Chapter 990: I am too young to be an adoptive father
Earlier, while Zhen Liu was in the middle of counseling Cornelius, both Razorstella and Frosttusk went about finishing their assignments in very different ways.
[Was it really necessary for us to buy all of this junk?]
[This many meaningful items for a handful of copper? Yes, it was completely necessary. Besides, I needed a palette cleanser after seeing that street cook’s thousand yard stare. It felt…wrong.]
Razorstella, with Screamira’s assistance, had bought a crate full of random knick-knacks and pieces of junk that all carried [Meaning]. These items varied from old wooden toys to rusted kitchen knives to an old alchemist’s cauldron.
Any kaijin created from this stuff would definitely end up looking a touch more…whacky than the current group, but that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.
From what Zhen Liu could remember of his past life, the kaijin in those old shows that lean towards the whackier side had a bit more leeway in their powers and could get away with some weird stuff, while making it borderline impossible for the heroes to retaliate. When those weaknesses got exposed though, it never ended well for the kaijin.
As for Frosttusk, well…he came back with a whole ass human being.
A muzzled human being with a slave collar attached to them no less.
Needless to say, Zhen Liu was incredibly confused and a touch concerned. Especially since that aforementioned human being was attaching themselves to Frosttusk like a scared child latching on to their grandfather. Then again, the aforementioned muzzled slave actually looked to be a teenager.
As such, Zhen Liu could only condense his question into a singular phrase that encapsulated all of his feelings at once.
“Frosttusk…what the fuck?”
[Let me explain…]
…
<
<
Shortly after Frosttusk, Kit and Rodenia had made visual confirmation on their person of interest, they still had a transaction to go through.
Namely, the exchange for a copy of a [World]-class aether art in exchange for a teenaged slave warrior who had a muzzle on his face.
It was a weird situation, but there was a good reason for these actions.
Well, Frosttusk said he had a good reason.
<
<
<
<<...right.>>
At the moment of the exchange, the aforementioned teenage slave warrior was acting surprisingly obedient. But, once Frosttusk and company had exited the watchful gaze of the crowd and the slave merchant, the teenager made his move.
More specifically, he tried to stab Frosttusk in the gut.
[Oh shit.]
[Huh, so that’s why he bumped into that stand earlier…]
On the way away from the crowds, the boy had somehow managed to sneakily steal one of those large nails used to butcher eels from a food stand. Once the group had moved to somewhere isolated enough, the teenager enacted his plan of attack.
However, he had grossly overestimated his own abilities and severely underestimated Frosttusk.
Evidently, it never dawned on the boy that the collar on his neck was supposed to prevent him from injuring his master. So the fact that it didn’t, well…
Thunk.
<:?!:>
Meant his actions were essentially pointless.
Instead of a much anticipated yelp of pain, blood spillage and a quick and honorable death, the boy found that his nail had bent in a perpendicular manner. Not only that, it he could feel the familiar chill of frost and snow sapping the heat away from his hand.
Making matters worse, the sudden attack has broken Frosttusk’s disguise.
Gone was the muscular old man, replaced by a giant with dark blue skin and features that were reminiscent of a giant mammoth.
The teenager was so shocked at this turn of events, that he failed to react in time as Frosttusk’s used his trunk to trap him in a vice grip.
<:Mmmph?!:>
Thoughts of death began to race through the boy’s mind as he felt the strength of the trunk grip him tighter, and the strange mammoth-like giant pulling him in closer for some unknown reason…until…
<: Don't be afraid. As wind and snow carries the promised songs of tomorrow.:>
<:Hmmm?!:>
The boy heard the sound of his mother tongue coming out of the mouth of this strange giant. Not only that, it was a saying only used in his tribe. Once he heard those words coming from Frosttusk, the boy immediately calmed down in a rather sudden fashion.
In fact, the sudden turnaround in behavior was so sudden that the boy actively began to hug Frosttusk like he was an old relative that hadn’t been seen in years, coldness be damned.
This change in behavior caught Kit and Rodenia by surprise.
[Whoa…]
[That’s…shocking.]
The boy continues to hug Frosttusk for a surprisingly long time until finally letting go on his volition.
Frosttusk didn’t seem bothered by the length of the hug. In fact, the other kaijin couldn’t help but think he had a nostalgic smile on his face…as odd as it sounded.
Once the hug had ended, Frosttusk addressed the boy directly.
<:I know the muzzle is uncomfortable right now, but you'll have to bear with it for now. If you come with us, we can help you get back home too. Sound good?:>
<:Hmm!:>
With that guarantee given, Frosttusk proceeded to head back to the library with a a mysterious teenager in tow.
Bringing with him all the troubles that were attached to this boy.
…
[…after that, it was just a matter of avoiding contact with your family and running all the way back to the Library of Nowhere,] Frosttusk finished explaining. [His name is Hakon, by the way.]
“Huh.”
“That’s a funny name,” Janice commented.
At this point in time, Frosttusk’s and Hakon’s meeting with Zhen Liu had gone on long enough for the other kaijin in the library, and the two disciples, to get curious as to what all the hub-bub was about.
Zhen Liu briefly heard Nepherage, Hurricroak and Spring Brawler mutter something about the irony of a presumed orphan showing up at their doorstep, right after having recently learned about an orphanage exploiting its children, but he chose to ignore that for the time being.
One case of willful children neglect at a time, and this one was more immediate.
“Wait a minute…how do you know his name is Hakon, if he has a muzzle on his face?,” Zhen Liu pointed out. “Is an Anima wielder too?”
[No,] Frosttusk shook his head. [He’s from a tribe that uses sign language as well as verbal language. I know both.]
“Say what?”
At this comment, the boy named Hakon proceeded to make a series of gestures that must’ve been the aforementioned sign language that Frosttusk was talking about.
Oddly enough, the only one that seemed to understand what was being “said” was Frosttusk himself, as evident by him performing similar looking gestures.
The rest of the kaijin were absolutely stumped though.
…
[Wait, Frosttusk knows sign language? Since when?,] Hurricroak asked.
[Technically, we can learn it too. We have access to literal infinite library,] Razorstella pointed out
[But that’s the thing, I have never seen this particular dialect of sign language in any of the records,] Spring Brawler backed up Hurricroak. [I guess it’s a regional dialect?]
[Huh…thousands of years accumulated knowledge and yet we are still learning something new.]
[Knowledge is power.]
[Wait, that’s your takeaway from this? Not the fact that Frosttusk seems to know something that none of us do?]
[Oh…huh.]
…
[He’s asking if you’re going to take this muzzle off of him and free him yet.]
“Oh? Right, yeah sure. Uh…wait, these aren’t normal lock and key?”
[No.]
Prompted by Frosttusk’s words, Zhen Liu made his way over to Hakon and took a closer look against both the slave collar around his neck and the muzzle keeping his mouth shut.
“Huh…”
Apparently the process to enslaving aether warriors was a significantly more cumbersome than enslaving someone mundane.
In Zhen Liu’s eyes, both the muzzle and the collar had aether arrays built into their structures, which were unlike anything like what was on that girl that his cousins rescued.
To most other warriors, breaking such arrays required either specific knowledge, the life of the inscriber or a key of some kind to render the whole thing innert.
That former bit required asking a pair of curators spirits that were busy reorganizing things, that middle was questionable as hell because Zhen Liu knew the inscriber, while the last one was… technically possible but a massive pain in the ass to acquire.
In the case of Zhen Liu though, he just needed to add a little [Chaos].
“I have no idea if you understand a word I am saying,” Zhen Liu said as he rubbed his hands in preparation. “But this is going to sting a little.”
Swishing hand noises
[He says he can take it.]
“Okay…,” Zhen Liu replied while making sure to not put too much pressure on his busted leg.
Using his pointer finger as the focus, Zhen Liu got to work.
