Ch 119 – Aldrich’s True Identity

*** (A Few Days After the Event)

Inside a room with luxurious furniture and high-grade equipment, a man wearing a black robe over a black-themed uniform can be seen working through ginormous piles of papers upon papers beside him on his table, on the ground, on the couches in the room, and such. He wore a featureless white mask that showed his dark purple eyes that blazed through the paper he held in his hand, signing it with a flick of his arm with a magical pen.

"Fuck you, Imerda. Why did you have to leave the Student Council now that I know you're a Reincarnate?! Couldn't you have just stayed and had your spirits also handle this paperwork?!" Lute complained, his hands swiftly worked through countless papers each minute while he grumbled on and on.

"I think she must have some important matters to attend to, Lute-san," Maria replied, her figure can be seen sitting on the couch as she also worked through paperwork, albeit at a far slower pace compared to Lute.

"That's definitely not the case, they were just spooked by yours truly when we negotiated at the Holy Kingdom. Tch, maybe I shouldn't have acted that wildly in there, now they must think I'm a fiend or something. But at least I got that Louis bastard's dick, definitely worth it," Lute muttered nonchalantly before Maria's blue eyes widened in surprise.

"Hmm? What did you say, Lute-san?" Maria inquired, her voice becoming a bit colder compared to before.

"Well, I kinda challenged Louis Crawford into a fight and I absolutely abolished him even with his overpowered enchantments on his clothes, I didn't let him cast a single spell throughout the whole fight. Sigh, it was really a euphoric feeling back then, considering I did have some bad blood with him," Lute replied, his hands still being a blur as more and more papers were signed by him.

"Bad blood?" Maria asked, and her head turned towards Lute while her eyes widened in surprise at the sudden news.

"Yeah, I had some amnesia and learned a few weeks ago that Louis raped my childhood friend to death, then I beat him up and chopped off his penis," Lute replied, yawning as he stopped his hands to rub his tired eyes.

Listening to him, Maria fell silent for a long while before opening her mouth, "I-I'm sorry for asking."

"You shouldn't be, I'm already over it. Besides, I put a curse on his penis that no type of magic would ever be able to bring it back. Well, not really a curse, it's more of an alteration to his very biological structure, to bring back his penis would mean they'll have to alter his very being, I learned it from a pretty interesting theory on healing magic, by the way," Lute said. Stretching his back, he let out a satisfied moan before continuing his work.

"Wait, does that mean you can Louis?" Maria finally asked, her tone turning stranger as she tightened her fist.

"Defeat? Well, yeah. In fact, I basically trashed him however I want when I fought him considering I can move at one kilometer per second, and that's without magic," Lute scratched his head, replying without looking back at Maria.

"… If you were to fight the nine Reincarnates, do you think you can defeat them?" Maria asked.

"Hmm… Maybe if I reach the mythical 9th Tier, then a hundred percent I can defeat them. But as of now, I suppose I have a high chance to defeat most of them in one-on-one fights, and a low chance to defeat them all at the same time," Lute responded, his words were nonchalant and revealed confidence that can only be claimed by those who are truly powerful.

"What if you were to kill them?" Maria asked, her fist tightening once more.

"Now that's a different type of question. But… A certain fortune teller told me this morning that if a certain mage were to use everything they have to kill nine overpowered gods, then the chance of the young mage killing them would be absolute. That fortune really is strange, huh?" Lute laughed lightly, before standing up and picking up the stacks of paperwork he finally finished.

"Well, I'll be on my way then," Lute said, opening the door and walking away from the room, leaving Maria all alone inside it.

'To have such absolute confidence… Just who is he?' Maria thought, then as she continued to sign the paperwork, one can see that her mind was elsewhere, constantly thinking about Lute's words.

*** (Less Than an Hour Later)

"I'm home!" Lute shouted, he opened the large dark wooden door of Aldrich's mansion before entering it. Greeted by the sight of a luxurious living room riddled with bookshelves everywhere, a crimson trail of lightning suddenly appeared and he felt somebody tightly hugging him.

"Dada! You're back!" Raiden exclaimed, his head nuzzling on Lute's chest. Patting him on the back, Lute lightly chuckled before dragging Raiden to the living room.

"Sigh," Lute sighed, sitting down on the couch as his clothes rapidly changed. From his student council uniform, it became a casual set of white shirt and black pants.

"Hmm? You've been constantly sighing lately," Aldrich asked from the side who was staring into blank air, but in actuality, he was using the latest technology Lute made—the Akashic System.

"Well, with Emily gone, my workload has dramatically increased. Not only that, but I have to also sign paperwork for the kingdom, the school, the company, it's just all stressful," Lute complained while he looks at Raiden riding on top of Porky who was much bigger, about the size of a large wild boar.

Chuckling, Aldrich took a sip of his coffee before commenting, "That's pretty much your fault for scaring the Reincarnates away. But, I'm surprised at how calm you were when you revealed your childhood friend was raped. Do you perhaps want me to revive her and erase her memories of that event?"

"No, no. The past has already happened. Besides, I'm pretty sure her corpse has already burned alongside the village," Lute said, his voice nonchalant and serene. As if the death of his childhood friend didn't concern him in any way whatsoever.

"I see…" Aldrich said before silence ensued once more.

*** (A Few Horus Later)

"Dinner's ready!" Lute shouted from the kitchen. Hearing his voice, both Porky and Raiden rushed toward the dining room and was greeted by a delicious smell in the air.

Hopping to their respective chairs, they were greeted by a feast full of meat and vegetables. Dragon meat, wyvern meat, heavenfall cabbage, flourspel sprout, ash bamboo sticks, an assortment of colors filled the two's sight.

From nowhere, Aldrich's body also appeared in the dining room, his white regal beard almost colliding with one of the bowls of soup.

"Mmm! Your cooking abilities are still unparalleled, Lute-kun," Aldrich commented after taking a single whiff of the cloud of scent that filled the room.

Walking into the room, Lute sits down with his apron still on. Hearing Aldrich's praise, Lute nodded his head and replied with a yawn, "Yeah, yeah. Anyways, thanks for the food!"

"Thanks for the food!"

The trio followed, including Porky who oinked in turn, and they soon ate like ravenous pigs.

Now, why does this family eat so much even though they were mages? Well, it's due to the fact that two of them can control their biological bodies like it was a machine, from changing their hormones, their cellular structure, and such. While the kid and the pig are naturally calorie-demanding beasts due to the fact that one of them can run at the speed of light, while the other was a Verdant Hill Pig.

As expected with such conditions, this family of scholars has their members being all ravenous hippos with blackhole-like stomachs, being able to consume food at the same rate they expel.

And so, the family of four, and of course, the pig is included, went to eat to their hearts' content that night.

*** (A Few Hours Later, Near Midnight)

In a vast plain of rolling, grassy hills, a purple-eyed man can be seen molding a large chunk of dirt in front of him. With a wave of his arm, the dirt naturally changed shape, from a ball to slowly turning into a human's silhouette. His eyes were focused, while a magic circle shone lightly on his right palm.

And for the final touch, the man took out a blue crystal the shape of a sphere from a tear in space and plunges it into the human doll's chest. As if given a heart, or a soul, the doll's eyes glowed light blue and slowly stood up in front of the man.

"Making golems?" A voice appeared from nowhere, yet the man remained unperturbed.

"Yeah, though I still find it lacking from a perfect golem that can basically fool anyone that it was human," Lute muttered, his head turning to the side and was greeted by Aldrich. He wore the same scholarly robe as always, showing his regal beard and long white hair, and his golden astute eyes paid great attention to the golem he made.

The golem's appearance was life-like, with pristine white skin and flowing black hair, its naked body bore a great resemblance to a kind mother, having a supple bosom and big chest. Chuckling lightly, Aldrich asked, "You're saying you consider that lackluster? I'd say many would be fooled that the golem you made on a whim is human."

"Well, externally speaking, then yes, it's definitely great. But what if I made a golem that has the internal structure of a living being? A golem that is basically a nigh-perfect replica of me?" Lute muttered, sitting down on the grassy ground below him, he looks up to the night sky and sighed.

"That's an interesting concept you have on going there, but that would take a large amount of effort," Aldrich said, sitting down beside Lute as well.

Within the night silence, Aldrich's body slowly puffed out steam before his body slowly shrunk. His white hair and regal beard disappeared, replaced by fluffy dark blue hair. His wrinkled skin turned smooth and white like jade. His golden eyes became wider and held the appearance of a young kid around ten years of age.

Looking to his side, Lute took a swift glance at Aldrich's true form before looking back at the night sky.

"Why are you here anyway?"

"What? Can't I see my own adopted son whenever I want?"

Chuckling at his question, Lute yawned lightly before replying, "Well, there is nothing wrong if you put it in that way, but you pretty much never visit me all alone without a hidden agenda."

"Huh… You're right," Aldrich muttered, laughing lightly upon realizing his own flaw.

"So, what is it?" Lute asked.

In response, Aldrich stood up and walks in front of Lute. Raising his eyebrow, Lute wondered what Aldrich plan to do next.

"You see…" Aldrich muttered, and out of nowhere, a pair of dark blue wings erupted out of his back. On his back, a dark-colored tail swished around while a demonic aura erupted from Aldrich. His teeth became more jagged, akin to that of a wild beast. In just mere moments, Aldrich's appearance became similar to a devil, in fact…

"I'm a devil."

As silence dawned upon the two after Aldrich's words, Lute simply grinned slightly before he responded with a serene smile, "I know."

"Sigh, as expected," Aldrich smiled, before sitting down beside Lute once more. His demonic features disappeared within seconds and his demonic aura simply went away like it was never there.

"Yeah, I know, I'm a genius," Lute replied, before turning back to look at Aldrich.

"I worried for nothing. Well, I guess we'll have to move on to the elephant in the room, huh?"

"Yeah."

"That is if you are on my side, or on the human side."

With silence returning back once more, Lute opened his mouth when the tense aura in the air reached its peak, "… Tell me, who originally existed in this world. The devils, or the humans?"

"The devils," Aldrich replied.

"Hmm, I guess I'll say I'm on both sides," Lute replied with a slight grin.

"That works for me," Aldrich said, before standing up and opening a blue portal once more, leaving Lute all alone on the open fields to contemplate the sudden revelation he just learned.

*** (A Month Later)

Inside a certain room located in an unknown place, four figures can be seen standing in front of a purple gateway in front of them.

Three were humans, while the last one was a small green pig the size of a house cat.

"Welp, creating that special golem only took a month, so I guess we would be able to move to the Southern Continent faster than expected," Lute muttered as he glances at the purple gateway in front of them.

"Hey, Grandpa, is it true that it's hot in the Southern Continent?" Raiden asked while holding Porky in a tight hug.

"Not really, I can even say some places there are much colder than here in the kingdom," Aldrich said.

"Whew! I thought it would be hot there, then I'm all set now!" Raiden nodded his head.

"Well, onto the Southern Continent we shall go!" Lute exclaimed with a grin.

And so, the four—including Porky—walked towards the purple gateway, for a new chapter in their lives are about to start!

AN: This chapter has 2269 words.

Fun fact: The final "including Porky" was added so that the word count for this chapter was exactly 2269, you're welcome. And yes, if the chapter had a funny word count number, it was most likely intentional.

Another fun fact: At the time I uploaded this chapter, the novel had 69 power stones.

(August 12, 2022 – 261st day of writing)