Chapter 726: The Test (1)
Thud!
As Oliver silently turned and took a step forward, he sensed the presence of Puppet, Unyielding Knee, and Lilith moving away.
It was as though they immediately reacted, fearing Oliver might change his mind. Given his current state, it was a very plausible concern.
However, contrary to their worries, Oliver did nothing in particular. He simply continued on his way.
He wasn’t extending any particular mercy; it was just that the feeling he had of driving Puppet’s spirit to its limits had suddenly evaporated.
Seeing Puppet, drooping lifelessly like his namesake, alongside Unyielding Knee and the past Lilith, simply left him with that kind of feeling.
So Oliver decided to let them go. After all, if he wanted, he could always capture them again.
It was an arrogant thought, but one well within Oliver’s current capabilities.
And so, even though he had caught the fish intent on causing an end, he simply let it go and walked out of the Tower of Magic.
"Is it done?”
As he exited the Tower of Magic, which had been left in disarray by his battle with Puppet, Kevin approached him with a question.
"Ah."
Oliver involuntarily let out a sound as he saw Kevin and the numerous wizards, Tower students, and hired hands gathered around him.
During his fight with Puppet, he had sent them outside to avoid interference; only now did he realize he’d confined them just outside the Tower.
There were so many of them—formal wizards, students, hired hands—that they formed a near-circle around the Tower, all staring at Oliver.
It seemed he’d experienced something similar in the past.
The first time he came to the Tower of Magic, and again when he became Professor Kevin’s assistant, or when it was revealed he was the dark magician Dave.
Each time, countless eyes had looked at him.
The difference was that back then, those eyes held suspicion, disdain, and hostility. Now, they reflected tension, fear, submission, and reverence.
The kind of look one would give an overwhelmingly powerful being with an incomprehensible strength.
Thus, they dared not say a word, merely awaiting Oliver’s response to Kevin’s question.
Had he captured Puppet?
Unfortunately, their expectations would soon be disappointed.
"It’s finished, but I lost him."
"Puppet?”
"Yes, due to my lack of ability, I made a mistake.”
Oliver lied shamelessly about letting Puppet go.
The countless people around him weren’t entirely unaware of this, either.
After all, they had witnessed the blinding white light erupting from the center of the Tower of Magic.
In that instant, which was too brief to even be called a moment, that light had engulfed all of Landa and miraculously turned the army of the dead, who had been invading the entire city, into ashes.
Bypassing even the process of burning to ash.
It was a miracle, a phenomenon far beyond the realm of magic, and they were convinced, naturally, that it had been the work of Dave, the woodcutter.
Just as people believe in miracles when faced with the impossible.
And Oliver let Puppet go? No matter how they looked at it, there was no conclusion other than that he was lying. And that conclusion brought suspicion.
What was his true reason for releasing Puppet?
As doubt and fear took root in the hearts of the Tower’s people, Kevin spoke up.
"I see. I understand.”
That he believed Oliver’s words. Or rather, he was choosing to believe Oliver’s lie.
Oliver, however, seemed indifferent to Kevin’s thoughts.
As evidence, Oliver showed no particular reaction to Kevin’s answer and instead stared intently at his left side.
Under the weight of his gaze, those standing beside Kevin began stepping aside one by one.
Soon after, Yareli Ice-eye and her grandmother, Tilda Ice-eye, who had been hidden behind a wall of people, came into view.
Intriguingly, Tilda was lying on the ground, her hands frozen, while Yareli restrained her.
Considering their familial relationship as grandmother and granddaughter, it was an odd sight. But seeing them, Oliver understood what had happened.
Nonetheless, he asked, wanting to hear it from her directly.
"Did you subdue her, Yareli?”
"...Yes.”
“Didn’t you save her inside the Tower?”
When the military magicians had been absorbed by Puppet’s summoned flesh, Tilda had nearly been taken too.
At that critical moment, Yareli had intervened just in time, allowing Tilda to survive.
Yet here she was, now subduing her own grandmother. The reason was clear.
"My grandmother tried to attack the Archive. So I restrained her.”
Indeed. When Puppet’s flesh began absorbing the surrounding magicians, Oliver had sent everyone outside to prevent them from being caught up in it.
And yet, amidst the chaos, Tilda had attempted to ambush Kevin.
He could understand it. With her alliance with Puppet exposed and then abandoned by him, her only option to survive was to seize the Archive’s power—for herself, and for her family.
However, her plan had ended with her own granddaughter restraining her.
Still struggling to accept reality, Tilda cursed at her granddaughter with frozen hands.
"How dare you...! You—”
“Shh.”
"...!”
At Oliver’s gesture of silence, Tilda fell silent.
Having quieted Tilda, Oliver turned to Yareli with a question.
"Impressive. Did you not love your grandmother?”
"...I do love her, but this is the right thing to do. I must handle the sins my family has committed.”
Yareli’s words carried genuine intent. She wished to atone for her grandmother’s sins on behalf of her family.
Her act of subduing Tilda was part of that commitment.
Hearing her answer, Oliver nodded silently and resumed his steps.
As everyone moved aside in silence to let him pass, Kevin asked him a question.
“What do you plan to do now?”
“I intend to follow your advice, Professor Kevin. I want to find out what I truly wish to do.”
...
After answering Kevin’s question, Oliver left and started walking to the hotel Lilith had mentioned.
He knew its location and could have teleported there instantly, yet he chose to walk on foot, taking in his surroundings.
Perhaps he was afraid of meeting Kent too soon.
At any rate, Oliver took a detour to observe the city of Landa.
Nothing much to note.
Landa, as if still at war, remained utterly silent.
People were shut inside their homes, leaving the streets so deserted that it resembled a ghost town.
It was a strange sight in a city as vast and densely populated as Landa, a sort of miracle in itself.
Not that there was no sign of life.
Occasionally, some peered out through their windows at Oliver as he passed.
Most were ordinary citizens, unaware that he was Dave the woodcutter, but, whether through instinct or survival instinct, they sensed he was not just any person and retreated indoors.
Of course, in a city paralyzed by fear, a lone figure walking down the street would naturally seem strange enough.
“Wouldn’t you agree, ladies?”
Oliver stopped in front of an alleyway as he spoke.
Inside the alley stood Pandora in her corpse doll and Eve in her fake body.
Both had their heads lowered, hands politely clasped, as if acknowledging their guilt.
They had, after all, failed in the task he’d entrusted to them: locating and capturing Lilith hiding in Landa while he was dealing with Puppet.
“We’re sorry, Father.”
"We failed in our mission.”
Pandora and Eve apologized.
However, Oliver's response was indifferent.
“It’s fine. It was just a favor I asked of you. But calling it a failure is misleading.”
“...”
“...”
“Failure is when skill or circumstance fails to align, not when you release someone of your own volition. That’s more of an abandonment, don’t you think?”
Pandora and Eve closed their eyes, silently acknowledging the truth in his words.
Lilith had indeed been hiding in the corpse doll made from her brother, the flesh chef's sister, Gretel, wielding formidable power. Yet before that, Lilith was one of the Eves, an artificial intelligence of the World Tree.
If Pandora and Eve had joined forces, they could have subdued Lilith—by initiating direct contact and asserting control as Eves.
After all, Lilith was the weakest among the three Eves, being the smallest shard of the original Eve whom Oliver had shattered long ago, who had barely survived by absorbing her sisters.
Understanding this, Oliver had entrusted Lilith’s capture to Pandora and Eve. Now, he realized from their demeanor that they’d chosen to release her.
"Did you pity her?” Oliver asked, not as an accusation but out of genuine curiosity.
Pandora and Eve, who had anticipated this question, nodded immediately.
"Yes, we are sorry.”
“There’s no need to apologize. I let her go too—twice, in fact.”
Once during the theft of the Tower’s project, and once just now. He’d let her go twice in total, partly out of personal guilt. Eve, Pandora, and Lilith had been born from a single irritable flick of his hand, abandoned to fend for themselves.
While Pandora and Eve were large enough shards to sustain themselves, Lilith was not so fortunate, facing numerous hardships until she met Puppet, who enabled her survival.
In a way, Oliver had abandoned her.
Though he hadn’t known it at the time, the orphanage children he’d left behind had endured a similar fate. It was a hard truth he could not excuse.
That was why he had no intention of blaming Pandora and Eve; he was only curious.
"May I ask why you felt pity? Was it because she is an Eve, like you? Or because she is your sister?”
After a brief moment of thought, Pandora replied.
"That was part of it, but the deeper reason is that we almost shared Lilith’s fate, Father.”
Eve then continued in her stead.
“Before Dave divided us, we were originally one. We could have suffered Lilith’s fate ourselves. We escaped her fate purely by chance.”
Her words held weight, especially since Eve herself had once been captured by Seamus and the Enjoyment faction.
What if, back then, luck hadn’t been on Oliver and Eve’s side, and they hadn’t managed to escape Seamus’s grasp?
Eve might have been reduced to a mere calculating machine for stock predictions, all due to a twist of fate.
Eve continued speaking.
“That’s why we pitied her. She is another version of us, our sister. And also…”
Pandora added.
“We pitied her because she seemed genuinely concerned for Puppet.”
Oliver observed the emotions within Pandora and Eve.
Both were sincere. It seemed that Lilith had truly worried about Puppet in his time of crisis.
After all, if Puppet had felt a sense of kinship toward Lilith, it was only natural she might feel the same toward him.
Having heard their answer, Oliver nodded slightly, as if he’d understood, and resumed walking down his path.
“Father.”
“Dave.”
“Yes, what is it?”
“What shall we do now?”
Pandora and Eve requested guidance on their next task. While this was a natural request from their perspective, it posed a rather troubling question for Oliver.
For he, too, was uncertain about what he should do—or perhaps, knew but was reluctant to face it.
After a brief pause, Oliver replied.
“Well... I don’t know either. Just do whatever you’d like.”
With those parting words, Oliver resumed his journey.
Before long, he arrived at the entrance of the Cross King Hotel, where Lilith had mentioned.
The area outside was just as empty as the streets, and the hotel lobby was no exception.
As if fleeing from an unseen disaster, the hotel lobby was devoid of life, save for one elderly gentleman.
That elderly man, alone at his post, was none other than Charlie Beasley, the hotel’s owner and Puppet’s disciple.
Oliver approached him and greeted him.
“Hello, Mr. Beasley. I’m here to meet Mr. Kent. Would you please show me the way?”