Austin POV:
The Next Day:
“The atmosphere here has gotten heavier…”
I mused as I sat in my room, Farah already taken back into my body, blessing me with fun. The atmosphere around the mansion now felt dreadful and dreary, a confounding feeling of sadness, regret, and death spilling around the whole area. It was subtle, but the entire land around this place seemed to be transforming into something deadlier.
‘Just how low do you have to fall to do something like this?’
Shaking my head at useless thoughts, I opened the door and stepped out. Servants and others were moving around. I started to walk around the place, reaching a window. I could see several carriages parked outside of the mansion, all of them well-decorated and beautiful.
‘The branch families and the other supporters…’
After gazing at a few, my eyes peered farther outside of the mansion. By now, all of my people must have scoped out the entire place, covering every exit and making sure to plant every trap. Of course, with Mira present, nobody could escape, but it’s never too much to have more safety measures in hand.
‘Moreover, this is a quest by the system. I am more than sure that something or the other might go wrong…’
Turning my gaze away, I started to walk through the place, my pace modest and my path unhindered. I walked into a hall where several nobles were moving around. The hall was decorated grandly, with wine and talk all around. I too was dressed appropriately for the occasion as I moved around the place. My presence was barely felt.
Then, my gaze landed on Shira, the young ‘lord’ surrounded by a lot of young people, some trying to kiss her ass, and others of equal standing deserving respect. She looked to be the center of it all. Though her face seemed impassive and she barely responded to their words, then her eyes met mine.
I smiled slightly at her, and a genuine smile broke from her face. She gave me a light nod as I gave one back to her. Seeing this, I easily broke away from the hall, heading to a garden, which Shira joined an hour later.
“Miss me?”
I asked with a sly smile, to which she nodded her head.
“A lot…”
She replied as the two of us just kept walking around the garden, the presence of people here scarce. The two of us seemed to enjoy the sudden sense of peace falling in between us. It was in this calmness that I spoke.
“Shira, did you ever think of leaving all this and going away?”
My question made her confused and she asked, “What do you mean?”
I spoke, “I mean, you know, leave it all behind, live a quiet life without involving ourselves in this bloodshed and death.”
My question only brought a frown to her face, a sneer filling her visage as she spoke.
“Why would I leave behind my life of wealth and power? It’s an amazing feeling to have all this, and once the plans are complete, won’t I… no, we be untouchable?”
As she said her words, she lovingly twisted her hand around mine. In her mind, my question was just some sort of lax words. To her words, I smiled back at her as I spoke.
“Of course, the world will be yours and mine…”
And hence, we just talked for 15 more minutes after which Shira left, going to join back at the meeting. I stood there feeling the wind on my face.
‘Sigh… you didn’t give me any space, Shira.’
I tried to find any remorse or a sense of loss in her, but she came back just as I expected her to be. It’s not that I did not understand her mind after spending all that time with her, but it’s just that I hoped that some kind of change might occur. But it seems my thoughts were for naught.
I don’t dislike her thoughts, for it’s the nature of any being to want power and to do anything for that power. But there are some lines that can’t be crossed. But then again, I am not doing this because of all that, am I?
‘For I am no better than her…’
While everything the Hillclowd family is doing is disgusting to me, the main reason I am doing this is to protect my family and to keep the world that has the people I care for safe.
‘Saving the world not to save it but to only save the people I care about.’
I shook my head at my thoughts as I looked at the evening sky.
‘Haven’t I grown arrogant?’
…..
Third Person POV:
“What’s this meeting suddenly for?”
A man asked sitting around the round table, the darkness of the night filling the sky. Ten different people sat around a round table, with Trigon taking the head seat. His indifferent eye looked around the table while his ‘son’ stood behind him with an arrogant gaze, looking at all the people around the table.
“We have now gathered enough pills…”
Trigon spoke in a calm voice, astounding the people around as greed started to take over their faces. One of the men around the table asked, “Then when can we start with ingestion?”
“Soon, for now, we have something else to deal with,” Trigon said, and soon the door to the room opened as a man whose hands were tied was brought in. Seeing the man brought in, Shira’s eyes widened.
…..
Austin POV:
‘Now that’s a nice gaze,’ I thought as I entered the room with my hands tied. The two knights beside me held me tight as they pushed me in.
“What’s going on, father?” Shira asked as she looked at me with worry, to which Trigon didn’t reply. He and his goons looked at me with narrowed eyes, and a moment of silence took place before Trigon spoke.
“Who are you?”
Hearing this, I looked at him with confusion as I asked, “What are you asking, master?”
“Don’t play the fool with me. I know you are not H-109 because each of those slaves has a unique signature birthmark on them that they themselves don’t know about.”
‘Interesting…’ Even I couldn’t tell anything about some unique birthmark, but then again, I am not omnipotent and can’t get it always right. The atmosphere in the room got heavier after Trigon’s words. Shira looked at me with trembling eyes as I looked at the rest, a smirk taking over my face as I spoke.
“Gotta say, you are more meticulous than I thought, but then why didn’t you take me down when I reached this place?”
I asked with confusion. My following words took the strength out of Shira’s legs as she fell to the ground. None paid attention to it as Trigon spoke.
“I wanted to watch what you will do, plus you seemed like the perfect test subject for some experiments.”
As he spoke these words, a dark and dreary aura flowed out of him, while on the ground, Shira kept trembling. She looked at me with bloodshot eyes, pools of tears at the end of her eyes. Her face being filled with extreme betrayal, anger, and pain. To this, I paid no heed as the knights holding me tightened.
“You don’t fear that I have backup?”
I asked with a sly grin, to which he responded, “Why should I care about some pawn?”
“You think I am a pawn?”
I asked back to him as I snapped my fingers. Just as I did that, a huge explosion took place, one that rocked this entire mansion to its core. The people in front of me shook in their seats as the two knights holding me fell to the ground, dead as they could be.
Freeing my hands, the disguise around me disappeared, my true form coming into view. Just as it did, dread started to settle down in those gathered here.
“Austin Lionheart…”
Trigon muttered, to which I clapped my hands.
“The one and only…”
I spoke with a smile, and just as I did, Shira vomited onto the floor, her bile, her food, and everything she could. She vomited it all onto the floor, her body trembling on the ground, her eyes now bloodshot, with blood leaking from her lips as she even coughed out blood from her mouth!
A humongous amount of killing intent leaked out as Shira looked at me with her blood-red eyes, madness filling every bit of her being. I understood that a part of her sanity was completely lost forever. The sheer fact that the one she fell in love with, the one she let treat her like a slave and use her body like no other, is the one man she detests and looks down on being stupid, being too much for her mind.
“Now feeling good?”
I asked with a smile to Shira, her expression extremely twisted, her face turning to look devious as she dived at me, her powers breaking through from Origin level 3 to peak of Origin level 4, a dangerous and a kill-like move.
‘No wonder people say revenge makes a man or woman…’
