16 Chapter 16 - Unexpected Betrayal
After Ryuk left the garden area followed by Lady Carlien and maids, Jenny's distress was evident.
She lay on the ground, tears streaming down her pale face, caught in the depths of sorrow.
After reaching some distance, ryuk, halting in his tracks, redirected his attention to Carlien, who was already taken aback by his sudden departure.
"Here, take this,"
Ryuk handed a jar to Carlien. She was astonished and overwhelmed with emotions, his gaze then shifted back to the girl lying on the ground, her tears flowing unabated.
Even though he was a royal figure, Ryuk was not devoid of compassion, and his heart softened seeing that pitiful girl's tears, afterall he still had a soft corner in his heart.
With empathy in his eyes, Ryuk turned to Carlien and made a request, "But I have a small favor to ask of you, Lady Carlien."
"Of course, Your Highness. Just name it,"
Carlien responded, recognizing the empathy in Ryuk's expression.
She understood that, despite his royal status, he was, in the end, just a young soul who couldn't help but feel pity for the girl's unfortunate state.
Ryuk's looked at the pitiful girl as a smile formed on his face , "I hope, Lady Carlien, that you could use small nailed whip instead of big ones"
GASP
A collective hush fell over the servants as they processed Ryuk's suggestion, including Lady Carlien, who found the idea of using nails in a whip excessively cruel.
She couldn't bear to be associated with such brutality but looking at Ryuk who seemed to thinking something, she held her suggestions to herself.
Ryuk, observing the shocked expressions around him, realized he had gone too far.
He saw the disbelief in Carlien's eyes, before understanding her problem "Now that I think about it, that may be too much, I will just give you one myself".
He turned and left the place while pondering about his own compassion, he couldn't help but wonder why his heart was so tender towards those in distress.
He resolved not to extend more mercy to the pitiful girl, he departed for the carriage, leaving Carlien and the servants behind, still trying to process the unexpected turn of events and the profound mercy that had just unfolded.
.
.
.
«-10»
As he sat in the carriage, he saw a small bubble, but he had the patience to wait for big numbers. After all, one cannot earn big numbers in a day.
«-15»
The carriage moved toward the Palace as he sat inside it, ignoring all these bubbles. He kept his eyes focused on the system and checked all the features it had to offer him.
«-30» «-40» «-80» «-100»
Ryuk's eyes 'welled' up, seeing those bubbles popping up, knowing the mercy he had shown to that little pink-haired girl had been bearing fruit. He used his fingers to clear his nonexistent tears.
*******
As a majestic golden carriage pulled up at the palace gates, Johan dashed toward it, eager to greet Ryuk upon his return.
With a deep sense of respect, Johan executed a graceful bow and politely inquired, "Master, how was your journey?"
WHOOSH
Just as the pleasantries were exchanged, a sudden and unexpected disturbance occurred.
'!?!'
A mysterious portal materialized in front of everyone, leaving the maids, servants, and even Johan in astonishment.
An elderly man, his white beard and hair giving away his age, emerged from the portal. Seeing this, Ryuk couldn't help but break into a smile.
"Well, Uncle Wang, it seems you took your time,"
Ryuk remarked, his tone holding a hint of amusement.
Wang, now realizing the source of his inexplicable emotions, felt a tinge of embarrassment for his oversight, recalling today's morning incident about how Ryuk told him to be on guard
"Young Master," Wang said with a deep bow, his voice full of pride. "It only took me five hours to bring him here."
Ryuk couldn't help but be astounded by Wang's audacity. After all, he had taken five hours to transport a child whose location was already known, and on top of that, the man who went brought that kid could teleport.
"You did a commendable job," Ryuk responded, averting his gaze.
A glint of amusement passed through his eyes as he looked in a specific direction before adding, "Don't follow me."
As Ryuk proceeded toward the dungeon, located a mile away from the palace, he couldn't help but find the situation quite amusing.
In his previous life, Ryuk had proven himself as a prodigy from a young age. He mastered mana techniques and various other skills.
However, despite his ability to understand everything through reading, he still needed a teacher to help him progress further. Wang had been that teacher.
Ryuk had been trained by Wang until the age of 16. The moment he defeated his mentor, he couldn't help but swell with pride, recognizing the years of hard work he had invested in his own growth and learning, until a new teacher took over.
A nostalgic smile graced his face as he recalled all those moments when he had fallen to the ground, enduring a series of defeats but ultimately emerging victorious at the end of the day.
He was no fool; he knew the genuine value of his victories.
After all, winning against his mother had seemed impossible at the time.
Suddenly, he stopped in his tracks, flooded with emotions.
The memory of the day he had finally defeated her after years of training brought a surge of feelings to his heart.
It was also the last day he had seen her.
'This time, I will have everything' he determined , knowing very well that there must have to be a reason behind his mother's sudden disappearance. Now that he had a new chance, he was determined to see it through to the end.
.
.
.
Ryuk was greeted by the familiar rotten smell as he stepped into the dungeon.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
In this silent and desolate place, only the echoing sound of his footsteps reverberated. It was as if no one else had ever been here — a result of his last visit.
He came to a halt in front of one of the area, his gaze fixed on a young boy lying on the ground, seemingly in one piece. It made Ryuk ponder the strength Wang possessed.
It might seem amusing that capturing a child showcased someone's strength, but Ryuk understood the reality.
Even in his previous life, despite being much stronger than this boy, he had never been able to kill him.
Sometimes, hidden experts had come to Edward's aid, and other times, he had been indebted to the royal family of Aidiac. These experiences had left Ryuk feeling frustrated.
But that day, standing before him was Edward and his goons.
Ryuk had gone all out, defeating each of them, but he still can't subdue this guy without cutting off his limbs, maybe he was angry at that moment but still he did a number on him.
Subduing a stronger opponent without causing harm, especially when that person was considered the 'son of heaven,' was a significant achievement.
Many factors had come into play when he killed those people, and Ryuk realized that it had been far easier than he had imagined, as he had thought about need of system arising if some ancient family or experts shown out for these individuals help but until the end noone arrived, as if , far stronger forces in action was stopping them from interfering with his battle.
But right now, he still needed the answer of these questions.
Why had his mother disappeared so suddenly?
Why had no one come to rescue Edward and his goons?
"Nice to meet you, Edward,"
Ryuk's calm words roused the tied-up boy. As their eyes locked, Edward's fury surged, and he shouted, "You bastards, Where am I? Untie me right now, or else I will ki—"
BANG!
Edward's eyes darted toward his own reflection, cast upon the sword blade that had landed just an inch away from his head.
"Now, we can talk,"
Ryuk declared, taking measured steps toward the bewildered boy before giving a command 'Isolate this space the moment someone appears.'
Ryuk was no stranger to unexpected visitors, like the woman who had barged in yesterday, spouting nonsense about his eyes saving lives.
He suspected that someone would definitely come after he exploit Edward to churn out Leveling points.
' This bastard is looking down on me,'
Edward thought as he gritted his teeth. He concentrated his mana within his muscles, causing the already loose ropes to snap, and lunged at Ryuk.
SCHLKT!
Edward's eyes widened as he watched his own arm flying through the air in agonizingly slow motion.
THUD
His face contorted and accompanied by his ear-piercing screams, "Agggghhhhh!"
Tears welled in Edward's emerald eyes, reflecting the Amber-colored aura blade that Ryuk now wielded.
Ryuk's face remained cold as he addressed the fallen Edward, "Listen, Edward, it will be really quick on, So, bear for some moment"
Ryuk continued to stare at Edward's prone figure, materialized sword in hand, before a sudden smile formed on his face looking at golden window popped up before him.
━━━━━━━━━━━ ⟡ ━━━━━━━━━━━
EXTERNAL INFILTRATION DETECTED
Activating Isolation Dome
[ Can only be broken from Outside ]
━━━━━━━━━━━ ⟡ ━━━━━━━━━━━
The System's auto-defense, previously configured by Ryuk, sprang into action, alerting him to the presence of an unknown entity.
WHOOSH
Suddenly, a pitch-black barrier formed, encompassing them in a dome-shaped structure, completely isolating anyone within from external interference.
As Edward's body began to radiate a soft, otherworldly glow, an ethereal figure gradually materialized from it.
This spectral entity took the form of a middle-aged man, with striking blonde hair and emerald eyes that appeared to hold profound depths.
Surveying his surroundings, the spectral man noticed Edward's tear-stained face and the contorted expression on his features. This led him to narrow his eyes slightly before turning his gaze towards Ryuk and initiating a conversation.
⟨ Your eyes — ⟩
"Don't give me that nonsense,"
Ryuk interrupted, his frustration evident from the events of the previous day when a woman had intruded and departed while playing same nonsense of eye games.
The man's eyes remained fixed on the boy as he made a shocking revelation.
⟨ Did you sever my connection with my physical body? ⟩
He stared at Ryuk's blank expression, and his eyes widened as he continued, ⟨ I suppose I'll have to compel you to restore it, even if it means using force. ⟩
SWISH
In a swift motion, the man vanished from his position and reappeared directly in front of Ryuk, his clawed hand pointed menacingly at Ryuk's face.
In that heart-pounding moment, it felt as if time itself had slowed down.
BANG!
A powerful force sent the man hurtling against the wall.
As he struggled to process the events that had just unfolded, a vivid image of Ryuk's body glowing with an amber-like fire flashed before his eyes, and it was as if he had never moved from his original position, and then a swift kick sent him crashing against the wall, and the whole situation felt surreal.
⟨ Haha, I truly underestimated you. I suppose bloodlines don't lie, ⟩
With those words, a sword materialized in his hands, and the man's emerald eyes remained fixed on Ryuk.
SCHLKT!
His eyes widened as they shifted to the side. Ryuk was now standing there, his eyes cold and resolute, with his sword embedded in the man's ribs.
"H-how!?"
The man couldn't comprehend what had just transpired he can still see Ryuk standing at some distance, Even if it were some advanced technique, he would have recognized it immediately.
"It's quite simple, but the why I explain something to dead person."
In the realm of soul projection, the body was constructed from ethereal particles, but it was by no means indestructible.
As it was formed from energy, Ryuk had used a sword composed of mana, not metal and due to his body being of a small kid, a crucial play that made man momentarily lower his guard, allowing Ryuk to seize the opportune moment to gave a fatal blow.
"Kughh!"
Man screamed as a surge of mana started to disintegrate the area particles where Ryuk's sword was pierced, before Ryuk kicked him on the ground near Edward.
Ryuk coldly looked towards the man before his hand got shrouded in black smoke as he activated the Enslavement Grimoire, he needed to know every secrets lying behind this Continent's wall.
BEEEPPPPPP!
━━━━━━━━━━━ ⟡ ━━━━━━━━━━━
Isolation Dome is Deactivated from outside
━━━━━━━━━━━ ⟡ ━━━━━━━━━━━
SWISH!
In a swift motion, the man seized the opportunity, grabbing Edward, and the two of them vanished, leaving Ryuk still staring at the system's window.
His mind was in chaos due to the sudden turn of events.
With those peculiar eyes, he turned to see the figure of an elderly man who appeared to be the one responsible for dismantling the dome from the outside.
"Forgive me, Young Master, but there is a significant reason behin—"
BOOM!
"Kuugghhh!"
Wang's eyes widened as he attempted to raise his fallen body, not comprehending what had just transpired before he felt excruciating pain on his chest, due to being pressed by a leg shrouded in amethyst mana.
"Of course, you have to be a better one, BASTARD!"
