169 Chapter 169

After leaving the Parle, Lady Rose lead Aron to the lodgings she had booked during her stay in the city thus far.

During their way there, numerous eyes were locked onto them. Some hateful and vengeful while others fearful and submissive, after all everyone now all but knew him as the killer of Gregor Vonstein.

The news had spread fast due to the immense number of people who witnessed it live and retold the events immediately after leaving the Parle.

Aron and Rose however paid no mind to these gazes and safely arrived at the lodgings location without anything eventful occurring.

Through the entire trip there the two didn't exchange any words as it was plainly obvious all eyes were on them and it would be far to risky to speak carelessly. Only after they arrived inside the luxurious mid-sized room did they decide to speak again.

"Is this place secure?" Upon entering the room Aron immediately wondered if it was a safe place to speak. After all it was very plausible that the room was tapped and so their conversations could be heard by a third party, to ensure that wasn't the case he quickly began feeling the wall as if checking the texture but in fact what he was looking for were runes.

Mana could almost never be stored within basic inanimate objects, It was present yes but not stationary although in some cases this did occur especially in nature but that was incredibly rare. An example of this occurrence is the mana crystal, an inanimate object capable of storing vast amounts of mana due to its unique properties.

But this building was simply made of luxurious wood, bricks and other basic constructing materials, in other words nothing capable of keeping mana stationary.

"The walls either have some runes on them or glyphs..." Aron could vaguely sense minor fluctuations of mana emanating from the walls and onto his finger tips.

Nove l B(in).C OM

"I used the runic slips you granted me back in Galos here. I had originally intended to use them on my tower but not before studying them first. Alas this matter arose and here we are." Lady Rose summarized before walking over to a two chair table set placed near a window and taking a seat.

Seeing as it was his own runic slip Aron felt more at ease since it was difficult for even he himself to discern because even though he made them it was just as hard on him if used against him.

Seeing as the room was more or less secure enough he walked over to join Lady Rose by the table before a thought hit him. 'Did she really intend to study them or did she suspect me for trying to monitor her.' Aron wasn't sure if what Lady Rose said was true or not but he chose to remain doubtful on the matter. In his opinion her being skeptical about placing runic slips she didn't understand in her tower was only natural.

Lady Rose had little idea of what Aron was thinking so she just began to speak without prying into it. "Well this debacle was certainly unexpected but it's truly turned in our favor, all that remains now is for us to capitalize on it." She suggested while keenly observing Aron's body language.

"That it has, we now have an opportunity to gain some control in the Vonstein household whilst also having some leverage to use against Belle. I'm not too familiar with Belle's character so I'm unsure on how best to use what we have against her. I take it you can handle this, yes?" Aron revealed honestly because he still knew far too little about her.

To most people she was seen as a beautiful, kind, smart and powerful mage with good networking ability. However what Aron saw thus far was a woman who built up a facade to hide her true scheming nature and flirtatious ways of obtaining what she wanted.

From his brief interaction with her as Gregor Vonstein, it was clear she had some sort of leverage on him to make him submissive. This lead Aron to believe if she was able to get this deep into the Vonstein family then it was possible she had other pawns in other great families, making her quite the tricky opponent to deal with.

Despite all this Lady Rose looked confident and she soon explained why. "The key here is not to place all our pieces on the table Aron. Although they have a lot to lose we also seem the same in their eyes hence it wouldn't make sense to go too far, that would only risk a break down of our advantage."

Lady Rose's words made sense to Aron and he could definitely see a scenario where trying to use all the leverage against them in one go could fail. At the end of the day he wasn't dealing with simple individuals in the first place.

"I see your point. In that case I think I may be able to deal with the Vonstein's, given my current standing with them it's clear I won't be able to get close to any member of their family in future and their are largely loyal to the Emperor too so a proper alliance with them isn't possible. So I have no choice but to do something very risky…" The annoyance in Aron's voice could be heard quite clearly by Rose despite it being subtle.

N0 v el Next. CoM

Aron wasn't used to acting with so little surety, at the very least he liked to be seventy to eighty percent sure his plan would work but then here he had to work with what he could gather in the past week as Gregor Vonstein which made him less than fifty percent confident in his plan.

Lady Rose found this to be slightly interesting, it was like a reminder to her that Aron wasn't perfect and that he too was capable of concern, she found it rather refreshing that he had a sort of weakness to him.

"Life is all about risks Aron, I've mentioned this before. At the very least even if things do go wrong I have no doubt that you'll emerge on top" Lady Rose comforted although rather strictly causing her to receive a skeptical glance from Aron. "It's rather strange for you to speak words of encouragement." Aron commented rather bluntly while Lady Rose chuckled softly at the remark.

"I wasn't encouraging you... that is beneath me, I simply hold that much confidence in you given what you've shown me thus far. Caution is fine but too much of anything can be problematic." Lady Rose explained honestly and Aron no longer questioned her.

He knew her words were right and he was indeed too cautious at times but that was an inbuilt habit of his and so it wasn't easy to just shake off. Growing up in Limbo, if he wasn't taught to be as cautious as he is then he would have died long ago.

"It will get better with time, it's... something I cannot easily rid myself of." Aron replied while showing a rather blank expression on his face as he lowered his gaze to look at his hand.

He began to reminisce back to where this habit of his initially began.

[ It was around the time he had reached a stage where his father would let him join in on hunts for mana beasts within the region of Limbo he had grown up. ]

[ "We've been observing that group of beasts for far too long. If we rush in then we would at least be able to catch a few father." A young Aron impatiently suggested before receiving a smack at the back of his head from Harald. ]

[ "Listen here pup, there's more to hunting prey than just power. You need to always be cautious and take into account as many scenarios as you can, otherwise..." Harald trailed off before pointing to the group of beasts once again, only to see their bodies had began to corrode freakishly before nothing was left. ]

[ The only thing that could now be seen was a sort of dark floating cloud in the area. "What is that." A surprised Aron inquired only to recieve a toothy grin from from Harald. "That is why you must always be cautious pup, that's another rule." ]

[ "I feel like you're making these up every day." A young Aron sighed and replied before receiving another smack at the back of his head. "Never question your father, that's yet another very important rule". ]

"You don't need to rid yourself of it, just don't let it dictate all your actions." Lady Rose added causing Aron to stop reminiscing and raise his head before the two locked eyes. "You look like you have a plan." She added after seeing a sort of reinvigorated confidence in Aron.

"I do, it's time the Vonstein family experienced anguish."Aron replied before showing a toothy sinister grin.

...

A/N: Like, Review and Comment. It helps

[ Rule#4: Always Take Caution ]

[ Rule#4.5( sub rule ): You father is always right ]