章 97: Chapter 97
"Do this old man a favour, won't you lad? The reason I am telling you all of this, is because I want you to live. You are a warrior through and through. But the world is not filled with warriors. You want to fight and I can see it in your eyes. You desire a great battle, but the world doesn't. They will poison you. They will stab you. They may even brainwash the ones you trust into betraying you. Trust me, lad. I know."
His gaze then turned solemn.
"Because the same thing happened to me too."
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|DxD|
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Cleria couldn't speak. It hadn't been that long since she sat Aurelia down in the meeting room. After she had received notice of her arrival, she got one of her peerage members to send Shuri home while she handled what would most likely be a diplomatic visit.
But never did she imagine that the woman she knew to be blonde before would suddenly have a change of wardrobe. Her usual blonde hair now turned to a beautiful snow-white colour that flowed down like a waterfall. Her normally cold blue eyes seemed to have gained a bit of life, making them appear more like a vibrant ocean than the cold icebergs they were.
Yet what was even more astonishing was she could clearly feel that Aurelia radiated the aura of a god class entity. It had only been a year since they last met so for her to suddenly close the gulf between ultimate class and god class in such a short time made her wonder the methods she used. But whatever those methods were, the two of them weren't close enough for her to ask.
"Greetings, Lady Cleria. This one's name is Aurelia von Drachenburg. However, you may be more familiar with the name, 'Kurohime'."
"..."
With a small table between them, the both of them had been left alone with refreshments on the table. But no matter how comfortable the couch was, Cleria suddenly sat up when she heard the name "Drachenburg".
A look of pure shock was on her face.
"Drachenburg?!"
Aurelia only gave a nod of confirmation. The Drachenburgs were the royalty of the Aryan race. They were known for their fierce warriors who could wrestle dragons in one-on-one combat and win. If normal Aryans were monsters, then the Drachenburgs were absolute behemoths on the likes of the protagonists from Chinese novels.
Cleria could remember the saying: one Drachenburg at the low-Ultimate class could hold off ten normal high-Ultimate class beings from other races and survive. It had been seen countless times in history. With their golden armour and fierce temperaments, they were unrivalled in wars and many other races deigned to clash with them because of how fearsome their reputation and power was.
And right now, a member of that family was seated right across her.
"Are you…are you truly an…"
She let the question hang in the air.
"Yes, Lady Cleria. This one does indeed hail from the Aryan bloodline."
Aurelia took a sip of her coffee before smiling at her.
"Does it bother you, Lady Cleria?"
Cleria maintained her look of surprise for a moment longer before she eventually shook her head.
"No. I'm more interested in why you revealed this information to me. Surely you know that your…kind, will not be warmly received in both the mundane and the supernatural world."
Aurelia only smiled.
"This one is aware, Lady Cleria. However, this one has no reason to conceal herself any longer. If fate deigns this one is to meet her ancestors tomorrow, then she will meet them with her head held high. And…"
She placed her cup on the table, her gaze turning cold.
"...this one's reason for not revealing her heritage was not out of fear, but out of necessity. But this is no longer required since this one's reason to conceal herself has…ceased to exist."
"..."
Cleria's brain was working at incredulous speeds to analyse everything Aurelia had said. She was trying to figure out why after over decades of knowing her and even remaining oblivious to her true heritage, she would suddenly reveal herself.
She did once suspect Aurelia of being an Aryan the first time they met twenty years ago but as the years went by, she could tell that Aurelia was growing older. Now, she couldn't help but think that somehow, she had the ability to fake her lifeforce and age which would indeed make her seem like a normal human because right now, Cleria could feel her abundant lifeforce and energy signature.
It was overflowing and unrestrained, vibrant and full of life. It was very hard to miss such a distinct Aryan trait which only verified that despite having white hair, Aurelia was indeed from that race. Thinking of how she was now blatantly showing off her heritage, Cleria couldn't help but wonder why she suddenly did this out of the blue. Except, it was not out of the blue.
Quickly connecting the dots to recent events, she finally got a result in her head.
"Himejima."
It was a statement, not a question. The only reason Cleria could think as to why Kuro- Aurelia, would reveal herself was because of the recent destruction of the Himejima clan. By now, every major faction and pantheon in the supernatural world knew of the fate that befell the once noble clan.
And from the information she received from her familiars, it was a total bloodbath that had nearly all the males killed, including the patriarch. Only the women, children, a few young men, and an elder were left. Truly, they had fallen.
A glint shone in Aurelia's eyes when she heard the name of that decrepit clan. Although the Himejima had essentially fallen from grace, she still did not take kindly to the family surname, seeing as she still couldn't properly control her emotions upon hearing the term.
Nonetheless, she calmed herself by sipping her coffee before replying to Cleria's statement.
"Yes, the Himejima. And it is precisely why this one has come to Kuoh. This one personally witnessed the Himejima's ending. Now, this one merely wishes to meet with the benefactor and give her thanks to the one who brought an end to that clan."
"..."
Cleria felt a bit weird hearing that statement. Lately, it seemed she had been feeling weird and both of the times she did ironically had to do with Aryans. What were the odds that in less than five years, she met two Aryans? In the same town nonetheless. As far as she knew, every single Aryan, be it woman or child, were killed the moment they tried to escape. Only a handful of half-bloods, Aryans that had copulated with normal humans, were left alive since they were no different from normal humans.
Cleria was not sure if she should conceal Igor's existence from Aurelia or not. From the looks of things, Aurelia did not know that the blonde was her kin, or she could be deliberately hiding that knowledge. But then it would make no sense because then why would she come to ask her, a devil, for the knowledge of another Aryan's whereabouts? Her thoughts whizzed about as she came up with and dismissed several conjectures in less than a second. Her mind then eventually settled on not giving Igor's location, but on asking Aurelia a question.
Sitting up properly with her hands on her lap, Cleria kindly questioned.
"Before I answer, do you perhaps know of any other living members of your race?"
The same time she spoke, her gaze remained intently on Aurelia's form, her eyes searching for even the most minute of twitches indicating nervousness or appallment. Cleria was not the greatest at lying, but she prided herself on being able to spot them. And if Aurelia even tried to think about lying, she would spot it.
But all that was on Aurelia's face was a trace of sadness.
"Unfortunately, this one is the last member of her race. Any of this one's kin that were alive would've been killed the moment they tried to escape the dimension."
Hearing the words "dimension" made Cleria once again marvel at how magically gifted the Aryans were. Apart from the gods, they were the only other significant race that could manufacture a separate dimension from Earth where they could live in pseudo-isolation.
The only reason Aurelia was so sure she was the only one who survived was because of her hair having turned white from trauma. When the dimension collapsed, any Aryans who managed to survive and were "spit" out would've been immediately killed.
For over a decade, any Aryans that managed to survive were killed. In a world of humans, it was very easy to identify them not only because of their blonde hair and blue eyes, but also because of their abnormal lifeforce. It was publically known that after an Aryan child turns ten, their potent lifeforce and magic power would reveal itself. So for the next ten years, any surviving children were killed off. If not for Yasaka discovering her, Aurelia would've suffered the same fate too when she turned ten years old. To this day, she is thankful to the fox for saving her life. But she still felt sad that all her kin were annihilated.
Hearing Aurelia speak so somberly about her race, Cleria pitied her.
"My sincere apologies. However…"
She decided to simply tell her.
"...there is another Aryan."
Aurelia only smiled.
"Lady Cleria. If you mean the half-bloods populating the planet, then this one knows of them."
Half-bloods were simply that: half-bloods. Aurelia had no prejudice against them, but it was too much to consider them her "kin". As far as she was concerned, they were no different from normal humans.
But Cleria shook her head.
"No. I meant that there is another pure-blooded Aryan like you."
"?!"
Cleria was sure that Igor was not a half-blood for many reasons. One was that he had no traceable ancestry. No matter how much she scoured the records and sent someone to investigate, Igor did not "exist". There wasn't a trace of his data on any system in the world or a family with the last name "Dimori". But the most important reason, was that he possessed the Aryan's time chamber artifact. There was absolutely no chance that such an important artifact, the pinnacle of Aryan ingenuity, would be given to a half-blood.
Those people prided themselves on their heritage and looked down on normal humans. An Aryan marrying a half-blood was simply taboo and the moment a half-blood was born, they would be chased out.
It was why Cleria was sure Igor was a pure-blood.
"He is the one who killed the Himejima."
Aurelia shot to her feet at the sudden revelations. She didn't expect that there was another pure-blooded Aryan in existence like her, nevermind that he was also responsible for the Himejima's death. It came as such a shock to her system that she lost her composure and any sense of modicum or courtesy.
Placing her hands on the table, she leaned over to Cleria.
"Do you know where he is? This one would sincerely want to meet him."
Her voice contained a trace of agitation and if one listened properly, they would know that Aurelia wouldn't take no for an answer. But it was understandable considering she suddenly had an opportunity to meet her kin after decades of believing everyone was dead.
And Cleria was willing to oblige.
"Of course. If you are willing to wait, then you will meet him shortly. Currently he's not here in Kuoh but he should be back within the hour."
"..."
Aurelia was no longer focused on the fact that her benefactor was not here. Rather, she was more focused on the fact that the same overwhelming power she felt in Kyoto belonged to one of her kin. That same power that prompted the God of Destruction himself to act was currently in the hands of her kin.
She wasn't jealous. Not in the slightest. Rather, she was mad. Mad that a person with such a high power-level was not present when her clan was being exterminated.
She was extremely-
"But given his knack for causing trouble, I wouldn't be surprised if he took a whole week to come back."
"?"
Aurelia's emotions experienced a sudden stop-gap. It wasn't Cleria's words that made her freeze, but the way she said them. The way she spoke of her benefactor wasn't as if he was talking about a fully-fledged warrior, but a troublesome boy.
So she asked.
"Pardon me, but this one would like to ask. How old is he?"
Now that a moment of clarity had entered her mind, Aurelia remembered that the red-headed figure she saw definitely appeared to be no older than eighteen at most. With how short he was, it was a far cry from how tall the average fully-grown Aryan was.
Cleria took the time to ponder. The last she checked, he was roughly…
"Between 8-10 years old?"
"..."
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AN
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