Chapitre 179: The Upgraded Book and the Act - D-Mail! (I)
Meg came blasting through the door, panting, her eyes bloodshot and her body sweating, anger and shame dancing across her face in a call of mockery.
Kai looked at her. After confirming where he was, he had used the Party's privilege to share his location with her. It turned out that he was in a hotel room, its rent already paid for the next month under his Code Name. It wasn't even the same building where the Existence had taken him.
Only half an hour had passed since those events, and yet, Kai felt like ages had come and gone, and waiting for her arrival had done nothing good for the agitation bubbling up inside him.
"Oh, master!" Meg fell to her knees. "I've failed you. I…"
"I don't think you could've done anything, anyway," Kai told her, sitting on the bed. "Get up and sit on the chair. We have much to cover."
Meg stood up sluggishly, and when she turned to take the chair, her eyes landed on the waist-high cylindrical glass tank, filled with light green liquid and the curled, charred figure suspended in it. Petyr Baelish was standing near the tank, his eyes gleaming with unseen curiosity. She snapped her head in Kai's direction, her eyes widening in horror.
Today she would learn a new definition of horror, Kai amusingly thought. The events had shaken him, but he was still non-perturbed, for he had a trump card, just waiting for him to use. Alas, when he ordered Petyr to come out, he learned that the Character, who had been within him, had seen or heard nothing, and had not even felt something odd.
He would deal with this situation later.
First, he must see to his slave.
Meg sat, her head bobbing from Kai to the tank, and then back at him. "I didn't know what happened and how it happened, master," she began, justifying her failure to see the danger beforehand. "One moment you were walking with me, in the other you weren't. You… you just vanished."
Kai sighed, and then told her everything, starting from the Existence's appearance. This already made her gasp. Meg seemed horror-stricken, glued to the chair like a pale statue. Her color went from red to white and then gained an unknown shade of purple. Clearly, she didn't know who this person was, Kai reflected.
He continued, now talking about the strange world the Existence called Limbo, him breaking the Iron Coin, flashy bangs, and then the details of the Deep Ones shared with him. By the time he paused, taking a breath, Meg's hands were over her face.
Kai didn't give the respite she direly needed.
He continued with the second thing the Existence had come to discuss. The Book. Her head snapped up and she mumbled something incomprehensible, but Kai was almost sure she had unknowingly prayed to Hastur, asking for HIS forgiveness. He didn't blame her. If it wasn't for the D-Mail in his arsenal, he might have been sitting in her place right now too.
Then came the third and most horrific part.
Kai took his time to tell her that, taking pauses and not missing any details. The room was so silent that a buzz from a mosquito could have thrown it into shambles. Meg's eyes were planted on the part between Kai's brows, tears trickling down from her smooth cheeks. The idea of the curse of not getting chosen by any true wand had pushed her beyond the gates of rationality.
Kai smiled. "We still have one option," he told her. "No need to lose hope. The thing is, who was that creature? He certainly was from your Temple, and if I am to believe his fiasco of a tale, then there are high chances that he is the older brother of the two. But all this can easily be nothing but a ruse to just curse me. Who knows? Maybe it was him who perpetrated all this. Selena's foolish actions to leave the safe house, then the child getting kidnapped… It all seems quite a far-fetched coincidence. But if it's not, then…"
Meg looked up at the ceiling. "I don't know either," she told him, without matching his gaze. "I don't know…"
Kai frowned. "He should be at least a King," he guessed. "There can't be that many Priests above the 15th floor of the level of Kings…"
She looked down, and Kai's heart skipped a beat. A supreme, frightful expression was on her face that he could've never believed Meg could even show. Even when he had mentioned the Deep Ones, her face hadn't looked so… so lost.
"When I reached the 13th floor," Meg said, airily, "we were told about the full structure of the Temple on the 5th Set. We were also told that there is only one devotee above the 5th Set with the power to match the Kings, and who acts as an overseer of the entire Temple and a go-between the Emperor and the Temple too."
"Then certainly…"
"No." The refusal in Meg's tone shocked Kai. "The Existence you met couldn't be this devotee, master. That devotee is named the Grand Seer. And… the Grand Seer is a woman."
Kai's mouth opened, but words seemed to have left him. A woman? Only one woman of the level of Kings. Then was he… No. Kai bluntly rejected his conjecture. He derisively laughed at himself for even having such a thought.
That Existence couldn't be from the 7th Set, Kai told himself. Never. Never…
And yet, Kai remembered the manners of the white-skinned being, his speech, and his gait; his eyes had suggested it could look down on even the empire when he had talked about it.
The claws of fear gripped Kai's heart. A chill burst out from his chest, and Selene took shape, her scaly body slithering around his shoulder. She flicked out her tongue, kissing his chin, the weight of her white figure pinning him down to reality.
No. He could not afford to let himself be washed away by these absurd thoughts. He must not. The peak of the Absolute Power was too high, yes. So what if he had taken just a peek at it? At least… now he knew what creatures he would deal with on the slope below this peak, didn't he?
Kai patted Selene, running his fingers across the length of her long, lean body.
-Keep quiet- he hissed, worrying about her insane ravings. He neither had the time nor the patience to deal with them. Not right now.
"Nothing makes sense," Meg grumbled, clutching her head. "I can't recall anything about these Deep Ones, so I can't confirm if the things he… he had told you were true or false. I don't know about this strange curse, so I can't do anything about it, and I've never heard the name Conqueror before, either. Nor do I know anything substantial about the Hao family. I've never thought that even after being a 13th-floor fallen Contestant, I would fail to serve you, master."
Kai could feel her emotions. The touch of self-loathing in her voice was so strong that it felt tangible. Given her age and experience, it wasn't expected of her. But, because of the Soul-Blood Oath, Kai knew what truly pained her.
It was one of the statements the Existence had told him, and it was eating her from within —
You did well not taking her virginity. It was promised to someone else, even though she may not remember it now.
Those words had sealed Meg's fate.
She couldn't go back to the Temple, and even though she believed in Hastur, her loyalty to Kai wouldn't allow her to have her heart in those prayers. For over 100 years, she had devoted herself to the service of the Temple, and now that she had broken off from them, she couldn't even live her life as she desired.
Kai couldn't have her like this, he reasoned. She was his strongest Item, even more than the Book in a sense if he were to account for her experience and knowledge. He was no psychologist, but even then he could tell that if this goes on, she would lose a part of her ferocity, courage, and daring attitude forever.
"You worry too much," Kai told her, laughing. "It was nothing but an odd bump in our life that was bound to come later, if not sooner. By the time I am done with it, you wouldn't even remember it and I would have to tell you it all over again."
Kai's brusqueness and casual tone contrasted the dark aura lingering within the room.
Meg gaped at him. "You mean…"
Kai nodded. His hand flicked, and an ancient-looking black book appeared in his hands, its title etched on the cover in odd but fascinatingly complex runes. The Tales of Beedle the Bard had finally upgraded, and Kai couldn't help but grin as he looked at it.
An Item that even an Old One desired.
Now that made him feel proud, giving a true meaning to the risks he had taken in his Initiation Mission. Sure, the Book had its own issues when it came to the Thousand Tale Parasite, but power without a price was not something he would ever have with open arms anyway.
Kai brought out the Item upgrade Notification, and his eyes couldn't help but spill joy.
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