1276 Pick One
'Is everything alright, Oob?' Varian shifted his eyes slightly.
'Isadora is furious for some reason. Sarah tried to pacify her but it only backfired. She's now beating up some crystal race.'
'They'll go extinct.'
'Sarah sealed her power to rank 1. But she advanced just a while ago. Master, the seal might not hold on for long.'
'Good grief.' Varian apologized to the crystal race for the violence they were about to face.
All that bastards knew was eating and sleeping. Heck, they sleep even in imperial meetings. Perhaps it was karma that Isadora picked them for a thrashing?
Varian trusted Isadora won't go too far.
"Varian! Oye! Varian!"
Varian looked at Baldur's sweating face. "Huh?"
"He asked us to meet!" Baldur took a deep breath and patted his chest. But his breathing wasn't getting any better.
Varian quickly guessed. "Your brother-in-law?"
"Yes."
The fortress was way more powerful than Varian expected. Its defense functions were hard to breach without some heavy pre-planning. Even then, it might need the help of an insider.
'Don't look away like that.' Baldur pushed his shoulder and whispered in a breaking tone. 'That's just a fucking garden!'
Varian wanted to kick him but since he was acting as a mere lord graced by Prince Baldur, he nodded with a meek expression.
Since Rudolph's envoy Finar was at work, it was the maid who received them. She glanced at Baldur with visible disdain and she didn't even give a glance at Varian.
As she led them elegantly down the hallways and up the stairs to the meeting room, her aura on them grew stronger and stronger.
It was a little taxing to walk at first but in the end. They were sweating and panting.
But once they reached that door, Baldur was crawling. Varian didn't want to crawl, so he when he couldn't walk normally anymore, he conveniently passed out.
The maid shook her head in disappointment as if he was even weaker than the trash she expected him to be.
But Baldur managed to crawl all the way and collapsed, his hand stretched out and his index finger touching the door.
The door opened slowly.
Very diplomatically, the maid removed her aura pressure. A soothing energy entered Baldur and relieved him of his fatigue.
Raising his head, Baldur looked at his brother-in-law, Prince Rudolph, staring at him with an amicable smile.
"Now, now, Baldur. Why are you on the ground? Get up. Let's have some tea."
After clearly humiliating him and establishing the power dynamic, Rudolph once again turned into a friendly brother-in-law.
Baldur knew what it was.
A demonstration and a warning.
His fiasco with Miss Calamity was seen as a betrayal. But Rudolph also saw it as amusement.
So, he showed Baldur his 'place'.
Even if you got the merit, you're just a weakling that even my maid can trample.
Those words were never spoken but they rang loud and clear in his head.
You are nothing.
Baldur flinched as he got up, his knees were bleeding and the sudden movement tore apart the wound even further.
"Oops, Young Master Baldur. Please take care of yourself." The maid spoke in a gentle voice but didn't even try to help him up.
Cursing his fate inwardly, Baldur grabbed the door handle and slowly got onto his feet.
As he entered the room, the maid wanted to close the door when a certain someone realized he was being completely ignored.
'The fuck!'
Varian began to snore loudly and spread his arms on the floor as if he was sleeping on fresh grass.
Rudolph's brows furrowed but he quickly returned to his usual calm and dignified expression. "Daphne, please entertain that gentleman. We are the guests of his little tribe after all."
The maid nodded and walked to the unconscious Varian. She raised her leg and was about to kick him when Varian screamed and thrashed on the ground.
"Bitch! Bitch! Get away! Don't lay a finger on my body!"
Since her aura on him was also removed, he struggled violently on the ground, punching, and kicking and he also started jumping.
'What the hell is this?' Daphne wanted to slap him to death. But like the Prince said, priorities.
The mission was first. Everything else could come later. Besides, killing him now could become a political weapon for the other two to attack her Prince.
With a flick of her finger, Varian's injuries and fatigue were gone. Rubbing his eyes, he yawned, snapped his fingers, and slowly got up.
Then, he showed confusion. "Where am I—oooh, miss maid, I apologize, really."
Daphne's chest heaved up and down at his 'uncivilized' actions. But she showed no anger on her expressionless face and led him to a smaller room. "Please."
After they got seated, she got to the topic without any pleasantries. "The gate will be constructed and the Prince, along with the two, will leave in twenty hours."
"I see."
"Before that, the Prince has to relax."
Varian raised a brow. "If you want to taste the delicacies of my race, then our best che—"
"He likes married women."
Varian's smile vanished.
"And I heard you are married."
Varian tried to control his killing intent but it leaked out and struck Daphne right in the face. But it quickly retracted itself.
Daphne was taken aback for a moment but she thought she was overimagining it. 'There's no way.'
But she no longer looked at him with indifference. She took out two things from her storage ring.
A pill with a sweet fragrance.
"This can keep you alive for a thousand years."
A small dagger.
"This dagger is enough for me to kill you and everyone in your race."
Daphne stared straight into Varian's eyes. "Choose."
Varian wanted to control the surging killing intent in his heart and give off a proper answer. But he couldn't.
'I still have to control my fucking anger!'
Fury filled his heart and set him ablaze.
Varian, however, didn't lash out or yell. He took out two things from his storage ring.
A blank paper and a pen.
He quickly wrote a statement in lingua franca and turned it to Daphne. "This is the most famous, high-class whore you can get for money. Pay her and get her services."
A sword.
"This sword is better than that dagger. Take it and kill every last one of the forty billion lives."
Varian stared right back into her angry eyes and smiled. A gentle, hospitable smile. "If I have to sell my wives for survival, then fuck off that survival. I'll just go to my lady death with my family."
Boom!
An overwhelming aura enveloped Varian. It cracked his skin open, tore his muscles, and began to break down his bones.
In just a blink, he turned into a bloody mess on the verge of death.
"Do you really think you can get away with this?" Daphne's voice rang.
Her rank 7 aura was genuinely oppressive. Even if Varian tried his best, he wouldn't be able to beat her, yet.
Coughing out blood without breaking eye contact, Varian answered. "The question you should be asking…can you get away with a scandal like this?"
Daphne's senses expanded and scanned Varian for a moment before they glowed in anger.
Crack!
Crack!
Crack!
Three separate devices, all doing surveillance, exploded.
It was her negligence. But even in her wildest dreams, she never imagined someone to be so bold! Much less someone from this uncivilized place!
That's why she didn't bother to check and it backfired on her big time!
"Delete everything now or you'll die!"
The pressure on him increased threefold and Varian's body began to implode, bit by bit. Like a sandcastle faced with the waves, he began to dissolve.
"Haah…Ah…Ahahahaha!" Even as his face began to disintegrate, Varian let out a mad laughter.
Daphne took a step back instinctually, a fear she should not have creeping up her spine.
Looking into his mad eyes, she realized it. Even if she killed every soul in his race, he wouldn't budge.
This son of a…
"Nothing happened in this room." Daphne withdrew her aura and threw a glass bottle at him.
It smashed his head, cracked open and the healing liquid inside smeared down him. In seconds, all his injuries healed and he was back to full health.
Varian didn't say a word and walked out.
"If anything leaks, everyone will die," She said.
Varian didn't give a response and simply walked away.
For some reason, Daphne shuddered. It was an irrational thought, but a part of her mind said that she should've killed him right then.
It told her from the fear that came from a place she didn't know existed, that by letting him go now, she was inviting a disaster.
A disaster that even her prince wouldn't be able to stop.
