Chapter 834: A Day At the Library – Part 1
Meanwhile, in an observation room that was rejected for those who held the title of “Kaijin Consort”…
“Huh…all things considered…things could’ve gone worse for darling,” Jinju Ren commented. “Although, I did enjoy seeing him glow beet red with embarrassment.”
“It’s a different side to him, I’ll give you that,” Rianna added.
“I think I’m just curious as to how the hell Anton got a human body, to be completely honest,” Jin Fang pivoted. “But I guess it does help hide the fact that Xiao Liu doesn’t actually have-”
“Situation?”
Jinju Ren and Rianna were both befuddled by Pathos’s suddenly interruption, not exactly used to hearing Pathos sounding so unusually panicked. As for Jin Fang, she had a feeling it probably wasn’t as bad as the weird curator thought it was.
“What kind of situation?”
“That-oh. That’s normal.”
“I mean…did she request a bottle of milk yet?”
“Then they’ll live to see tomorrow,” Jin Fang said with a shrug as she sat down into a beanbag chair.
In response to this strange response and nonchalance, both Jinju Ren and Rianna shot incredibly confused looks in Jin Fang’s direction.
“Why…why would a bottle of milk be a sign that-”
“I’m going to be very honest with the both of you,” Jin Fang interrupted. “She has taught me things that I dare not show to Xiao Liu for fear of destroying his innocence…moreso than what has already been lost.”
“What the fuck…”
Needless to say…the dragon princess and the insect amazoness both came to an accord in regards to their future mother-in-law: don’t get on her bad side…ever.
“She also taught me how to bring a man to his knees with just a kiss, but that’s for later.”
“Say what now?”
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|Nascent traces of [Sloth], [Envy], [Greed], [Kindness] and [Charity] has been detected. Incorporating traces into kaijin spirit body. ETA for stabilization has been reduced by one hour and thirty minutes.|
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“Maestro, aren’t you going to go and join your cousins in picking through the Library’s aether arts?,” Hurricroak asked. “I mean, I get you already have full access because of the ring on your finger, but…”
“I should just do so for the experience?”
“Exactly.”
“Hmmm.”
Zhen Liu did not chase after his cousins as they went to explore the inner workings of the [Library of Nowhere], opting to instead stay in the library’s main lobby and converse with Hurricroak via…actually talking for once.
It was a novel change to be sure, but annoying nonetheless.
Zhen Liu honestly missed hearing everyone’s voices in his head… especially since the only sound he could hear for the next few hours was a droning snore.
“It’s fine, honestly. I can’t even really use any of these arts with my own body anyways, well, not unless I fuse with you guys. And at that point, the arts are baked into your beings at the maximum potency. Seems a bit redundant to learn it myself…right?”
Zhen Liu technically had a point in this regard, since he ideally would never fight without the kaijin or zakos by his side.
Hurricroak, however, didn’t think the same way.
“Oh come on now, maestro, ain’t that a bit defeatist? You can technically create channels temporarily using [Chaos], who’s to say you can’t make it permanent? Hell, there are several wonder pills out there that literally open up channels for those weirdo super geniuses, they’d probably work on you too.”
“Hmmm…I guess you’re right,” Zhen Liu freely relented. “But the chances of us finding or making those things ourselves is…slim.”
“You say that, but your family does seem more than willing to help you out,” Hurricroak pointed out while vaguely gesturing towards the general directions his cousins ran off to.
By complete coincidence, she just so happened to point Zhen Liu into the direction of his cousin, Zhen Feng, just as he was pulling a book off the shelf that caught his interest.
“A Beginner’s Guide to Cooking Alchemy? Wait, I can turn food into aether medicines?! Hell yeah!”
“Okay, fair point again, I just hope that the others find…wait a minute…”
Zhen Liu’s expression suddenly shifted to a slightly more serious expression as a thought crossed his mind.
Normally, Hurricroak wouldn’t have to even guess what her maestro was thinking about, but that wasn’t possible for the moment.
As such, she had to ask a rather obvious question.
“Is something on your mind, maestro?”
“Nothing, it’s just…have you seen where my mother went? Last I saw her, she looked as if she was going to put…Simon… through the ringer and then some. I figured she’d be back here at the very least.”
“Oh…yeah…your mother forced Spring Brawler to answer a series of increasingly delicate questions before demanding Logos and Pathos to let her have first crack at interrogating our new prisoners,” Hurricroak freely answered with exactly zero hesitation. “What the fuck…,” Zhen Liu commented with a shocked expression plain on his face.
“Side note: Logos and Pathos believe she may or may not have a connection to a prior Kaijin Lord. Possibly on a personal level.”
“Of course she does…,” Zhen Liu said while palming his face in stressed frustration.
First his great grandaunt, then his girlfriend and now his mother had some form of connection to the kaijin.
Technically, Rianna also had a connection but that wasn’t directly connected to the whole “kaijin lord” thing.
Probably.
“Whatever,” Zhen Liu eventually said with a sigh, “I got more pressing things to attend to. Hurricroak?”
“Yes, maestro?”
“Keep an eye on my cousins, I’m going to go make sure my mother doesn’t traumatize the prisoners.”
“As you wish, maestro.”
With his orders given, Zhen Liu proceeded to walk away…only to remember that he couldn’t contact Logos and Pathos right now.
Zhen Liu quickly took several steps backwards so he could ask Hurricroak a quick favor.
“Hurricroak, would you mind-”
“Already done. Passage should be opening…now.”
As soon as those words left her mouth, a set of shelves opened up like a tunnel’s gateway.
“Cool.”
As Zhen Liu made his way to and down the library tunnel that had just appeared, a single thought popped into his head. (Un)surprisingly, it was about those idiots who caused this whole mess to begin with.
‘I hope mom isn’t too harsh on those guys…I need to figure out who sent them myself!’
Spoiler alert, he was going to find out…and he wasn’t going to be happy with the answer.
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Meanwhile, at the Library’s interrogation theater…
“This is what my son has been using to extract information from people? Really?,” Daria commented as she looked over the costume rack. “Why all of the outfits?”
“The ringmaster doesn’t want people to know his identity when he extracts information, so Logos and Pathos prepared these costumes to help mask his identity and give off certain…impressions.”
“Impressions? Really?”
To help emphasize her disbelief, Daria picked out a literal clown costume for Spring Brawler to look at and explain.
“To be fair, madam, the ringmaster prefers…this one,” Spring Brawler said as he pulled out the elegant robes and plain face mask that he normally used when threatening people.
At the sight of the toned back outfit, Daria actually looked mildly impressed.
“Alright, I take back my previous statement of disbelief…but why do these clothes look remarkably clean? I thought you said he tortured people in here personally.”
In Daria’s experience, blood had a tendency to stain and linger, even after a thorough deep cleaning.
The only way to prevent such a mess from occuring in the first place was to use either a specialized apron or have other people do the torturing instead.
From what Spring Brawler told her though, her darling baby boy used neither.
“Actually, he uses something called psychological torture instead,” Spring Brawler explained. “He also does make use of us, just not in a violent or brutal manner.”
“Psycho-what?”
“Oh, right! That word doesn’t exist here…he tortures their mind. Makes them think that he’ll do something terrible unless they give him what he wants or needs from them, but doesn’t actually do it.”
“Makes promises of…he threatens them? That’s it?”
“Not exactly…hold on a moment.”
…
[Guys, this is going to sound weird but…]
=You want us to give you footage of the times our lord made use of absurd acting to get he wanted?
[I mean, if it’s not too much trouble.]
[Cool…wait a minute, most?]
=We made sure to keep out the bits where he just summoned us, or used extra judicial methods in conjunction with psychological torture. I’d rather not give any more ideas to Madam Daria.
[Fair.]
