The Celestials were brought in and laid down on the beds in one of the rooms which had multiple rooms while me and the lord went to the same room where he had the meeting with the Celestials. There were two couches on either side of the table with me and him sitting on them facing each other while a servant was setting tea on the table.

“Thank you.” I said to the maid with a smile. She bowed and left the room. The lord was looking at me with a conflicted expression. He was probably wondering if he should thank me or reprimand me as this would no doubt make his relationships with the Celestials even worse. I wouldn’t let it though. In the end he just sighed and taking a sip of his tea he started to speak.

“I hope you are aware of what you have done.” (The Lord)

He seems to have decided to be displeased with the situation. I can’t really blame him but he simply isn’t thinking about how to turn this in his favor which slightly disappointed me. Still. I began speaking while picking up the teacup from the table.

“Whatever may you be speaking of? I only happened to be passing by and saw that you and those Celestials were having trouble. The attacker was unseen. We don’t even know if there was one after all.”

I smirked at him and took a sip of my tea as well. It was quite good actually. None of us had drank much tea before so it was a new experience. The Lord was looking at me with a weird face until the sudden realization of what I meant. I could almost see the light bulb above his head.

Technically a lot of people saw me. If they questioned some of them though they technically did not see the attacker I felt like most of them would keep mostly quiet. They wouldn’t want their lord taken away after all. Even if a few said something about me. That would only give a slight early hint to the gods. That wouldn’t be too bad. They needed a bit of a handicap after all… they were facing US. They should have noticed something was off anyway. The void is sealed and I’ve been jamming their observation abilities to some degree as well. Only a slight bit but some of them could have noticed it.

“You mean!” (The lord)

“You saw nothing. The angels suddenly collapsed as they tried to fly and you took them inside the building to help them out. Of course you need to take off the chains in order to do so. I’m sure they’ll forgive you.”

He looked at me seriously. It seems we were finally on the same page.

“What about the attacker’s objective?” (The lord)

It was nice talking to someone who caught on quickly so I smiled brightly while putting my hand in my pocket and taking out a black marble which I had taken from the angels while nobody was looking and showed it to him. It seemed to click with him instantly but I still explained.

“When the angels woke up for some reason the black marble that was proof of your involvement had disappeared. Now usually that would be something terribly suspicious but they search your mansion and find nothing and on top of that there was no one in the vicinity strong or capable enough to knock them out at the same time who was working under you. Thus…”

“I would have less suspicion on me since I would have had the chance of running away and not being arrested but chose to not take it and if…” (The lord)

He didn’t finish his sentence and seemed to instead be thinking as he put his hand on his chin. Instead took another sip of my tea before finishing it for him.

“If… that little thing had let’s say the effect of controlling your mind and it was now finally cleared when it was taken far away from you and you have a foggy memory of your controller and his commands…”

Taking his hand off his chin the Lord looked at me seriously as if he was reevaluating me. I liked the man. He was cautious and smart. And was not the kind of person to judge by appearances. They say the biggest evil always hides behind a mask. And I had found that to be true.

“… I see. So you didn’t just do this impulsively.” He nodded. “I must ask though. What do you stand to gain from this?” (The lord)

Yes it is true that you would be able to trust someone much more easily if you happened to know their objective but on the other hand he seems too trusting of me. He would gain nothing from revealing me. No. I knew this man would NOT reveal me. Not because of something stupid like trust. It was pride. This man was too proud to give up someone who had helped him. Still. I found it was not bad to just tell him my reason. My reason… not my objective.

“I just need a connection to the king. That’s why I can’t have you leaving your position as advisor.”

He nodded. It must have made sense to him as well. He didn’t ask me why I needed tat connection. Who wouldn’t want to have a connection to a king of a country? Is what I thought he would be thinking but… it seemed like it was something else.

“I don’t know if I’ll be able to keep it but I’ll damn well try. I can’t have some idiot take the job instead. I’ll beg the Celestials if I have to but I WILL keep advising my king.” (The Lord)

I nodded. That’s the attitude I wanted. Begging somebody was easier said than done for someone with a significant amount of pride. I was a bit worried that the king might also get accused but they had no proof. He didn’t have a ball of voidsteel to prove his association with us. Of course normally that wouldn’t work but this was Eirene we’re talking about. Even if Zahrah DID try and fool her I doubt she would simply put out an arrest warrant with no proof. If she did anyway… Well… I would do something about it then.

I felt sorry for her. She must be so confused right now. And I was making it worse by putting in extra doubt for Zahrah in her. She was naïve. But… maybe that’s exactly why both me and Ved liked her so much. I apologized to her in my head but it was necessary to have her doubt Zahrah… at least a bit. Finishing the last sip of my tea I stood up from the couch.

“Good. In that case I will leave. Unfortunately I can’t leave a way to contact me. If they find an object of unknown material or something enchanted for long-distance communication they might trust you less and trust is something you need as much as you can get on you right now.”

He nodded showing me that he had understood what I meant and also stood up.

“They will awake around an hour after I leave.”

Leaving behind the last thing I needed to say I left the room. The lord followed me and asked one of the servants to show me out but I had one last thing to do before I left so I instead went to the backyard. The lord still followed me and seemed to be wondering what I’m doing… and how I know my way around his mansion so well.

As we got out of the backyard I stood in a specific spot and tapped my cane on the ground lightly. The ground in front of me split and a pitch black coffin came out of the ground floating in the air. I quite enjoyed this weird habit I had quickly formed of tapping my cane when I used magic. It would probably make people think that the cane had something to do with my strong magic and that could become an excuse I could use at some point. As I saw the coffin I shook my head slightly. Kenos had gone a bit too far on this one.

Once again tapping the cane on the ground the coffin o voidsteel turned to dust starting from the top with the dust disappearing in the air. A single small ruby was left behind as it floated towards the hand that I kept open in front of me. As it landed I crushed it into dust and felt a single soul float away from it and enter my inner world. May your next life be filled with kindness enough to make up for what you had cause in this one.

The ground once again came together and looked as if it was never split in the first place. Turning around the lord was left speechless. I could see the “That was in my backyard the whole time?” on his face and it caused me to put on an awkward smile. I sort of wanted to laugh but I also agreed that Kenos was… affected by a cuteness overload at that point… and that caused quite a lapse in his judgment. As it would for any other man. Even I would not guarantee my immunity to it. Truly cute is justice… and a weapon of mass destruction if used on the wrong… or right person depending on how you look at it.

In any case now I was ready to leave so I left through the front gate leaving behind a dumbfounded lord and servant. It was almost night which meant that the gates would soon close. I had already read enough in the library… for now. I had to admit I felt like reading a bit more but I needed to meet Lily and Cel… Maybe I had even unconsciously been delaying it. I was no longer Kenos so they might reject me. They might even misunderstand badly enough to become my enemies instead… I shook my head. I could only hope that they understand me…

I had one last thing to do in the town before I left. I created a a glove which I put on my right arm and a gem which fit into the top of it. On the gem I wrote “Storage” “Large” “Stasis” in the runic language with a needle similarly to how Kenos would do it. After that was done I searched around for some stores that were still open and thankfully finding a few I was able to buy a large amount of food which would not spoil thanks to the “Stasis” enchantment. Of course the food was not for me. It was for Lily and Cel when I found them. Unfortunately the place where they were hiding was not abundant on that so I wanted to give them something delicious to feast on after getting to them.

After getting all the necessary supplies I left the town through the east gate whereas I had come in through the south one. The place where the two were hiding out wasn’t exactly close and though for now they seemed to be handling themselves I needed to get to them soon.

As I walked the road it got less and less muddy as I proceeded east. It seemed like the rain had not come this far. I approached a village after a day but just simply passed through without stopping. In four days I had arrived in the village right next to my destination. The village was mostly visited by adventurers so there were a lot of shops around and little living space. The reason is because the village was right next to the dungeon called Evermist Forest. And just as its name suggested it was forever covered in white mist. It was also the place where Lily and Cel were hiding. The trees were incredibly tall and normal people would probably be unable to see more than a few meters in it. Thus it was deemed an incredibly dangerous dungeon. One of the ones which was dangerous not based on the monsters. But the environment itself.

A few groups of adventurers were sitting down at the entrance as they seemed to be readying themselves to enter. A few glanced at me but didn’t seem too interested. Probably thinking I was either here to admire the forest or I would leave and later hire someone to take me ino it.. I just shrugged and stepped into the mist hoping that it would end well.