Gospel of Blood

“What?”

Charlotte put down her wine glass and immediately looked up.

Seeing her strong reaction, Nice was slightly taken aback and then weakly repeated.

“The… the Savior… just some Northern tribes worshipping a legend…”

“A legend? What legend, and what kind of savior?”

Charlotte continued to ask.

Nice shrugged.

“I don’t remember clearly. It was hundreds of years ago. I only heard about these tribes from some Northerners while I was traveling… I was quite surprised because it was the first time I heard about it.”

As he spoke, Nice glanced at Charlotte, somewhat curiously.

“Lady Charlotte, are you really interested in this? Did what I said awaken some of your past memories?”

Charlotte hesitated for a moment and nodded slightly.

“Sort of.”

Nice immediately became interested.

His eyes lit up, and the amber-colored cat eyes were full of curiosity.

However, before he could continue to ask, Charlotte had already given him a new command.

“Alright, I know more or less what has happened in the past few months. Go and summon Yurst. It’s time to respond to the conditions proposed by the Nez Clan.”

Seeing that Charlotte was unwilling to talk more, Nice had to hold back his curiosity.

He nodded and said, “Yes”, before leaving with some regret.

After Nice left, Charlotte’s expression fell into deep thought.

The Savior…

Whether it was her sensitivity or something else, this title was hard for her not to associate with the “title” she received from the Free City during her second time travel.

Adding to that the sudden emergence of hundreds of thousands of new believers upon her return this time, it was really hard for her not to make some strange connections…

These hundreds of thousands of believers…

Could it be that after her second time travel, the faith she left behind in history resulted in this residual belief?

This idea might sound a bit narcissistic.

But with so many coincidences coming together, it was really hard not to speculate like this.

Although Sebastian was quite capable, turning three thousand believers into nearly fifty thousand in four months was too exaggerated. However, if these believers “already existed”, it would be different.

“No matter what, I just need to ‘take a look’ to know.”

Looking at the personal status displayed by the Gospel of Blood, Charlotte muttered to herself.

A God can project their vision through their connection with their believers.

Charlotte, who possessed the Gospel of Blood and had become a Demigod herself, could do the same.

In her mental world, these hundreds of thousands of new believers were as dazzling as a galaxy. By selecting a few to project her vision, she could find out what was going on.

Thinking of this, Charlotte decisively immersed herself in her consciousness again. The Gospel of Blood radiated brilliance, and Charlotte’s consciousness returned to the Dark Night Castle. She sat on the Blood Throne and summoned her faith network.

Dots of starlight spread in the castle, and a sea of stars appeared before Charlotte. The starlight of this sea was red with gold, more magnificent than the crimson sea representing the bloodborne.

This was the manifestation of the light of faith.

Charlotte’s gaze fell on her faith network, and she quickly distinguished the hundreds of thousands of new believers.

The reason was simple: these believers were too unique in her eyes.

Unlike those who existed before her slumber.

The believers she previously had were brilliant and clear in Charlotte’s perception. She could clearly feel her connection with them.

But these hundreds of thousands of new believers were different.

In Charlotte’s perception, her connection with them was very vague, as if there was a layer of gauze in between, or like there was no real effective connection formed.

After sensing carefully, she knew what was going on. These believers were not truly integrated into her faith network.

This was interesting.

Believers become believers because they are integrated into the God’s faith network, establishing a “connection” with the God’s power and receiving the “protection” of the God’s power.

Without being integrated into the faith network, without establishing a connection with her power, how could they be believers?

It was like students in a school.

Each student needs to enroll, have a student record, to be a student of the school, and can attend classes and study.

But suddenly, a group of “students” without records appeared in Charlotte’s “school.”

They never enrolled, there were no records of them in the school, but they suddenly appeared in the school. You didn’t even know how they got there. Moreover, they had their own seats in the classrooms and beds in the dormitories. They could attend classes and interact with the “teachers.”

But they just didn’t have student records.

They never enrolled, there were no records, and they never submitted any assignments.

So the question is, where did these “students” come from?

If it weren’t for the second “time travel”, Charlotte would definitely be baffled, but now, she had some guesses…

“Could it be… these believers were left behind by the influence of my time travel into history?”

“My time travel… could it not only complete the original history but also be altering it?”

Charlotte couldn’t help but have such thoughts.

After all, if she really had such a group of believers, why did they not appear before, but only after her second time travel, when she accepted the title of “Savior”?

Of course, this was all her speculation.

Charlotte still had to personally “take a look” to determine whether these believers were indeed the descendants of the Free City-State who believed in the “Savior.”

With this thought, Charlotte began searching among the “starlight.”

“The intensity of faith determines the brightness of the light. Since I’m planning to investigate, I should choose the one with the strongest faith light. This way, it will be easier to establish a connection and consume less divine power.”

Charlotte pondered.

These followers hadn’t fully established a connection with her faith network, making it more challenging and consuming more power to project her vision compared to using the faith network.

Naturally, she needed to choose the most efficient method.

Charlotte’s mental power spread out, searching, and finally… she found the brightest light deep in the sea of stars.

Then, her divine power burst forth, and she projected her consciousness over…

As her divine power spread, Charlotte felt her consciousness slowly rise, then swiftly move north.

The next moment, she “saw” an unfamiliar scene.

It was a magnificent canyon along a strait.

Majestic mountains covered in snow resembled the mane of a heavenly beast, stretching endlessly toward the sky.

Glaciers on the peaks sparkled with a crystalline blue, flowing down to form roaring waterfalls that poured into a deep blue fjord.

Dense, ancient evergreen forests seemed to stretch to the world’s end, with sharp-eyed hawks soaring above the treetops and stags and brown bears wandering through the dense woods.

Beyond the forest, a rugged rocky coastline extended like an endless serpentine line into the distance, with tall wooden walls and fortress towers surrounding a village where smoke rose from the chimneys.

The houses in the village were roughly built from wood and covered with thick thatch. By the shore, wooden docks were visible, with several imposing, slender warships moored there.

Unlike the sailboats of Castell, these slender warships were slightly smaller and carved with lifelike dragon head sculptures. The hulls were adorned with mysterious runes and intricate designs.

Charlotte instantly recognized the origin of this village.

If she was not mistaken, this should be a traditional Northern tribe that once doubled as “pirates.”

Just like the Viking pirates of Earth’s Middle Ages who terrified Western Europeans, there were Northern pirates in the world of Myria who, hundreds of years ago, struck fear into the hearts of the Yunette people, making their children cry.

During that pirate-ridden era, northern people, with their superior seafaring skills and formidable strength, often raided the coasts of Starfall and Crescent Kingdom, plundering immense wealth. Some pirates even settled directly on the coasts of the two countries or invaded them.

Even the current royal family of Starfall, the Roman family, if traced back through their genealogy, were descendants of Northern pirates.

Though in the past century, with the development of magical technology and alchemical industries, Yunette cities had become increasingly difficult for poorly equipped pirates to breach, leading to the decline of Northern pirates, many of these tribes still existed in the Northern Grand Duchy.

Of course, they no longer engaged in piracy, having turned to hunting sea monsters instead. Nowadays, they are more like wandering sea monster hunters.

Combining her knowledge from books about the North, Charlotte quickly identified the village.

But a question arose: why was her vision in the sky?

Charlotte was puzzled, but… the next moment, she understood why.

Accompanied by a dragon’s roar, her aerial view rapidly descended toward the village.

Charlotte suddenly realized.

The follower she was “watching” was on a dragon’s back. Charlotte slightly moved her divine power, and her vision quickly expanded, soon seeing the follower clearly.

It was a girl who looked about fifteen or sixteen years old. She wore a long robe made of brown burlap, covered with simple leather armor. A helmet decorated with feathers adorned her head, and she was draped with various ornaments—a typical Northern pirate outfit.

Beneath her was a majestic wyvern, which looked quite young, likely having just reached adulthood.

“Eudoxia! We’re going back!”

The girl patted the wyvern’s back and shouted a name that nearly made Charlotte lose her composure.

The wyvern let out a long roar, circled the village twice, and then slowly descended.

As the wyvern landed, the village erupted into chaos, with people hurriedly avoiding it.

“Astrid! What are you doing! Get down here right now!”

A stern voice echoed, tinged with anger.

Upon hearing this voice, the people instinctively made way, revealing a Northern warrior in a black robe with a bushy beard in Charlotte’s vision.

“Father!”

The girl exclaimed with joy upon seeing the warrior.

She leaped off the wyvern’s back and excitedly said.

“Father! Did you see? I can now fly well with Eudoxia! I can also join the fights and hunt sea monsters for the village like the men!”

“Nonsense! Hunting sea monsters is something even the strongest warriors in the village prepare for with their lives at stake. What are you, a girl, doing meddling in such matters!”

The Northern warrior’s face darkened, and he reprimanded her sternly.

After speaking, seeing the girl’s clearly unheeding, excited expression, the warrior sighed deeply and said,

“Astrid, stop thinking about going to sea. The envoy from Castell and the church representatives have arrived in the North. I’ve already discussed this with the elders and the chiefs of various tribes. We’ve decided to accept the Archduke’s invitation and represent the alliance at the banquet to be held in Winterfort.”

Hearing the warrior’s words, the girl’s smile froze.

Her expression changed, and anger painted her delicate face.

“Why! Why would you accept the Archduke’s invitation? Are you really going to accept his harsh conditions and abandon our proud faith and kin?”