'I should learn to control my emotions from now on I suppose. Philine gave me a good wake-up call this time. Letting emotions run wild could be detrimental to me too.' Zick found his inner calmness back after his emotions settled.
With the king sitting on the main seat, which looked like a throne. The party began at full throttle.
Zick kept an amiable expression but was getting more and more inattentive as time passed.
The speech that the king said did not interest Zick in the slightest. It was all about the path this kingdom should choose and try to recover their lost military forces.
At that moment, his attention moved to a certain conversation.
"Father, weren't we supposed to sit beside mister Zick today? Why are we on the other side?" A young nobleman asked his father.
"There is no need for you to know." His father answered as such.
Zick retracted his senses: 'I see, so there really is something that these women want to accomplish. Hmm, or could be another matter altogether.'
Zick consciousness moved to Philine, who was calmly listening to the speech of the king.
'She doesn't smile much according to others. But she smiles a lot before me, there is a chance she might have fallen in love with me.' Zick considered calmly with no emotions this time.
He learned to not let emotions affect him while considering something.
Winning Philine's affection didn't look that far-fetched. After all, he was the one who treated her disease as she was on the brink of death.
'But...I don't know if I can put her to good use. With her scheming ability, I can be the one that might be led by the nose. Though in the end, I won't suffer anything.'
Zick had accepted that Philine held the upper hand in scheming with people. While on the other hand, Zick was good at scheming people to their death.
'Lately, I have just been ordering the golems, Yuruel and Levienel to do all the killing for me too. So it's not weird for my skills to deteriorate.' Zick found this to be troubling, he was someone who liked to trust only himself, not others.
'Let's be straightforward with her for now. From her actions, it is apparent that she knows I am not like how I appear to be.' Zick turned his gaze to Philine.
He activated the communication magic that Seveleen used while she was paralyzed by him.
Even a master swordsman would not be able to sense this magic, as Zick was a peak rank mage, and with the boost of the earring in his ear and another magical device in his wrist — this spell's capability was boosted immensely.
["What do you want? Can't you just leave me alone?] Zick simply threw his true emotions in these words.
Philine's brow rose to hear Zick's voice in her head. Seeing her father not reacting from the corner of her eyes, it was apparent that he didn't notice a single thing.
This was very surprising to Philine, this spell's capability was above a master swordsman's senses!
["What are you talking about Mister Zick? So you did want me to go away....] Philine transmitted not fazed by it.
Zick frowned and interrupted: ["Sigh...Enough with that. Do you really think I won't notice your diviner abilities?"] his voice was deep and serious which made Philine back straight.
'Diviner ability...I see so that's what my weird ability is called.' Philine thought internally.
Philine sends a transmission back to Zick: ["What I want is very simple. I want to know more about you, Zick."] This time, she spoke the truth.
Hearing this answer, Zick's eye narrowed to the side. He had not expected that to be the reason for all her action till now.
Zick smiled to himself internally: 'Let's see, If she is telling the truth. If she were to spread this, Levienel would kill her immediately.'
Zick sent a transmission filled with his emotionless voice: ["I am the one who destroyed the two kingdoms in the east and all the alchemy towers. I am also the one who caused, no, I took millions of life just for my benefit."]
Zick truthfully confessed some of all of his deeds. He was not bothered in the slightest by the things he did actually, he was even enjoying a cold drink while the massacre was occurring.
Philine was not shocked hearing this, she had already speculated that to be the case. But, she still felt a sense of loss hearing him.
["Then...Your reason for doing such a thing?"] Philine knew that she had to back down now, if not her life would be at stake, but she still asked.
The reason?
Zick mused silently before replying: ["So that I could live."]
Philine became silent hearing this, Zick too thought that it was enough to get rid of her obsession with him.
'Well, she won't come to annoy me again I guess. I will consider whether I should leave her alive or not after this celebration is over.' Zick put this matter out of his head for now.
Soon, the king's speech came to an end. The nobles started a conversation between themselves and drank the wine, enjoying the party.
Many nobles talked to Zick too, among them was Elina too, the future sword grandmaster. A lot of invitations were sent to him, and Zick accepted them for now.
Zick was given many presents too.
And at last, the ball dancing event began.
Zick and Philine also stood among the other noble couples, readying to start dancing.
Philine kept a calm look the whole time, internally she did not know what to think or say. To think the person she was interested in was a monster, who killed millions of people.
However, Philine was aware that she had to keep this a secret. The moment she tried spreading it, she would die.
Zick could deduce the kind of state Philine was in right now.
'Well, she is only 19 years old with not much experience with a battle in the end. Knowing a mass murderer was beside her, she should be confused.'
Zick smiled and transmitted to Philine: ["So what's your ability exactly?"]
Philine answered blankly: ["I can tell if others are showing their real self or not."]
'Garbage...' Zick instantly labelled the ability so.
Philine's fate thus was decided with no hesitation too. It was death.
'What a waste of time...' Zick felt dejected that he even wasted his time for such a garbage ability. Even if it was nurtured, the benefits were negligence. Philine did not seem to have any potential in another profession either.
'Only her scheming ability was commendable, I guess.' Zick danced in the rhythm with Philine with a smile.
Many nobles looked on from the side.
Philine, at last, became determined: 'Even if he is a mass murderer, he is still the person who saved me.'
The transmission was not cut by Zick yet, thus Philine spoke to him: ["Mister Zick, I don't care about who you are, I Like you!"]
A straight confession, to which Zick reacted: ["I think you should not take hasty action like that. Sort out your mind and then contact me again later."]
'Just die peacefully, Garbage women.' Zick did not feel conflicted anymore thinking about whether he should kill her or not.
After a while, the party came to an end.
Saying farewell to all the royal family members, Zick headed to his room while sending a message to Yuriel. He ordered Levienel to kill Philine along the way too.
By the time he got back to his room, Yuriel was waiting with a golem looking the same as Zick.
'I have wasted more than enough time like this. I can't let myself become any more muddled-headed.' Zick and Yuriel moved near the eastern border of the continent, through the teleportation circle.
The night sky greeted them on the other side, golems stood guard around the place.
Zick looked at the sky.
Right at the moment it was covered in a swarming dark veil. The night sky could only be seen from the few gaps in this weird black veil.
On closer look, the dark veil was made of nothing but mechanical flies. Their size was half a palm of an adult, they had shiny blue wings, while the other parts were fully made of metal.
They moved in the sky like a dark cloud with many blue specks.
Low-grade golem — blood collector. It was made by Yuriel.
This flies-like golem's work was to collect the blood that was absorbed by the ground. They even collected the blood of dead animals, like a mosquito.
The reason Zick came here was simple, it was to collect the blood fiends, a type of stone. Only one such stone exists in the world. Anyone who ate it would be given an inhumanly regenerated ability, they could generate lost limbs in seconds. But, there was a drawback that the person would become crazy as they absorbed this stone.
However, Yuriel had already prepared a tranquillity potion made to fight off this drawback. She had been studying it for a while.
In the novel, a hungry kid had fallen into a deep pit, finding the stone. This kid in the end turned into a crazy murderer who killed thousands of people.
This stone was being nurtured by blood right at the moment by the blood collector golem. Yuriel stopped the nurturing when she felt that it had grown more than enough. Any more and the tranquillity potion would not work.
'Regenerating abilities are very useful, I would have almost unlimited stamina and can fight a drawn-out fight with no problem even at a disadvantage.' Zick looked forward to absorbing the blood fiend.
"This way." Yuriel led the way.