"Another one? In secret, like the others?" King blinked, "Well, that's a revelation. What's happening in the North?"
It was at this moment that my food arrived. The enchanting smell of freshly cooked steak wafted throughout the area. My mouth was watering.
I sliced off a piece of soft meat and threw it into my mouth. It melted on my tongue and the taste of salt and pepper mixed with it.
It was a wondrous piece of steak.
"A lot of things are happening in the North, Sir King. An interesting series of coup d'etats will be occurring within this month, alongside a large-scale migration of calamitous beasts."
I had a sip of my mushroom soup, allowing its flavours to burst in my mouth.
"Make sure you watch out for the royal families hiding within the city. There will be a lot, and I mean, a lot of assassination attempts in the coming weeks. It's going to be a lot of fun."
King shook his head, "You make it sound like you started all these events. I'll confirm the validity of your statements by tomorrow then. I will send you a newspaper of events every few days once I confirm that what you said is true. If the accuracy of your statements is no longer up to standard, however, our transactions will end there. Is that reasonable?"
"Totally," I nodded. "Would you like to write a contract for this?"
"Do you?" King tilted his head.
"I would like to avoid having a contract. To tell you the truth, I don't have a good reputation with the goddess of ceremonies and vows."
Alliyaha cursed me after I defiled her altar, after all.
"Really now?" King leaned forward, clearly interested. "How did that happen?"
"I defiled her altar," I answered.
A silence thus fell upon us two as King stared at me in awe.
"And you're still alive? Were you not cursed?"
"Yep, I'm alive. And no comment on the latter question."
This was how the conversation mostly went as the two of us ate some good food. King was a fun person to be with as long as you provided him with the answers he loves. He would be snobby and aloof otherwise.
Being friends with King meant losing your sense of privacy, but I had a lot of secrets in my archives that King would never see the end to. It was easy to feed him with the things he desired at this moment in time.
Thus, it was already three in the afternoon when we both left Ravenwing.
I discussed around 5 auxiliary chapters worth of information with him, and in return, I was able to get a rather accurate grasp of the parts of Aelthrie that I had not written about.
I was not a god, after all. I couldn't have written every single detail in existence.
I sometimes wished I could, but alas I was only a simple human author who lived through Earth's drastic changes. That was it. That was all I needed to do to earn the right to become...
Crash—!
My train of thought was interrupted by a fight occurring nearby. The sound of shattering glass was a noise that could not be mistaken. I looked over to my side, and through the window, I saw Miana walking out of an establishment.
Balls of ice were swirling around her, revolving around her body.
But that was all that I could catch. King drove past the scene in a second, and then I lost sight of her as we turned the corner.
"I need to visit my little underworld boss soon," I chuckled as I muttered to myself, "Before she rises to power."
If I could help her establish herself now, the profits I would gain would be astounding in the long run. Being one of the criminal underworld's most influential figures would mean riches beyond the imaginations of the masses.
But now was not the opportune moment to do so. I had to wait until after her first setback. I needed her to realise her own faults, to hammer down some of that unyielding confidence of hers.
I needed her to suffer.
So that her salvation would be ever sweeter.
Doing so would mean a total victory for me in more ways than one.
...
After my meeting with King, he dropped me off in Aethercaller. I wanted to pay him for his services as any taxi rider would do, but he refused to accept my money.
He said that our partnership included his taxi services as well. In the fine text, however, it would also stipulate that I needed to talk about something interesting whenever he did drive for me.
But I guess that that was fine.
I had more information than money as of this moment. It would take me years to talk about it all.
Smacking my lips at this reality, I decided to head to Nature's Archives—the school's central library. Deuzetai had instructed me to learn from the beginner skill books available there, so I had to put in the effort.
I had no desire to get expelled right away.
Though, after "revealing" the fact that I was a rather capable spiritual mana user, it was likely that Deuzetai would be a lot more forgiving when it came to my dagger prowess. He would instead push me into learning more spells and magic.
But, what Deuzetai did not know, was that I had a merged body and spirit. I had a lot of options because of this.
A bit too many options, in all honesty.
Thankfully, I already had a good grasp of my path to power. My path to immortality. Spells and skills mattered little in what I was about to do compared to the path itself. They were simply catalysts to empower my footsteps forward.
So for now, I decided on something fun.
I looked around the wide array of bookshelves all lined up in rows. I scanned the curved, circular walls of the library filled with books and tomes aplenty. The smell of old and new books intermingled, casting a studious atmosphere upon all who entered.
"Hello," I approached the librarian, "I'm looking for dagger arts, sword arts, offensive spells, and stealth spells."
I was going to try out the spellcaster assassin route. It would be especially useful for the events that I would dabble in during these coming months.