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93.19% A Nascent Kaleidoscope. / Chapter 548: Chapter 495

Chapter 548: Chapter 495

I intertwined my fingers and pushed my arms out, stretching as I had been sitting down for a while. It's funny, I remember before my memories flooded back in my youth, reading stories, watching shows, and how they made Magic look so wondrous and fantastical. Those settings seemed to skip over the rather….boring parts.

That is to say, I spent the last four or so hours doing nothing but calculations and a bit of research. And frankly, this isn't even an uncommon occurrence for the vast majority of Magi.

In a lot of situations, I can put the backend calculations to Mirage to handle, but in this particular case, I'm forced to do the majority of them by hand.

I had the Harp and Avalon on the floor, both of them surrounded by a ritual circle containing about nearly every origin of Magical Ability I had acquired in my life. And while Mirage wasn't able to just compute everything without me, it was still handling a heavy workload that I could shunt off to it.

Right now, I was basically just gathering the needed data on how these objects interact with my origins. From there, I was going to partition off the effects and trace back their origins to see if I can't get a proverbial foot in the door to the Fae Realms. I admit, I wasn't entirely optimistic about this plan, but if it did work, it would save me a considerable amount of time over doing it the 'proper way'.

Essentially, I was throwing things at what these objects connected with to see if I couldn't find the 'door'. Otherwise, I would have to manually search for it.

I basically just stabbed Mirage into the ground while it handled the rather mundane portions that didn't require my specific input.

Thankfully, I could multitask, and there was something I had been putting off because things just continued to pile up on me. I probably should have done this sooner, my tendency to continuously push things off is not something I want to indulge intentionally. That already bit me in the ass rather recently.

I took out my Goblin made Sword.

I've been mentally calling it Greed, which is a bit on the nose, but I think it fits considering what I was going to be doing.

It was a beautiful sword, a Jian, made of Goblin Silver that had a rather elegant glint to it despite being a very simplistic design. Even without the purpose I commissioned it for, I would have loved to have this in my treasury because it's a magnificent piece.

I carefully set it to the side and let a barrel drop out of my ring with a thump.

The inside of the barrel had been coated fully with Emerald. It was a waste, but a necessary one considering what it would be filled with.

I waved my hand, letting dozens and dozens of bottles of varying size and shape deposit onto the table next to me.

And lastly, I made sure to get a mask to cover my face as well as casting a few spells to protect me as well.

I grabbed the first bottle, a small green container that fit into my palm, and I uncorked it, dumping the contents into the barrel.

A mild paralysis poison.

Of the same kind, I uncorked quite a few bottles and dumped them in as well until there was a little bit pooling at the bottom.

Emerald was the best to use to contain Poison and Venom.

The precious stone had the properties of being able to handle the type of corrosive substances without breaking down or losing potency.

I may not overly utilize Jewelcraft in this life, but it doesn't mean I didn't retain a good amount of knowledge on the subject.

I took Greed and gently put it blade down into the barrel, letting it rest against the side.

There was no effect, but I didn't expect one to be in all honesty.

Goblin Silver is greedy, the concept, while not overly powerful, is ingrained into the aspect of its existence. It takes in things that make it 'stronger' or 'better'.

A mere Paralysis Poison isn't going to activate the effects.

But on the flip side, I couldn't immediately have it take in something like Jormungandr's Poison, or Fenrir's Saliva. It simply couldn't handle the 'strength' of those things, thus I had to carefully cultivate it upwards to that level.

I took out a Fear Poison, that I obtained from Thorum and from extension, Skyrim. I poured it into the barrel with the Paralysis Poison.

Next was a basic Poison without any magical properties, something that comes from natural sources.

A few more basic poisons still hadn't elicited a reaction, but I was confident for the next one.

I uncapped a powerful Magicka Poison. A Poison that attacks one's Magical Energy.

Nearly as soon as I poured it inside, the sword reacted, glowing as the liquid inside the barrel slowly receded a few inches as if the sword were drinking it up.

Being able to attack someone's Magic was certainly something that makes the sword stronger. And as a side effect, it drank in the whole concoction due to the 'Magicka Poison' being part of it at that point.

I was about to pour more 'Magicka Poison' into the barrel until I heard a knock at the door, I could feel who it was so I wasn't bothered. "Come in."

Jinn happily barged right in, smiling brightly when she saw me, though it seems the waft of poison in the air hit her and any words died in her throat. "A little warning." She coughed, casting a few spells around her to take the lingering remnants away. She looked at me, then at the Ritual I was performing on the other side of the room. "I was about to ask if all that was going to interfere with the Ritual, but you put up a Bounded Field around it."

"Do you think this is my first time?" I deadpanned.

She shrugged. "You tend to miss the small things."

"Fair." I couldn't argue that point. "You need me for something?"

Jinn shook her head. "Just wanted to come to see if you needed help. Yasaka officially announced the invasion date, so everyone's running around and I wanted to be useful somewhere."

"Hmm. Is that shameless Dragon outside still?" I basically avoided the area I thought she would be in when I got back.

"Tiamat?.....well….Yasaka said that they worked out a deal."

I felt another headache coming on. "Proceed." I ushered her to continue explaining.

"The house next to us was bought."

"….joy." I groaned.

"In return for letting her live 'here' for the time being, Tiamat will defend the city if it's attacked."

"While that is good news and extremely beneficial, I still reserve the right to be annoyed." Having a Dragon of her power to protect in the case of a 'counter attack', well, that's pretty significant.

Jinn shrugged. "I think she's nice."

"You met her?"

"Uh huh."

"….you're just saying that because she's blue." Tiamat's true form was very blue apparently.

"Yup." She didn't even deny it. "So whatcha doin?" She came over, looking at my sword in the barrel.

"Finally getting around to upgrading my sword."

"Hmm, do you have notes?" She asked, and I simply handed my notes on the subject over to her as she began flipping through them. "Oh that's smart. It wouldn't take in things weaker than it, but if you add something it would absolutely take into the vat, it'll suck it all up because it considers the vat one 'entity'."

"Got it in one." She's always been a smart cookie, but that's fairly obvious.

"I'm not super knowledgeable on all the poisons here, but you made sure they wouldn't conflict if they were mixed together, right?"

"It was one of the first things I made sure to check. Well, I can't say with one hundred percent certainty, but I went over the ingredients in each concoction to make sure there weren't any obvious contradictions." I nodded.

There wasn't much of a difference between Poison and Medicine. One can easily counter the other, or even a poison can counteract another poison. About half of the various things I gathered haphazardly had to be shelved because they would be volatile.

"The first part was giving the Blade the ability to attack someone's Magical energy." I recited off, grabbing a few more vials, dumping them into the vat without a care. Most of them were just straight Poisons that attacked the body in one way or another. I then picked up a Red square vial. "At this point, the sword is still too 'weak' and I'm just building up its 'reach' rather than its 'strength'." I dumped the last vial in and the sword reacted once more, drinking up the 'new' tonic'.

It was a Poison that targeted one's Vitality, the opposite of a 'Health Potion' in comparison.

I wanted the Sword to be the ultimate Mage killer, that didn't just mean anti-magic to inject powerful poison, I wanted it to have versatility. I wanted someone who got stabbed with this to suffer every possible affliction I could shove into it.

Jinn started taking things off the table and casually dumping them into the vat of poison too. She read my notes, so there was no point in questioning her, she wouldn't do anything to ruin this.

"Stamina Poison going in." She said after a dozen more different things were added.

Just as predicted, the Sword reacted and drank them in again.

At this point, the Sword's path was locked in place. It was a Poison sword and probably couldn't take in anything that went against the new concepts added into it if they were too far divorced from what it existed as now.

"That should be the first step. Time for the second."

She flipped through my notes. "Now you want to reinforce the Poison aspect, right?"

"yup, get the….green and red ones over there." I pointed behind her. "The tiny vial preferably and be careful with it."

"Oh, what's this?" Jinn held it up to her face. "It's actually really potent and even I wouldn't want this inside of me."

"Basilisk Venom." I replied. "I got it from the world where the sword was made. Apparently, it's one of the strongest in the world. Add the weaker ones first."

She just hummed, pouring in a bunch of more things. "Frostbite Venom…..Necrotic Poison, that's interesting. Hag Poison, I remember reading about this one. Don't recognize these two, oh…is this Hydra Poison?"

"Got it from Kairi, apparently, he had a baby Hydra encased in Amber and he gave me a bit. A far cry from an Adult Hydra, but it'll build up into the Basilisk Venom nicely." I explained as she dumped it inside.

She also unceremoniously uncorked the Basilisk Venom once those were added and just dumped them inside.

The whole thing sizzled as the Sword greedily ate it up.

"This reminds me of something, isn't there a thing where people make a really powerful poison with a bunch of others added together?" She looked at me.

"A Gu." I replied. "You put a bunch of really poisonous and venomous organisms inside a container, and eventually they kill each other, leaving only the strongest." Or thereabouts. But the idea was generally the same.

The sizzling of the Basilisk Venom finally subsided, even if the concoction was bubbling at this point. I slowly pulled at the grip of Greed and gradually it slinked out of the barrel, the miasmic substance rolling off of the blade.

Not a drip of it remained as I held my sword up but that doesn't mean there wasn't evidence of what happened. If you looked very closely, there were vein-like patterns under the surface that pulsed a rather dark green. But they also began to slowly fade, becoming invisible to the eye.

I wasn't done, but one thing was for sure, even I wouldn't want to be stabbed with this at this point. I would survive without a huge problem, but it would be painful.

With a flick of my wrist, a Portal opened, and a sky of illuminated lights appeared overhead on the opposite side.

"Wilhelm?" Meridia's voice reached me as she looked my way. "Is there something you require?"

"Can you grab me a troll please? Bounded if possible."

Meridia blinked and did something as a Frost Troll fell onto the floor in front of her and golden ethereal chains wrapped around it. "Is that all?" It floated over to me and I let it pass through the portal and touch onto the ground in my workshop.

It struggled, but it couldn't escape.

"Thank you, love you." I blew her a kiss.

She smiled lightly as I closed the portal.

"She's going to be happy for a while." Jinn hummed.

"Hmm?"

"Meridia, she likes when you ask her for small, innocuous things." Jinn poked at the troll. "I would feel sorry for this thing if Trolls weren't bad for the environment and generally any place they settled down. Did you pick a Troll because of their regenerative properties?"

"Yup, figured it would be the best test subject." And as she said, absolutely no bad feelings about using one of these things as a test subject. They weren't even natural creatures from what I recall, something created that propagated over Nirn.

I wasted no more time and pushed the tip of my sword into the Troll's chest.

The effects were immediate and gruesome.

A Troll that can regenerate missing limbs ended up a shriveled husk in moments. Its blood vessels popped, its veins ruptured, its skin became necrotic, and all of its organs failed quickly. Blood seeps from its pours before every part of it was eaten away and it became not but a husk.

Despite how impressive the effects were, my intended target was far beyond a mere 'troll'.

"Are you doing the next step?" Jinn inspected the corpse before flicking her hand, igniting it so its remains simply disappeared.

"No time like the present." I nodded, taking out the last three ingredients. "Saliva from Fenrir, Jormungandr's Poison…" And probably the most important thing. "The last few drops of Felix Felicias." I was going to need a little bit of luck for this to work, but I wasn't going to drink it.

Rather, I dripped it onto my sword.

There was a step between the last bit and becoming Godly. I had nothing to bridge that point, so I was going to fudge it a little bit.

The sword didn't directly eat the 'luck' like it did other things, I didn't expect it to, that would be ridiculous. Luck was too nebulous a concept for it to make the sword 'stronger'.

Rather, the drops on the sword, I took the vial holding Jormungandr's poison and dropped it onto those spots, letting it mix together.

The sword glowed and vibrated.

Faintly, the roar of a Serpent could be heard as the phantom of the World Serpent coiled around the blade, disappearing inside of it.

Interesting.

I could feel the Sword's existence being elevated a step and it trembled in my grasp.

It managed to take in the Poison of Jormungandr which was a feat in itself. By doing this, it stepped into the threshold of being able to harm Godly beings, a clear leap in its previous capabilities.

This sword could now harm me sufficiently.

The Sword still trembled in my hand like it was having trouble 'digesting' what it just took in.

I looked at Fenrir's saliva on the table and decided to wait. It was 'stronger' than Jormungandr's Poison and I wasn't sure if my Sword could handle it right now.

Overall, I'm still happy with the progress made.

It was good enough for now and I would make sure to experiment before going to the next part.

"You done?" Jinn looked over my shoulder.

"For now." I put the sword onto the table, letting it rest. Despite not touching it, it clanked against the table, vibrating in place. "Not a bad place to stop."

"How's the other thing going?" She looked over at my Ritual.

"Let's see…" I walked over to Mirage to see if the basic Calculations I needed were done so I could begin the real experiments. "It needs a little bit more time unfortunately." Which meant I had some free time! "Wanna go visit Gramps for a few hours with me?"

Jinn pursed her lips. "Normally, I'd be happy to, but I wanna keep busy. If you don't need help, I'm going to go see if anyone else does." She walked up, kissing me on the cheek. "I'll make sure to check back in a few hours in case you get caught up in something."

"You're the best."

She smiled brightly, leaving the room.

Well, Other Gramps said that Arcueid Brunestud was visiting my Gramps….let's see what that's about.

I left Mirage there and opened the Portal Manually, the Calculations needed for this long memorization so it was rather easy to pop over to the Clock Tower, specifical Gramps' workshop.

"Gramps, are you –" I stopped, blinking because Gramps wasn't anywhere to be seen, but Lucretia was there.

And so was a certain blond-haired, Red-eyed girl.

Or rather, should I say True Ancestor.

She looked at me, I looked at her.

The chair she was sitting on exploded.

Why was there a clawed hand going for my throat?

@***@

A/N

If you want to read 10 chapters ahead or support me, visit my p.a.t.r.e.o.n.c.o.m / astoryforone

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next chapter

Chapter 549: Chapter 496

I was genuinely surprised; I didn't expect someone to try and kill me as soon as I appeared. I saw who it was, the nearly expressionless face of my 'Cousin', Arcueid Brunestud.

Of course, I slapped it away immediately, making her nearly halt in place, blinking for a confused moment.

She apparently didn't expect me to react so quickly.

She tried to grab at me again, and I slapped her hand away again. This continued two more times before she finally frowned and her hand clenched like a claw, and she swiped it at me instead.

I used a burst of Shunpo to dodge it, but she cleaved out the side of Zelretch's wall, opening it right up, tearing through the Bounded Fields he had around the place.

Now, anyone could just waltz right in if they wanted.

She looked back at me with eyes that held no hesitation in them.

Fuck me, she's really was going to try and kill me wasn't she?

I looked at Lucretia who just shrugged with a 'what do you want me to do?'.

Well, I couldn't fault her, there were probably a handful of people who could talk down Arcueid Brunestud from doing something and at this point in time, I was not one of them.

And honestly….I couldn't bring myself to hurt her. I wasn't Zelretch, I stopped thinking of myself that way a long time ago, but I still held many of the memories. And the fondness he felt for her was something I still recalled vividly.

Well, that was also under the assumption I could hurt her. Technically, I could do some damage, but I would not be able to kill her as I am now.

Not only would she regenerate and basically shrug off anything I used that did significant damage the second time, but she received reinforcement from the world. That was to say, if she fought a strong enough opponent, her status let her borrow power from the world to always be just strong enough to beat them.

Though this rarely happened because her 'minimum' threshold was usually at least Servant level if not approaching high tier Servant before that sort of thing kicked in.

I really didn't have time to contemplate it anymore because her hand stabbed at me and I was eerily reminded of what happened with the Heretic God I fought except her hand felt more sharp.

Thinking on my feet, I threw out a handful of Talismans. Each one of them carried a different binding spell that hit her as she wasn't one to dodge often.

They were basic spells, normally they would have just fizzled out on contact on a being of her level, but they caused her a momentary pause because she'd never experienced Eastern 'Magecraft' before. From my memories, I could vaguely recall that she rarely spent time in the East and hadn't run into anyone attacking her in this way.

I took that momentary respite to Shunpo behind her and I gave her a light but firm kick on the backside.

The first real display of emotion from her was accompanied by a small yelp as she fell over onto her face, sliding a few feet across the floor.

All the Talismans I threw at her disintegrated by the sheer amount of power she was releasing as she slowly turned her head to give me a death stare, positioning herself upright.

….welp, time to skedaddle.

I turned around towards the hole in the wall leading out of Zelretch's home and used it for my hasty escape with the fastest Shunpo possible without overtly displaying my other powers.

And holy shit she's fast because she caught up to me with pure speed!

I had to kick a random bystander to the side because she gouged out the cobblestone pathway with her hand where I was running by a second ago.

A friendly reminder that Arcueid didn't really care about bystanders at all, and it wasn't even a malevolent inclination, she was just purely apathetic towards them.

"Stop attacking me!" I finally shouted, ducking under another swipe as I rolled to the side from her fearsome claws. At this point, we had run through the hallways and were in the big open courtyard situation around the classrooms for some of the lower end subjects.

Thankfully, everyone who saw what was going on made themselves scarce very quickly.

"Stop running." She demanded even if her expression didn't show much prompt.

"Will you stop attacking me if I do?"

"No." She said with full truthfulness before she waved her hand through the air and all matter where I was just a moment prior was eviscerated. A massive hole in a circular shape appeared near where a small grass hill was previously.

Right, Marble Phantasm, can basically control natural phenomena.

She just created a Vacuum.

I panic casted a spell to shoot up pillars of Earth between her and myself to obstruct her vision.

She just bulldozed right through them without a single care and once more tried to decapitate me with her hands.

Though one thing I noticed, I'm fairly sure she's used to just straight overpowering her opponents in brute force and power.

I planted my foot and deflected her claw with the backside of my hand. She tried to rake her other hand down, but I stepped inside her wide motion and disrupted her center of balance. She wasn't completely oblivious how to fight, because she did the obvious move and tried to lash her leg out and kick me away.

I could feel her power magnify several folds in that instance as the air around her exploded from the force of her kick.

I hastily summoned the Boosted Gear and used it as a shield along with my Aura. I still felt my body shudder from the weight of it, but I held firm and grabbed hold of her leg because there was a brief moment of surprise from her again that I didn't go down or overtly react from her blow.

She furrowed her brow and tried to pull her leg free from my grasp. "Let me go."

"No."

"Let me go!" She growled.

"No!"

Her eyes glowed brightly and her power increased more in an ominous way. "Let me go!"

"Fine!" I threw her over my head.

The True Ancestor went sailing through the air, perhaps a bit comically as her body cartwheeled uncontrollably and she went face first into a small pond meant to enhance the aesthetic of this open courtyard.

It was deep enough for her to splash and disappear.

I pointed my finger at the pond and a chilling air burst out, freezing it completely.

[Got a question for you.] Ddraig commented.

"Is now really the best time?" I said under my breath.

[It might be important.] He responded.

Fine, what is it?

[So, she basically is the equivalent of 'No I'm stronger' in that she gets stronger than her opponent regardless? That is to say, the more power you reveal, the stronger she'll get in response.]

That's basically right.

[And you took me out, while trapped, I'm still a very powerful Dragon that was presented right in front of her eyes and most likely acknowledged as hostile.]

…..woops.

The ice exploded, as did the surroundings for dozens of feet as the amount of Magical Energy she was exuding was higher than even the Heretic God I fought not too long ago.

Every so briefly, a Red Moon overlapped across the sun and it turned to night, flickering slightly.

Arcueid stood up, the pond no longer existing and reeled her hand back with enough power that I'm sure the surroundings would be completely leveled so I resolved myself to remove her from the location.

However, my fighting spirit evaporated rather quickly as I relaxed as her hand stopped. Gramps stood there, grabbing her with a very displeased look on his face.

It wasn't just him either.

It hadn't been long since our little 'fight' started, and a few more faces I recognized appeared. One predominant being the Queen of the Clocktower with a scowl on her face, ready to fight.

And surprisingly enough, there was someone I didn't expect to see here. A priest of the Burial Agency, more specifically, one of their pet Dead Apostles.

Zelretch acknowledged them as if he knew, he looked at Arcueid who's overall presence simmered down under his intense gaze, then he looked at me.

"…she started it." I accused, pointing at Arcueid who's eyes briefly flashed in realization.

"He's a daemon." She pointed at me, looking at gramps, with a tinge of pleading in her eyes.

Gramps just slowly raised his hand to his face.

@***@

 

This was odd.

Zelretch sat with Arcueid at his side and Lucretia at the other.

I was across from him. And to my left was the Dead Apostle member of the Church. Well, them being a member of the Church was more from a technical standpoint, as he's a Dead Apostle and member of the Burial Agency. Merem Solomon, his name is rather ironic in hindsight. From what I recall, he was originally something close to an Elemental in life, but the village he was born into many centuries ago basically mutilated him and used him for their own benefit until the Crimson Moon happened upon him. Suffice to say, he views the Crimson Moon as his savior and idol, and his respect extends to Arcueid Brunestud who inherited his name and potential status as Archetype- Earth.

He took the appearance of a young man in perpetuity due to being turned into a Dead Apostle when he was young.

And to my right was the Queen of the Clock Tower herself – Lorelei Barthomeloi, and head of one of the most prestigious Magi families in the world. In fact, she was hailed as perhaps the most premiere genius of the generation. Her Magecraft was touted as being infinitely close to True Magic in application. Her title Queen of the Clock Tower came from the fact that she's the Vice Director and handles most day-to-day affairs in lieu of the Director.

And it's worth noting that the Barthomeloi family despises Dead Apostles. Perhaps that's even underselling it. Something in their blood called for them to hate Dead Apostles with every fiber of their being to an almost irrational degree.

She goes on Dead Apostles hunts for fun.

She had a tidy appearance, brown hair pulled back into a single ponytail. She wore a long white coat and brown pants with knee high boots. A particularly large red bow sat at the center of her chest, and the oddities of her attire included a Mithril Gauntlet on her right hand, and a riding crop in her left.

She was actually rather pretty.

And she was sitting across the table from not just a Dead Apostle, but a True Ancestor which can somewhat be categorized together with them in a vacuum.

The fact that she wasn't immediately going for heads only spoke well for her.

"I leave for two hours." Zelretch held up two fingers. "Two hours."

"Wasn't my fault." I immediately defended myself. "I just popped in and she immediately attacked me."

"He's a Daemon." Arcueid crossed her arms, as if to mimic me.

The two guests were silent as they watched the back and forth.

"Wizard Marshal." The Queen of the Clock Tower spoke her tone tense and stern. "Explain."

"He is not a Daemon." Gramps clarified. "Besides, is that really a point of contention considering." He gestured to Merem Solomon opposite her.

Merem Solomon who's four limbs are actual Daemons that he brought into the world. His power as a quasi Elemental and terminal for the planet let him imagine Beasts into existence.

"I would like to mention that my mom both gave birth to me and was human." I spoke in my defense which eased the tension slightly.

"I can verify that he's not a Daemon." The Dead Apostle next to me spoke with a polite smile. "I believe I can be considered an expert in the area."

She seemed to silently accept that for now, but we entered an awkward silence.

"Arcueid, did you attack him without warning?" Gramps finally asked?

"Yes." Arcueid nodded without a single care.

Zelretch sighed. "Apologize."

"Why?"

"Because you are at fault."

"I'm sorry." She said in the most monotone and least sincere tone possible.

Right, I shouldn't expect much. Despite Gramp's affection for her, and her status...she's an idiot.

She lacked common sense and was kind of air headed.

Honestly, it's the only time I can recall Zelretch taking the 'parenting' tone is when he's dealing with Arcueid.

"Perhaps we should start with introductions, Wizard Marshall." Merem Solomon politely spoke.

"Perhaps you are right. Wilhelm if you would please." Zelretch gestured to me.

"Wilhelm Henry Schweinorg, Grandson of Zelretch." I introduced myself to the table.

Arcueid for some reason blinked in confusion. "He's your grandson?" She pulled at Gramp's sleeve.

"Yes, Arcueid, he's the reason you're here in the first place." Gramps forced a smile.

"I've heard of your name, Grandson of the Kaleidoscope. Your presence was noted at the gathering of new blood as was your companion." Lorelei Barthomeloi spoke with an even tone. "For our second meeting being proper, I shall introduce myself per etiquette despite it being unnecessary. I am Barthomeloi Lorelei, Head of the Barthomeloi family and Vice Director of the Mages Association."

"Merem Solomon, Fifth member of the Burial Agency." The young man in the priest's clothing also spoke.

Lorelei seemed to grit her teeth every time he opened his mouth.

And for some reason, Arcueid was eyeing me quite differently now. I couldn't detect a hint of hostility like before.

"Let me make an educated guess." I held up my hand, then pointed at Arcueid. "Based on what I know now, she heard that you had a Grandson and wanted to meet me?" I looked at Gramps.

"That's correct." He nodded.

I looked at Merem Solomon. "You're probably the one who informed her. I suppose she woke up recently and you clued her in to what's happened recently."

"Yes." He answered.

"And this idiot probably just waltzed right in ignoring any semblance of common sense." I pointed at Arcueid. "Causing the three of you to try and run damage control as quickly as possible due to her volatile status."

Merem coughed lightly into his fist. "When the Princess awoke, I did not expect her to immediately set off to the Mages Association to seek you out. It was only days later that I realized my folly and attempted to mitigate the damage."

Right, so the situation can be summarized as, Arcueid wakes up, Merem tells her about me, she wants to meet the supposed Grandson of one of the few people she recognizes even through her odd interpretation as family. Thus, she ignores any decorum and waltzes right into the Clock Tower.

From what I gathered, he takes responsibility for making sure she's managed whenever she wakes up for random things. If she needs certain money, he gets it for her. If she needs to go somewhere, he gets her plane tickets.

Merem realized his fuck up and ran over to try and smooth things over, both as being responsible and for the fact that he treats her as a legitimate princess due to his devotion to the Crimson Moon.

Gramps got involved for obvious reasons. And the Queen also got involved for obvious reasons as representing the Clock Tower.

Thus, you have three people that really shouldn't be sitting down politely, doing so because none of them want to deal with an irate True Ancestor and they all hold rather formidable political positions.

"That's correct. And don't call your cousin an Idiot." Zelretch added.

I noticed how he didn't deny it, however.

"I expect proper compensation to fix the damage caused." Lorelei finally spoke. "We reached an agreement where I would turn a blind eye due to the peaceful nature of the True Ancestor's arrival. However, that does not extend to any damage it causes."

"Please send the bill to me personally." Merem Solomon answered.

The Queen frowned but didn't reject it.

She did however push up out of her seat, looking at the Dead Apostle again before snorting and turning away. "I expect you to be gone by the end of the day. This truce only extends until then, and if I find your presence here again, I will not tolerate it." She began to walk out, but paused, and glanced at me out of the corner of her eye. "Grandson of the Kaleidoscope."

"Yes?" I answered.

"The Rail Zeppelin sent out invitations for the Mystic Eye Auction next month." That was all she said before departing.

….alrighty then.

"What was that about?" I looked at Gramps as she left.

He seemed to ponder for a moment. "I often receive such invitations, this time is no exception. However, I don't know why she brought it up, I don't often pay attention to such things."

"If I may." Merem spoke up. "I have heard chatter around the Church that a particular set of Mystic Eyes was being Auctioned. The temporary designation was Mystic Eyes of Providence. The Burial Agency will be attending." He said with that same soft smile. "Perhaps she is skeptical with the claims of the Princess regarding your Grandson and wishes for him to run afoul my less than sympathetic comrades."

Ah, political nonsense, I should have known.

She wanted to use the Church people to probe me by getting me interested in the Mystic Eye Auction. She doesn't lose anything by bringing it up, but could gain information she wanted by doing so.

Well, I could understand her perspective as the Auction was something sought after by a great deal of Magi and not many people get invitations.

Though I am actually tempted to attend now.

"However, I should leave." Merem Solomon stood up. "I am grateful for your hospitality, Wizard Marshal. And Princess, I am here if you ever need assistance." He spoke to Arcueid before leaving.

Despite his nonchalance, he did move in a hurry as I believe he took Lorelei's threat quite seriously.

"Well that was certainly interesting…"

"Now imagine spending more than an hour between them." Gramps forced an annoyed smile.

"Are you done talking about the boring stuff?" Arcueid asked, clearly uncaring about everything else happening around her.

Gramps looked at her, sighed again and just relented. "Arcueid, meeting your cousin."

"Hi!" She smiled, waving at me.

"You tried to kill me."

"Yup!"

"….isn't it kinda hypocritical considering you often meet with a Dead Apostle who has Daemons for arms." I pointed out.

"Eh, I thought you were a Daemon getting close to becoming a True Daemon." She shrugged.

I swallowed at that because what she said sorta made sense. Alright, fair enough, I could see her perspective on things even if I was still annoyed.

If I knew that a True Daemon might be born in front of me, I would probably be asking far less questions just as well. That's getting into Eldritch territory right there.

"Where's that Dragon you had? Why do you have a Dragon? Are you human? You don't smell human. How come you feel like a Daemon?" She threw out a barrage of questions.

I pointedly ignored her.

"I didn't expect you to show up so suddenly." Gramps admitted.

"More like you were hoping I didn't?" I snorted. "By the way, the other you suggested I stop by and meet my cousin."

"Of course he did. He probably thought it would be funny to see." Gramps freely admitted.

I waved my hand, depositing all sorts of snacks onto the table in front of us and slowly picked at them because I was a little hungry. "By the way, it was the idiot over there that ripped a hole in your Workshop." I jabbed my thumb at Arcueid.

"I'm not an idiot!" She seemed much more open and casual now. "…and I didn't mean to."

"Did you accidently try to kill me then?" I said sarcastically.

"No, that was on purpose." She shook her head, the sarcasm completely flying past her.

She's the type of person who has high intelligence, but ignores her wisdom.

Though truthfully, it's not entirely her fault. She's something like 700 years old, but she sleeps for the majority of that, and her existence is that of a weapon meant to hunt down other True Ancestors and Dead Apostles.

"Let me see the dragon again!" She half flailed her arms.

I sighed, taking out the Boosted Gear.

"[Hello!]" Ddraig happily greeted.

"I haven't seen a Dragon in a long time!" Arcueid exclaimed. "How did you get inside that thing?"

"[The Biblical God put me here. At least in my world-line. The me of this world is actually below our feet right now!]" Ddraig chatted away.

Arcueid smacked her lips. "The guardian of the Horizon? You're that Albion?"

"[Not Albion, Ddraig, Y Ddraig Goch! In my world, there are two of us, here it seems we're combined. But my rival is Albion. Remember, I'm Ddraig, the better of the two!]"

Honestly, half of that probably just went in one ear and out the other for her.

Zelretch and Lucretia helped themselves to the food I prepared. Even Arcueid was grabbing things and pushing them into her mouth as she seemingly enjoyed it just as well. I eventually started taking things she reached for just before she could grab them.

It culminated into a little game between us where she was getting increasingly huffy that I kept stealing her food.

"I thought you would be too busy with the matters of the Fae Invasion. Not that I'm unhappy for my Grandson to come visit." Zelretch spoke, pushing his own plate in front of Arcueid after she started pouting.

"I'm running the basic calculations back home before I attempt to knock on the door to the Fae Realms. Quantifying the Space-Time coordinates is always a hassle when dealing with metaphysical realms." I said casually.

"Why would you want to go to that place? It's all weird and dull and just a reflection of the outside world." Arcueid randomly answered, stuffing her mouth.

I paused because something she said struck a chord with me. "Did you say reflection?"

"Hmm? Yeah." She grunted.

Reflection…

Holy shit, I didn't even think of that.

All my calculations were going to fail. The Fae Realms are a reflection, I need to invert my calculations!

I pushed up off the table. "I just realized something important, I should head back and deal with it." This right here made the trip worth it. How long would it have taken me trial and error to realize this?

"You're leaving?" Arcueid looked up at me with a strange expression.

It's hard to correlate this Arcueid and the expressionless killing machine that was trying to destroy me earlier.

She looked like she wanted to say something else but….Arcueid doesn't really know how to express herself properly.

She wasn't human, she wasn't raised human despite Gramp's efforts.

She was Arcueid Brunestud, the last True Ancestor, inheritor of the Crimson Moon, and the strongest creature born of the planet who can potentially become Type-Earth.

Yet, despite all that, the inherited softness I had in my heart never dissipated.

I don't make a habit of 'forgiving' people trying to kill me so blatantly but….this was one of the rare exceptions where I would brush it to the side without caring.

I took out a bracelet like the ones I gave to my girls and friends. "Here, a gift for our first meeting. You can put stuff inside it, it'll make things easier for you to move around."

She curiously accepted the trinket, smiling as she started playing with it.

"Be sure to come and visit again soon, I'm sure Arcueid would love to spend time with her cousin." Zelretch smiled.

Arcueid in return also looked up at me with a big smile.

When you look at me like that, how can I refuse.

"I'll make sure to come back and visit once things are settled at home." I said my goodbyes as I wanted to hurry up and finish the preparations on my end.

Hopefully, things won't be difficult around Arcueid like this in the future.

But for now, it was time to prepare for war.

 

@***@

A/N

First meeting with Arcueid, brief but far from the last one. Setting some things up for the future.

If you want to read 10 chapters ahead or support me, visit my p.a.t.r.e.o.n.c.o.m / astoryforone

I also have a boosty if you can't use the above under the same name.


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