Charlotte did not know how much time had passed.
She only felt as if she had entered that boundless darkness again, unable to perceive the passage of time or even her own existence.
However, having already experienced "Crossing" once before, Charlotte was not anxious.
She quietly waited, waiting…
Until the familiar crimson glow appeared, and Charlotte once again saw her quite familiar Blood Holy Scripture.
Just like the awakening after her first Crossing, it still lay in the deep dark, emitting a dazzling light that illuminated the endless darkness, like a lighthouse guiding Charlotte back.
She felt a familiar sense of rejection coming from all directions and once again felt a strong sensation of weightlessness.
Her consciousness gradually cleared, and she quickly regained control over her body.
Charlotte felt as if her soul, having left her body, had returned and was once again sensing the real world.
The psychic connection with the Blood Holy Scripture reappeared, and even the Divine Artifact, Roman Sword, which had been lost during the Crossing, was again sensed by her in the form of a contract.
Gradually, all sorts of contracts appeared for Charlotte: Nisi's Servant's Oath, Albrecht's Blood Servant Contract, as well as Sebastian and Yulster's Blood Contract, and the oath of allegiance from the Black Dragon Odosia...
And after all these contracts, Charlotte saw a magnificent Star Sea.
The stars twinkled, dazzling and dreamlike, each holding some mysterious connection to her.
Murmurs of prayers arose around her ears, growing more numerous and louder, and Charlotte soon realized these were her Believers.
However, when she saw the extent of the starlight, she was almost instantly stunned.
The stars were numerous, dense, and seemed to number in the tens, even hundreds of thousands...
When Charlotte thought about counting them, an exaggerated familiarity naturally surfaced in her consciousness:
Four hundred seventy-five thousand…
She had "slept," and upon awakening, suddenly had nearly half a million followers!
Damn, how long had she slept?!
It couldn't have been several years, could it?!
It had taken her two years to gather just three thousand followers before, and the entire population of the Castel Domain was only five million!
Suddenly, Charlotte was not tired anymore.
She almost instantly awoke from her "slumber" and sat up abruptly.
Then… "bang", it felt like her forehead collided with something, and she was knocked back.
Without using any magic power or divine power, that "duang" was not light.
Charlotte grimaced as she opened her eyes.
What met her gaze was still the familiar coffin lid, the very culprit that had collided with her head; a legendary, hard-to-break coffin custom-made specifically for her by Sebastian.
The coffin lid was ornately luxurious, shimmering under the external magical lamps with the Luminous Pearls and gemstones.
Charlotte took a deep breath and pushed forcefully upward, opening the coffin lid.
Controlling her somewhat stiff body, Charlotte sat up from inside the coffin, moved her slightly sore neck, and quickly looked around.
Inside the secret chamber, nothing had changed from before her deep sleep.
The magic arrays she had laid out before her slumber were still functioning normally, and even the automatic cleaning magic was still active, with the Magic Crystal Stone placed in the center of the array still crystal clear.
Charlotte let out a sigh of relief.
These Magic Crystal Stones, although high-quality products from the Castel Alchemy Workshop, could not last very long.
Charlotte had set the magic arrays based on the duration of her first sleep and had specially extended them, but they could only hold for a maximum of three years.
Right now, these Magic Crystal Stones were still sparkling, clearly still very abundant in magic power.
Inside the secret chamber, there were no signs of anyone else entering, and these Magic Crystal Stones had not been replaced.
Clearly, the duration of Charlotte's "sleep" this time was not too long, definitely not for several years.
If it was only a few months, how did Sebastian manage to inflate her number of followers to nearly five hundred thousand like a balloon?
It was not like they were openly proselytizing!
That's nearly one tenth of the entire population of Castel Domain!
So…how long had she actually slept?
Charlotte felt even more astounded.
"Right… the Magic Clock!"
Recalling the arrangements before her sleep, Charlotte smacked her forehead and quickly looked toward the Magic Clock prepared beside the coffin.
That was a clock specially intended to keep time, capable of marking days, months, years, and was something Charlotte had prepared specifically to determine how long she had slept upon waking.
Beside the luxurious coffin, the Magic Clock was still ticking, and the calendar on the clock showed that it was now January 10, 1447 of the Holy Calendar.
"January 18… My date of sleep was September 10, 46. So, did I sleep for four months this time?"
"Four months… and in that time, Sebastian and the others developed so many followers for me?"
Charlotte's expression was quite spectacular.
She became increasingly curious about how they had managed to do it.
However, apart from the followers, Charlotte soon noticed another point…
"Wait, I remember the first time I slept, it was for three months."
"This time… it was four months."