Today you're out of luck, but you could also say you're lucky."

"Is Ms. Arianna here?"

A female figure wearing a simple linen long robe, a bark belt, long black hair, no shoes or socks, materialized from the void and stepped out of nothingness.

It was precisely the Evernight Church's earthly angel, the Servant of Concealment, Arianna.

She offered a ceremonial greeting and quietly looked toward Su Lin, whose divine aura was growing ever denser.

Deren Aiso felt shock and fear within. He had heard a little about this angel of the Evernight Church who walked the earth year-round, and also knew of her existence. Yet at this moment, she was actually respectfully offering a greeting to the angel beside him named 'Sariel'?!

Could it be... this is a Sequence 1 angel?!

"Please trouble you to temporarily turn this area into a state of concealment."

Arianna did not ask why, and gave a slight nod. This area vanished as if erased by a rubber eraser—the damaged buildings, the scorched earth, the people present here.

The moment everyone appeared within the concealed space, over a dozen light spears pierced those young, youthful, and old bodies that had no breath.

A white pillar of light reaching the heavens descended like a waterfall from the sky. After a blur of light, the wandering, dissipating spirits vanished, and a trace of color appeared on those cold bodies.

Deren Aiso's eyes went wide. He had heard of the unbelievable high-sequence abilities of angels, but he never imagined such a miracle could be casually bestowed?!

"The rest cannot be resurrected."

【This is enough, thank you, Boss】

【I can go to the great Goddess of Night's kingdom and reunite with my family.】

A message came from within the spirit.

Su Lin hesitated for a moment before asking: "Don't you want to live?"

He hadn't even spoken yet, although Maccaro's situation was indeed a bit troublesome.

According to this world's terminology, her spirit body contained the stellar body, mental body, etheric body, and spiritual body. Most of these components had already dissolved and returned to the spirit realm.

Collapse and dispersal were inevitable. What Su Lin had done now was merely grant it a false wholeness—probably only a true Fool could deceive such a state.

【Are you an envoy of the divine?】

"You may think so, or you may treat me as a deity."

Deren Aiso's first reaction was not to look at Su Lin but to look at the expression of the Servant of Concealment, Arianna. What was she saying? She said she was a god?

【You must be a kind deity

But why, with a deity like you present, is this world still the way it is】

"Gods also have many helplessnesses, but perhaps you can look forward to a better future?"

【Those who put down their farming tools to chase the sunlight will surely end up with no harvest, plunging themselves into an even more dire predicament.

I have already experienced it once.】

"What you're saying is so abstract..."

【I have a deposit at the Backlund Bank. Please pass it on to them. It was originally what I had saved for traveling in the future.】

【Although I don't know if I can escape from under Mr. Deren's nose. Haha.】

Su Lin glanced at the damaged spirit body in his hand, then at the two children lying on the ground in deep sleep and the surrounding people in tattered clothes. After two seconds of silence, he asked:

"Do you accept an ending like this?"

Maccaro's spirit body did not answer, only stopped leaping as if falling into stillness.

【Fate is a writer, life is a script. I think as an actor I am qualified—at the very least, I experienced tragedy and suffering, lies and deception, and finally met the ending I should face.】

"You weren't this literary-youth-like before. You probably don't even know what 'literary youth' means." Su Lin sighed inwardly, released the spirit body in his hand and let it take the shape of a person, and said:

"You writers all share this common ailment."

"I did want to return to my old profession before, but I can no longer write those fantasies that lack real-world logic,

so I probably shouldn't be called a writer now." Maccaro's voice came in broken fragments. Her spirit was slowly but resolutely dissipating. She walked toward Vina and Livy, crouched before them, and stroked their foreheads.

"I'm sorry."

She could no longer hold on, transformed into shards of light, and merged into the eternal night of the concealed space.

At the same time, the concealed space twisted together like a graffiti oil painting—various colors warped and overlapped, then became a normal world.

Su Lin picked up the two sleeping children from the ground and placed them into the arms of Deren Aiso, who was stiff all over and at a loss for words.

"I'll leave them to you first."

Su Lin gazed toward the southwest, his eyes piercing through infinite distance to fix upon the Fusak Empire's airship fleet, which had already flown dozens of miles away and was still accelerating. A Sequence weather warlock had not directly joined the battle but was providing support ahead.

From a rational standpoint, this war had little to do with him. This era had too many tragedies. He was not this world's savior, nor could he prevent all tragedies from happening. Maccaro was merely one microcosm among countless tragedies.

But he was unhappy now.

'Should I thank the Fusak fleet for letting me, a Golden Core Stage Light God from another world, soberly recognize whose home turf this is?'

'You make me unhappy, and you expect me to still play the bystander or the rational neutral?'

'I want to do whatever the hell I want!'

Of course, the prerequisite is that Old Zhou can't be affected. Mm, the role of Ms. Arianna comes to the fore.

"Ms. Arianna." Su Lin revealed a faint smile, pointing toward the southwest as he spoke:

"On the opposite side there's a Sequence 3 War Bishop. How much could his Beyonder characteristic fetch on the black market?"

"."

Arianna slowly shook her head and said:

"There are no Saint-level Beyonder characteristics on the black market."

Arianna seemed to have long since analyzed what this unfamiliar deity might do next, and without the slightest hesitation said:

"If you are willing, our Church of Evernight can certainly offer a price that satisfies you."

Ehh, late, sorry.

Then there's the question of why some people think I'm writing a female lead. Readers who've read Lord of the Mysteries all know that, given that world's background, it's actually about all kinds of exploitation and ordinary people who drift with the current and become sacrifices of the era. Author Cuttlefish is really amazing—he wove the contradictions of modern Europe and the helplessness of that era's backdrop into it, tragic and oppressive yet laced with wry humor. What left the deepest impression on me from Lord of the Mysteries is actually Volume 5 and Volume 6.

That's why these few chapters use Zhongli, Su Lin, and Lu Mingfei's perspectives to witness the truth of this world.

It can't possibly be a female lead..

End of this chapter