Life Hunter

The time Arima met him, the man had a disguise on, right now, his true appearance was revealed, he was a young-looking man, with dull dark eyes, his hair was gray and he wore black clothes with a jacket.

"What do you mean you couldn"t do it?!" The king he was meeting with, shouted in indignation.

"It"s like I said, we stumbled upon a man who stopped the whole operation" The other party responded with his indifferent voice.

"Don"t fool me, Arister! You"re a Z rank! Why do you think I asked you to do that?!" The king shouted.

The Z rank, Arister, suddenly released his aura and closed the mouth of that king "Don"t play too much with me, I accepted your request because you payed for it, but I failed, that"s all" He said with a cold voice, he took out a certain number of shining golds and threw it on the ground.

"I give you back the payment, I can"t accept it when I failed my mission, that"s for sure. But I won"t accept anything from you anymore, that guy let me go by saying to me to stop doing this" He started talking about Arima.

"Basically, he let me go, let me live, at the condition that I stop my contract with you" He said and turned around to leave "Don"t try anything to me, I can easily destroy your country alone" He teleported away and the king fell on his knees exhausted.

He gritted his teeth and shouted a name.

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The same day, in the Inn"s restaurant.

"What did you do?" Lilis asked Arima with a look that made think like she was about to lecture him "Weren"t you supposed to enjoy a day with Lanya? Why did you release two magics like that? You also used Time, right? And you even resurrected them? Before even asking how the h.e.l.l you can restore a soul and reconnect it to its body, why did you use it so openly? Do you want the G.o.ds to attack you even earlier?" She started drowning him with a barrage of questions. She seemed to be a bit too much caring of that, after her talk with Night.

Arima was looking away while Lanya smiled wryly "It"s okay, he saved a great number of lives, you know?" She tried to calm Lilis.

The latter sighed and looked at her, the she saw what was pending at Lanya"s neck. She saw the beautiful purple necklace. She widened her eyes, she quickly grabbed Lanya by her shoulder and dragged her to a corner of the place.

"Did he actually give you that?" Lilis asked after putting a sound proof barrier, escaping from Arima"s senses, wasn"t so easy as only moving away from him.

Lanya smiled and held the pendant in her hand "Yes, he actually made it in front of me" She said

"Seriously?" Lilis was shocked, she just proposed the idea of going with Lanya for a day, because she wanted to talk to Night alone. Never did she expect that Arima would actually do a date-like thing "Can I see it for a moment?" Lilis asked Lanya after she observed the pendant closer.

Lanya nodded and gave it to her, when Lilis grabbed the necklace it transformed into a purple light that flew back to Lanya"s neck, and reformed as a pendant.

Lilis was looking in daze at her empty hand "…Semi-transcendental…" She muttered in shock and laughed wryly "That pendant was refined by Karma, right?" She asked to Lanya.

The latter tilted her head, then thought about the drop that fell from Karma on the pendant, in the end, she nodded.

"I won"t say to you to care of it, because it"s most likely that necklace that will take care of you. As it"s bound to your soul, you"ll also never lose it" She said and dispelled the sound proof barrier. She started walking back toward Arima "It will protect you" She said.

Lanya looked at her pendant one more time then remembered something. She walked quickly toward Night who was eating on the table "Master, here" She handed at him the pendant with the dragon wings.

Night"s eyes widened and took the pendant with his magic, he then became a light that flew to his neck. As Arima could do it, Night could also bound some things to his soul.

Night glanced at the pendant at his neck "Thank you Lanya" He said and Lanya smiled.

"Well that"s good and all, but I still have three days to spend in boredom" Arima commented and everyone looked at him blankly.

"Why don"t you just sleep then?" Lanya, Lilis and Night said at the same time. Arima fell silent and silently took out a cake and ate it. He finished eating and stood up, he disappeared and directly reappeared on his bed.

"…He actually will do that" Night said and the two others looked back at him.

*****************************************

The next day, Lilis and Lanya left the Inn together. While Night stayed, he befriended the owner of the Inn and just lazed around while eating and talking with him. As expected, Arima just slept.

The same day, a middle-aged man wearing some flashy clothes entered then Inn "Where is Arimane Blade?" And asked to the owner which already had knelt down in front of the man, apparently, because of his ident.i.ty.

"Who are you? And what do you want with him?" Night asked before the owner could say something.

The man frowned and looked at the wolf cub that was sitting on a table "How does small a beast like you dares to talk with me in such a way? I"m Jerio, oldest prince of Center City" He presented.

Night frowned, his pupils changed to the one"s of a dragon "Repeat that" He said coldly.

The prince froze and began sweating, he bowed almost instantly "Sorry! Please don"t kill me!" He shouted. The owner and all the customers of the Inn looked wide eyed at the oldest prince bowing to a small wolf cub.

That prince wasn"t actually haughty or something, his character was just like that. Also, his strength was only at the ninth level, so he took the full blow of the threat of a tenth level dragon who had an earthen realm body.

Night sighed and his eyes changed back "I"m the soul beast of the one you"re looking for. What do you want?" He then asked.

"Yes" Jerio said and obediently sat at the same table Night was on "Your summoner helped my brother and sister through an ordeal yesterday, I"m here to thank him and bring him to the castle" He said with a straightened back.

Night tilted his head "Sorry, Arima is sleeping right now, he won"t wake up for three days at least" He said.

Jerio blinked once "Is he hibernating or something?"

"No, he"s just bored" Night said and the two fell silent "…I"ll go there myself, bring me to the castle, I should be enough to meet them" Night said after a few seconds.

The prince mused for a moment "Fine, it should be alright if the soul beast comes" He said.

"Then let"s go" Night jumped on the prince"s shoulder. And pointed his paw at the door "Onward!" And shouted for some reason.

"Hum, is something wrong?" Jerio asked awkwardly.

"Nah, just wanted to say that" Night responded.

"I-I see" The prince stood up and headed toward the exit. When he left, a huge carriage, of the same type Ofia and Kyle had yesterday, was waiting for them at the entrance. A young man was also standing beside the carriage, he was wearing a black armor.

Although Night wasn"t as good as Arima for that, he could still realize that knight was at the tenth level "Your highness" The young man bowed his head and opened the door of the carriage.

Jerio nodded and stepped inside the carriage, alone, at least from the knight"s perspective "Sir, weren"t you supposed to bring back certain individual with you?" He couldn"t help himself from asking.

"Mh" Inside the carriage, Jerio turned back to look at his bodyguard "He"s here" And pointed at his shoulder.

"Huh?" The knight looked at the wolf cub, grabbing cutely his prince"s shoulder "Him?"

"Yes" Jerio answered plainly "Now don"t lose time Yoran, let"s head to the castle" He said.

"Yes" Yoran complied and entered the carriage. The inside was, let"s just say, really luxurious, with two couches that looked really comfortable. There was also a magic crystal on a pedestal in the middle, Yoran put his hand on it and the crystal glowed with a blue light.

From the outside, the carriage shined a bit before heading alone toward its destination. After starting the carriage, Yoran sat down serenely on one of the couches. Jerio did the same and sat down on the opposite one.

While they were slowly, but surely, approaching the castle, Yoran"s expression didn"t stop twitching while he glanced, time to time, at Night on the prince"s shoulder.

It took them about ten minutes before they reached their destination. The three of them got off the carriage which was now in a parking lot of the castle"s citadel. When they were out, Yoran sighed, feeling relieved of the awkwardness he felt on the way here.

"Sir Yoran, Your Highness" A group of soldiers approached them when they arrived and one officer called them "You"re back. Where is that Z rank mercenary?" He asked. Apparently, they had already found out Arima"s ident.i.ty.

"He couldn"t come" Jerio shook his head "But his soul beast came in his stead" He pointed at Night who was in his shoulder and said.

"Huh?" The officer had the same reaction as Yoran. While he latter felt enlightened "(So it was his soul beast)" He thought then looked at Night, when he saw the cute pup eyes "(Nah, still doesn"t cut it right)" He said in his mind.

After that, the prince brought Arima to the castle and directly headed toward the throne room with Yoran. On the throne, there was a middle-aged man, with white hairs, wearing a red robe. Beside him, stood a stone-faced man with a dark expression.

On the other seats besides the throne, there was Ofia, Kyle and two other people. One of them being the queen and the last one, the youngest daughter, which seemed to be around sixteen years old.

"Jerio, where is the Kind Demon?" The king asked to his son.

Jerio slightly bowed once "Father, he couldn"t come but I brought his soul beast in his stead" He said with an earnest expression while pointing toward Night.

All of the royal family looked at him with blank eyes "Jerio, are you maybe joking? How could you bring a wolf cub here?" The king said and squinted his eyes to observe Night and sighed "Why did he not come himself?" He asked

"He was sleeping" Jerio answered honestly. Ofia chuckled and Kyle opened his mouth wide. Only the queen and the younger daughter felt indignant.

"I knew I shouldn"t have chosen you to bring him here" The king shook his head "Go back there, and bring him here even if you need to wake him up by force" He said

At this moment, Ofia and Kyle had a sudden change of expression "Wait F" When Kyle was about to say something, Night started laughing and jumped out of the prince"s shoulder.

"Why do you make it sound like I"m not worth your time?" He said with hidden irritation.

The king looked back at him "I have no interest on a soul beast, tell your master to come here himself, I"m willing to reward him" He said

"Ah? You dare to say that?" Night was one more time angered because of someone being disrespectful to Arima. Maybe it was his only weak spot "First, let me tell you, Arima is not my master, he"s my partner" He said and his body started expanding under the shocked looks of the royal family.

"You"re saying I"m not worth you time, when did you a.s.sume that you were worth Arima"s" Night continued to talk as his body slowly started looking like a dragon. His aura also exploded inside the throne room.

When Night finished his change and looked coldly at the king, the latter started regretting his words slightly.

"Now, if you get back the words you just said, maybe I will ignore it" The fifteen meters tall dragon said. Thankfully, the throne room was big enough to welcome him. The temperature in the castle rose.

"Make your choice, apologize, or say goodbye to your city" Night grinned and pointed at the King "I"ll be happy to teach you what respect is"