Chapter 9 - 009: A Bet

"Today harvest is not that good"

Arthur comes back to the mansion when the night is fall and his mood is not that good because the number of system point he received is not as much as he expected to be. But when he opens his room door what he sees inside isn't the same room he slept yesterday but it was a room that truly screamed book archive at you. The breadth of the room was about twice that of the first one, chock-full of bookshelves that rose to the ceiling and each shelf was lined with books.

There is a petite girl with long cream-colored hair that she has tied in two twin drills along with blue eyes that have a buŧŧerfly pattern at the center. She wears a frilled dress with pink ribbons, tights, and shoes. A tiny crown lays latched upon the rear right side of her hair, with a buŧŧerfly-shaped ribbon joining her cape at her sternum. She is the artificial spirit created by the Witch of Greed, Echidna, and she is the guardian of the forbidden library, Beatrice.

She held a large book in her hands as she sat on a wooden footstool, from which she looked up at Arthur.

"Welcome to Betty's place, human. I want to invite you because there is something that I want to know from you but you aren't within the mansion boundaries for a whole day so I deliberately invite you here, you will not reject my invitation I suppose?"

"So this is the Door Crossing magic from dark type magic" Arthur look at the forbidden library in front of him and the corridor behind of him "I really can't feel the change until the last moment I gripped the doorknob"

"I'm impressed you can feel the change but can you tell me how you can feel it, I wonder?" Beatrice really feels what she said, knowing about Door Crossing magic is a thing but can feel it is another thing altogether.

"You can say I have some achievements in the field of space magic" of course what Arthur means as achievement is not about an understanding of space but because he put a seal on his doorknob but when he opened the door he can feel if the seal is move to one of a room in the third floor

"Then you must have a good understanding of dark magic, I guess" but when she remembering how he can disappear in front of her in the morning Beatrice look at Arthur suspiciously "But Betty didn't feel any mana being used when you disappear and reappear in the garden this morning, I suppose"

"What? When you see it?" This time Arthur really feel surprised because he didn't know if there is someone who is watching him

"You're very distracted by those half baked little girl's leg so of course, you didn't feel my presence, no matter how high your knowledge you're just a ŀustful human, I suppose" Beatrice look at Arthur and speak with unmasked disdain in her face

"From a certain girl perspective, I just looking for an unknown" Arthur defend himself using Echidna's words

"There must be something wrong with your head if you treat something behind a girl's short skirt as an unknown that you need to know, I suppose" Beatrice a little taken aback when Arthur said a familiar phrase that she never heard for a very long time "You just had your head collided with something when you practiced that magic, I suppose"

"Let's put aside the short skirt problem, what is the reason for you to invite me in this late night?"

"Except for wanting to know how you can achieve that kind of teleportation without using mana there is nothing that Betty need from you, I suppose"

"So, I can go to my room now?" There is no way he would tell her how Hiraishin no Jutsu is work and anyway he is also didn't understand the meaning of the seal itself.

It's true he could instantly move to the location of anything marked with his special seal, whether a tool, place, or person that was marked. He also can erect a barrier space capable of warping away anything that comes into contact with it and then directed it to another location where he marked beforehand. But that's all he received from the system, just how to use this technique not how to create this technique.

"If you didn't want to tell Betty about it then there is just two possibilities that left" Beatrice reacts as if she knows he will reject her well she will be more surprised if he told her "With this Betty can discard a possibility of this technique being created by you, so except for this is a type of divine protection. Another possibility is the Authority. I suppose"

"So you suspect me as an archbishop of the Witch Cult?" Arthur laugh when he heard Beatrice mentioning about Authority, well that's understandable for her to speculate like that because with Authority of Greed Regulus Corneas can travel at extremely high speed

"Betty just want to say it, and for you to be an archbishop of the Witch Cult is impossible" Beatrice shake her head and look at Arthur again "Well, for you to choose to act like a knight for that half baked little girl is something that maybe can benefit Betty so Betty won't pry anything from you any further, I wonder"

"You like to use other people for your cause too?"

"If a human can be some of use for Betty then they need to be thankful because of that, I suppose"

"You're really Roswaal's little sister, both of you have the same personality" Arthur didn't feel angry or anything because of her answer instead he just laughed at it

"Who the hell wants to be his little sister?!! I wonder!" Beatrice throw the book on her hand at Arthur's direction but unfortunately, he is already gone from the forbidden library

"Cih, he is sure very fast. Next time Betty need to seal the space beforehand, I suppose" Beatrice pick the book before she continues to read it again, and after that, the silence is back to the never-changing forbidden library

.....

The next morning

Today Arthur once again sitting under a shady tree in the same spot like yesterday, there is also Puck but they just sat there looking at Emilia who is converse with the minor spirit, without make any conversation.

Seeing there is nearly zero chance for Arthur to open a conversation with him, Puck makes a fake cough to attract his attention so the one who will speak first is Arthur. But what he wants is not achieve because after puck let out several fake cough Arthur didn't even spare him a single glance.

"You're quite heartless, there is someone coughing near you but you didn't even help him" Puck give up and speaking first

"I never heard a spirit can catch a cold, and a great spirit of fire on top of that" Arthur can feel Puck want to converse with him but didn't want to start it, but for some reason, Arthur didn't want to react like what Puck hoped for

"I just curious where do you go yesterday?"

"I'm training" well, the only way for me to grow stronger every day is slaying those cash machine so this reason is can't be considered as a lie at all

"So you still like to training, Arthur?" Emilia who is complete her daily training takes a seat at his side and asked curiously "I thought you're not training again because you're strong already"

"Why you say I'm strong?" If someone who said it to him, Arthur will need time to consider it was a pure question or sarcasm, but considering it was Emilia who is asking and with her pure smile he just curious with her opinion

"Puck said it yesterday" Emilia answer without thinking too much before she put her little finger on her cheek "And yesterday you can disappear in front of me and Puck, so with your speed you're must be a very strong fighter"

'Well, asking explanation from her is wrong in the first place' she is someone who is known as not that good for phrasing what she means because of her lack of social interaction with people

"Are you not curious about my battle power? There is no way for you to trust your safety to me without you know how strong your knight is" Arthur stand up and offer his hand to Emilia "As a queen candidates Knight position is not something you can pass around easily so I will give up my position as your knight if you can beat me"

"I'm not weak you know, and you will be facing a spirit user so this will be a two vs one battle" Emilia take Arthur hand and stand up before smile confidently "Let's make a bet, as you said Knight position is not something that I can give to someone easily that's why we not make a pact until today, if your performance is satisfying you can become my knight if you lose then you need to obey one of my order. Of course, if it was something you didn't want to do you can reject it but I can raise another order how about it?"

Deep inside her heart, Emilia is like to compete with other but unfortunately, there is no one who wants to acknowledge her let alone compete with her

"Then let's move to spacious place first" Arthur accept it gladly, at least with Hiraishin no Jutsu he is confident he can win as long as Puck didn't change to his original form

"Let's start!"

After hearing Puck's voice Arthur skillfully retrieves two knives and throw it at Emilia's direction, seeing the oncoming attack there are two barriers made from ice crystals erect in front of Emilia, the first barrier is created by Emilia and the second one is Puck's.

The first knife collides with the ice barrier and shatter it easily before stop by the second barrier that's harder than the first one, but before the pair of girl and cat breath a sigh of relief the second knife hit the hilt of the first knife and break free from the constraints of the ice barrier and hit right on Emilia's head.