Miss Hebe Is Charging Through the Lostbelts! [31]

“Let us begin with the Ennead.”

Hebe’s tone was calm, as though she were not discussing gods at all, but what to have for dinner.

“Whether in Heliopolis, Memphis, or Thebes, there is only one accepted account of the Ennead: they created this world and laid the foundation for everything we know.”

Hebe rubbed her cheek as she spoke. “That is what the priests say. But the priests also know that the beast gods once fought the Ennead over the fate of the old era. In the end, the beast gods were defeated and lost their authority, their power, their dignity, and even their wisdom.”

At some point, a vast, warm black cloud had appeared around them. Anubis listened quietly to Hebe’s words.

The jackal’s eyes were wet. It lowered its eyelids slightly.

Nitocris said nothing.

The beast gods of old had fallen from the Wasteland. Bastet had, and so had Anubis. They formed contracts with humans, relying on faith to preserve their status, wisdom, and power.

Because of that, Ozymandias valued the beast gods. He believed these beasts could share his suffering and extend his rule.

In that process, the Ennead appeared somewhat contradictory. On one hand, they brought down disasters known as the Calamities of the Ennead upon Egypt as punishment. On the other, they turned a blind eye to the Red King’s attempt to stand as their equal.

Anyone could have realized this problem with the slightest thought, but no one dared think in that direction.

In the previous simulations, whenever Hebe steered the conversation even slightly toward this topic, someone with ulterior motives would seize her on the spot and execute her then and there.

Nitocris’s gaze shifted faintly. She met Hebe’s deep green eyes and thought that the Red King truly must have been blind to grant dual authority to such a treacherous minister. Yet she had no desire at all to interrupt Hebe. Nitocris widened her eyes. She wanted to keep listening. She wanted to hear this treacherous minister’s admonition.

And so, under deliberate indulgence, words of utter treason flowed slowly like still water.

“The Red King deceived us. The Ennead never intended to destroy Egypt. In fact, in their eyes, whether the Egyptians believed in them or not was nothing more than a trivial matter, as insignificant as dust and sand.”

Nitocris’s hands clenched on her knees. In a dry voice, she argued, “The Ennead did bring down disasters, and they destroyed three-quarters of the Egyptian people. That is irrefutable proof. Even His Majesty Ozymandias’s beloved Nefertiti died in those disasters. If the Ennead did not care about Egypt, why would they bring down such calamities?”

Hebe smiled.

There was no warmth in that smile. It was so cold it frightened the heart.

“Forgive my presumption, but let us take you as an example. In your eyes, which carries greater weight: the lives and deaths of mortals, or the rise and fall of dynasties?”

Nitocris was a pharaoh far older than Ozymandias. Judging by the divinity of Anubis, she came from the era of the First Dynasty; judging by the name “Nitocris,” even that placed her in the era of the Sixth Dynasty.

She had seen mortals live and die in the blink of an eye, and she had seen dynasties rise and fall as naturally as river waters swelling and receding.

“So long as it is a proper death, and one meets one’s destined end properly.” Nitocris took a deep breath. “Then, in my view, the lives and deaths of mortals and the rise and fall of dynasties carry equal weight.”

Hebe spread her hand. “The Ennead think the same.”

Nitocris froze.

Yes. If even she was like this, then in the eyes of the Ennead, what did Egypt amount to? Gorgeous palaces, splendid temples, obelisks boasting of martial glory… how much weight could any of these hold in the eyes of the Consuls?

Did Egypt truly possess the standing to warrant nine Consuls bringing down calamities together to destroy it?

If matters had truly reached that point, then by what right could Egypt have survived under such circumstances?

The Calamities of the Ennead had exterminated three-quarters of the Egyptian people. Was it because the remaining Egyptians were so noble that even the Consuls had to look upon them with favor?

Then only one answer remained: for the sake of some unspeakable secret, Ozymandias had deliberately covered up the truth and heaped all the blame onto the Ennead.

To think… it could be so absurd… Nitocris’s fingers trembled, but she stubbornly said nothing.

“Then what caused the disasters?”

Nitocris did not want Hebe to be able to answer that question. She even hoped Hebe would never know the answer. When she asked it, part of her even longed to see Hebe stumped by it.

Do not say it. Do not say it… The pharaoh pleaded in her heart.

But things did not go as she wished.

Hebe lowered her eyelids. “Just as ripples appear on the water after a stone is thrown, and traces remain after soil is dug up, anything that has happened will inevitably leave marks behind. The fact that heroes of Daylight status can condense Marks works on the same principle.”

She thought of Andoain’s performance in Frontier: Cape of Birds, and of everything she had learned through so many simulations.

So the answer was actually very simple—the nine Consuls had, for some reason, clashed with one another in the Wasteland, and the aftershocks had produced enormous effects in the present world.

Because the Consuls governed different domains, the disasters also displayed different properties. That was what the Calamities of the Ennead were.

And immediately after that, Hebe pointed out an even deadlier problem.

Different Consuls governed different Paths, and those Paths could even come into severe conflict.

For example, the Path of Authority governed by February Consul: Scar-Father and the Path of Calamity governed by August Consul: Remnant Wolf were utterly incompatible, forming an extremely harsh opposition.

A ruler of the Path of Authority would spare no effort in suppressing and destroying the rioters of the Path of Calamity. Likewise, walkers of the Path of Calamity would do everything in their power to overthrow the rule of the Path of Authority and destroy that ruler’s kingdom.

Arthur and Morgan were precisely that kind of opposition.

Therefore, when disasters carrying the power-natures of the Ennead appeared in the same region at the same time, they would first grind against one another, then cancel one another out.

In the many simulations before this, Hebe had conducted such experiments more than once.

She had personally drawn in multiple disasters, but the destruction she imagined had not appeared.

To make these disasters cooperate in encircling and annihilating the Egyptians? Unless someone was holding a ritual, deliberately extending the duration of the disasters, expanding their scope of influence, and adjusting the order in which they appeared… and who besides the Red King Ozymandias had the ability to do that?

In the deathly silence, Nitocris felt her breathing grow more and more strained. What brought her even greater pain and torment were Hebe’s words.

Nitocris realized that long before Hebe had said any of this, she had already begun to doubt the Red King’s actions.

That dissatisfaction and struggle had not faded across the long years. Instead, like a smoldering fire, they had only burned more and more fiercely.

And within that gray despair, Hebe calmly reached out and brushed the corner of Nitocris’s eye, wiping away a cold tear.

I… am crying…?

Nitocris lifted her hand blankly, realizing that at some unknown point, her sealed heart had already made its judgment.

“Everything will be all right,” Hebe said softly. “Everything will be all right, and everything will be in order.”

Hebe’s voice was not raised, nor was it impassioned.

Her eyes revealed a transcendent calm, and in Nitocris’s eyes, that calm became a certainty that left her speechless.

In that instant, Nitocris almost wanted to reach out and smooth away the faint crease between Hebe’s brows.

In that instant, Nitocris also repeated Hebe’s promise over and over again in her heart.

This is a fan translation of 赫柏小姐正在杀出异闻带！ by 青散人 Rights to the original work belong to the creator. Please support them by exploring their original work or sharing it with others if you can. Thank you for reading and supporting my efforts to bring this story to a wider audience!