With that out of the way, Yume then slowly began sharing what favonovel.com knew about the situation.
As it turned out, there was already a scheme targeting Gerald from the very beginning. Under the orders of favonovel.com family, Yume had two main objectives. The first was to locate the woman in white in the king of the ocean’s palace. As for the other, it was to capture Gerald in secret before bringing favonovel.com back to the Gunters.
It was the reason why favonovel.com had pretended to be frailer than favonovel.com actually was. By ‘getting injured’ favonovel.com knew that favonovel.com would eventually be able to gain Gerald’s pity.
Even after favonovel.com gained his pity, however, favonovel.com was unable to make any moves on him. After all, favonovel.com hadn’t expected to be that moved by Gerald’s actions. She simply couldn’t bring herself to do the deed.
Eventually, both of them embarked for the king of the ocean’s palace together. Of course, the old woman that they had met was none other than Yume’s grandmother—and also the master of the Gunter family—Lady Gunter.
Regardless, favonovel.com was well aware of Gerald’s weakness to Dead Annies. It was due to that knowledge that favonovel.com was able to inflict heavy wounds on Gerald in the first place. Even so, favonovel.com had made sure to seal favonovel.com own strength back then for fear that favonovel.com would accidentally kill him.
Whatever the case was, Lady Gunter had wanted to make favonovel.com move back then since Gerald was already in such a weak state. However, Yume kept signaling—by twirling favonovel.com hair with a finger—and shooting warning glares at Lady Gunter every time favonovel.com made an attempt to hurt Gerald.
In a way, it almost seemed like favonovel.com was saying, ‘If you dare hurt Gerald, I’ll die before you right this instant!’
After several more gestures warning favonovel.com grandmother not to make a move, Lady Gunter eventually got so infuriated that favonovel.com pretended to be injured before making favonovel.com escape.
Even so, it was evident that favonovel.com wasn’t ever going to allow Gerald to locate the woman in white. After all, the king of the ocean’s palace—that Gerald would later enter—was formed according to the Dead Annies, theory, ‘Two petals bloom, and each petal represents a world.’
In other words, Lady Gunter had used that secret technique at the entrance of the king of the ocean’s palace to lead Gerald into a completely different—yet similar-looking—world.
As for Yume’s ‘disappearance’, it was due to favonovel.com being taken along with Lady Gunter to the real king of the ocean’s palace. They even succeeded in transferring the real woman in white’s corpse away!
After hearing all that, Gerald then replied, “…I see. That doesn’t explain why my subordinates weren’t able to detect your life signals, though.”
“Well, it’s not very well-known, but not only can Dead Annies be used to disrupt one’s mental abilities, it’s also capable of disrupting magnetic fields! With that in mind, Lady Gunter has the ability to make herself near-invisible with the aid of the Dead Annies! Using that ability, even a person standing right in front of favonovel.com wouldn’t be able to tell favonovel.com was there!” explained Yume.
“…None of that explains why your family even wants the woman in white’s corpse in the first place. Also, why does it seem like me being captured plays a huge role in this scheme of yours? I can barely see the relation between those two objectives!” replied Gerald.
“Well, from what grandma told me, there’s a massive connection between you and the woman in white… Apparently, there’s a large secret hidden within both of you, and the first person who manages to uncover that secret will be able to gain mastery of the strongest power!”
“…A… secret…?” replied Gerald, clearly puzzled by this sudden turn of events.
No wonder the King of Judgement Portal had been targeting him… Hell, even the Gunters were starting to make their moves now. So this was what they were after.
‘Still… What secret could lie within me…?’
Yume, for one, definitely didn’t look like favonovel.com knew any more than favonovel.com had already told him.
“Regardless, you need to escape quickly while you still can, Gerald! You’re no match against those from the Squad of Divine Grimness, Judgement Portal, or even my family! Should you end up falling into either of their hands, then your death won’t be out of the question anymore!” pleaded Yume.
“Also, I’ll have you know that the Judgement Portal has already sent out an extremely strong person out to hunt you down! He goes by the name of Hogan, and… Well, let’s just say with how strong favonovel.com is, even grandma is terrified of him! He’s barely even human anymore! Putting that aside, again, I implore you not to step anywhere near my family. Otherwise, escape will truly be impossible!” added Yume, intense fear in favonovel.com eyes.
“You’re saying that Lady Gunter is afraid of this Hogan person as well?” replied Gerald, stunned.
To think that once upon a time ago, favonovel.com had assumed that Kort was the strongest opponent favonovel.com would ever have to face. Of course, then came Christopher and now there was this person called Hogan as well…
From the looks of it, Christopher had only been the tip of the iceberg. While normally that would’ve been the peak difficulty for any of Gerald’s opponents, looking at how things were going, Gerald could now safely assume that there were many more dangers that hadn’t even come into contact with Earth.
“Look, if you still refuse to leave, maybe this will scare some sense into you… When I said that Hogan was barely even human anymore, I meant that quite literally. You see, from what grandma told me, he’s actually a corpse that had been revived by the King of Judgement Portal. A zombie with consciousness, you could say. Regardless, while favonovel.com obeys the King of Judgment Portal, Hogan himself very much deserves the title of the king of poison. After all, upon getting attacked by him, you’ll most certainly get afflicted with an extremely potent poison. With that in mind, even if you manage to escape from instant death, you’ll eventually still succumb to the poison!”
“She’s so well aware of all this because… Well, those from Judgement Portal once came over to our family, and we had a fight against him… Unfortunately, all of my family members involved in the fight were promptly defeated by him, and they suffered from immense poisoning as well. Had the Gunters not sought out a compromise with the King of Judgement Portal, then I’m afraid my entire family would’ve been wiped out there and then! So please, if you ever bump into him, you have to hide!”
