Chapter 25: The one who watches secretly (REWRITTEN)

It was a rainless summer afternoon and eight-year-old Arthur was practising his swordsmanship with Creusery as usual.

This was a month after the incident where he entered into a soul contract with the ancient giant's descendant, Lewis.

Speaking of ancient giants, Arthur asked Creusery about them but the latter only told him that he would be granted access to information on the 'elders' and the 'ancients' when he had reached the required age and realm of existence.

With the help of Larry, Arthur had begun recruiting mercenaries to work under Lewis. This was his first attempt at building a force of his own.

As for the funding, this was handled with the enormous allowance that he possessed as a member of the Devilian royal family.

The kind of money that would be the yearly budgets of most intergalactic empires.

On to more important things, Arthur had noticed that over the years, his ability to manipulate his magic power was reducing.

His body's energy flow was becoming stagnant and it seemed to get worse as he got older. The more he got used to the power he possessed as an intermediate stage master, the more difficult it became to use his energies.

He had gotten a glimpse of how to use his aura but he had not been able to awaken it due to his stagnating energy flow.

After asking his mother about it, she told him it was probably because he had not yet had his 'magic blooming'.

Magic Blooming, was an event where a ten-year-old devil awakened their full energies and gained their first pair of wings.

Although they would be able to use their energies before ten, they would only be able to use barely a fifth of what they truly had.

Nevertheless, even if he could not manipulate his energies, he could use artifacts just fine.

Most artifacts these days were made with the function that allowed the artifact to automatically absorb the energy of the wielder and could be activated without the wielder having to consciously pass energy into them.

Arthur had more magic energy than his peers and an equally large amount of aura and divinity.

That was the third of his four energies; divinity.

A type of energy that devils were unable to use, however, it seemed that being the child of a god gave Arthur that privilege.

Knowledge of his divinity was secret as only his father and grandfather could tell he possessed it.

Creusery helped Arthur get familiar with various magic artifacts, swords, spears, etc. He thought the young prince how to use various artifacts, offensive or defensive.

Cattleya also continued his energy training despite the fact that his energy flow was stagnating.

The ten-thousand-year-old Arch Devil racked her brain for reasons as to why her son's energy flow was stagnating as she stared at her brother and son who were about to spar.

"Begin."

As soon as Cattleya spoke, Arthur dashed forward instantly. Pivoting on his foot, he slashed with his wooden sword towards Creusery who dodged with ease before retaliating.

Arthur rose his hand to block the blade, but the chill he felt down his spine made him do otherwise. He quickly pulled out the spare dagger strapped to his waist and used it to block Creusery's attack as his uncle's initial figure was gone from in front of Arthur.

"Nice Instincts."

Creusery praised as he pushed his arm up and forced Arthur's arm into an uncomfortable position before poking his back with his wooden sword.

"First Point. Idiot Brother."

"Thank you for the praise."

Arthur said while chuckling at his mother's form of addressing her brother. He then pulled out a sword artifact and dashed towards Creusery who was staring at Cattleya with a look of confusion on his face.

"Leya, why-"

**CRACKLE!!!

He was interrupted by the sound of lightning as he filled his wooden sword with magic to prevent it from breaking and turned to Arthur.

Arthur used a footwork technique Creusery showed him a few weeks earlier, to close the distance and slash at Creusery.

Creusery smiled softly with an impressed look in his eyes as Arthur's execution of the footwork technique was satisfactory.

He then responded by swinging his sword towards Arthur's.

Just as their swords collided, Arthur was surprised to see all his initial force and momentum dissipate into the surroundings as Creusery's sword travelled up his blade and towards his guard.

He quickly broke contact and took some distance before pulling out two more handheld artifacts.

'If I can't win with one, then I'd just use more.'

"What's wrong? I thought you were feeling confident earlier?"

"Tsk...What fun do you find in trolling me every time?"

Arthur shot back as he forced his energy into the two artifacts. Creusery only laughed and kept on taunting Arthur in an attempt to make him lose his cool.

"You're practically begging for it, with your actions, That is."

"You! Don't regret it.

Blink!"

Arthur narrowed his eyes before activating the short-distance space artifact in his other hand. Closing the gap between them, he thrust his sword forward as several lightning bolts shot out from it.

**SHRING!!!

With a sound a wooden sword should definitely not make, Creusery cut down on the lightning bolts in an instant.

"Rely too much on artefacts and your actual strength decreases."

"As far as I'm concerned, the artifacts are my strength."

Arthur grinned as he responded to Creusery. Chains then suddenly burst out from the ground as he activated the second artifact he pulled out.

The chains drained the energy of whomever it locked on and prevented them from using it to enhance their bodies. It was only a single target artifact and didn't last long but Arthur felt it was enough.

"Hou~ It would take more than that to hinder me, you know?"

Creusery grinned back as he inwardly praised Arthur for not losing his cool due to the derogatory remarks he was throwing out earlier.

"An unstable mind is one of the reasons people lose a lot of battles."

He took a deep breath as he spoke, and then stepped towards Arthur. The energy-draining chains were broken apart instantly.

*PAK!!

Before Arthur could react, he was disarmed in an instant, causing his sword artifact to be launched across the room.

Reaching out for Arthur, Creusery lifted him up to his shoulder and spoke.

"I suppose it's my victory."

Arthur had already grown quite tall for his age, reaching almost 4 feet 6 inches. Nevertheless, Creusery easily lifted him up and held him with a strong grip that prevented him from breaking free.

Until Cattleya punched the back of his head, that is.

"OW!! What was that for?!"

"You're teasing him too much."

Cattleya replied to Creusery as she pulled Arthur off his shoulder and held the eight-year-old in her arms.

"He's eight years old, you know? When are you going to stop treating him as if he's five years younger than that?

I don't think Lady Inglis did this to you when you were his age."

Before Cattleya could reply, Arthur jumped down from her arms and landed on the floor. He told her he intended to go out and she advised him to take the guard team she assigned him.

It was a team of twelve transcendents and a demigod as their leader.

"Hmm...What's wrong?"

Cattleya noticed Arthur staring at the sky strangely and couldn't help but ask. Arthur on the other hand, scratched his silver hair before replying.

"So you know that stuff you taught me about, sensing gazes of people and stuff. I felt like someone was watching me."

Creusery and Cattleya, however, only laughed off his statement saying he was feeling oversensitive from his spar with Creusery.

They then warned the eight-year-old boy not to stray too far from his guards and let him go out to the castle town.

◇　◇　◇

If Cattleya or Creusery had bothered to check, they would have realized that Arthur was not just being oversensitive.

Far up above the planet's atmosphere, in a small private spacecraft, a tall figure could be seen staring down on the planet Aeturn.

It was a woman with light blue hair reaching down to her waist. She gazed at Arthur with her monolid blue eyes that fit perfectly on her beautiful face.

"Oh wow. I just did it on a whim but I didn't think he'd notice. Still, he is quite handsome for his age."

"I know, right?"

The woman spoke to herself as she deactivated her clairvoyance and another voice replied to her as she shot the intruder an annoyed look.

The intruder was also a woman like her, except with black hair and eyes. She was quite tall and dressed in a way that showed off her long legs.

"Don't you Supremes have better things to do?"

"Of course we do. I'm free because in special."

"More like jobless..."

"I'm not Jobless, okay?! I have a job, I'm even working right now."

The blue-haired woman rolled her eyes as she replied sarcastically to the black-haired woman's words.

"Yeah, I do. I definitely do."

"Of course you do. After all, watching you, Alexia, is my job."

"Yeah...I said I knew."

The blue-haired woman, Alexia, replied as she walked over to the small drink bar nearby and poured two glasses of wine before offering one to her uninvited guest as she sat down.

"Ohh, so you finally acknowledge me as your drinking companion, huh?"

The black-haired woman then looked down on the planet below and asked a question that caused Alexia to nearly choke on her drink.

"So, when are you going to stop stalking him and actually go talk to him?"

"PFFFTTTTT!!!!

I'm not stalking him, okay?!

It's just that they're too overprotective. If I showed myself now, they'd be hostile. I also don't want 'that guy' to notice me. I feel like he'd recognize who I am."

"A little too late for that, he already noticed you.

It'd be weirder if he didn't, this universe is his territory, after all. Moreover, you didn't bother to hide your aura. He probably didn't take any action because he knows you're not hostile."

The black-haired woman took a sip of her drink before continuing.

"He has been busy dealing with the assassins that get sent before his daughter could even notice. Chased a few down even when they went to other universes."

"I see, so he knew, huh? And he seems to have inherited his father's sharp senses."

As Alexia replied, her drinking companion's face darkened a bit but she did not notice. After emptying a few bottles, Alexia took a nap on the sofa while her drinking companion patted her hair as she slept.

"Lucifer's descendant, huh?

To think you were the 'new one' I sensed eight years ago. Let's just hope you don't end up like your ancestor."

Her words were heard by no one, definitely not the one they were intended for.