Volume 3

Chapter 6 : Ambition and Sustenance

In fact, Anselm’s return did not bring particularly large changes to the Hydra territory.

From the beginning, Anselm intentionally shaped the entire Hydra political structure into a state that could operate completely independently without him.

Except for some extremely major decisions, in this now increasingly mature system, Anselm did not need to do much more.

Placing this kind of structure in that world, the biggest problem would be that the person in power would be extremely easily sidelined, but here this situation would not occur—because even if Anselm did not handle anything, he could absolutely never be sidelined.

It was just that when it came to specific affairs, various problems would inevitably arise after all.

Anselm had also never expected that his subordinates could all be completely loyal to him, and discard any selfish desires, dedicating themselves wholeheartedly only to the public; this was obviously impossible.

The Hydra territory had also never been a Utopia that had achieved Great Harmony; it was just that when compared horizontally, it was far, far ahead of the territories under the rule of other Grand Dukes.

And regarding this point, Marina, who had been working conscientiously during this period, was clearer about this than anyone.

She discovered that the Hydra territory was actually not as… absolutely beautiful as she had imagined.

Greedy people were still greedy, dark places were still dark, but compared to any corner of the Empire, the order and rules of the entire Hydra territory appeared much more “complete”.

Yes, complete. The young girl resting on the office desk, staring at a pot of small flowers, thought so.

Mr. Anselm made all rules become more reasonable.

Although not to the extent of having no loopholes, they connected the binding threads in silence, imperceptibly changing the status quo of the Hydra territory.

Achieving a kind of… subtle balance.

This was a kind of balance Marina did not know how to describe.

Her still-growing horizon made her unable to see clearly the world Anselm saw, so she did not quite understand why Anselm, under circumstances where he could definitely do “better” and could completely suppress human greed and human darkness further, still maintained the status quo.

It seemed that in his view, that kind of “better” was actually not suitable, nor good.

However, in any case, for Mr. Anselm to do this, there must be his reasons.

Marina reached out to fiddle with the delicate flower leaves.

The clear fragrance of the white orchid spread to the tip of her nose; once she thought of Anselm’s face, she revealed a trance-like smile.

The origin of [Garden] actually did not have too many complicated reasons.

It was just that Anselm, who formed it at the time, kept his mother’s hopes in mind, and thus chose to name the organization after Elnilisa’s hobby, that was all.

And Rhine was a smart cat. Following Anselm’s meaning, she would present a pot of precious special plants to every formal member of the [Garden].

Marina did not expect that Rhine would send her a pot of orchids, and facing her confusion, Rhine answered like this:

“Neither coveting riches and honor, nor thirsting for authority—this pot of flowers fits this pure loyalty that seeks no return very well.”

This comment made Marina somewhat shy, but also very proud.

The gift of this pot of flowers represented Rhine’s recognition of her ability as the person in charge of the [Garden], and this implication represented Rhine’s praise for her loyalty.

To Marina, there was nothing more worthy of joy than this.

“Like this pot of flowers so much?”

The cat, popping out from who knows where, landed lightly on Marina’s office desk.

The startled young girl immediately straightened up. Just as she wanted to speak, her shoulder was held down by soft paw pads.

“Stay down.” Rhine said lazily, “It is time to rest now, just continue doing what you were doing just now.”

The [Garden]’s ten-times-speed high-intensity overtime did not last too long either, especially after Anselm came back to take over affairs. Marina was very quickly liberated from that hell where ordinary people could not even stay for half a day.

Although the work was still somewhat heavy, this kind of intensity was already child’s play for Marina who could work with a group of transcendents while withstanding ten times the time flow speed.

The young girl even somewhat missed that time which was close to madness, because she could feel that her abilities were improving visibly to the naked eye.

Mr. Anselm believed in my ability. He knew I could carry through, could complete the tempering, and I indeed did it.

Thinking of this, Marina couldn’t help but reveal a charming smile carrying a pure girlish aura again.

“Thinking about Your Excellency Anselm again?” Rhine swayed her tail slowly.

Marina touched her own face somewhat embarrassedly: “Is it very obvious, Ms. Rhine?”

“The only one who can make you smile like this is Your Excellency Anselm, right.”

The cat licked her own claws: “In your eyes, besides him, there is no one else either.”

“Ah… that is true.” The young girl smiled slightly shyly, “My wishful thinking made you laugh, Ms. Rhine.”

“Wishful thinking… can’t really be counted as that. Your Excellency Anselm still thinks quite highly of you.”

Rhine changed posture, sat up on her haunches, and looked down at Marina: “But I am very curious… has your loyalty to Your Excellency Anselm really penetrated into the bone marrow to the point of being close to obsession?”

The light flickering in the bright emerald cat eyes made Marina freeze.

“…The quality of loyalty.” The young girl’s expression changed slightly. She looked at Rhine and said very seriously, “Is the most important condition for following Your Excellency Anselm, right?”

“So what I am asking is the degree.”

Rhine was not unhappy because of Marina’s slightly questioning or even vigilant attitude, but just swayed her tail and said: “You are a smart person, Marina. You should know that Your Excellency Anselm actually does not like fanatics at all.”

“And whether it is the [Garden] or Shadow Swamp, neither welcomes any simple fanatics.”

“Here there are people who want to realize the blueprint depicted by Your Excellency Anselm, people who are for the sake of repaying Your Excellency Anselm’s grace of cultivation, people who thirst for that wisdom of Your Excellency Anselm that transcends the era, and people who even just simply follow their desires.”

The beautiful and harmless Ragdoll cat scrutinized the ordinary young girl who had fallen into silence, the mature female voice echoing beside her ears.

“We are loyal to Your Excellency Anselm’s concepts, kindness, talent, and mighty power, but likewise even more loyal to our own… ambition.”

“But you are different, Marina. Besides being loyal to Your Excellency Anselm himself, what exactly are you… loyal to?”

Rhine tilted her head slightly and said extremely curiously: “If there is nothing else, Mr. Anselm would not have put you into the [Garden], even if your ability is indeed not bad. But through the observation of this period… I discovered that you seem to indeed only be thirsting for Your Excellency Anselm. Then Your Excellency Anselm not discarding you is merely because of…”

“Miss Hitana?”

Marina’s pupils instantly contracted to the extreme point.

…It won’t be.

Of course I have ambition… I already chatted with Ms. Elnilisa long ago. I have long been clear that Mr. Anselm simply does not need pure appendages.

That is why I want to break away from Hit’s influence and prove my value and ability to Mr. Anselm, but…

In her mind, a whisper involuntarily echoed:

But what if, Mr. Anselm only sought you out for Hit from the very beginning?

In Marina’s heart, she had always been deliberately avoiding and ignoring this problem, because wise as she was, it was naturally not hard to think of the key role she played when Anselm tamed Hitana.

Whenever she inevitably thought of this matter, she could only use one thing to convince herself: that is, Anselm once told her that she and Hitana were equally important.

Precisely because of this sentence, that plain and naive cute village girl had her heart pried open in one blow.

Marina firmly believed Anselm was not lying, so the idea that she was merely a tool used to tame Hitana could not be established.

“…I am also not too clear, Ms. Rhine.”

Marina, who had stabilized her emotions, smiled: “Maybe I still have some… trait that even I myself don’t know, but has already been discovered by Mr. Anselm.”

“Perhaps, it is not that there isn’t this possibility.” Rhine meowed once, looking like she did not take Marina’s answer to heart too much.

The disregard carelessly revealed by this cat did not make Marina displeased.

The interaction during this period was already enough for Marina to see through the reality under Rhine’s cute skin.

Rhine was a very pure egoist.

Because following Anselm could achieve self-interest to the greatest extent, she spared no effort to help Anselm, and Anselm also generously gave her corresponding returns, never disappointing the cat.

In this way, a relationship more unbreakable than that kind of fanatical loyalty was formed—she was the guy she spoke of who simply followed desires.

Marina also knew that the situation Rhine described was the most correct, healthy, and reasonable.

If an organization was full of Anselm’s fanatics, then this organization basically had no other possibility than being done for.

It was precisely because under the premise of loyalty to Anselm, there were still other desires and motivations, that the [Garden]’s business level was so high.

Ms. Rhine… What are you probing me for?

The young girl whispered in her heart thoughtfully.

The relationship between me and Hit?

My status in Your Excellency Anselm’s mind? Does your probing and inducement end here?

Ambition…

Marina’s delicate and slender five fingers rubbed gently; she was silent for a moment, then said softly:

“Ms. Rhine, I have a question I want to ask you.”

“Speak.”

“The paths you know of allow a mortal to transform into a transcendent…”

The young girl gazed at those magnificent emerald cat eyes and said seriously: “How many are there?”

Using what I seek as a primer, it is nothing more than wanting to guide the topic to my “ambition”.

Then, as you wish, Ms. Rhine. I will reveal everything, and let me hear what you want to say.

The cute cat did not reveal any distinct emotional fluctuations. She just leisurely stretched herself and said slowly: “This… only three or four.”

Marina revealed a surprised expression: “Are there that many?”

“Because they are all considered relatively widely known methods, actually there weren’t many paths to walk originally.”

Rhine, putting her front paws together and stretching her body into a noodle, said lazily: “Besides the most famous Water of Redemption, I also know two forced promotion paths of the Celestial Path, but these two paths are much worse than the Water of Redemption… or rather, the Water of Redemption is inherently the best path to transform a mortal into a transcendent comprehensively speaking.”

“You said, there are three or four, what about the other one?”

Marina’s voice became very light, and slightly trembling, as if covering up the surging emotions in her heart with determination—because she indeed could somewhat not restrain the thirst in her heart, so she acted with no flaws.

The young girl saw incomparably clearly that this cat, who looked harmless to humans and animals no matter how one looked, had the corners of her mouth hook up slightly.

…Sure enough, so you want to drive me with the thing I can refuse the least? If nothing unexpected happens, Ms. Rhine, you should say next:

For this kind of thing, you can just go beg Your Excellency Anselm.

“If you want to transform into a transcendent, wouldn’t it be fine if you just went to find Your Excellency Anselm?”

Rhine, just as Marina thought, deliberately kept her in suspense, with an attitude of complete indifference.

And Marina, after a short silence, responded incomparably firmly:

“You know I won’t do this, Ms. Rhine.”

“…Mm, true too. A person stubborn to the point that nutrient solution has to be distributed according to salary rationing, how would she request from Your Excellency Anselm a grace that the current self is completely unable to possess?”

Rhine returned to the sitting posture, her tone matter-of-fact: “Wouldn’t this completely be relying on Miss Hitana’s connections?”

“Everything is as you say.” Marina lowered her head slightly, “So… although the possibility is extremely slim, I also hope to use my own hands to grasp that possibility.”

From the beginning until now, every sentence Marina said in the dialogue with Rhine was almost a confession from the heart, without any place that could cause suspicion.

Reaching this stage… you should reveal your true intentions, Ms. Rhine.

“Mm… determination worthy of appreciation.”

Rhine applauded with her paw pads, then leaned her body forward slightly, and with a tone carrying a few points of temptation, just as Marina expected, whispered in her ear:

“Then I give you this opportunity now, can you grasp it?”

The young girl’s body trembled slightly.

Without waiting for Marina to answer, Rhine said on her own:

“You have been handling the internal affairs of the Hydra territory during this period, and do not understand the focus we truly pay attention to.”

“The Eastern Port which seems to be hiding some huge secret, and the West Kingdom which is becoming increasingly chaotic… [Garden] and Shadow Swamp want to excavate the intelligence and truth Your Excellency Anselm needs in these two places.”

“This is a task with extremely huge engineering volume, extremely complex design, and extremely high difficulty, so that is why some time ago it required working around the clock to that extent.”

Rhine took cat steps, circling Marina’s body on the office desk: “Under Your Excellency Anselm’s direction, the specific planning of these two regions has basically come to an end; next, naturally, is to implement the plan.”

“[Garden] is responsible for the Eastern Port which is currently still orderly, and even more thriving; Shadow Swamp then wants to go to the chaotic West Kingdom to set off a bigger storm.”

“…Each performing its own functions, sounds like a very reasonable arrangement.” Marina responded softly.

“Reasonable?”

Rhine’s movements paused.

She suddenly pressed her head towards Marina; those beautiful emerald cat eyes flickered with an extremely cold luster.

“Of course reasonable, Your Excellency Anselm will not make mistakes, it is just that this reasonableness has always been towards his goal.”

“Do you know what identity Your Excellency Anselm has besides Hydra?”

“…Other identities?”

“Great Dragon Slayer, Pitch Black Blade, Entangled One… The adventurer who appeared out of thin air, left behind countless deeds, and inexplicably vanished in the recent half year, like in legends—Faust.”

Faust… Marina knew the identity of Anselm.

In that short one day in the Imperial Capital’s black market, this name left an incomparably deep impression on Marina.

“There were many people coming to find Your Excellency Anselm during this period, but the only one personally received by Your Excellency Anselm was Lapis Lazuli Grand Duke’s wife alone, and…”

Rhine’s cat eyes contracted slightly: “I only knew about this matter on the second day. That dead bird hiding in the shadows bypassed me, as if declaring sovereignty.”

The coldness in her eyes, the grimness revealed at this moment, seemed to all have an explanation—the bird in the shadow… is the person in charge of Shadow Swamp?

“There is no need to hide this matter from you, Marina. As a proper transaction, I need to tell you the things I definitely need.”

Rhine’s intention finally surfaced at this moment. She gazed at Marina’s eyes, saying word by word: “[Garden] and Shadow Swamp have always cooperated with each other, but now, Your Excellency Anselm has divided us into two blocks to execute two missions.

“If nothing unexpected happens, the final result will decide whose hand the authority of the Head of Devouring falls into.”

“And I need it, and it can only belong to me.”

Marina was silent. After a long time, she asked in confusion: “I seem to not have the ability to participate in such… contention.”

“No, you have—and, it is not relying on Miss Hitana’s connections.”

Rhine’s eyes’ coldness faded slightly; she reached out a hand and gently patted Marina’s shoulder: “I can confirm that Your Excellency Anselm will shortly head to the West Kingdom with the identity of Faust… He has always been fair and will not be biased in this test, but even so, his existence itself is a great help to Shadow Swamp. Shadow Swamp’s performance will also be most intuitively included in Your Excellency Anselm’s eyes.”

“So… I need a person to shave away Shadow Swamp’s positive performance in Your Excellency Anselm’s eyes—of course, I am not asking you to destroy their actions. Leaving aside whether you can do it, this kind of thing itself is stupid through and through.”

She spoke softly and extremely gently: “I will recommend you to Your Excellency Anselm, and you only need to do your own job well by Your Excellency Anselm’s side as a [Garden] member… just don’t let him incline too much towards Shadow Swamp.”

“Personal secretary, didn’t you do very well before? Your Excellency Anselm, transformed into Faust, needs a person who can help him handle various trivial affairs at any time even more.”

The mature and pleasant female voice transformed the vocal line from gentle to tempting:

“Think about it, if you perform well enough, maybe you won’t even need me, and you can possess the possibility to change fate. Moreover, this is an extremely rare, precious opportunity to be alone with Your Excellency Anselm for a long time.”

Indeed, no matter from which angle, there was no harm to me.

The outcome of the struggle between Ms. Rhine and that unknown person in charge of Shadow Swamp was still unknown, but the benefits I could obtain were real.

There was no reason to refuse, it was just…

“Will Your Excellency Anselm agree?” Marina asked thus, “Will he agree to bring me along? The Shadow Swamp side…”

“He will.” Rhine said with certainty, “He also knows this subtle imbalance, so as long as I recommend you, he will definitely agree. What’s more… Your Excellency Anselm likes Marina quite a bit, doesn’t he?”

“As for Shadow Swamp, you don’t need to worry even more, after all you—”

Rhine paused, and gently rubbed Marina’s shoulder with her paw pads: “After all, you are just a newcomer, and that guy is very arrogant; it wouldn’t be so stupid as to dispute Your Excellency Anselm because of you.”

…No, it is because I am just an ordinary person who can be pressed to death by you at will.

Marina filled in the words Rhine paused at before in her heart.

Because such a me, whether in the eyes of that person in charge of Shadow Swamp, or in your eyes, Ms. Rhine, am a small character not worth caring about.

Perhaps you, Ms. Rhine, might value me a bit more because of this transaction, but in essence… There is no difference.

Marina, thinking this way, revealed an extremely excited and grateful smile towards Rhine:

“What reason do I have to refuse, Ms. Rhine? Just as you said, this has no harm to me.”

She lowered her head respectfully: “It is I who should thank you for being able to give me such an opportunity.”

Gratitude was a matter of course, and Marina did not harbor any dissatisfaction towards this “contempt” in her heart either.

Because Rhine’s attitude was not “contempt” in essence… who would deliberately go to despise an ant?

Shadow Swamp would not care that there was such an ordinary person like her by Anselm’s side, and even Anselm would choose to accept the proposal because Marina was “ordinary” enough—this was Rhine’s thought.

Otherwise, she would not have deliberately sought out Marina either.

This was never any contempt, but a kind of matter-of-course higher than contempt.

A matter-of-course that burned, gouged, and stung Marina’s dignity all the time.

This transcendent who was high above and could participate in the contention for Contract Heads, thought she had handled Marina, but in fact had all her thoughts guessed by her, this mortal.

But so what?

Would Rhine care?

Even if Rhine knew her cautious, speculative, and probing mind, she would fundamentally not take it to heart.

This was the insurmountable abyss between mortals and transcendents.

And also the infinite sustenance… that made the thirst in Marina’s heart constantly grow.

Marina, who should have returned to her own residence to rest, chose to head to the Hydra Mansion.

She did not want to do any presumptuous act, so she did not plan to tell this matter to Anselm in advance.

Coming to find Anselm was only because she was entrusted by Rhine to do some simple handover.

To use that cat’s words, it was to make a small foreshadowing in advance—although the words were said very fully, Rhine was still quite cautious and small, paying attention to details.

Following the maid’s guidance, Marina arrived at the study door.

She knocked gently, and after stating her identity, obtained permission to enter.

The young girl twisting the handle was at this moment still pondering how exactly to prepare for the trip to the West Kingdom, and was even hot and surging with emotion because of the four words “long-term alone time”.

Thinking this way, she pushed the door and entered, seeing her younger sister lying on the desk with skin so rosy that water could be pinched out of it, and also seeing the young man she yearned for day and night, dragging her sister’s arms as if dragging the reins of a wild horse.

He looked at Marina, tilted his head slightly, and an irresistible smile floated up on his handsome face:

“Want to join in? Dear Marina?”

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