In one of the Palaces that was reserved for special guests, a group of one of the most powerful Warlocks was sitting, listening to an intriguing story about the history of the Divine Empire and its formation.
Unfortunately, most of it seemed to be depressing for the most part as it talked about how most of the continent was wiped by four Empires.
Despite hearing about that, Lucifer and the others knew the ultimate end. They knew that in the end, only one Empire was left, which was none of the four initial Empires. The only question was how they got here.
Lucifer and Arthur were sitting on the couch while Caen, Salazar, and Heath were sitting on the other side, facing the two of them. A glass table rested in the middle of the two sides.
The maid was sitting in her room, folding her clothes as she wasn't allowed to be outside to hear the conversation.
No one realized that she was still able to hear everything even though she wasn't downstairs. Not a single person knew that she was a Variant who had the power of Super Hearing.. She was able to hear things far and wide, no matter the distance or the obstruction.
As for her range, it wasn't small either. As long as she wanted, she could hear any conversation within ten kilometers of hers.
And this wasn't the first time she was using this ability. She had been using this ability since Lucifer and his team entered the Palace.
Throughout this entire time, she heard everything they talked about. She even heard their plans last night about infiltrating the Royal Palace at night.
She even knew that it was Caen who was fooling her. Even Caen didn't know that she knew all about it in the first place.
In fact, she even knew about the fact that Nobles drank blood all this while. She still acted ignorant though. Even though she knew that it was Lucifer who infiltrated the Royal Palace, it seemed like she had lied to her Queen.
She continued folding the clothes as she heard the story which was being told downstairs by Arthur. Despite already knowing the story, she didn't mind hearing it again. No matter how many times she heard it, she always found it fascinating.
She folded another dress and placed it on the stack of folded clothes before moving over to the next dress.
She picked up another dress.
At the same time, as she picked a dress, Lucifer spoke downstairs. "It's not surprising. For people, the fear of death can be the biggest motivation. Some people can even sell their souls to avoid death."
"That's true for weak people. But strong people can accept death since they believe they have the strength to face it. For example, look at yourself," Arthur responded.
"Look at myself?" Lucifer asked, amused. "What about me?"
"You were sure to die in the morning if you had attacked Her Majesty. But you were still prepared to fight. All because you had faith that you could defeat her. On the other hand, look at him," Arthur replied, pointing towards Heath, who was sitting on the chair, hearing everything.
Before he could even ask why he was being mentioned, Arthur continued, "He was shivering by only the thought of walking close to Her Majesty. He's the person who can be scared of death because he's weak, and he knows he has not even a little chance of survival."
"On the other hand, people like us are strong. We are at the top of the food chain. We aren't the prey; instead, we are the predators. We trust our strength; that's why we can look at death straight in the eyes without running away."
"That's the difference between the strong and the weak. Death is a good motivation for the weak, but for the strong, it's just another part of life," Arthur calmly stated, talking about what he believed in.
"Aren't I right?" he asked.
"I don't think I'm the right person to comment on that," Lucifer responded.
"At this point, death is like an old friend of mine. It comes, takes me in its embrace, and leaves after releasing me, promising to come next time," he further added, sighing. "But I suppose you're right. Strength can be a factor in how people deal with deadly situations."
"Old friend? Ah, I suppose you talk about your dreams. How many times have you died in your dreams? And do you feel pain when you die in your dream predictions?" Arthur asked, misunderstanding Heath.
"Pain?" Lucifer muttered, remembering about his relationship with pain.
A smirk spread across his lips as he remembered that pain was where his journey began. It was when he was pushed into the path of self-destruction that he is still following. Unfortunately, his healing didn't allow for that either.
Remembering about the painful experiment and his experience, he could still feel slightly tingling in his hands.
He lowered his gaze, looking at his hands that could still remember that feeling which made him feel like his entire body was being shredded to pieces.
He also remembered the headache he experienced at that time, which made him feel like someone had placed thousands of nails on his head, and they were hitting the nails with the heavy hammers, destroying his skull.
As for his nerves, he remembered the feeling of burning that was spreading in his entire body as if molten lava was coursing through his body.
As Lucifer glanced at his hands blankly, Arthur was surprised. "Why are you in a daze? Did you get lost in memory lane?"
"Huh?" Lucifer came out of his daze. He shook his head. "It's nothing. I just remembered something."
"Anyway, I guess you can say that. I did die and felt extreme pain too, but my starting was at a high point. So it wasn't hard to protect myself so that the pain wouldn't break me," he added.
"Anyway, enough about me. What happened after the four Princesses were given to the enemies?" he asked, getting back on track.
"That's right. It seems like we got a bit off track," Arthur agreed.
"The four Princesses were given to the enemies by the traitor. The Divine Emperor was also caught alive. He was alive as he watched his daughters being given away right before his eyes. The daughters he worked hard to protect were in the enemy's hand."
"From what I know, right then, his head was impaled by a spear. Just like a father watched his daughters being captured, the daughters watched their father being killed."