Chapter 6

Liam stood in a private room prepared by the staff of the palace at Esdeath's behest, bloodied gloves covering his hand.

On a table in front of him laid the body of a recently deceased man, delicately cut open to expose his innards to whoever would look.

Some of the limbs seemed ill fitting on the body on which they were attached to. The hands had a different tone than the rest of the body as did the feet.

He'd been experimenting with his healing ability. While he couldn't bring someone back from the dead, that didn't mean that his healing didn't work on their corpses.

He'd amputated the wrists of two separate bodies, switching them and healing them to the different bodies.

As far as he could tell, it was attached properly as if it belonged. Were it not for the tone differences, he wouldn't be able to tell that the hands came from the wrong corpses. It also helped that the two corpses were of roughly the same size.

He'd further dissected it to widen his knowledge on human anatomy. There was only so much that could be learnt by reading, spurring him to take a practical approach.

On the left pectoral of the dead man was a symbol which seemed to have been carved onto the skin.

He'd soon learnt that runes could be drawn on any surface with almost any kind of material, it was just a matter of whether it was permanent or not.

With the man dead, Liam saw no need to be gentle and simply carved the body with a sharpened claw.

'Let's see if this works.' He thought, muttering something in a language foreign to this world.

A few seconds later, the rune glowed a green color as the dissected flesh began mending itself and closing up.

He watched intently as the healing slowed before finally stopping, right before it finished closing up the flesh.

'The amount of healing it provides is dependent on how much healing magic I store in it beforehand.' He noted with a nod.

The rune wasn't all that special in his opinion, being a simple storage rune that he fed healing magic into to be stored and called upon later to spread through the body.

'But how long would the rune last? Does the healing ability deteriorate overtime?' He wondered, the opening of the door behind him pulling him out of his thoughts.

He barely reacted, raising a brow as he looked over his shoulder. "What is it?" He asked the staff that took a step inside. "I specifically asked not to be disturbed."

"I-I'm sorry sir." The woman said, her voice a bit shaky.

Liam's piercing eyes had that effect on weak willed individuals. The fact that he was engaged to Esdeath of all people out added to the fear factor.

"So what is it?" He questioned.

"Minister Honest wishes to see you in the dining hall." She said, causing his eyes to narrow.

'The pig…' Liam thought, carefully taking off his gloves and avoiding getting his hands stained.

•••

Liam barely put in effort to look presentable, dressed in simple but neat clothes as he made his way into the dinning hall where the minister sat at the table with an impatient look on his face.

Upon laying sight on Liam, the man barely managed to hide his irritation which was immediately caught by Liam.

"You wanted to see me?" Liam questioned, taking a seat opposite the man.

A decision he regretted the next second as the stench of sweat and grime from the man, his sensitive nose catching it all. Even the overpowering scent of meat on the table barely helped.

"Yes I did. How are you adjusting to the capital so far?" Honest asked as he started devouring a piece of meat from his plate.

Liam hummed for a moment before answering. "It's…decent but definitely not perfect." He said, calmly cutting a piece of steak with the given cutlery in front of him.

"In what way do you mean?" Honest asked.

"I personally don't care for what you do but the incompetence of your soldiers is appalling as is your hierarchy." Liam said, taking a bite, savoring the taste.

He had poison resistance so he wasn't afraid in the slightest about being poisoned. Not that Honest could attempt that and not fear retaliation from a certain ice general.

"Among other things, that is one of the things I've called you here for today." Honest said, gaining a raised brow from Liam. "Your relationship with Esdeath, It won't be long before it becomes public knowledge."

"From what she says, you are a capable fighter but that is beside the point. You have a certain influence on her behavior."

As Liam listened, he could already see where the conversation was headed. "You're beating around the bush. Why don't you tell me what this is really about?"

All forms of pretense left the room as Honest's lips formed a frown, Liam on the other hand was now staring straight at the man.

"Your relationship with Esdeath is inconvenient at best. She listens to you and that can be bad for me so I'm offering you a deal." Honest proposed, nasty smile on his face.

"And that is?" Liam asked curiously.

"Keep her in line and cooperative. Do that and you can have whatever it is you want." The fat man said, his greed overflowing at the moment.

"So you expect me to manipulate my wife to be?" Liam asked to clarify, judgement or disgust missing in his tone.

Seeing that, Honest continued. "If that is how you want to frame it, then yes." He affirmed. "Do we have an agreement?"

Liam was silent for a moment, his eyes boring into Honest, sending a shiver up his spine.

"No. No we do not." Liam finally said. "I think that either way, you're going to give me what I want."

The change in tune took Honest by surprise, causing a frown to grow on his lips. "Huh? What do you think you're talking about?" He asked confidently.

"The fact that you're in no position to be making such deals.Your only choice is to broker a deal with me but there's nothing that stops me from informing her about this." Liam said, a smirk surfacing as Honest frowned. "You can't kill me either because you know that no matter how Esdeath reacts, it won't be in your favor."

"Be careful what you're saying brat. Your death would barely hinder me. I was only being considerate but you're spitting on my generosity." Honest said, now openly sneering.

Liam chuckled. "Killing me will be no easy task either." He said, his voice coming from behind Honest.

The minister's eyes widened as he realized that Liam was no longer seated in front of him. He felt something sharp touching the back of his neck, causing to silently shriek in fear.

Liam stood behind him, his lengthened and sharpened nail ready to tear the man's head off.

"I am not a little boy who can be cowed by petty threats and bluffs. It would be laughably easy to kill you right now." Liam said, digging his finger just slightly deeper and drawing a thin line of blood that had Honest shaking in his chair.

"You wouldn't! You'd be branded a traitor! A criminal! You'd be dead before you set foot out of the palace." Honest threatened, still shaking.

"Do you really want to test that theory? As greedy as you are, you're also a coward who fears death." Liam reminded, drawing more blood as he spoke.

"W-what do you want?" The fat man finally asked in surrender.

"You're free to continue doing as you have so far but my word is law and my requests are your command. Don't forget that." Liam said, getting a shaky nod from him.

"I'll also be taking this." Before the minister could say anything, Liam snatched a golden ring off his finger.

He watched Honest's face change to abject horror as Liam held the ring.

"Absolute Limitation: Erastone. This is quite the imperial arm to have." Liam said as he retracted his nails and began making his way to the exit.

"Let this be a warning, I don't give second chances. If you take a single step out of line, I'll kill you." Liam said, his eyes gaining a red glow in the dull lighting of the room as he glared at Honest.