Chapter 539 A tricky event (part 2)
A couple of seconds later Daimon found himself in a zero illuminated dimensional tunnel, floating comfortably, the distance between the royal castle and the northeast part of the city wasn't that big, so Daimon was a bit confused about why Rita didn't instantly take him to his destination.
The undead head maid slowly emerged from within Daimon's shadow, which was surprisingly visible even within this dark space, with an apologetic expression on her pretty face to then say.
"Sorry, this happened because my skills are lacking, there are too many detection arrays and deviations on the space that surrounds our destination so I had to move through a large amount of virtually non-existent breaches, we'll be arriving in five minutes, I'm willing to accept any punishment from the young mast…", before she could finish her sentence, Rita heard Daimon saying.
"What are you saying, if even Rita has trouble to not get detected that can only mean that where we are going has something that the White ancestor doesn't want others to see or know about, I'll grant you a reward later for this discovery".
Rita's eyes sparkled as she brightly smiled.
"Thanks Daimon!", she said before diving into Daimon's shadows once again while happily humming, which made Daimon chuckle at the fact that a second ago she seemed as if she was about to cry.
'For an undead who is supposed to be insensible, she is quite a worrywart, especially since for the first time my instincts told me that if I was careless when using blink, I might have been detected…', thought Daimon.
The level of spatial arrays in Neptune is way lower than that of the four galaxies to begin with, not to mention that Daimon's spatial skills have yet to be detected or negated by anything so far, that being said there has been one time where the range of teleportation was reduced, and that was… at the tunnel that led to Dima's den.
Of course, that doesn't mean that if he tried to sneak in, he was going to be discovered, but if he wasn't careful, there was a chance of "something" different being detected by the formations, and that will be a pain in the ass.
Such was the usefulness of Rita's shadow portals, she found a way to infiltrate that was flawless though she had to take some time, such an achievement was worth a reward in Daimon's eyes.
'Well, that snake woman could probably do the same for you, but she would have pierced through the restrictions instead of evading them, so this maid of yours certainly obtained one of the best abilities to be of help for you as long as you keep her by your side at all times of course~', jokingly said Evangeline.
Daimon inwardly chuckled but then returned to reality as he saw the dimensional tunnel ending, the White ancestor wasn't at where they will be appearing, since earlier Rita confirmed that the old monster was staying in the underground quarters of the royal castle, naturally Rita shared her senses to directly show it to Daimon.
In fact, according to the recognition that Rita has done beforehand, there were no signs of living beings at where they will be appearing, but that only makes it more dangerous.
Daimon's invisible figure thanks to the bracelet and the hollow suit, emerged from the shadows at a corner of a room, and he naturally first observed his surroundings to decide which course of action he should take.
The White ancestor might have been inactive during the past years, but he didn't completely disappear, Annete told Daimon that he participated through a communication device as a voice only, a couple of times in the past, not to mention he even congratulated the crown prince before, also Triten and Tideus were allowed to go and see him at his private chambers bellow the castle where he supposedly lives.
But, the place at which Daimon just appeared, has a certain peculiarity, Daimon's sclerae turned pitch black, a sign that Rita he was using Rita's senses to inspect his surroundings, after a couple of seconds he couldn't help but smirk.
'Uwah, you really need to correct that bad habit of yours, for a hero of "love" like you, your smile looks too evil', said Evangeline, which made Narasha giggle.
'Mm, Daimon's smile does really make him look like the bad guy', she said.
Daimon cleared his throat, he couldn't help it, since he seemed to hit the jackpot this time.
'This place is right below the territory where the royals live, so as expected, above of us there are countless of different energy firms, including the one of the king, as a proof that he frequently visits those who live there, but in comparison here… there is only one', he thought.
Back at the royal castle, at the private chambers that were where the White ancestor supposedly lived, Daimon could detect three energy firms, the king, the captain of the royal guard and the one form the White ancestor.
Which meant that the White ancestor only met those two there, in other words Daimon found his secret stash, as no one else knew about this until now.
"Let's see, the area where the residual presence of that old man is most noticeable is…", mumbled Daimon as he traced this underground complex, which consisted in three floors, one dedicated for training, one for living and the other one was a massive office, surprisingly there was no treasury here, but Daimon already expected that, that cunning old man probably kept all his riches in his storage ring all the time.
Of course, a ring with that capacity would be astronomically expensive in Neptune, but the White ancestor has had access to the resources of the royal family for quite a few generations, since the position of queen has belonged to the wife of the king until the appearance of Annete.
Having found his target, Daimon calmly walked out of the room where appeared, which was a place to store food and another miscellaneous things, he didn't use blink because very much to his surprise there were so many traps and arrays that a little mistake might trigger an alarm.
Naturally the door that was at the other side of the room led to the kitchen, which again was filled to the brim with arrays so after making sure there was nothing worth the hassle, he continued his way, this was the living floor, besides the kitchen there was a living room, a large bath and a luxurious bedroom, as expected Daimon didn't find anything, so he just descended to the second floor which was the training area.
Unfortunately, there were no materials or resources to rob, so Daimon couldn't enjoy the classic looting, but not everything was a waste, because with his infinity eyes Daimon caught a glimpse of something interesting, the remaining laws that lingered in this place showed him a bit about the affinity of the White ancestor, which just like Terry or Triten, it was water.
But it wasn't regular water, at the very least Daimon couldn't precisely identify what was the property of the laws, but he was sure that it wasn't normal water, another important thing is that he didn't feel a trace of nether here, so the probability of that old man being the scheming guy hit basically zero.
"Tsk, now the question is if those two bastards are allied or not", said Daimon as he descended to the deepest floor, which unlike the previous ones actually had something worth exploring, it was basically a huge studio with a large desk and a luxurious throne-like chair, besides that, the walls were covered in shelves where countless of books were accommodated, so this was a library too.
Daimon's eyes glowed, he walked as fast as he could towards the desk while avoiding all the arrays and alarms, of course the White ancestor wasn't stupid enough to write about his plans or anything, meaning he at least wasn't as much of a third rate villain as Adam who actually had a diary of how he toyed with those girls that fell for his charm skill, which Daimon found in the light idiot's ring, needless to say but he had no interest on it, though he didn't destroy it, because who knows it might come in handy later.
But that didn't mean there were no hints for him here, first of all the inker was only half full and the pen still had black stains on its tip, so the ancestor has been writing quite a bit lately, Daimon carefully scanned the desk for secret compartments or something but found nothing besides normal materials and a couple of blank books.
So, he instead redirected his attention to the giant shelves on the walls, he floated with Rita's help and approached one of the shelves to then use his mana sense to scan one of the many books, and was baffled at what he saw, it was a history book from a couple of generations ago, which was nothing special, the problem is that it was done in handwriting instead of through an array for mass production made by a rune master.
'Heh, so his hobby is to write the history of the Mermen Sea, what a cocky bastard', thought Daimon, he read the books of history that were on Annete's library and this one had the exact text that was done in handwriting, with the difference that there were annotations made by the one who wrote it, like "Dumb bastards really believe anything" or "That family won't make it to the next book" and the like, things that normally might be taken as bad taste jokes, if it wasn't for the fact that the annotations were almost 100% accurate, and if not more insults could be found on the pages of the books.
'I found it Daimon!', Rita's enthusiastic voice echoed in Daimon's mind, so far, he hadn't touched anything, everything was done through mana sense, and while he inspected some random books to see what he could find, Rita was tasked to look for a specific thing.
Besides history books, Daimon saw a variety of books with strange languages that he attributed to the nomads of the Maelstrom Sea, which fitted with the information he got from Annete's father, apparently some of the things he collected were given as gifts to the king which then handed them to the White ancestor.
It is obvious that the one with the interest in those strange books was the White ancestor, but Daimon wasn't na?ve enough to believe it was just a hobby, that old bastard was looking for something, though he was the same.
'The last shelve at the left, 33rd row, the book number 56, it fits with the description given by that woman, but its contents are… normal, it's not in blank but it's just a recipe book', said Rita.
'Oh?', Daimon moved towards the shelf mentioned by Rita and then observed the book with his mana sense, indeed it was a normal recipe book and on top of that the recipes were for dishes that commoners ate, it wasn't something that any relatively decent chef would use.
But it made sense, since Annete's mother was a commoner that grew in poverty, Daimon's eyes glowed behind his mask as he used his infinity eyes just for him to suddenly feel as if his body was being struck by lightning.
It lasted less than a second and there were no changes to the book, nor at his surroundings and to Daimon's surprise, Rita didn't notice what he experienced a second ago, unfortunately there were no other reaction and even his infinity eyes couldn't find anything else, but it's not like they are absolute, what he could confirm was that the owner of the book wasn't a system user.
With how things were going and the thing regarding the empty coffin, not to mention the high talent that Annete and Mellie had shown to have, Daimon started considering the possibility of their mother being a system user and since they were put under the mission assigned to Adam, she might have been a hero.
But the three things she left behind didn't make an exclusive notification trigger, as far as he understood now, the pendant that Annete gave him wasn't the "gem", it was him having earned the trust and approbation of the two sisters which was symbolized by it, what fulfilled the requirement.
Daimon also checked the pendant that Mellie had and there was no notification, and this book which matched perfectly with the one that Annete showed to her mother, not too long before she was poisoned, was mot likely the third thing she left behind and there was no notification, however the queen said that the one time she managed to take a peek at the book, the words "blurred" so there is a high chance that only those with Annete and Mellie's lineage can read the real contents of it.
The only difference between that book and this one, is that the contents are readable, they are useless recipes but they are readable, still Daimon's instincts urged him to take the book so he nodded.
'Oh well, there isn't anything else of interest here so worst-case scenario I will still be able to see that guy's face when he finds out I robbed him', thought Daimon as he took something out of his inventory to then snap his fingers.
Daimon then raised an eyebrow before a smirk appeared on his face, having gotten what he wanted he looked at his shadow and with a thought, Rita created a portal that dragged Daimon inside of it, making him disappear without any trace of him ever being here.
…
Back at the royal caste "Daimon" who was casually wandering through the royal treasury suddenly smirked.
"Oh well, they couldn't touch the treasury but still they don't have any of the specific things, I guess a high grade Stellar rank magic weapon will do the trick, that way their hearts will bleed both literal and figuratively, let's see, you'll be coming with me", he said as he jumped and then shoved his arm into a simple looking shelf which had a bunch of scrolls with Arch ranked spells.
After moving his arm around for a couple of seconds, Daimon retrieved it, there was palm sized black case resting on his hand, Daimon then jumped backwards using the shelf as support to then safely land a second later.
He then injected mana into the golden plaque and an array appeared below of him transporting him out of the treasury to then appear at the entrance where Vincent and Tideus were waiting for him.
"What did you take?", demanded Tideus only for Vincent to say.
"The rules state that he isn't obligated to tell you that, the security arrays didn't activate so there is nothing else we have to do here, bring us back, the first dance is about to start and wouldn't it be rude for the champion to not be there when the previous king appears".
As if Tideus wasn't glaring angrily enough at Vincent, Daimon added fuel to the fire by mockingly saying.
"Besides isn't it your job to look through the whole treasury to determine whether I broke the rules or not, have fun", after saying that, Daimon turned around and nodded at Vincent who guided the way back leaving Tideus whose body was trembling due to anger, behind.
'I'll fucking kill that little bastard as soon as his majesty allows me to!', he inwardly screamed.
Back at the corridor of the castle, Vincent looked at Daimon before saying.
"So did you find what you wanted?".
"Yes and no, I ultimately choose the best thing that was stored there, by the way there was some dust so I want to wash my hands", casually said Daimon, making Vincent laugh.
"I see, okay I'll show the way to the bathroom, don't take too long, the event is about to start after all".
Daimon nodded and then they remained silent as they returned to the area assigned for the royal ball, which was basically the whole event halls on the first two floors of the castle as well as the front yard and even the living room which was re accommodated to have places for the guests to sit.
"I'll go meet those old friends, don't leave those little girls alone for too long, I can see a lot of people interested in "talking" to them", said Vincent as he left for the second floor, only to hear Daimon saying.
"It's going to be interesting once "I" join them in a moment, rest assured", after saying that, Daimon walked towards the bathroom, as one would expect the temporary changes made it so there were many private cabins available within the same space.
Daimon casually chose one and then closed the door behind of him, to then stand at the right side of the cabin.
A black portal appeared at the other wall from which a black robed figure emerged; Daimon softly laughed as he said.
"It would be interesting to see what will happen if I were to raise my voice, don't you agree, darling~".
The black robed figure cleared his throat to then remove the robe to reveal his real appearance, a masked silver haired youth.
"Luckily I choose you to impersonate me, because I'm pretty sure if Erin was here, she would have done it just for fun", said Daimon, the other "Daimon" then changed to look like the disguised appearance that Aisha was using in public ever since they arrived at Neptune, just like the Risha sisters did too.
Aisha then changed once again to a random young man appearance, to then leave the cabin first, she had to meet another person but at the girl's bathroom this time.
Daimon waited exactly five minutes before leaving the cabin too, the moment he left the bathroom, he was welcomed with a couple of lovely girls coming out from the girl's one.
"What a rude dance partner, waiting for us at such place, don't you agree Reyne?", said Aisha to which Reyne softly laughed.
"Mm, sister Aisha is right, on the other hand, it looks like he perfectly timed everything to come out at the same as us, so we should appreciate the gesture".
Daimon chuckled before saying.
"It's good to see that you two are now in friendly terms, let's go meet the others, the dance is about to start".
"Mm~", those two nodded and then followed Daimon to the living area of the first floor where all the members of the young generation had gathered, there were large tables with countless different dishes and of course groups had formed everywhere to wait for the event to start, in the meantime they drank, ate, chatted and tried to form connections with others.
Among those countless groups there were some that caught more attention than others, for example the one in which the princes were, one actually formed by young pirates, one from the neo nobles and all the high ranked nobles, but the one that the most attention was one formed exclusively by girls.
"Oi Lance, since when do you meddle in other people's business?", a slightly angered voice could be heard coming near that last group formed entirely by beauties.
"Since you became pathetic enough to try and cause problems after being rejected, in other words a long time ago", a second voice much calmer but also firmer answered the second one.
Ezequiel gritted his teeth, he just came to say hi to Mellie as it has been a while since he saw her, and also invited her to have a dance with him, but was turned down on the spot, no hesitation, no explanation, no face, so he of course asked her why and then Lance who was eating with his "musclehead" subordinates, stepped in.
"What's your problem, I'm not the only one that is going to come, are perhaps going to get in everyone's way when we are just trying to be friendly with those young ladies?", he asked, which made all the guys that were targeting Mellie and the others turn to see them.
"Of course not, I'm going to be the one to get in their way", a sudden voice got the attention of all the members of the young generation present in the room, the princes who stayed aside, despite Daphne being in that group too, included.
Naturally the one who just spoke was none other than Daimon, who casually met the gazes of all those guys with a smirk as he added.
"I heard that 1v1 duels not only are common in the Mermen Sea's culture in events, but they even encouraged, if you have something to say, now it's the time".
A sepulchral silence fell on the room, followed by clenched hands and gritted teeth, the humiliation of an "outsider" becoming the champion was still fresh on the minds of all those young nobles from high ranked families, unfortunately they also knew that speaking right now would only end in them being disgraced in front of the one their parents and elders told them to try and impress, the strongest person in the Mermen Sea, who rarely appeared, the White ancestor.
"What a shame under other circumstances I would have asked for a rematch, but the general will kick my ass if I cause troubles this time", jokingly said Lance as he nodded at Daimon.
Daimon nodded back at him and then approached the girls, just to see the crown prince as well as the twin princes, Walford and Ezequiel, also come towards him.
"What, do you want a refresh of what happened the last time, unless you become early-stage high mortal ranked beings, you aren't even a threat to me?", said Daimon at Terry whose eyes were bloodshot, he basically told them that to be his opponents they have to be a whole major rank above him, since he is simulating to be an early stage Lord rank, which is not a lie though, most people below the Arch ranks will find it hard to endure a few exchanges with Daimon.
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