“….Where is my granddaughter?” Valhale inquired, looking towards the four individuals standing outside the mansion where he had just arrived, while carrying a book weighing more than five ton evident from it’s thickness of being a metre.
Major part of the weight being that high was mana infused ink.
“She is resting,” Ryuk kept his gaze fixed on the book, observing its thickness while thinking about the content until 1236 pages—the ones he had learned from Esme’s illusion.
He was sure this book had more than five thousand pages, something which was already making his feet instinctively approach it.
Right now, he was seeing the most valuable thing there is, and his instincts were clearly telling him that.
[Host, that book is alive.]
‘Huh?’ Ryuk halted, just moving an inch, after hearing the System’s words, his eyes looking at the normal thick book in the hands of Valhale not finding it alive at all.
There wasn’t any aura or mana resonance around the book’s surface.
“Resting? Don’t tell me you made her participate in battle yesterday?” Valhale narrowed his gaze, looking towards the young man while ignoring Drishti’s gaze, which definitely wanted her hands on his book.
Indeed, among all four of them, Drishti was the most curious one about the thesis, her eyes seeming to be interested in reading the content which kept Valhale still alive to this date.
Naturally, even though they were founders, time was always a hurdle for them.
She was able to keep tackling it by getting reborn again and again, while Tenebri’s founder was already an immortal.
But this wasn’t the case for any other founders who existed from their time.
Some died, some lost everything and got sealed away, or some disappeared.
Though the majority of them died due to old age after living for more than half a million years.
“I needed her help,” Ryuk’s eyes met with Valhale’s, which held coldness, and his face carried stains of blood, evident from the previous day’s battle being intense.
Indeed, Valhale’s clothes were tattered, and at that it was only due to the battle with Regina and Drishti, but the bloodstains on them belonged to Abernathy, more specifically, those whom he killed yesterday.
His strength was suppressed to EPIC, but in the end, no matter how blunt a sword became over time, if struck with more force, then it would at least break the bones.
And it become evident when more than dozens of Abernathy’s died at his hand.
“You better be glad that nothing happens to her,” Valhale threatened the black masked young man before passing beside him as he moved towards the mansion with a cold gaze.
“Liege, should I snatch that book?” Regina came forward inquiring, though she already would have done it if it wasn’t for her noticing that subtle hesitation inside Ryuk’s approach.
At that moment, he halted before taking the book, only moving an inch forward.
Naturally, it wasn’t difficult to take that thesis from Valhale’s hand, though Regina could still remember the negligible dent in her sword after the fight with Valhale, but still, with the help of Drishti and Ryuk, snatching wasn’t difficult.
“No, that book is alive,” Ryuk said with his eyes narrowing before glancing towards Drishti, who also had a knowing smile on her face.
Mostly he considered consequences of the information written inside it being destroying, if they used force to take it.
“You always amaze me, kiddo,” Drishti said, her eyes glinting with a sharp yet small smile forming on her face, her hand folded on her chest.
“Can’t you suppress that book too?” Ryuk was really in need of getting the book, and asking for help from Drishti didn’t feel like much since, ego aside, right now he needed to prioritize getting stronger.
“Hmm, I can, but you need to make Valhale let me open his brain,” Drishti calmly stated, her expression becoming serious from an amused one, glancing towards the young man.
‘….’ Ryuk averted his gaze, looking blankly for sometime infront, understanding that Drishti wanted to know everything about Valhale’s strength, secrets, and experiences.
From the status window of Valhale, Ryuk was aware that his soul was protected under the layers of his own skin, which was like a shell strong enough to protect his mind and soul from outside interference.
So, until Valhale gave permission for others to see inside his mind, it was impossible.
And here, Drishti wanted him to submit, fully aware that he would be dissected.
‘Wait, that means…’ Ryuk, without turning towards Drishti, realized that she could also extract someone’s memories too.
But thinking something else, he inquired, “And what will be the aftereffect of extracting memories?”
Naturally, there should be at least some pain or minor side effects if one tries to extract someone’s memories from their brain.
The brain is a complex structure where memories are stored in the vast network of neurons.
The more memories one has, the more complex network of neurons formed.
So, if someone suddenly acquires more memories in a rush, the rapid formation of those neurons’ networks would cause unbearable pain.
The same applies when they are rapidly destroyed due to memory extraction too.
“Nothing much, just soul extinguishes,” Drishti’s tone halfway turned firm, her eyes trying to get some reaction from the young man who seemed unbothered.
“I see…”
[=_=]
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In a room inside the battleship, the interior was decorated to perfection, resembling a palace room,
“Umh…” Esme’s hand tried to search for someone, her eyes closed, but only met with disappointment as a frown formed on them.
‘Huh?’ Her eyes fluttered open to observe an empty bed, no one present beside her except the pillows arranged on both corners, as if to prevent her from falling.
Swish
“What? Where did he go?” Esme’s body lurched forward before her eyes roamed to find a trace of the young man, yet only the sight of an empty room, filled with decorations, greeted her.
‘Wait, was it because of yesterday’s event?’ Recalling her falling asleep yesterday due to exhaustion while he was pushing things forward, she thought that he might have left in disappointment.
Ting!
The doors of the room slid open, revealing two figures of children with crystal horns on their heads.
“Sister, how could you fool us!” Mae dashed inside, remembering how they had fallen asleep and when they woke up realized that Esme wasn’t in the room, and from inquiring with Devereaux members, they came to know that no one had left the room.
Clearly meaning that they were fooled from the start by an illusion.
Unbeknownst to Mae, Sam stood with a blank look, already having slept well, while after waking up, he acted as if he was also unaware of being fooled.
Like he couldn’t be one to get a beating from both Mae and his elder sister.
“Oh my, how about we take a walk?” Esme moved towards the edge of the bed before lifting herself, already planning to go herself and search for the man who left her early in the morning.
She simply wanted to see the sight of that face early in the morning to begin her day with a smile.
But that dense man ran away.
“What? Are you trying to—” Mae, seeing Esme hurriedly standing with a visibly angry face, tried to speak but was interrupted due to her hand being grabbed and pulled out of the room.
“W-wait, hey Sam, follow me.” Mae, being dragged along, glanced at Sam before showing a fist, clearly threatening him not to even think of falling asleep on that bed.
“Yeah, yeah, coming,” Sam moved lazily, gesturing with his hand as he followed behind.
