When Ren(?) heard w.a.n.g Lin"s question he approached him and took the odd-shaped orb. Ren(?) proceeded to crush the artifact to speed up the end of its use. Once the artifact was crushed into nothing, the materialized Spirit Bodies disappeared. w.a.n.g Lin who was back inside Lance Resteti"s body looked at the approaching Ren in confusion. "Why did he need to do that? Couldn"t he just tell me what he wanted in that form?"
While Lance was watching the approaching Ren he felt something different from before. "...OH! His aura changed again, it went back to what it was before I used the artifact. How come he was exuding a different aura when he fought using his soul?..."
Lance couldn"t understand why the aura Ren exudes was different since him and the projection of his soul were supposed to be the same. Ren"s materialized soul"s aura was nothing, which made him feel like he was part of the background. Ren"s physical body, on the other hand, had an aura that could suffocate you if you were weak.
"So tell me Lance who sent that a.s.sa.s.sin to kill the Kirche family?"
"I don"t know."
"Then find out." Ren showed a smiling face, he did this to calm down Lance. But instead of calming him down seeing Ren smile put a lot of pressure on Lance. That smile of Ren"s was etched into his memory as something to be feared.
"I will find out who did it, but you"ve got to give me some time. The Resteti Family is pretty large. Even though the royal family takes most of the children the number of people left is still a great amount. Not to mention I need to find out how they were able to hire someone behind my back. So please just give me a bit of time."
Lance who was speaking arrogantly at the beginning was now acting a bit more humble as he was frightened of Ren. He wasn"t even aware that he was speaking differently or that he was frightened to his very core.
"Fine, I"ll give you a bit more time. So I"ll be staying at your place while I wait. I hope that"s alright with you."
"... It will be my pleasure." Lance didn"t really like the idea of Ren hanging out in his home, knowing how dangerous an individual Ren was. He wasn"t sure if it was the right move to bring him to were his current family was staying. But on the other hand, if he didn"t comply with such a simple request from Ren the ramifications were unknown. It was entirely possible that Ren would do something drastic if he is angered. Lance didn"t know at all what Ren would do since he doesn"t know a thing about the man except that he is exceptionally strong.
"Well then let"s get going." Ren turned around and was about to head out of the cave, but before he was able to move out with Silika, Lance suddenly shouted at him.
"WAIT!" Ren looked behind him confused.
"Huh? What is it? Is there anything more?"
Lance then knelt on the ground and bowed his head. This action of his simply confused Ren even more. Why does everything this guy does was so confusing? Was what Ren thought as he looked at the peculiar scene happening before his very eyes.
"Please teach me your way of the sword!" Lance spoke with all the sincerity he had. The idea came to him as he watched Ren"s back. Showing him his defenseless back, was Ren so confident that Lance wouldn"t attack him behind his back? No that wasn"t it, Ren was showing his back because it didn"t matter if Lance decided to attack. No matter what a single ant does, it wouldn"t amount to anything.
Once upon a time Lance back in his past life acted the same way. He truly respected Ren"s strength and pride. But most of all he respected Ren"s sword. The way Ren fought at the beginning was already beyond Lance"s skill, but the sword swing he showed at the end was the very definition of a perfect sword slash. A sword that is capable of slicing everything and anything, Lance wanted that kind of sword too. So he swallowed whatever was left of his pride and asked Ren to teach him swordplay.
...
Ren looked at the bowing Lance and was a bit surprised. He wasn"t expecting an act like this from an arrogant transmigrator.
"You want me to be your master, and teach you the ways of the sword?"
"Yes!"
"But you already have your own way of the sword. Are you willing to discard all that to learn my own way of the sword?"
"YES!" There was no hesitation in Lance"s answer, in fact, he was even faster to respond than the first time Ren asked.
"Hmm... Should I teach him my swordsmans.h.i.+p? I bet what he wants to learn is the original"s swordsmans.h.i.+p. Also, do I really want to teach someone else my swordsmans.h.i.+p? The only reason I taught Valdel was because of his status as my childhood friend, the same goes for Lara and Lisa."
"I"m going to be straightforward with you, even if I do teach you, you will never be able to do the sword strike that was used at the end of our fight."
"It doesn"t matter, even without that final strike I know how much more superior your swordsmans.h.i.+p is compared to mine. I may have a lot of pride but I am not blind to see the discrepancy." Lance spoke without raising his head.
"So you really wish to learn my way of the sword?"
"YES!" Ren looked at Lance for a bit and sighed.
"This guy was pretty powerful, and he wasn"t all that stupid, also his family and prestige is something I can use."
"Fine, I shall teach you my way of the sword, under one condition."
"Anything!" Lance finally raised his head and looked at Ren with eyes full of resolve.
"Once I teach you my way of the sword, you will become my disciple, and with that t.i.tle I want you to swear one thing, never betray me. Betrayal will be punishable by a fate worse than death itself."
"I promise to never betray you, my master!"
"We shall see... Well, it doesn"t really matter to me, since the only one who loses out with your betrayal is you alone." Ren shrugged his shoulders, as he headed out of the cave.