"Grandmaster, are you sure we should leave Clair behind like this? What if she gets hurt? Or something even worse happens to her? What are we going to do?"
Amelia asked this question with a guilt-filled expression as she ran after Keith.
She might have left Clair behind as well, but her insides were filled with guilt at what she did. She could not believe herself and how heartless she had been to Clair up until now.
"Stop blaming yourself for Clair's choices. She was the one who wanted to stay behind, so we fulfilled her wish. Now stop whining and follow me. We are going to find the mother's pearl and put an end to this situation. Olivia will get her retribution."
Amelia still did not look to have adjusted. But she followed Keith nonetheless.
Keith moved the group through the mansion. He had no idea where he was headed toward. But he knew that he was close to his destination. There was a feeling inside him that begged Keith to follow it.
And Keith allowed his instincts to make him move.
Once he opened his eyes again, he found himself before a rocky door. And he could only tell that there was a door in front of him because he was focusing a lot on that place in front of him.
"I-I can sense the enemy of a magical artefact behind this wall. The mother's pearl is here for sure."
Adrian put one hand on the stone door and tried to push it open. It did not move even a little bit.
"Hey, allow me to try."
Amelia pushed Adrian aside and punched the wall. Once again, the door did not open. It did not even move, almost as if it did not care who broke it.
"Ugh, this is embarrassing. Why did this have to happen to me? And especially when grandmaster is watching."
Amelia asked as she tried to put magic into her pouches. But the stubborn door was far from moving.
Keith heard Amelia's mumbled words because he was standing close by and had sharp senses. He doubted that anyone else had heard her speaking.
Nothing made the door move. Not physical force, or magic. But Keith had a feeling that divine power might be enough to make this door move.
"Master Shinzou, take out your sword and cleave this door open for us."
Keith called out to the redhead who had been standing and observing quietly for now. But as soon as Master Shinzou was called, he stepped ahead and materialized the sword.
The power of that divine sword was incredible and it broke the stone door into two parts. Both Amelia and Adrian could only watch this happen with clenched expressions on their faces.
Inside the room, it was quite dark. But the mother's pearl was lying right in the centre of the pool.
"I will go and bring the pearl over."
Amelia offered and she had only taken a single step toward the pearl when the room lightened up.
The pearl was lying in the middle of the lake. But it was impossible to tell how deep the actual lake was.
If you looked at the water, it was a musky grey and black. It left everything up to one's imagination and did not allow the user to even guess where the water started and where it ended.
"Hmm, this is going to be a problem for us. Amelia, step back for a second."
Master Shinzou stepped forward once more and held his hand out. The water has begun to freeze before it resisted and the ice broke down once more.
"Tsk, this is no ordinary water. It resisted my magic and ate away all the residual energy in my spell. I cannot believe something like this exists in real life."
Master Shinzou looked at the water with a fascinated expression. But Keith was afraid of this water.
He had a bad feeling about this thing and he even took a step back before catching himself.
"Ugh, we should look for another way toward the mother's pearl. Master Shinzou, don't be reckless, and do not challenge this water."
Keith knew Shinzou well at this point. If there was something that looked challenging, then Shinzou wanted to do it no matter what. And this situation also looked like a challenge in Shinzou's eyes.
"Don't worry grandmaster. Since you care so much about my life, I will not do anything reckless. No matter how much I want to step into these waters, I will hold myself back."
Shinzou promised this with a straight face. But that was not what Keith was worried about.
'Who cares about your health and well-being? I am worried about my own darn life. I need you to be alive if I want to live.'
Keith reminded himself of why he was putting up with a dangerous man like Master Shinzou. Once he was done, he observed the water.
Since normal magic had not worked, he tried to use divine magic on the water. As soon as his hand touched the water, the world took a red shade and his ability had activated.
[Holy water lvl 10. Be careful of its effect. Had the capability to absorb magic and wiggle one dry. Divine magic is not an exception.]
That much had been clear to Keith until now. But he needed a way to cross this holy water.
There had to be a way to get to the pearl without touching the water.
"Grandmaster, just wait here for me. I will bring the pearl back now."
Master Shinzou promised before he jumped across that distance. Keith could only watch with a muted expression as that happened.
He had forgotten that this was not his normal world but a fictional word. Here, people had unbelievable standards of physical fitness.
Master Shinzou landed on the small island where the mother's pearl was located and carefully packed the pearl.
But something was still wrong here.
'Huh? When had Master Shinzou joined us? Wasn't the plan for him to go and distract Olivia? He should not be here.'
Keith only realized this fact too late. There was something wrong with this place.
"You! Who are you? You are not Shinzou."
Keith called out to the imposter who was still far away from his group. Both Amelia and Adrian seemed to have realized that something was wrong with this situation.
"Tsk, you realized what happened. I cannot believe you saw through my disguise so easily. And I even went as far as to try and perfect it. This world is not fair indeed."
The man who had taken Shinzou's form called out with a tired sigh before stepping forward. Shinzou's face twisted before a familiar blank white face took its place.
Keith was somehow surprised and not surprised at the same time.
"I knew someone would try to steal Mother's pearl before the final round so I decided to practice being the security myself. Isn't this great for us? Huh? What do you say?"
The white-masked man asked as he held the mother's pearl up in his hand.
As Keith looked at that pearl, he could not see anything special about it. It looked just like a fake pink pearl which was the size of a divination ball.
But he knew how much power that small sphere contained inside it.
"As expected of the grandmaster. He saw through that man's disguise but he waited to bust the man until we had some distance between us. How thoughtful."
Once again, Amelia decided to make a big deal out of nothing. Keith had only just realized that something was wrong.
Somehow, the white-faced figure realized what Keith was thinking and he let out a small laugh.
"You have your subordinates fooled by your behavior. You are no 'grandmaster' but an imposter. Should I expose the truth to the world now?"
The masked man asked with a twisted expression on his face.
For the first time, Keith could see a hint of cruelty on that blank face. But he was not scared of the imposter.
"You call me an imposter. But the real imposter here is you. How dare you take on Shinzou's persona to try and fool us all."
Keith felt the rage burn inside his body. But he could also feel a foreign rage flowing into him.
He knew that not all the emotions he was feeling belonged to him. Some were a result of the previous owner of his body.
"You are amusing. Do you want to fight against me? Alright, then come and attack me. I will show you what real despair is about."
The man called Keith to attack him. But Keith was not reckless. He had to prioritize getting the mother's pearl back into his hands first.
"Oh, you want this? Then catch. I have no use for this thing so you can have it."
The white-masked man threw the mother's pearl toward Keith and Amelia caught it with a startled expression.
This content is taken from fr(e)ewebn(o)vel.𝓬𝓸𝓶