'It will take a week for her to recover completely,' Avendial thought as he stood and gazed at the bed, analyzing the time it would take Rivia to regain her usual strength.
Of course, he wasn't going to let this opportunity slip away and have her heal slowly over a long period.
Instead, he would help her boost her strength in a very painful manner. Rather than being angry with her and wasting most of the time, he would prefer to focus on gaining an advantage on the early floors of the tower.
In the end, one needs to be alive to at least play the game of anger.
He needed to increase the amount or capacity of synergy her vessel was able to hold, and to do so, his curse could be used as an advantage.
In simple terms, if one creates a vacuum inside a small chamber placed in the air, then, if we ignore atmospheric pressure instantly destroying the vessel, it is feasible that the air will try to fill the gap. While doing so, if the amount of air coming in is much stronger, it will likely push the inner walls of the vessel and slightly increase its volume.
Though materialistically it isn't always possible—given that the vessel must be strong enough to withstand pressure—this is not the case with the energy core of someone like Rivia.
Avendial's curse had removed all the synergy from her body, and clearly, the outside synergy would try to fill it up again. However, due to scarcity, this process would take a long time and would not cause an expansion of her energy core.
For this reason, Avendial opted to utilize synergy boosters—an unstable and yet-to-be-successful experiment—to give her an abrupt surge of synergy and aggressively enlarge her core.
It would be as painful as dying, which was why he had chosen to organize the sequence and figure out whether to boost her energy core now or allow her some months of recovery before going through yesterday's procedure again to rejuvenate her energy.
'She should be in one of the free city,' Avendial got off the bed and made his way to the nearby dresser, where he selected a white silk shirt and black pants. While he changed, he reflected on his primary target, the one who needed to be brought down to facilitate his approach to Margaret or anyone else.
Naturally, Avendial was not poised to awaken any semblance of power akin to that of his former life. Given that he had yet to trigger his fourth curse, which had somewhat granted him strength but at a significant cost, right now, he was merely a weakling susceptible to being easily killed, with no ability to fight back.
In his past existence, he endured by giving up everything; today, instead of sacrificing himself or giving up on things, he would probably choose to push others into a compromise.
So, his first priority was to have as many future awakeners known as Empyreals in his team or the Evolvers, individuals like Sword Masters, Archmages, etc., who were able to utilize synergy.
At the moment, he had just a year to work with, and even if he attempted to leverage his wealth and knowledge to gather all the awakeners, searching for them across the globe solely based on his memories—since he had only seen them in person and not where they might currently be—was an impossible task.
Hence, he needed an awakener who possessed the ability to precisely locate others.
"Master, have you called for me?" Upon entering the room, Alfred inclined his head in a bow before lifting his eyes to face Avendial, who was seated in a chair, donned in a black suit over a white silk shirt and wearing black boot shoes.
"Tell me, Alfred, is it worse to be the person who commits a crime or the one who hides it?" Avendial raised his gaze, coldly fixing his eyes on Alfred, whose eyes widened in surprise before settling into acceptance, anticipating that the time for his punishment for mistakes had finally arrived.
"To be the person who hides it, Master," Alfred replied, placing his white-gloved hand on his chest with eyes closed and his face turned down in a professional stance.
"Why?" Avendial, donning the shoes, approached the drawer and opened it to uncover an array of premium watches. Inside, there were timeless stainless steel chronographs, sophisticated gold dress timepieces adorned with leather bands, sleek minimalist watches featuring pristine dials, and several contemporary smartwatches showcasing stylish digital interfaces.
"Because due to his actions, the perpetrator will be motivated to commit more crimes without fear of being caught," Alfred replied, fully aware that by remaining silent after witnessing a crime, the observer becomes a more significant criminal, as their inaction only encourages the perpetrator to continue committing offenses without the fear of getting caught.
"Anything you have to say in your favor?" Avendial glanced at him with cold eyes as he wore a blue-dialed Rolex, with silver stripes appearing the same as the color of his hair and eyes.
"No, I am guilty, Master." Alfred would have explained how he managed everything after realizing that his Master was often preoccupied with work, and that sharing information could have diverted his Master's attention. Consequently, he took it upon himself to handle Rivia's behavior while firmly banning her from harming any innocents, even though he was aware that he was concealing this and was an accomplice in her crimes.
"Decide your punishment, Alfred." Avendial slowly moved towards him before passing by and arriving near the door as he waited for Alfred's judgment for his own actions.
"Master, given that Miss Rivia is your bodyguard and had eliminated those 124 women to shield you from danger, her sole transgression should be the mistake made today, which deserves a lighter reprimand. I was not informed of today's happenings in advance, so I too should be forgiven, and she should receive some leniency given it was her first mistake," Alfred replied while keeping his head bowed.
"Tch, you are an old sly fox, Alfred, siding with Rivia now that it has come to you." Avendial felt amused seeing how this old man had not come last night to help Rivia but when it came to his punishment, he gave a more logical excuse to escape his wrongdoings.
"Thank you for the compliment, Master," Alfred responded once more, interpreting the words as a compliment. He had been thinking about how he ought to be punished, but since he had a daughter, he believed that as a father, he shouldn't face consequences.
Of course, being a proficient butler, he should have to prove his worth.
"Now tell me, what is the most valuable thing in this world from a materialistic perspective?" Avendial came out of the door while Alfred also followed behind with his fingers on his chin as he thought of the answer to his master, while Avendial felt finally some peace after returning back and wanting to have some riddle time with this guy.
A person moving forward in his life leaves behind several moments, which become hollow parts in his memories. Trying to fill them up, he misses those moments; among them was the time when Avendial used to always ask riddles to this old man.
"Master, if I suppose here 'world' refers to our planet, then it would be gold, diamond, or rare metals, but if 'world' here refers to this universe, then without a doubt it would be wood." Alfred thought calmly about the obvious answers which could be rare metals and valuable minerals, but how valuable a thing is depends on its availability.
For example, for a country with too much water, they wouldn't find it valuable, but on the other side, for a country which doesn't have such resources, it would be extremely valuable.
And, Alfred knew from the fact that, materialistically until today, dated as 2031, humans have already reached the last planet of this solar system and have sent satellites to the end of the galaxy we are in but have always found planets with liquid diamond or asteroids made of gold, but they have never once found wood.
Wood is only found on planet Earth, which is presently where they are. So, it is most valuable if seen from the perspective of rarity in the universe.
'Finally,' Avendial halted, feeling nostalgia of arriving back and talking with someone who had answers for his question, causing a smile to form. As he gave side eyes to Alfred, he announced, "I have decided your punishment, Alfred; let us impose some mental labor on you."
"Surely, you jest, my Lord." Alfred halted in his path and gave a blank look that seemed to neglect what he had just heard.
"Absolutely not, you can count on it." Avendial shrugged his shoulder as he turned from the hallway towards the staircase, leaving Alfred standing there with only one thing written on his old face.
'Fuck'