Even after what had happened, the young Monk Elur still went back to the Temple of Rain.
This, to Sister Marigold, was a proof to the good-hearted nature of the boy. He was so earnest too, and had forgiven Brother Mondstein so easily.
“I am sure he does not mean any harm, Sister.” He smiled at her. “And I really look forward to reading the stars with him. It is a great honor for a 1st-year student like me.”
Marigold sighed and patted his head, slowly beginning to see him as like a little brother to look after and care for. She had always felt that way about all her students in Meditation class…..
But there was something about Elur that triggers an instinct in her.
“I truly hope he treats you better this time.” She smiled, and let him enter the temple even with the hesitance in her heart.
Once Elur peeked his little head after opening the door just a bit, he greeted politely. “Blessed morning, Brother Mondstein. I am here for apprentice business?”
Zeriav was tinkering with a strange machine, possibly used for reading the stars and the weather that they will have. It involves a dipping scale with water that went tap! tap! tap! as he scribbled some noted while observing it.
He frowned when he saw the boy, but said. “Come in.”
Ronin closed the door, actually genuinely curious about this thingamajig he was using.
If there was one thing that raises his passion more than Flame, it was new knowledge.
“What is this, Brother? I have never seen such a thing before.”
“It’s a Precipitation Scale. But not the one scientists use, this is an older version that only my family uses.” Zeriav responded, arranging tiny balls into small sockets and letting them roll around with the water still dripping.
“Many disliked this antique machine and said it was inaccurate, but they simply just can never use it properly.” Zeriav said. “Because they have no belief in its capabilities. Belief is very important.”
Ronin rubbed his chin. “Is belief enough to change facts? If it was a machine that could only be used by a limited amount of people, wouldn’t it be rightfully called inefficient?”
Zeriav still busily tinkered his tiny scale, and said. “I expected for you to say such a thing. You who have no belief.”
Ronin blinked innocently. “But I do have belief, Brother Mondstein. I am a Monk of Freja after all.”
“My goddess just happened to be very pragmatic.” Ronin reasoned. “She knows that there was power in belief, but that was simply because people want to see what they want to see.”
“What they see is what they believe. That doesn’t change the truth that one has to face.”
He tapped the water a little. “For example, a miracle healer may be able to heal someone’s sickness due to their belief in them. That does not mean that they can avoid the imminent death for all of us, even if they believe they could.”
He smiled to Zeriav. “Everyone dies. There a things that are inevitable regardless of belief.”
Zeriav did not answer for a while. But then…
He actually agreed with him. “That is true.”
“But there are things we can do to prolong death. To prolong destruction. Or at least…. “
He wrote on his paper his conclusion after observing the machine for a while.
[It will rain in 15th day. Cancel outdoor activities for the Warriors at this day.]
“We can prepare for it, so the aftermath would be lessened.”
Ronin grinned. “I see. Yes, succumbing would be the most logical decision.”
The priest looked at the boy for a bit, then sat on his chair.
“Have you ever succumbed before, boy?”
Ronin was surprised by this sudden question, and thought about what Elur would answer.
“Perhaps. But it is human nature to try not to succumb, and to struggle free. So most of the time, succumbing is seen as weakness.”
Zeriav nodded. “And do you think it is weakness?”
Ronin nodded. “Yes. A man’s willpower should be better than that.”
Zeriav nodded. “So you have no belief in others, but you have belief in yourself. That is why you are so vain.”
Ronin simply acted confused. “I don’t know what you are talking about, Brother Mondstein.”
Zeriav looked at him directly in the eye. “I have succumbed to the fact that I cannot defeat you. I know what you are capable of.”
Ronin grinned internally at this, while keeping a straight face as Elur.
‘That is good to know. Trying to stop me is pointless. I am and will be undefeatable.’
“However… I have belief in the gods. I have belief in HIM.” Zeriav said. “He will stop you.”
“Who will stop me on what, Brother?” Ronin asked in a sickeningly sweet tone of a curious child.
But he knows exactly who he was talking about.
There was only one golden boy that this priest worships and believes in just like a god.
“One way or another, he will thwart your plans. I just need to help him see it.” Zeriav said. “He will see it, I am sure.”
“And once he does….. It will all be over for you. Your reckoning will come, and darkness will be driven out by the light, completely perishing.”
Ronin tilted his head to the side. “Really, Brother? I still don’t understand most of what you are saying…..”
“But darkness always exist even when there is light. It is always waiting at the sides in shadows and places it could not reach. It will never go away.”
Zeriav acknowledge this too. “But he can make it stay in the sidelines and the small shadows, where it belongs. Not take over all of us.”
Ronin pursed his lips.
He went over to take on of the balls in the Precipitation Scale. It was golden in color.
Thwuck!
He made it fall deep into the water, watching it sink and drown.
“We shall see what gets drowned out in the end.”
But Ronin felt some stirring in his heart, at the thought of Cermin ever defeating him.
If that did happen… What next?
People can prepare for the worst, and their destruction….. But what can he do to break the fall? To watch out if the rain ended up flooding him instead and drowning him?
He never even considered such possibility to exist. He will never accept it, much less think about it.
He will not succumb.
—————————
After that exchange, Ronin was feeling so much anger that the anger became hunger.
Hunger to eviscerate and become chaos. It keeps on increasing the closer he was to being the Lord of Darkness.
How dare anyone believe about his defeat!?
Ronin went over to grab a bunch of students enjoying the Week’s End and just playing around the garden of the school, and took them to his bedroom. He vented their frustrations to them.
The more burning passion he had against any form of retaliation, the more he became harsher to his victims and came to harm them.
“You think you can stop me? Me?” He whispered into the ear of a boy he was suffocating, using his sash as always to tie around their neck.
He was unsatisfied with just stopping them from moving with a one word command. He wanted more control just because.
So Ronin had made them all strip, tied up this unlucky student like a hog just to vent out his anger, and stepped on his back as he suffocated him.
“Mmprfh! Argh!” The person writhed below him, but he kicked him in the head.
“No one can stop me. I am the inevitable.” He proclaimed proudly.
The others were just thrown around helplessly on the floor still tied up, and they were groaning and moaning in pain as Ronin did not decide to heal their wounds using the Resurrecting Machine yet.
He relished their pathetic and weak moaning, taking it in like music to his ears and food for his dark soul.
Ronin kept on going until he was huffing for breath, and feeling so good at this dominance that he can experience through his victims.
That look of submission in their eyes when they reach their limit… How they succumbed with tears, and begging with those tearful eyes for him to stop…
He enjoyed it so much, and how cruel he could be to keep going anyway even when they already surrendered and beg him to stop.
Ronin was close to actually killing this person because of how much he enjoyed the torment—
When a purple crystal appeared before him.
“Fuck.” Ronin kept on pulling at his sash, as Cermin’s face showed on the screen.
“Hey, Ronin—AHHH!!” He yelled when he saw him on top of a naked and tied up guy. “I….. Uh…”
He gulped. “Sorry….. Is this a bad time?”
Ronin made a plain face. “What does it look like, Your Highness?”
“Er….. Yeah. I guess it is a bad time for me to call, since you look like you’re having a good time.”
Ronin pushed his hair back and let go of the the silk tie he was using to suffocate the guy. He patted the guy’s head. “We’ll continue this later.”
Because of this Cermin assumed that this was just a BDSM thing, and the guy actually wanted this stuff.
Ronin went to the bathroom, taking the communication crystal with him. “What is it, Your Highness? Are we going to ‘dreamland’ again?”
Cermin scratched his head. “Yeah… That was the plan after I tell you the news but I didn’t expect you to be busy.”
Ronin frowned. “What news?”
Cermin then smiled ear to ear.
“I will be visiting the Academy again because my parents started this whole search all around Magecia for my bride-to-be, and its the first stop! Isn’t that great?”
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