If Kaori had no feelings for this Princess, it would be one thing. But according to her memories, Kaori would affectionately call her Allaleya when they were alone, and even in public, he couldn't bear to call her Four, so he called her Ms. Humming.
It was either Kaori had feelings for this woman and still fled, or, he never had feelings for her at all and only sought to use her status to give himself power.
No matter which one was true, Dyon couldn't feel anything but disgust.
Even if he felt that he was too weak to face Dyon, with the spatial disk in his hand, saving one more person wouldn't have been impossible. Though not guaranteed, he would have had a 60% likelihood of succeeding. But, he actually threw away such an option to save a woman who loved him because he felt his life was worth more than the risk.
"He really deserves to die." Dyon's gaze turned cold.
Before the last wisp of Allaleya's soul was taken by his [Devour], Dyon suddenly felt bad for this woman who loved such a useless man.
In the end, he wrapped the last wisp in star qi and let it hover within his Mind's Eye.
Even when her life was ending, she still called that man 'my Kaori'. It was clear she didn't hate him for his decision at all. It seemed love wasn't always rational.
Dyon wasn't sure what to do with her, but at least keep her last bit of lifeforce like this meant that the Humming Sparrow Clan wouldn't be alerted to her death. This would give him so breathing room.
After settling things, Dyon returned to Saru and Brahman. The former still had a sweet smile on her face, but the former looked on with an exceptionally complicated gaze.
Finally, unable to bear it, he sunk to his knees and kowtowed, laying down his pride and accepting Dyon as his master.
...
Dyon grinned. "What a shameless disciple. You see how many treasures your master has and now you want to recognize me quickly to get your hands on some, is that it?"
Surprisingly, Brahman stood, his delicate blue eyes sparkling. "Yes!"
Dyon started laughing uncontrollably.
"My fifth lesson to you was going to be that shamelessness is good, but it seems I don't have to teach you this."
"Master! I want to grow as strong as you." Brahman's gloomy appearance had seemingly disappeared, causing Saru to giggle.
Her and Brahman had a bit of an estranged relationship, but when they were youthful and ignorant, they could have been considered good friends. The Brahman she knew was exactly like this. Willing to do whatever it took to win. Even when they were playing simple card games he would cheat if it meant victory.
As for the gloomy Brahman, he didn't appear until he grew old enough to understand the struggles of his grandfather.
Dyon smiled. Though he had understood Pjisel's talents long before he took him in as a disciple, Brahman was a bit of a mystery to him. He just instinctually felt he should take him on as a disciple. As for why, even he didn't know the reason.
For all his life, he had felt this subtle feeling, pulling him to do certain things as though this inner voice was certain it was the correct path. In fact, some of these choices seemed wrong on the surface, only for them to work out perfectly in the end.
Dyon remembered clearly that one of the first times he felt this feeling was when he met Madeleine. Then it happened again when he met Ri. Then, for some reason, Clara, who he hadn't felt that pull toward before, when he met her again, he felt the same inescapable attraction. This last one was the most baffling to him…
Dyon found himself recently having to ignore this pull when it came to women. He felt it had been appeared too often lately… Luckily, it wasn't just for his wives this happened for either.
When he was first choosing his secondary profession at Focus Academy, he felt that pull. When he catalyzed his master's blood essence to form the Florence Clan's Humanoid manifestation, he had felt that pull. When he was choosing his Constitutions, he felt that pull once more.
How was it that he managed to randomly select his true manifestation out of a sea of thousands, while Clara didn't manage to do the same?
Most recently, he felt that pull again when he chose to let Lionel, Eve and Chenglei live. Then again when he chose Pjisel as a disciple. Then once more, right now, as he was taking on Brahman as a disciple.
Whatever that instinctual pull was, it had always helped him and never harmed him… If this pull was just an innate ability of Dyon himself, then it was good. But… If he was on someone else's puppet string, that was something Dyon would never accept.
His inner gaze couldn't help but turn his nascent soul.
Most of the time, Dyon subconsciously forgot this miniature version of himself even existed. What he still didn't understand to this day was how he didn't realize it was there until Lillianna tried to kill him?
Dyon had been able to look into his Mind's Eye ever since he was a student at Focus Academy, so how had he neglected something so important? And why was it that its existence seemed to slip his mind so often? As though it wanted him to forget that it was there…?
Dyon shivered, suddenly remembering something Jade had done to him.
Jade knew how intelligent he was and that if he was left to his own devices, he would comprehend her true identity quickly. So, taking control of The Seal, she blocked his ability to think so far, thus protecting him from the time will backlash until he was strong enough.
It was a level of sealing too deep for Dyon to comprehend. It was as though the answer was right before him, but he wasn't allowed to think about it, comprehend it, or even reflect on the path leading up to it. Even when Dyon tried to probe his nascent soul now, a strong feeling told him he shouldn't, causing every attempt to end in no attempt at all. Then he forgot about ever having made an attempt at all…
It was no wonder he had hardly felt the effects of his dao heart. Other than helping him cultivate faster, it hardly responded to him at all.
Dyon shook his head, his eyes suddenly becoming vacant. He suddenly couldn't remember what he had just been thinking about, a completely novel feeling to him.
What he didn't know was that this was not only not the first time, but it was the several hundredth time that day alone. Yet, Dyon never noticed. Despite thinking these same exact things every say, thousands of times a day, for every day since his nascent soul appeared before him, he didn't remember at all.
Not only did he not remember, he completely missed the flash in Saru's reflective sapphire eyes in his distraction.
'Even if we come to know… You can't know yet.' Saru thought silently.
