Miss Witch’s Devotion Has Gone… Twisted

"After four years of searching... I finally found you... sob sob..."

The moment Melody boarded the ship, she hugged Loren and started crying without another word, pressing her entire body against him.

"Let's change into some dry clothes first, then we can talk, alright?"

Loren awkwardly pushed Melody away and asked Veronica to grab her some clothes.

Veronica's clothes were a bit big, hanging extremely loose on Melody's frame, but that wasn't something to worry about right now.

"Where's your crown? What happened to it?"

"Earlier, I bet everything on you. When word spread that you'd been killed by the Orthodox Gods, they stripped me of my princess title..."

"Luckily, the pendant was left to me. No matter who wears the pendant, the first guidance they receive tells them to return the pendant to me.

"The merfolk believe in the Perpetual Observer, and the pendant is our only way to receive the Observer's revelations. So no matter what, they have to follow the pendant's guidance."

After Melody finished explaining the situation, Loren nodded:

"You've been through a lot during this time. It's time I told you a secret."

Loren stroked Melody's hair as he spoke.

"What?"

Hearing this, Melody's curiosity was piqued, and she listened eagerly for Loren's next words.

"I am the Perpetual Observer."

"What?"

Even though Melody had braced herself, she never expected Loren to drop such a bombshell. Her brain short-circuited for an instant:

"Y-you're... the Perpetual Observer?"

Melody stammered. She truly admired Loren, but she never thought he could be the deity they'd worshipped for so long.

"How should I prove it then?"

Loren spread his hands and continued:

"I can always predict what's going to happen next, and I know all the knowledge in this world. Besides the Perpetual Observer, who else could do that?

"The Orthodox Gods must have guessed this, which is why they joined forces to attack me. In the end, even the God of Light and Fire didn't hesitate to personally step in.

"If I weren't the Perpetual Observer, why would They be so terrified?"

Hearing this, Melody didn't get excited. Instead, she let out a sigh:

"As long as you say you're the Perpetual Observer, I'll believe you. There's no need for explanations.

"But the others in the tribe won't be so easily convinced. I know very well that many among the merfolk don't want the Perpetual Observer to return.

"According to the rules, we must obey every command of the Perpetual Observer. That's not what the elders want to see. They'd rather hold the power in their own hands."

"Is the merfolk's internal politics really that corrupt?"

Loren couldn't help feeling frustrated. Human corruption was one thing, but the merfolk didn't even have that many people, and they were still this rotten.

They'd let down the Dawn Princess and the Perpetual Observer. The Dawn Princess fought desperately to protect them, not so they could slowly rot from within.

"Yes. If you actually go to reveal your identity, and they don't believe you, that might be fine. But if they truly believe you, they'll very likely stop at nothing to kill you..."

"..."

This left Loren silent. He realized his earlier judgment had been somewhat off.

Most of the merfolk Loren had encountered were naive sweethearts like Melody or Korali, so he'd subconsciously assumed the entire race was like that.

"Saying that, the reason they stripped you of your princess title wasn't actually because I died, but because you might genuinely find the Perpetual Observer."

Hearing this, Melody was stunned too. She hadn't thought of that at all.

"They definitely wanted to take your pendant too, but because they have to publicly follow the pendant's guidance, they couldn't take it away."

"..."

Melody remained silent, clearly understanding that everything Loren said was true.

At this point, Loren instinctively wanted to pull out his little notebook and jot this down, but suddenly realized it had been burned to ashes during the battle with the God of Light and Fire.

In the end, Loren could only keep this grudge stored in his heart.

"Forget it. Looks like I can't count on the merfolk..."

Loren had thought that if he met a merfolk, he could ask her to take him to the merfolk's territory, reveal his identity as the Perpetual Observer, and at least gain some more faith.

But it seemed this plan wouldn't work.

Now that Loren had the Sea God's blessing, he wasn't afraid of the merfolk in the sea, but there really was no need to seek them out.

Going there would waste a lot of time. Loren might as well go find Anna and the others first.

"By the way, how's the Sea God doing these days?"

Blessings were a strange kind of power. Even if the god who granted the blessing died, the blessing still remained. So Loren couldn't determine the Sea God's fate at all.

"A few Sea Gods did die, but there are still many Sea Gods left..."

"Alright..."

Hearing Melody's answer, Loren let it go. There really were too many Sea Gods. Even if he went looking, he might not find the specific one who granted him the blessing.

But the fact that there were still Sea Gods around was good news. As the most powerful evil god, the Sea God could at least serve as a counterbalance to the Orthodox Gods.

Besides, the Sea God's followers could become followers of the Observer. Their faith wasn't as firm as that of the Orthodox Gods' believers. Converting was a very normal thing.

Many of the Sea God's followers were pirates, and Loren wasn't interested in winning the faith of pirates. What he wanted was the faith of the common people.

Just as she was about to say something, Melody's stomach growled, leaving her quite embarrassed:

"How should I address you now? Master Mentor? Master? Or Lord Observer?"

"Whatever you like."

Loren re-baited the hook and cast the line. So far, he hadn't caught a single edible fish.

"Then I'll call you Master. It feels closer that way.

"When are we eating? Master~"

Melody's tone suddenly turned strange, and Loren felt a bit uncomfortable.

"That depends on fate. It depends on when I catch a fish.

"You can stay in the bottle for now. That way, you won't get hurt."

Since boarding the ship, Melody had already gotten scraped by the deck, and quite a few of her scales had fallen off onto the ship.

"What bottle—"

Before Melody could finish, her figure vanished from the spot and reappeared inside the bottle of the Ship in a Bottle.

"How does it feel?"

Loren had sailed this ship before and knew it wouldn't harm the creatures inside the bottle, which was why he put Melody in there.

"It feels pretty good. At least it won't hurt me here..."

Through the bottle, Loren could hear Melody clearly.

"It must be because inside the bottle, it's not judged as 'on land' by the curse... even the deck counts as land..."

Loren had barely finished speaking when the fishing rod suddenly pulled with tremendous force. He had to set aside the bottle and focus on controlling the rod.

For this, Loren directly activated the Temperance card, converting Intelligence into Strength, and pulled on the rod with all his might. The rod snapped in an instant.

"Get ready to run! Anything that can break an enchanted fishing rod is definitely not normal..."

The next moment, the water surged, and the ship was lifted directly into the air.

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