EmEs_etherious
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Chapter 50- The Silver Rose
🕑 Added 2023-01-02 00:57:42 +0000 UTCThe room was silent for a long moment after Tamo's heavy statement and Arthur immediately spoke the first words that came to his head.
“Nope, no fucking way. Sorry, I’m out. I didn't sign up for any murder nor will I take part in the killing of any human being. Not now and hopefully I’ll never have to.”
Arthur’s words were perhaps a little forceful and tinged with a little more anger than he actually felt that such a thing had been asked of him. Especially when he knew how naive his thinking was. He was still disgusted though, and his aura that he had unconsciously been repressing ever since he’d first been told about it by Mira, came billowing out; now far stronger than it had been a few days ago courtesy of all the growth he had experienced.
Selena paled when she felt the intimidating presence, something she’d found out about in her investigations on Arthur yet never believed in.
Until now.
What the fuck is that? she panicked, almost hyperventilating. It felt worse than the time she’d helped Tamo bring down the monster with crazy regenerative properties. Just how strong is he? Selena realised she had made a grave mistake in underestimating Arthur. All the signs had been there, his high speed and agility despite being a healer. All the crazy rumours surrounding him.
Even the casual way he left behind the government's protection whilst being a healer, yet she had ignored them all. And now she was unsure as to how exactly she should deal with the powerful individual she’d brought into Tamo's home.
Selena realised that the room had become much colder and the shadows somehow seemed to be darker. She was shivering and looking at Tamo, she saw that he was similarly affected, unable to even draw breath properly under the pressure of Arthur's aura in combination with his grievous wounds.
Shit, why the fuck did Tamo say something stupid like that? Selena knew she had to do something quickly, as Arthur didn't even seem to be aware of what he was doing. This means he either doesn’t know about aura or has developed his own very recently. Or he's just a dick. She quickly dismissed the errant thoughts to the back of her mind for later examination. Now wasn’t the time.
It was a testimony to his strength that he could do damage to them without even intending to. Desperate, Selena tried to diffuse the tension in the room.
“Hey Tamo, why did you say something so melodramatic? I thought you grew out of your angsty teenager phase already.”
Her words had the desired effect on Arthur, and she felt the aura’s power decrease significantly, though now she was at least aware that it was still around her, just waiting to be used, like the jaws of a beast around her neck. Much more wary now than she had been a few moments ago, Selena chose her next words carefully.
“Perhaps instead of saying such a loaded statement, Tamo should have started from the beginning.”
Selena observed Arthur's reaction to her words and saw him visibly relax, the tension easing from his shoulders, though he still had a cautious look on his face. She wasn’t sure if it was all an act, or if the thought of murder really repulsed him so much.
Arthur was thoroughly tired of the web of mysteries and lies that surrounded the father-son duo and now apparently a missing daughter too. All he wanted to know was what was expected of him on this job, and whether the payment would make it worth his time. And he needed the truth for that.
“Look, I’m tired of all this weird cryptic bullshit you Zaibatsu folk seem to love spouting,” Arthur said, both frustration and indifference leaking into his voice.
“I ran for four hours to get here, and I've got better things to do with my time than listen to some family drama,” Arthur added, noticing how Selena winced at his harsh words and how Tamo's eyes narrowed in rage. Arthur knew that he wasn't being fair to the man in front of him, as he didn't even know exactly what was going on in this weird narrative, but he felt that his outburst was at least justified, if only for the fact that no one seemed to even want to tell him what his job was properly.
Tamo didn't look like he was going to speak anytime soon after being reprimanded by Arthur, so Selena decided to intervene and mediate between the two. Though Tamo was injured, she knew very well just how dangerous he could be when driven to anger and she didn't want to be caught between the two men if they decided to duke it out.
Thinking about how to best salvage the situation and gain Arthur's help, she decided it would be best to just tell him the truth. It would be a violation of her orders, but Selena knew that any repercussions that she would face down the line would be more than made up for if she could secure Arthur’s help. Sighing wearily, Selena began the long explanation of what was going on in the Tatsumi household.
“Arthur, what I’m about to tell you must never be spoken of when you leave this room until either I or one of my colleagues give you express permission to do so. A lot is at stake here.”
She spoke gravely, looking intently at Arthur to secure his promise of silence. He nodded his head, wary at the conditions that were binding his speech, though curious as to what exactly such a big secret would entail as well as the mention of these so-called ‘colleagues’ of which he had yet met none. Arthur didn't voice any of the questions racing through his head though, instead waiting for Selena to continue speaking.
The woman in question looked very relieved when she saw Arthur’s nod of assent. There would have been little she could say to persuade him to help if he decided to not agree with anything. He could just be lying about staying silent, but Selena was sure from interacting with the man that he was someone of integrity. When he gave his word, he kept it.
Though her intuition could be far off the mark and Arthur might just tell everyone he met what he was going to find out today willy-nilly. If that was the case, then there was little she could do, but bear the consequences of her actions when they came calling. She hoped her trust paid off.
“Well, Arthur, you see, I’ve not been exactly honest with you,” Selena paused, gauging Arthur’s reaction to her statement. He looked completely normal, nonplussed with the assertion that he’d been lied to and Selena felt a tad bit frustrated. At least act a little surprised. Did you really not believe anything I told you? Well, she was certain even Arthur wouldn’t be able to keep up his nonchalant front when she started dropping her bombshells.
“My job here as Toshiro’s secretary is just a facade, set up a few years ago under the prerogative of the CIA.”
Wow, I sound sketchy even to myself.
“You see, for want of a better word, I’m a spy.”
That line, however, got the expected reaction out of Arthur and she felt satisfied with the look of surprise that flashed across his face and then became worried at the suspicious caution that soon followed.
Oh yeah, that's right. He isn't really on friendly terms with us, is he? We should have never trusted that slimy bastard Lieutenant Graves to be his handler. At least miss Adams wasn't doing too badly.
Despite the obvious curiosity in Arthur's eyes, he seemed content to just let her continue speaking, and Selena jumped at the opportunity to move on from the little groundbreaking piece of information she'd just dropped. With another bombshell of course.
“Long before the systems arrived on Earth, as I’m sure you will already know from the tutorial, ether was already present on the planet.”
“What you probably don't know, however, was that there were people who already knew it existed, most of the governments of the world included” she paused for a moment to let that information sink in. Once again, Arthur didn't react the way she had expected, seemingly unaffected by the revelation. After all, Arthur had long expected that some people on Earth must have known about the existence of the strange energy. There had been far too many inexplicable phenomena throughout history to chalk it all up to chance.
To have his suspicions confirmed was gratifying, but he didn't really care that people were already playing around with ether before the system’s arrival. Instead, he was curious as to why Selena felt she had to tell him this.
“This is interesting and all, but I don't see how this is relevant to why I’m here.”
Selena was about to answer his question when Tamo finally decided to rejoin the conversation, interrupting her.
“You see, my father was one of those people. Both he, and my sister I suspect, knew all about ether long before the system's arrival on Earth. Something about it being a family secret that was passed down through generations to the eldest child.”
Tamo trailed off, not having the energy to continue speaking. Selena picked up where he left off.
“And I’m sure you must already know how inexperienced magic looks like when it's not regulated by the system, right?” She asked him.
Arthur nodded his head. It was one of the first things he’d been warned about by Sir Rufeuss III when he unlocked his system. Erico too had warned about it as one of the key focuses of her assembly. Selena had a grim look on her face, and she took a deep breath before speaking.
“It's dangerous, terrifying and most of the time disgusting. At least the stuff we’ve seen so far. You see, a few years ago, the government caught wind of a group of people dabbling in weird practices. Most of them seemed nonsensical, animal slaughterers and strange rituals that bordered on the occult. We would have just overlooked it as some strange quirk of the wealthy people who were found involved in it.”
“That was when we found the locations of sites where human sacrifices had taken place.”
Selena paused for a moment, recalling the disgusting photographs she’d seen of the crime scenes. It made her just as sick now as it had back then. Arthur similarly felt a rising sense of nausea when he heard that. He wasn't a stranger to violence given his unique experiences, but the murder of human beings always got a rise out of him, especially after it had hit so close to home six months ago. Arthur frowned before he voiced his thoughts.
“And the reason you called me in, was to help you bring down Toshiro, who I’m guessing is a part of this so-called enigmatic occult group. I’m sorry, but the answer will still have to be no. I don't want the blood of another human on my hands.”
Arthur sighed wearily after he finished speaking. Perhaps it would be the right thing to do, to bring down a man like Toshiro if what Selena had said was true, but Arthur was not prepared to take that responsibility upon himself. And frankly enough, he wasn’t such a saint that he cared enough about random people to risk his life.
Selena was saddened to hear Arthur's choice but didn't give up hope. Though he hadn't initially been brought in to subjugate Toshiro, after witnessing his aura first-hand, Selena would have liked to have his power on their side when they took the fight to the blood mage.
Still, it wasn't the reason why they had brought Arthur in. After all, before today, he had just been an ordinary if slightly powerful healer in their eyes. She could only hope that Arthur would agree to help Tamo deal with the remnants of his curse like they had initially wanted him to do and use the unique aspect of his regeneration skill that had become all the craze recently. It would make their job a LOT easier. She was about to say as much when Tamo began to talk.
“You know, one of the experiments my ancestors did, backfired quite a bit, you know,” he whispered quietly.
Arthur looked surprised that the man had decided to speak and Selena just shook her head slowly, knowing already where this conversation would go.
“It's the main reason why tales of blood-sucking humans became so popular,” Tamo added, pulling off the bandage covering his mouth to reveal slightly pointed teeth. Arthur blanched at the obvious reference to vampires, both shock and curiosity warring within him.
So they were actually real. Wait, if that's the case, then does that mean that werewolves and other mythological creatures actually exist.
These thoughts raced through his head and some of his emotions must have shown on his face because Toshiro smirked.
“Before you ask, no I’m not a vampire and nor does sunlight damage me. The dim lights are there only because my eyes are sensitive right now. I do however have the ability to gain some stats from powerful monster blood if I ingest it.”
Arthur felt some childish delight at finding out such fantastical creatures exist disappear after hearing Tamoss' statement. He did however wonder why the man had mentioned such a peculiarity about himself without any prompting. Something he was about to find out shortly it turned out.
“Your blood is pretty special.” Tamo voiced hoarsely. “I can smell it from here, and if I could, then so could my father. I’d be careful in the future if I was you.”
A warning?
Arthur felt his muscles instinctively tense up at the words that almost seemed to be a threat, and tried to think up what he’d do if Toshiro really did prove hostile down the line. His inner musings were interrupted by Selena, who quickly interjected with some much-needed rationale.
“You won't have to worry about any of that.” She glared at Tamo whilst she spoke.
“We’ll be taking Toshiro into custody long before he’ll have any chance at coming after you,” she hastily explained.
Arthur became confused at those words.
“I thought Tamo said he wanted my help killing his father.” He questioned looking between the pair.
“His sister always used to tell me that Tamo was still such a child. The little bastard should have taken drama classes,” Selena muttered under her breath before saying, “I think there's been some misunderstanding here.”
Selena began to speak, hoping her explanation would clarify things and bring Arthur onto their side.
“I told you we needed your help killing a monster, and though Toshiro has done many terrible things, he is still indeed human.”
Arthur was both surprised and hopeful when he heard those words. Perhaps he would still be able to take the job without sullying his hands. Something told him that he’d be stupid to turn his back on the government a second time. He highly doubted they'd just let him walk away again.
“So, what is it you need my help killing,” Arthur asked the pair, much more amicable now. Tamo looked briefly at Selena, before deciding to answer the question himself.
“In the wake of the system's arrival, a group has been formed. They call themselves the ‘Silver Rose’ a bunch of people that have been exiled from using the system by doing forbidden unstructured magic without the appropriate power and procedure.”
Tamo began to cough violently and Selena took over the explanation from where he’d left off.
“Their experimentation involved splicing their genes with those of monsters and a number of other strange practices we don't quite understand yet.”
Arthur leaned forward to catch every word that was being spoken, heart pounding at the implications of what was going on if Selena was speaking the truth.
“As you can imagine, their tests were not exactly successful. While the members of the Silver Rose became significantly stronger, it did not come without cost. We’ve already seen the side effects manifesting in some of their members.”
Selena paused for breath here, and Arthur could tell that this was a topic that was difficult to talk about for her.
“They turned insane.” she whispered, her voice shaking a little, “Monsters that massacred thousands before they could be put down. It was horrifying.”
Selena stopped talking, seemingly unable to continue her explanation. Maybe an act, but it looked pretty damn genuine to him. Tamo sighed before picking up the narrative.
“It's been difficult to keep all the deaths quiet, but it's only a matter of time before word gets out. We’ve been lucky that all this happened in isolated locations, but sooner or later, we’ll be faced with a real tragedy. There's going to be widespread panic when that happens.”
Arthur felt sickened when he heard Tamo’s admission and also a little worried. Whilst he knew that he was strong, he was sure that he wasn't ready to go toe to toe with people who had thrown off the shackles of the system and started to use unstable magics. That they probably had no idea how to even use properly made them all the more dangerous. At least when he referenced what Ruffeus had told him about ether when not constrained by the system. He paused to think of how many sacrifices must have been made, most probably unwillingly, to allow the Silver Rose members of today to enjoy the baseless successes they were currently thriving on.
“I don't understand. How can a healer like me help out,” That was all they knew about him as far as he could guess.
“And who is it that you’ll even be fighting?”
Selena smiled when she heard that. It seemed like he wanted to help at least, which was a start.
“Don't worry. You're a healer. We never really had any intention of having you fight,” she said, feeling a bud of hope growing in her chest. At least not before we saw your aura. “It's your regeneration skill that we are much more interested in. If it works like we think it does from all the stories we’ve heard, then we’ll want you to use the skill to store a bunch of healing ether inside of a selected team before they go in to fight the target. A buffer of sorts.”
Arthur nodded his head when he heard that. It was a little unexpected, but this was a job he felt much more comfortable doing. And his regeneration skill was perfect for it. It would lower the danger of the operation and potential casualties drastically as it was a life-saving measure if a wound was too grievous. A second chance basically.
“Of course, we’ll want you to practice with the skill as much as possible before the operation,” Selena added, “The more healing ether you can store in our team members, the better. The only problem is our lack of time. Our target is a ticking bomb that's primed to explode very soon, and he probably doesn’t even know it.”
“I understand that my assistance will be a great boon and all, but I’m sure there are other healers with regeneration skills that have evolved,” Arthur questioned.
Tamo just shook his head slowly before laughing. “It seems you don't know much about how special your skill is. Despite a few people reaching level ten in their healing skills, none of their new effects are anywhere near as useful as yours when it comes to combat.”
Tamo paused for a moment before concluding “As for the monster we’ll be hunting, he’s a Shadow mage.”
“That suffers from chunibyo syndrome.”
