Chapter 64 — In which they have plans (3)
“Child.”
“Grandmaster Pomegra, I asked you many times to not refer to me that way. Please call me Scarlen. I know your old mind may be falling you in memory of proper manners, but at least my name should be easy enough, yes?”
“’Your name’, huh?”
She chuckled, but didn’t follow up on that.
Scarlen was seeing grandmasters out, and Pomegra stopped at the doorsteps, clearly having something to say.
Though, Scarlen had a guess what she was about to say.
“Your mother would be greatly disappointed if she saw you now. You were almost at your knees for that brat there.”
“I’d gladly be on my knees for him, but My Lord Archmage is too kind. He keeps picking me up.”
“So you plan to lick his fingers? Even when they go dry and rotten?”
“Happily.”
She looked at him with something of an… expression that a concerned mother might make.
“Chi— Scarlen.”
She sighed.
“If you continue to follow that brat, you may face a truly miserable end. He is already taking bold steps, which he won’t be able to face consequences of. And when the end comes, you won’t be able to use the power of the clan behind you. Remember, you may look strong now, but it’s only because your mother is kind enough to allow you to play a leader. If you displease her, she can take everything back.”
“Believe me, grandmaster Pomegra, I understand my situation very well.”
“If you understand the situation, you should be taking steps to save yourself.”
“Understanding a situation and having a survival instinct aren’t the same thing, ma’am.”
He smiled, but his eyes weren’t smiling.
“Besides. It seems that grandmaster Pomegra is the one who is misunderstanding the situation here. My mother was never ‘kind’ to me. She allows me to lead the clan, because it’ll be funnier if I try to fly using them and hit the ground hard, when I fall. Playing with somebody hopes and dreams wasn’t the definition of ‘kind’ the last time I checked the dictionary. And, grandmaster Pomegra. I’m not the one who gave up half of their fortune to monopolize the spell, I can’t even use for what I wanted. Neither am I the one who had to make an unfavorable deal.”
He took a step back and bowed as if saying goodbyes.
“Who is truly the one who is heading towards miserable end, huh?”
She didn’t respond to his mockery.
She just turned around and said:
“Seems like you truly don’t have an instinct of self-preservation…”
He couldn’t see her face when she said that.
He could only see strands of hair, which escaped from her twisted bun, flap in the wind, as she quickly took off.
Scarlen grimaced and just stood silent for a moment.
He might not have a self-preservation instinct, but he had a strong will to protect somebody else.
Against all odds and reason, he had a haunting feeling that Crimo’s life was in danger.
‘But My Dear Lord is strong… terribly so… What kind of danger could be so fatal…’
Scarlen hid his thoughts and turned around, about to return to Crimo’s side, when something caught his eye.
There was a small honey-guide bird perched on a branch not far away from him.
The bird tilted its red head as it looked at Scarlen, as if asking ‘What are you looking at?’.
Normally Scarlen would pass it by, but his tense nerves and high spiritual perception made him take a double-look at the bird.
There was something like a red fog, or maybe a smoke, covering birds eyes.
Someone was looking at him.
And Scarlen looked back.
Three seconds later, the bird ‘shrugged’ and then flew off as if nothing had happened.
Scarlen observed as it disappeared between the trees of the archmage’s manor and mumbled:
“Well, you’re indeed worthy to be his younger brother…”
*-*-*
*He is reducing his sleep again...*
*It’s 30% drop in sleep hours compared to the previous week.*
*I can’t do math. How bad is 30% drop?*
*So imagine you have a half of an apple.*
*Okay…?*
*Now you don’t have even a half of an apple.*
*… … … NO! You stole my apple?! Give it back!*
Amara strolled the inner garden of the Universe Temple late in the evening.
The sun completely set.
But Amara’s mind wasn’t at peace.
‘How do I do that…’
Today a message came from Perlliar and Cotteo, the two priest of the Temple of Dead and Forgotten Gods, who informed him about the next ‘batch of meat’ to be delivered.
In fact, that message was sent in the form of a giant snake and freaked out quite a few attendants and completely enchanted Phlox.
But that wasn’t a problem.
‘No matter how I do it, it will take longer than an hour.’
The problem was that Rasin was paying more and more attention to Amara, as if he noticed something.
That wasn’t a good sign.
Amara tried to appear as indifferent as possible, and made all kinds of plays with Phlox, showing how much she was failing to get to him on a daily basis.
‘Even if it’s risky, I have to go.’
At least for the first ‘show’, he needed to be there personally.
What more, even if he didn’t have to, there was no manpower yet to carry out Amara’s plan without him.
The stone he threw on the first day he woke up with his old memories was slowly making ripples, but it wasn’t yet its time.
But if Amara was gone, Rasin had a high chance of noticing.
It was already risky to be gone for an hour, but what about few hours?
While Amara was brainstorming for any idea, with chatter of gods as his background music.
“Older Brother Amara.”
He jumped.
A small head suddenly appeared before him and looked at him with his big eyes, saying strange things.
That was utterly terrifying.
“Ye-yes?”
What he should do?
How does he make small head go away?
No, why small head approached him in the first place?
Ah, does he have to speak to small head?
“Older Brother, you don’t have to worry about it.”
Oh, no. Amara was very worried about ‘it’ right now.
He wasn’t sure what it was, but it was very worth worrying about.
“I have a plan. So don’t worry and do your thing.”
And then the small head left as suddenly as he appeared.
Scary.
*~*~*
Author's note:
Thank you for reading <3 Have a wonderful sleep... This writer is surely going to have one ... now...
