“Adrian, if I’m talking, don’t butt in.”
‘!?’
“I-I understand, Young Master,” Adrian’s eyes widened hearing such harsh words, turning his gaze downward, accompanied by other Crawfords, who also felt slightly awkward but were helpless.
“H-How dare you, puny brain!” Tictric, seeing the young man acting all mighty against him and his friend Adrian Crawford, felt his anger rising, which was exactly what Ryuk wanted.
Naturally, being of the same race, Tictric would have held dissatisfaction towards the Crawfords too if his words proved harsher for this tiny creature, which would have a bad impact on their relationship.
To put it simply, he wanted to remove this prideful attitude from them without harming their relationship with the Crawfords in the long run.
“Aren’t you the puny one here, who can’t even understand the principle behind this Device which I made?” Ryuk, gazing down at Tictric, directly stated the meaning behind referring to a child was due to his doubt on the intellect of Savants.
Boing
“How dare you!” Tictric directly jumped on the metal table beside him, added with tools, picking up a paper piece with random pencil scribbles on it, showing it to Ryuk while shouting, “I already deciphered the working principle of that thing, you slow mind, see?”
At first glance, Ryuk understood the pencil scribbles to be the rough blueprint of the Energy Stabilizer, while his eyes moved through the map making Tictric think that he needed to prove himself even more.
Tack
Jumping down while placing a paper on the floor, using a pen he started to draw something while talking, “Normally, Energy Stabilizers in the battleships take the Raw Ether transferred in the small packs from the Energy storage devices which get charged by Ether Crystals, and then they convert it into continuous flow by accumulation and condensing them, and then transfer to the engines by passing through Transformers and grid.”
While explaining, due to his hurt ego from a human doubting his intelligence, Tictric added, “But that device in your hand is just taking outside mana and filling those energy gaps to stabilize the flow while slightly decreasing output, which gets managed due to the larger amount of mana it takes!”
His frustration burst out, remembering the confusion blocking his mind. “Then how the hell will that device work with Ether when it takes outside mana and mixes it? It will cause an explosion and destroy the whole battleship due to vigorous reaction between ether and natural mana!”
Bam!
Tictric slammed the paper with frustration, while a savant swiftly arrived towards him with a blue bubbling fluid before making him drink it while rubbing his back. “Elder, calm down. You will get acidity.”
‘….’
“But it is for the human body though,” Ryuk blankly stated.
‘….’
Seeing all of their blank expressions, Ryuk understood that these people were so immersed in battleship building that they saw things from that point of view.
Naturally, except him, all humans use mana, and if there are any anomalies in energy, then this device stabilizes it by using surrounding mana.
Also, due to his body having something which suppresses the vigorous nature of Ether, he remains unaffected by the application of this device on his body.
“Sigh, listen Tictric, it only proves your short-sightedness if you can’t even determine the use of this device,” Ryuk remarked with narrowed gaze, causing the Savant to clench his four fingers together, understanding the mistake and slightly dissapointment into himself.
Not wanting to delay things, Ryuk stretched his hands while offering the same device to Tictric, already aware of his intellect by understanding the mechanism of this thing within some moment. “Prove yourself and infuse this energy core with the device.”
Boing
“Huh, are you challenging me, Human?” Tictric jumped on the table once again, looking at Ryuk’s amber eyes with a surging feeling of proving himself, somewhat wanting to take it as a challenge.
“Yes, prove yourself and make it so that it can take energy from this energy core instead of surrounding, even for one-time use,” giving the Energy Stabilizer to Tictric, since it was crucial for him to hold his ground in tomorrow’s battlefield.
And with this, he finally achieved his result by making Savants do the work and also taking care of their pride.
…..
“They look enthusiastic,” Noah remarked, glancing towards dozens of Savants gathered in one place while instructed by Tictric about the way they needed to achieve satisfactory results.
“Mia, return back and repair that body. It doesn’t matter if it breaks after use, but I want you to repair it within 18 hours,” Ryuk said, ignoring Noah and turning towards Mia, who was looking at the Savants with a pouted mouth for snatching her chance to shine.
“Y-yes, Young Master, I will definitely do it faster than that old man,” Mia’s face brightened before swiftly dashing towards the elevator.
“Noah, lead me to the Central Library,” Ryuk said as he also moved towards the elevator. The reason for him to come here was already accomplished.
.
.
.
.
tap tap
Moving through the territory of the Crawfords, which was still highly developed due to their affiliation with Ardoros, even though their rankings may have fallen, even the lowest branch families had at least two battleships, proving their strength.
Two figures, now the center of attention, moved towards the crowd inside the market, but the amusing thing was that the women’s eyes seemed to fixate on only one individual.
“They seem to recognize you, Young Master,” Noah whispered, tilting slightly, which Ryuk also noticed.
Even when Ryuk first arrived in Crawford territory, those gazes he felt were definitely not from someone recognizing him, but rather from an appreciation for beautiful things.
It was true that as one’s strength rises, they become mentally stronger, making them immune to the charisma of others, much like Incubi who may seduce others but have less effect on stronger beings.
To lower all this, from the moment Ryuk woke up, he had forced *Shunya* to suppress his Soul Energy and pheromones from leaking his body, which is a real thing that attracts others.
Meaning, everyone has different standards for beauty; some may find him attractive, but some may not. However, in this world with varieties of races, they seemed to be influenced by someone’s bodily aura.
But in the end, until now, he only met individuals with an above-rank EPIC, their mentality added with his suppressed charisma kept them sane, but he can’t change his face.
And right now, he was feeling lustful gazes.
A clear, sharp intent of devouring him, a soft pungent smell of sweat and arousal lingering in the air with a few women standing with quivering legs, their hazy eyes with trembling parted dewed lips made way for warm breath.
Some gripped their fruit baskets tightly while biting their lips, chest rapidly rising with each breath; their thoughts were audible to only themselves, but humid eyes were giving away all their intentions.
It all felt surreal; after all, it was just too exaggerated, but Ryuk was seeing this, so he couldn’t even think of it as some illusion.
‘I need to start wearing cloaks,’ he finally understood. Only suppressing his smell, positive energy would not decrease the attraction the opposite gender feels towards him, which led to the decision of hiding his face.
But he knew these crowds were just people with very thin Devereaux bloodline, like citizens and part of the branch family of the Crawfords.
From the files from Maya, he came to know that only the Crawfords provided shelter for such individuals from across the Devereaux family expanse, more like other branch families banished individuals who were unsuitable for battles, and they took refuge here.
Something that showed the mentality and kind-heartedness of Adrian Crawford.
This was also what made Ryuk not use the Enslavement Grimoire on them until now. Of course, he didn’t believe them blindly, but until he felt the need to do it, he would wait.
“Young Master, we have arrived. This is the Central Library,” Noah called out, puffing his chest with pride since the Central Library was inside the Crawfords’ Territory, something of which they were proud.
Having been under the control of the previous three major Branch Families, they had a few things to keep them in that position while ensuring their citizens also learned about the outside world.
Ryuk’s amber eyes reflected a huge building that seemed unending, stretching to a thinner tower-like structure with white tiles glimmering in the moonlight. Several crowds moved inside and outside, proving its accessibility to everyone.
‘I hope I can find anything about the Rakshasa Technique here.’
