Roselle outmaneuvered you? Why do I get the feeling you two struck a deal? After all, his Knowledge Emperor Beyonder Characteristic is still in your hands.
As Abner muttered to himself, Yaluolan continued:
"Roselle must have received guidance from the Calamity Seal. He came to me with God's Casket and asked me to help him open it...
"God's Casket was an important item the Elf King entrusted to Hosenam to take to the Western Continent. Aside from her and me, only you, when you were the God of Luck, knew how to open it.
"Roselle offered me three things. First was the Knowledge Emperor Beyonder Characteristic. He promised to give it to me after becoming the Black Emperor.
"He kept that promise. Even though he was besieged and killed soon after becoming a god, he still fulfilled it in a rather conspicuous way.
"I suspect he did that deliberately to draw the Hidden Sage's attention to me and ease the pressure on his daughter.
"Second, he prepared the ritual I needed to advance to Knowledge Emperor...
"But I suspect it may be a trap. I have no grounds for that suspicion, and I can't even foresee the outcome, but I trust my intuition.
"That is why I still haven't become a Sequence 1.
"Third, he said he'd found a clue to the Book of Calamity through Prophecy: the precise time your Trial Temple would appear.
"At the time, I had a premonition that I might face a predicament in the future, one I might need to overcome by merging with my other half. So I accepted his terms.
"But Roselle played a word game... After Latitia entered your temple on my orders, she did find a clue to the Book of Calamity...
"Except Roselle had already severed her connection to