章 155: Chapter 155 - Words that Must be Said
Despite Leo's calm reaction, Rynold still felt bad.
Rynold took a glance at Leo's face and almost immediately realized that the guy was hurt. A loss of a parent was no joking matter, even if they were terrible people.
Still, Rynold primarily felt guilty that he screwed up. Even if Leo said that Rynold shouldn't worry about it, the guy wasn't there in the throne room.
At the very moment that Rynold faced the Duke, the King had already been dead. The Queen has lost her soul and had her body reconfigured as a puppet.
By the time Rynold actually got to face the Duke, Rynold failed to save the two.
All he could do now was to apologize for his failures.
Leo, surprisingly, took the news pretty well, as much as a person who had lost someone, that is. Unfortunately, that wasn't the same for his little sister.
Lissa was heartbroken. Her face was in the shape of a rather prominent frown, teardrops starting to form under her eyes. All that's stopping her from actually wailing was Rynold himself.
"Here you go..."
The young girl's voice was rather weak as she handed Rynold the Summoning Orb that held Prominence Alpha inside. Rynold slowly reached out his aching hand, making Lissa place it on the palm of his hand.
Before Rynold could say something, Lissa turned around and headed towards the door.
No words were coming out of his mouth as he failed to think of what to say. Rynold, in other words, was speechless. The guilt suddenly felt heavier in his heart.
"I've got this," Leo murmured as he left to follow Lissa out of the Library.
Rynold let out a deep sigh as he watched the two siblings leave the room. He wanted to follow them, but Oliver stopped him.
"He can take care of it," Oliver said with a rather cold tone to his voice. "We need to talk. Someplace private."
"Do you have a place in mind?" Rynold asked with complete trust in Oliver.
"Yeah, come on. Let's get going."
Saying goodbye to Margareth, Rynold left with Oliver. They both climbed up on a nearby Floating Platform and left to the place Oliver had designated.
The journey there wasn't as pleasant as Rynold had hoped.
Oliver was silent throughout the entire trip, and it appeared there was some tension surrounding him. Rynold couldn't put his finger on what caused it, but he felt something was wrong.
The direction that they were heading in was up. That meant that wherever place they were going located someplace in the upper parts of the tree. No matter where this place was, Rynold wasn't really worried.
With that, they soon arrived at the penthouse.
Rynold hadn't been here for three weeks, but it somewhat felt a lot longer than that.
He had missed the courtyard that had beautiful flowers all around them. He missed the workshop that he had spent so many hours in. Rynold had genuinely missed all of this.
"Come on," Oliver said, his voice still as cold as before.
The two alighted from the Floating Platform and headed towards Rynold's workshop. From there, Oliver opened the door, found a chair, and immediately sat down.
"I thought you'd have a completely different place in mind," Rynold added as he found another chair and sat down across from Oliver.
"Yeah, well. This is as private as any place could get."
Silence filled the room for quite some time after Oliver answered. Rynold didn't know how to continue the conversation. Then again, Oliver was the one who called him here.
However, Oliver suddenly let out a rather burdened sigh. Following this, Oliver looked at Rynold directly in the eye and spoke.
"For the record, I'm not the one who wanted to speak to you in private."
Following his sudden declaration, a very vile feeling started to surround Oliver. It wasn't anything dangerous, no. It was a lot more wretched than harmful.
Holding back the urge to puke, Rynold watched as the scene unfolded.
The air surrounding Oliver turned from vile to visible black color. It swirled around Oliver; the dark clouds embraced Oliver as they wrapped all around him.
Soon, Oliver's face revealed itself as it was now coated entirely in black. Not only that, but the only thing that Rynold could actually see on Oliver's face was dark purple beads for his eyes.
It was then that Rynold realized: any traces of his friend were gone.
"Well, well, well. If it isn't the prodigal son."
Words were coming out of Oliver's mouth as his jaw moved. But, his actual mouth can't even be seen because of the black color that covered it. Furthermore, Oliver's voice was entirely different. It was much deeper this time around, and it simultaneously felt ominous as well.
"What do you want?"
Rynold, however, was calm. Sure, he was wary of the thing that had taken control of Oliver, but it wasn't something he hasn't seen before.
Standing before him wasn't his friend. No, it was the devil that had been residing in Oliver all this time.
"No need to be hostile, silly human. I made arrangements with this one right here not to bring harm to you. In exchange for a few words, of course."
"Uh-huh..."
Giving a skeptical response, Rynold could sense that the dynamic between the two hasn't changed. Oliver was still the more prominent consciousness, meaning the devil inside him wouldn't come out unless Oliver let it.
That being said, Rynold thought that there must have been a reason why Oliver let it out.
"Get on with your point. I'm not comfortable with you being out and about."
The devil then laughed evilly before continuing the conversation.
"You know, this human harbored ill-intent for the past few days because of your disappearance. However, his will remained too strong for me to take over."
"Get to the point!"
Rynold wasn't liking where this conversation was going. He didn't want to hear these things that the devil had so elaborated. Rynold knew that those words were meant to rile him up. But, he couldn't help but feel agitated at the sight of the devil taking over.
"There isn't one," the devil chuckled menacingly. "I simply wanted to converse with you. I know that you have the power of Order seeded within you. You shouldn't be worried about me with that power in your hands."
With widened eyes, Rynold felt a lot more worried now. He hadn't mentioned to anybody that he had encountered the Emissary of Order. Nor did he mention that he had some Order-related powers in his arsenal.
So, how can a devil before him know about those things?
"What do you want?"
Rynold's words this time had a lot more serious tone. He had enough of the devil's messing around.
"As I said before, I am simply here to talk to you. If you're willing to listen, that is..."
The devil was conniving. So much so that Rynold severely disliked it. He hesitated before agreeing to play along with its mind games.
"Fine, I'll listen."
"Good dog," the devil face lit up to a smile, not that Rynold could actually see it.
"You should be wary of the power that you gained. Creatures of Order tend to become heretics, often blinded by their pursuit of maintaining Order. You may not realize it now, silly human, but you will soon beg to relinquish that power. When that moment comes, I... will be waiting."
With that said, the black cloud surrounding Oliver gradually dissipated. Soon, the room had turned back to normal, no trace of the devil having been here whatsoever.
Oliver's face returned to the way it was too. He slowly blinked his eyes as his consciousness took control of his own body. He then stared at Rynold, as blank as an expression could be.
"You heard everything, right?"
"Y-yeah... The bastard asked to talk to you as soon as I saw you at the medical ward. I could sense that he felt disgusted by you, more than usual, that is. But, I didn't expect that you would have this new 'power' was the reason."
Rynold took a deep breath.
Even though whatever nonsense the devil had said, Rynold wasn't really worried about it. No, he was bothered by the fact that Oliver had given in to one of the devil's requests.
"It's fine. I can handle whatever it is that happens."
"Oh, that's bullshit!"
Oliver suddenly shouted with a rather accusing tone. Surprised, Rynold was taken aback.
"Calm down, man! You're the last person I would expect to get upset over what I did. You and I both know that things would've been a lot worse if I wasn't there!"
Rynold expressed his innocence and reasoning to calm Oliver down. Unfortunately, that didn't work.
"You don't think I know that? I know for a fact that you did it to save people. But you don't do something like that at the expense of your own life!"
"Is this what this is about?" Rynold asked as he calmed down upon realizing it. "Whatever I did out there, I would be the one responsible for it."
"When are you going to realize that you're worth more than that? People here are counting on you too. Do you have any idea how worried Neana was? Or, how many times have Eileen asked where you've gone? You aren't alone anymore, man."
As soon as he got his message across, Oliver finally calmed down. He knew that he only had to mention it once because Rynold wasn't the type to be stubborn and deny it.
Staying silent, Rynold had no idea what else to say.
"Look, man. Just think about what I said. I'll see you later."
Oliver said what he meant to say. He didn't really need to forcefully shove it down Rynold's throat because he knew Rynold was sensible enough to do the right thing. Forcing things to go his way would only make the situation worse.
That being said, Rynold simply nodded in response.
He was aware of the fact that he had often acted on his own. Rynold knew that this was a problem he had, and, more often than not, it was by no means intentional.
Rynold had often acted impulsively when it comes to decisions. Hell, some of the worst consequences he had so far were because of his impulsiveness. Furthermore, this wasn't even the first time that Oliver had called him out on it.
This was just the first time in the context of life and death, particularly Rynold's own life.
As the door shut behind Oliver, Rynold was left alone in the workshop he had so enjoyed working in. Unfortunately, the conversation he had left a sour taste in his mouth.
He quietly sat on his chair, perfectly still, lamenting on his own mistakes.
Rynold wasn't upset.
Even if Oliver had expressed his thoughts on the matter, Rynold wasn't mad at him for doing so. In fact, he was glad that Oliver did that. That was the only way Rynold would've been made aware of his own wrongdoings.
But, what lingered in Rynold's head at this very moment was the fact that he had failed.
He had screwed up so badly that it affected nearly everyone he knew. The sorry condition he had returned in made everyone worry about him.
'If only I were a bit stronger.'
That one sentence constantly appeared in his mind. That one sentence made him aware of the mistakes that he made. That one sentence reminded him of his failures.
And, it was that same sentence that strove him to work harder.
= End of Vol. 3 =
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