Chapter 2493: Chapter Two Thousand Five Hundred and Thirty-Seven: Umbilical Cord

When the holy emblem fully manifested, the intertwined umbilical cords on the handkerchief flew up above the two heads in the light.

Thus the golden radiance emanating from the princes formed an enormous clock-face pattern above the World Tree holy emblem.

Tick-tock~

At that clear sound of hands turning, the entire world except for Xia De and the twin princes froze once more. But this time it was no longer a small-scale localized time stoppage, but a true stasis of time brought about by the power of an ancient god.

Even Xia De was somewhat dazed for that instant; his time resistance could not withstand the ancient god's power. He soon regained consciousness within this frozen time, only to discover that the twin princes before him seemed to have shifted position subtly—they appeared to have done something during the brief moment when Xia De had been frozen.

But this no longer mattered; nothing around them had changed, and whatever had just happened would not affect reality. The Golden Miracle element was gradually peeling away from the princes, and before speaking to lay out their crimes, Xia De asked:

"Regarding the future you saw, is there truly nothing you can tell me?"

The princes, still maintaining their adult size, shook their heads, yet each spoke in turn:

"I am Guradian."

"I am Lorian."

Xia De nodded lightly:

"I understand. You have surrendered your power, and I will ensure you grow up healthy. Then, farewell."

Praying to the Tree Father and recounting how the Cavendish twin princes had broken the continuity of time, the princes—between the World Tree holy emblem below and the clock-face imprint above—also confessed their crimes and willingly relinquished their "noble status."

When the Miracle elements within their souls fully escaped and entered those two intertwined umbilical cords, they too fell into a time stasis.

At this moment, only Xia De remained conscious within this stillness. He reached out to take that clump of flesh and blood, turned around, and saw the verdant giant tree's phantom appear for the first time outside the 【Corridor of Time】.

Even though there was no wind here, the canopy of that great tree still swayed gently. Xia De bowed to the giant tree, closed his eyes and sighed, and then his consciousness plunged once more into chaos and darkness.

"Time is truly wondrous. Many years ago, I too once like now... Xia De, what is that look you're giving me?"

In the study of Miss Jia Lin Na's office at Yodel Palace, the witch who had been speaking suddenly asked, a little embarrassed as she touched her own face;

"Is a sigh like this very boring? Sorry, I'm feeling a bit sentimental tonight."

"It's fine, not boring at all. I quite like listening to you talk."

Xia De said, tilting his head as he looked at her, then turned to look at Ajelina, who was holding a teacup nearby:

"Ajelina, the two younger brothers about to be born—one is to be called Lorian, the other Guradian."

"What?"

The little princess did not immediately react, and Jia Lin Na asked in great puzzlement:

"Xia De, why have you suddenly taken an interest in naming other people's children? Still, these two names are quite good."

"Right now Wang Hou Diana is having a difficult labor—no, Ajelina, don't be so shocked, it's already fine. Jia Lin Na, I need you to do something for me. After Wang Hou Diana gives birth, I want the princes' umbilical cords."

It was yet another strange request, but the red-haired witch simply nodded:

"No problem. My intuition tells me that something extraordinary only you know about seems to have just happened, but seeing you still have time to banter with me tells me the matter is resolved.

We'll talk about it later. Since Diana is about to give birth, let's attend to the business at hand first."

"Something was indeed resolved—fortunately it had no impact... no, it did have an impact."

Xia De stood up and stretched, and the duchess, the princess, and the maids all looked at him:

"It is not zero nineteen on Saturday morning right now; it is three fifty-seven on Sunday morning. Good, good—Yodel Palace only lost contact for one day, the impact has been minimized. Another peaceful day in Tobesk City~"

"What?!"

Upon noticing that the temporal anomaly effect covering the entire palace complex had vanished, the Church almost immediately sent people rushing into Yodel Palace, and of course found nothing at all.

No deaths, no bizarre incidents, and even the people inside Yodel Palace had not noticed that a whole day had vanished from their lives.

But regardless, after negotiating with King Lallus III, he agreed that everyone inside Yodel Palace would have to undergo strict inspection before being allowed to leave, and the Church would explain the lost time to people in batches.

Most of the royal members who had been able to come here tonight already knew of the existence of supernatural powers, so although the follow-up work was tedious, it was not overly complicated.

But no matter how wary and uneasy the Church was, or how puzzled the people of Yodel Palace were, new life still arrived in the end.

The eunuch servants spread the good news of the twin princes' birth to everyone there, and the busy King Your Majesty finally remembered that the princes still needed to be named.

"Lorian and Guradian."

These were the names Princess Lei Lei Qianya had given to Jia Lin Na, Xia De, and Ajelina, and then Princess Lei Lei Qianya saw her great-aunt and younger sister both looking at Xia De—but Xia De only cared about the whereabouts of those two pieces of umbilical cord.

Everyone had to be inspected, even Xia De was no exception. And by Sunday morning, when he was finally permitted to leave Yodel Palace and return home at Number 6 Saint Delan Square, the Church naturally had discovered nothing.

As for the umbilical cords containing the Chosen Candidate's power, they had been sent home by Miss Miss Difa one step ahead of Xia De.

The three ladies of the Cavendish family could not return home with Xia De for the time being, and the ones waiting for him at home were Dorothy, Luvia, and little Mia.

Seeing the two Misses come to greet him at the front door, Xia De immediately asked somewhat nervously:

"The umbilical cords..."

"Very safe."

Luvia, wearing an apron, said in the foyer. Dorothy casually closed the door behind Xia De and watched as Xia De bent down to pick up little Mia:

"Welcome home. While we were preparing breakfast earlier, we were saying that the first thing you'd ask about upon returning would be Young Lady Gao De's matter—we didn't expect you to ask about the umbilical cords instead."

Xia De's expression stiffened, and he quickly looked up toward the upper floor.

Luvia patted his shoulder:

"What are you thinking? It's morning now, and we've already prepared breakfast. Tell us first what exactly happened at Yodel Palace."

The twin princes' umbilical cords were now placed at one corner of the dining table—the intertwined cords stored in a glass jar filled with yellowish-brown preservative. After sitting down, Xia De merely touched the jar lightly, and the umbilical cords, which had been ordinary flesh and blood, immediately displayed a dense Miracle element—so dense that it even made the liquid glow.

At this point, these two umbilical cords truly possessed power; before, they had been nothing more than ordinary objects.

Dorothy, afraid of affecting her appetite, sat at a spot far from the jar, and little Mia was the same—this cat, though not a "vegetarian," only ate meat that looked pretty.

Luvia, on the other hand, examined it with great interest:

"How fascinating. This time we didn't even hear any news about a Chosen One, didn't even catch a hint, and the Fourth Candidate has already been dealt with."

"Oh, Luvia, don't touch that jar—go wash your hands again! It's time for breakfast!"

To prevent spoiling their appetites, Xia De covered the jar with a towel, and only then did he eat breakfast while recounting the story of Yodel Palace to them.

At the same moment, Princess Lei Lei Qianya was also repeating Xia De's words to Jia Lin Na, so that Xia De would not need to say it all again later.

This story actually wasn't very long, because most of what happened was repetitive. So by the time Xia De finished telling it, breakfast had only just begun, and Dorothy's assessment of Xia De's actions this time was very high:

"Within the limited time, you didn't waste a single opportunity, you kept actively trying all sorts of things, and you were very decisive when acting. I think if it had been me encountering this kind of situation, I'd probably need over a dozen cycles before reaching the step of confronting Princess Lei Lei Qianya's younger brothers."

"What I care about is — is the bloodline of the Cavendish family this generation really that good?"

This sentence Luvia said was something Xia De had also said:

"Princess Lei Lei Qianya is Space, Angelina probably has a chance too, and now the youngest princes are actually Chosen of Time... Dorothy, did Princess Lei Lei Qianya ever mention that the Cavendish family in ancient times signed contracts with beings like demons or wish-spirits?"

Dorothy asked inwardly:

"I don't think so."

"I've also never sensed any demonic power in the royal bloodline — you can rest easy on that point. Luvia, speaking of which, how did you come up with that method you gave me?"

Xia De also asked her.

"Of course it was divination with special coins — I used two. When Yi Lu Na came back from Moon Bay, the Moon Bay diocese had finally gotten hold of the coins, and the first batch was only delivered a few days ago. This batch has three coins in total, all of them 【King's Eggs】, and I have no idea where Moon Bay got so many of these coins..."

The purple-eyed Miss said. Although Xia De suspected that this "divination" also had the long-haired Luvia's hand in it, clearly this wasn't the moment to investigate:

"This time I haven't even gone out of town yet, and the fourth-ranked candidate has already appeared — this is completely different from before."

He ate his bacon with a fork, then looked again at the jar covered by Mao Jin:

"Can we use the remaining coin now to divine something about the eighth Chosen one?"

Luvia shook her head:

"No, there aren't any clues at all right now. I even think the 'Time' story hasn't even begun yet. Xia De, your holiday isn't over. In my feeling, this time it was only an accident caused by the special nature of Time. Now eat your meal properly, and don't worry that tomorrow some ancient Pantanal Pantanal Xiewu will attack Tobesk."