Elias entered a boring building made as if it were made of gold. It had overly complex patterns which made Elias feel nothing but disgrace.
So fucking lazy copying the same pattern everywhere
Elias smirked and went to the plain man standing behind a stupid counter. Elias took out a Requim crystal from his bag and threw it towards the man. The dork smiled like an idiot and said "Do you want me to change it into the standard?"
Elias looked at him and nodded, scratching his roughly cut hair.
How did I fucking fail?
The man came back with a clean suitcase containing various coins.
The least number of coins was ten thick coins with a thin layer of blue crystal on top of them, covered with a transparent material. They had a thousand inscribed on them.
Similarly, there were ten coins with five hundred written on them and other smaller coins with smaller numbers on them.
Elias took the suitcase and gave the boy a lampooning look.
Getting out of the store Elias waved his hands and a carriage appeared. Elias parkoured over the water pipes and entered the small carriage. The thing was run by a fat horse as Elias told the handler the address to the executioner.
"5th Pere, third area in the justice zone, 51st Street."
How insane it is to have the rich in the middle and call it the 1st 'Pere' and have rings around it for poorer people… I really need to get resources and gather strength fast.
The handler gave Elias a weird look, understandably so. After all, they were in the first Pere and it would take hours to go to the fifth Pere.
"It would be ten coins." The man said in his ugly voice.
Elias nodded and paid the dumb man.
In the tripe he remained silent, thinking about the flowing fighting style in the False Treasury he found and controlling his emotions.
Controlling the disgust, anger, and guilt was especially hard, after all not only had he killed a man, he had wasted his life.
There was another problem: the Requim he had received in his blood from the false treasury differed from what the false treasury said.
According to the false treasury, once one fights a simple grade 1 beast, they would have completed the creation of a grade 1 Requim called water blood.
Its effects were that one would be able to never bleed out and could use water instead of blood, effectively making one breathe underwater.
While the Requim he got did not allow that, instead it strengthened his physical strength along with making him Imposible to bleed.
…
Elias, in his dark purple clothes, was sitting beside a man wearing tight, worn out red cloth which wrapped around him.
The man was slightly fat with an old complexion; his white hair was well kept, with his grey eyes seemingly looking at something incomprehensible for Elias to see.
"So Haoki sent you?"
Elias nodded. He did not call the respected duke by his name out of respect but knew that he was called Haoki.
"... So you failed, huh?"
Elias let out a self depreciating chuckle, "Yeah, sure".
"What was your belief?"
Elias laughed, nodding as he pondered his belief.
"...People should be valued for their strengths."
The old man shook his head and stared at his hands.
"Do you believe it enough? These hands have taken the lives of far stronger people than me. How-"
"The strength of the community as a whole is of course, more than a single person. Not being able to hide from justice is a weakness too."
The old man stared at Elias openly with an amused reaction.
"Then why did you not believe it in your heart?"
Elias let out a loud laugh, "Isn't finding out that your job? Old basta- man"
The executioner smiled before saying, "Was it… hesitation?"
Elias flinched, staring the old man in the eye "Did you just activate a Requim?"
The old man poked Elias's head playfully; "No… It's just that you have the eyes of a coward while your belief is ruthless."
Anger surged in Elias before he quickly controlled it. The man in front of him was stronger than him, and he respected that. He also felt that the executioner's words had some truth in them.
"Well, it should not matter what you believe in; I have seen people who believe that no one should die become a Laity. Just believe it wholeheartedly. Try to keep emotions out of work." The old man's voice had a sense of authority and knowing in it.
Elias tilted his head, confused. That is easy to say for you, old bastard.
"I am a little good at Plec card divination, do you want to try it out?"
Elias was bewildered by the sudden change in topic; he was going to object but decided otherwise. He laughed, asking what they were.
"It's simple, really. You shuffle these cards without looking at them while repeating the word 'me' in your heart."
Elias saw through these pseudo spiritual attempts to make Elias believe in something he does not believe in himself, but decided to be silent.
He pulled out a deck of cards. The bundle had 66 cards, with each card being quite thick. The cards were smaller than the leaves of a normal tree but bigger than biscuits.
Elias shuffled them, thinking 'me', and then took out about half of the cards. He placed the removed cards on his side and gave the remaining cards to the executioner.
Elias had guessed that using all the cards would be a pain for divination, thus simply took half of them out and waited for any objection. When there was none, he sighed and gave the cards to the executioner.
The old man took the cards and spread them in such a manner that the blue back of each card could be visible. Elias randomly chose a card and picked it up.
"The sovereign." He read out, looking at the executioner for elaboration.
"The sovereign? A sovereign is a determined, greedy man who wants everything to be his own. Quite a character you are."
What a coincidence, I named my fighting technique Ivory Sovereign too.
***
[Let us make a deal.]
The characterless voice rang in Fileday's ears.
[I shall grant you a grade three Requim beast. In return, you will have to keep me in your spirit.
…
Flieday and Dawn were face to face again; she cherished the questioning look Dawn threw at her and waited for accusations.
"Oh? You are back? I thought you had heartlessly abandoned me~"