Chapter 46: Karaskan. (1/2)
The King frowned, ”Talk?”
”Yes. About you all, of course,” Arima answered as if it was obvious and pulled out a snack in front of all these important figures.
”Oh, yeah, concerning your previous question, I killed those people because I wanted to and they deserved it. As for your son, well, he deserved it too…” Arima paused and smirked, ”But he still isn't out of danger.”
Fayla was shocked and looked toward the prince who just shook his head to her and his father. He signaled them to not do anything.
”…What's your goal? You do not appear like the type who does things without purpose.”
Arima looked at the elf who questioned him and tilted his head in wonder, ”You're the Elven Priestess, right? If I'm not wrong you are… Karia Teria. An elf said to be pure and perfect beyond words. But, why do I feel so much evil within you?”
Karia's expression stiffened, ”I have no obligation to answer you.”
”Hm,” Arima stared at her for a few seconds then suddenly exclaimed in realization, ”Oh, I think I understand now.”
The calm priestess's expression finally changed but before she could say anything, Arima resumed, ”Your question was spot on by the way. I'm the kind of guy who doesn't do things meaninglessly. But I'm also the kind which doesn't think much about the reasons. That's why; I'm simply looking for fun things.”
The human King was slowly developing a headache. In fact, he had a tough time tolerating Arima's attitude. But he was aware that if a fight were to occur here, maybe he would win if the Elven Priestess and the Demon King's help, but the city and all of its citizens would get annihilated. The black lines on his forehead thickened, ”What's your fun thing to do here?”
”Well, there are good fights, eliminating some trash (yes, it's fun), and finding 'things' that I'm interested about. That's basically what is fun for me,” Arima replied in complete honesty.
”Now, why am I here? At first, I wanted to quickly kill my targets and then leave incognito. But some fascinating people joined so I thought I should talk to them.”
”Is that us? Those interesting people?” The Demon King grinned and asked.
Arima glanced at him and returned the smile, ”King of the Demons, Raal Zalda. Said to be the strongest man on this continent. How can you not be interesting?”
The situation froze in an instant. Raal and Arima stared at each other and engaged in a silent fight. A really discreet but suffocating aura came out of their bodies. In fact, it was more like intimidation and fighting intent. The chairs and tables cracked. Even the reinforced walls of the castle were being eroded although no one was moving and that the cause wasn't even true aura but a pure force of spirit.
The King and Karia observed quietly while Fayla and Drannoc had a harder time withstanding the pressure even as they helped each other.
”Please stop. Even if you were to only release your aura, this castle would get destroyed,” The King interrupted them after a half minute.
Arima snickered and lowered his hostility, ”I can make a dimensional rift, you know?”
”No. I won't accept to fight someone as he uses a massive amount of power to do something else. I'm sure your magic drains your mana massively,” Raal instantly rebuffed the idea.
”Sure, no problem,” Arima shrugged and didn't push him.
The King sighed in relief, ”Is that all? This is what you wanted to do here?”
”More or less,” Arima responded and looked at Karia with a smile, ”Do you want me to get rid of it?”
The elf was stunned. Earlier, she only thought it was a coincidence but with that question, there was no doubt. She stared at Arima as if he was a monster. If she understood well, that man had discovered her secret at first glance.
Raal looked at the two alternatively in curiosity and shrugged. He turned around and walked to the door, ”Arimane Blade, it seems you have something else to do for now. Come to the demon territory when you have time.”
Arima smiled, ”Sure.” He turned toward the King when Raal left, ”Can I ask you a favor?”
The King furrowed. This may be the day where his facial expression changed to most times in his entire life, ”You're pushing it a little bit, don't you think?”
Arima laughed, ”Well, I have to take advantage of this position of force.”
The King groaned, ”What do you want?”
”I heard that you need to be at the tenth level to be recognized as an SSS rank merc. I want that title,” Arima stated. He thought that it would be useful to have his rank updated and an order from the Republic's King could easily promote him.
When the King heard his request, he considered it for a moment and pulled out a gold card from his storage which he threw at Arima. The latter caught it with two fingers and inspected it ”…What is this?”
”The guild of the Republic is not the original one. I'm one of the five founders. The card you're holding is a privilege that can only be given by one of them. It's a Z rank card. The highest rank existing in the guild. Even if it's in the Main Land, you will be treated like a Super VIP. Try to merge that card with yours.”
Arima did as he was told and pressed his own guild card against the golden one. The two shined brightly and merged together to create a gold and silver tag with his information on it. Arima flipped that card and played with it, ”The Main Land, huh? It's true I thought of going there later. Thanks for that.”
Arima then looked at Karia, ”Shall we go? It was unexpected though. I thought that I would directly go to the demon territory after this,” He muttered and then turned toward Night who had been silent from the very beginning.
”Hey, Night, can you tell Lilis to teleport with Lanya to the elven territory?”
Night nodded and closed his eyes. Arima looked back at Karia who was waiting awkwardly and beckoned her to stand in the circle he conjured.
”Wait,” When they were about to transfer away, Night raised his voice, ”Lilis said she can't.”
”…why?”
”Because she doesn't know where the elf city is.”
Arima blankly stared at Night, ”Seriously?”
”Yes.”
”And she calls herself a Goddess…” Arima grunted, ”Go with Night. I'll go fetch someone. You can bring Night wherever you want. I'll teleport to him to come back,” He said to Karia and disappeared just after.
Night and Karia looked at each other and nodded at the same time. They teleported at the same time and vanished from the meeting room.
The King, Drannoc, and Fayla exhaled.