Solvanna had returned from visiting Fenric. As soon as she tried to get near him, he vomited on her and swore she bore a foul smell.
Enraged as she already was, she was ready to wash off the puke on her body when the burst of flame took her by surprise.
She couldn't help but raise a question after making sense of the situation. "What do you mean by that? What other Trueflame? Are you not the Trueflame?"
Solvanna was the Chosen One, selected by the one and only phoenix. There couldn't be another phoenix out there, could there? In that case, would she still be the "one"?
Solvanna, preoccupied with her own concerns, failed to notice the red flame hovering in the air, briefly flickering with unease.
The voice quickly continued, "I am, of course, the Trueflame! Yet even among the Trueflame, competition exists. If that Trueflame's presence is directed at me, then you, whom I have chosen, shall suffer the consequences as well."
Hearing that she might be affected or even lose her chance to ascend as the Queen, Solvanna immediately grew anxious and asked, "What shall we do?"
The flame flickered twice before responding, "Do not let it discover my presence just yet. I will first investigate the source of the energy…"
The flame paused, then its tone grew more determined. "If the energy is weaker than mine, I shall seize the opportunity and consume it!"
If not… It mattered little. After all, it still had a trump card in hand!
…
On the other side, Shannon cast a spell to suppress the phoenix's presence surrounding Trevaris.
Without the natural, imposing energy of the phoenix, Serelith and Aurelia's ghostly figures slowly approached once again.
The two ghosts, looking at the miniature fire phoenix, were clearly puzzled as to what it was.
However, seeing how it interacted with Shannon and even called her by her name, Serelith felt no particular unease. It was Aurelia who sensed an inexplicable feeling of danger.
She could form a spirit contract with Serelith, but she could not take Aurelia as her second ghost servant.
Despite her clear statement, Aurelia insisted on following her, but Shannon chose to ignore her.
In the following days, Shannon planned to find a suitable vessel for Trevaris' divine soul. However, as she was new to this world, there were no suitable instruments available to her.
As a result, she allowed Trevaris' divine soul to remain within the astrolabe. Once she had dealt with the matters at the Ignis family, she intended to take him to Benjamin.
That day arrived quickly.
It was the day of Solvanna's coming-of-age ceremony and also the day that "Serelith" would have her own ceremony as the legitimate daughter of the Ignis family.
Although Maeric and Elysia harbored deep resentment toward Shannon because of their two sons, they still feared her unusual abilities and were reluctant to let her hand any leverage to the Chancellor.
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