When the plot-skips players into the game world

Aiwass only knew that the last one to die in the curse was the current Prince Andrew. From him onward, there had been no more deaths.

Logically, after the queen's death, the throne should be succeeded by Isabel's father, Prince Albert. He was the first in line to the throne.

Unfortunately, he was a complete washout—at least as far as his royal status was concerned, he was a washout. However, he was also a good person.

In the game's storyline, before the queen's assassination, when he heard that he might have to succeed to the throne, he immediately sneaked away.

Of course, saying he ran away might not be entirely accurate.

Specifically, he went off to enjoy the mountains and streams.

Just like Isabel, Prince Albert also lacked adaptability to the Path of Authority. As a result, even though he was nearly fifty years old this year, he only possessed second-level Authority Force.

He had no interest in the throne at all. He preferred to carry his custom-made guitar and travel around the country like a bard.

He was an outstanding luthier who had modified the shape and sound of the guitar. It was his pride and joy.

He had given up his right to the throne a long time ago.

However, according to the storyline in the game, after the death of Prince Andrew, there were only three heirs left in the royal family:

Prince Albert with second-level Path of Authority and third-level Path of Beauty, Princess Isabel who was timid and reclusive, and Prince John who was not even three years old.

—Clearly, even if Albert had explicitly given up his right of succession, his words didn't count at this time.

So, he just took off. He changed his appearance with a spell and traveled around the country under the alias of Bard "Yunus," relying on tips and performance fees to help the poor and the pitiful. After Avalon's fall, he also went to the Holy Nation. Whenever Isabel was in the group and they met him, his voice was always exaggerated, like he was singing—back then, he was a fairly popular comedic character.

It was later, in a side-story event, that the players learned that "Yunus" was Prince Albert. He wanted to save Isabel who was in danger, but due to his incompetence, he instead brought about bigger trouble—by that time, it was already the 2.0 storyline, Isabel was almost level 40, while Yunus was not even level 30.

After completing the mission, he revealed the truth.

It was only after he had run away that he realized what he had done was not quite right. But he was too afraid to return and could only make amends by doing good deeds to assuage the guilt of shirking his responsibilities. His accumulated popular support among the people also played a significant role when Avalon was restored.

For this reason, Aiwass never even considered the possibility of Albert succeeding to the throne.

—When he learned of Andrew's death, he immediately knew that Isabel would become the next queen. That's why Aiwass was quite happy at that moment, but he dared not show it in front of the Guardian.

"The situation is not that complicated,"

the Guardian said to the two young people, "You should know that the ancestors of the twenty Founding Families are all Angel Envoys of the Silver-Crowned Dragon, right?"

Aiwass and David nodded.

This was common knowledge to them.

"However, as a founder himself, King Lancelot did not ascend to the Dream Realm to become an envoy of the Silver-Crowned Dragon. Instead,"

at that moment, the Guardian's words took Aiwass by surprise, "he is actually still alive. He has always been unable to let go of everything in the Material Realm. His body is preserved in St. Genvieve Chapel, while his soul is honing in the Shadow Nation... essentially a Phantom Demon. Sometimes, he also encounters his colleagues who have already become envoys in the Dream Realm.

"As long as there are twenty-one Du Lac descendants murdered, the ancestor can be resurrected. He will descend into his own body again, holding Arondight awakened by blood and with its seal removed—he will become the invincible blade of Avalon. If, at that time, anyone thinks our Avalon is weak and powerless, or chooses to betray Avalon... they will be in for a surprise.

"In fact, we indeed do not know who the curse caster is... because our Ritualists, three years ago, sealed off all possibilities of cursing without contact, forcing the adversary to use catalytic curses. And to instantly kill someone, preventing us from intervening in time, a large amount of catalysts is needed to set up a long-term ritual. From that time on, we more or less knew where the problem lay."

The cursing catalysts—namely blood, hair, fingernails, personal clothing, and the like.

"Because, with deliberate destruction, the ability to obtain large amounts of royal family member catalysts over a long period points to someone in the royal family as the likely perpetrator. That's why the royal family has never conducted an in-depth investigation. Because indeed, some have been poisoned..."

The Guardian spoke with profound meaning, "If the purpose of the curse caster is to exterminate the royal family of Avalon, or simply to enable Princess Isabel to ascend the throne, then they should proceed from the easiest to the most difficult. It's not possible that they would skip over those easily cursed and instead poison someone harder to curse first—like Prince Kenneth, who had shaved his head to prevent the curse, only to be poisoned to death."

"Meg has always stubbornly believed the person could be Prince Andrew—actually, she too has no evidence, merely an intuition that something about him isn't right. And we each have our own suspects... For instance, I once suspected Prince Albert. But now it seems Meg was more accurate."
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"After all, Andrew died from his heart exploding..."

Her Majesty the Queen sighed, "I also do not wish it to be him. But it seems there are no other possibilities."

Aiwass also suddenly realized... a heart bursting was a symptom of the Heart-Piercing Curse.

This curse required blood from a fingertip, and it must be the blood from the middle finger of both hands.

Typically, this is very hard to obtain. It is generally used as punishment for those who defy pacts in contract clauses, embedding the curse into the contract while pressing fingerprints.

This is probably why people generally didn't seem too saddened... some people became more serious, while others more relaxed.

After all, everyone knew that regardless of which of the remaining three succeeded the throne, the difference wasn't significant.

The manner of Prince Andrew's death was essentially proof that the curse caster had backstabbed their collaborator, utterly erasing the evidence.

Aiwass also understood why, after the death of Prince Andrew, the game's quest line to investigate the curse was closed; until a year later when the Queen was assassinated at the banquet, there was no further investigation into the curse, and the matter was left unsettled.

It was because the upper echelons of Avalon actually knew the curse had already ended... it would be difficult to obtain reliable evidence for further investigation. Since they had cursed Andrew, they had likely already retreated.

"One can't establish without destroying first."

The Queen softly said, "The Paths of Avalon are too singular, and I have been trying to change that. But it's still too late... I think they took action now because I chose to change."

"In another twenty years... no, at most, in a mere decade or so, Avalon's ritual and curse techniques would have recovered. They realized that if they did not act now, it would be too late. That's why they acted at this time, choosing the most brute method to weaken Avalon."

Her expression was serious and earnest, "But the Blood of Du Lac will not be shed in vain. We are descendants of dragon slayers... Should anyone wish to destroy us, they will have to bear our wrath."

"Before this, only three other people knew about this matter besides myself. Later, I will also inform Meg and Arius... Both of them come from common origins and are unaware of the 'Shadow of Avalon' ritual."

It was at this moment that Aiwass truly realized... this kind-looking, affable old lady was indeed a rational and merciless monarch.

For the sake of the potential future of Avalon, she could actually endure the royal family being cursed one by one.

To draw out the traitors within, to allow Avalon to be reborn from the flames...

He thought back to the previous communication between the Silver-Crowned Dragon and Her Majesty the Queen.

...Could it be that the fall of Avalon was part of the Silver-Crowned Dragon's plan?

Feigned death, right?

But in that case, there would be no need for the Queen to be truly assassinated... Could she actually have been assassinated? But who would have known that the Queen was the final step in the ritual...

Moreover, speaking of which,

The 'Shadow of Avalon' seemed to be a version of the ritual that was initiated using Isabel's brother as a sacrifice...

Aiwass suddenly felt alarmed, recalling another matter.

—He must not let the Queen complete the 'Shadow of Avalon' ritual at this time!

Because there was a problem with the ritual, what descended was not Lancelot, but Scáthach, the queen of the Shadow Nation!