Bro, I'm not an Undead!

“So I hear you took the reins to the Family, and both my eldest children’s whereabouts are unknown…”

Skullius grimaced visibly, anticipating the worst, and yet…

Theurien wore a similar expression, much to the Hybrid Luman’s surprise.

“Setkh turns out to be the one responsible for my curse, and Stylla is one who finally removed it somehow, and then she, flew away, as I’ve been told…” Theurien gave a hollow laugh. “…Absurd.”

Skullius opened his mouth to speak, but quickly held his tongue. The man before him wasn’t committing to scenario one as he had assumed. It was just that the weight of the changes he had been told bore down on him too heavily, and unlike when he was in the presence of familiar faces that looked up to him, he seemed to be more comfortable showing a semblance of vulnerability to a stranger.

Theurien wobbled once again, but remained steady on his feet.

“When I first heard that Setkh returned to the Family months after I was bedridden, I was overjoyed. Even now, I wish the summary of events I’ve been told ended there. I almost started to believe that I could get a chance to have a heart to heart with my son… To explain why I didn’t stop him from leaving… the great burden in my heart that I felt from hearing that he wanted nothing more than to live in a place where he wasn’t a permanent second.”

ραпdα- n૦νe|`c,0m

“I should have known that was too good to be true.”

The eyes of the man clearly haunted by immense sorrow unflinchingly kept their focus on Skullius.

“Please… give me your version of the story. The truth.”

Skullius sighed.

If that was it for a first request, he could do that much… with sprinkles of necessary lies where needed.

*

Twenty minutes later.

“I see,” Theurien said.

A bout of silence followed, creating a rather necessary atmosphere of seriousness within the room.

Skullius kept familiarising himself with the fiery haired man, taking into account all his little movements and mannerisms. Soon, he discovered that Theurien was quite gentle in nature, and strangely emotional.

That wasn’t what he had expected.

Theurien soon broke the tranquility with his voice.

“I never imagined Stylla was so full of self doubt. Perhaps my presence is the one that gave her the ample confidence I always saw in her. Like me, she must have been clinging to hope with Setkh back by her side. I can’t imagine how she felt when she found out…” he said, cutting off the sentence abruptly. “…You did well to keep her safe and contained, Festos. For that, I’m grateful.”

Skullius didn’t know how to feel.

He felt a little pride glowing within him, as if he was a child being praised for doing good by a guardian.

Where did this feeling come from?

“Well, like I said. I was just paying my dues as someone part of this Family,” the Hybrid Luman said… before realising that he hadn’t actually said this to Theurien in reality. He had only told him this in scenario three!

The man didn’t seem too concerned with it, however, which was good news.

“Do you have any idea where Stylla might be? Any.. location this creature that changed her could have taken her?” Theurien asked.

Skullius strained.

“No. Not at the moment,” he replied.

So that things would line up, Skullius had told Theurien the version of the story that he had told Arch-Mage Ryte – about the shield. Since the two were friends, it seemed, he decided that it was best to ensure that the two knew the same things.

His reply just now still wasn’t a lie though.

How could he possible know where the Null Devil King was?

His best bet would be, just like Aurolio had told enlightened him about, that the creature was headed for whatever could be found within a Rich World like Aigas, but he didn’t know what that could be and where to find it.

“And Setkh?”

“I don’t know either,” he said. “The others said he wasn’t there during the Preliminaries today, which is unusual.”

Theurien’s face hardened.

“What does that mean?” he asked with a heavy tone.

Skullius sighed.

“The workings of the Control Seal are complex, but I’m pretty sure it doesn’t transport corpses to the Venue of the Royale. It’s either that… or Setkh found a way to resist being called to the Venue. The group he was working for… they might be capable of doing something like that. In my opinion, there’s an equal chance for either possibility.”

Theurien nodded.

Since Skullius had explained in detail about the Premium Age Royale and its rules, the fiery haired man had an idea about what Skullius was talking about.

Honestly, the circumstances around Setkh wouldn’t make his untimely death impossible, and on the other hand, him desperately trying to find a way to not have to see Stylla’s grudge ridden eyes every two days wasn’t that unlikely either.

For the Hybrid Luman though, the former seemed more likely.

Theurien seemed to anticipate that dark reality too.

That said, to the older man, having his son die without some form of closure was absolutely harrowing. He’d rather have the young man scream some last words of hatred in his face than for him to die out there alone.

But that would be too fortunate a reality, the world decided.

Theurien moved away from the more morbid discussion.

“Very well. So the estate…?”

“Ah yes. After the attack, Stylla and I made some renovations. Maybe it’s better if you come and see it for yourself. It won’t take that long to get there,” Skullius said, emphasising the fact that Stylla had a hand in it.

Theurien smiled.

“Alright. Let’s go see it,” he said.

Skullius grinned within.

While he did feel a sense of pride over how much he had invested into the Bryne estate as well as the results, this wasn’t his entire reasoning for wanting to speed up his interaction with Theurien.

Skullius had wanted to do a lot of things at the Estate before eventually having to deal with the stuff related to Aurolio. And now, he could handle Theurien and everything he was planning to do in one fell swoop.

There was plenty of time for Theurien to be brought up to speed, but Skullius’ schedule was too flexibly inflexible. Change was a norm, and he had to get some small tasks done before large shifts in the status quo occurred.

***

A few minutes later, Theurien was standing in the wide space created by the cordon of trees along with Skullius, Ed, Head maid Arisa and Skullius. A look of longing was on his face, even though to him, the passage of time hadn’t been as tremendous.

The look of the Estate he knew was vastly different, as even when he saw the view from outside, with the walls and gates – after Skullius had dispelled [Boundless Evil] – he had been perplexed.

Guards he wasn’t familiar with, the thick greenery he didn’t remember, powerful beasts that patrolled the beautiful expansive crop fields and lastly, the massive mansion with an austere air about it at the end of the corridor in between lush trees…

This place looked better than he imagined.

“Goodness. When you said some improvements, this is not what I expected,” Theurien remarked.

“It’s only a few hundred thousand Plasma coins lost. Not big deal,” Skullius said with a thick smile.

Theurien grimaced.

His head moved to and fro as he took in everything with great focus.

He looked rather pleased. At least as pleased as he could be in the moment. The news of the tragedies that befell the Family in his absence still weighed on his capacity to enjoy what he was looking at.

If not for his powerful body and rich experience in both the good and bad that life had to offer, one would expect a man who had woken up to terrible news about his children to want some time to himself.

That was what Skullius had thought too initially.

Yet, Theurien still held his own against it all.

‘Thankfully, none of the scenarios ended up happening in the end,’ Skullius thought as they approached the mansion.

At the same time, a stream of people poured out of the mansion with Red Rage and Silrat leading them.

Skullius’ heart almost skipped a beat.

‘Already? It’s over?! Did something bad happen?!’ he thought.

How could a meeting to discuss future collaborations and plenty of intricate negotiations last for roughly 45 minutes?!

Something was definitely wrong!

Yet, opposite to what the Hybrid Luman was thinking, there was only smiles and laughter among the numerous people exiting the Bryne Family Estate.

Most of them were directed towards Red Rage, but there didn’t seem to be any negative vibes from the group, which was strange considering…

“Th-Theurien…?” a person from this group, the tall woman who had been salty before meeting Red Rage, suddenly stopped and looked at Theurien with a startled expression.

The short old man who was accompanied two beautiful ladies was also stumped, and his face turned pale as he saw Theurien’s figure.

The hell?

Skullius’ neck creaked to the side as he turned to Theurien, hoping to whatever accursed Deity was in his storage that this wasn’t an instance of tragic luck.

Theurien looked at the two… and wore an indecipherable expression.

“Well, well, well…” he said in a chilly voice.