Chương 46: Providence.
"Arther! My nephew! You have arrived."
Paul gave Arther a tight hug as soon as he got out of the carriage, which momentarily stunned him.
*Ahem!*
"If it were me, I wouldn't do that, Paul."
As Elinalise and Ghislaine emerged from the carriage, Ghislaine coughed and said, knowing that Arther detested it when men were overly affectionate and touching towards him.
"What do you mean? Akk!!"
Paul questioned her, not sure what she was getting at, but he soon found out when he witnessed his nephew forcefully releasing himself from his hold.
"Don't do that again. He doesn't like being too touchy."
Ghislaine went on, thinking that Arther might attack Paul out of instinct.
"I-I see."
Paul took in what she had said and turned to face his 7-year-old nephew, who was already 5'9". He had never seen someone that tall at that age before.
It was a serious blow to him that Arther was even more handsome than he was.
'It seems he really became a King-ranked mage! And he was a Saint-rank sword user too, nearing King-rank in that too.'
After all, a practitioner's body would only evolve to the ideal structure in accordance with their needs after they attained King rank.
Paul couldn't help but marvel at Arther's strength. The boy had broken the records for being the youngest at every rank in both the mage and sword paths by a large margin.
Paul himself was only an Advanced-ranked sword user after years of hard work, though he was negligent in his training. Even so, his nephew's advancement left him in awe.
All these thoughts crossed his mind in a split second before he was interrupted by Zenith's voice.
"Paul, why are you keeping them waiting? Let them come inside."
"Oh, yes. Come inside, everyone."
With that, they all entered the house.
-----
"Lilia-san, how are you doing? I hope you are doing well." As she embraced Lilia, Elinalise spoke enthusiastically.
"Yes. I am good, Elinalise. I hope you are too." Lilia replied politely.
"Yup! I am living the best days of my life with my lord, Arther." Elinalise exclaimed sweetly.
She turned to look at the child, who was staring at her ass from the side.
Fufu~
"Oh, you sure are Grayrat. Aren't you, little one?"
With a trace of slyness in her eyes, she spoke while holding young Rudeus in her arms. Abruptly, it occurred to her to see if Paul had truly become loyal or if he was still the insatiable fool they had known.
'No! I won't let him touch me, even if he wants to. After all, I am my lord's now.' She reflected as she carried Rudeus over and asked Lilia, "He sure is just like his father. Isn't it, Lilia?"
To this, Lilia just smiled and replied, "We should join the others at the table. The lunch is ready!"
"Yay! Let's go."
The entire time, Rudeus was just looking at Elinalise in a daze as a thought occurred in his mind: "There are elves in this world!"
With a faint smile on his lips, Arther was talking to Zenith and Paul about his adventures while seated calmly in the dining hall chair with Ghislaine beside him and a glass of water in his hands.
"And that's how we ended the fight with the Ghoul Spiders, clearing the fifth floor for good." Arther narrated the story of their party clearing the fifth floor of Pudoria's Nightmare to the husband-wife duo.
'She sure is a hot one, but I can't claim her just now since she has yet to birth Rudeus's sister. Same goes for Lilia, but I guess a bud of distrust can be useful later.'
Multiple plans formed in his mind to break Paul's house, but his eyes remained clear.
He pretended to be the ideal nephew, in need of nothing more than a breezer to ease his nerves after years of dungeon dives.
"I have heard you have the favor of Prince Garbell; is this correct?" Zenith asked.
"Yes, I have indeed earned the favor of the prince." Arther replied, looking at the eager Zenith.
She seemed to be trying to get the young man's attention. Which woman, after all, wouldn't want to be acknowledged by strong men, even if that man were to be her 7-year-old nephew?
Kuh!
As Arther answered her question, Ghislaine couldn't help but chuckle, since she had witnessed how terrifying the real Arther was and how he controlled the prince all these years.
Even though the prince was getting better in these years, Arther was just a monster at manipulating people.
In fact, she believed his biggest strength was not his strength or near-infinite Mana; it was his sharp wits and cunning mind.
She herself fell for Arther due to his wits, after all.
Coming back to the scene.
While Ghislaine was thinking about this, Lilia, along with Elinalise, who was carrying Rudeus, came towards them.
When Rudeus finally got a chance to look at Arther, he was astounded by how appealing he was.
'I just hope that I do not end up becoming some ugly freak.' Rudeus couldn't help but pray before shaking his head.
In this life, his parents were quite attractive in terms of appearance, so he should at least be able to inherit some of their beauty too.
Meanwhile, Arther also looked at Rudues with focus, trying to see what was so special about these protagonists. Not to mention, this was the first protagonist he encountered.
[Ding!]
[Encountered a person blessed by the World's Will.]
[Luck: 9680]
[Perks]
[1. Bottomless Mana due to Laplace Factor.]
[2. No access to Touki.]
[3. Adult level thinking capacity due to reincarnation.]
'Give his stats.'
[Status]
[Name: Rudeus Grayrat.
Age: 3 months (37 years).
Talent: Bottomless Mana.
Special Status: Blessed.
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral.]
[+ Host's Luck Manipulator ability is in active mode around the protagonist.]
[+ Steal his opportunities and decrease his luck if you want to increase your own. Or ignore and be a side character in his story.]
Hmm.
'So that's how it works. I can either steal a protagonist's luck or be a side character in his story, huh?
I guess there was a reason that the description of this ability said that it was something that made its user the enemies of both heroes and villains.'
Arther got to know a little more about his perk, which essentially made him a [Luck Hunter].
'So what will I get hunting his luck, since you know Luck, aka probability factor, is essentially not applicable to people who are not blessed by the World's Will.'
[You get Providence instead of Luck.]
'What is that?'
[For now, consider that if Luck is an outcome of a person's Destiny, then Providence is the way to bargain with Destiny. I can't tell you more, as the real strong guys may trace you.]
[And you definitely don't want to meet them as you are now.]
The moment All-Seer spoke those words, Arther suddenly felt a chill on his back, the first time since his reincarnation.
'I don't understand much, but I think it's better if I don't pry on it much, isn't it?'
[Yes. Or else they will catch on to you. And then you are mostly likely dead.]
Gulp!
Arther dreaded death more than anything. He didn't want to die before tasting the Loli Goddess, the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.
Nevertheless, the years of studying Luck and its mechanisms had taught him a lot, and he knew that eventually he would discover what Providence was.
From his knowledge, he knew Luck was simply a mechanism to complete the Destiny of a person that was already set in stone.
The World's Will, which bore their karma for these protagonists in exchange for some future benefit, caused it to be unbalanced solely for them.
For normal people like him, Luck was strict because they had the Destiny of being spectators or extras, just like 'Arther'.
This was all overseen by the chief law of the Multiverse, which remained the same in every world across the Multiverse, unlike other laws that differed depending on the world.
The Law of Equivalent Exchange!
In one sentence, it simply implied that one must return the same amount of Luck that one had taken from the world.
Hence, almost every person in the world, except a few special cases like 'protagonists', where their due is paid by the World's Will, had an equal amount of good Luck and bad Luck.
As for Providence, he didn't know about it yet, but maybe…
Still, he realised one thing: his Luck Manipulator was much more important than he initially thought.
Arther removed all these thoughts from his mind and smiled at little Rudeus as he spoke, "So this is my little brother, huh?"
"Indeed! His name is Rudeus. I hope one day he becomes as strong as you." Paul declared proudly.
"I am sure he will." Arther courtly replied.
"Alright, enough talking. Let's have lunch." Zenith said as she brought the food along with Lilia.
With that, everyone sat together and had a hearty dinner.
After the lunch was complete, Zenith spoke, "Alright, I think I should feed Rudeus too now, so if you will excuse me."
"Yeah sure!"
She took Rudeus and left the dining hall to breast-feed Rudeus.
Taking this opportunity, Paul challenged Arther for a duel: "Hey kiddo, wanna have a duel?"
"Listen, Paul, I know you as a knight don't want to miss this opportunity to duel the youngest Saint-ranked swordsman in the world, but I suggest you against it." Ghislaine seriously advised.
"He is called [Shura], you know." Elinalise also supported her.
She looked at Paul right in the eyes and continued gravely, "He doesn't fight to protect; he fights to kill!"
A profound humiliation flashed across his eyes as he heard the demoralizing remarks of the two women he had once slept with.
He shot a furious glance at Arther, who appeared to be discussing something with Lilia while utterly disregarding his challenge.
"Listen, kid, even though I am not as strong as you. I am your uncle and a knight, so I challenge you to fight with me."
To the complete amazement of everyone, he removed his knight's gloves from his back pocket and hurled them towards Arther's chest.
Elinalise, meanwhile, smiled evilly for a moment before coming back to normal.
'It seems Paul is still the same. That means…' A sinister gleam flashed across her eyes as a plan brewed in her head.
She'd seen the intense jealousy in his eyes when they'd advised him not to challenge Arther.
Tat!
Arther turned to face Paul as the gloves made contact with his chest. Lilia did the same, realising the ladies underestimating him had led to an unforeseen situation.
Sigh!
Arther sighed on the outside while smiling on the inside as he observed everyone, especially Elinalise.
'Well, I guess I will first screw with you, Paul, and then your son.'
"I accept the duel!" He accepted.
It was time to screw with the protagonist's father!
.....
Author's Note:
>> Nearly a 2K-word chapter as a bonus for the late upload. Next chapter, 12 hours later.
>> Check out my other work. I am sure you will definitely like it very much.
Title- LONE: The Journey Beyond
Link- https://www.webnovel.com/book/lone-the-journey-beyond_23576460306682905
*****
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