Chapter 267: Thirteen Seats

Uh... guys?" I blinked seeing the groups looking at me with a blank look.

"That... is what you call a short story?" Sia asked still with that blank stare.

"Of course, it’s the short version." I shrugged. "Want me to give you the long one?" I asked.

"Absolutely not!" Rose quickly denied. It was then that Dion and Aric snapped out of their trance.

"I think he’s lost a few screws." Dion spoke in a surprisingly serious tone.

"He definitely has a few screws loose." Aric nodded in agreement.

I immediately protested.

"Hey guys, you were the ones who asked me to tell you all about my adventures during 5he time.i was perceived dead, and now that I confided in you, you’re labelling me with the crazy guy?" I wasn’t definitely wasn’t allowing anyone to call me crazy under my watch.

"Well, you did tell us quite the absurd story after all." Sia shrugged.

"What was that about you agreeing to let yourself take over your body for a minute?" Rose pointedly asked.

"You misunderstand, Sister, it’s not me. It’s a bastard that looked exactly like me and called himself a God." I corrected.

"Right." Rose nodded in a way that said; "I see now, he’s crazy."

"But wait, so you were that demon selling the participants information on other participants?!" Delilah exclaimed.

"Right on point, finally someone who’s not fixed on thinking I have gone crazy!" I exclaimed.

"Wait, how did you get to know information about every prominent candidate?" Sia asked once more.

What should I say? It probably wasn’t a nice idea to say I read it in a novel where all of them were characters. So I went with a believing explanation.

"It’s pretty simple, really." I shrugged. "You know my reflections right, I simply had one of them follow each candidate since the moment they arrived in the capital. I overheard some talking about their abilities, and some even practicing them."

"..."

"What?" I asked seeing everyone being silent once more.

"Wait, so what you’re technically saying is that you were stalking everyone, spying on them with your reflections, and following them everywhere?"

"Yes." I nodded. Since I decided to go with this lie I must go all the way with it.

"Even the bathroom?" Rose suddenly questioned.

I literally sprang off from the mattress. "What, why the hell would I do that?! I’m not a creep you know!" I exclaimed pointing at Rose.

But from the corner of my eyes, I could the Aric and Dion’s lips threatening to curl upwards, with Dion even giving me a hidden thumbs up.

You know that time when you absolutely don’t want to laugh, but your friends aren’t exactly helping, leading you to laugh involuntarily? This was one such time.

Try as hard as I could, I couldn’t stop my lips from curling upwards, and the girls caught me red-handed.

"If it isn’t true, then why are you smiling?" Sia asked.

"I told you, I absolutely did not!" I exclaimed.

Thankfully for me, Aric chose that time to change the topic.

"You mentioned subordinates earlier, who are those? Are they the ones working in the information hub?" He asked.

"Yeah, it’s them, an absolutely quirky bunch." I replied.

"What about your new ability, can you explain it in detail?" Rose asked, and I didn’t see the issue not to. It wasn’t like anyone of them could use it against me even if they wanted to.

I explained everything down to the mirror dimension, how I could open portals, or just slip into it. How I could enhance my stats by merging with a reflection and all that.

"Wow, I thought I had seen everything when I saw Sia’s ability, but yours is even more absurd." Delilah muttered.

"Speaking of your ability, I only somewhat know what it can do, what is it’s full scope?" I turned to Sia, and she began to explain.

"Wait wait wait wait, so what you mean is that you can see years into the future if you want to?" I cut her off mid explaining.

"Yes, I thought i made that pretty obvious." Sia nodded.

"Does that mean you can see who I marry in the future, or how many kids I’d have in the future?"

"Wait, you can do that?!" Dion exclaimed and I swear I could see Sia’s eye twitch.

"Technically, yes." She replied.

"So who do I marry?" I asked enthusiastically, I was quite curious to know who would capture the heart of this ruthless time-traveller. Sure it would ruin the element of surprise, but who cares?

Sia shook her head. "The most I’ve ever looked into was minutes, not hours, days, months, talk less of years."

"Why though?" Aric asked.

"I don’t want to waste my present trying to stop a future that might or might not happen. I should be the one in control of the ability, not the other way around."

I could understand what Sia meant, if she looked into the far future and saw something bad, she would be hard pressed not to try and change it. And that was the thing with futures, no future was set in stone, and it might be that Sia’s intervention would be what would lead that future to becoming true, or perhaps lead to an even worse outcome.

The group and I chatted until late in the evening, catching up on lost time before they finally decided to leave. Aric and Dion were the last to leave.

After they left, I sunk into the mattress, with my back to it and my face at the ceiling.

"It feels good to be me again." I muttered as a smile bloomed on my face. There was no need to hide anymore. At first I’ve been wondering what to say to everyone about how I survived, but I figured saying the truth was the only way I had.

’It’s not like they’d believe me anyway’ I had thought, and it happened exactly as I had thought. They all believed I had a few screws loose.

Sometimes, saying the truth was the best art of deflection. I was pretty sure the next to ask me would be either father or mother, and I was planning on saying the same things I said to Rose and the others.

All that’s on my mind now was the shit show bound to happen tomorrow. I felt chill s run down my spine just thinking about it. At the very least, mother wouldn’t be in the Vorde continent in this timeline.

Lost in my thoughts, I didn’t know when I eventually succumbed to sleep.

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Meanwhile, after Yvonne disappeared from his view, she directly materialized in the secret dimension where the demi immortals were residing.

Earlier, at the exact moment she reached the capital, Amon had appeared before her to calm her down, if not, she would have directly entered the pocket realm where the tournament was taking place.

After successfully calming her down and proving to her that it really was Damon, Yvonne asked Amon to go back, and that she would hold herself until Damon was out. And she did so, watched her baby win, and then finally embraced him after he came out.

At first Yvonne was nervous, especially when she thought about how he’d react due to the cold treatment she had given him all these years.

And she felt the hesitation when she embraced him, and when she reached for his cheek.

Though, she was quite overjoyed after he later let her do it, especially how he asked her to stay and watch him win, even though from his eyes she could see he had another motive other than that. But that still didn’t diminish her joy in the slightest.

Now that Yvonne appeared in the middle of the hall, every gaze turned towards her. Yvonne scanned the room for a split second, before a majestic throne made of ice materialized behind her.

No one said a word even as Yvonne sat down, after all, she had reached the same level as these guys and had equal rights in the hall.

"It’s quite nice to see you, Yvonne, and congratulations for reaching the Alpha- rank." Lucas, the chancellor of the Astral mystic institute said with a warm smile.

"Thank you." She replied curtly.

"Hmph, you would have reached such level decades ago if you hadn’t wasted the past two decades spawning those little monsters you all children." Ellaria scoffed.

And she wasn’t lying, Yvonne had taken a break of focus from advancing in strength because she got family.

"I don’t care about your opinion." Yvonne emotionlessly replied.

"From today onwards, there are thirteen seats in the Grand templar." Amon spoke out. "Two seats for the demons, two seats for the merfolk, two for the elves, and finally, seven seats for the humans.

The other races in the room frowned subtly, they didn’t take well to it that the human race who were already beyond them in terms of powerhouses, had grown even stronger.

"Well then, after the convergence, we’d announce it to the entire world." Rhudeus spoke in a stern tone.

"That ought to make ’them’ hesitate a little." Amon muttered, murder flashing in his eyes for a brief moment.

But if Amon was honest, he didn’t want them to hesitate, if anything, he was waiting for them to appear. That day, all shall go to ruin.

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