334 Peace
Opening his eyes, the first thing that Lucas saw was the intricately designed beautiful ceiling which he had grown familiar with over the span of the past few days.
Involuntarily, a deep somber sigh escaped Lucas' lips. He wanted to see the King of Gods to get answers to his questions, but all he got was a jumbled mess in return.
Still, at least, Lucas was certain about one thing. It was that the last answer that Joe gave him was indeed true.
He was willing to bet on it.
"I guess it's settled then," the silver-haired boy let out another sigh.
He often wondered what he was going to do after graduating from the Academy. By then, the War of Union was going to start, but he was unwilling to participate in such a long war from the start.
He had two options – He could either join the Northern Defence Force or he could enlist in the Space Defence Force.
After contemplating over the matter for a very long time, Lucas came to the decision of joining the Space Defence Force.
In the novel, Nero, other main characters, and the United Military were efficient in dealing with the Vampires… well, at least until the Vampire Monarch woke up.
Oh, how things went south after that.
Anyway, the problem the United Military faced was in dealing with the Kalis. Right before the Vampire Monarch awakened, Kalis had begun their final invasion.
The last effort.
It took the United Military somewhere around a year or so to thwart their final invasion and then another six to seven long months to exterminate the Kali race.
A year and a half was too long of a time in that situation since the War of Union had just ended on Earth and Vampire Monarch was starting to wake up.
It was a mess. A chaos.
That was the very reason why Lucas was leaning toward joining the Space Defence Force. He would be able to, hopefully, help fasten the process of defeating the Kalis.
After confirming with Joeveirian, the God of Fate himself, Lucas knew that this path was the most ideal.
"Hmm," suddenly, Lucas touched his chin and sat in an upright position on his bed. "It read that I could use the mirror three times, right? Wonder what I should ask the next time I see Joe."
Right then, as if fate itself was mocking him, Lucas heard the loud cracking sound of the breaking glass.
Eyes widened, he shifted his focus toward the colossal silver-plated ornate mirror in the middle of his room.
He froze when he saw that a net of cracks had appeared on the mirror's surface. In the next moment, the shards of broken pieces of glass fell down from its silver frame.
The relic was broken.
It was only then did Lucas realized that his last use of the relic was the third and final one. Someone, perhaps he himself, had used the Heavenly Sight before him.
His guy feeling was pointing at himself. It was possible that before being exiled out of his home, Lucas used the mirror.
Yeah, it was definitely possible.
"Interesting," Lucas muttered, stroking his chin.
The piling mysteries did not even bother him anymore. He knew that one day or another, today or tomorrow, he would unearth them all.
He knew he was close. He could physically feel all the answers creeping toward him.
The certainty of knowing everything soon was the reason why he wasn't worried now, if anything, he was kind of looking forward to it.
"I can see why people like the mystery genre now," Lucas mused out loud to himself. "The anticipation of payoff is thrilling."
As a smirk crossed his lips, a loud boom followed by a roar of a thunderous explosion reached his ears.
THWOOOM—!!
Soon after, a shockwave rolled over his room as the whole mansion trembled, almost toppling him over his bed.
"What the fuck–" As Lucas was about to curse out, he suddenly made a guess of what the cause of all this chaos could be.
"Ah, I forgot about them." Lucas quickly jumped down his bed and took a quick glance at his watch.
However, once again, he was frozen in place as soon as Lucas looked at his watch. Barely four minutes had passed since he fell asleep.
That's also the same amount he spent thinking over things after he woke up. So, it meant… no time had passed at all?
"Wait… Wait, what?"
A frown wrinkled Lucas' face as he realized the fact that maybe time flowed differently between heaven and earth.
Maybe Arcadia was in a realm above the dimension of space and time, so it did not follow the law of general physics.
"Interesting," Lucas mused again. A place above the authority of time and space, huh?
KABOOOM—!!!
Unfortunately, just as Lucas thought about delving deeper into the topic, once again a resounding explosion thundered across the world, its shockwaves rippling through the ground beneath his feet.
"Ahh, come on!" Lucas let out a frustrated groan and rushed to exit his room, making his way toward the mansion's first garden.
After descending the spiral stairway and crossing the main hallway, Lucas neared the main door and opened it.
The servants didn't stop him since they themselves were in a state of complete disarray and panic, running around everywhere inside the mansion to find a safe place to cover their heads.
As soon as the doors parted and opened outward, a murderously chilling cold breeze greeted Lucas' face.
Outside he saw a world frozen of ice. From the trees in the main garden to the water in the fountains, everything was frozen.
Amidst this frozen world, Lucas spotted three figures engaged in combat.
Nearest to him was a black-haired girl. Her back was facing the main doors as if she was trying to let the other two not cross past her to get inside.
In her hand was a black wooden warbow and her lithe figure was clad in lustrous metal armor with beautiful yet complex patterns of enchantments engraved on them.
Facing her were two individuals, one a golden-haired young man and another a silver-haired young woman.
Adel's whole figure was engulfed in brilliantly glowing golden flames, making him look as if he was enveloped in a sun.
Yelena, on the other hand, looked paler than ever. Her body was clad in ice armor. In one hand she held a longsword and a large kite shield in the other.
As soon as Lucas arrived on the scene, he saw Amelia stagger a few steps and fall to one knee.
It was only now that he noticed the jagged cracks on her lustrous armor.
Damn, I knew Yelena and Adel were strong… but to think they would bring a main character down to her knees in only five minutes or so is insane! – Lucas remarked inwardly.
Well, that was to be expected from the reigning Queen of the Global Academy and the Golden Wolf chosen to be the next patriarch of the Morningstar family.
As Adel and Yelena neared the kneeling archeress, Amelia grunted frustratingly and attempted to pull herself up.
"Okay, enough!"
But right then, noticing Lucas' presence as his authoritative voice echoed through the frozen world, Yelena and Adel turned their eyes to him.
The silver-haired boy took slow steps and walked in front of Amelia, saying, "Good job."
But instead of thanking him, that girl had the audacity to reply with a shameless: "I had it under control."
Lucas' eyebrow twitched as he entertained the thought of turning around and leaving her to finish this fight, but he shook his head.
Behind him, Amelia pulled herself up and turned around.
Without even bothering to turn back around, she waved a hand and said while walking away, "Okay, I'll be right over there by that tree spectating this with popcorn."
She brought popcorn?! – Lucas raised his eyebrows. I don't know whether to be proud or not.
Once again shaking his head, he gazed up at the front, locking his eyes with his siblings as he said:
"Any chance we could settle all this over a cup of tea like the civilized people that we are? Or… you know, we could just play any game, like chess! Remember how I used to beat you two all the time–"
Before Lucas could stall them any further, Yelena spoke up.
"What was that illusion?! How did you do it?! If it was a relic, then where did you get it? Tell me its name and I will confirm with the military police myself!"
Obviously, she was angry. Lucas had shown him a life where she was the one being shunned by her family, after all.
She was also curious since a relic that was capable of breaking through her mental fortitude and subduing her so easily could at the very least be of Legendary or Divine rank.
But Lucas couldn't just tell her the name of the relic. If she were to confirm it with the Military Police then they would know he got it by killing Sofiana in the Hideout cafe.
Although the relic was now bound to him, he could still be punished and charged for stealing something that could've been Military Police's property.
Yeah, that definitely was not a favorable outcome. So he had to refuse. "I can't tell… I won't tell you anything."
Hearing her reply, a nerve popped up on Yelena's forehead. Right then, Adel quickly chipped in with a furious remark, "See that arrogance of his, Sister?! I had been telling you from the start to put him down in his place!"
Yelena let out a sigh and posed one last warning. "Final chance, tell me the name of the relic… or else."
Lucas rolled his eyes. Since Reynold and Yennefer were out, his initial goal was to just stall his siblings until their parents returned, but now it was impossible.
Yelena, the smarter one among her and Adel, had seemed to lose her cool after not only being humiliated like that but also seeing that illusion.
She was ready to escalate this confrontation into a physical fight. It was clearly evident from the madness in her eyes.
As for Adel, well, he had been ready to put some humbleness into Lucas since the moment he saw him back in the city.
Lucas shook his head before shrugging slightly. Just right then, a brilliant burst of scarlet flames submerged his body.
From the flames, a dazzling red and golden armor materialized over his clothes around the shape of his upper torso, enveloping the silver-haired boy in its protective embrace.
Tilting his head, Lucas sighed. "I refuse."
