The Knight of Courage carried a smile on her face as her hair strands looked like blue quartz in the light. She looked around the bathroom and at Arthur sitting with his clothes on in the tub.
"Did I pick an inappropriate time?" She asked awkwardly as Arthur stared at her with a haggard face.
He had no strength left after the mental anguish from earlier. He tried standing up, but his right hand slipped from its grasp on the tub and he fell back into it with a loud bang.
"It's alright." Arthur sighed. "Can you help me stand up?"
The Knight of Courage nodded and walked over. She pulled his right arm and Arthur stood up and got out of the tub. While pulling it, she examined his arm closely.
"It seems you weren't trying to remove the gem as I feared, which would have been quite deadly." The Knight smiled. "Are you alright, Seika?"
"I am, thank you. It seems you're always helping me, now and in the Domain."
"Haha," The knight laughed as she let go of his arm. "You Seika La Vega are really abnormal for you to recognize me despite my disguise."
"I am keen on people," Arthur said as he wobbled toward the door, almost falling in the process.
"Easy there." The Knight threw her arm under his armpit for him to lean on. They went toward the room and Arthur sat on the bed.
He didn't know if he was tired because of the stress that he just went through or because the soul restructure was already underway before the countdown ended.
"What brings you here, Knight of King Solomon?" Arthur asked at last. The knight grabbed a chair and sat down crossed-legged on it.
"I've heard that the ceremony has been brought forward to tomorrow, I thought you might need some help."
"What kind of help?"
"Well, what kind of problem do you have?" She shot at him, looking confident.
"Can you postpone the ceremony?" Arthur shot back.
"Well," The Knight awkwardly scratched her head again. "No. That would raise suspicion if I tried anything funny. I'm here to witness the possibility of a conditional treaty of peace."
"Isn't that a good thing?" Arthur raised his brows.
"Conditional being the keyword. Slavery would still exist and we need to give up a part of our land. The only way this treaty would be considered by our king is the awakening of the Duke's daughter." The knight shook her head.
"I see," Arthur nodded. "I have a question."
"Ask away."
"Where do the Seika get their powers from?" Arthur asked, hoping to derive some inspiration on how to restore his powers.
"That's an unusual question." The Knight furrowed her brows. "The matter of the Seika is not really common knowledge, but you should know better than anyone else."
"Know what?"
"The source of your powers." The Knight said, spreading her arms. "It is everywhere for you. It depends on what are you loved by. Are you loved by living beings? Then they give you power. Are you loved by metals? Swords will listen to you. Are you loved by the wind? Hurricanes will dance around your fingertips."
Arthur didn't answer but he knew this wasn't it. He wasn't loved by anything, but by existence itself. When he used his powers before, he could bend metals, runes, earth, the sky, and even space.
"Why do we have these powers?" Arthur tried to rephrase, hoping to glean off any information he can about similarities to his legacy.
"No one knows." The Knight shook her head. "The only one who has a general inkling is the one we serve, King Solomon. He seems to know a lot about Seika La Vega because he's the inheritor."
"The... inheritor?" Arthur frowned. The only thing he could think of is the inheritors of guardians. "The inheritor of what?"
"The inheritor of the guardian of runes." The Knight of Courage smiled in pride. "He's the inheritor of the Scholar Guardian."
Arthur suddenly felt lightheaded as the words sank in. He looked at the Knight to see if she was lying or joking, but there was no such thing. She only had pride in her king.
'How can this be?' Arthur asked himself. 'I thought that I was the inheritor of the scholar guardian...'
"You don't look convinced." The Knight smiled. "That's why I brought you a gift from our king. It would help you in your quest. This artifact was created by my king and it has the power to increase your affinity to the world. This way, your powers will be amplified."
"Created by him?" Arthur furrowed his brows and looked at the artifact. He thought it would be an artificial rune, but it was a genuine artifact. It was even a high-tier one. "But I can't use mana."
"My king said all you have to do is wear it." She smiled. "For a Seika to be unable to use mana, that's rare. I guess there are the limitations to the most powerful of abilities."
The Knight gave Arthur the ring and stood up. She then melted into a pool of water that turned into a vapor. All that was left was a slightly humid room to prove she was there.
As he studied the ring, Arthur knew it was as Solomon advised. If he remembers correctly, then Solomon said he wanted to create an artifact to defied the world but failed.
'Is he really the inheritor of the Scholar Guardian?' Arthur felt a splitting head and an identity crisis coming his way. He slipped his finger into the ring and felt himself get closer to the existence, amplifying the aura he released.
There was another matter of 'not' using mana to activate it. There were very few artifacts that can do so, Arthur's strengthening artifacts being one of them.
When Arthur tried to go into the runic world of those runes, he was met with that gigantic being with golden eyes. The words he told to Arthur were still shaking his soul.
'Not yet.'
He didn't understand any of this. If he wanted to do so, he would have to seek Solomon. However, he doubted Solomon would give him answers just because he was a Seika. He needed to wield power and prove his usefulness.
The ring in his hand would help him obtain that power. Arthur rose as he felt the aura that he was releasing increase in magnitude. With this, he wouldn't need to restructure his soul. He would be able to use this aura to hammer the final nail in Dia's core.
It was questionable if peace would be brought by using this technique, but what were the alternatives? Soul Restructure? Death at the hands of the Duke? At the hands of Neray? At the hands of Dia?
He wasn't selling away his morals, but the circumstances forced him to see any way out of weakness. He stood up from his bed and left his room. He arrived at the workshop again and gave the mana crystal to Gala.
"This is what you need." Arthur gave her the crystal and she looked at him with amazement.
"Are Seikas magicians that can pull anything out of their pouch?" Gala asked with amusement.
"I'll even be a wishes-granting-genie as long as you follow me," Arthur said. "I need you to remove this gem too." He showed her his arm. "It needs to be unlocked using the mana of a master, and Larza arrived earlier."
"I have just the spirit for that." Gala smiled. "What are we going to do afterward?"
"Leave this rotten place," Arthur said and left the room. Even if Gala betrayed him, he would still have Dia's powers once she awakens.
Even though he would be deviating from their plans, he was still going to work with the Knight of Courage. After all, obtaining the princess's powers would be more appealing than the princess herself.
'Wait...' Arthur stopped in his tracks. 'Why did Solomon give me this ring?' Arthur wondered. 'He told me to delay her awakening, why did he give me an artifact that would do the opposite?'
Things didn't add up, so Arthur grew hesitant about carrying out his plan. He stood beside a window and took out the leaf from his pouch. His eyes turned around once he saw the leaf.
'I see,' Arthur smiled. 'Solomon, you sneaky bastard. You wanted to make sure that I would never be able to awaken Dia by amplifying my powers. This way, the herb's barrier would grow more powerful, making it impossible to awaken her before the Knight of Courage kidnaps her.'
Arthur failed to see it at first because he was too occupied with his need for power. The Knight of Courage might have mistaken it for greed or simply Arthur's compliance to the plan. The moment he wore the ring, it was impossible to remove the barrier in time.
'However,' Arthur resumed walking toward Dia's garden, 'Your own tactics are the reason my plan will work.'