by Pegaz
“I’m a Rank 9, just like you! I can use all the elements you can use, but if anything happens, you deal with it for me like I’m some damsel in distress!
“And you still haven’t told me why you’re creating those runes! You’ve told me what they are and what they do, but you dance around telling me why they’re so damn important!”
Lost in thought, John didn’t answer, which led Sarah to believe that he had no intention of spilling the beans. She rolled her eyes and stormed out of the house, slamming the door behind her.
I don’t think I’ve changed that much, have I? I know Sarah can handle herself, so I don’t interfere with anything she does, and I want Kelly to be able to handle herself, too.
I’ve even organised creature attacks on her when she goes to the jungle, so if I’m overprotective, that wouldn’t happen.
What’s Sarah on about then?
As he was thinking, he saw Kelly walking towards the house in his Scan and stuffed the runes and other tools into his Storage Space since Kelly was still unaware of their existence.
By the time Kelly opened the door, John had put everything away and sat at the kitchen table. He almost forgot about the mythical rune he had dropped due to the interruption from the system, but he found it in his Scan and put it away before Kelly arrived.
“You and mom fight again?” Kelly asked as she pushed open the door.
“I would say we’re exchanging our opinions loudly. Fighting is a strong word,” he replied with a chuckle.
Kelly walked to the kitchen table while laughing and sat down opposite John. “Then what would you call the big argument you had with mom a few years ago? Another exchange of opinions but at the top of your lungs?”
A smirk formed on John’s face as he remembered the fight Kelly often called “the big argument”—it was about what Kelly should do to an enemy.
John’s opinion was that she should kill them to make sure the person couldn’t attempt to hurt or kill her a second time.
Sarah’s opinion was to let the person go the first time, but if they tried it again, then Kelly could kill the person with a clear conscience.
One of his biggest mistakes to date happened next, as he couldn’t help but laugh at Sarah’s opinion.
“What’s so funny?” she replied, throwing him a side glance.
“You’re gonna get her killed!”
He claimed that while Kelly might be able to defeat the enemy at that time, next time it would be different as the enemy had come to understand how strong she was. They would then prepare better and try to catch her off guard, potentially leading to her death. To prevent that, she should get rid of any future danger right then and there.
Sarah argued that John’s training would let her deal with hidden dangers easily, but if Kelly killed an enemy then any chance of redemption would disappear. She said that she knew people who had committed terrible acts but then turned around to do good in the world which saved countless lives.
On top of that, Sarah argued that if Kelly went around killing all her enemies, the family of the dead would seek revenge and would attack when she least expected it anyway, so Kelly might as well take a chance that the enemy would turn around and do good, or possibly become friends through fighting.
The argument didn’t go anywhere and both John and Sarah never backed down from their opinions.
It lasted for hours and it was only until Kelly screamed that it was her choice to make and she wouldn’t know what she’d do until it happened that the argument stopped.
John came out of his thoughts and looked at Kelly. “You didn’t come here just to tell me I shouldn’t argue with your mother, right?”
Kelly smiled. “Of course not. I heard some news about the royal family that I thought you might want to know about.”
Her father stared at her questionably. “What news?”
“I knew you wanted to know!” She playfully stuck out her tongue and proceeded to tell him. “A royal entourage is coming here! The Bahan’s princess and the Gralux’s prince are getting married, so they started touring both kingdoms a few years ago. They’ll be here in about a month.”
John listened to Kelly go on and on about the royals, especially the prince.
When Kelly had calmed down a little, he decided he’d better warn her about what royalty could really be like.
He looked Kelly in the eyes before saying, “While there are a few royal members who are decent, most of them believe everything belongs to them and don’t even think about how commoners think or feel. The king will even have multiple women to make sure their bloodline continues, and some of them aren’t with him willingly.
“While you’re imagining meeting the prince, just remember that fantasy is always much nicer than reality, so don’t be too disappointed when reality hits you.”
John saw Kelly blush a little before she ran outside, not even saying goodbye to him.
Chapter 14: Experiment
“Is it normal for girls to fantasise about marrying a prince?” John asked Sarah as she re-entered the house a few hours later.
Sarah shrugged. “No idea. When I was growing up, I dreamed about being a surgeon and all my friends were the same. Why? Don’t tell me a prince is going to disappear soon?”
“No, they’d soon find someone that well-known and connected. More people would be searching for a missing prince than anyone else in the kingdom, and even if I brainwashed him into thinking he cleaned the streets for a living, his demeanour would be different than those around him because he was taught differently when growing up.”
Sarah sighed in relief, but then she heard John continue.
“If I destroy the kingdom, he’d no longer be a prince and that would solve the problem much better.”
Sarah looked at John with her brows knitted. “You’re joking, right?”
John saw Sarah was getting angry again, so he nodded. “Yeah… I remember some of the novels I read and a lot of them used the same quote which goes ‘a toad lusting after swan flesh’ and I think that quote describes the situation perfectly.
“The people in this world, and even Kelly herself, might think of her as the toad in the quote because the other party is a prince of a kingdom, but you and I know it’s the other way round.
“Kelly will become an immortal on her twenty-first birthday, so she’ll be young and beautiful for a long time while the prince becomes an old man. The prince might have a king, an army, and the entire kingdom backing him, but you alone are much more than a match for them in every possible way, including finance.
“The prince doesn’t even own the kingdom yet, but even if he did, he’d own a bit of land on this small planet while we own one of the largest private planets available!
“Comparing Kelly to this prince is literally a toad to a swan! Actually, even a tadpole is too good of a comparison. The prince is more like mud that won’t come off your shoe.”
Sarah scrunched her nose and sat down at the kitchen table. “Don’t feelings count with you?”
John nodded. “Of course they do, but we’re not on Earth.”
Sarah laughed. “If we were still on Earth, as a doctor I would never be with a loan shark.”
John chose to ignore Sarah’s remark. “My point was, here you have to look for more traits in a partner. On Earth, we were in the information era, so usually, if a person was smart and could earn loads of money, he or she would have no problem finding a significant other since they could provide security, luxury, and more.
“But here, that same smart person would starve to death or die to an animal while they were out hunting. If the same person was a woman, then on this planet she couldn’t become a teacher or any occupation that would require her to use her intellect to survive because women have less rights here.
“I’ve treated everyone fairly while staying in this village and even trained girls to become stronger without any kind of prejudice because I grew up on Earth. You and Kelly have the same attitude, but nob
ody else does, so status matters.
“If the prince and Kelly do become a couple, and Kelly thinks her status is too low, then she’ll be too afraid to say anything against the prince. Due to the customs he grew up with, he’s bound to be prejudiced against her.
“Take us for example. We both believe that a relationship needs honesty, right? If we don’t agree with each other on a subject, then we’ll let the other person know about it even if we wake the neighbours or make each other angry.
“Holding in your feelings because you’re scared that the other person will leave you or become irritated is one of the worst things you could do. Everything the person does that you don’t agree with will continue to happen unless you say something.
“Then, after Kelly becomes an immortal and realises she has more than the prince, the roles would reverse and that prince would be too scared to say anything or too stubborn to change his ways and still feel annoyed, angry, or scared every time Kelly does something against what he believes or thinks is possible. I don’t think they would be a good fit at all.”
“I agree with you.”
That response left John bewildered.
“Don’t get me wrong,” Sarah continued, “I feel that no mortal could be an adequate match for Kelly because of the reasons you’ve mentioned and others, but I also feel that what you did to the other boys and their family was the wrong way to handle it. Kelly needs to figure out that they’re not a good match herself.”
John sighed. “Fine. I promise not to kidnap or brainwash anyone else.”
Sarah smiled and nodded in approval.
“What are you doing here anyway? Don’t you have patients?”
“Actually, no.” Sarah shook her head. “Nobody has fallen ill or been involved in an accident for a while now and I’m free for a bit.”
“Most of the kids I’ve trained have gone to do the knight’s test. Everyone else has to study, so I’m free for a bit, too. I’m going to explore somewhere. Want to come?”
“Sure, why not? Kelly’s gone on one of her hunting trips after telling me about the royal entourage. It has been a while since I went on an adventure, and just sitting here is a little boring.”
After making sure nobody was around, John and Sarah teleported five miles into the jungle.
Before Sarah could ask where they were going, John used his earth element to remove the ground underneath them, causing them both to sink.
Sarah laughed and jumped into John’s arms, causing him to princess-carry her.
Seeing John was caught off guard, Sarah explained her actions. “Even before we were dating, you princess-carried me as we sank down into the earth. Don’t tell me that after being married and having a child together, I no longer get to be treated the same.”
John smiled. “Back then, you were helpless and couldn’t fly. That’s the only reason why it happened. I wasn’t flirting with you at that time. Though I did enjoy the experience.”
They continued reminiscing as they sank further into the ground. John had used his earth element to replace the dirt above him, so nobody could see where they went.
A few miles down, they came to a sudden stop which caused John to knit his brows.
Sarah jumped out of his arms, a perplexed look struck her as she stared at the floor.
What was revealed after all the earth had moved was a metallic surface.
John knelt down and examined it before turning to Sarah. “Deflecting metal.”
Sarah examined the metal, too. It was just like the metal that John had used on his shield. No Life Power could come close to it, but it was soft and even a mortal could easily rip it apart.
A minute later, John started to use his metal element to sink further down, causing Sarah to jump back into his arms. He then used his metal element to cover the hole he made afterwards.
It took a few seconds for them to travel through the twenty feet of metal and what came into view was a large, open area with greenery and a Life Power mist.
“I don’t believe it!” John exclaimed. “It’s just like the other mortal planet! Deflecting metal layered to stop the Life Power from reaching the surface and immortal creatures living below.”
Sarah looked around and saw the hornet-like beasts John had once described to her. “Why don’t these creatures destroy this soft metal and go above ground?”
John could only shrug his shoulders for he had no idea, but he knew he wanted to try an experiment.
He smiled and asked Sarah to wait there before he flew down a little.
When he was in range, he used his threads to capture one of the creatures and brought it towards him as he flew back to Sarah.
His threads had wrapped around every part of the creature, besides its eyes and the top of its head.
As he got closer to the metal above Sarah, he noticed the creature had started squirming much more frantically as if it was meeting its natural enemy.
When he was next to Sarah, he lifted the creature up so its head touched the ceiling.
As soon as its skin made contact with the deflecting metal, the creature’s head exploded.
John and Sarah turned their threads into shields to block all the brain matter and blood that spewed out.
Afterwards, Sarah asked John to unwrap the creature and she quickly grabbed its arm and took out the microscope she had created to examine it.
After a few minutes, she put it away and turned to John. “These creatures are basically a mass of Life Power that’s shaped into their current form. It’s no wonder the deflecting metal keeps them at bay.”
“So, they can change their shapes at will, then?” John inquired.
Sarah let go of the creature after she finished examining it before shrugging her shoulders. “Maybe their ancestors did, but over time, the creatures got used to that shape and might have lost that ability.”
John sighed. “As long as they can’t get past the deflecting metal, then it’s fine. I’ve always wondered why they didn’t break through to the surface since they’re much stronger than the mortals.”
They explored the area for a few hours, but they didn’t find anything interesting. It looked like no humans had ever lived there as there weren't any buildings like there were in the other place.
They returned home after having their fill of exploration and John made sure he closed the hole up after they left.
Chapter 15: The Royal Entourage
During the next month, John tried something different with his mind parts.
He had only one of them working on the Scan while the rest remained unused and that had been bothering him for a while.
It wasn’t until he went through his Complete List for ideas that he had an epiphany.
He kept his mind part working on the Scan. After some trials and errors during the last month, he enabled some of the other mind parts to do something inside the Scan.
One mind part was lip reading each individual within the Scan’s range. He could gather loads of information every second doing this. It wasn’t long after figuring this ability out that he learned that the royal entourage was here to inspect the town and its people, before they went back to the capital for their wedding.
This royal wedding would bring the two kingdoms together as allies, but before that, the prince and princess were touring both kingdoms. The tour had started years ago and this town was one of the last stops.
Other than that bit of information, John ignored most of the other things he learned.
Another mind part was filtering what he didn’t want to see in the Scan. He used to have to turn the Scan off when people went to bed naked or was doing something John wouldn’t be able to remove from his memory. This mind part was stopping these cursed images from entering his mind and John almost wanted to celebrate his achievement.
Seeing people’s rank was another mind part’s job. Even though the Scan couldn’t show any status like Controlled, Sealed, Manipulated, or even Pregnant like his Immortal Eye skill could s
how, he could see if any immortals and, more importantly, if any Transcendents snuck into the town.
The last one was just keeping his Storage Space open, even though he had no use for it at the moment.
This meant that all but two of his mind parts were working on something, so he could only hope that one of the working mind parts was the Demon.
Once he had everything figured out, he told Sarah about it. She was excited to be able to filter out those things she didn’t want to see, too, but she couldn’t use the method yet because she still had to use the mind parts for the absorbing and merging techniques—she hadn’t reached the maximum amount of Toxin Power yet.
For the next few days, everyone in town was cleaning and preparing for the royals to arrive. It was imperative that they impress the royal family as it could mean bringing in new business and citizens. It was something both John and Sarah hoped for but didn’t speak about very often.
John’s previous students had successfully gone off to become knights and his newer students weren’t that great. Most of them were school-aged or unwilling to put in the effort for proper training. It left John frustrated and he often thought about quitting, but with the possibility of bringing in new clients, he was hopeful again.
Sarah, however, had plenty of people to care for. Business picked up significantly as people wanted to feel their best for the occasion, but as soon as they felt even slightly better, the patients would scurry home to prepare for the royals.
Sitting outside the training area, Sarah and John could see two lines of four mounted knights that had just entered their Scan’s range.
John recognised the knights in the left formation from the kingdom’s capital, but the ones on the right donned different armour and weapons, so he assumed they were from the other kingdom. Sarah had the same assumption.
A large white carriage decorated with gold trimmings soon followed with an additional set of mounted knights behind it. Inside, two people dressed in royal garb sat with their eyes closed and arms crossed.