Chapter 76: _Sticky Situation
Elian’s POV
*****
"I knew his kindness to me was too good to be true last night." Elian shook his head, his lips pressing into a thin line as he went into deep thought.
Baron Magnus... He thought he was one of the good ones. Like Aurora.
But now?
[Are we even sure if Aurora isn’t working together with her mate?]
Elian froze as he thought about that possibility as well.
But...
"No." Elian shook his head, hoping with everything in him that he was right. "Aurora has always been good. Magnus feels like his kindness was for convenience. The convenience of gaining my trust."
[Well, now he’s lost it. What do you wanna do next?]
Elian got off his bed, walking to the large vanity mirror in another part of the room. He stood in front of it, staring at his reflection for a bit.
"You said earlier that you were taking a recording of my conversation with... Magnus, right?" Elian’s eyes lit up as he asked, folding his arms in front of his chest.
[Affirmative.]
Elian smirked. "Perfect. Then I can show the recording to Axel and get him to look into it and make the connection to—"
[Woah, woah, woah... Slow your horses, fruitcake.]
Elian furrowed his eyebrows, letting his arms relax beside him. "What’s the matter?"
[I have a recording of every experience in your life since your rebirth. Both visual and audio—but I never said anything about it being free.]
Goddess have mercy!
"Are you a system or a thief?" Elian brushed his hand through his hair but the system’s response was more mechanical than usual.
[Funny. But I don’t require your mortal currency. Just Ascension points. You can purchase a recording of certain events from the Ascension shop for a fee.]
Right on cue, blue light flickered at the corner of his eyes before a translucent screen of the same colour appeared in front of his face.
At the right corner of the screen was the Ascension shop but just when he was about to click on it, Elian noticed something odd.
His mate’s stats.
His eyes squinted at the stats of mate #3 in particular... The rogue king.
[Seduction meter: 89% Possessiveness meter: 89%.]
Last time, from what he could remember, the seduction meter was just over sixty per cent.
What the fuck happened?
[With everything happening, I couldn’t just keep notifying you anytime your mates get a jump in their stats.]
Elian frowned. "You couldn’t notify me? Since when?"
[Since my sensors detected the rogue king’s magic after you fainted last night. Remember? I said there was an outside interference with your consciousness right before you passed out.]
Elian blinked, trying hard not to get a headache.
[See? It’s too much information all at once, and I didn’t want you to lose focus from the main mission.]
A shiver ran down Elian’s spine. "The rogue king, Kyren. Are you saying he was in my room last night?"
[Not necessarily. But from what I’ve detected so far, he was somehow able to use his magic to affect you all the way from the dark lands.]
Elian’s memories flashed to something from last night just then. He’d been trying to investigate the Alpha class wolf intruder with Axel right before he passed out.
That was the last thing he could remember.
And now with this new information from the system, he couldn’t help but wonder... Could that wolf have had something to do with the Rogue King?
Eventually, Elian shook his head and clicked on the Ascension shop. At a corner, he saw his total Ascension points... Sixty.
The heat suppression pill, which he still hadn’t taken, cost just five AP.
"So how much would a full recording of my convo with Magnus be?" Elian asked, placing his hands on his waist.
He wasn’t even completely sure if the man working with Estella was Baron Magnus... Just the fact that the voice sounded like his. But that should be enough proof, right?
[A full recording of the convo is...]
The amount flickered on the screen, along with the recording itself, which was within a small metal stick device.
"Five Ascension points... Again." Elian rolled his eyes, but clicked on it nonetheless.
There goes his dreams of buying a mana core.
[I could always generate more special missions that could help with your... Fantasy. Anyway, stand by.]
There was a small loading tab on the screen then after a few seconds, the small metallic stick appeared on his palm. Elian kept it in his pocket, sighing heavily.
"So all I need to do is give this to Axel, right?" Elian was about to head for the door when suddenly, he heard a commotion outside.
There was a blade drawn then the sound of muffled grunting and punches being thrown. His heart skipped a beat when all that was followed by silence.
Just... Silence.
Suddenly, the doorknob began to jiggle, causing Elian to jolt as he took several steps backwards.
[WARNING: Security breach detected. The guards at your door were brought down.]
Elian panicked, his pulse spiking as he scanned his gaze around the room. His eyes landed on the bathroom door, but that felt like he would be trapping himself in a sticky situation.
"Shit, shit, shit..." He cursed, finally turning his neck to one of his windows.
[Wait... This isn’t right. My sensors are detecting...]
"Could your sensors detect any faster?" Elian snapped with frustration, bolting to one of the windows and then standing at the edge.
He stared down nervously, swallowing hard when he saw how far up he was. That was a long fall.
[Eighty-five meters to be exact. You’ll be a meat pulp once you hit the ground.]
Elian swerved his neck backwards, staring at the door with increasing dread and unease.
[That’s not just any intruder. It’s...]
Suddenly, the door burst open, causing Elian’s heart to jump to his throat as he clung close to the edge of the window.
But when he saw the person who barged in, he froze, blinking with confusion.
It couldn’t be...
"Lucian?"