<h4>Chapter 61 Celestia''s Curiousity</h4>


    In front of an odd-pir-like beacon, Eliasy on the grassy infield, looking at the sky distantly. He saw clouds gather and disperse.


    After reaching the second checkmark, he took the fragment stone contained in it and proposed to the group to take a rest for the moment.


    Hajin, Celestia, and Ragna had no problems with his arrangement. There was no rush to gather all of the fragments in a day, in truth they arrived very early.


    In the novel, it was only two to three dayster would most of the worthy participants arrive at the Inner Circle and participate in this teamwork test.


    That way, there would be no shortage of teams in the Inner Circle vying for checkmarks and collecting the fragmented pieces, making the ce lively.


    However, right now the ce was more or less empty.


    Currently, those who arrived at the Inner Circle as early as the second day of the examination were individuals at the top of their batch in talent and strength.


    In other words, prodigies.


    ''By now, Rain and Sumi must''ve already met with Roshia Entelechy and formed a three-way team to reach the rest of the checkmarks.''


    ''Then, Elizabeth and Zyrish also must''ve already arrived at the inner circle together and teamed up to explore the inner circle. In the novel, they would shortly meet Rain and the rest a dayter.''


    ''If all those conditions are fulfilled, then that means that has Lance already met with that person… then, the plot of the inner circle has started.''


    Elias was in deep thought. While rxing, he remembered the sequence of events in the novel during the inner circle examination.


    If nothing went wrong, then the story''s first arc should still progress normally ording to his expectations without any issues.


    So far, he had not really done anything significant or major so that the storyline would change drastically and go in another direction.


    For that matter, Elias suddenly thought of the changes he made in the storyline.


    Hajin was supposed to arrive at the inner circle two dayster, but with his interference, the man arrived much earlier.


    However, that was not anything major.


    Elias didn''t think his actions would affect the story that much. Whether Hajin arrives earlier or not, it wouldn''t change anything in the academy examination arc.


    He had the man under his watch. If Hajin were to do something that would change the storyline of the novel, he would know in advance.


    On the other hand, letting Celestia and Ragna join their little merry group could be considered minor, he also didn''t think it would affect the story. Simply because they didn''t really have much of a bigger role in the first arc.


    Ragna and Celestia would only appear in the climax of the first arc of Pride, which Elias would participate in as well, therefore nothing would change in the storyline at all.


    While he was thinking deeply, a charming voice suddenly called out to him.


    "Hm, you have quite a pensive look on your face. What are you thinking about?"


    To his surprise, it was Celestia Lilinia, the current Saintess. She was sitting on the grass beside his head, looking at Elias with a slight smile.


    Elias didn''t turn around to look at her.


    "Celestia Lilinia… I suppose you''re curious about it. I was thinking about the future."


    "Is that so? I didn''t take you for being such a boring man. I thought you were already hatching your evil master n to kill everyone."


    "Sorry to disappoint you then. I may be evil, but I''m also boring. Others'' evil may be like that, but my evil is dull. It''s something even I find lukewarm and pathetic."


    "Your attempt to disparage yourself to make me lose interest in you is amusing. But you''re just making me interested in you more and more,"


    "I''m telling the truth, Saintess. Don''t you have a lie detection skill from the Inquisitors? You can try it out and see for yourself."


    Celestia raised her brows. She was curious how the man knew about her so much and about the Inquisitors, who were considered secrets by the church.


    But she didn''t bother to ask about it. Who cares if he knew about the church? The church was something she didn''t really care about, truthfully speaking.


    In the meantime, she was more curious about the person in front of her. It was not a curious interest in the opposite sex, but an interest in the evil he seemed to possess.


    After a few seconds, Celestia spoke again with a sad look


    "I activated it. It says that you were lying directly to my face. How could you have lied to such an innocent pure Saintess like me?"


    "... Your skill must be defective then. Or you''re outright lying about the result. It could be both, but thetter is more likely."


    "You clearly lied to me and then you refuse to admit it, you''re so cruel, leader~"


    "Ugh, don''t call me a leader. Please. Also, don''t act like that, it''s seriously creepy and revolting,"


    "How cruel, leader. You don''t hold back your words at all against a fair maiden like myself, but that''s as expected of our evil leader~ fufufufufu…"


    "Disgusting,"


    Elias had a disgusted expression. Even though he couldn''t see Celestia''s expression, he was sure she was enjoying herself watching him suffer from repulsion.


    But seemingly not minding it, Celestia let out a softugh.


    "I''m really curious. You don''t seem like the man I expected at all, care to exin? You didn''t answer mest time, but why do you have such heavy and evil sins?"


    Elias fell silent. After a while, he turned to look at Celestia directly


    "What do you see in me?"


    "Bottomless evil."


    Celestia answered almost immediately. Every generation''s Saintess was granted a skill that saw through the sins of people, making them an expert at discovering evil people.


    Right now, on top of Elias'' head, an ominous image was depicted. It was a blood red world, shining a deep scarlet color.


    The image represented the sins of the person, while the red color represented their evil, the deeper the scarlet gleam, the greater the evil.


    The image was usually different from person to person, depending on the sins theymitted in their life.


    Celestia had seen some unique and awful images, but she had never seen something so ominous as the image depicted on Elias. It was like he destroyed a whole world.


    For her, who possessed never-ending curiosity, she wanted to know the reason. She wanted to know what the man did to umte such sins.


    As for killing Elias? That coulde after she knew the reason.


    Hearing her answer, Eliasughed.


    "Figures. Your divine god must really hate me, huh?"


    "What do you mean?"


    Celestia furrowed her brows, confused.


    But before she could receive an answer, Elias abruptly stood up. He stretched his hands before calling out to the rest.


    "Hajin, Ragna, let''s go. It''s time to collect the rest. We''ve rested enough. It''s boring to stay in one ce for too long. We still have six more fragments to find,"


    "Aye, aye,"


    Hajin yawnedzily before standing up. Beside him, Ragna could be seen with an utterly bored and sleepy expression.


    "This ce is boring. There''s nothing else to do but find things. I should''ve stayed on the ind, at least I can kill some beasts and eat some meat…"


    "I agree with ya, Big fe. This ce is boring as heck…"


    Hajin patted Ragna''s back.


    "You guys are too energetic. But don''t worry, interesting times wille very soon. You just have to wait."


    As both of them stood up, Elias smiled vaguely. He looked at both of them before turning his gaze to Celestia, causing her to purse her lips in annoyance at not getting an answer and stand up.


    "Let''s go."