Chapter 194: Act ; Proceedings

"Tiffa, you stay here for the time being," I say as I prepare to teleport out of the house.

"Then, I will stay here with her!" Luctiana says in an excited tone.

I'm sure she just wants to extract information from Tiffa while I'm away, so I move closer to Tiffa before setting up a noise-canceling barrier before saying,

"Tiffa, the only information you are allowed to share is that I'm your cousin. Anything else would be going against my wishes, do you understand?"

Sensing that I'm serious, Tiffa nods her head as confirmation before saying,

"Don't worry."

"Good," I say before patting her head for a few seconds.

"Well then," I say after turning my head to face Luctiana, "I will head out now."

I proceed to use Norse Magic to create a gateway that leads to the center of the oasis.

Seeing a gate of light appear in the room, Luctiana watches with amazement as I step toward it.

"Wait!" a voice suddenly resounds within my ears.

"I'll come with you," Ari says in a firm tone.

"Why?"

"To keep an eye on you, why else?" he responds while glaring into my eyes.

"Sure," I say before stepping into the gateway.

Appearing on the other side, I directly use Flight to keep myself from dropping down.

Unfortunately for him, Ari is unable to do the same, so he immediately ends up falling.

Surprisingly, instead of falling into the water, Ari ends up directly falling onto a small boulder right in the middle of the oasis.

From the looks of it, he broke a few bones from the fall.

Shaking my head in exasperation, I descend into the lake before using telekinesis to pull Ari out of the water.

Once I've done that, I use Healing Factor to repair the damages done to his body before placing right on top of the very stone he fell on a few moments ago.

It takes him a few seconds to regain clarity of mind, but the moment he does, Ari glares at me and exclaims,

"You savage!"

Chuckling at his misery, I say,

"You brought it upon yourself, maggot."

Before he can utter another word, I make use of my telekinesis once more to pull a certain object out of the water.

Looking at the deformed sword in my hand, I shake my head a little before shifting my focus to Ari.

"That's your sword?" Ari asks me doubtfully, "The one that can slay dragons?"

"Yes," I simply reply.

"Let's head back now, shall we?" I say to the scowling elf.

---

Good, now that Tiffa is distracting Luctiana and I've shaken that pesky brat off, I can make use of this opportunity to examine the oasis.

First, I use Clairvoyance to run a quick scan of the land for anything that could be a hint to the 'gate' that Tiffa spoke of.

Unfortunately, I'm unable to find anything, so I resort to using my senses to search for an underground tavern as I go for a stroll along the oasis.

Once again, I'm unable to find anything.

Could this oasis really be the wrong one? If I am to consider the details given by Tiffa into consideration when she described the oasis, then this place surely is the wrong one.

Even so, why did the directions that Tiffa gave lead here? I refuse to believe there is no reason for that.

Thus, I continue my search for anything that seems like it doesn't belong here.

A dozen or so minutes pass with me having examined most of the oasis without finding anything.

Just as thoughts about giving up appear within my mind, I happen to set my sight on the small boulder at the center of the water.

"What if…" I subconsciously mutter as I fly toward the small boulder and begin using my senses to examine it.

Almost immediately after I do so, some foreign energy attempts to push me away, but ultimately fails to do so.

A small smile appears on my lips as I move closer to the small boulder and begin to make use of alchemy.

The moment my sight changes, I proceed to clear the boulder off slowly so that I don't accidentally damage whatever is inside it.

A few minutes later, the object of interest comes into view.

It's a solid black rock that's about the size of my fist. The rock itself is plain black, but it has been adorned with various decorations that seem to have been made of gold.

Sensing the energy exuding from the rock, I'm certain that it has something to do with the 'gate'.

This took longer than I expected. I should head back now.

---

As soon as I step out of the gateway, three pairs of eyes directly lock onto me.

"What?"

"Where were you?" Ari immediately asks.

"Retrieving another thing of mine that I had dropped when we got the sword," I say.

"Even though your clothes are dry?" Ari remarks while squinting eyes.

"It seems like you've forgotten that I can use magic to dry it off," I calmly reply.

Having no response to my words, Ari remains silent.

"What did you retrieve?" Luctiana asks with a hint of curiosity in her voice.

"This," I say while pulling out a small pebble from my pocket.

"Huh?" Luctiana says incredulously while Ari frowns and says, "A rock?"

I lightly smile and say,

"This is no ordinary rock."

Unlike the previous times, Ari doesn't try to rebuke me but just watches as I play around with the pebble.

"Is it a dragon-slaying rock or something?" Luctiana doubtfully asks.

"No," I say, "It can slay anything and everything."

…

…

"Want a demonstration?"

"No," both Luctiana and Ari respond in unison as Tiffa looks at the rock in my hand with intrigue.

"Anyway," I say, "Tiffa, do they know anything about the 'gate'?"

"About that," Luctiana says before Tiffa can respond, "I've heard of there being one in Iaron."

Iaron? Is that the name of the location where the majority of the elves are?

"Luctiana, what are you doing?!" Ari straight up exclaims while glaring at her.

"Ari, enough," she calmly responds, "They clearly wish us no harm, as they would've done so a long time ago."

"But, they could be lying to us!"

"Do you honestly believe that they would only send one man to fight against all of us?" Luctiana says in an interrogative tone.

"No, but-"

"Stop," Luctiana says before Ari can say anything else, "I have another for helping them."

Raising her arm to point at Tiffa, Luctiana says,

"This girl is Aunty Shajar's daughter."

"What?" Ari voices while looking at Tiffa with a dumbfounded expression.

Oh? They seem to know Tiffa's mother. From the looks of it, her identity wasn't a simple one.

"Then," Ari says with a thoughtful expression, "She is the 'key'?"

"Key?" I ask, curious about why they would call Tiffa that.

"The gate you are talking about," Luctiana explains, "It requires a 'key'. The only one who could do that was Aunty Shajar, but she never did it no matter what.

"For this, Aunty Shajar was despised by the majority of our race, as the gate is supposed to form a direct link with the Great Purpose, yet she wouldn't open it."

"So, you're saying that there is a chance that Tiffa has inherited her status as a 'key'?" I inquire.

"Yes," Luctiana responds before looking over at Tiffa who has a confused look on her face.

I knew there was something odd about Tiffa being the only one able to make use of the Grimoires.

"So," I say while utilizing Eye of Judgement, "Do you plan to use her as a tool to open the 'gate'?"

Suffocating under pressure, both Luctiana and Ari get on their knees as Luctiana responds,

"N-o. I would ne-ver."

Sensing no lies in her words, I remove the pressure on her and focus on Ari.

"What about you?" I say while increasing the pressure.

"Me t-t-too!" he says.

The moment I hear his words, I feel a strange sensation in my guts.

He's lying, huh? Good.

I cancel Eye of Judgement and pretend to believe both of them by saying,

"I apologize if my actions were a little overboard, however, I can't let Tiffa's life be endangered by some myth."

The moment my words trail off, Tiffa's previously worried expression turns to that of surprise as a red hue covers her face.

Meanwhile, Luctiana and Ari both nod their heads as acceptance.

"Say, can we stay here for the night?" I ask after a few seconds.

"Sure!" Luctiana immediately agrees while Ari nods his head as confirmation.

Well, of course, you would want us to stay here, Ari…