Chapter Seventy Five, Bound to Abide Fate.
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Lokreum leant back into his throne, letting all those around converse and catch up.
Seiya and Jack sat atop the pavilion walls.
Citemer oddly was speaking to Alexandria, the two exchanging stories of their lives.
Kieron, Revenant, and Julius all stood just a ways away from his throne. They were engaged in conversation. They spoke of the Apocryphal Domain, the Olden Realm, and even the Pandora Expanse.
Kieron seemed to visit his realm ever so often, and of course Revenant was invested in the Apocryphal Domain. He had been governing the primordial reality for the past couple thousand years...
Watching them put him into thought.
Everything had its match, and its opposite.
For Julius you could argue that his match was Citemer, and his opposite was Revenant.
For Seiya his opposite Alexandria and his match was Jack.
For Alexandria her opposite was Julius, and her match was... perhaps Kieron.
Thinking about it, Lokreum was rather proud of himself. The Web of Fate he had created that spanned across the entirety of existence was clearly a powerful thing.
It did not differ between any existence. Even Kieron was bound to abide by fate.
No existence could escape fate, and that was a beautiful thing.
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A bell rang as a door opened, and a woman's head shot upwards. She was seated with a cup of coffee in her hands.
It was six in the morning, and the sun was rising. The shop had opened an hour prior, the daughter of the store owner manning the place. In fact, said daughter was the person that had just walked through the door.
She had stepped out for a moment to clean up the front walls and windows, so unfortunately the bell ringing was not what the seated women had hoped.
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This women had visited this restaurant for the last two weeks straight, and she had yet to find what she was looking for.
It was rather disappointing.
In these past weeks, she had continued to progress with her studies. Each day she reminisced on the principles of an alchemist, recalling what the mysterious man had told her. She did not consider herself a real alchemist. She could not smoothly transform one material into another. At most she could alter a small portion of an existence.
No matter how hard she tried, she wasn't able to succeed in fully changing anything. Before she could reach success, she would reach exhaustion. All of her life energy would be depleted, and if she went any further she would risk injury, disease, or even death.
Lifting the cup of coffee to her lips, she sighed.
"When will I see you again, alchemist?..." At that moment, as if her words had foreshadowed his arrival, the door rang as it opened.
Her coffee was to her lips, and she continued to drink, not paying much attention to the new entrant.
She sipped, taking her time while she thought of the many things that were on her mind.
She couldn't help but wonder how her family was doing. By blood relation, her brother was sitting atop the throne, and her only other living relative...
Well... She hoped he was leading the beastkin well.
Both her and her brother were well aware of the stories of their ancestors. They descended from the intermingling of the first two leaders of the beastkin and humanity. They did not know which was male, or which was female, but they new that their offspring came to be the leaders of both civilizations respectively.
Their divine bloodline carried itself down through the line of royalty, and not many even knew of that. The story of their human ancestor being reborn and living a second life after vanquishing the demon Malak was passed down through their family, and in all honesty it was rather beautiful.
Diana slowly lowered her cup, shaking her head as she did so.
"Does it taste that good?" Her eyes shot wide open, landing on the figure across from her.
She froze, the cup of coffee not even being on the table yet.
"You were drinking it for rather long, I mean..." He explained with a smile.
His arms were crossed on the table, and he was slightly leant forward.
A smile emerged on Diana's face, the cup touching down on the table.
"Do I get to know your name this time around?" She asked with a warm expression. She let go of the cup and extended her hand towards the man in front of her.
The man just looked at her for a few moments, the same smirk on his face.
Slowly, he extended his hand as well, taking hers with a soft touch.
"You can call me E." He shook her hand lightly, Diana tilting her head slightly in response.
"Okay, Mister E. How have you been? It's been a while hasn't it..." She asked as the two pulled their hands back.
"Has it?" He questioned, "I've been well, just doing what I do... How have things fared for you Diana?" He asked.
Diana flared her eyes for a moment, picking up on his words.
In a hushed tone, she asked...
"And what is it you do? Mister Alchemist..." There was a smile on her face, and in response, the man in front of her only smiled brighter.
Reciprocating her energy, the man leant in.
"I have never claimed to be an alchemist you know... But, I'll tell you what it is that I do eventually. If you ever come to see that day..." He replied.
Diana reluctantly sighed.
It was hard to get information out of the man before her, but she was not frustrated.
"What do you plan on ordering this time?" She asked, changing the subject.
She grabbed her menu and began to point things out like she had done last time.
Maybe she should get to know him before bombarding him with alchemical questions...
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