In a Civilized Manner

“Ace. Hypothetically speaking, how possible would it be for you to break the door with your bare hands?”

“Around the same probability as you being a prophet.”

“How unfortunate.” Edris sighed as he pressed his face against the visual panel of the door. The top half of the door was transparent, while the bottom half was made of metal. “Where did all the guards go? Maybe you should try to seduce one when he comes. After all, with your looks, it shouldn’t be impossible—”

A trickling coldness brushed past his back, and he closed his mouth with a smile. Even though Ace stated he couldn’t break doors, Edris had a feeling that if he kept talking, the man was fully capable of at least dislocating a shoulder or two.

Letting his thoughts wander, Edris noticed a familiar face in the cell diagonal to theirs.

“Miss Darcie?”

He called out to her in a whisper. No response.

As with the other Awakeneds in the chasm, Darcie stood in her cell like a display, her usually tied-up hair released to her waist and her expression aloof.

Seeing that this method wasn’t going to work, Edris took a step back. He had forgotten that Ace was still standing arms crossed behind him. The dark-haired man turned around with a half-hearted smile.

“Oops. Sorry about that.”

Ace narrowed his eyes.

Without further ado, Edris took another step back. He sprung forward at once and slam the bottom of his feet to the metal. An echo followed the action, ushering a harsh cry from the door.

“Aren’t you worried about the guards hearing you?”

“None of them are here right now, and it’s not like I kicked it open. They’ll only assume this is my futile attempt to escape.” Edris shrugged and cast his gaze forward. “Miss Darcie?”

To Ace’s surprise, Edris’s series of actions actually prompted some reactions from the girl. She flinched, and something flashed in her aloof gaze. After several more kicks, Darcie’s dazedness faded. Her eyes regained focus, and she began to wobble left and right.

Waves of sharp pain shot through her brain, but she managed to crane her neck towards the source calling out to her.

“Who, who’s there?”

“Miss Darcie, it is me. Edris. Can you hear me?” Edris replied softly.

“I… What am I doing here? Why are you here?”

“I know you must be confused, but could you please tell me everything you remember about how you got into this current situation?”

“I don’t know. You’re saying what? Or him. It’s muddled. Everything’s muddled!” Despite Edris’s attempts at obtaining information from the girl, Darcie’s responses only grew more incoherent as confusion flooded her brain.

Her head jolted up as she stared past her cell doors. Her gaze bore the entire palette of despair as it aimed straight towards Edris.

“You must get out. Run away before it’s too late,” she said through quivering lips.

Suddenly, her eyes widened in horror as the girl let out a heartwrenching sob.

“But Doris. She’s only seven. She’s only seven this can’t be happening to her. My sister. Take her with you. You’re a prophet, right? Please, save her. Save my sister. Please, please please please please—”

The entire chasm was silent, except for her chant-like mumblings.

It was at that moment.

A shuffling noise occurred near the leftmost tunnel, and Darcie’s mumbles discontinued with her sharp inhale. Her eyes bulged uncontrollably, but the next second they fell lax as Darcie returned to her previous aloof state.

A single tear slid down her cheek.

“The hypnosis is back into effect.” Calmly, Edris moved his gaze away from the girl to the leftmost tunnel. “Whoever’s behind this, they must be quite a high levelled Awakened.”

“Only attributed mages can use mind-altering magic. It relies heavily on both experience and mana input,” Ace said, his attention lingering on the cell across from them. “It’s dark magic.”

Edris nodded. “Looks like someone is behind the viscount.”

“Someone who uses dark magic.”

The dark-haired man tapped his lips. When he first saw the Awakeneds’ obedience, he had considered the viscount to be behind the hypnosis. However, he didn’t look strong enough to pull off such an advanced skill.

“In that case, I wonder who…”

While Edris was amidst his thoughts, the initial shuffling sound grew louder. A worker entered from the leftmost tunnel and was soon followed by six others, all dressed in black. As if reacting to their entrance, the orb at the top of the chasm lit up, casting light to the entire chasm.

The next second, Edris and Ace’s cell door flickered a couple of times; then, it turned completely opaque.

“The viscount’s trying to hide our existence?” The corners of Edris’s lips upturned. “I guess some important figures are here.”

Shortly following his words, leisure footsteps could be heard entering the chasm.

Edris peeked through the opaque door. A blurred silhouette strolled the very front, with several figures following behind him. If his speculations were correct, Viscount Eathe was escorting his guests around the chasm to showcase the Awakeneds.

Edris could piece together some terms they threw out. Something about Awakeneds and high-quality mana. As the group approached their direction, however, the lights above them flickered off.

The outside noise stopped all at once, leaving them in enclosed darkness.

While Edris was accustomed to being in a dark space, even he couldn’t make out anything when it came to complete darkness.

“Hey, can’t you glow like before?”

“ …Did you forget I am currently depleted of mana?” Ace’s deep voice brushed Edris’s ears from behind, and the latter subconsciously shuddered.

A handicap on his visual and auditory senses simultaneously implied the heightening of others. Not to mention, in the narrow space, his perception of time also seemed to fall distorted.

Perhaps it was for a few minutes, perhaps a bit more than that, but the two of them simply stood in silence.

“I’m bored,” Edris suddenly said.

“In a situation like this?”

Ace knew that Edris could be unfathomable at times, but he still couldn’t help but crease his brows at the nonsense coming out of his mouth.

“Should I take a nap? But it’s kind of uncomfortable here.” Edris blinked as a light bulb lit in his head. “Actually, I have a better idea. Could you get something for me in the bag?”

The Spatial Pouch was hidden in his cloak, which Ace now had tied around his lower body.

“What do you need?”

“The mana detectors.”

Ace creased his brows. “You even brought those with you?”

“I don’t trust leaving that machina with anything other than enhancers and elixirs.” Edris shrugged as he wiggled his wrists. “These cuffs block mana formation, but not mana detection; I always wanted to test my mana and magic capabilities, so might as well use this time to my advantage.”

Despite his judging gaze, Ace didn’t say anything further and reached down at the pouch. As he handed the items to Edris, he noticed his messily wrapped bandages were slowly falling apart.

“Don’t move.”

Edris blinked twice, only to nearly step back on instinct when Ace began to fix up the bandages on his wrist. After a minute, the man stepped back and handed him the two devices.

“I didn’t know you could treat wounds.” Edris raised an eyebrow in amusement.

“I read it in a book. I’ve never done it before.”

Edris casually lifted his two arms, only to realise that the bandages were now wrapped way too tightly.

If it were any other person, he would have thought they were purposely cutting off his circulation.

“Yeah, I can tell.” He smiled flatly. “Thanks.”

With that, he bent over and started setting up the two devices.

Mana-channel detectors were primarily used by mages to help nobles detect whether their children had the potential to become an Awakened. Edris told him it was two devices, but they were actually attached to each other and came in pairs.

The detector wasn’t hard to use; all he had to do was attach the two nodes on the side of his body. One to his carotid artery while the other right above his heart. After that, he just needed to flick the switch and wait for the results.

Indeed, it was simple and effective, but these advantages were nothing to Edris in the face of the price tag.

Not to mention, it was a single-use item too.

“If it weren’t for the fact that I needed to understand my own body conditions better thanks to the effects of the trade, I would never drop so much sorry money on something like this.” He grumbled.

When operated by a mage, they would infuse mana into the detector to both speed up the process and improve its accuracy. However, since neither he nor Ace was currently capable of using mana, Edris could only hover over the device and wait for the results.

The mana channel detector emitted a dim glow amidst the otherwise pitch black space. On it was a screen with an empty bar. It was supposed to be filled according to the percentage of mana in the user’s body that could be formulated into usable magic.

Another minute passed.

“Still no reaction? It’s not broken, right?” Edris poked at the machine, a frown emerging from his lips.

He was fully prepared to get back at Alan Grennor for offering him a scam when the bar began to flicker.

“Oh. It’s here, it’s here.” Edris licked his lips. “Let’s see…”

Ace, who had been rested against the walls, leaned forward as well.

After seeing the report, both of them fell silent.

On the dimly lit screen was an empty bar. Actually, if one looked closely, he would see that a fraction of it was filled up. A number then spat out from below:

RESULT: 0.001.

“ …How sad.” Ace was the one to break the silence. “A wobbul has an average mana aptitude of two.”

“I didn’t know you were so talkative,” Edris said with a smile.

Despite the urge to step on the detector, he merely inhaled deeply and flipped the machine to its side. After the aptitude test results came out, it was now calculating the size of his inherent mana channel.

Having already taken a direct hit from the previous result, Edris stared blankly at the loading bar. He didn’t think anything would top it—until the machine started flashing again.

RESULT: FAILURE

The word appeared on the screen in large, bold letters, and after flashing a couple more times, the entire screen fell black altogether.

Indeed, another silence.

“…”

“…”

Ace stifled a cough, and Edris’s eye twitched.

Currently, the machine looked quite punchable.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t given a chance to execute his thoughts as the cell’s opaque door unexpectedly flashed back to its previous state, returning them the entire view of the chasm.

Edris didn’t know how long had passed since they were blocked from the outside, but it must have been a while. Other than their cell, the rest of the chasm had been emptied out.

Well, almost emptied out.

From the corner of his eye, Edris made out a crowd at one of the seven tunnels in the distance. Moving frantically around the hoard of people was no other than Viscount Eathe, whose face bore a mix of rage and embarrassment as his workers flailed around in an attempt to capture something.

Someone, to be precise.

“It’s her again. The scary child.” Edris winced subconsciously as he was reminded of his eroded wrist.

With her long hair flying behind her steps, the girl sprinted around the giant chasm, literally biting off anyone who attempted to lay hands on her.

From afar, Edris and Ace took in the entire situation in their cell. Since they were in a corner from a distance away, the group didn’t seem to notice their presence.

How is it that she has so much black mana within her?

Edris watched as a puddle of black appeared under her every step.

“What are you fools doing, letting her run out again just like this?” The viscount scowled through gritted teeth.

“I apologise, Lord Eathe.” One of the men in black huffed in response as he sent more people after the child. “We did lock her away, but she somehow managed to melt the doors. We really didn’t expect this, my Lord. The doors were metal!”

“Stop talking and just catch her already!” Eathe dragged a hand down his face before turning towards his guests. “Sirs, I truly apologise for this. All the prey have been prepared for the Hunt. It’s just this brat that came out of nowhere…”

One of the guests casually raised a hand, and Eathe knowingly shut up. The guest was no other than the hypnotist, one of his “employers” for the Hunt.

The situation didn’t seem to faze him as the hypnotist smiled through his mask. “What must you mean by that, Lord? That child is simply adorable. I didn’t see her on display earlier, though. Might she be a prey as well?”

His reaction caught the viscount off guard as the latter mustered a smile. “Originally, yes, but she is quite disobedient, so I figured…”

“Oh, but that’s all the better!” His voice erupted with joy. “She would make a very engaging prey. My anticipation for tonight only deepens.”

At his words, the other guests muttered similar words of agreement.

“I, I am glad to hear that.” Viscount Eathe bowed while smiling.

At the same time, the workers finally caught the child and knocked her unconscious.

As the guests turned around to walk to the exit, Eathe’s smile dropped immediately. He bit the insides of his jaws.

With the hypnotist present, he was originally planning to tell him about the prophet and the white-haired man and erase their memories, but with this whole embarrassment, bringing it up now would only further tarnish his reputation.

“Lord Eathe?” One of the guest’s called from behind, and Eathe immediately put on a pleasant smile. “I am coming.”

It can’t be helped. He’ll have to bring it up after the Hunt ends successfully.

Eathe took one last glance at the cell before turning towards the worker who had hauled the girl into a sack. “Give the brat the punishment she deserves, but make sure it doesn’t show. We’ll need her for the Hunt as well. Make sure she’s obedient.”

“Understood.”

With that, the chasm fell silent once more.

Having witnessed the entire scene with a frown on his face, Edris then heard a deep voice beside him.

“Trash.”

“Very hard to disagree.”

While he shared the same sentiments, Edris wasn’t someone who cared enough about others to take up trash-picking as his personal responsibility. He simply wasn’t someone like that.

Really.

“Ace, I am a civilized person.”

At the dark-haired man’s sudden comment, Ace rolled his eyes.

“As civilized people, we must follow the rules of society. However…” Edris craned his neck left and right. “I don’t see any rules to be followed here. Do you? In that case, it’s not my fault for not following rules if there are none in the first place, right?”

“You always say nonsensical things like this when you have excuses to make.” Ace deadpanned.

Edris’s lips creased into a smile.

“I am a civilized person. But that doesn’t conflict with me wrecking this place.”

As he said that, he brought his bandaged arm up to his collarbones and felt the pendant under his fingers. The next second, Edris’s eye smile faded, replaced by a cold gaze that brought about a certain sense of foreignness upon him.

Ace’s eyes widened as he realised what the man was planning. “You…”

Edris didn’t respond. All his attention was directed toward the mechanical voice in his head.

Give-and-Take is a necessary cycle for equilibrium.

Would you like to give a part of yourself to the world?