NOVEL NEXT 68 Five Days Earlier Let's backtrack to a few days ago, five days before the meeting occurred and three days after the incident with the late Zach Pearce.
To the top floor of one of the second-year dormitories in the Royal Academy, located on the triple-mooned planet Kreiz.
The suns were setting in the west, their afterglow illuminating the surface of the seas of Kreiz, dying them golden and sparkly.
Inside the only room on that floor, one reserved for the members of the Devildom's royal family, on the event that they attended this academy.
The afterglow of the setting suns shone diagonally through the glass windows, bringing about a tinge of heat.
The insides of the room were calm with a touch of warmth.
On the only bed in the room, a silver-haired boy groggily rose from the bed, he ignored the presence of the black-haired girl asleep on the couch beside it.
He then walked over to the bathroom, before emptying his guts into the toilet.
"Fuck, that's disgusting"
He rinsed his mouth in the sink multiple times, then took some water and washed his hair lightly. Looking at the mirror, he noticed something weird.
"My eye is blue?"
His left eye had become blue, blinking twice, it returned to its original black colour.
'I think it's high time I stopped messing with laws.'
He heaved a sigh and walked back into the room, picking up his phone beside him, he sat on the bed and began catching up on what he had missed while he was asleep.
"What the? I was asleep for three days?!"
"Yes, my prince."
A deep voice replied, turning around, he saw a tall human man, dressed in all black. The boy, Arthur, spoke towards him.
"Just what happened Lute? Why was I asleep for three days?"
"The strain on your body was far too much, although I healed you completely, I did not recover your lost energy nor did I recover your fatigue.
Your body chose to hibernate itself until you were back to normal."
Arthur shook his head at the ridiculousness of the answer he received.
'Why the fuck is my body doing things like that on its own?!'
He scrolled through his phone and found a message from the high drifter he contacted, it was filled with information on the real reason the Former marquis dabbled in monsterization magic, the second artifact that Count Harper possessed that was needed and the true mastermind who coaxed the Marquis into attempting this in the first place.
"So, before I go beat up that idiot, fill me in on what happened these past three days." He then turned around to the girl on the couch who had finally woken up and continued. "Good evening Layla."
"..."
"Hello?"
"..."
"Kreiz to Layla?"
She stared at him in silence for a few more seconds before abruptly standing up and hugging him silently.
Arthur, who received a hug from one of the girls that most boys in his class would do anything for, had one very rude thought run through his mind.
'She's heavy!'
Of course, he did not dare say it out loud for fear of the consequences. Getting that out of his head, he then realized there was something else that had weight on his body.
He looked down slightly and thought to himself.
'She's just 13 but she has more 'assets' than some women more than thrice her age.'
Another thought that he would definitely earn him a 'right straight' to the face if he dared to say it aloud.
After finally having her fill, Layla pulled back slightly, took a deep breath and jammed her forehead against Arthur's, with a bit too much force.
"Ow! What in tarnation?"
"That's for being an idiot and pushing yourself too far, you're not immortal you know? Why would you do something as crazy as that knowing fully well of the consequences?
Also, how can you use the power of a law?"
Arthur was about to deny her statement but she cut him off,
"Don't think about denying it, I've seen my mother use the law of wind before, it gave off the same feeling as what you did three days ago."
And so his escape route was cut off, but he obviously was not going to tell her he was a progenitor, even though there was a slight chance of her actually believing him.
She was more likely to question his sanity, as such, he saw no reason to tell her, and he just stared at her in silence.
Layla was no fool, seeing Arthur stare at her silently, she realized he wasn't going to tell her the reason even if it meant the death of him.
She sighed and let go of him, she walked out of the room, not before leaving a few words.
"I'm gonna go take a shower, let Lute brief you on all the bullshit that happened lately, and do not leave till I come back, got something for you."
After she left, Arthur sighed and gestured for Lute to begin his briefing on the events that happened while he was unconscious.
◇ ◇ ◇
While Arthur was being briefed on the happenings of the past three days, Cattleya arrived at the academy for the first time in a long while.
She wanted to see Arthur as soon as possible but she held herself back. Her reason was simple, she wanted to check out the scene of the battle between Arthur and Zach.
Such a thing was unnecessary, however, she still did it because of one reason.
'Lute's report was suspicious.'
Cattleya has learnt to trust her instincts over the thousands of years she has lived. Like the situation in Chrysa, she felt it was suspicious and decided not to go, and that saved her from being caught in enemy territory.
When she read Lute's report on Arthur's fight, she felt it was suspicious. The story matched up perfectly with the other reports from others who witnessed the fight.
Looking at it, there was nothing wrong, yet she still felt this way.
And so, she decided to go and see the scene of the battle herself. Although Arthur was strong, fighting and defeating a superior stage grandmaster without energy was impossible for him.
Even if he used the strongest of his strengthening artifacts, he still could not do it. She knew this well, after all, she was the one who prepared those artifacts for him
Also, Zach was monsterized, so among superior stage grandmasters, he was significantly stronger.
He could have even broken into the Epic realm if given time, so she did not feel that Arthur defeating him was not possible.
Lute claimed to have been responsible for the last attack, he also said he put up the veil of darkness so that others would not see the end of the poor monsterized Zach.
He also said that it was to prevent others from seeing Arthur's injured state.
The reasons he gave were too sloppy, Lute was strong enough to end a thousand Zachs with little effort, yet the darkness dome was open for nearly five full minutes.
It was far too long for him to deal with Zach and heal Arthur completely. There was also something else that caught her eye.
In one of the hundreds of reports written by the students, there was one that spoke of Arthur flying right before the dome of darkness covered the scene.
'Arthur does not know flight magic, he also does not have a high realm of existence that enables him to fly without wings, as such he could only be flying with his wings, the very same wings he has not used in almost a year.'
Cattleya had also noticed Arthur's avoidance of using his wings, normally she would have ignored it. However, after the entrance exams where he used the power of a law, she began to think he was hiding things from her.
Sure, everyone had secrets, she also did not want to pry, however, she felt that whatever Arthur was hiding concerned his well-being greatly.
Because of that, she decided to attempt to find out what he was hiding, that was also the reason she had Lute go over to the academy, to watch Arthur's actions.
'However, it seems Lute listens to Arthur more than he does to me, huh?'
She walked past the guards who were in charge of watching the scene of the battle, but none of them noticed her at all.
As she looked at the ruined estate, her expression darkened instantly.
'I don't even need to check, the essence of laws is filling the area, I can sense like three, or is it four?
There is death, there's wind, and even the annoying law of time is here too. And lastly, this place stinks of the law of destruction.'
She instantly figured out all the laws that Arthur used, however, what she did not know was how he was able to tap into the power of these laws.
Of course, the reason was the time crystal given by Alexia, she added extra information inside it. The method to tap into the power of a law used by Legendary realm existences.
Unfortunately, Cattleya did not know of the crystal, hence she could not connect the dots.
She squatted and picked some sand in her hands, her eyes glowed as she activated her bloodline ability.
'Oh my, he has an annihilation already, it's frighteningly similar to mine too.'
Your gift is the motivation for my creation. Give me more motivation!
Creation is hard, cheer me up!
_michael