“I will take you out of here in the exact way you were brought into here.” Isatia enunciated each word. Though her voice was saturated with weakness and sounded soft and limp, her tone still had its usual backbone, as if everything were under her control.

It seemed that aside from running out of Stimulant Elixir earlier than planned, everything was within her calculations, and she had prepared a backup plan as well: once the Stimulant Elixir Vinny gave her was used up, she would take out her own reserve of top-grade Stimulant Elixir.

However, what she hadn’t expected was that after tasting a Stimulant Elixir brewed with Saintess’s blood at such extremely high purity, the withdrawal would be this intense—so intense that without replenishing her spirit, she would become abnormally listless, unable to stand, unable to move.

“Classmate Vinny.”

“Mm? What?” Hearing Isatia call him, Vinny asked in puzzlement.

“In my storage pendant, there are quite a few Stimulant Elixirs.” Because Isatia’s voice was soft and limp, it carried a trace of languor, like a koala full of imperious dignity. Compared to her usual self, the contrast was striking.

Mm, rather, Isatia’s speech normally did have a faint, elusive languor to it. But no one would look down on her because of that languor; instead, it added a few degrees of airy, detached contempt to her.

“What? You want me to feed you the medicine?” Vinny asked. “But those don’t seem to be doing much, do they?”

If they worked, Isatia wouldn’t be helpless against her chronic ailment and have to rely on Saintess’s blood, even to the point of risking herself to step into this dangerous world created by Divine Authority.

“Better than nothing.” Isatia spoke in that floppy-soft voice. “I know you may resent me. After all, no matter how you put it, it is because of me that you’re trapped in danger.”

“What you said just now was right. Since things have already happened, how to solve the problem is the key.” Isatia’s voice was still filled with cool reason. “At first I thought you were the kind of idiot who, when encountering trouble and hardship, would only grumble and complain and come up with no solutions. Luckily, you’re not that kind of person.”

Vinny had entered the city, but they had no place to settle. After searching for quite a while, Vinny finally found a bench and gently set Isatia down on it.

“Ahem.” As his hand reached toward the storage pendant resting in Isatia’s arms, Vinny gave a dry cough, feeling he had nowhere appropriate to start.

Seeing this, Isatia took the initiative to raise her head. Only then did Vinny reach around her slender swan neck, pinched the pendant by its two ends, and smoothly unfastened it, taking it from around Isatia’s neck.

“How do I use this? I can’t open it?” Vinny stared dumbly at the crown-and-spears pendant, not knowing what to do with it.

At his words, Isatia lightly raised a finger. The pad of that scallion-white fingertip touched the golden crown pendant, and in an instant, a pile of Stimulant Elixirs of various sizes appeared on the ground in a pale green heap.

Vinny was a bit curious how this spatial storage pendant actually worked. If he remembered correctly, Isatia should have put all her items, including sketchbook and notebook, into the pendant’s space. How did she manage to take out only alchemical elixirs and leave the rest untouched??

All right, it really was a wondrous object beyond his imagination.

Vinny picked up the elixirs one by one, twisted off the caps, and set them to Isatia’s lips.

Though Isatia had fallen into weakness and listlessness, she could still manage the simple action of opening her mouth.

But mistakes were inevitable in the process—like when liquid accidentally overflowed and slid from Isatia’s lip down toward her snow-white, delicate collarbone.

“Ah! I’m sorry, Classmate Isatia.” Seeing this, Vinny hurried to apologize.

Isatia shook her head, indicating it was fine.

Uh-uh.

How to put it.

Vinny stole a glance at Isatia’s current appearance: the black-haired, violet-eyed beauty had a cold face, expressionless, as if completely unaware of the elixir trickling down.

For some reason, it gave a kind of very… feeling.

Vinny silently turned his eyes away and continued his task.

“How is it? How do you feel?” After feeding her quite a few elixirs, Vinny asked.

Isatia slowly shook her head.

Vinny had figured as much—pouring these down was probably not having much effect.

Tsk, tsk.

Just looking at the labels pasted on these vials, Vinny felt like he was pouring cup after cup of liquid gold away.

They were all top-grade alchemical potions, and all made by the imperial court’s official alchemists of the Tyrel Empire.

Elixirs made by renowned alchemists supported by the royal family were rare treasures, unique pieces—use one and there was one fewer, unless the maker refined a new batch.

After Vinny patiently finished feeding all these elixirs, he looked at the reclining Isatia and felt the only change was that her drooping eyelids could open a little wider; other than that, it seemed there was no change at all.

“Classmate Isatia, the medicines you brought are all finished. Any better?” Vinny was sweating bullets. Granted, the higher the grade of an alchemical elixir, the fewer the side effects, but even so, you can’t drink them like this??

This was treating celestial pills like jelly beans??

Well, she was the First Princess of the Tyrel Empire, with the resources of an entire empire tilting toward her—she could afford to be willful like this.

“Mm.” Isatia nodded slightly, then propped herself up with some effort.

No need to think about it—it might have had some effect, but very limited. Still, it was indeed better than nothing; at least she could prop herself up on her own now.

“I’m a bit better.” Isatia’s voice had recovered a sliver of vitality.

“Can you stand up on your own?” Vinny asked.

Isatia said nothing. Earlier, she hadn’t even had the strength to take out and drink the elixirs, which was why she’d had to be carried on someone’s back.

Vinny also knew that with Isatia’s forceful First Princess temperament, she would certainly be unwilling to be carried like a puppet on strings.

With some difficulty, Isatia moved her legs to the edge of the bench and, bracing herself with both hands, tried to stand. As expected, she failed—she still couldn’t stand.

With Vinny’s support, she sat back down on the bench.

“All right, I shouldn’t have suggested that. Looks like we’re still a bit short of the mark.” Treating her like porcelain, Vinny carefully positioned Isatia on the bench, afraid she might lose her balance and fall.

“Then it seems I still have to carry you, Classmate Isatia.” Vinny felt he’d burned a lot of stamina earlier—after all, this was weighted cross-country. That said, carrying a fragrant, soft, long-haired black-haired beauty for so long looked more like a reward no matter how you framed it.

Isatia said nothing.

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Vinny only had to think a little to understand. With Isatia’s personality, how could she possibly take the initiative to say, “Then I’ll trouble you to keep carrying me,” that sort of thing??

How could someone who’d always stood at the top of the food chain accept being as fragile and helpless as a doll to be casually handled??

“Come on then, Classmate Isatia—where do you want to go?” Vinny crouched with his back to her in front of Isatia.

Very soon, Vinny felt something fragrant and soft press against his back, and then his earlobes tingled, struck by a warm breath carrying perfume.

“Take me to the highest point in this city.” Isatia’s voice seemed imbued with a kind of magic—especially at such close distance, spoken right at Vinny’s ear, like a fragrant breeze stroking his ears.

Vinny froze. Through the thin black stockings he felt the softness of the girl’s legs. A scented breeze brushed past, carrying a few strands of blue-black hair across his face, tickling him.

Mm, and he couldn’t tell whether it was his cheek that itched or his heart.

The highest point, huh??

In that moment Vinny’s thoughts were a bit jumbled; his mind hadn’t caught up.

But where was the highest point?

By the time he barely came back to himself from the fragrant gale, his thoughts were still a bit hazy.

He focused his gaze. The city-state of yellow sand lay spread out before his eyes. Soon, his sight caught the tallest Yellow-Sand Tower on the city wall.

That place served as the boundary dividing inner city from outer city and at the same time functioned as the inner city’s wall. It should be the highest place in this city of yellow sand.

But to get there, Vinny had to get up on the wall first.

So Vinny, carrying Isatia, went up to the gate-tower. As expected, they were intercepted again by Marsmo soldiers; as usual, Vinny presented his Sub-Priest identity plaque.

“Apologies, Sub-Priest, we didn’t recognize you earlier. Welcome to the tower, you and your beloved wife—but please don’t do anything that violates military regulations and puts us in a difficult spot.” The squad leader guarding the wall clearly held a much higher status and authority than the Marsmo soldiers who had supervised the slaves’ labor earlier; even the tone he used speaking to Vinny was rather hard.

What surprised Vinny was that he hadn’t said anything yet—how did this soldier identify Isatia as his??

How did he see that? Ah—no, she wasn’t to begin with, okay?? They were only affected by the secret realm.

Vinny paid attention to Isatia’s reaction behind him. Mm—no reaction at all. She obviously didn’t care about this abrupt issue and accepted this setting.

In her view, it ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ was irrelevant, harmless.

Right—she was the future Empress of Tyrel; she never quibbled over trifles.

After the soldiers let them pass, Vinny carried Isatia up the steps.

“Phew, why is this wall so high??” After who knew how many steps, they finally reached the tower, and Vinny couldn’t help complaining.

He felt drenched in sweat, and because a warm, soft, fragrant beauty was pressed against his back, the sweat on his back was the most, plastering him and Isatia tightly together.

Vinny couldn’t tell whether it was all his sweat, or if Isatia was sweating too.

But now wasn’t the time to ask how she felt. From atop the tower, looking down gave a sense of seeing everything at a glance. However, because of Marsmo’s city-state style, all surface-level buildings were only signposts; the real content lay underground. It gave one the feeling of living in an uncivilized primitive tribe.

From here one could see not only the scenery and pedestrians within the city but also the view outside the city—especially those skinny figures in the distance climbing the gigantic temple, carrying massive stone beams on their backs. Anyone would worry that in the next second they’d be crushed by the stones they carried, crushed to death, or worked to death alive.

“If nothing else, Marsmo’s towers are certainly built quite high. Inside and outside the city, you can see everything at a glance.” Vinny said. “Looks like there’s a benefit to building structures generally not too tall—make the walls a bit higher and nothing blocks the view.”

“You can imagine the kings of Marsmo standing here overlooking the entire interior and exterior of the city. That’s probably the feeling they liked.” Vinny’s tone carried a few threads of sarcasm.

He didn’t expect Isatia to respond. He was only making a throwaway complaint to himself.

And besides, Isatia would be a sovereign in the future as well. Saying this—he didn’t know if she would take issue with it. Now was not the time to spark conceptual disputes.

“Truly—can you see everything?” Isatia picked up his words and asked, enunciating each one.

“Mm?”

“Classmate Vinny, what do you think a qualified ruler should be like?” Unexpectedly, Isatia continued forward on this topic.

“Me? Classmate Isatia, I’m just an ordinary little commoner. You’re asking me something way beyond my syllabus. How could I have any take on that?” Vinny laughed it off.

“A true sovereign would not be so narrow, so blinded by the leaves before their eyes.” Isatia gazed at the slaves below, toiling without any visible hope.

“A king is a kind of obligation. Politics is the means and process to achieve ends, not the end itself. An emperor is obligated to shelter the people under their rule, let them live and work in peace, and lead them toward a better future—instead of using them like this, as consumables.” Isatia watched the slaves below, speaking with vivid feeling.

These words were clearly from the bottom of her heart. Or rather, only he could hear them here. Isatia had no need to sell a persona here for someone to see, right??

Vinny’s eyes opened slightly wider. Truth be told, because he knew little about the game, his understanding of the other heroines besides Aesphyra and Mirexia was limited.

As for Isatia—perhaps because of the way she made her first appearance and the way she did things—Vinny had always felt she was the kind of superior who didn’t care much about ordinary people.

If Isatia had a favorability system, she would be able to see Vinny’s favorability toward her shooting up because of this line.

“You’re right. I think so too.” Vinny nodded. “Looks like we’re of one mind.”

He was starting to understand a little.

Isatia had always given him the feeling of a heroine with poor approachability—because when you interacted with her, you could feel the distance between you and her. In her eyes, strength seemed to be everything, and that innate air of being a cut above others made it feel like you and she were not people of the same world, not of the same class.

That was indeed the case. But in this superior aura of Isatia’s, there was no deliberate contempt for anyone—including earlier, when she questioned how Vinny could help her and where he got the ability to help her.

Now, Vinny was starting to understand Isatia’s thinking.

In Isatia’s view, letting the people live and work in peace was the emperor’s obligation. Ordinary people should not stand alongside her, because ordinary people simply did not have the ability to stand alongside her.

As ordinary people, they should obediently stand behind the emperor and accept the emperor’s protection.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep