Chapter 77: How To Trick An Ancient Existence
"I will give you my Dark Night account!" Caelum declared with tremendous passion while somehow looking genuinely sorrowful at the same time.
"What?"
"What?"
Both Bonjour and Freeza stared at him in confusion.
Neither of them had ever heard the term "Dark Night account" before.
Freeza narrowed her eyes suspiciously.
"...Are you absolutely certain that this thing actually exists?" she asked slowly.
"Because if you’re lying to me, I will be very upset."
"It exists," Caelum answered immediately with complete confidence.
Freeza continued staring at him for several seconds before finally speaking again.
"Fine then, you must swear a Mana Oath and sign a contract with me stating that if this ’Dark Night account’ truly exists, you will hand it over to me willingly."
"Alright, I’m ready." Caelum replied without hesitation.
However, before things could continue further.
"Wait!" Bonjour suddenly interrupted loudly.
Then, with complete sincerity, he added.
"How about I sacrifice my right arm instead?"
Both Freeza and Caelum looked at him simultaneously.
Bonjour’s expression remained serious.
He genuinely felt that Caelum lacked sincerity somehow and might accidentally get himself killed if this negotiation went wrong.
Besides, to a barbarian like him, losing an arm was not necessarily permanent.
It could eventually regrow.
’What is Bonjour doing?’ Caelum thought while maintaining a calm face.
’He’s ruining the entire script, my Dark Night Account is about to save us, but he is sacrificing himself...?’
"That’s unnecessary," Caelum said while raising his hand like a lonely king.
"Allow me to handle this as the responsible adult here."
’...But we’re still children,’ Bonjour thought silently.
’...But you are still a child,’ Freeza thought at almost the exact same time.
Then the fairy sighed.
"I suddenly feel like I’m the one getting tricked here," she muttered before raising her hand.
A golden scroll instantly materialized before Caelum.
"Read the contract carefully."
The contract floated open.
1.Party A shall hand over the thing they cherish the most to Party B.
2.Party B shall secure a meeting between Party A and the Gatekeeper.
3.If either party intentionally deceives the other, punishment shall be carried out by the World itself.
...
Caelum carefully read through the contract.
There were numerous clauses written within it.
Some ordinary, some suspicious.
Then suddenly, one particular line caught his attention.
"What exactly is this Gatekeeper thing?" Caelum asked immediately.
Then he pointed toward another section.
"And this clause needs revision, I first need time to retrieve my Dark Night account."
What followed afterward was an unexpectedly intense negotiation session.
And to Freeza’s surprise, Caelum negotiated incredibly skillfully for a seven-year-old child.
After several revisions and arguments, the final agreement was eventually settled.
Freeza stared at him with increasingly complicated emotions.
"What a dark-hearted child..." she muttered.
Still, she ultimately accepted the revised contract.
"Fine, but later you absolutely must hand over the thing you cherish most to me, understood?"
Her glowing eyes narrowed dangerously.
"Otherwise, you can say goodbye to your life."
Meanwhile, Caelum suppressed what was perhaps the most evil laugh he had ever nearly released as a child.
"Alright then, repeat after me..." Freeza said while floating upward slightly.
Then Caelum followed her words and formally completed the Mana Oath.
The contract dissolved afterward.
"So the oath is complete," Caelum said calmly.
"Now can you take us to this Gatekeeper?"
Meanwhile, Bonjour quietly remained silent beside him.
Although he did not fully understand what just happened, his instincts told him that something extremely suspicious had taken place.
So instead of speaking, he simply prepared himself mentally for an upcoming fight.
"Alright," Freeza replied while stretching lazily.
"Let me change locations first-"
But before she could complete, Caelum interrupted her.
"Wait! Just answer one question first."
Freeza paused.
"When that knight came here long ago, what did you ask from him?" Caelum questioned.
"...That knight?"
Freeza thought for a moment before answering.
"If I remember correctly, the thing he cherished most was his swordsmanship," she replied casually.
"So I asked him to hand over the memory of his sword forever."
Caelum froze slightly.
"He could have left this place afterward then... So why didn’t he?" he muttered absentmindedly.
Freeza became unusually quiet for a brief moment.
Then she answered softly.
"Kid... there are certain things people choose to carry with them even into death."
Her voice sounded strangely distant.
"Enough of that, let’s go already, I need to take a nap afterward."
The next moment, Freeza raised her Divinity.
The surroundings instantly became heavy as darkness swallowed everything.
When Caelum opened his eyes again, he realized they had arrived inside a massive cavern shrouded entirely in darkness.
"Why is everything completely dark?" he asked while his eyes emitted a faint glow.
Thanks to his [Heaven Reading Eyes], the darkness affected him far less than ordinary people.
Ahead of them stood something enormous.
At first, Caelum thought it was a mountain.
Beside him, Bonjour also seemed strangely unaffected by the darkness.
Feeling cautious, Caelum immediately released his Spirit Sense throughout the cave, though it could not completely cover it.
Then Freeza’s voice echoed loudly through the darkness.
"Old man! Send these two outside already," she complained.
"I honestly don’t know how they managed it, but somehow they survived the forbidden region and reached my home. If I refuse to help them now, I’d feel a little ungrateful."
Naturally, she completely avoided mentioning anything related to their contract.
Then a thunderous voice echoed throughout the cavern, shaking the entire cave violently.
"You damned fairy!" the voice roared.
"I taught you a few tricks, and this is how you repay me?!"
The cave trembled violently from the sheer power behind the words.
Then the voice paused.
"Oh?" it muttered with interest.
***
Freeza returned to her temple once again, and the moment she arrived, several voices immediately echoed throughout the vast frozen halls.
"Was it truly alright to let those two leave?" one of the voices asked calmly.
Freeza immediately rolled her eyes.
"So what exactly were you expecting me to do?" she replied lazily.
"Keep two children imprisoned forever?"
Another voice spoke afterward.
"That barbarian child carried the spirit of Mab’uk... and are you truly certain about the other one?"
The atmosphere became noticeably heavier.
Freeza’s playful expression slowly faded.
"You sensed it too, didn’t you? That dreadful slumbering bloodline." she asked quietly.
Several moments of silence followed.
"Although I was not personally alive during that era," another voice continued.
"I have read ancient records and seen preserved scenes from the past."
Another voice sounded unconvinced.
"But he was only a child," it argued.
"Even if the bloodline truly exists within him, you could have dealt with him if necessary."
Freeza immediately shook her head.
"My instincts as a fairy warned me repeatedly, and you know how senses of a fairy work, right?" she answered seriously.
"And after connecting everything together... I finally realized why that face felt familiar."
The others instantly became attentive.
"Impossible," another voice rejected immediately.
"He is not a reincarnation, I already checked his soul carefully."
Freeza sighed.
"No, you idiots, that’s not what I meant." she said irritably.
"His eyes resemble that man, but his physique resembles Ixor."
The surrounding temple became silent.
She paused briefly before continuing.
"It’s slightly different, but the roots feel strangely similar."
This time, even the others became quiet.
Because they clearly understood the implications behind those names.
Finally, one of the voices spoke again in disbelief.
"...By his eyes you don’t mean that Prince?"
Freeza folded her arms while floating slightly above the icy floor.
"Well, that wasn’t the only problem," she replied.
"At one point, I even felt that if I handled the situation incorrectly, some greater darkness would swallow me entirely."
The atmosphere inside the temple grew colder.
"Then it must truly be connected to the Prince then," another voice muttered seriously.
"And at this point, it would be wiser not to make enemies of him. After all no one knows how strong he may have become by now."
Freeza herself looked somewhat thoughtful afterward.
Still, her mischievous smile slowly returned.
"Although I am still looking forward to receiving the thing that little brat cherishes most." she muttered while grinning faintly.
Unfortunately for her, at this point, Freeza still had absolutely no idea that she had already been thoroughly scammed.
And somehow, even after reincarnation, Caelum’s Dark Night Account had somehow managed to save his life.
Meanwhile, within a mysterious space, a chibi figure casually picked its nose while thinking about how a certain brat still had not managed to uncover the hidden functions of the system it had personally created.
"Damn it... with such a sharp mind, why is he acting so slow?" it muttered in frustration, as what came out of its nose was an asteroid.
***
[Original Chapter Title: Earth Or Not Dark Night Saves The Boys!]
