Chapter 69: Man and Woman. Father and Mother.
Unedited*
"A group that defies the system’s laws, huh... What a troublesome bunch." Lucius walked along the highway in the big city, seemingly aimlessly.
The presence of Fake Rankers in the city came as a surprise to him, but he’d discovered it a couple of days ago while observing Darius.
Fortunately, they’re low-level Fake Rankers; fooling them shouldn’t be too difficult. Unfortunately, he has no idea what their strength level is.
It’s impossible to tell if a Fake Ranker is strong or weak just by their rank—after all, they don’t even have a rank to begin with.
Not to mention that only they know the extent of their own strength, because all their stats are hidden.
’But it’s not so bad...’ Lucius smiled slyly. ’I think they’ll come in handy.’
Lucius stopped in front of a large wall surrounding a mansion.
The mansion belonged to the Asturias family.
Thanks to having spied on Darius for several days, he had managed to discover secret passageways and the best times to enter the premises. Right now was one of those moments.
The guards were changing shifts. He had 15 minutes during which the place would be unguarded.
"Here we go..."
He leaped onto the wall and, as he landed on the other side, fell right next to a tree. In the tree was a hidden door, through which he entered.
After a long walk up a flight of stairs, he finally found himself inside the mansion.
He entered through the right side, but had to walk all the way to the left wing of the mansion, managing to blend in well whenever he had to travel above ground.
It didn’t take him long to reach one of the secret doors he’d seen Darius open.
It had only one name: "Workshop."
It was something that had been inactive for a long time, but it existed. And no one had dared to remove it.
Just as he approached the door, a voice reached his ears.
"That bastard must still be in Central City. And since he thinks he can escape us, then we’ll show them what it means to hide the sun with a smokescreen," Cz said in his conversation with Darius.
None of them realized they were being eavesdropped on.
"Chase someone through the big city? Are you crazy? The mana antennas are very effective at detecting intruders!" Darius exclaimed. "I’ll take care of..."
"Take care of it? Little Asturias, you failed at your most basic mission. All you had to do was keep him contained here. How are you going to ’take care of it’ when he slipped right past you?" Ank sneered.
Darius fired back. "Was I the only one he slipped past? Who showed up 15 minutes late, even though they were right nearby?"
Ank’s expression darkened.
Darius was about to speak again, but suddenly, Brent lunged at him and landed a hard blow on his ear.
Paf!
The blow was so hard that Darius’s face was knocked to one side.
Ank and Cz were stunned.
"You bastard, what the hell are you doing?! Don’t you know who I am?!" Darius roared angrily.
But suddenly, Brent crouched down and picked up a strange device from the ground...
Darius was confused.
But Ank and Cz understood immediately.
"Were they spying on us?"
"It’s a magical listening and recording device!"
Finally, Darius understood what was happening. He still wanted to beat Brent up, but suddenly it clicked in his head.
Lucius...
"Lucius is a toolmaker..." he muttered, in shock.
Ank then turned to Brent. "Can you track mana?!" he asked immediately.
-
On the other side, Lucius was forced to sever the connection with the tool.
"I didn’t expect that guy to be good enough to discover something inside Darius," Lucius grumbled.
He knew they would soon start looking for him.
"Well, if they have the guts to come here, then I’ll have to see what they’re made of." He smiled and finally placed his hands on the door to the "Workshop."
The door’s mechanism activated and quickly scanned his hand before retracting and opening.
Only those with Asturian blood could enter here.
Lucius stepped inside and locked the door from the inside to prevent anyone else from entering for now.
On the other side, there was no workshop. There was only a desk with many books, manuscripts, and scrolls, as well as some rather old research tools.
However, the desk bore a name that identified the owner of this place: "Miss Asturias’ Workshop."
As soon as he walked in, Lucius felt a strange connection to the place. It was as if this place brought back old memories...
Memories that weren’t in his mind.
It was a déjà vu of something that never existed.
It was a strangely comforting scent mingling with the smell of old things and wood.
’Did my mother smell like this?’
Lucius walked over to the desk. It was covered in dust, but someone had been here recently. He wasn’t worried because he knew it had been Darius.
He walked past it and headed toward one of the investigative tools, which was his target.
Even though he already had everything he needed in what Darius had "given" him, he wanted to verify it personally. Besides, there was one tool that was very important to Darius—one that Darius hadn’t been able to activate.
The tool in question was only used to investigate ancient fossils... But when I say ancient, I mean really ancient!
’This tool is also very old—no wonder Darius couldn’t activate it. Where did you get something like this, Mom? I think these were used over a thousand years ago,’ Lucius thought, genuinely surprised.
The device was quite large. It was a chair like the ones used in dental offices, with several parts for different purposes: a built-in specialized microscope, blades, and other components.
"Even though it’s old, it’s top-of-the-line, and everything is perfectly integrated," he thought.
The first thing he did was wipe all the dust off the device.
Then he sat down in it, but didn’t turn it on.
He looked at the spot where the fossil he was investigating was embedded.
Although it wasn’t a fossil; it was more like a strange egg split in half. It was quite large.
"An egg..." Lucius stared at it intently for a long time.
It had strange patterns, even though it was dry.
It was quite a bit bigger than the egg of some large beast. What kind of beast did it belong to? What was that egg?
Lucius took out the recording devices he’d taken from Darius and finally decided to watch them.
He set one up on his cell phone, and the first one began to play.
What it recorded was another recording found on a very special device in one of Valerius’s rooms.
This device could only record one thing and play it back infinitely, without needing the internet or anything else. It was a magical device, to be precise, and it’s impossible to make one; it’s created in the Land of Kalgarth.
"I didn’t think that old man had such a valuable treasure," Lucius thought, and focused on watching what had been recorded.
It was in a room shrouded in a strange gray fog. Some lights, like suns, shone brightly through the fog, but no one could make out what they were.
The recording device appeared to be hidden somewhere out of sight, while a man and a woman were talking heatedly.
"What you’re planning to do is suicide! How do you expect me to support you?!" the man shouted. He was younger, but Lucius recognized him as Valerius Asturias, his father.
The woman standing before him seemed to be controlling the fog that filled the room.
"I’ve told you the baby will be fine. Nothing else matters," the woman replied firmly.
"I don’t give a damn about the baby! Why don’t you understand that you’re the one who really matters to me?!" Valerius roared back.
She frowned and stared at him. That was strange.
"Whether you like it or not, this baby will be born healthy—it’s our child. But I won’t listen to your request. I’ve already made my decision. It’s the only way things will change," the woman declared.
Valerius, visibly agitated, tried to grab her, but she easily dodged him.
Valerius tried again... and failed once more. All his power as a Rank A was unleashed, but he couldn’t even touch a single strand of that woman’s hair.
After several attempts, he calmed down.
"Don’t try to stop me," she said.
"Why don’t you understand?" he said, ignoring her.
"Understand what?" She turned to look at him.
He ignored her question again and began to speak. "I am the most powerful new-generation Rank A. I’m only behind the elders of the various families—for now. Even though I’m not a Rank S, I can still say that I’m one of the most powerful Rank A’s in the world..."
She frowned. "So?"
"But I can’t even touch you."
"That..."
"I don’t care what you have to say. I know exactly what you mean." He interrupted her. "But, as guardian of New Creation, I can’t let you go to that place. Because if you die, we could fall. You’ve been our founding guardian for many years... you can’t fall. If you go, I’ll go with you, and my elders will follow me."
Finally, the woman fell silent.
He was worried about her, but also about the island’s well-being.
She understood, but suddenly let out a helpless sigh and moved closer to him.
She touched her enormous belly and then stroked Valerius.
"It’s been a long time since I’ve caressed you—maybe that’s why you think I’m just going to kill myself. Hehe, all right, I’ll take your advice. Let’s go to sleep tonight, and tomorrow we’ll talk more calmly," she said softly.
Valerius looked up. Her gentle words blended with that soft, loving touch. He relaxed and smiled... But then, he lost consciousness.
The woman approached him and looked at him for a moment.
"I’m sorry, Valerius. But my mission transcends all understanding... If we’re lucky, we’ll meet again." With that, she stood up and left.
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