Dear, It's Time to Take Your Medicine!

But trying to drive her from the position of Saintess?

How could it possibly be that simple? Rosweisse was not the kind of person to sit still and await death. Over the years she had served as Saintess, the forces she had gathered were not much weaker than the Pope's. If Augustus truly wanted to make a move against her, then she would have to show him just how much influence she, the Saintess, possessed.

Rosweisse saw herself in the mirror, her cheeks twisted grotesquely by fury, her eyes as red as blood.

Ah, no.

She looked far too ugly, far too inelegant like this.

If Lord Jello saw her as she was now, he would surely be disappointed, wouldn't he? Rosweisse picked up the photograph from the floor and gently held it against her chest, her gaze overflowing with longing.

Just then, a figure suddenly burst into the room.

When he saw the room's complete mess, the newcomer was immediately startled. "What happened here, Your Holiness?"

Rosweisse lifted her eyelids and glanced at him. It was Douglas, the cardinal in charge of the Holy Church's Heresy Inquisition. He was the Holy Church's second most powerful figure, second only to the Pope. In name, he stood on equal footing with the Saintess, but in actual authority, he far surpassed her.

Yet for some reason, Douglas treated Rosweisse with extreme respect.

Nominally, they were allies, but Douglas had clearly placed himself one rank below her of his own accord.

"It's nothing..." Rosweisse forced a faint smile onto her face. "I was merely looking for something. Cardinal Douglas, is there something you need?"

Douglas was doubtful. This room truly did not look like the sort of state that could result from searching for something.

But since Her Holiness did not wish to speak of it, Douglas would never press the matter.

He would only steadfastly follow in Her Holiness's footsteps and obey her commands, because a bloodline unlike any other flowed within her.

"It's like this. Maggie and Sana..."

"They're dead..."

What?

The bit of calm Rosweisse had just regained immediately turned to irritation once more. She sprang to her feet, and even the flesh on her face kept twitching.

Damn it. Today... had truly been terrible.

Elsewhere, Qin Chu, who had been meditating and cultivating at the training grounds, suddenly opened his eyes.

His true body had already replaced the illusion.

This whole day had really been busy enough.

Still, the results had been quite good.

And today, another reward was waiting for Qin Chu: Ekaterina.

He rose to his feet and restrained his strength to an extremely low level, making it seem like he had only gained the tiniest breakthrough after an afternoon of cultivation.

When Qin Chu reached the entrance to the training grounds, the guard immediately sensed the faint, intermittent heat emanating from his body.

"Congratulations, Lord Hero, on your successful cultivation."

As expected of Lord Hero. After just one afternoon of cultivation, he had already made an obvious breakthrough. Unlike himself, who had spent nearly a month merely sensing elemental power.

Qin Chu scratched his hair somewhat awkwardly. "That was all thanks to Ekaterina's guidance. Besides, I've only just begun. I'm still far from enough... By the way, where is Miss Ekaterina?"

He knowingly asked:

"She said she had something urgent to do... Has she not returned yet?"

The guard's expression looked somewhat strange. "Uh, if Lord Hero is looking for Miss Ekaterina, you can go look in the tavern..."

Seeing Qin Chu's face full of confusion, the guard added, "For Miss Ekaterina, going to a tavern to drink is the most important thing there is."

"I'll call some brothers over to accompany you..."

"There's no need. I'll go by myself this time." Qin Chu shook his head in refusal.

The guard became somewhat flustered. "How can that be? You're the Hero. What if..."

"All the Demonic Beasts in the city have been cleared out by me. Besides, I'm going to the tavern to find Miss Ekaterina. Miss Ekaterina will protect me then, so nothing will happen." Qin Chu stretched lazily, loosening his body. "You know, I've been in the training grounds all afternoon. I just want to go out and get some air..."

"Besides, Knight Orders patrol everywhere in the Imperial City. If anything really happens, I'll ask the Knight Order for help."

"Oh, right..." Qin Chu pulled out a one-thousand-Mana note from his clothes and handed it to the guard at the gate. "You've been standing guard here all day. It's been hard on you, so treat yourself..."

When he saw that large one-thousand-Mana note, the guard's eyes suddenly lit up.

Qin Chu could clearly see the guard's Adam's apple bob. He seemed to be trying to control the trembling of his hands...

One thousand Mana. Though as a Royal Guard, his salary was much higher than an ordinary soldier's, one thousand Mana was still equivalent to his normal income for an entire year.

"Lord Hero, you came to save our Skyvault Continent. We should be the ones giving you money..."

Though he said that, he ultimately could not control that damned right hand as it stuffed the one-thousand-Mana note into his pocket.

"Oh, there's a small gate over on the left. The guard stationed there isn't on duty today because his wife is giving birth..."

"Also, my shift isn't over yet. I'll hold out until the midnight change of guard."

The corners of Qin Chu's lips rose into an incomparably brilliant smile.

"Oh, thank you, sir. Your character fills me with admiration. You truly are a kind-hearted person."

After leaving the training grounds, Qin Chu followed the guard's directions and headed toward the small gate on the left under cover of night.

His gaze lifted toward the boundless Void.

He could not help recalling the scenes he had glimpsed when he touched Rosweisse's seven scrolls.

What exactly existed within that endless starry sky?

At his strongest during the first run, could those existences have been his opponents?

He did not know. It was a bizarre, twisted realm Qin Chu had never touched before.

But he knew that strength was the foundation of everything.

"Saya, have you finished improving Love That Topples Cities?"

"I just finished. This is a specially improved model, with a tiny difference from the genuine version..."

"I think Ekaterina will make a fine test subject..."

I'm really amazing.

Saya praised herself, intensely curious about what Ekaterina would be transformed into!

The second update is here.

Love That Topples Cities Was a Little Sweet

Orwell Empire, Imperial City!

Beneath two crescent moons overhead, Qin Chu left the palace complex through the side gate.

His destination was a bar called Fire Rose in the Commoners' District.

There were bars in the Nobles' District as well, but Ekaterina had no interest in those places. Prices in the Nobles' District's bars were generally ten, even a hundred times higher than those in the Commoners' District, but that was not why Ekaterina disliked them. With her income, even if she squandered money every day in the Nobles' District, she would never be able to spend it all.

The main thing was that the Nobles' District pursued elegance and nobility. They drank from exquisitely crafted little cups scarcely larger than a thumb. For a woman with Ekaterina's temperament, that was simply torture. Cup after cup went down, yet she could barely taste the alcohol.

Ekaterina still preferred the bars of the Commoners' District. Here, people drank not from little cups, but from bowls... even barrels.

The rye-brewed liquor was spicy enough to burn the throat. In the eyes of the nobility, it was sheer blasphemy against wine tasting, with all elegance and nobility swept away. But to Ekaterina, it was as marvelous as a holy spring.

Lowering his head, Qin Chu opened his panel and checked his attributes.

Level: 39

Class: Hero

Strength: 179

Stamina: 122

Agility: 153

Spirit: 432

Defense: 144

Charm: 6 (average 5, maximum 10)

Every attribute had grown substantially. Sure enough, plundering the power of others was the fastest way to improve one's own strength. Though he was only level thirty-nine, judging by his attributes, he had at least reached the standard of level sixty.

Moreover, that was under the condition that Devouring Demonic Beasts weaker than Qin Chu had suffered a significant reduction in effectiveness. Otherwise, his attributes would have been even more outrageous.

Though he could not compare to true powerhouses, he was more than capable of handling ordinary dangers.

His spiritual power in particular was absurd. Even a level-seventy mage would not possess something so exaggerated.

After touching the scrolls, it had inexplicably increased by several dozen points.

He had no combat skills for the time being.

As for magic, aside from the thirty-six low-level spells and seven intermediate spells Candice had provided, he had also acquired fourteen spells through Devouring various Demonic Beasts, for a total of fifty-seven... or so it should have been. Yet the displayed number was actually fifty-eight.

Besides all the spells Qin Chu knew about, there was one more special, unranked spell... Holy Light.

He had also obtained this spell after touching the scrolls and glimpsing the cage.

As he walked slowly onward, his thoughts drifted back to the seven scrolls.

Though those seven scrolls were sinister and strange, and the scenes they revealed had made Qin Chu's hair stand on end, one thing was certain: the seven scrolls recorded an immensely mysterious and powerful force.

If he could comprehend those scrolls, his strength would surely rise at a furious pace. He might even become stronger than he had been during the first run.

But the possibility that he might go mad because of them left Qin Chu wavering.

That did not suit Qin Chu's character.

Having died once already, Qin Chu was somewhat mad, but when faced with fatal danger, he would absolutely keep his distance from it, no matter how abundant the rewards it represented.

By all reason, Qin Chu should never touch those scrolls again. In fact, that was exactly what he had done at first, sealing the seven scrolls inside his storage ring and never looking at them again.

Yet the impulse to study those scrolls and obtain even greater strength always sprouted in his heart without warning.

Qin Chu knew that this was because he had already been contaminated after touching them the first time.

That contamination would always remain, endlessly tempting Qin Chu.

But this contamination was not entirely impossible to resist.

A hazy layer of milky white light gradually emerged around Qin Chu.

As though Holy Light enveloped him.

The agitation deep in his heart, along with his desire to touch the scrolls, was instantly suppressed.

Holy Light!

This was magic he had obtained after touching the scrolls, but it was definitely not power bestowed upon him by the scrolls, because Holy Light gave Qin Chu a feeling completely opposite to the scrolls.

In a daze, a voice seemed to remind him within his mind that Holy Light could suppress the contamination brought by the scrolls.

Come to think of it, when he had first seen the scrolls, his instincts had warned him of danger and he had not wanted to touch them. But then he had suddenly heard a gentle voice beside his ear. It was under that voice's guidance that Qin Chu touched the scrolls and saw the enormous cage within the endless Void.

Whose voice had that been?

Qin Chu had asked Saya before, but Saya said she had heard nothing at all.

More and more doubts filled his mind. Ever since being reborn, he had encountered far too many things he had never noticed in the first run.

This world was far more complicated than he understood.

Shaking his head, Qin Chu temporarily stopped thinking about these matters.

Following Antia Long Street, he slowly headed toward the towering wall in the distance that separated commoners from nobles.

Antia Long Street was named after a noble young lady.

This noble girl named Antia was said to be a legend of the Orwell Empire. She was elegant and beautiful, yet also valiant and skilled in battle.

A thousand years ago, the Orwell Empire had suffered a great crisis. Several surrounding small nations had joined forces to attack, fighting all the way to the Orwell Empire's Imperial City. The emperor at the time was a foolish and incompetent wastrel, fond of beauty and indulgent toward his close ministers. Even when the enemy army was about to breach the Imperial City, he still believed they were merely barbarian rabble, easily annihilated with the casual deployment of a few troops.

At the critical moment, it was Miss Antia who stepped forward, calling upon the nobles, as well as the royal princesses and princes with ambition who were unwilling to see their homeland fall, to hand over their private soldiers and temporarily form an army.