Chapter 475: Marcel’s Resting Place
Evan was once again, slightly taken aback by a response from Arthur, which showed his cavalier attitude and indicated his lack of remorse.
’So, to him, it’s just a natural response to something that displeases him, huh?
Living guided by his pleasure and displeasure...that’s a hedonistic worldview if I’ve ever seen one.’
The Rogue Hero glanced at the spot where the three dryads spent their last moments, before thinking.
’In these few days, I’ve come to understand something about Arthur.
He prioritizes his desires and emotions above all else, regardless of the situation...’
"I’m curious though..."
"Hmm?"
"How are you able to resist it? As far as I know, their charm was absurd."
Evan asked that question while looking at a notification that had appeared in his field of vision a scant few seconds after the dryads revealed their true faces.
|Adaptive Evolution has been triggered. |
|Charm Resistance has increased immensely. |
’Immensely? I’ve never seen that one before.’
He already had charm resistance due to an incident that happened some years back, and it had increased with each Existence Realm he had broken through.
Yet, the sheer amount of charm they had buffeted him within those few seconds was enough to trigger his Evolution skill to evolve his charm resistance by this much.
In response, Arthur pointed to the side of his head as he spoke.
"My mental resistance is high enough that nothing cast by a Lower Existence can affect me.
Besides, Seven Deadly Sins Wrath magic though...Last time I used it, I lost control."
Arthur then placed a hand on his chin and adopted a pensive look as he continued.
"Though that was about two years ago when I was still a Grandmaster so I don’t know about now."
Evan’s brain casually ignored everything Arthur said but his last statement.
"Two years ago when you were a Grandmaster....I’m not even gonna bother."
He had already concluded that Arthur was simply built different so things like this should not even surprise him anymore.
"What about you? How did you resist it?"
When Arthur sent his question back to him, Evan smiled wryly behind his mask and replied.
"Let’s just say the part of my brain that processes ’lust’ is completely occupied by someone else, as such, other females don’t register in my eyes.
That and my Charm Resistance."
"Oh, you got a girlfriend?"
"Yeah, I do."
Evan nodded and gave an affirmative answer, a melancholic look crossing his eyes as he remembered the look he saw on her face in the last moments before he was yeeted through spacetime.
"She’s in the future?"
"Fortunately, yes."
Evan walked back to the other dryad who was sobbing silently and put her out of her misery as he replied, before walking back to Arthur who asked if he missed the girl.
"Yeah, I sure do."
Arthur nodded silently, his thoughts unknown as he cracked the last seal and revealed a staircase in front of the tree that led underground.
Going down here, the two of them sighed softly at the sight they met.
"Well, I guessed this after a while, but it is indeed as I expected."
Arthur’s words rang out across the silent room, where there was nought but a single tombstone in the centre.
The name on it read ’Marcel Bonnet’.
"It’s just where she buried her son."
"Indeed."
Although Evan and Arthur had dealt with Margaux and put an end to her quest for vengeance, they weren’t going to touch Marcel’s grave.
The two left the underground cavern and Arthur sealed it back up before they began making their way out of the forest.
"Hopefully, she already got the one who actually killed her son. For his sake."
Evan’s low mutter reached Arthur’s ears but the Progenitor didn’t seem to care much about his words, not expecting Evan to sympathize with the Gozonians’ perspective or take their side in the matter.
"Poor dude probably had years ahead of him, but he was gone too soon.
How merciless War can be."
"You sound like you have some experience with it."
Hearing Arthur’s statement on his ’experience’, Evan nodded in affirmation as he thought of the memories he held.
"It’s a bit complicated, but yes.
I also know very well how pointless it can be.
If only the Aramisians would simply see that the Gozonians are that much stronger and surrender without unnecessary fights...
But, I guess that’d be a double standard opinion..."
Evan seemed to be coming to terms with some things on his own, and his talk about the ’Aramisians surrendering’ reminded Arthur of something.
His gaze moved down to Evan’s shadow and he spoke two words with his Faux True voice.
|¬Get out.¬|
"??!"
Evan winced and turned around, but Arthur maintained his gaze on the Rogue Hero’s shadow and continued.
|¬Leave and re-join us at the entrance to the forest. Now get out before you end up like those dryads. ¬|
A silver haze of light rose from Arthur’s body, and in that moment, Evan’s shadow wriggled before something shot out and headed towards the entrance of the forest.
"What was that?"
"One of Alvey’s Shadow Demons."
Arthur replied to Evan’s inquiry, before redirecting the focus of the conversation to what he wanted to say earlier.
"Gozon has some secret aim in going after this world."
Holding up his hand, Arthur retrieved the ’Eternal Prison’ where Ger was sealed and showed it to Evan.
"This man is the Researcher in charge of the Duskhand Bastille Fake Divine Experiments."
"Duskhand? That’s the place you destroyed, isn’t it?"
"It is.
His name is Ger, I met him through Rachel when I was in Duskhand. From him, I discovered that there’s something that Gozon does to Prime Worlds they capture, but no one knows what it is because no one knows where those Worlds are anymore."
"?!"
Evan completely ignored the part about Rachel and Ger’s relationship, instead placing all his attention on the matter of Prime Worlds disappearing.
[Strangely, a few decades after losing to Gozon, these Prime Worlds suddenly vanished from existence.
No planetary debris or asteroid belts were left in the area.
These whole planets just disappeared.]
"Those were the exact words he used when he informed me about this. Thus, the reason for the Aramisians’ fierce resistance, even if they may or may not acknowledge that Gozon is the stronger party in this conflict.
They are scared of what Gozon was doing to those Prime Worlds, and they didn’t want such things to happen to them."
As Evan digested the information Arthur had just given him, the Progenitor proceeded to unseal Ger and grilled him for some answers to a few inquiries he had.
Mostly related to Rachel and if the process of turning into a Fake Divine that she had begun could be reversed.
The answers he received made him sigh with exasperation as he resealed Ger and tossed the seal back into his Subspace.
"You think Alvey and McEnda know about why they’re sent to Conquer worlds?"
"Of course. The two even told me it was for ’Gozonian High-Rank Demon’s ears alone’."
Arthur responded to Evan and hearing this; Evan’s eyes glinted with light as he remembered some of his companions in the future.
’That means Roselia and the others would know... Of course, they’d know why they are after us.
I had asked them, but neither Roselia, Nadarus or Leviah ever gave me an answer.’
Evan felt Arthur’s scrutinizing gaze on him and controlled his emotions from surfacing as he asked.
"How can we find out what this reason is?"
"You’re curious?"
"Yes. I happen to know some people at the threat of invasion from Gozon. A Prime World."
’I already told Arthur I’m from "Earth V", so he would not think it’s my World I’m talking about.’
Such a thought crossed Evan’s mind as he revealed the ’reason’ why he wanted to find out about Gozon’s true aim, but sadly, Arthur didn’t have any method of finding out.
"Unless I were to dig into Alvey and McEnda’s memories, which is unlikely. And even if I could, I’m certainly not the only one who’s thought of doing so.
The fact that this information remains classified, despite the likelihood of others attempting to uncover it, suggests that the Gozonians have taken robust measures to prevent any leaks, including using countermeasures against memory reading."
As Arthur rationalized this, Evan nodded in agreement, letting out a resigned sigh while Arthur looked at the clouds gathering in the sky.
"Looks like it’s about to rain. Let’s get out of here."
Evan nodded in affirmation and Arthur quickly activated his teleportation magic, completely forgetting the Shadow Demon waiting for them at the forest entrance.
◇ ◇ ◇
Arthur and Evan returned to Githal to meet with Artemisia and Beatrix at the Noble Baron Hotel in Tolgue.
Seeing how enthusiastic the clerks were with Arthur, it wasn’t hard for Evan to guess that the Progenitor was a valued customer of theirs.
They headed up to the room where Artemisia and Beatrix had booked when they just got to Aramis, entering to meet Beatrix alone on one of the beds.
"Sup."
"Hmm? Oh!
Hello Evan. Hello Arthur."
Beatrix greeted them before returning her gaze to the magazine she was reading, while Evan sighed and grabbed the blanket that was lying on the dining chair for some reason and tossed it onto Beatrix to cover her up.
"You knew we were coming, at least get yourself decent."
When Evan said that, Arthur who had headed into the kitchen, peeked back out before nodding.
"Truly, they don’t enter his eyes."
As Arthur re-entered the kitchen, Beatrix sat up on the bed and glanced at Evan with a strange gaze before asking.
"Did you guys go somewhere with Arty or something?"
"Huh? Artemisia? No. Why?"
Evan asked, completely confused as to where she had gotten that assumption from as he slumped down onto a couch and grabbed the remote for the room’s air conditioner.
At that moment, Arthur walked back out with a bottle of juice in his hands when Beatrix gave a reply that shocked Evan.
"Isn’t that Arty’s divinity on you? Her Evolution powers."
"..."
’What?’
