A Frightening Little Dagger

Kyren entered the Guild Leader's office directly after using Teleportation and was surprised to find both Maya and Fabian in a heated discussion.

It's been quite a while since he left but both of them were enthusiastically talking about Krista's secrets and embarrassing childhood memories, making him feel slightly sympathetic towards her.

Knowing Maya, she would never let this priceless information go to waste. This was the best material possible for her to do all sorts of things to Krista.

He didn't even need to hide his presence as he approached because they were so into it. As if to confirm a suspicion of his, Maya was taking detailed note of every piece of verbal gold that Fabian repeated, showing no mercy towards poor Krista as she wrote down swiftly.

"I see that you're having a good time."

"Gah!! Oh, it's just you. Don't be mean and sneak up on me like that, jeez."

"I should say the same to you. Don't go overboard with that list of yours, otherwise..."

"Yeah, yeah, I'll keep the teasing to a minimum... at most."

Maya ripped off the multiple pages of notes from the notepad and handed it back to Fabian. She quickly stashed her precious notes into her Dimensional Storage and stood up, preparing herself to leave.

Kyren made a few requests to Fabian concerning the future before they bid farewell. They promised to come back another time as they left the guildhall.

As they left, Maya noticed a massive commotion across the street at some establishment, but Kyren told her that it was nothing to worry about.

.....

The two leisurely walked down a rather spacious but still densely populated street. At some point, they ditched their hoods and their eye-catching appearances were exposed.

"So where are we going first?" Maya was a little excited to hear his plans after he kept his lips sealed for so long.

"We still have some time, so shall we go shopping? I heard somewhere that the merchants and shops were pulling out their more expensive and rare items because so many powerful people are roaming the city. We might find some good stuff."

"Ho, I like that idea~" She leaned in closer to him and pressed against his arm, taking his hand and grinning with contentment.

She was a sucker for fancy and valuable stuff.

.....

They definitely had a great time splurging on everything that caught their eye, with her making the bulk of the purchases while he was more of an escort.

For someone who's lived a majority of his life on the verge of poverty, just barely relying on his life savings which he was building for years, it all felt like a refreshing dream to give in to his inner desires.

Even when he spent heart-wrenching amounts on spreading his influence throughout the Empire, he still had plenty of platinum left to spare. Initially, he had close to six or seven thousand platinum, which by the system's standards, was almost on par with royalty. Unlike royalty, who needed to use that money to manage an entire country, he had all that cash to himself.

He did go through a large amount of it purchasing properties and land all over, and he also now needed to pay maintenance for his newfound assets, but he still had more than a few thousand left. Once he started harvesting income from the Empire's nobility, that would no longer be a problem, and then he could start doing boring business stuff like investing and making more connections, slowly taking over the country from the inside out. He needed to get to the point where money could never be a concern for him to start moving on to the bigger stuff.

He was happy to have enjoyable moments like these, even if it was a game. After all, he knew that the path he was going down would lead to a difficult and rough future.

Both of them were passing through an area where merchant stalls were set up. A vast array of unique items covered the endless sea of tables as the bargaining and negotiating mob created a bearable din. The stalls near them were more focused on trinkets and rare materials so Maya was extra interested. While she glanced from side to side with sparkling eyes, a familiar voice came from behind...

"Uncle Purple?!"

"Hmm—? Oomph!" Kyren turned around and was quickly tackled in the stomach by a small figure, making him grunt in surprise.

"Sweetheart!! Where did you run off to?!" Serena's Mother weaved through the boisterous crowd and locked eyes with her troublesome daughter. Shock and embarrassment appeared in her expression when she saw her daughter tackle someone and she tried even harder to make her way through the crowd. "What are you do- Oh, it's just you Lord Kyren... and Lady Maya also."

"Ah, you can just call me Kyren, Mrs. Harriet." He stroked the top of Serena's head as she gave him her famous bear hug and nestled her nose deep into his stomach.

He didn't interact much with Darien's wife, but he respected her greatly. Although their personalities were vastly different, she kind of reminded him of his own mother. It might've been that they had similar demeanors or their scolding tones were the same, but it could also be that they were both extraordinarily devoted individuals.

After Darien got on the bad side of the church, she never got cold feet and stayed with him every step of the way. Serena wasn't even born then so nothing was tying her to him other than her feelings, yet she was ready to stay with him to the end. Darien was always proud when it came to her so he heard this story more than once. His mother was quite similar in this respect, but worlds scarier.

"How could I do that? Your technically my husband's boss and our family's savior, so it would be too disrespectful to address you with any lesser title."

"....." Another similarity between his mother and her was this weird inability to rebuke whatever she said. He knew all too well how an argument with her would fair so he backed off.

She kneeled to Serena's level and began lecturing her for abruptly running away. Because the event made the streets more dangerous and overpopulated, she's been more strict about Serena staying with her.

Apparently, they were originally far away from where Kyren currently was. They were in the food and produce section, so when she suddenly darted away into the sea of people with little warning, she had a heart attack.

There were also many influential people of noble birth within the city so if she accidentally bumped into one and they weren't forgiving, things wouldn't end well. It might've sounded cliche but that was a genuine concern for the low class.

It was strange that she managed to pinpoint Kyren's location so easily without being able to see over the heads of the crowd, so he decided to ask out of curiosity.

She reached down and retrieved her dagger from her sheath near her belt and presented it to him with a big smile. "Clareste showed me the way!"

"!?!" Kyren didn't remember seeing an ability like that when he appraised the mysterious dagger back then.

"Yeah, it just gave me a feeling that you were nearby and it showed me the way to you."

"It talked to you?!"

"No, it also didn't glow, vibrate, or give me any other signs. I just got this 'feeling', you know? Like... I can't really explain it." Serena frowned as she tried to recall the feeling.

Multiple flags went up in Kyren's head and he went on alert. His intuition told him that something was off about this dagger, big time. But now that he had an appraisal ability, he could see what was going on.

[Appraising the Horizon]

"Urk!!"

<Hum!?!?!>

A massive onslaught of countless tabs bombarded Kyren's mind when he appraised the dagger! He even got a headache after the immense flood of information invaded his mind and a massive chunk of his mental energy was burnt through just like that, forcing him to halt the appraisal process.

Even Leo was taken aback by such a reaction from the dagger. Typically, he would instantly process the information and then archive it in his memory, but this was too much for him to just process instantly!

Kyren managed to somehow control his external reaction to a mere grunt, most likely with the help of his recently acquired acting job.

All three girls looked at him with puzzled looks, but he reassured them that he was fine.

'What the hell was that?!'

<I-I don't know! I'm working on it right now.>

To stall for time and keep an eye on the dagger, he offered to accompany Serena for a bit.

Maya wasn't too stoked about sharing Kyren during their day together, but she adored Serena so she let it slide.

.....

They soon parted ways and they recontinued their date. Both of them also needed to be somewhere so they were now heading there directly.

Kyren couldn't get that dagger out of his head though. Leo confirmed that it wasn't of any danger to her so he unwillingly let Serena and Mrs. Harriet continue their errands.

That dagger had both of them stumped. Despite all those tabs of information, they were only able to find out a little. Most of the tabs that he managed to pull up during the duration of his short appraisal were blocking him from viewing them, saying "unable to appraise".

Those tabs were all related to the soul residing within the dagger, so he didn't know much about it except for a few facts that weren't blocked.

The soul within originally belonged to the owner of the creature core it was mostly made up of. This creature was called a Grand Gemstone Stag, and it was supposedly a massive stag made up of crystals and precious gems. It became active not too long ago for some reason and terrorized many countries right after the Void Armageddon.

The main problem about all of this was that the creature was a mere monster-ranked while he was a mid-grade behemoth. He shouldn't have this much trouble appraising it!

There was one other tidbit that he had access to. This creature was the devout servant of someone or something that went by the name of Crystal Dynamo. There was more to the name, a lot more, but it was also being blocked.

Whoever this Crystal Dynamo was, it was far more powerful than him by a long shot.

The reason why there was so much info was due to how long the Grand Gemstone Stag has lived for, making the soul itself jam-packed with data.

Other than the soul, he had far better results with the dagger itself. There were indeed many hidden abilities that he wasn't able to see before, but some were still hidden despite his efforts. At least he knew they existed now.

The one Serena unconsciously used was called [Specified Radar], and it would passively search for targets that the dagger was presently looking for. It was set to identify those related to the void element, the draconic race, the crystal and energy element, and those related to that Dynamo character.

As for why the dagger was actively searching for them, it was yet another mystery for Kyren. It did say in the ability's description that the reason would be revealed when another secret ability was unlocked.

He also couldn't seem to identify the ability that allowed this dagger to harm him, even if it was just a little, meaning he was still not strong enough to fully appraise it.

This dagger was just too much...

.....

The sun was beginning to go down after such a long and overly eventful day, and the couple was heading to attend a special event that was being held at a large theater chain in the city, called The Chronicle Theaters. Kassio was a fortress city and entertainment wasn't their prime focus, so facilities such as these were more scarce.

The theater they were attending was the only one in the entire city. The only reason it was built was to entertain the nobility of the region, and because this theater chain was rather popular among those with an education, namely in history.

Because of the influx of important figures, the directors and upper management of the theater decided to hold a special event to grab as much attention as possible. How Kyren knew of this was mainly because of the annoying level of advertisement that was put out over the last few days.

They even got a few flyers when they entered the Noble District on their way, ruining Kyren's surprise for Maya.

Businesses were flourishing, unlike the general populace who struggled to go about their daily lives. Everyone was trying to piggyback off of this event to earn a massive profit. This made the business owners secretly thankful towards Genesis.

The special event was related to something about historical events concerning the old demigods. This play has been performed many times before so many people have already seen it, but recently, some adventurers unearthed some juicy knowledge and records on a particular human demigod from the well-known Reawakening Era. This was an important period that occurred millions of years ago.

This event gave the upper management a perfect opportunity to introduce this new information to the public.

This entire date so far has been centered around luxurious and expensive purchases or experiences because he knew Maya genuinely enjoyed it. He's known her for a while now and he was well aware of her arrogance and love for vanity, so he's planned the entire day on anything related to the high class and spending.

And it seemed like he was right on the mark by the cheery and satisfied expression she was making.

He was still concerned about the dagger, but there was nothing he could do about it right now, so he'd rather forget about it and focus on Maya.

"Are you enjoying yourself so far?"

They were both waiting in line to enter the massive theater. The line mainly consisted of high nobility along with a few more prominent true nobles. They were pretty far up so they were close to getting in.

Typically, no business would make so many nobles wait in line for so long, risking offending or angering them, but this event was extra special so they had to be strict about the entry.

Kyren didn't change his style of clothing much, but upon Maya's request to dress up, he put on something that had the same simple style but a little fancier. Although his previous clothes were quite high-class, they were more passive so one would need to get close to notice the details.

Maya on the other hand donned an amazing dress that looked like a special designer's piece, with a dark sea blue and innocent white theme. A gorgeous set of earrings and a necklace, which weren't specifically meant to be paired with the dress, went almost perfectly with the style.

They both recently bought this stuff when they were out shopping so Maya couldn't help but use it for this fancy event.

They perfectly fit in with the other nobles, even outshining most.

"That's a given! I've loved all of today, dar~ling! Even when you ditched me with the Guild Leader! I had a great time chatting."

She seemed to emphasize the "ditched" part and he raised an eyebrow while observing her. He then proceeded to slowly take off his mask and suspend it in the air with a little gravity magic so it didn't get in the way.

Maya noticed his silence and the rustling of his clothes. When she turned around to see what was wrong, she felt his lips connect with hers in a deep kiss.

Surprised by this, she nearly stumbled backward but his arm wrapped around her waist and pulled her in closer. Her muscles relaxed and she sank deeper into his warmth.

When they separated a few moments later, her mind was a mess. Her brain couldn't process anything anymore and if he wasn't still holding onto her, she wasn't confident in maintaining her balance.

"I'll make sure to make it up to you~ The night is still young after all." Kyren, not being your typical boyfriend or lover, chose this route of making it up to her. He had very little shame when it came to things like this... in fact, he had very little shame at all.

"R-Right, I'll hold you to that..." She barely said the first thing that came to mind while somehow avoiding stuttering too much.

*Clapping* *Whistling*

An audience of the nobility who were entertained by their public display couldn't help but applaud, fully amused by the scene they created. Some said "encore" while others whistled. It was obvious that these nobles were way different than normal people, who would've typically responded with "get a room". Maybe it was because of their expensive clothing that they acted this way? Or was this the doing of their charisma?

Maya's cheeks got even brighter compared to before and she quickly regained her composure. He grinned at her reaction and grabbed his mask, immediately putting it back on.

He lost a few seconds of his skill duration with his mask off and all these expensive clothes and jewelry around him, but it was of no consequence. He's learned that his twelve-minute timer was more like a battery.

Leo told him that for every ten seconds he had the mask on or couldn't smell anything of value, so basically when his curse wasn't active, one second would be recharged to his skill duration until it reached a maximum of twelve minutes. This was much more convenient than having to wait a whole two hours of cooldown every time the skill activated and he didn't use the full twelve minutes.

"I honestly enjoyed today very much, and I had a great time with Mr. Fabian. S-So there was no need to embarrass me in public you shameless lizard! You better not go back on what you said!" She was looking forward, not daring to make eye contact with him or look at the people who applauded.

"Naturally..." He gave her a crooked smile when he heard her words. 'Shameless lizard? Is she getting her vocabulary from Krista now? I know I'm technically a reptile, but still...'

They soon made it to the front and he presented his reservation along with a generous tip.

A couple of days ago, he was floating above the city in his Draconic Animate suit when he decided to spend the next couple of days with Maya. So he asked Leo to search for spots that would be popular with her while he accompanied her.

This play was near the top of the list so he investigated it whenever he had a spare moment. It wasn't at all hard to get a reservation after flaunting the wealth of a high noble so he immediately got the best seats in the house since he discovered earlier than everyone else.

An escort was soon brought to them and Maya took his arm, "Shall we darling~?"