Negotiation [2]

Right in front of me was a typical villa with simplistic square designs. Most of it was painted white and the overall size of it wasn't that too big considering the fairly wide front and backyards but in my opinion it was clearly big enough to house several people.

I went inside to check the interior and just as I expected, it's filled with luxurious furniture and designs. It was way too much for someone who had lived in a middle class household until a few days ago.

'..Don't let it get to your head man. This house ain't yours....'

"..Yeah this will do.."

I sat in the large couch in the living room, letting myself relax and be consumed by it's wonderful softness.

'...I wish I could just stay here and be a couch potato but I'm going to that academy anyways so that's out. The only great thing about this is...hehehe' I grinned as I remembered the faces of my oh so kind aunt and cute little cousins' faces as uncle announced my leave on the main household.

They first thought I was finally getting banished due to the events that occurred three days ago but alas uncle clarified that I was only relocating my place of residence, not being exiled from the family. The Irisville name is too beneficial for me to discard and getting the old man's support is crucial if I want to become strong enough to survive.

'Their faces when they heard I was lent the family villa is too good to forget, not mentioning that I have financial backing personally from the Irisville head'

The fact that I have not one dime on my name made it so that I needed a source to borrow from. Borrow in a sense that even if Roland needed me to find his eyes, he won't just let me steal his money all willy nilly like that. He was too obsessed with power and that included his money, so in retrospect, he saw my future service as an investment.

'If I push him too much, he would probably get rid of me despite knowing that I was the only possible seeker for his eyes. He already got the essential parts of the search so finding someone to replace me would indeed be a hassle and will put too much risk but he knows there's loopholes in his abilities, he's not an idiot'

Roland is the type of person that would keep things that seem useful to him close while also thinking of ways to discard such things assuming it will eventually lose its utility and he also doubt things in such a great degree that one would think he's paranoid although that's likely due to his magic eyes.

A very business like way of thinking and that's why I believe he's vying time to find other possible candidate seekers and until then he will surely comply with our deal for the meantime.

"Until then, I need to become strong enough to beat the living daylights out of you and besides....even if I find it, you would surely still kill me because of how it ended up becoming, your magic eyes.."

I placed my hand over my eyes as I recall how his magic eyes ended up in the novel.

The magic eyes. A very rare and powerful innate skill that awakens only to a specific lineage of people and one of them is the Irisville's. In this world, skills are a very natural thing even before the apocalypse occurred.

The populace generally believe its a gift from high mystical and divine beings and in the scientific side of things say it's a product of mana affecting the laws and nature of the world, creating a system within living things in the form of statuses.

Any of those two things could be the truth and even in the novel, it hasn't been expounded or explored more in depth. The crucial thing is that it's the norm in this reality.

In the novel, its explained that normal skills are either created or manifest through books found in the labyrinth and each person has at birth, a limited number of slots that enables them to wield those skills except for certain skills such as innate and class types.

Considering skills are like that, Innate ones are special since not only is it inborn but also inheritable and has no slot capacity which means its possible that a person could be born with an unlimited amount of skills although such character hasn't shown up at all in the story.

It is the sole reason why Roland is hellbent on getting his 'eyes' back, his magic eyes were literally the ones that made him the man who he is today.

'It is also the reason why from birth, every member of the Irisville are educated about the particular details about their magic eyes. From it's history to it's gradual mutations and important information about it's general functions and anatomy. Thank God that Ray listened on those lessons'

Without that important detail, I would have never pointed out the lack of circles in Roland's eyes. The Irisville's magic eyes has a particular trait that has consistently appeared through the generations, and that it always forms two circles within one's eyes, one large which is the outer and one in the inner part.

These two circles are also not simple designs but holds crucial functions in the magic eyes. The outer circle usually holds the main ability while the inner circle holds the auxiliary power. Our magic eyes are special in that way since it comes with a pair of abilities like Roland's Eyes of Truth.

The problem is that his eyes are not complete, he lost the auxiliary power to burn people to ashes so at that time, he could only uncover lies and I was not in any danger of being burned if such lies were detected.

It was also why Roland had hidden it by using a polymorphic item that mimics and conceals things by adjusting to the users wants. It's an example of the absurd things one could find in the labyrinth although it couldn't hide his eyes from me.

I pondered in thought as I opened my Vrace, my bracelet, and looked in the notes about the future events in the story which I had written while I was waiting to move out. It included the story arc that tackled Roland's magic eyes which occurs right after Ray's death.

'..If I remember correctly, in my older cousin's route, it was explained that he lost it in an expedition accompanied by his little brother, my father, years ago. They only found out due to one of the heroines ability to decipher lingering thoughts on objects and that object was specifically my goggles'

"I wasn't even sure if what I said is the truth that my father left a message for me but in the story, the thoughts literally addressed Ray as the receiver of those thoughts so technically I wasn't lying" I mumbled as I read further.

Roland wasn't aware at that time that 'someone' took his eyes and my father had witnessed it all. The reason he didn't tell Roland right away because he himself wasn't a hundred percent sure at the time of the incident and it didn't help that during that time he had a bad relationship with his brother and had already planned to leave the Irisville to be with my mother.

It wasn't until years later that Roland figured out that my father had probably an idea where to find his missing eyes and unfortunately for my uncle, his brother had already left the household. It was also the reason that he looked all over Durevellis that he eventually stumbled upon the abandoned Ray as he was left behind by his missing father and was seen taking care of his already passed away mother.

He then took little Ray in as a member of the Irisville's and the only reason he did that was because he was still hoping that Ray's father would return if he caught news as big as Ray becoming a new member of a famous household name.

Roland also took into account that maybe his brother was in the labyrinth that's why he had no qualms in letting Ray become a delver even if he couldn't care less about his nephew at all.

".....You've also had it rough huh...., Ray" I looked up at the white ceiling in a daze. I sighed as I read further.

The general synopsis on my elder cousin's route is basically finding the possessor and preventing anyone from getting the eyes and that includes Roland. One important detail on finding the eyes was where a loophole was created when I made a deal with my uncle.

The fact that I'm the only one that could find the eyes is not the whole truth but also it essentially is the case because the protagonist and co. used the already dead Ray's eyes when they went to find Roland's missing eyes and that was only possible by using a skill that hasn't been created yet in the current timeline.

Moreover they needed to destroy those eyes because once they deciphered the message they knew they had to find it because it would have caused-

" An overflow....uncle I'm sorry in advance but your eyes need to go~" I mumbled as I closed my Vrace.