[O_o]
'....' Drishti, hearing such words from his mouth, turned her gaze downward, following the direction of his sight, only for her eyes to fall on the book which seemed somewhat suspicious. Lifting her blank eyes again to meet his, she added, "You mean, I should use my Authority to subdue this beast?"
"Indeed," Ryuk nodded, feigning ignorance of the two gazes fixed on him from both sides. Esme and Regina were looking at him as if he had done something unbelievable; they already understood the meaning behind his words.
[Host, I need to use holy water on my circuits]
'...Not you too,' Ryuk thought, hearing the voice from the system. He blankly looked at Drishti, whose eyes were fixed on the book, while she remained the only person in the room unfazed by his words.
Indeed, he wanted to get a reaction from her to understand the extent of her weakness towards his words. Unlike Valhale, whom he blamed for his cowardice in trying to bind Ryuk here by using Esme, Ryuk couldn't think of anything else that might affect her.
So, he sacrificed his image for that fleeting moment—a big gain for a small loss was worthwhile.
"Why would I?" Drishti, loosening her folded arms across her chest, narrowed her gaze at Ryuk, noticing the subtle smile forming on his face.
"Because my ability didn't work on it," he revealed with a smile, admitting that his ability wasn't able to subdue whatever this book held.
It wasn't that his ability didn't work; it was just that he could only nullify energy, and the beast, or whatever this book was, was completely based on physical strength.
Even though Valhale was the one who provided him with the book, Ryuk's instincts told him that at the most crucial moment of his learning, the content of this book would be destroyed or morphed into something that would lead him down the wrong path.
And all this was because of the beast inside the thesis, or more specifically, the cover and pages of this book, which were alive.
"...It means there isn't any energy in this thing," Drishti said, glancing at the book. She looked down, thinking for a moment before lifting her gaze and inquiring, "But how did you know that the book was alive?"
"Esme told me," Ryuk directly pointed his finger towards the woman beside him, who seemed calmer since earlier, while indeed analyzing the book, thinking she could be of any help.
"Mae, why do you appear so happy?" Esme inquired, though already aware of her fault in forgetting about her. But it was all due to someone who left her early in the morning, confused if he was angry and even tormented her grandfather.
Today, Esme knew that while it was true that love provides a soothing and heavenly feeling, it was also true that people need to die to have that heaven.
"It's from my client," Mae smirked, glancing towards Esme with a clear swing of a coin from her hand, catching it simultaneously, showing off her astronomical earnings.
'Did she ask Mae to use her ability, but for what?' Esme glanced back at Drishti, realizing that she had indeed used Mae's ability to predict something. Her sudden arrival here, leaving Valhale behind alone, seemed to add more to it.
'Was it something related to him?' Esme glanced towards Ryuk, who also seemed to have a similar thought as hers. The issue was whether that information was really that crucial.
He had firsthand experience with the twins' power of prediction, which was already much stronger than he had initially thought.
"Lady Drishti, may I inquire what prediction you made Mae do?" Ryuk turned towards Drishti, appearing calm and composed with a small smile lingering on his lips, amusement of something only known to her.
"Indeed you can, but I will not tell you," Drishti said, leaning her head to the side and looking teasingly at the man who maintained a blank face.
"No problem. We are leaving. Don't forget to suppress that beast," Ryuk replied, seeing that pushing and acting desperate for the answer was exactly what Drishti wanted from him.
Naturally, he was curious, but not so much that it seemed worth knowing.
"Heh, I can at least tell you what I asked Mae," Drishti said, noticing that he wasn't caring about her words and wasn't making desperate attempts to know.
Hearing her words, Ryuk halted, satisfied that she hadn't said anything about not suppressing the beast, making it clear she would help. But he could at least guess what the best prediction someone of her caliber might ask Mae.
Indeed, a person like Drishti, who had enormous strength and indirectly nullified her interest in power, had nothing in the world that could make her leave any throne she once sat on, except the time she decided to follow him.
Simply put, she would have asked something to predict regarding him, and guessing what it could be, he raised his eyebrows and stated the obvious, "Isn't it that you asked if I will be more interesting in the future or the most?"