Chapter 401: All Evil
The sun rays found their way through the tiny gaps of the window, falling on his golden eyes and making them glow in the light. The sound of the pages turning was the only thing filling the room, and she enjoyed the comfortable silence. Then came a knock.
"Come in," the Seika closed his book and turned toward the door, which opened to reveal a thin man that, as she remembers, was kidnapped by the witch. "What is it, Ruri?"
"Lady Gala hasn"t returned yet," the young man adjusted his gla.s.ses nervously as he grabbed the end of his shirt. "I fear that something happened to her."
Arthur told her that no one asked him about Gala, which made things easier to deal with, despite saddening him. However, it seems the disciple that the witch terrorized was the sole exception.
"She is not coming back," there was a slight edge to his voice, and Dia could see his knuckles whitening beneath the desk. "She instructed that I give you this," he took out a leather book he handed to the disciple.
"Are these her recipes?"
"No, but a few guidelines," Arthur shook his head. "She wanted you to work for Hidden City, but I understand if you wish to leave."
"No," Ruri hugged the leather book. "I"m staying until she returns," he gave a bow and left the room, not listening to a word that Arthur said.
"How ironic," Dia said to the Seika, and he turned to her. "The witch was waiting for someone, and now someone is waiting for her. But, at least, she was sensible enough to leave her knowledge behind."
"I thought she did not," Arthur stood up and walked to sit on the couch beside her. Dia noticed that his hair had grown again, and now it reached the back of his neck.
The Seika leaned back on the couch and closed his eyes. Taking this chance, Dia ran her finger on his face, tucking his hair behind his ear. Arthur didn"t seem to mind the gesture.
"However, when I returned, I found that all of her knowledge was neatly left in my room. I can"t believe she carelessly left it here," he grumbled, and it made Dia smile.
"What did she leave?"
"A book of her recipes for potions," he started, "some guiding for her disciple, and the method to..."
She saw him pause, which was quite unlike him. Gala mentioned before that the Seika had a friend he wanted to save badly, if she remembers correctly. At that time, she dismissed it as the witch trying to manipulate her.
"To save your friend?" there were no emotions in her voice, but something inside her changed when the Seika opened his eyes and nodded.
There was no such thing as jealousy for her, but if that friend was one that the Seika would abandon all to save, it was a different matter. She wanted to ask him directly about this friend, but she knew that the Seika was layered with mysteries, and the moment she tries to peel them off, he would fold to himself.
She never tried herself because what if the Seika tried to learn of her past as well? What if he asked questions, and those questions led him to find out the truth?
The memory was vague in her mind, but that man"s face was quite vivid. His kind green eyes as he picked her up from the snowy forest. At that time, he kept telling her about his son, but who knew she would get to meet that son herself?
There were some resemblances between them. One of them was the way their brows furrowed, a sad frown that told their way rather than their anger. Their eyes had the same kindness, but it seems the Seika worked hard to hide it.
"I can tell that you want to know about her," the Seika turned to meet her eyes, and she was unable to focus on them, so she chose to look at his face. "However, there is not a lot to tell. We fought a lot, and she saved me when my friend tried to kill me, and that is all. I need to repay the debt."
There was a slight discomfort in her chest when he tried to explain himself. But, rather than relief, she was unnerved by his need to explain things to her, as if they have grown close enough for him to worry about her opinion.
If they were indeed this close, why didn"t she tell him about his father? Why did she ignore that she was sitting here with the son of a man who murdered her mother, feeling as if she wanted nothing else but these moments?
"Feelings are odd," she realized and simply nodded, looking away. "Not today, not here, and just for a bit longer." The Seika kept looking at her for a while before he stood up and left the room. He was probably going to meet his people, and she missed him the moment he was gone.
***
The soil gathered and solidified, looking as smooth as marble, and a new building was completed. Rumi clapped his hands as if he was a child watching a circus show, making Arthur feel like a showman or a freak.
"Marvelous! I wish that I had ten more of you, and the city would be built in a matter of a month," the architect looked at his designs. They were building the residential houses of the city, and Arthur needed to finish this district before he goes to Aquamia.
"That might not be far," Arthur said as he looked at his legacy, telling him that he obtained a new rune. For the first time, he received a rune by using a skill too much.
[Earth-I: significant manipulation of earth and soil and a mild manipulation of a few metals. The mana cost of this rune can cla.s.sify it as an affinity.]
"I can now delegate this job to someone else," Arthur realized as he walked out of the house. "However, it would be too suspicious for someone else to have the same "skill" as I am," this was the only problem.
If word got out that he could grant skills or abilities, even Solomon would point his blade at Arthur. But, of course, he couldn"t blame them, as this ability of his was abnormal.
Arthur knew that he wasn"t making the most of his abilities. The simple fact he could grant powers to people could turn a few farmers into a powerful army, not to mention he could boost their stats as well.
"If I truly wished for it, isn"t world domination an easy thing?"
Despite thinking as such, Arthur had no plans to attempt such a thing. There were powerful awakeners who could flatten him and his armies with a slap, and the Duke of Battle might be one of them.
He could only use the fact that they don"t see him as a threat as a chance to grow stronger. That"s why before they leave Hidden City tomorrow, Arthur planned on hunting the rest of the monsters within his walls.
He left the construction crew led by Rumi and visited the Knight of Courage, giving her the artificial artifacts that detected monsters nearby.
"The Ghost Runemaster is a treasure we need to protect at all costs," the knight muttered with shock under Arthur"s smiling eyes.
"Make sure that you do," he said before looking at the office packed with workers and countless stacks of papers. "I"m glad you are working hard,"
"You gave me the hardest job, after all," the knight grumbled smilingly. "Despite being a knight, I don"t quite hate the office work. These are different kinds of challenges."
"I can find someone else to take your place, and you can be my guard."
"That would be more torturous than this, and I would have to make sure you don"t turn people headless," the knight said jokingly, and Arthur could only shake his head.
"Ah, a tragedy," he began. "What has the mundane life done to bewitch the protector of the people? Your job was to keep my claws of evil at bay."
"I realized that you are not the only evil," the knight said ominously. "We all are."
After that, people rushed in to bring the knight more paperwork, which Arthur avoided like a plague and left the department. He found an empty spot before using his Detection Rune to find monsters, but he found something else instead.
"Ah, she was right," Arthur muttered as he teleported to the location of the incident. "We are all evil."
In an alley between the houses he built, Arthur found two knights surrounding the daughter of a farmer. He used his stealth and saw the knights try to "invite" the woman away.
"I remember someone mentioning things about entertainment," Arthur wanted to kill the knights right there because of their aggressive att.i.tude, but he knew that it would only incur the wrath of the rest of them. Arthur walked closer to them and teleported the knights away before apologizing to the woman.
"I"m sorry for what happened," he bowed slightly. "I"ll make sure that such a thing would never happen in my city."