Lying on Kana’s lap, Alyris, who had been having her hair gently smoothed by Kana, let out a muffled groan as she woke up.
The first thing she felt was the soreness and weakness throughout her body, as well as the sharp pain coming from her head.
She blinked groggily, the first thing she saw was Kana.
Wasn’t she in a battle? And she had lost.
Could she have already died? Was this also the deceased prince before her?
Unable to resist, she reached up to pinch Kana’s face, as if to verify if it was real.
Not until she felt the tangible sensation did she wake with a start, immediately trying to sit up.
But Kana held her down with a hand.
"Your Highness, now..."
Kana pressed a forefinger against Alyris’s lips as she tried to speak in agitation.
"Shh, rest quietly, we are safe now."
Upon hearing this, Alyris stopped trying to sit up, slowly lay back down, and turned to look around.
She saw the contemplative crowd, the river, and the other rafts moving downstream with them.
Seeing this scene, she finally sighed in relief.
This meant they had retreated, though she didn’t know what had happened after she lost consciousness, they were safe at least.
The rafts and boats on the river were not quiet.
Soldiers scattered on different rafts, residents on various rafts were shouting loudly to each other.
Some were looking for their family members, others were loudly asking where they were headed now.
Only Kana’s raft was peculiarly quiet.
Because there weren’t many people on the broad raft, it seemed quite spacious.
Count, Anita, Ichard.
Aside from these six, there were three others, along with the Knights who escorted them up.
A total of nine people, the raft was steady down the river not aimlessly drifting, thanks to the mermen helping to push it.
Besides Kana and Alyris, all others were bowing their heads, digesting Kana’s recent words.
It felt somewhat unbelievable, even Anita found it a bit magical.
Moreover, she had a rough idea of what Kana had just drawn out from the Count’s chest.
And the Count probably also knew what he had just lost.
Seeing the silent crowd, Kana could only boringly stare down at Alyris.
At this moment, Alyris came to realize that she seemed to be lying on Kana’s lap.
Despite feeling quite shy, she indeed didn’t want to get up.
After all, the prince had said for her to lie down and rest, she was just following orders.
She could only close her eyes, pretending to be unaware, as if she was resting.
Kana just kept staring at Alyris’s face, watching the gradually reddening cheeks.
Too cute, Kana couldn’t help but reach out to touch it.
After a while, feeling too bored, Kana combed Alyris’s hair.
Fingers gently scraping off the dried blood on Alyris’s face, along with some dust.
Just like two monkeys grooming each other.
Alyris finally couldn’t hold back, too much blush on her face, anyone unaware might think she enhanced her physique.
She reached out to hold Kana’s hand that was moving around her face, in a tone she wasn’t even aware of, sounding almost like a pout: "Your, your Highness~"
"Alright, I won’t move around anymore." Kana, with a hint of laughter in his voice, lightly stroked Alyris’s face.
Embracing the moment of peace after the battle.
As everyone seemed to have finished their thinking, Kana suddenly spoke up: "Uncle, do you want to experience it?"
Kana didn’t ponder too long and decided to grant the Count the ability of datafication.
After all, one of the fragments was dug out from within him, not to mention the Count was trustworthy, even sacrificing himself in the game.
At least now they were on the same boat, even if Kana had plans later, they wouldn’t conflict much with the Count.
At least in the foreseeable future, the worst they would be was trustworthy allies.
No matter what, it was worth giving the Count a datafication ability.
Since Ichard had it, how could the Count not?
"What? Me?" The Count came to his senses, pointed at himself, somewhat surprised.
Others looked up, eyes wide in surprise at Kana.
They thought it was a one-time ability, some power bestowed to Ichard.
Even those who roughly understood, possibly the Creation Stone Fragment like the Count and Anita, didn’t expect it.
The existence of the Stone of Creation was known by many people.
Yet, the problem is those who have truly seen it, truly used it, are few.
Though if those who’ve used all the Creation Stone Fragments in the world were gathered, the number would be considerable.
But when distributed across every place and corner of the world, they appear very rare.
Not to mention some people might not even know they were using a Creation Stone Fragment, only knowing they gained ability during an emotional moment.
Let alone there are many Creation Stone Fragments that haven’t been discovered or used, left behind and scattered across various regions.
After all, currently, aside from the Blood Race Royal Court, others could only feel the special resonance if they had used a Creation Stone before, otherwise it was hard to discover a gemstone was actually a Creation Stone.