Chapitre 194: The Clue and the Gaze of a Deep One!
Sitting next to the Set Lord, Meg straightened.
The Viscount kept trying to touch her, but she was over three times his age and many times more cunning. All his attempts got parried here and there eloquently. She had heard Kai's command, and it was on her to bid for the Item. This time, they didn't wait for the others.
"200,000," Meg said, doubling the amount instantaneously.
"250,000." A voice from a nearby chamber in the same section as them rang out. Another 6th-floor Contestant, it seemed.
"300,000," Meg said casually, and the hall became silent, awkward smiles lingering on all faces. Who could in their right mind compare to the wealth of a Set Lord? Nobody knew that the Set Lord and his wife weren't the only Contestants in the chamber.
But the same voice persisted. "320,000."
"400,000." Meg declared as if she could do this all day.
"Very well, have it then!" the voice snapped and gave up.
When nobody raised their voices for a long time, even after the continuous urges of the auctioneer, they finally proclaimed the Item was sold. Once again the doors opened, and the guard left behind a tray on the table. Kai had to control his emotions like never before to not unsheathe the sword there and then, and instead sent the sword to his Inventory.
"Did you feel it, my lord?" Elenora asked, sharply. "The sword is cursed, I think. I felt an incredible baleful aura before it disappeared."
What's she on about?! Kai thought but didn't deign to reply.
Now, things became quiet in their chamber. They kept drinking, smoking, and giggling, while the auction continued with one item after another. But all failed to catch Kai's eyes. Elenora kept rubbing her hands on his thigh, almost leaning on Kai, and he knew even the Viscount had drunk enough whiskey to not look at him and his wife anymore.
Even if the Chunin had looked at them, he couldn't have seen anything, for the thick smoke of dozens of cigars, made of magical herbs, was curling all over the chamber, blurring the sight.
Amidst these unimpressive, but sensual moments, Kai blew out another puff of smoke.
But this puff was different.
It was longer than the others and was more silver than white.
When Kai stopped, the white curls in the room had a distinct tinge of silver in them. This silver smoke churned and glided towards the side of Viscount and Meg.
And, little by little, with every next breath, it entered the drunk, and full of lust, Viscount's nostrils.
There was no ill intention, and no hint of any evil, about this silver smoke.
At least, not yet.
Well, Kai guffawed inwardly. Selene's Perception is high enough for a 6th-floor Contestant with restricted Stats.
"The 83rd Item on our list is one of those that keep coming up once a decade," the auctioneer said, giggling, as the attending girl brought out a small tray with a scroll placed on it. "Let me introduce my lords and ladies to the — Clue. A fresh Clue to the whereabouts of The-One-Who-Returned.
"Let's start it with 25,000 Mission Credits."
The smile of victory left Kai's face, and his mind roared with the Chief Bishop's words.
The most important object in this auction is a Clue, he had told Kai. And though Kai did not trust the faceless man, was there any harm in buying an item openly auctioned by such a prestigious organization?
To Kai's surprise, none bid for this Clue, and he couldn't help but feel a bit out of place.
In his haste to make preparations, he had even forgotten to consult Meg regarding this. He dared not use his Telepathy within the chamber, lest the defenses fire up automatically. He also did not know what charms they had placed on the walls surrounding him.
"25,100," Kai said.
A wave of laughter washed over the crowd, but none scorn aloud. The auctioneer smiled wryly and declared the Clue as sold.
"I didn't know you were interested in myths and fables, my lord," Elenora quipped, her thumb rubbing against his manhood. "So, you too are looking for The-One-Who-Returned."
This was the first time Kai had heard of it, and thus, he latched onto it like an iron hook into a fish's mouth. "Oh!" he exclaimed, raising an eyebrow. "You know about it too?"
She giggled coquettishly. "Of course!" she answered. "All Contestants must have spent a part of their lives following the Clues blindly, I think. I was one of them too, once. The-One-Who-Returned… That's quite an infamous name among the top Contestants, but an even more loathed lesser-known name is — The Cartoonist!
"The myth says that there was once a Contestant who had teleported to the Graveyard of Kings as the Initiation Mission and returned. This Contestant not only survived but also got an Ability, so powerful that even Kings were attracted to it.
"So, upon knowing about it, they tried to kill this Contestant. It was then all traces of the Contestant vanished. Some say the Cartoonist is dead, killed centuries ago. But, now and then, these clues keep surfacing like messages brought by tides to the distant beaches. It's been over 1000 years, but no one has ever found anything substantial."
Kai felt incredibly conflicted by all this, and when the guard left the item on the table, he put it in his MRB absentmindedly.
If he were to believe what Meg had told him, then Elenora was right, he thought. Even he felt a deep terror thinking about the Graveyard of Kings when he recalled the tales told to him by Meg.
Suddenly, the area between his brows prickled with a burning sensation.
Kai rubbed it and then concentrated on Elenora.
Somehow, the burning sensation returned, now fiercer than before. What's going on?! He thought incredulously. Has the Golduck's mind gem matured so early?
Kai took a deep breath, controlled his emotions, and focused on the task at hand.
And in one instance of madness, the pain and burning sensation shot through the roof.
"Ugh!" Kai cried, slipping off the sofa. Meg came running for him, almost obliterating the table in between them.
"What… what happened?" Elenora asked, a horrifying expression on her face. "I… My lord, are you OK?"
Even the drunk Viscount came to see, walking sluggishly.
Kai somehow pushed himself to his feet, defying the pain and burning sensation. "It's a condition," he lied. "It flares up from time to time. Take me outside. Viscount Lucas, my lady, please excuse us for a moment. We will be back shortly."
Both husband and wife silently nodded, and Meg took Kai out of the smoke-filled chamber.
Outside, four guards from the royal police force were stationed, with two on either side of the doors.
They all eyed Kai and Meg menacingly, seeing them leaving the chamber.
Even with the spot between his eyebrows boiling, Kai had enough awareness to know that he must do something about it. He made Meg pause and then looked at the guards.
"We are going out for a moment," Kai said, remembering the Existence with a ringed purple eye. "Our guests are important to Us. See that they have enough wine to idle away the rest of the auction. Let's go." [AN: here Kai is imitating the royal We]
Kai and Meg slowly walked away, and behind them, the guards' knees buckled before they fell to one knee in his direction simultaneously. Who in their right mind would try to imitate the royal presence?
The flower commandos didn't stop them as they went out of the City Hall, and now, Kai could scarcely hold back a roar.
-/Take me… out of the capital,/- he told her telepathically. -/As far… as you can. We are done here./-
Meg's face had become hard. She took Kai to the hired carriage and took him to the city's outskirts. Once the carriage had gone back, two enormous wings unfurled on her back, and she took Kai into the air.
Kai was clutching his head, a searing heat coursing through the same spot as if lava was kissing him.
By the time Meg distanced from the capital considerably, Kai was already flailing his arms and legs. This was a pain he had never felt before.
Unable to keep herself and Kai in the sky, she landed on a grassy mound.
"Argh!" Kai cried, rolling on his back. Standing over him, Meg kept calling out to him, three different colored capsules in her hand.
But nothing seemed to be enough.
At this moment, aside from the pain and heat, nothing else existed for Kai.
Then, with an unheard boom, a dull, sickly yellow-colored drop came out from the spot between his brows. Kai lifted his head to look at it, his eyes bloodshot, and Meg backed away, now thoroughly horror-struck, for it was the Soul-Blood Drop that could never come back out of a slave's master.
It was ridiculous! Impossible!
Kai's eyes landed on the drop, and like seeing from a lens, he saw something beyond it.
A place, full of towering flames, burning mountains, and men and women crying, roaring, as their bodies burned. And amidst all these flames stood a many-horned Being of incomprehensible size. Thick pillars of flames were spouting out of this figure, burning the oblivion.
Suddenly, the figure's head snapped, and it looked in Kai's direction, into his eyes.
A thick, hoarse, menacing, and evil voice reached Kai's ears from some distant dimension.
—I… SEE… YOU!—
The Soul-Blood drop sizzled, following the words, and half of it vaporized.
The rest returned, rushing for the spot between Kai's eyebrows, and disappeared.
All became black in his eyes instantaneously.
The three words still rang in the back of his mind, and in the darkness of sleep, huge flames kept appearing and disappearing, trying to take some hideous form from unknown origins.
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