Chapter 196: Thick And Long Aura

[Name: Sermus Flinn]

[Physique: Quarter-Blooded Three-Eyed]

[Status: Awakened]

Elias’s eyes widened as he read the results displayed before him, and he instinctively turned his attention toward Sermus, who was tending to the garden as though nothing unusual had happened.

The Three-Eyed were a race of tall, humanoid beings who resembled humans in their general appearance, except for their three eyes, absurd height, sharp ears, and unusually colored skin.

Much like the Balards, who were considered blessed by Aura, the Three-Eyed were blessed by mana, allowing them to absorb it at a far greater rate than humans and granting them an innate proficiency in ruins and runic magic.

They were also the only other race to possess a holyland under their control: the Holyland of Magic, located within the brutal Old Forest in the south of the continent, where the Three-Eyed had made their home.

Their gifted bodies possessed another remarkable trait, as their wounds healed unnaturally quickly. If Sermus truly had a quarter of their blood flowing through his veins, his survival after receiving an attack from Deamon suddenly made perfect sense.

However, such a thing should have been impossible.

The Three-Eyed despised humans, considering them tainted beings who spread the seeds of chaos wherever they went, and they rarely tolerated their presence, much less accepted them into their society. The existence of someone who was a quarter Three-Eyed therefore seemed ridiculous, yet Elias had one tending to his garden at that very moment.

’How did he lose his path, then?’ he wondered, narrowing his eyes as he continued observing Sermus from the window.

Perhaps the Three-Eyed blood within Sermus was too diluted to grant him their full abilities, leaving him with little more than unnatural recovery and an instinctive understanding of ruins. Whatever the case, the man was far more useful than Elias had initially thought.

"I need someone like him if I am planning to go against the clan," he mumbled.

Elias wasn’t a complete fool, and he understood that as long as he continued living, the Crimson Ducal Clan would never allow him to enjoy a peaceful existence.

No matter how far he traveled or how carefully he avoided their attention, sooner or later, they would come after him again, and he would have to fight back if he wanted to protect himself and his wives.

He couldn’t rely on the hope that they would eventually leave him alone; instead, he would have to snatch his peace from their hands, and doing so required two things: power that nobody could question and people who would be willing to sacrifice themselves for him and the women he loved.

After staring at Sermus for a while longer, Elias allowed the golden glint in his eyes to fade before turning away from the window. He left his office and headed toward Monica’s room, where he quietly entered and closed the door behind him.

Taking a chair beside her bed, he settled into it and closed his eyes.

The next instant, he returned to the Realm of Sword Trial in his spiritual space.

The first thing he noticed was Monica standing a few steps away from him with her eyes as wide as saucers, while she held her fingers apart along the side of her neck as though she were calculating the length of something.

"My jaw will dislocate if I did that with my physical body..." she mumbled in a horrified tone before her expression slowly changed into something far dreamier. "Why and how is it so long?"

Elias furrowed his brows as he stared at her. "What are you talking about?"

"Eek!"

Monica jumped away when his voice suddenly interrupted her thoughts, and she immediately turned toward him with an embarrassed expression, her hands moving awkwardly as she tried to cover up whatever she had been doing.

"A-Aura," she stammered, quickly pointing toward the crimson fog surrounding them. "I was talking about your Aura. What else would I talk about?"

Elias frowned and followed her gesture, examining the vast expanse of crimson fog that filled the realm. "My Aura is long?"

"Ha... haha," Monica laughed weakly, but a mischievous glint soon appeared in her eyes, and she nodded with an expression that made Elias increasingly suspicious. "Yes, it is."

"Weird," he mumbled, turning his attention back toward the crimson fog.

He could understand describing the Aura as vast, considering how it spread throughout the realm, but he couldn’t quite see how anyone would call it long.

"Thick, too," Monica interjected, nodding thoughtfully as she continued examining the crimson haze.

"Well, my Aura has reached Tier Four," Elias added, finally understanding what she was talking about.

"Yeah," she said, slowly nodding several times before turning toward him with a sweet smile. "You have a thick and long Tier Four Aura."

Elias’s lips parted as he stared at her, and after a moment, he mumbled, "For some reason, I do not like the way you are saying it."

"I am only talking about your Aura," Monica insisted, doing her best to suppress her laughter as she turned away from him.

"Ah-huh," he replied, unconvinced but unwilling to pursue the matter any further. Instead, he shook his head and changed the subject. "So, did you find anything?"

Monica nodded. "I did."

His expression immediately turned curious, and he waited for her to explain what she had discovered while exploring his Aura Core.

However, she remained silent for so long that his brows gradually drew together, and when he finally looked at her again, he found her grinning mischievously.

"You want to know?" she asked, tilting her head.

"Yes?" Elias replied, staring at her as though she had just asked the most unnecessary question imaginable.

Monica stepped closer, her eyes sparkling with amusement, and said, "I will tell you if you fulfill a request for me."

"What request?" he asked, growing wary of the sudden change in her behavior.

She shook her head and raised her right hand. "First, promise me that you will fulfill it."

Elias frowned. "How can I do that without knowing what the request is?"

"It is nothing too difficult," she assured him, keeping her hand raised as she waited for his answer.

He studied her face for a while, trying to determine whether she was planning something troublesome, but her innocent smile gave him little to work with. Eventually, he sighed and placed his hand on hers.

"All right, I promise. Now tell me what your request is."

Monica immediately closed the remaining distance between them and wrapped her arms around him, hugging him tightly as she rested her head against his chest.

"I want you to sleep with me tonight," she whispered.

Elias blinked several times. "You want us to sleep together?"

"That is what I asked for, yes," Monica replied, lifting her face to look at him.

"But—"

She gently placed a finger against his lips before he could finish, and a playful smile spread across her face.

"No buts. You already promised me," she said softly.

Before Elias could respond, Monica’s spiritual body vanished from his spiritual space, leaving him standing alone amid the crimson fog.

He remained motionless for several seconds before his brows slowly furrowed, and he muttered, "What am I going to do now?"

He had already told Natasha to be ready tonight, and now Monica wanted to sleep with him as well. Unfortunately, because of Monica’s Shadow Ghost Poison, Natasha couldn’t safely spend the night in the same room as her, which meant he couldn’t simply invite both of them to stay together.

He would have to choose one of his wives, and whichever decision he made would inevitably disappoint the other.

Elias lowered his head and rubbed his face with both hands, struggling to understand how a simple night had turned into such a troublesome predicament.

"Why the fuck do I have to go through this?"

He shook his head and glanced at the distant Tower of Sword Trial before closing his eyes and returning his consciousness to the physical world.

Upon opening his eyes, the first thing he noticed was Monica, who lay asleep in her bed with a bright smile on her face.

His worries receded a little, and he mumbled, "How cute."

He leaned forward, planted a kiss on her cheek, and added, "You are far too mischievous, my little mage."

A chuckle escaped his lips, and he left the room, locking the door behind him.

While walking toward the stairs, his gaze landed on the wide hole in the wall, and a thoughtful look appeared on his face.

There were two paths they could take. The first was to stay here and wait for Berlic to eventually run out of patience and send his other trusted knights to look for Berman and Daemon.

The second was to move out of the manor and go somewhere safer, a place Berlic didn’t know about. Fortunately, Elias already knew of one such place; he just didn’t know if he could trust the person currently occupying it.

"Staying here would be naive when I do not even have guards in case anything happens." He looked at the evening sun through the hole and muttered, "I need to have a serious conversation with Olide and find out what he wants from me."

Elias made his way to the training ground, where the weapon racks stood along the edge of the open space.

He summoned Lastbane from his Inventory with a simple thought, and the familiar sword appeared in his hand.

He took his position and began to swing.

His movements were graceful yet sharp, with every strike following a deliberate path as the blade whistled.

He neither rushed nor hesitated, and each swing carried the same resolve and defiance that had driven him to awaken his Aura in the first place.

The sound of his swings echoed across the training ground as Elias continued practicing, his expression growing calmer with every movement.

Only after he was satisfied did he finally lower Lastbane and place it on the weapon racks before leaving the area.

Several minutes passed in silence.

Then, the darkness gathered in one corner of the training ground shifted.

A mysterious woman dressed entirely in black emerged from the shadows and quietly approached the weapon racks, her movements so subtle that even the faintest sound of her footsteps seemed to disappear into the surrounding silence.

She stopped before Lastbane and studied the sword for a moment before unwrapping the black cloth around her waist. With practiced movements, she wrapped the cloth around the weapon, concealing its blade and hilt before lifting it from the rack.

Surprisingly, the black cloth allowed her to pick it up.

Without looking back, she carried the sword away from the training ground.

However, she was not alone.

From a different corner of the room, Elias watched her every movement without revealing himself, his gaze locked in the direction she had disappeared.

"Do not disappoint me," he mumbled, focusing his attention on Lastbane’s spirit mark.

He could sense it moving farther from him and deeper into the city.

A smile appeared on his face, and he mumbled, "Thank you for making it easier for me."

However, his smile vanished right away as his thoughts returned to what he had to do next.

"All I can do is hope that she will not be too mad about this."