Chapter 686 The Plan

Nial was lying on the ground, three black needles stuck in his chest.

Precisely, the three black needles were stuck in the golden scales that covered Nial's body.

Goldy was currently inside Nial's Mana Core and their firm Soul Link saved him. The firm Soul Link allowed Nial to initiate the Soul Fusion with Goldy, allowing the Familiar to enter his Mana Core, where he could manifest body parts of the Goldscale Serpent.

Manifesting his Familiar's body parts drained a tremendous amount of nutrition, but that was not a high price to pay if it allowed him to survive an assassination attempt.

Nial pushed his upper body from the ground of the rooftop. His head flicked over to the young girl who was crying bitterly.

No matter what Nial thought before, he couldn't think that this little girl actually wanted to kill him.

'Was she forced to attack him? If so, why exactly? Who ordered her to kill me? Wouldn't it be easier to attack me with different means?'

Many thoughts flashed through his mind, and the answers he received were not exactly helpful.

Under normal circumstances, it was very hard for children to sense if someone else had already awoken their Mana Core. It was difficult to perceive the surrounding Mana, and forget about differentiating the source of Mana. For ordinary people, it was even more difficult to perceive if someone was already a Summoner.

The charming little girl's Familiar was also a Monster that could conceal itself pretty well. It had a camouflage-like trait, which made it even more difficult to perceive her.

All-in-all, this made it very difficult for children to perceive the threat before it was already too late.

For Nial, it was a little bit different, but that was not something others knew. He never told anyone about his ability to see Mana, which included the sources of Mana from everyone in his field of vision. In fact, the mana behind the walls was also clearly visible to his eyes.

Then there was the fact that he could see the hues of the potential of Monsters. Hiding from him was probably one of the most difficult tasks in existence.

"I am sorry, but you cannot really kill me that easily. Your Familiar won't be able to break through my defense," Nial said calmly while getting up from the ground.

The little charming girl began to tremble at this moment. Her legs had given in and she was sitting on the ground, tears trickling down onto her skirt. Celine looked up, just to see that Nial was unscathed and perfectly fine.

Complex emotions flashed through her mind, and it was quite easy to decipher that she was conflicted, unsure of what she was supposed to do now.

"...I had to…" She mumbled to herself while her watery eyes continued to stare at Nial.

Celine wasn't even trying to find excuses. She looked like someone who regretted what she had done, but also like she would do it again if needed.

Her expression was not really something one would find on the face of someone at the age of six or seven years.

"Why did you attack me? Why did you 'have to do it'?" Nial asked, taking another step closer to the little girl.

He squatted down in front of her, and stared deep into her royal purple eyes.

Looking into each other's eyes, they didn't say anything for several seconds. Celine felt like she lost the ability to speak. She could only stare into his golden and silver eyes, feeling helpless, and useless.

"They…told me that I have to attack you…otherwise, we would never be happy again…that we would never be free. They hit my mother, and took away my father…I…I don't want to lose them…I just want everything to return to how it has been…" Celine blurted out, struggling to speak without break.

Her voice was cracking and tears began to stream down her cheeks once again. For several minutes, the river of tears didn't cease.

'What a mess.'

Nial was not sure who 'they' were, but he could tell that Celine and her family had been dragged into some scheming. It was likely to be due to Celine's great potential as Summoner, which could be made use of rather easily.

'Was it some underground organization? Probably not. They would have attacked me directly. I am the most vulnerable in the academy, but there are still many hidden agents spread around the kindergarten, so…were it other nobles? If that's the case, it should have been the subsidiary kingdoms and tribes. The families who swore allegiance to the Lacardian Empyrean Void wouldn't dare to attack me.

But those subsidiary kingdoms and tribes? They're probably desperate now that a Crown Prince, aka me, was born, with such tremendous talent at that.'

Nial was not too sure if his conclusion was correct because he might be missing some important pieces of information. However, he could feel that he was on the right track.

Unfortunately, that didn't really make things better. The little girl in front of him was likely to lose her family to the perpetrators the moment they find out about her failure. This would create a big problem since it was increasingly difficult to find commoners with talent as exceptional as the talent Celine had showcased.

Nial felt oddly familiar with the girl as well. She looked like a child-like version of the three women that had popped up in his mind earlier. He liked those women, or so he believed, and he didn't really want anything to happen to them.

With that in mind, he didn't feel great knowing that Celine would be unhappy as well. He felt like helping her even though she attempted to kill him.

If he didn't care that she attempted his murder, nobody else should bother too much about it.

Maybe his parents would think a little differently about that matter, but Nial was pretty sure that he could convince them rather easily that Celine had to be spared and that her family had to be rescued.

That way, his goals would be fulfilled, and Celine was likely to see the royal family of the Empire in a much better light. She was loyal to her family, and would become loyal to the royal family as well.

Of course, that was not the most important in Nial's opinion right now.

'Whoever dares to make such a cute girl cry deserves to be beaten up!'