Chapter 323 Volume V - Chapter 41: Threat or Suggestion...?
As Chris Laergas, with his magical ocean-blue eyes and slightly upturned lips, looked into my eyes, I replayed in my mind the question he had asked me.
The trace of his great-grandfather... Laergas... The connection is really easy to make.
But 'he' told me not to let his name even cross my mind. So... I can't make a single mistake.
Now... I have to think.
The man before me, Chris Laergas, doesn't seem to be able to read my thoughts or tell if I'm lying. If he could, he wouldn't have let me come all this way to talk about the library. He would have killed me... that's for sure.
But with that glint in his eyes and that strange magical feeling, he forces me to give the right answer. He may not be able to read my thoughts, but he can manipulate them in a strange way.
Even now this ability is active. In fact, I think this is the moment when it is most active.
I want to tell the truth, the right answer appears directly in my mind. It's as if my lips would part on their own if I let go... But it's not something I can't resist.
At first, I pretended to think a little, like I was trying to grasp what he was saying. And then... I just stared at the man's face in front of me in a meaningless way.
"Your great-grandfather...? I don't know who you're talking about, but if I carry his trace in my soul... isn't that something important for me too?"
Chris Laergas raised his eyebrows curiously and clasped his hands in front of him.
"Yes, yes. It's as important to you as it is to me, Adrian. It's not like you're lying, but I still want to check it out for myself, and if that goes well... then we can talk about other things. Like the connection between you and that painting."
He quickly separated his joined hands, then slowly brought his right hand toward me.
"Relax yourself. I have no intention of hurting you, I'm just going to take a closer look at the trace in your soul, that's all."
Oh... isn't that a problem? If he realizes that this trace is indeed a 'consciousness', haven't I failed?
Can I stop him from doing what he's going to do? The man in front of me is clearly many times stronger than me. One suspicious move on my part, and he could raise the wall between me and the mana in the hall again and kill me without lifting a finger.
But... at the very beginning, 'he' didn't say anything except that I should keep his name and not say it even in my mind. He only said that no one should find out that there was a direct connection between him and me.
This connection is still not known, but if the man in front of me was able to detect the 'trace' in my soul even without digging into the details, isn't what 'he' told me something impossible to achieve from the very beginning?
Then... he must have guessed it, right? He may not be an extremely intelligent person, but he's certainly not stupid. On top of that, he has managed to become the most powerful person in the world... Is it really possible for him to make such a mistake?
While I was lost in my thoughts, I felt the man's fingertips on my forehead, but... after thinking for a while longer, I decided not to block him.
If it was really what I thought, he wouldn't have sent me here in the first place. Besides... he hasn't called me once since we talked about this. He must be asleep right now.
It won't be a problem... will it?
I unintentionally tensed slightly, expecting a flow of mana into my body, but... it never came. On the contrary, Chris Laergas suddenly withdrew his hand. As I stared at his face blankly, his lips curled even higher than they already were.
So, that's it? Is that it...? Is it over?
"Adrian, did you ever have an incident when you were young where a foreign thing entered your body?"
Did he find the truth? Why is he asking such a question?
I have to think...
"Y- yes? I used to live on the outskirts of the city. One day, when I was looking for food, I saw two men fighting each other to the death. When they both killed each other, I looked over them to see if I could steal anything, but all I found was a tube of water, so I drank it and... that was it."
Oh, no! I shouldn't have said it, I should have thought it! I blurted it out! Fuck...
"I see. You don't have to worry about that right now. My great-grandfather was a bit special, but also very powerful. So there were a few experiments in his time to try to get a little bit of his power. Apparently... you drank one of the products of these experiments. That must be the cause of the trace in your soul. You're not in any danger, don't worry."
In short, he hasn't found the truth... Moreover, he believes in something he misunderstands. Unless he's fooling me.
But... wouldn't that work for me? I don't feel like I have a choice anyway...
"So... what now?"
Chris Laergas waited a moment, then a wry expression appeared on his face, as if he was amused, and he leaned back in his chair and folded his arms in front of him again.
"My middle son drew the picture behind me about two years ago. He's a bit... special, just like my great-grandfather, even if in a different direction. What I mean is that I was expecting someone like you to show up. It's just that, as I said before, you got here much earlier than I expected. But that doesn't really matter."
When his tone suddenly became serious, for some reason, I found myself becoming serious too. His eyes were still shining slightly, so his strange ability was still active.
"The important thing is that you hide what you discovered on the sixth floor of the library. And don't tell anyone you meet about me, my family, and my last name. And then there's the fact that you're the person in the picture and... you want to get stronger."
When I heard his last words, I got excited for a moment.
The situation I was in was actually quite absurd. A man I had only known for a few minutes had tried to kill me twice and now he was talking to me calmly as if nothing had happened between us. And I... I was listening to him, not finding it strange.
Maybe it was his strange ability, maybe it was because I had come here to get stronger in the first place, maybe it was something else... but I didn't really care.
The man in front of me could stand in the middle of a hall filled with an unfathomable amount of mana that I couldn't even imagine, and he could even control it. In short... he was powerful. He could definitely help me.
"I can see in your face what you are thinking... But not yet."
These last three words made me stand still for a moment.
Huh...? How not yet?
"Because I still don't trust you, and you shouldn't trust me either. If it wasn't for the picture behind me, your life would have ended the moment I saw you, Adrian. You're still breathing for a reason, and I'm not the kind of person who would help someone I don't trust out of nothing. So, whether you are the person in the picture or not, you need to earn my trust first."
Sighing slightly, he stood up, separated his arms from each other, and stretched a little. Then he cracked his neck, and the sounds he made as he did so, I don't know why, but... they echoed quite distinctly in my ears.
"You were a student at the CDA, right? I heard something about second-years also getting internships this year. When the time comes, instead of making a choice for the internship, talk directly to your rector and give her my name. Then I will determine whether I can trust you."
He stepped aside. Then he raised his left arm and pointed to the corridor I had passed through before entering the hall.
"Now... go back where you came from. And like I said, don't tell anyone about me, my family, or my family name. This is not for the privacy or security of this place, but for your own safety. Do you understand?"
"O- okay...?"
As I listened to what he was saying, only one word came to me. I couldn't say anything else.
"Then... you can get out of here now. See you when it's time for your internship, Adrian Caleo. I hope you turn out to be someone I can trust and that you take what I say seriously."
I wasn't sure if it was... a threat or a genuine suggestion... but there was nothing else I could say, nothing else I could do.
So, I returned to the corridor, empty-handed and at the same time still not quite sure what had happened, unlike what I had been told before I came here. After a few steps, I found myself again on the sixth floor of the library, in front of that strange wall.
Neither in the corridor nor on the sixth floor did the immense mana give me any difficulty this time.
Well... I couldn't really understand if I got what I wanted or not. No... I couldn't comprehend anything, let alone this.
I turned around, looked toward the wall I was standing in front of, and then... I could only sigh.
What an absurd day...
*******
I watched Adrian Caleo as he made his way down the corridor connecting my house and the library. When he finally disappeared from sight, I made a brief adjustment to make sure he could never enter my house again, and then... I could only sigh.
The next second, a girl's voice echoed through the living room.
"Is something wrong, Dad?"
I turned around, in the direction of the voice, and Claire was still standing where she had been, quiet and calm. Her golden eyes, which she had inherited from her mother, were bright, yet cold.
"Yes... something really happened, Claire."
I let out a deep, really deep sigh, wondering if I had done the right thing as I looked again at the place where Adrian Caleo had disappeared.
"The person in the picture Tom drew is Adrian Caleo, I'm sure of it. That's why I know we have to help him, but..."
I paused for a moment. I remembered something I had seen many years ago, when I was a teenager.
It was the image of an old man standing in the middle of my house, a blood-red spear in his hand... and a middle-aged man with ocean-blue eyes with this spear stabbed through his heart.
I clenched my fist involuntarily, my eyes squinting, and my face grimacing.
"There is not only a trace of your great-great-grandfather in his soul, there is a sleeping consciousness. And that... even though he doesn't seem to realize it yet, as you well know, is a big problem."
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