Chapter 149 - Esna Wood, Meeting

It was a bright and sunny Monday morning, exactly three months after the royal academy school festival ended and two months since Arthur entered his third year at the academy.

A certain black haired, black clothed intermediate stage demigod realm human stared at the clear blue sky before heaving a sigh of exasperation for the nth time that morning.

The man, Lute, thought about the reason why he was currently standing under the sun while acting as a baggage carrier for a certain prince who was acting like a teenage girl on a cloth-shopping trip.

'This is supposed to be my day off…'

His liege, Arthur, dragged him out on the day he was supposed to be free and was forced to follow the young prince to a moderately advanced planet in a galaxy cluster he did not even know existed until a few hours ago.

Arthur then proceeded to use him and his team of transcendents as baggage carriers.

Unfortunately, as much as he wanted to decline the 'invitation' to follow Arthur, he knew fully well that a certain whimsical Arch devil of destruction would not be in favour of that decision.

And most of the time, being disfavoured by this Arch devil = Complete Destruction from existence.

'I've served her for a thousand years, she won't kill me so easily over such a trivial matter….right?'

Even he was not so sure anymore.

"Hey Lute."

"Yes, your highness."

"So between the Max Abel 5000 that has full 3x aura amplification with no side effects and the Max Abel 5500 that has 4x aura amplification but with the side effect of having your aura strength halved for 40 minutes – 4 hours after usage.

Which would you suggest I get?"

Lute stared at the two gauntlets in Arthur's hands and scanned them with magic before pointing at one of the two.

"Max Abel 5000.

The 5500 has a second side effect that is not listed.

Besides, this particular one is faulty."

Arthur nodded and put down one of the gauntlets before waving towards Tasha who was standing not far from Lute.

She nodded and walked into the store while sighing internally.

'This is the sixth time now…'

Soon after, screams of pain could be heard from inside store, however the noise could not travel far as Lute had prevented it from doing so, as such, not even the neighbouring store owner new that his neighbour was being beaten up for selling faulty goods.

After beating the man up and giving him a warning, Tasha then dropped a small sack of gold coins at the counter.

That was payment for the gauntlet artifact that Arthur had collected.

After repeating the same set of actions half a dozen times in one morning, Lute did not even have the energy to show any reaction anymore.

He was surprised at first, but came to accept it as another one of Arthur's whims.

If anything, he was more concerned by the gazes he was receiving.

Not from the passer-bys who were wondering why he did not place the bags he was carrying into a subspace or inventory artifact, but from the three beings on his level who had been watching him and Arthur ever since they arrived.

'The three are all inferior stages, but demigods nonetheless.

However, the problem is that they're definitely not the ones I saw on Girex.'

When he first mentioned this to Arthur, the young prince's reply left him lost for words.

'Oh, you mean the demigods? They're Lewis' younger cousins, called them over this morning.'

Lewis's relatives or not, it did not change the fact that Arthur had three more demigods under his control, (Since Lewis' cousins take orders from Lewis and Lewis takes orders from Arthur) this meant that the young prince had already amassed such a force without almost anyone knowing.

'I'm sure his majesty and her highness already know but chose to be silent.'

He sighed as he looked at the young prince who was currently marking the gauntlet he just purchased with his magic power while thinking about the information about Lewis that Cattleya gave him.

"That's enough for my gauntlet collection, now, onto my shin guards collection."

Arthur spoke up as he tossed the gauntlet to Lute who caught it and placed it into a bag filled with the rest of the gauntlets Arthur had bought.

Today, Arthur had come over to update his Artifact Collection, an activity he did at random intervals.

He wore a pair of black jeans with a corporate shirt and a cardigan over it. All these, were under a long black overcoat. His silver hair was pushed back messily and he wore contacts on his eyes to hide their changing colour. 

While walking through the busy streets, Arthur hummed to himself while listening to status updates on the search for the time crystal via the Bluetooth on his ear.

Suddenly, he felt a strange feeling wash over him, as if he just found something he had been looking to find for years.

He turned around and met eyes with a teenage looking girl, who was also staring at him dumbfoundedly.

She had the appearance of a young girl in her early-mid teens with a slender physique, soft skin, and jewel red eyes.

Her clothing consisted of a red turtleneck, a black skirt and long black stockings under brown leather flats.

'This….it's like that time in Phirex, against the Valkyrie.'

The feeling he was getting was frighteningly similar to when he battled the Valkyrie daughter of the now deceased god Jarox.

It was not the repulsive feeling from her divinity, nor was it the painful feeling of his own energy going berserk.

It was the same feeling he got, when he spoke out four words unconsciously.

'It is just like when I gained the 'Authority of the progenitor.''

He felt the same way he had, when he unconsciously utilized the 'authority of the progenitor' that he was not sure he had at the time.

However, that still left many things unanswered.

'Why here?

Why now?

Why am I feeling something similar while looking at her?'

Lute, who noticed Arthur's strange silence, spoke up in concern.

"Your highness, is there a problem?"

As for the girl, her friends had noticed her staring at Arthur and questioned her teasingly.

"Oh my, did someone fall in love at first sight?"

"It seems the school bellé had finally found someone."

The questions asked by their companions caused the two to snap out of their stupor simultaneously.

However, the two of them were not going to ignore the strange feeling they just got.

For Arthur, he felt like he had found something he had long been searching for, along with another indescribable feeling.

For her, she felt her blood heat up at the sight of Arthur, along with a strange sense of unfamiliar loyalty.

The two did not need words to communicate with each other, they just pacified their companions and walked into the nearest restaurant.

Arthur, being the extravagant prince he was, rented out the entire place for the day and led her to a random table.

The moment they both sat down, they asked each other simultaneously.

""Just what are you?""

They stared at each other in silence for a moment again before Arthur finally spoke up.

"It's kinda weird how you just followed me in here without question. What if I had...ulterior motives?"

"I doubt, you looked just as confused as I was."

She replied as she took a glass of the juice that the waiter brought for them, looking around the empty restaurant, she continued.

"Just who are you? The fact that you can rent out this place that even world leaders would have to wait in line for shows you're obviously a big shot, however it's weird I don't know you.

I know the sons of every bigshot in the world after all."

Arthur rose an eyebrow in surprise at her words, she sounded so confident of her knowledge. Seeing this, she tapped her forehead and continued.

"Memory Palace, an ability that makes it so I cannot forget a thing I have seen with my eyes, heard with my ears, smelt with my nose, felt on my skin, and spoken with my mouth."

"It's also weird that you are telling me this so easily."

She nodded in affirmation before speaking out.

"I might be young but I've seen a lot of bullshit happen because of my dad, he was grooming me to be his successor after all.

Bottom line is, even if I don't have the strength or wit to match older and far more experienced people, I think that the fact that your baggage carrier or attendant over there is on the same level of strength as my father is enough of a reason to not try playing any games with you.

Oh, have I mentioned that he's the strongest hunter in the world?"

She was pointing at Tasha who was standing at the door while speaking. Tasha who noticed this, waved at her with a bright smile.

Waving back, the red-eyed girl, turned back to Arthur who was staring at her with an amused smile.

"If your dad is the strongest in this world, and he's on Tasha's level, then he's a transcendent huh?

I don't think this world has any law crystals so he would not be getting stronger anytime soon."

The red-eyed girl rose an eyebrow due to the unfamiliar words she heard Arthur say.

'Transcendent? Law crystals? What are those??'

Arthur ignored her obvious confusion and continued speaking.

"Let's get the introductions out of the way now shall we?

Name's Arthur Vaughn. 

You?"

"Esna Wood.

Nice to meet you Arthur."