The story so far: The death of the Demon King has somehow trigger an event that cause all monsters on the planet to undergo an unnatural evolution. With monsters becoming more of a threat by the day, Anna continues her search for Alice, hoping that she’ll be able to reclaim her lost powers. But as she continue her investigation, she comes to a startling conclusion that the elf Alice for some reason has been omitted from history.
With no way of finding Alice and trap in a dangerous mystery that engulf the entire planet, the Demon King’s hope of regaining his original body slowly fade, that is until she is confronted by Alexander, the only person that’s aware of Alice’s existence…..
Chapter 39
Successor
A cloud of vapor escapes from my mouth as I gasp in surprise at the sudden temperature drop.
“Tell me Anna, how do you know Alice?” Alexander continue to approach me, unfazed by the cold wind blowing through the building.
No doubt about it, he’s using elemental magic to freeze the building. The wise thing to do would be to quickly kill him, before my movement is affected by the cold weather. But the fact that he knows Alice complicated things. If I killed him, I could potentially end up destroying my only clue to Alice’s whereabouts.
“I actually have no idea who Alice is, that’s why I came here, so I can learn more about her. Isn’t that right?” I look back at the red hair boy who nodded his head at Alexander while tightly hugging his shivering body.
“The fact that you don’t know her raises even more. You see Alice isn’t a name a commoner like you should know.”
I see, so someone did erase Alice from history. That explains why Alexander is so hostile, since no one should even know her name, but if that’s true, then how does he know her? More questions pop into my head as the building continue to get colder. At this rate I'm going to freeze to death if I don’t do something.
“I only know her name because the hero told me about her in the forest.”
“Joseph told you?”
“Yes, if it wasn’t for him, I would never know who Alice is.”
“I see….” The ice that was spreading across the floor near Alexander feet begin to melt away. “Joseph always was a loud mouth.”
It seems I’m not entirely made of bad luck. I took a huge risk blaming everything on the hero, since I had no idea he even knew she existed, but from what Alexander said, I can assume that only the elites or nobles know about Alice for some reason.
“I’m terribly sorry about that, I didn’t come here to interrogate you. I actually wanted to talk you and your brother…. Privately.” Alexander glare at the red head boy behind me, basically telling him to fuck off. I raise my hand at the kid to stop him from leaving.
“I’m sorry, but surely you must understand how uncomfortable I would be talking to a man that nearly turn me into an ice sculpture a few seconds ago alone.”
“Once again, I apologize for my rude behavior.” Alexander place his head on his heart and bow his head to me. “Of course I know a simple apology isn't enough for you to forgive me. So how about this, if you listen to what I have to say, then I’ll tell you everything I know about Alice.”
“Just listening? That’s all I have to do?”
“Yes, but we’ll have to go somewhere more private, I don’t want anyone eavesdropping in our conservation.”
So all I have to do is just simply hear him out, and he’ll give me free information on Alice’s whereabouts. This is too good to be true, there’s no way I can be this lucky.
I look back at the kid who was still shivering. His eyes had a mix of fear and confusion in them. I could see that the kid wanted to say something to me. Probably don’t trust that man, but thanks to Alexander ice show, the kid is too afraid to say anything.
I let out a sigh thinking about how this is going to bite me in the ass later on.
“Fine, I’ll listen to what you have to say, but you better take me somewhere warmer than here.”
.
.
“Here’s you go miss” The waitress places a glass cup near me. The liquid inside was just as clear as water, but there was an a lot amount bubbles floating around inside of it.
“This drink isn’t going to knock me unconscious is it?”
“There’s no need to worry, I didn’t touch it at all.” Alexander grab his drink and took a sip. I guess this is his way of telling me it’s not poison. I follow Alexander example and took a small sip of my drink. I felt a slight burning sensation on my tongue that strangely didn’t hurt, it was actually pretty refreshing. After getting use to the burning feeling, I realize that drink I had a slight lemon taste to it.
“Well, how is it?” Alexander had a satisfy smile on him, like he was the one that created the drink.
“It taste weird. It’s sweet and yet at the same time it taste kind of like lemons.”
“Is this your first time drinking pop?”
“Pop?” What a stupid name. I guess they called it that because all the bubbles popping in the drink.
“It’s actually called a soft drink. I’m not sure how it was created, but I heard they use chemicals to make it taste like different kinds of fruits, like lemon.”
“That’s pretty interesting…. So are you going to tell me why you brought me here?”
“I already told you I wanted to talk to you.”
“Yea, but you said privately, and I don’t think restaurant counts as a private meeting place.” I don’t mind being treated to a free meal, but the massive killing intent I feel looming over me is kind of making it hard to relax.
“I brought you here, because you said you wouldn’t feel safe being by yourself with me. Plus the noise level here loud enough for no one to hear us.”
“Are you sure you brought me here to make me feel safe, or was it so you could feel safe?”
“What do you mean?”
I pick my fork up and thrust it straight at Alexander. Before my fork could reach him, a sword appears near my neck. I immediately knew it was the samurai behind me from the just by looking at the design of the sword.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
“If you move an inch I’ll kill you.” The samurai move his blade closer to my neck. Even though I was in danger of losing my head, I couldn’t help but to laugh.
“Honestly Alexander, you have weird way of making people feel safe.”
The entire restaurant went silent. Everyone including the waiters look at us either out of curiosity or fear.
My, my I seem to be contradicting myself again. I wanted to keep a low profile at least until I get my powers back, and yet here I am causing another scene.
“Put your weapon away now Miyamoto!” Seeing Alexander panic a little bit, made this dreadful atmosphere I created worthwhile.
“You should listen to the man. Things isn’t going to end well for both of you if you kill me here in front of all these people.” The samurai hands started to shake, I took a quick glance at him to see his eyes were full of anger. No doubt about it this guy really hates me.
“Miyamoto, put your sword away, now.” I notice a subtle threat in his voice. I guess I was able to piss Alexander off too.
A wide smile spread across my face as the sword the samurai held to my throat vanish from existence. Ever since Alexander shown up at the memorial, he’s been in control of the situation, but now I’m in control. Hopefully the smug prick realize now that I’m not going down as easy as James.
“Um, is everything ok?” Our waitress timidly said as she approach our table. It obvious she didn’t want to get anywhere near us, her boss probably force her to come over.
“Yes everything is fine, we were just rehearsing for a play.” The panic that was in Alexander voice a few seconds ago was now gone. The restaurant slowly became lively again after Alexander calmly explain that we wasn’t going to kill each other.
Seeing that I was no longer a threat, the samurai return to his table, which surprisingly wasn’t that far away from ours. You would think I would notice a man wearing a kimono with a long samurai sword attach to his waist sitting three tables away from me. Well I guess that’s probably the reason why I didn’t notice him. He’s not wearing the same attire I saw him in when we were in the forest. He’s actually wearing causal clothes, although they are a bit tore up. His dark brown shirt has multiple holes in it, and blue pants had equal amount of cut marks in them. Seeing him walk around in casual clothes, a huge question suddenly pops into my head. Why the hell does he carry a samurai sword around his waist? Just a few seconds ago he created a sword from nothing, which means he have the ability to create whatever weapon he wants, whenever he wants. I guess he just love that sword, that’s only explanation I can think of.
“You’re a dangerous woman Anna.” For some reason the way he say that made it sound like he was praising me.
“When did you realize I had a guard watching you?”
“I knew ever since we arrive here, I just didn’t know where he was hiding until now.”
“It seems James train you well.”
“That had nothing to do with training. That’s just called paying attention to your surroundings.” I took a sip of my drink to calm myself down from the excitement that happy a few seconds ago. Alexander did the exact thing. For some reason just watching him drink anger me, no I should said everything about him irritates me, especially that smug look on his face, like everything is going according to his plan.
“My patience is wearing thin Alexander. You nearly froze me earlier, you lied about coming here to keep me safe, and your bodyguard almost beheaded me. Honestly the main reason why I haven’t left yet, is because you promise me information if I hear you out. So why don’t we hurry up and get to the main subject of this meeting.”
“You don’t like beating around the bush do you? Fine, let’s get straight to the point.” Alexander took one last sip of his drink before putting his cup down.
“I brought you here because I want to talk to you about the state of this world. We're facing a dangerous threat and no one is aware of it.” For some reason, I was immediately reminded of the evolution theory Claire told me in the forest.
“You’re talking about monsters aren’t you?”
“So you notice?” Alexander’s eyes widen in surprise.
“No, I’m just going off rumors everyone been feeding me. Although I’m pretty sure most of them is just bullshit. Especially the evolution one, since it’s impossible for creatures to evolve and such a short time span.”
“What you said is true, it’s impossible for anything to evolve so fast…..at least naturally. But what if the cause was artificial?”
“Are you saying someone is making these creatures evolve?”
“Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying.”
(The Demon King is one way or another involve with the sudden evolution of monsters) The theory Claire told me echo in the back of my head.
“I’ll admit that monsters have gotten smarter, but there’s no way anyone have the ability to make them forcefully evolve, and please don’t tell me that the Demon King is behind all of this, I heard that theory way too many times.”
“I don’t think the Demon King is behind all this, since I’m confident he die two hundred years ago, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t involve in this. After all, the monsters started acting up the moment he died.”
“So if the Demon King isn’t behind this, than who is?”
“A madman, at least they have to be for what they’re doing.” It was barely noticeable since it quickly faded away, but Alexander had a terrified look in his eyes, like he was reliving a nightmare.
“Anna, I should warn you that things are going to get much worse from here on. The monsters will continue to evolve until that person fine what they’re looking for.”
“And what are they looking for?” Alexander lean closer to me, just enough so I could whisper something, something that completely chill my body to its core.
“A successor to the Demon King.”
A/N: Thanx for reading, hope you enjoy it.