Chapter 391: Steroids
Late Morning - Late Fall : The Cabinet | Bahamut
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- Krystallo Ragnarok ~
"Mooom! When's Brother going to be back?" Looking up at Mom while I laid on my back, I watched her sift through the wall of papers for a moment before sorting them into a stack and speaking.
"He'll be back soon, I promise."
She spoke calmly, but in her voice, I could tell she was worried about something and rolled over to give her a skeptical look.
But she just sighed. "Haah..."
It had been exactly two weeks since Brother left us at that point, leaving me with Mother to get more political lessons while he and sister Hera ran around investigating the cult.
The issue was, while Hera tasked Mother with keeping track of everyone suspicious and looking through new logs of other people to see if they were related, she hadn't made much progress in the investigation. "How tedious..." It had her quite stressed.
And I had a solution. "Why don't you let me work as bait? You know they're trying to influence young dragons, so aren't I the perfect-"
"Don't even think about it." Mother's tone turned firm and serious in an instant.
"But why? Just have Myles watch over me! Is he not the strongest dragon alive behind Hera and Brother? Who would oppose him?"
"Haah..." Stopping what she was doing, she turned her attention to me. "It's not a matter of strength, sweetie. Hera explicitly stated that Myles can't show his face until the Coming of Age Festival. We need the public to think he's in power until everything is ready. The only other person I could send to protect you right now is Leander, but..." She paused as a bit of bitterness snuck into her tone. "I can't trust him like I used to..."
"Ugh..." Pausing, I laid my head down. -I just want to do something fun...-
But as I laid there, I didn't give my mind even a moment's rest, burning to come up with something that'd get me out of The Cabinet.
But I didn't have many options. "Mom, can I visit Diaforoi?" After Brother investigated him two weeks prior, he had been under constant watch. -He seemed normal when we spoke.. so why did Brother say he still needed to be investigated...-
Mother was also suspicious of him even though she had never spoken with him. "Absolutely not." She didn't seem to care about my thoughts on it, and simply followed what Brother said. "You heard what Vasilias said about him."
"Yeah, he said I needed to keep my distance for now, but if people have been stationed to watch him, record his conversations, and even document his behavior, what's wrong with it? Do I really need a bodyguard with me?"
Looking at me, unamused, she spoke like Father. "Your brother, instead of dismissing the possibility of that young boy being involved, increased how much we were investigating him. He just said there were more important things for him and Hera to investigate right now so he left it to us." Turning back to her work, a stack of papers neatly stacked next to her exploded into the air. *Flutter* "Plus, we have actually gotten some.. interesting evidence from him over the last week."
-Huh?- Thinking she had to be joking, I gave her a somewhat annoyed look. "Evidence? Of what? Him playing in the dirt?"
"Of him being involved in the cult." *Flutter* Moving a paper over to me, she held it so close to my face that it forced me to read it.
It was documentation of about a dozen people frequently visiting his general area and following him around like guards or assassins.
"These people have also been investigated and are very likely close associates with the Holy Kingdom." Lowering the paper just enough for her eyes to peek over the paper, she spoke firmly. "Just because he may not seem involved to you, doesn't mean he isn't." Pulling back the paper, her expression was both caring and stern. "Your brother didn't mention this to you, but he said that boy spoke completely differently to you than he did anyone else. He had a few theories on what it could be, but what I believe is the most likely is that he's tricking you."
My expression instantly warped and darkened.
"He knows you are from an influential family. If he really is involved with the cult, him trying to curry your favor could be baiting you into a trap, or trying to curry our family's support-"
"HE WOULDN'T DO THAT!" Jumping up onto my feet, I gave her an angry glare before the faint warmth in her gaze vanished. -Ah...- Instantly lowering my head and tucking my tail, I averted my gaze.
But instead of getting scolded, she continued with a tone I wasn't familiar with. "Alright. Then how about I schedule a meeting between you two, and let you work as an interrogator of the Cabinet?" Her usual motherly tone was nowhere in her voice as she spoke. "I'll call him here, give you a list of questions to ask, and you can ask them and whatever else you want."
It.. actually didn't seem like such a bad offer. "And if I clear the air about him, can we go back to hanging out?"
With a gentle nod, she spoke firmly. "That's fine, but what if you are wrong?"
Pausing, I tried to think of something before looking her in the eyes. "I will do whatever you want me to without complaint."
Her smile instantly returned, but instead of being warm and motherly, something about it felt.. almost smug...
But unfortunately, I was too naive to notice. -Perfect!-
Feeling hopeful, my spirits were lifted. Although I knew her request wasn't going to be as simple as it sounded, I thought it was fair. -If you dig deep enough, you will find dirt... I just can't understand why anyone would choose him to be the target of their blame...-
Being an orphan with no backing, he was certainly an easy target, but I couldn't understand why. Originally, I thought it was just because Mother didn't like him, but as time passed, I found that it ran much deeper than that. -It's fine though... Once I clean his record, things can go back to the way they were...-
Unfortunately though.. while people were cruel, reality was always crueler.
And that was something I wasn't ready for.
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Early Afternoon - Late Fall : The Library of Eternity, Atlas | Bahamut
- Vasilias Ragnarok ~
"Beyond this point, you cannot create any disturbances in the air, be it through breathing or movement. Please mask your existence from the books with the magic we spoke about earlier. Next, you are to only read books with your aura, and the barrier between the shelves opening and the halls are to not be breached. I ask for understanding that many of these books are tens of thousands of years old, and do not have the proper strength to survive being touched, and the darker the bookshelf the older the books it has are, with the light-blue mythril shelves being the newest."
Listening to the library clerk give us an earful of rules as we sat at the entrance to the 3rd layer of the Library of Eternity, Hera and I listened closely in order to make sure we wouldn't damage anything while inside.
But for the most part, they all made sense. "Lastly, it is against the rules to move anything. Even though you two have more than enough security clearance and authority to take items from the first two layers, things in the third layer have a process that must take place before anything can be removed. If there is something you need to take out, you need to discuss it with us. Failure to do so will result in you being banned from the Library."
-Simple enough...- Looking up at the absolutely massive double door with a massive map of Bahamut carved into it, I felt a part of myself get a little nostalgic. -Is that what Bahamut used to look like?-
None of the cities I knew, like Atlas, Akri, and Nkremo were there, and were instead filled with other names I didn't recognize. -This must be a map from the beginning of Bahamut's reign...-
But while a part of my soul enjoyed the nostalgia for a moment, just a moment later, the map was split in half and the doors opened, letting a tsunami of mana wash out. WOOOOM
It was so intense it made my pupils thin and senses heighten, almost like I had plunged into an icy lake.
"Is this your first time feeling enriched mana?" Hera spoke with a slightly smug smile.
"Enriched mana?" It created a sensation I only ever felt from mana I made in the void. "What is it?"
Looking back through the doors, toward the wall of easily visible flowing blue mana, she looked proud. "It's technically an eighth attribute to mana, but it depends on what you would classify an attribute. You can think of it like extremely high-energy mana, a step above unattributed mana." Turning back to me with her smug smile, she continued. "Considering you have a little bit of it in your aura, I expected you to know about it."
-Huh?- My expression instantly warped with confusion before my eyes went wide. "Wait, is that what causes my aura to calm or stress people?"
She immediately nodded. "I'm not sure how you create it, but it's certainly in there."
-Interesting...- Finally standing up, we started walking through the doors and pushed ourselves through the barriers, but the enriched mana only got denser, and my senses only got sharper.
"Hoooh..." Letting out a breath as her whole body seemed to be steaming inside the mana, Hera glanced at me with a sharpness in her eyes that I had never seen. "~Doesn't it feel good?~"
Following her inside, my scales grew cold and my aura appeared to draw trails through the mana. It somehow felt even denser than liquid mana.
But at the same time, the chill it gave me was incredible. "~Oh my...~" "Hoooh..." Having to let out a long breath to keep a chill from passing down my spine, my vision and thoughts had never been clearer. "~How does ambient mana even do this...~"
"~Haha,~" letting out a muffled chuckle, Hera continued with a refreshed tone. "~You can't compare it to normal mana. Because our bodies live off mana, giving it enriched mana is like giving it thousands and thousands of growth-enhancing elixirs. It's like eating meat after knowing nothing but salad.~"
"~Woah...~" As she spoke, more memories from my time as Nott surfaced, this time bringing with it some information. "~Actually I think I do remember something about enriched mana... It was what let Dagr and I grow so massive... We found a way to produce it in ourselves after one of my reincarnations.~" With it, we grew to well over a kilometer tall long before we even arrived at Delphi.
It was like steroids for a body that lived off mana.
-I really need to figure out how I'm managing to produce it so I can boost that production...- With all the dangers looming over the horizon, I needed everything I could get my hands on to grow stronger. "~But.. I can't remember how we made it...~" Digging through memories at a speed I didn't know I had, I tried to scrounge up some details with no luck.
"~Well, if you do ever figure it out let me know.~" Turning away, Hera's smile seemed to widen. "~But in the meantime I'm happy just taking a bit of yours.~"
Following her inside, my smile slowly returned, and a happy sway found its way into my tail. "~That's fine with me.~"
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