The Sorcerer's Handbook

The Gospel Rankings were the list with the highest priority. Yet, to make the cut, the requirement was to be a pure and flawless girl.

Ashe knew that everyone loved beautiful girls, and the Divine Lords were no exception, but he still found the entire premise utterly outrageous. He said, "Miss, let me take a look at the past winners of the Gospel Rankings. I need to properly analyze the Omniscient Weaver's tastes!"

"Can't you just spend your own points to view it?" Annan replied, idly touching her amethyst earring. "Still, even if you check later, you won't find anything. Every past first-place Echoer on the Gospel Rankings was a veiled girl. Their appearances were entirely concealed."

"Huh? The Omniscient Weaver is hogging them all for itself?" Ashe looked down at Lys in his arms, then pulled the Mask of Distortion from his chest and slipped it onto her face. "Like this?"

Annan rolled her eyes. "Seriously, what kind of demon king and little witch duo are you two? Anyway, I never intended to use Lys to cheat the Gospel Rankings. Besides the fact that she doesn't meet the criteria, the first-place spot on this list is always decided long before the Woven Festival even begins."

As much as Ashe believed Lys was the cutest girl in the world, she was far from innocent, let alone kind. If anything, once she grew up, she would undoubtedly become the type of beautiful woman who excelled at manipulating emotions, someone both lovable and infuriating at the same time.

Ashe had always suspected Lys had made a mistake when she identified him as her dad. She really should have recognized Aunt Perskin as her mother instead. Now that would have been a true matching pair of professionals.

Iger spoke up, frowning. "So, who is the predetermined first-place winner of the Gospel Rankings?"

"The next Empress of Isa," Annan replied.

She swept her gaze across the room, letting her words sink in. "Every single first-place winner of the Gospel Rankings becomes the Empress of Isa for the next fifty years. The current Empress residing in the imperial capital of Nabistin is the winner of the previous Gospel Rankings. Since the founding of the Isa Dynasty, this tradition has never seen an exception. It has never changed."

Iger's frown deepened. "Every single time?"

"Every single time."

"Has there never been an anomaly? Is it possible someone else actually ranked first, but the Isa Imperial Family forced them into the imperial household before the results were officially announced—"

Annan shook her head, cutting him off. "Trust me, when I first considered obtaining the Divine Lord's wish, the Gospel Rankings was the very first option I analyzed. And I wasn't the only one. Who wouldn't want a wish from a Divine Lord? Do you think powerful families like the Belldets, Mercurys, or Kessriels never tried to seize it?"

She shrugged. "Yet the reality is that the Isa Imperial Family has firmly held the top spot of the Gospel Rankings for hundreds of years. That's exactly why I dared to bring you all in on this plan to desecrate the Gospel. The Isa Imperial Family has been doing it for centuries already.

"How could there be a perfectly pure and innocent girl born to the imperial family every single generation? The only logical explanation is that they mastered a technique to deceive the Gospel, stealing the greatest reward of the Woven Festival for themselves. The Gospel itself would never risk invalidating the other nine lists, so it leaves the Gospel Ranking completely untouched. It doesn't even need to be woven. The Isa Imperial Family has already provided the answer."

Ashe felt Lys squirming restlessly in his arms. He patted the white-haired girl's head reassuringly and asked, "But why does the Woven Festival even have such a strange list in the first place? Do pure and innocent girls somehow increase productivity or enrich society's spiritual well-being?"

If it had happened once or twice, it might be brushed off as a whim. But featuring this specific list every single time was bizarre, especially compared to the others. For instance, the Art Rankings promoted cultural development; the Family Rankings guided noble houses in securing strategic alliances; and the Schemer Rankings predicted major events over the next fifty years.

Pure and innocent girls, by definition, had no grand achievements to their names, be they good or evil, and could not guide society in any meaningful direction. At most, they were pleasant to look at, which hardly justified making them a permanent cornerstone of the Woven Festival.

Is the Omniscient Weaver really just selecting a personal harem?

Annan went on, "The Gospel has never offered an explanation, but there are three mainstream theories. The first is that the Omniscient Weaver wants humanity to strive for innocence, purity, and kindness, so it created this list to encourage people to follow suit. The second theory suggests the Gospel Rankings serve as the foundation, the source code for the other nine lists; messing with it might collapse the entire Woven Festival, so the Omniscient Weaver simply leaves the legacy code alone. And finally... the Omniscient Weaver is female, and she just prefers women."

The first explanation was easy enough to understand. Those in power set the trends, and the masses followed. However, a single list of only ten people could hardly reshape the moral fabric of an entire society. If the list expanded to a hundred million spots, then maybe Ashe would actually see a Gospel Kingdom populated entirely by beautiful girls.

The second explanation was also highly relatable. It was like a pile of messy legacy code. You might not understand why it worked, but as long as the system didn't crash, you didn't dare touch it.

"But why would people assume the Omniscient Weaver is female?" Ashe asked, genuinely puzzled. "Shouldn't the default assumption be male?"

Annan countered with a question of her own. "If you were the one designing a list to select women, would you really make innocence and kindness your highest priorities?"

Ashe stroked his chin. "Hmm... Hard to say. Personally, I value a wide variety of qualities in women."

Annan pressed. "And the most important one?"

"It's a bit embarrassing to admit out loud, but probably her body type."

"You say it's embarrassing, yet you answered without a second thought!" Annan glanced down at herself and snorted. "Shallow."

"If it were me, I would value strength," Harvey interjected smoothly.

Ashe nodded in agreement. "Mmhmm, makes sense. After all, she would also double as your combat partner. Strength is indeed practical."

Harvey shot him a flat look. "I'm not talking about corpses. For me, the ideal woman can eliminate my targets in the quickest, cleanest way possible, and then bring their bodies back to me intact—"

"Sorry, we are discussing personality traits here, not functional utility," Ashe interrupted, quickly turning away from the necromancer to look at Iger. "What about you?"

Iger shot him a freezing glare. "My criteria are identical to the Gospel Ranking."

Ashe noted. "Ah, because pure and innocent women are especially easy to deceive?"

"Because that kind of woman simply does not exist. Since childhood, children have already learned to toy with lives. In adolescence, desire rises, and malice spreads everywhere. In youth, one comes to witness a society where good and evil intertwine... Unless someone grows up in an isolated place entirely cut off from the world, how could a truly pure and innocent girl possibly exist? I'd actually like to see what kind of monstrous oddities the future rankings will dig up for us."

"According to the Fraudster's Manual, the more a fraudster verbally rejects something, the more he actually likes it deep down," Ashe said with a grin. "I didn't expect you, Iger, to actually like the pure and innocent type... Ah, now I get it!"

Iger raised an eyebrow. "Idiot, what exactly do you think you 'get' this time?"

"Anphel definitely fits that description! It's no wonder the Gospel thinks you and Anphel will get married in the future! So that's it! She fits your preferences perfectly!"

Lys asked, "Daddy, what is the Fraudster's Manual? Can studying it turn someone into a fraudster?"

"No. But if you study it, you'll learn how to deal with fraudsters," Ashe replied. Then he looked at the butler boy. "Pankey, what about you? What do you value most?"

Pankey froze slightly, then smiled helplessly. "Hasn't the topic drifted a bit off course?"

"That's right," Annan said. "Regardless of why the Omniscient Weaver ultimately created the Gospel Rankings, all we need to know is that it has become our greatest obstacle. My original plan was to compete for rankings across multiple earlier lists so that one of you could accumulate enough weight to completely surpass the influence of the Gospel Rankings' first place, allowing us to obtain the Divine Lord's wish as the top-ranked Echoer."

"That is why I was never truly happy, even when I became the highest-ranked participant," Annan added, spreading her hands. With just two rankings, I cannot take the number-one spot on the Gospel Rankings. In fact, I hope more than anything that the other lists are not invalidated, though the odds are low. If the Omniscient Weaver intends to accelerate the Woven Festival, it will not just speed up a single list."

Ashe hesitated before asking, "Have you ever considered that even if the Woven Festival is not accelerated..."

"Even if we obtain nine first places, the Divine Lord's wish would still be predetermined for the Gospel's First[1]? Of course, I've considered that, and I think the probability is high," Annan said calmly. "But so what?"

But so what?

If she were the type to stop because hope was slim, she would never have brought them into this blasphemous plan in the first place. This was a scheme that involved plotting against a god. From the very beginning, she had prepared herself for total ruin.

Ashe saw no trace of regret in Annan's eyes. She was like a moth in the dark, destined to throw herself into the flame. Only, he still could not tell what exactly she wished to burn.

Iger asked, "Since every Empress of Isa in history obtained the Divine Lord's wish, what did they wish for?"

Annan shook her head. "I don't know. That is one of the three great mysteries of the Gospel: why every Empress qualifies for the list, and what wishes they ultimately made."

Ashe asked, "What is the third mystery?"

Annan glanced at him. "Who the husbands of those Empresses were... but we are very fortunate. One of those answers is sitting right in front of us."

Ashe felt deeply wronged. If the other placements on the Gospel Rankings were already absurd in how they treated him, then the wedding at rank ten and the Empress at rank one were outright nonsense! He had never even seen an Empress before. How could the Gospel already decide he would one day hog an Empress's attention?"

Even worse, the Happiness Rankings did not even show the Empress's face. He could not even see what kind of new "wife" the Gospel had assigned him!

"Lys," Ashe called out casually, "do you think the Empress will be beautiful?"

Lys blinked. "I think... maybe she'll look like what I look like when I grow up?"

At that moment, Harvey let out a heavy belch and spoke slowly, "So, Annan, does that mean you no longer have a chance to obtain the Divine Lord's wish?"

"We," Annan corrected him. "Theoretically, yes, there is no chance anymore. But while the Gospel invalidates the other lists, it has also placed an unprecedented blade in my hands to solve everything."

Iger froze, then stood up immediately. "Such an unverified assumption cannot be used as a basis for decision-making!"

"But that is all we have left," Annan said, meeting his gaze. "After finally reaching this point, even if it is the faintest flame, I must make it burn."

Seeing them suddenly fly into an argument left Ashe completely confused. There was an optimist, a pessimist... and then there was him.

He intervened, "Before you two start arguing, can you switch to normal language? All this sounds like meowing to us. We can't understand a thing."

The fraudster stared at the Purple Moth for a long time before slowly sitting back down. His expression remained as calm as a still lake, but inside, a storm was already raging. Even with his mastery over Mind Class sorcery, and even after experiencing the mental sea of millions of souls back in Belldet, he still could not break his service contract with Annan through mental manipulation.

The Gospel accelerating the Woven Festival had not only disrupted Annan's plans but also shattered Iger's arrangements entirely. He had intended to use Mind Class sorcery to forcibly break free from the contract before the final ranking appeared. His debt contract with Evelyn had merely been a practice run, a final exam for the fraudster. If he could sever that bond, he was confident he could free them all from Annan's control.

But everything had come too fast. Their peaceful days had been far too short.

The Purple Moth looked back at the cult leader. "Ashe, the Gospel might have used you to invalidate the rankings, but it also granted you an unprecedented, special authority. You are recognized by the Gospel as a Disrupter of Fate. Any influence caused by you is treated as a minor, reasonable deviation within the bounds of fate. In terms of the rankings, this means that anyone you affect can still appear on the list, but their ranking becomes invalid.

"This was not the Gospel's original design, but rather a temporary rule created to accelerate the process. Once a new rule is established, the Gospel must strictly adhere to it, or contradictions will arise throughout the rankings."

Ashe gradually caught on. The Gospel had used him to clean up the mess of the Happiness Rankings, and in doing so, it had effectively designated him as a disposable tool capable of erasing the future. Annan's so-called Disrupter of Fate meant exactly that. Ashe had unknowingly gained a region-locked license to kill within the Gospel system. He could destroy, or rather, invalidate anyone's future.

"So you mean..."

Annan said, "If you kill an Echoer before they are ranked, the Gospel will not bother to revise the list. Since 'you can destroy futures' is already an established rule, it will simply follow that logic and invalidate the victim's ranking. Ashe, you are a blade the Gospel has given us. As long as you kill the first place of the Gospel Ranking ahead of time, her ranking will be invalidated, and I will legitimately become the highest-ranked participant."

After a brief silence, Harvey suddenly laughed. "So we're finally going to kill someone? Who is the target?"

Pankey looked troubled, Iger frowned, while Lys buried her head deeply into Ashe's chest.

Annan said, "The future Empress of Isa. The princess residing in the imperial capital, Nabistin. She must be killed by Ashe alone to complete the final blasphemy against the Gospel."

While wiping her mouth with a handkerchief, Annan concluded. "So, there are two pieces of news. The good news is that you only have one final task left. The bad news is that this task may also become your last. Our destination will be the imperial capital, Nabistin, and our mission objective is... to assassinate the princess."

1. A title for the person who ranks first on the Gospel Ranking. ☜

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