Before she could speak further, Aurora's next words rang.
"Four people of my family are high rank 1s."
The Queen had a look of horror but quickly adjusted herself.
High rank 1s and peak rank 1s were a lot different. Heck, even within peak rank 1s, there was a world of difference.
Moreover, most high rank 1s never even cross into peak rank 1.
As if noticing her relaxing facial expressions, Aurora said. "The relief you're feeling now is not unfounded. But the ones in my family don't need a hundred thousands years to hit peak rank 1.
A thousand years is enough for them.
No, maybe even a hundred might do."
The Queen showed a look of disbelief and then tension.
Maybe they were already breaking the bottleneck. Then it'd be difficult. Still, Duke Porenz was one of the strongest peak rank 1s in the alliance, there's no way he'd be defeated by a bunch of newbies in the sub-rank.
Aurora noticed her emotions and smiled.
The light covering the lower part of her face vanished and the whole of capital was able to see her smile.
Unlike the kind and generous smile from a loving goddess, what they saw was a cold, confident and ruthless smile.
"But the one you should be really afraid is the man of the family.
He can't kill Porenz now.
But a week later? Probably.
A month later? Surely.
A year later?"
A cold chuckle left Aurora's mouth and everyone in the capital, especially the powerhouses who heard it shivered like ice cold water was poured on them.
"Save for the rank 2s, he can slaughter the whole of alliance and jai empire by himself.
Numbers won't matter. Alliances will be useless. Experience won't help."
The Queen's face was pale and her body was trembling violently, as an unknown fear swallowed her being.
She wanted to refute the absurd claims made by Aurora. There's no way such a person could exist.
Even in the grandest of myths, no one ever pulled off such a thing.
It's impossible.
But…
Why was this woman so confident of him?
And that smile…
She fully believed what she said.
"Even Asherah budged in front of him. Porenz is nothing."
Aurora raised her hand, dissolving the guilltone and turning it into a sword. With a swift motion, the sword and pierced the Queen.
The pain engulfed the royal woman of the snake tribe, but did not immediately kill her.
"The Queen is hence stripped of her position. Let the kingdom decide the next rule on a meritocratic basis."
With those words, Aurora disappeared along with the queen pierced on her extended sword.
Once she returned to Hortus, she threw the queen into a large open air prison. Beside the queen were a dozen other captives, all scattered across over a few hundred miles.
Their states were horrible, to put it mildly.
Miss Calamity glanced at the struggling queen who tried to free herself from the sword with a cold look and vanished.
When she appeared in front of Sia who was harvesting fruits, the cold expression on her face vanished.
With a playful, energetic smile, she called out. "Please help me out!"
"Another one?" Sia asked while checking the quality of the fruit.
She was trying to modify the soul of the tree these days and checking if it had any change in the fruit quality. It's an eccentric thought, but well, Sia was Sia.
"Yes. This is the last one!" Miss Calamity swore with her pinky.
Giving her a long gaze, Sia sighed with a helpless smile. "…Okay."
An hour later, some more blood spilled and soul strands spilled in the prison area. Then the queen confessed everything she knew, including her relationship with the Jai prince who stayed in the kingdom.
"She is a concubine of Porenz. But she's actually a slave of the prince who stayed there." Sia said. "The plan was to draw out Porenz eventually and kill him."
Aurora tilted her head. "But about the princes, is it really confirmed?"
Sia nodded with a helpless expression. "Hm."
Sarah appeared with a rusty sword. "It's normal if things go abnormal once he's involved. That's why I insisted on keeping the communication channel open."
Sia showed a worried look. "He didn't want synergy link for communication in Jai. The God Emperor is really making him paranoid."
She couldn't help but think of that night when he showed how much he was affected by the God Emperor intervening with his life.
"No worries, I have him covered!" Aurora patted her chest with a confident expression. "And I won't even use it in Hortus. So, no chance of backtracking."
Sia stared at her dangerously for a moment but nodded. Sarah just shrugged, asking her to proceed.
Exiting Hortus after executing the trash, Miss Calamity first went to the border of Genesis and Mors before contacting Varian.
"Brother-in-law! Change your plan!"
Looking at her hologram, Varian was dumbfounded at first before he asked in a half-reluctant, half-accepting tone.
"So, there's something big going on in Jai, isn't it?"
"Wow! You said you'd avoid the high circles in your hunt but you already knew?!" Aurora's eyes sparkled with appreciation.
Varian wanted to sigh deeply. "It's the same everytime. I just got used to it."
"Well, your plan to hunt lone princes is almost futile."
"What happened?"
"If the seventeen confessions weren't collectively fabricated," Aurora's expression grew grave. "Then the Jai Empire is going to elect another faction commander."
Varian's eyes widened. "What the…"
Even though he remained hidden from the powerhouses and maintained a very low profile while hunting in the Jai Empire, he still collected relevant news. The only significant event was the ongoing Providence Trial.
But the faction commander selection? He didn't even heard a word about this!
"This event is very, very important. Most people won't even know until it's done.
Samael Astreas, Esahal Starlight, Victor Earendel.
One of them is going to be killed.
The capable ones will try to snatch the position.
The talented ones will try to please the new leader and join the faction.
And all the ranked princes will be there to witness it."