Chapter 1318: The Erased Story

The Erased Story

Seeing Zhen Xin steadied her mind and recounted the trial step by step.

The first half was identical to Cheng Shi's memory; the altered part began after Seeing Zhen Xin and Hu Wei went together to the imperial city of Kurd.

In the imperial city they found the ringmaster of the Morning Hee Circus, Lady Frod, and the corpse of the clown Maisfort, and confirmed that Maisfort's death could not be separated from Lady Frod!

"Maisfort was smothered to death by Frod!"

"What!?"

Cheng Shi was stunned—this was a turn he could never have imagined.

Seeing Zhen Xin's face was solemn as she went on:

"After Maisfort parted ways with Lake at the tavern, he returned to the circus and happened to run into Frod, who had come looking for him.

The clown, emboldened by drink, poured out to Frod his admiration for Lake; he felt such an opponent deserved his respect, and even if he lost, he bore no grudge.

But Frod did not see it that way. She did not know what had happened; she only told Maisfort that under no circumstances could Morning Hee lose.

Yet Maisfort insisted that under fair competition nothing was impossible, and if Lake could truly devise a perfect clown show, then letting the other side win was only right.

Perhaps the drunkenness amplified Maisfort's emotions; although Frod kept assuring him he would win, his rebellious streak—just like Frod's—made him keep arguing against her view.

So a quarrel broke out between them. Maisfort declared that art mattered most, and Morning Hee's victory should not rest on him alone!

It was precisely that sentence that utterly disillusioned Frod. In that moment she recalled everything the two of them had been through, and felt that their past wasn't even worth one drunken night of truth with the clown of Evening Dusk.

And in that same instant, the desire Lady Frod had long buried in her heart twisted and burst out completely.

Don't forget—she was a member of the Brotherhood of Extreme Desire.

【Corruption】 influenced her at the height of her emotion; without a word she supported Maisfort back to the tent, and then, while he slept, smothered the clown with her own hands!

Through her tears she said:

Morning Hee's victory truly should not rest on the clown alone; if that is so, then let the victory come a little more easily.

Afterwards Lady Frod forged the scene, framed Evening Dusk's ringmaster Fitt for everything, and used this incident as a ruse to lure the Evening Dusk clown to Morning Hee for the final showdown."

The shock of this altered plot on Cheng Shi was undoubtedly immense. He could not believe that an ending so wantonly rewritten by the God of Fun held no deeper meaning. His mind roared, his whole body went cold, and in that instant he seemed to grasp just what had caused the curtain to fall on that age of despair he had experienced in the earlier trial.

【Corruption】!?

Is the God of Fun using this way to tell himself, to tell the world, that 【Corruption】 influenced Him and nearly led Him astray!?

Then what was it that pulled Him back from the wrong path?

Was it really 【Time】!?

Noticing Cheng Shi's expression, Seeing Zhen Xin paused, her face growing ever more solemn: "What on earth happened?"

"Something beyond what either of us anticipated. Until I've verified it thoroughly, I can't say what the truth is. Keep going—let me get the trial straight first."

Seeing Zhen Xin nodded and continued:

"After that we brought Lady Frod back. Faced with absolute ironclad evidence, she had no defense. When Lake learned the truth he kept demanding of Frod why she would do this to him. Frod said nothing, and then......"

"What?" Cheng Shi's heart skipped a beat; he somehow felt Seeing Zhen Xin's pause was a little frightening.

"She killed herself.

A method of the Brotherhood of Extreme Desire—she had hidden poison in her mouth, and when everyone's attention was on Lake, she bit down on the poison and took her own life."

"!!??"

Seeing Zhen Xin sighed:

"But this is far from the end.

We concealed the deaths of Maisfort and Lady Frod, buried them, and escorted Lake all the way back to Evening Dusk. But when Ringmaster Fitt heard the news that Lake had not died in that explosion, a flash of shock passed through his eyes.

No one noticed that strangeness—except you.

You saw that Fitt was different, told us things were far from that simple, and then we restrained Fitt and wrung out the hidden truth from him.

Those shoes......

Were not stolen by a visitor, nor discovered by Frod while rummaging—they were deliberately placed in a conspicuous spot by Fitt, for Frod to find!"

"What!?"

Cheng Shi was dumbfounded; he repeated in disbelief: "Fitt used the shoes as bait to hook Frod, and deliberately let Lake lose heart so he could be lured to Morning Hee?"

Seeing Zhen Xin nodded: "Yes. That night, Fitt, who cared about Lake, unexpectedly discovered the uninvited Frod and overheard her 'secret' with Lake. Knowing this traitor who had defected from Evening Dusk, he eavesdropped and then devised this method in an attempt to win without fighting!

But he never expected that in the final days before the showdown, Frod's plot was exposed by us, and his own plan was thereby aborted."

"......"

The reversal came so suddenly that Cheng Shi's mind crashed for a moment.

What is this—did 【Fate】 accomplish the predetermined through the hand of 【Deceit】?

Although on the predetermined path 【Deceit】 did indeed contribute the most, if every move of the God of Fun, or the entire Fear Faction, is under 【Fate】's calculation, then that would be too outrageous!

Is this still the same 【Fate】 that champions the predetermined and stakes everything on it?

No wonder 【Deceit】 said 【Fate】 understands deception better than He does.

But then again, whether the Fear Faction is still the Fear Faction now is another matter, and the current state of the God of Fun and 【Fate】 is also uncertain. In that false curtain-fall of an age, Cheng Shi still had not figured out why 【Fate】 at that time chose to self-detonate outright.

If the 【Deceit】 trial's intended meaning is that 【Fate】 is the true mastermind, then how could the 【Fate】 belonging to this world have so recklessly destroyed Himself at that moment?

Did He scheme everything just to greet His own nothingness?

That doesn't follow logic.

Cheng Shi fell into thought; Seeing Zhen Xin went on:

"Having learned everything, Lake was utterly disheartened; he felt Canliwal and Evening Dusk could no longer hold him.

So he took his leave from the broken-spirited Ringmaster Fitt and departed this land that had hurt him.

He felt this place was unworthy of being the highest hall of art; he wanted to seek a pure land beyond the Snow Realm—a pure land free of strife forever, yet where the circus would be passed down eternally.

And so, alone, he left Evening Dusk, left Kurd, left the northern snow kingdom, and set out for the south to seek a new place to live.

You personally saw him off, while we... tried to follow the 'Fun God's' 'hint' and 'reverse' the trial's ending.

Facing two circuses with no ending, President Gong continued to play his Lake, while I played Morning Hee's Maxfodt.

On the fifth day of the trial, the final showdown arrived as scheduled. President Gong truly lived up to his reputation as a stage-experienced 'clown'... he won, the audience loved him, and the attendance at Drama Dusk far exceeded Morning Hee's.

He won a false tomorrow for Drama Dusk, while we won a special trial for it."

Seeing Zhen Xin had been observing Cheng Shi's eyes the whole time; after saying all this, she pressed her lips together and said:

"What are you thinking, Fate-Weaver?

Can you tell me what you know now?"