Yes, Azik, the Death Consul, was merely a child in the eyes of Bethel, who had already existed since the Third Epoch.
"It's good that you don't mind. I wonder how Azik has been these days. I hope his wretched father won't trouble him because of the tea party..." Lynn frowned as he thought of this. He suddenly looked at Bethel and said, "Bethel, why don't we invite him over in advance? I'm afraid Salinger might do something bad to my precious resource."
Although Lynn didn't know exactly how despicable Salinger was, he never had high expectations for the scummy character.
So he decided to wield his pickaxe in advance.
...
While Lynn was preparing to wield his pickaxe, on the other side, Azik, the Death Consul, suddenly felt a bit chill.
This made the Death Consul instinctively frown. He raised his head from the pile of parchment that reached waist height and looked around, but he saw nothing that could be making him feel cold.
In fact, at this moment, apart from Azik himself, there was no one else in the Death Consul's palace. Even the attendants responsible for serving him were nowhere to be seen.
The palace door was closed, marked personally by the God of Death.
The reason for this state was simple: Azik was under house arrest.
After returning from the tea party with the gods, Azik naturally couldn't tell the God of Death the details of the tea party due to constraints. He could only reveal some general information without violating the constraints, such as who participated in the gathering and the theme of the meeting.
This was a loophole Lynn intentionally left. He allowed the attendees to disclose this part of the information to facilitate recruiting and make the tea party more widely known without revealing critical details.
If it were another father, he wouldn't blame Azik in this situation. After all, the constraints applied even to Sequence 0, so it was normal for a Sequence 2 like Azik to be unable to resist.
But Salinger was infamous for being a scumbag. As someone who could use his own child as a resurrection vessel, Salinger vented his anger on Azik for not being able to obtain specific information about the tea party, blaming him for being incompetent and putting him under house arrest.
Even while under house arrest, Salinger didn't intend to let Azik idle. So, even in confinement, Azik had to continuously handle various affairs of the Balam Empire.
That's why Azik was alone in the palace, processing documents.
"An illusion?" the Death Consul murmured in confusion, his gaze falling on the corner of the desk where a few letters lay. They were all letters from Lynn to Azik during this time.
"What a pity..." The Death Consul sighed, thinking of something.
He didn't blame Libert for his punishment by the God of Death. It wasn't because of the power Libert displayed at the gathering but because Azik understood that Libert had no ill intentions in inviting him to the gathering. On the contrary, Libert wanted to help him by inviting him to a gathering he wouldn't normally qualify for with his current strength.
Azik was well aware that participating in such a high-level gathering could bring him unimaginable benefits. Just getting to know those Kings of Angels and Sequence 0s and earning their friendship was a huge fortune, not to mention other tangible benefits.
Azik only regretted that he might not be able to attend the next gathering and that, being under house arrest, he couldn't go to the Tudor Empire as he had planned, nor could he experience the life of an ordinary person as Lynn had described.
Now, it seemed there was no chance.
The Death Consul thought absentmindedly, looking at the palace door.
It wasn't his first time under house arrest. The God of Death was never a merciful deity, and Azik, as his offspring, had never received a shred of paternal love.
So, from childhood to adulthood, Azik had been punished by the God of Death countless times. Sometimes it was because he made mistakes, and sometimes it was simply because the God of Death was unhappy.
Among all these punishments, house arrest was already considered mild.
Before today, Azik thought he had long become accustomed to this life. He used to think that even if he were locked in this palace for the rest of his life, it wouldn't matter much. After all, the Balam Empire was just a bigger cage for him.
Azik lived in this cage, carefully following the God of Death's commands. Even if punished, even knowing he was being turned into a resurrection vessel, he could only silently accept it, doing his duty as the Death Consul, handling various affairs for the God of Death, and waiting for his end to come.
But now, Azik realized that perhaps he hadn't accepted his fate as much as he thought. He believed he had accepted everything, but at this moment, he felt that the closed door was suffocating.
Just like his life, shut behind the same door early on, suffocating and despairing.
"These are not thoughts a devout believer should have..." Azik smiled self-deprecatingly, his gaze falling on a picture of a cat hanging on the wall.
The picture showed a big leopard cat protecting a kitten wearing a silk hat, looking both warm and fairy-tale-like.
Azik was a bit entranced. After a long while, he covered his face with his hand and murmured:
"You are truly terrifying, Libert."
Azik knew that he had been swayed long time ago.
Perhaps when Libert described a future for him, or when he saw this picture, or maybe through those letters.
He was tempted by the future Libert described, began to look forward to the life Libert depicted, and started to reject his fate of becoming a vessel.
He was supposed to resign himself to fate!
In this era, in this country, as the child of the God of Death, offering everything to the God of Death, including oneself, was a matter of course. No one would question it; no one dared to question it.
The former Death Consul wouldn't, but the current Azik suddenly wanted to ask the God of Death — why is this my fate?
So the Death Consul thought Libert was truly terrifying. He awakened something terrifying within him, which could be called humanity or perhaps the self.
He made the Death Consul want to become Azik.
"Bang—"
At this moment, the closed door suddenly opened from the outside, and a lively, familiar voice followed:
"Good afternoon, Azik!"
Azik looked up in shock to see a familiar young man standing at the door, a bright smile on his face.
Sunlight streamed in behind him, not harsh but soft and warm, filling the dim and chill palace with light.
TN: This Chapter just hit hard.
(End of Chapter)
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