Stop Hypnotizing Me, Antagonist Princess!

"Do you want to spend 10 system points for ability extraction?"

Looking at the lottery disk embedded with more than thirty fan-shaped bas-reliefs in front of him, Lynn swallowed.

He felt the vibration from the carriage beneath him, stirring a sense of tension in his heart.

At this moment, Glaya was grumbling incessantly by his side, but he had no intention to listen.

Lynn decided to extract another ability.

The First Rank ability, Lie Swallowing, that he had previously drawn seemed useless at first, but actually turned out to be quite beneficial.

During the past few days filled with dangers, Lie Swallowing had proved extremely valuable.

Therefore, Lynn had come to view it as an incredibly effective ability.

However, even so, what he lacked most were straightforward offensive methods.

Apart from using a gun, there was no other way.

Recalling the night at the tavern room when he had to risk his life, along with Morris having no intent to kill him, he had barely managed an upper hand.

But risking his life felt terrible.

Just like how he now found himself unwillingly working for Ivyst, obliged to attend to her duties.

Thus, at the end of the day, becoming stronger was the fundamental solution.

Recently, by some minor manipulations, Lynn had managed to increase Ivyst's plot deviation to 0.13%, gaining an additional 12 system points.

Therefore, he decided not to use these points to upgrade the Lie Swallowing ability yet.

The current Lie Swallowing was sufficient, but system points were scarce.

Rather than wondering if an advanced version of Lie Swallowing would evolve into an ability with offensive power, he preferred to take a risk for potentially greater gains.

With this thought, Lynn nervously pressed the confirmation button.

As the needle twitched, his heart leaped into his throat.

The needle finally stopped on a very strange icon.

It was a mark glowing faintly with a blood-like light, vaguely showing a distorted human face comprised of countless mournful souls.

Well, that was another setting not mentioned in the original story.

Lynn sighed.

Meanwhile, a system notification rang in his ear.

"Congratulations! You have drawn a Second Rank ability—Thorny Crown!"

Oh?

The name sounds pretty cool?

Lynn's eyes slightly brightened, and he then opened the ability introduction.

"Name: Thorny Crown"

"Rank: Second Rank"

"Effect: Under the effect of this ability, the pain you feel will be doubled. However, you can accumulate this pain and release it all in one go."

"Activation Condition: Possess at least 3 Divine-given factors"

"Points needed for Upgrade: 50"

"..."

Lynn couldn't help but want to wail.

From the effect alone, this stackable type of active skill was undoubtedly an incredible existence.

The problem was that in order to make the enemy feel the pain, he would have to bear it first.

It's like killing the enemy at a great cost to oneself.

Lynn was not a masochist and did not have any inclinations towards self-torment.

He was quite pain-averse, though he had put up with it in the Underground Prison to avoid showing weakness.

But that didn't mean he could ignore the pain.

Moreover, according to the ability description, once activated, the pain he felt would double.

Lynn just wanted a straightforward offensive ability, even something like the Fireball Technique or Water Ball Technique would do.

But the system refused to comply with his wishes.

Lynn sighed inwardly and turned off the system.

At the same time, Glaya's voice, laced with doubt, reached his ears: "Are you listening to me?"

"Of course."

Lynn answered nonchalantly.

Seeing his manner, Glaya's already anxious heart sank further.

Truly, it was a mistake for the Princess to entrust such a challenging task to them.

But even so, staking the honor of the Augusta Family, he couldn't shrink back now.

With that thought, Glaya took a deep breath: "I'll repeat one last time, when we get to the slum area later, try not to be too conspicuous so as not to incite public anger."

"What we need to do is to have each of the 312 civilians who cannot enter the city sign this contract." Glaya handed half a thick stack of papers to Lynn, "These contracts have a certain supernatural effect, capable of constraining their behavior to prevent the spread of the Creationist School's beliefs in the city."

"It is also the minimum requirement from both the City Council and the Security Bureau that each person must sign one before we let them pass."

Lynn took the contracts from Glaya and briefly glanced over them.

They were written in the ancient Saint Laurent language.

The gist was that the signatories would commit not to promote the ideals of the Creationist School in Orn City.

If violated, they would suffer dire consequences.

"I understand," Lynn shook his head, "but ironically, these civilians are not even under Her Highness' jurisdiction. Technically, this should fall on the City Council, but nobody wants to take responsibility, and now it has fallen onto our heads."

Glaya sighed helplessly.

Those nobles simply thought less of Ivyst because she was out of favor, sent to the borderlands due to Saint Laurent VI's disapproval.

Thus, they treated them with negligent disregard.

Of course, there was also the possibility that some Prince was pulling strings behind the scenes.

After all, this was a necessary struggle for the King's election; no one would treat it as a joke.

"By the way, how long do you plan to stay on my head?"

Lynn suddenly said to Aphia, who was biting his nape.

On hearing this, the little black cat then released her bite and lightly landed inside the carriage.

"You deserve it!"

Aphia huffed and then turned her head away.

Just then, with a slight forward inertia, the carriage slowly stopped by the roadside.

"We're here."

Glaya and Lynn exchanged glances.

Then, the two of them pushed open the door and stepped down from the carriage.

Aphia hesitated for a moment.

But remembering the Princess's instruction to her, she couldn't help but jog to catch up with the two.

Accompanied by the intense midday sun, Lynn squinted his eyes as he observed the scene in front of him.

At a glance, he saw a large area of run-down shacks outside the city, some even topped with straw, the simplicity was extreme.

In front of these shacks, a dense crowd of people stood.

Most of them were in ragged clothing, their eyes filled with numbness and despair.

Many were kneeling on the ground, in a devout posture, praying to the Creation Goddess they believed in.

It seemed they sensed someone's presence, as many eyes suddenly turned towards Lynn and Glaya.

Seeing the two lavishly dressed youths, their eyes showed a hint of wariness.

Moments later, two men in sheriff's uniforms, touching their holsters, ran over.

It looked like these two were assigned to keep watch over the civilians.

"Master Glaya? I didn't expect someone from the manor to be you?"

One of the sheriffs said with a grin.

Obviously, as the local influential Augusta Family, their power was formidable.

However, inside the tangled power webs of Orn City, there were still families stronger than them.

And now, this incident involving the Creationist School was like a brief skirmish behind the great families, involving a wide aspect.

Ivyst was in the firing line, unavoidably entering the fray.

So, in a sense, many eyes were fixed on the shantytown area at this moment, waiting for the final handling of this matter.

Glaya could be said to be in an Alexander-like position.

If he couldn't handle it, it was the Princess's face that would ultimately be lost.

Even if he managed to deal with it eventually, if the means were not decisive enough, it would still elicit criticism.

So, he frowned and asked the sheriff in front of him, "What's the situation now?"

On hearing this, the sheriff bowed his head and replied, "They were causing a ruckus about entering the city again just now; it took injuring two of them to calm them down."

"Rest assured, the chief has already told us beforehand that you're fully in charge of this matter and whatever you say goes, we will not interfere at all."

Saying this, a sly look flickered in his eyes.

In just a couple of sentences, he had managed to distance the Security Bureau from the incident and shifted the responsibility entirely onto Ivyst.

Clearly, they were also reluctant to deal with this mess.

And upon seeing that the Augusta Manor had sent only two young lads, they nearly burst with joy.

These types were the easiest to hoodwink.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

For a moment, Glaya felt somewhat between a rock and a hard place.

The atmosphere suddenly turned somewhat silent.

But just as the two sheriffs prepared to say something, a voice suddenly came from beside them, "Really? Whatever we say goes?"

On hearing this, one of the sheriffs hesitated.

Upon seeing that the speaker was a handsome young man with a distinguished demeanor, although he couldn't discern his identity, he still said with a grin, "Of course, young master, we keep our word."

Lynn nodded, "Then go and kill all these commoners."

"Hey, hey!"

Glaya was immediately stunned, a shiver running down his spine.

The Princess had only asked you to resolve the issue, not to get rid of those who caused it!

The lives of commoners might not count for much, but truly killing them would undoubtedly cause a huge uproar across the Empire.

Countless people would use this as leverage to put Ivyst on the gallows!

Seeing this, the two sheriffs were also somewhat embarrassed, "You...You're joking...You are joking, right?"

Lynn chuckled and remained noncommittal.

Then, he suddenly turned his head and asked Aphia, who was squatting nearby and enthusiastically eating melon, "By the way, what's on the menu at the manor tonight?"

"Stewed vegetables and beef stew... Wait, why are you asking this?"

Aphia looked at him warily.

"Getting a bit hungry again." Lynn touched his stomach, "It's probably around one or two in the afternoon now, so timing it right, we should be back in time for dinner."

"You've been talking in riddles from the start, what are you actually trying to do?"

Glaya finally couldn't help but ask.

In his view, Lynn hadn't proposed any helpful solutions to the issue and even seemed somewhat negligent.

However, Lynn didn't answer his question.

Under the watchful eyes of all present, he quickly walked towards the crowd gathered in the distance.

While walking, he spread his arms and activated the ability of Lie Swallowing.

For such a small matter, Lynn decided to bring it to a swift conclusion.

"Everyone, eyes on me!"