"This place is quite small, but I guess for a mortal, it is suitable." Said Elif, standing beside the woman while looking at a multi-story apartment complex.
"This isn't my place; I only own a small room inside the building." Commented the woman while making her way toward the entrance of the building, only for her to get a snarky remark.
"Tch, what bad luck. Why couldn't someone more capable run through the portal than this useless woman?" Muttered Elif while following behind the women into the building.
"You may be drop-dead gorgeous, but your personality is complete trash!" Remarked the woman angrily as she walked up a set of stairs.
Ignoring the angry woman, we arrived at the fifth floor before we approached her supposed 'house'. Walking through the door, I'm met with a room so small it baffled me, and from what I could see, the kitchen and bedroom seemed to be all connected.
"You don't need to say anything; I already know you're just going to talk trash about my living conditions, and I know how bad my living condition is. It's not easy living alone. Haa, do what you want; I'm going to clean up." Said the woman, finally feeling a wave of exhaustion.
Watching the woman close the bathroom door behind her, I observed the room before approaching a small bookshelf beside the bed. Reaching down, I shifted through the mediocre amount of books before grabbing a book with a cover that stood out compared to the others.
'Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone?' Thought Elif as he opened the book and began reading a speed impossible to mortals.
After a little while, I had finished the book, and while it consisted of a bunch of weak cultivators, the premise was quite enjoyable, or at least good enough to retain my attention for half an hour.
"Haa, cleaning myself after everything that happened feels great." Said the woman as she exited the bathroom with a towel covering her body.
"Ohh, I see you've picked up Harry Potter, quite an amazing book; I'd recommend reading it. Also, this entire time, neither one of us knew the other's name; my name is Catherine or Cath for short." Added the women once she noticed Elif's presence by the bookshelf.
"I've already finished the book, and it was decent. Also, I see no point in telling you my name, especially since I'll be leaving soon, but if you wish to know, it's Prince Elif." Replied Elif as he peeked at Cath before rifling through the bookshelf after putting the book back.
"Y-You've already finished the book? Well, I guess it's not too surprising; you can fly and kill people without touching them. Also, did you say PRINCE Elif!?" Muttered Cath before focusing on Elif's title.
"Yes, I'm the Crown Prince of the Immortal Elven Empire, so address me as Prince Elif." Said Elif as he picked up the second book in the Harry Potter series and began reading it.
"O-Ok, Prince Elif. I'll be right back; I'm going to dry off and put some clothes on." Said Cath as she grabbed some clothes and headed back to the bathroom, still in shock that she had encountered a Prince, causing her to fantasize about certain shoujo manga, though that fantasy quickly collapsed when she remembered how Elif treats her.
'Yeah, that's never going to happen, besides this is real life; why would a prince ever be interested in some commoner.' Thought Cath with a sigh as she closed the door behind her and changed her clothes.
While reading the book, I heard Cath exit the bathroom and sit at a desk; shortly after, she began yelling and causing a commotion, forcing me to close the book in annoyance.
"Will you be quiet! I'm trying to read something." Said Elif, annoyed at her blatant disregard for his presence.
"Oops, sorry, you were so quiet I forgot about you, but a new chapter of Supreme Heavenly Emperor had just dropped after the author had been inactive for nearly six months! So how could I not be excited? You should come and read it with me; you might like it as it's about cultivators!"Said Cath apologetically and excitedly as she focused back on her computer.
'Well, I am slightly curious how the mortal realm views cultivators.' Thought Elif as he appeared beside Cath and eyed the computer, instantly causing his attention to shift from the manga to the computer.
"Hmm, what is the artifact you're u-Stop! Go back to the previous picture." Said Elif seriously, as he saw something in the manga that caused his instincts to go off.
"Umm, okay, no need to get so worked up. This picture?" Said Cath, scrolling the page up to a picture of a young man wearing cultivator clothes with a large blue, slightly transparent screen in front of him while yelling the word 'System' loudly.
'System. That's the word Comet had yelled when he nearly died from the beasts Idonea had lured to him, and right after he yelled those words, he suddenly got a massive cultivation boost from nothing, which ultimately allowed him to survive the encounter.' Thought Elif, eyeing the image while he instinctively felt he might've found a significant clue.
"Tell me what a 'System' is this instance." Ordered Elif; a dangerous glint appeared in his eyes.
"Ok. In the manga Supreme Heavenly Emperor, the system is a special artifact that fused with the main character's soul, and by killing enemies and completing missions, the Mc gains something called points, which is the system's currency, and that can be used to buy anything you could imagine; it can also be used to rapidly improve his cultivation base and other things that would take a long time to improve on. I almost forgot it can also store things in a unique dimension that no one can access or sense." Explained Cath in a cheerful tone, though when she looked at Elif, her joyful mood instantly vanished, and she felt fear.
"Cath, I want to read this book, so start from the beginning." Ordered Elif, and while his facial expression looked the same as before, you could sense a great deal of coldness radiating from his eyes.
"Y-Yes, P-Prince Elif." Replied Cath timidly as she returned to chapter one of the Supreme Heavenly Emperor.
For roughly three hours, I stood silently beside Cath as we read each page of the picture book until we finally arrived at the one we originally started at, and I was livid. Everything that transpired throughout all one-hundred and twelve pages of the book was things I've seen Comet do, and it angered me as I realized Comet had indeed lied to me.
'That inferior peasant dared to lie to me? A Prince?' Thought Elif, infuriated at having almost been fooled; still, he didn't act upon his emotions and stayed calm. For now.
"It seems I must return to whence I came from, though I appreciate the information Cath." Said Elif calmly, though anyone would be able to tell he was merely putting up an act.
"W-Wait! Y-You, can't go; after killing his subordinates, Collen will turn me into his plaything and torture me!" Declared Cath in a shaky voice from the fear Elif gave her and the fear of her possible future.
"Hmm, well, you did indirectly allow me to learn the truth about something since if you never ran through the portal, I would've never bothered to traverse an unknown passageway with unknown dangers. Take this; with these things, you'll become unstoppable within this mortal realm." Said Elif as he summoned a storage ring, different from a dimension ring, along with hundreds of Earth spirit stones and a few low-tier cultivation manuals from his dimension ring before tossing them over to Cath all in a sack.
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"W-What are these?" Asked Cath after examining the sack's contents, though when she looked back up, she noticed Elif had disappeared. Elif's actions, however, drastically changed Cath's future; with the assistance of hundreds of spirit stones and a cultivation manual, Cath would destroy the Collen family and eventually create her own underground faction for nearly one hundred years as she silently and slowly took over the world.
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Arriving back at the alleyway where the passageway is located, I saw groups of people surrounding the area, but I was in no mood to deal with mortals, so I swiftly sneaked through them and appeared directly before the portal as I quickly entered. Once inside the passageway, I noticed it was no longer dark as numerous cracks of various sizes were littered all over the tunnel, allowing the void to leak in and illuminate the tunnel.
'Good thing I returned when I did; any later, and the tunnel might've already been destroyed by the void. Still, with this much of the void leaking through, it will collapse any second, so I should hurry along.' Thought Elif as he stopped suppressing his cultivation and quickly flew through the tunnel, emerging back inside the spirit realm within a blink of an eye.
Turning around, I sensed the passageway behind me quickly getting destroyed by the void until there was nothing, which caused me to release a sigh of relief, as with my cultivation base, I wouldn't last long in the void.
"Your Highness, you've returned. How was the trip- my apologies, your highness." Asked Idonea curiously, though when she sensed Elif's mood, she quickly kneeled before him.
"The trip was much more fruitful than expected. And now that I've returned, I have some unfinished business to attend to." Answered Elif as he fanned himself with his quạt tay, hiding the eerie smile that adorned his face.