Chapter 859: A Potential Problem [Monthly Bonus 3]
"Don’t beat yourself up over it, okay?" Arthur said as he rose from his seat and rubbed Elaine’s head, which only made her scowl in displeasure.
"You’re still treating me like a little kid..." she muttered indignantly.
Arthur laughed softly at her reaction and shook his head as he replied.
"Well, that’s what you are."
His gaze turned distant as he thought about how many years had passed, and a wistful sigh slipped from his lips.
’Only 77 years and it feels so long. No wonder the Levites wanted a billion-year nap after trillions of years of living...’
Somehow, he was beginning to relate to those existences who’d lived for aeons, even though his own lifespan hadn’t even reached a thousandth of theirs.
As a side note, because of his travels through space, Arthur had spent most of the previous year outside the Training Pocket Universe where time flowed faster.
"I was planning to head to Galacarro since there’s an event going on today..." Arthur muttered as he entered the planet’s coordinates into the Cosmic Teleporter.
At some point during the past year, he’d had the Levites charge the device to full capacity, so all six jewels were brimming with cosmic energy, enough to make three round trips to Hell and back.
Because of that, a short intra-universe trip to the Comae Galaxy and back to Mekiria wouldn’t put a dent in his reserves.
The artifact, however, interfered with his ability to create spatial gates, preventing him from maintaining long-distance gates through his own Authority, as the immense energy swirling within the Cosmic Teleporter’s battery gems made them unstable.
Elaine used simple lifestyle magic to dry her clothes, finishing just as the Cosmic Teleporter completed the process of generating the gate to their destination.
"What event is that?" she asked, following behind Arthur as he stepped into the swirling portal.
"The unveiling of new weapons technology. I helped the Planet Lord of Galacarro with something a few months ago, so he invited me," Arthur replied as they moved through the spatial tunnel, arriving on the rooftop of the intended building.
Galacarro was a high-level world ruled by dragons, much like most planets within this universe. It was enclosed by a protective shell, and everything inside it operated under draconic control.
The climate and weather were adjusted at will, and there were no natural disasters of any kind on this planet.
It served as a technological hub within its region of the Comae Galaxy, attracting constant visitors from various planets and galaxies, which made population control and management a persistent issue for its administrators.
Arthur remembered the Planet Lord complaining more than once about illegal immigrants during the times they shared drinks along with several other Planet Lords he’d established friendly relations with over the past year.
The skyscraper, standing 350 floors high, where he and Elaine appeared on the rooftop, was situated in one of the Second-Class continents of the planet, and it was where the exhibition he’d been invited to was being held.
Since he’d brought Elaine with him instead of arriving alone as they had assumed, he needed to secure a pass for her so she could move freely within the event grounds and enter restricted areas, and while he was taking care of that, Elaine was waiting alone in the building’s lobby.
The young girl stood out from the crowd moving through the lobby, though not in a bad way.
On this planet filled with people to the point of suffocation, where the fashion styles of countless worlds blended together to create scenes so vivid they made the crowd look as though they were constantly dressed for a festival, Elaine’s simple outfit, which should have made her appear nondescript, instead drew attention.
She walked through the lobby, glancing at the nearby shops, her long black hair flowing behind her in contrast to the white funnel-neck dress she wore.
The reflection in the glass showcases revealed a slender figure, her chest modest but noticeable, and a faintly detached expression on her face as she looked at the holographic slideshow drifting past her view.
Just as she began to lose interest and turned away, a group of three young-looking boys approached, surrounding her and blocking her path as they called out.
"Hey, you’re new to Galacarro, right? We can show you around."
"You’re by yourself, right? It’ll be more fun to hang out with us."
"..."
Elaine blinked in surprise, glancing behind her as if to check whether they were truly speaking to her.
When it finally dawned on her that she was the one being addressed, her brows furrowed slightly.
’Again? Arthur steps out for a moment, and I already have flies buzzing around me. And then those dragons say I stick with him all the time because I’m attached to him.’
Her thoughts paused briefly, and she pursed her lips.
’Well, they’re not wrong, but still...’
"Hey!"
The shout from one of the dragon boys snapped her out of her thoughts, and she shifted her attention to them, sighing before answering.
"I’m with someone, so I can’t go with you."
Her tone was curt as she tried to move past them through a narrow gap, but one of them stepped forward, blocking her path as he spoke.
"Why tell such an obvious lie? You’ve been alone for a while now."
He reached toward her as he said this, and Elaine instinctively slapped his hand away.
The action seemed to anger the dragon boy and his companions, and as she saw their contorted expressions, Elaine rolled her eyes.
’Ah, yes, another group of arrogant dragons who think I should feel privileged just because they’re talking to me.’
She silently scanned all three of them, assessing the life energy they emitted and comparing it to the standards Arthur had taught her for gauging Existence Realms.
Then, before any of them could react, she reached out and seized the wrist of the one she had deflected earlier, squeezing it so hard they could hear the sound of bones creaking.
"!"
The other two flinched at the noise and their companion’s scream, stepping back with traces of fear in their eyes.
"Gahh! S-stop it!"
"’Stop it’? You mean ’please stop,’ don’t you? I can squeeze harder if you’d prefer."
Elaine tightened her hold, channelling magic power to reinforce her arm strength until the dragon boy began to whimper.
She clicked her tongue and shot a glare at the other two as she released her grip, but it took barely two seconds for all three of them to turn and flee.
Elaine rolled her eyes once more, turning her attention back to the row of stores in the lobby, but she didn’t have to move far before Arthur appeared, holding a card attached to a neck strap, which he placed around her neck.
The card contained a chip that served as an ID granting full access to every area of the exhibition, something Arthur had arranged in case Elaine decided to explore on her own or if he needed to attend to matters with the Planet Lord.
That latter possibility was the reason he’d taken longer than expected, as he’d been on a video call with the Planet Lord.
"He said there’s been an increase in immigrants lately, but somehow they’ve all gone missing. It’s even worse since this started not long after he received intel that some of his political rivals met recently and might be plotting something."
When Arthur shared what was supposed to be classified information with no concern, Elaine simply raised an eyebrow and muttered,
"Being a Planet Lord’s hard work, huh?"
A moment later, she seemed to realise something and continued, "But is this guy gonna be okay? I mean, this doesn’t sound like something he should be telling you."
"Some of those ’rivals’ of his are Divine Dragons, and considering my history of clashing with them, it’s pretty clear he’s hoping to use me as a convenient hand to deal with them.
That way, he can remove a few political enemies without upsetting the faction behind them."
"And do you have any plans of playing along with that?" Elaine asked.
"Not in the slightest. I want to take you to Valmone, so I don’t have time to concern myself with this universe’s affairs again," Arthur replied as he walked out of the building, his eyes scanning the crowded streets for the landmark he needed to locate their destination.
"Right. Valmone. The place with more godslayers like us..."
Elaine’s voice darkened a bit as she spoke, and Arthur’s gaze immediately snapped toward her, his eyebrows lifting as he asked,
"You don’t seem too enthusiastic."
"Yeah. I’m not," she replied flatly, raising her pass to read the map behind it before glancing up and pointing toward a bright billboard fixed to the side of a tall building.
"I don’t really care about meeting other godslayers," she continued, her voice as indifferent as her gaze drifting over the people passing by.
’Well, this might be a problem.’
Since Arthur intended for Elaine to take on a leadership role once he began establishing influence and building forces on an inter-universal scale, her lack of interest in other godslayers was an early sign of trouble.
That disinterest could easily grow into distrust, making her unwilling to delegate essential responsibilities or depend on the abilities of those Arthur hoped to place under her command. It could also create internal factionalism within his forces, something Arthur definitely wanted to avoid.
If she couldn’t care less about other godslayers, then she wouldn’t be effective at drawing new ones into Arthur’s ranks, which would slow their expansion.
During one of his lessons with the Levites in the past year, they had shared a story with him and Rishia about how their own initial personal indifference once poisoned the sense of inclusion that was vital for the early dragon race as it gathered its scattered kin across the Cosmos.
’Not about to let that mistake repeat itself with my race.’
Still, there wasn’t much Arthur could do about her disinterest until they reached Valmone and met the other godslayers.
There was only so much he could accomplish by telling her stories or showing her extracted memories of Nienope and Shoisan.
