"How co you two are here?"
Just as Hilia and Benovia were preparing to head over to Lake Beia, a voice called out. Turning around, they saw it was Regis, the school’s flying class instructor.
"Hello, Mr. Regis. We’re just here to check on Beia Village," Benovia replied first.
"And to see how polluted Lake Beia is," Hilia added.
Regis paused for a mont, then rembered that Hilia had been the one to notice the situation here and report it to Alina. That’s how they were alerted in the first place.
"The pollution here is really severe. All the villagers have temporarily left—right now they’re probably in Xue Shan Town," Regis said.
"I see." Benovia looked disappointed, but quickly regained composure.
"You shouldn’t linger here. The Deep Sea Mutual Aid Association just held a massive summoning ceremony, trying to call in a Sea Successor from the deep sea. You’re not strong enough—it’s dangerous to be here."
"The pollution’s intensity is sothing we can handle. Since we’re already here, why not deal with it before heading back?" Hilia said.
Regis chuckled, "Confidence is good, but overconfidence is blind. If the pollution was easy to fix, we wouldn’t have needed to evacuate the villagers to Xue Shan Town."
"We can’t resolve the root cause of the pollution, but we can stabilize it, so the impact remains limited just to Lake Beia," Hilia replied confidently.
Rose had already told her exactly what to do.
Last ti, they dug out the Summoning Array and set up a backdoor, enough to keep the pollution shockwaves contained within the lake water, unable to spread beyond.
Beside them, Benovia looked at Hilia in surprise.
Sothing even the ntors couldn’t fix—she could?
Although she hated to admit it, Benovia had always rated Hilia the lowest among all Holy Daughter candidates, believing she was the least likely to beco the Holy Daughter.
Her vision and ideas were too immature, and she didn’t have substantial economic support.
If Hilia really could solve a pollution problem the ntors couldn’t, Benovia would have to rethink her opinion.
Every candidate had their own talents.
"It’s not that I don’t trust you, but you saw it for yourself—even stray aftershocks caused you two to fall from your flying device. The current shockwave at Lake Beia is ten tis stronger than those aftershocks," Regis shook his head.
"But we have you here, Mr. Regis. If you don’t believe , you can ask Ms. Alina or Mr. Blake and see what they say."
Hilia found Ms. Alina much easier to talk to—even Mr. Blake was willing to let her try after she proposed the idea, though it was Rose who ended up pitching in. Still, the results were good, weren’t they?
But Regis was much less willing to take risks.
"Bothering the principal over this—if nothing happens to you, I’m the one who gets punished," Regis wasn’t at all convinced Hilia could stabilize the pollution. He just wanted these "big shots" to leave quickly. If anything happened here, all his assets combined wouldn’t make up for it.
"Then I’ll contact the principal myself."
Hilia opened her wristband’s projection, deliberately showing Regis as she accessed Blake’s contact and dialed.
[No Star Spirit Network in current area, please connect to Star Spirit Network before dialing.]
Hilia: "..."
She’d forgotten—there was no Star Spirit Network here.
This was awkward.
"Forget it, let’s go to Xue Shan Town and look for Marina and Jack."
Suppressing the pollution shockwave wasn’t absolutely necessary.
She was here so Rose could confirm the summoning level and estimate how soon the Sea Successor white whale would arrive.
While they were hit by the shockwave, Rose had already made her judgnt. Handling the pollution was rely to prevent Beia Village from being contaminated.
But since the villagers were gone, there wasn’t much reason anymore.
Just ntion it—if they agreed, she’d suppress it; if not, they’d leave.
Benovia knew she couldn’t handle pollution at this level. Hearing Hilia suggest leaving, she nodded and patted the downcast Holy Winged Unicorn.
The unicorn perked up. Once both were mounted, it let out a shrill neigh, ready to head back to Xue Shan Town.
At that mont, Regis called out to them.
"Wait a second."
"Is there sothing else, Mr. Regis?"
"Just now—was that Mr. Blake’s personal star number?"
Star number refers to one’s personal Star Spirit Network number.
"Not sure. Mr. Blake gave it to , so I just noted it down."
Hilia showed the number on her wristband.
Regis compared it with his own wristband, confirming it was genuine.
Blake’s personal star number wasn’t sothing anyone could record or dial. To appear on soone’s wristband, Blake had to whitelist their star number first.
Only a few had Blake’s personal star number. Regis, as captain of the Law Enforcent Team, needed it for direct ergencies. To make sure public contact wouldn’t fail in urgent situations, Blake had given him the personal star number.
He didn’t stop Hilia earlier as he was checking his own wristband to verify its authenticity.
Once confird, he changed his mind.
"Being recognized by Mr. Blake ans this Holy Daughter candidate is exceptional. To gain the principal’s recognition while still in the first tier ans there’s only one possibility."
Regis thought about Blake’s weak points—runes and arrays.
And considered Hilia’s confidence in suppressing the pollution.
It made sense.
After his deduction, Regis said, "Since you’ve been approved by Mr. Blake, why not give it a try?"
Hilia was a bit reluctant, but eventually nodded. "Alright, but the pollution there—please help us resist it, Mr. Regis."
"Let’s go."
...
Arriving at Lake Beia, Hilia found the lake was nothing like last ti.
The once clear water was now deep red—soone might think it had connected to the Deep Red Spring.
Surges of deep crimson shockwaves rippled out from the lake, crashing outward.
Along with Regis, there were other school ntors and Holy Court knights. They’d ford a circle around the lake, using Holy Word: Purification to weaken the pollution shocks and reduce the spread.
The lake’s water vapor rose into the air, forming a faint deep-red mist, gradually shrouding the whole lake.
"See? This is why I didn’t want you coming here. But now that you’re here, I’ll make sure you aren’t contaminated. Do what you need to, but don’t stray more than three ters from ."
"Alright. Please co with , Mr. Regis—I need to walk around Lake Beia to set up suppression runes."
"Need any materials?" Regis asked.
"No. I’ll improvise with what’s here," Hilia replied.
She closed her eyes, hands in prayer.
Co forth, great God, dear Lord Rose!
Rose: "..."
Her hands itched.
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