Zatiel was sleeping in his bed, and his head was resting on Sophia's lap. She had brought him here when she found him sleeping in the ground.
Sophia was looking at Zatiel sleeping face. In her eyes, you could see untainted love and devotion accompanied by a beautiful smile as she caresses his hair and plays with his face, occasionally pricking his cheeks, making her giggle.
"Your face is so handsome when you're sleeping," Sophia had always found Zatiel attractive. Still, when he is awake, his expression is always focused and alert, even when he is making a joke that was still present. Yet, now he was so calm that his charm was released entirely.
As Sophia continues looking at him, she starts to chuckle. A mischievous smile rose on her face as some dark ink appeared on her finger and was going to drop on Zatiel's face.
"You are having a little too much fun, don't you think," Sophia was like a cat when it is stepped on the tail as she hears Zatiel voice in her head and saw a smile that appeared on his lips.
Zatiel was laughing as he stands up and stretches his body, making cracking sounds due to having stay in the same position for ten days in a row
"When did you wake up!" Sophia was embarrassed as she has been acting like a little girl all this time and wanted to know how much Zatiel saw.
"Don't worry, I was awakened by your spell. Whenever there is an increase in energy around me, my consciousness perceives it and makes me regain my focus. It is a little trick you learn with time." Zatiel makes it sound simple, but having your subconscious always active with the task of scanning all in your surroundings and having it send a signal whenever something happens, takes a lot of training.
"You better be telling the truth. Since you are awake, I must tell you that Heinz came here to look for you, due to some people of the Empire coming about a business transaction."
"When did he come?"
"Seven days ago, you were so focused on your work that I didn't dare disturb you."
"He came way faster than I thought. This will be troublesome." Annoyance could be seen in Zatiel's face as he thinks what will happen, due to him not showing up.
"Do you think Heinz will bring you trouble?" Although Heinz has been acting friendly with them, Sophia has known him for a very short time, so she didn't exactly trust him.
"If he was the type of person who goes against his words, he would have never reached his level as a cultivator or understood a law so direct as killing. So he really sees me as some type of brother, and of course, he wouldn't bother me for something so insignificant as a couple of days of wait. The problem comes from the people that came from the Empire."
Zatiel knows that most people who are part of a powerful organization see themselves as someone better than the rest, even if they are weak. So those two people who came must be displeased that they were made to wait by some 'unimportant character'.
"Whatever, let's end it fast, so I can go back to training." Zatiel grabs his runes and uses the crystal to contact Heinz.
.....
Heinz was training with his sword making different attacks against an immense wall. A red glow filled every attack and created different sword marks. Every attack was different, creating diverse phenomenons like red rain that generates holes of fifteen centimeters with every drop. Or a concentrated sword beam than when it lands makes thousands of small cuts in the surroundings, filled with killing intent.
And despite their differences, every single one created a window for an endless amount of possibilities.
After Zatiel told him about creating a sword-art of his own and having contacted the people that handle the business contracts, he dedicated all of his time to this.
Although creating a sword art of your own is hard, Heinz had hundreds of years of practice. With the insights that got off the fight with Zatiel and his immense cognitive abilities, he was able to complete a part of it in days. Although it will take a long time for it to be perfected, the foundation was already made.
In this room were two men looking at the Heinz from a distance, an old and a middle-aged one. Both had similar faces denoting some type of intimate connection. In the body of the two, there was no clear domain of some kind of natural energy, meaning that they followed the Arcane Path.
Both were looking at the attacks of Heinz. Some fear was present in their eyes. They knew that if the cultivator did not contain his energy and released all, the power in any of those attacks would be enough to kill the two of them in seconds.
"Master I don't understand, the Magi Path is supposed to be the strongest there is, but the prince's attacks are even more powerful than other individuals in his same rank, and it is obvious that he is holding back."
The middle-aged man had brown hair, his eyes were green, and he had a square face.
"The path that the prince is following is that of Sword Cultivator, a very powerful path in offense. The reason the Magi Path is supposed to be the strongest is that it is the most complete path in this world, but it looks like his Highness has made significant progress in his own."
The old man also had brown hair, but there was some grey in between. He was looking closely at the attacks Heinz was doing, searching for the smallest clue about his use of the laws, in case he got lucky and got some inspiration.
The middle-aged man nodded before showing a displeased expression and murmuring to the old man, "Master, we have been waiting for more than a week, and that person has not shown up. He is merely a Rank 1 Runemaster, and his work is average, yet he dares to make us wait."
"There is nothing we can do. If we leave, we will be offending his Highness," although the old man was also displeased, it was just a little, as seeing someone use the laws was of great help for individuals of his Rank.
Both men were important people that handled business related to runes through the Empire. Usually, they will not supervise a contract with a Rank 1 Runemaster. Still, since Heinz commanded someone to come in the least possible time, they were sent as there was no one else available. But when they arrived, they were told that the person was doing some critical experiment and they needed to wait.
This infuriated both, but they did not dare to argue with Heinz, so they just waited.
Heinz knows of the anger of the couple. If it was just the middle-age man, he would have not cared, but the old man was someone important in the Empire, so as an apology, he allows the two to see him practice.
All of a sudden, Heinz stopped his attacks and moved his hand, making a portal appear, and from it, Zatiel showed up.
When Zatiel appears in the room, he focuses on the two men.
'Even though there are following the Arcane Path, the two are stronger than Clive, especially the old man.' Walking up to the two, he made a small bow as he introduced himself. "Greetings members of the Empire, I am Zatiel Daybreak. I apologize for the delay, but there was an experiment that could not be stopped."
The old man looks at Zatiel for a moment before signaling the middle-age man and focuses on the sword scars left in the walls.
The middle-aged man didn't stand up, and he neither tried to hide the annoyance in his face.
"I am Nein, senior manager of the Imperial Commercial Association. I will go straight to the topic since you already made us waste so much time. Your runes are barely passable to be sold through our commercial channels. The only reason we came here was due to his Highness request. If the ones you showed were the best you can make, I advise you to wait and improve your abilities. Since there are much better runes in the market that fulfill almost the same function than the ones you show. "
Although Nein did undercut the quality of the runes Zatiel handed to Heinz, they were indeed only average amongst Rank 1 runes since they were made when he was Rank 0 and were his first work as a Rank 1 Runemaster.
There were several ways that Zatiel could handle the situation, the simplest one would have been to use Heiz to pressure them. But he has never been someone that liked to ask for help and prefers to handle things by his own means.
Zatiel moved his hand, and from the spatial ring, a stack of runes came out. "Are these good enough to be sold through the empire channels?"
