Chapter 26 - The One Who Watches Secretly

It was a rainless summer afternoon that day, eight year old Arthur was practicing his swordsmanship with Creuserey as usual. His uncle was a magic swordsman, a swordsman with both magic and sword skills. He wanted to learn to use magic but strangely enough despite possessing a large reserve of magic energy, he had difficulty being able to manipulate it.

His parents said it was because he had not yet had his magic blooming, an event where a young ten year old devil awakens their energies and becomes able to manipulate them freely. Although they can still use their energies before the age of ten, they would only be able to use barely one-tenth of what they truly have.

Even if he could not manipulate his energies, he could use artifacts just fine.

Artifacts were made in a way that even if the wielder cannot use their energies, as far as they have the required amount they can use an artifact. The reason is that most artifacts are ones that absorb the energies of the wielder and can be activated without the wielder having to consciously pass energy into them.

Arthur not only had more magic energy than others his age, he also possessed an equally large amount of divinity. This was a secret as not anyone could sense this, only his father and grandfather were able to tell he possessed divinity.

He focused more on getting familiar with various magic artifacts, swords, spears, guns, daggers etc. He was proficient in various weapons and had the energy to use various artifacts, offensive or defensive.

Arthur's training with Creuserey was not just swordsmanship, he was teaching Arthur how to fight in general. Cattleya wanted to be the one to teach him but Diablo stopped her saying,

"Men understand men better, Creuserey would be a better teacher."

Although she did not like it, she had to admit that Arthur's skills had improved greatly in just the one year that Creuserey had been teaching him. Staring at the two of them who were about to spar she sighed and rose her hand.

"Begin."

Just as Cattleya shouted out begin, Arthur's body dashed forward in an instant. Pivoting on his foot, he slashed his wooden sword towards Creuserey, who dodged and retaliated.

Raising his hand, Arthur was about to block the blade when he felt a chill down his spine. Raising his spare dagger behind him, he barely managed to block Creusery's attack as his initial figure was gone from in front of Arthur.

"Nice instincts." Creuserey praised.

Pushing his arm up, he forced Arthur's arm into an uncomfortable position before poking his back with the wooden sword.

"First point, Creuserey!"

"Thank you for your praise." Arthur smiled and readied himself once more. This time he picked up an artifact sword while Creuserey just filled his wooden sword with mana to prevent it from breaking.

Stomping against the ground, Arthur dashed towards Creuserey and used a footwork technique to close the gap. He then activated the lightning feature of the artifact and slashed at him.

Seeing this, Creuserey had an impressed look in his eyes as Arthur's execution of the footwork technique was excellent. Smiling softly, he responded with his own move.

Just as their swords collided, Arthur was surprised to see all of his initial force and momentum dissipate into the surroundings as Creusery's sword travelled up his blade and towards his guard.

Quickly breaking contact, he made some distance between them once more.

'Looks like I can't win with just a sword artifact, in that case I'd just use more.'

"What's wrong boy? I thought you were feeling confident earlier." Creuserey said with a smile.

"Tch...do you find it fun trolling me every time?" Arthur shot back but he was looking for a chance to attack him.

"You know you're the one begging for it, with your actions that is." Creuserey laughed. He kept on taunting Arthur with various insults in an attempt to make him loose his cool.

"You, don't regret it." Arthur narrowed his eyes then spoke. "Blink!"

Activating the short distance teleportation artifact he had, he immediately closed the gap between them as several lightning bolts shot out of his sword.

Smiling softly, Creuserey lashed out with his sword and enhanced it with an unknown skill, cutting down the bolts in an instant.

"This is what I mean I say you rely on artifacts too much, your actual strength decreases." Creuserey lectured as he was already in front of Arthur.

"As far as I'm concerned, the artifacts I use are part of my strength." Arthur grinned.

Chains suddenly burst out from the ground as he activated the mana draining bracelet on his left hand, it brought out chains and drained the mana of whoever he locked on, which prevented them from using mana to enhance their bodies. It was only single target though and didn't last long but Arthur felt it was enough.

"Hou~ But it'll take more than that to hinder me you know?" Creuserey grinned, feeling excited slightly as Arthur was not losing his cool due to the derogatory remarks he threw out.

Taking a deep breath, Creuserey stepped towards him. The mana draining chains were broken apart easily. Before Arthur could react, he was disarmed in an instant, causing his sword artifact to be launched across the room.

Reaching out for Arthur, Creuserey lifted him up onto his shoulder and grinned.

"I suppose it's my victory."

Seeing himself being placed on his shoulder like a child, Arthur could not help but squirm in embarrassment trying to get down but Creusery's grip was too strong and he was unable to break free. That is, until Cattleya punched him in the back of the head.

"Ow.. What was that for?" Creuserey was confused at his sister's unnecessary domestic violence.

"You're teasing him too much." Cattleya replied as she picked Arthur up.

"He's eight years old you know? When are you going to stop treating him as if he's five years younger than that. I don't think Lady Inglis did this to you when you were his age."

Before Cattleya could reply, Arthur jumped out of her arms and landed on the floor.

"I'm gonna take a shower and go out to the castle town." He said as he ran out of the room.

"Take guards wi-, what's wrong?" She was about to tell him to take guards with him but stopped when she noticed him staring at the sky strangely.

"I felt someone watching me." Arthur replied, seeming unsure about what he sensed. Creuserey just laughed it off saying,

"You're just feeling oversensitive from our spar."

Cattleya also agreed with this. After warning him not to stray too far from the guards, she let him go play outside, with his friend out in the capital city.

However, if Cattleya and Creuserey had bothered to check, then they would have realized that Arthur was not just being oversensitive. Far up in the sky, on a passing spacecraft, a tall figure was seen staring down on the capital world of the Hell universe.

She was a woman with light blue hair reaching up to her waist. She gazed at Arthur with her monolid blue eyes that fit perfectly on her beautiful face.

"Oh wow, I just did it on a whim but I didn't think he'd notice. Still he's quite handsome for his age though." She said to herself as she deactivated her Clairvoyance.

"I know right."

Another voice replied as the first woman shot the intruder an annoyed look. The intruder was also a woman, one with black hair and eyes. She was also quite tall and she dressed in a way that showed off her long legs.

"Don't you Supremes have better things to do?" She asked with a sigh. A question to which the black haired woman replied.

"Of course we do, I'm mostly free because I'm special."

"More like jobless...."

"I'm not jobless okay? I have a job you know. I'm even working right now."

"Yeah I do. I definitely do"

"Of course you do, after all watching you Alexia, is my job."

"Yeah.. I said I knew. I know how hard working you are too."

The Blue haired woman, Alexia replied sarcastically and walked over to the small drink bar nearby, pouring two glasses of drinks she offered one to her uninvited guest and sat down.

"Ohh, so you finally acknowledge me as your drinking companion huh?" Looking down at the world below the black haired woman continued, "Still, when are you going to stop stalking him like this and actually go talk to him?"

Alexia almost choked on her drink when she heard the that question, shooting her drinking companion an annoyed look she replied,

"I'm not stalking him, it's just that they're too protective, I want them to let down their guards a little bit, so I'm waiting. I also don't want to get noticed by 'that guy'."

At her reply, the black haired woman laughed and said,

"A little too late for that, he's already noticed you, it'd be weirder if he didn't, this is his territory after all, someone as strong as you entering here without bothering to hide your aura would definitely catch his attention.

I guess he has not taken any action because he realized you're not hostile, if not, you might not be able to leisurely enjoy drinks like this, at least in this part of the verse.

He's been personally dealing with the assassins that get sent before his daughter could even notice. Chased a few down even when they went to other territories."

"I see, so he knew huh, seems he inherited his father's sharp senses." As she spoke those words, her drinking companion's face darkened but it went unnoticed.

After a bunch of drinks, Alexia slept off on the sofa, while her drinking companion patted her hair as she slept.

"Lucifer's descendant huh? Let's just hope you don't end up like your ancestor.." Her words were heard by no one, definitely not the one they were intended for.