NOVEL NEXT Chapter 23 Book
Who in the world has never felt anger or envy towards someone? Who has never felt proud of something? It's not like there's someone here to judge me for answering honestly.
After giving the answer, nothing happens, time passes like this and finally something happens, the pillar in the middle of the room, goes down to the floor and then goes up again but with a book.
"A book..." I feel slightly disappointed that the reward for all this work I had to walk through the forest for hours was a book, until I remember that books contain important things, so it's not good for me to judge without first taking a look.
I approach the pillar and look at the book's title.
"This book... [Ancient Ruins and Runes]"
'Is this a book that teaches about the past and how to use runes?' When Valac mentioned that runes can record magic in objects, I thought... if I learn them, will I be able to use magic? So this book could end up being a lifesaver if it really teaches me how to use magic through runes.
"Evaluate...!!!" I tried to use evaluation but couldn't, when I use evaluate on living beings, it depends on whether I'm stronger than that being, if they are much stronger than me, I can't evaluate them, but on objects I use my magic to evaluate. I, who have magic at the level of a Demigod, can't evaluate this book.
'This book is worth a lot...very much so' Just this fact shows how valuable this book is.
I was going to take it, but I stop.
'I'm sure there's a trap...' I try to think about how I'll do to not lose the book, I decide to take the book, store it in the inventory and run to the door all at the same time, so I'll have a better chance of escaping the trap.
After all, I'm completely naked and dirty, I don't have anywhere to keep the book.
I start getting ready to run.
"1...2...3...Now" I count from 1 to 3 and run as fast as I can, I grab the book and put it in the inventory as I run towards the door. As soon as I take the book, everything shakes, and the open door starts to close slowly.
'Hurry, hurry, I need to go faster' I barely manage to reach the door and pass through, as soon as I take the book, everything starts to crumble behind me, but I don't stop running, I keep running through the corridor.
Everything behind me continues to collapse, my legs hurt a bit from forcing myself to run like this, but I know that if I stay here and get crushed, I'll be forced to stay here for who knows how long.
Boom Boom
I hear the sound of everything collapsing, it even sounds like an explosion. I start to stumble a bit, but I do my best not to fall, I notice that I stepped on something and arrows start flying in my direction, I dodge them by a hair, one of them grazing my arm.
"Urk" but I keep running, I don't stop for anything, if I had the book in my hand, I could have dropped it. I step on another trap and now holes appear in the path, forcing me to waste time dodging the holes as everything behind me crumbles.
"Haar haar" I breathe heavily, this running is now taking its toll on my body, in this kind of moment I can only hate my status, which is crap and gets tired just by running a few meters.
Finally, I start to see something, at the end of the corridor, in the place that would be the door, there is some kind of dark shadow that resembles a portal.
'That looks scary...' I look back and see how everything is still collapsing.
'But I don't have much choice...' I decide to jump headfirst into that scary-looking portal, hoping it won't take me to a horrible place. My mental and physical exhaustion is not prepared to go through another bad experience.
"Please...let that be the exit..." I wish for nothing that this will finally end and I can rest, I never thought I would miss lying in that bed, in that scenario that is engraved in my mind from the many times I've seen it.
Finally, I reach the scary-looking portal and jump into it without looking back, everything goes dark and suddenly I'm on a marble floor in front of a table.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA" I hear laughter, the voice is beautiful, but the laughter is like that of a maniac.
"Rawoar, Raww" something comes close to me and licks me, when I look I see Aetheris near me, he seems happy to see me.
"Aetheris...Hick" I feel tears of joy for finally getting out of that forest, I hug Aetheris, even though I'm dirty, I can't bring myself to care about it now, all I can do is be happy to see my cute little dragon.
"I see you had a lot of fun, little sister," Valac speaks to me, he has a gentle smile and I see the excitement in his gaze.
"You're braver than I thought, I never expected you to explode with the [Flesh-Eating Tree] when you did, your little dragon started crying...just remembering it...hahaha" he laughs at my misfortune as if it were some kind of TV program.
I feel angry at him, he saw everything but did nothing, but worse than the anger, I feel like he betrayed me, I didn't know, but it seems I really started to trust him, he always seemed nice and even gave me Aetheris, so I really had some trust in him, I had hope that he would be different from that monster portrayed in the game.
But he's not different, he's the same, a monster who enjoys watching my suffering.
"..."
"You don't need to look at me like that, little sister, think of the bright side, you got a good prize in the end, this book is the [Ancient Ruins and Runes] book. A book that tells about the ancient civilization and the knowledge of how to engrave runes on objects."
"Of course, it's written in an ancient language, but you can read that, so it's quite valuable, I'm sure you can find a good use for it," he says with a smile, his smile is always gentle, but to me his smile is like a treacherous snake that will bite at the first opportunity it gets.
He snaps his fingers, and soon I'm completely clean and my dress and choker are intact, but even though I'm now perfectly clean, I can't feel happy about it, in the end, all I can say to him is...
"Why did you do this..." my tone of voice is sad, like someone who has been betrayed and did not expect it, like someone whose trust has been broken.
"This...what?" he asks as if he doesn't know what he did wrong, this indifference to my suffering fills me with fury.
"WHY DID YOU JUST WATCH? WHY DID YOU PUT ME THROUGH ALL OF THAT? WHY DIDN'T YOU DO ANYTHING EVEN THOUGH I BEGGED FOR HELP?" I yell at him, finally exploding, my voice is full of pain and resentment.
He saw everything and could have done something, but he just watched and laughed at me.
"...Hmmm..." he murmurs as if he's thinking while putting his hand on his chin, the image of him is beautiful, but that matters little to me.
"Because it's fun?" he speaks as if questioning, as if my previous questions were so meaningless that they didn't deserve a real answer.
This answer fills me with indignation.
"FUN, IS IT FUN TO SEE ME BEING TORN TO PIECES?" I can't hold back my resentment, Aetheris in my hands also growls at Valac, as if he's helping me in the argument.
He moves while crouching slightly, soon he grabs my cheek and makes me look into his eyes.
"Yes, little sister, it was very fun, why would I stop when you were providing such a wonderful show?" he speaks, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, his smile is gentle, but his eyes show the sadism hidden in them.
"It was amazing to see how you begged me for help, it was wonderful to see your hope turn to despair when the realization that you would be stuck there for days hit you, it was thrilling when you exploded, it was funny to see how cautious you were with everything after suffering a little pain, it was hilarious to see how you threw yourself in the mud to eliminate the smell of blood," he begins to cite what he felt at certain moments.
Talking exactly what he felt, and how he saw what happened to me. Soon he kisses me, trying to get out of the kiss, but he is clearly too strong for me to escape.
He stops the kiss and starts talking again.
"Even after all this, your beauty never faded, yes, you truly are the most beautiful jewel, one that will never break," he speaks with a certain obsession in his gaze.
His eyes scare me, taking away the little courage that my anger made me have, I have never seen anyone look at me so terrifyingly, I don't know what made his obsession increase so drastically.
But he clearly wasn't like this before, when he came to my room, all he showed was interest, but now he clearly has an obsession with me.
'Why did the interest increase? I didn't do anything extraordinary in the forest...' I don't know what makes each person's obsession increase, but it's clearly dangerous, if he becomes obsessed with me, he will start coming more often to see me.
"..." he releases me, but now I realize how he always keeps his eyes on my body, he doesn't even care about Aetheris, his interest is totally in me.
"Sit down, little sister, I have good news for you..." he invites me to sit in a chair with him while serving me some kind of tea, the color of the tea is strange, the liquid in the cup has a translucent salmon-pink tone.
I follow what he said and sit down, my lack of speech seems to even deny the anger I exuded before, but this does not mean that I am not angry or sad, on the contrary, I am sad and angry, but...
I have only calmed down enough to realize that if I do anything stupid again, he may do something terrible to me. This experience in the forest shows enough for me to know that he would not hesitate to send me to another horrible and ghastly place.
"Well, let's start by talking about the war," he starts the conversation, the topic catches my attention.
'I had forgotten that the demons and humans are at war...' the fact is that the 7 could end this war with a snap of their fingers, but they pretend not to have enough strength for that, while simply maintaining a war with the humans.
This act of theirs is such that every now and then one of them appears on the battlefield, fights a little, and disappears, in other words, they haven't used even 5% of their power in the war, this makes the humans have hope that they can win.
Most races know that the 7 are strong, but they don't know how strong they really are, this war with the humans is not a good indicator of strength, so for almost everyone they are a complete mystery.
"The humans managed to invade the demonic kingdom's border 2 days ago," he talks about the news.
He looks at my reaction and shows a slight surprise that I haven't reacted.
"Aren't you going to get excited? The humans have finally taken a step forward..."
'There's no way such a stupid news can excite me...the humans have no chance of winning this war, they only managed to cross the border because they were allowed to.'
"Well, that was only possible because of that boy, what was his name...hmm...I think it's Uriel Starfall."
When he mentions Uriel, it excites me a bit, I'm glad to know he's doing well.
"He's an interesting young man...too bad he's just trash," when he insults Uriel, all I feel is anger.
"HE'S NOT TRASH!" I yell at him as I get up, this movement shakes the table a bit.
"No need to get excited, sister, but I really don't know what you see in him...he's so...mediocre...all he has good is that sword."
"He's not mediocre, he's better than any of you will ever be in your lives," I say what can be taken as an insult to him. My confidence in Uriel is enormous, even though all I have of him are memories.
"Hmm, interesting...you trust this boy quite a bit, little sister...maybe...you're in love with him?" he speaks in a joking tone.
"What, no, he's just my friend..." to me Uriel is like my best friend, I feel the same as Ayla felt for everyone, so my feelings for Uriel are the same as Ayla's.
"I see...even if you love him, I don't think you can expect much from him, in the end he's still just a human with a good sword."
"...He'll defeat you one day..." I whisper, as if this were a certainty, although I don't know if he's really capable of it, no matter how much hope I have in him, in the end Uriel is still at the Limit of the System while the demon lords have surpassed the system.
"Hahaha you seem to have a lot of confidence in your childhood love..." he teases me with this idea that I'm in love with Uriel.
"So on the day Uriel arrives at this castle...I'll show him how my little sister is a lewd girl who prefers to spend her time with me," he speaks in a sensual tone, while implying that he will have sex with me in front of Uriel.