Chapter 42 - Leading by Example

After Arthur left the smithy, he entered the small side alleyway Thoran mentioned with Foster and Jeren. Unfortunately, the rain showed no signs of slowing down, and Arthur was nearly soaked through by the time he came upon the pile of bodies at the alley's end.

His targets had been added last, so naturally, they sat atop the pile. Without overthinking, he rushed to the fifth circle's corpse and swung down with the rusty hammer Thoran had given him. Yet, despite his hope that the clamorous rain would stifle the noises, it did nothing to drown out the gut-wrenching sounds that followed.

Regardless of the noise, once the mage's skull was opened, Arthur shot his hand inside and blindly grabbed for the mana core as if the mage's skull was a Halloween mystery box filled with warm jello. The moment he felt the crystal, he snatched it and withdrew his hand as quickly as possible before moving on to the next puppet.

Arthur discovered that the mana cores looked identical in shape and size despite their host's cultivation level disparities. It was an unfortunate discovery as it indicated he'd have to be careful when storing them lest he not know which is which.

When he attempted to cultivate Bryan's core the other day, he couldn't see any rings surrounding it. So unless he already knew the owner's cultivation level, there was no way to differentiate the cores other than to cultivate with them and see if they were larger or smaller than his own.

The reason Arthur was handling the collection of the mana cores himself was twofold. Firstly, he had already decided that he should feel more comfortable around such things in the future, even if he found the process vile. And secondly, Arthur thought it would be a good idea to lead by example going forward. That way, Foster and Jeren wouldn't be able to complain if he asked them to do it in the future.

After collecting the cores, Arthur turned around and saw their expressions. Foster was facing away from him with his fingers in his ears, while Jeren had the same perplexed look he had earlier inside the smithy.

Arthur lightly kicked Foster's calf to get his attention as he walked by. "Let's get going. We've already been here too long."

"It's over?" Foster asked as he looked around the area like a prairie dog, carefully avoiding the pile of bodies with his eyes before running to catch up with Arthur and Jeren.

"It's over, ya big baby." Arthur glanced toward Jeren as they walked. "If I turn into a murderous maniac in the future, hold Foster accountable for it."

Jeren looked lost in his thoughts but nodded his head. "...As you say, lord."

"Young master, it's not my fault! I've always had a weak stomach ever since I was a boy. Besides, I thought you'd make Jeren do it! I would've gladly taken the task upon myself to save you from such a fate had I known!" Foster proudly declared.

Arthur rolled his eyes and chose not to respond to Foster's bluster. They soon entered the barren main avenue, but his carriage had moved from where it had dropped them off. Three buildings away, Arthur saw the carriage with the driver huddled beneath a nearby awning and walked to it.

Once in the carriage, Arthur rummaged through his pocket and tossed one of the third circle cores to Jeren. "Try and cultivate with that."

"Now?" Jeren asked.

Arthur nodded. "I only want to see if it's possible. So don't spend too much time on it."

Jeren closed his eyes for a minute before opening them again and returning the core to Arthur. "It's strange... It appears no different from a mana beast's core, but I cannot draw in mana from it."

"That's unfortunate..." Arthur clicked his tongue. "Anyway, you've seemed deep in thought for some time now. What do you want to know? If I can, I will answer your questions honestly."

Jeren hesitated. "...How did you know those men were coming, lord? You even knew their level of cultivation and what they looked like. I just can't understand it.

I know now that you've been hiding your strength, but I'm certain I didn't witness you cast some unknown spell to glean such information. And if you somehow knew who they were and when they would arrive beforehand, then why go to the smithy at all?"

Foster smacked his knee. "That's right! How'd you'd you know they were coming, young master?"

Arthur had prepared a lie long ago in case anyone questioned the information he obtained through Kyren, and it appeared that now was the perfect time to use it.

"I knew they were coming because I had already seen it once before. Yet it was only at that moment that I recalled the memory. It's difficult to explain, but I've had visions of the future for as long as I can remember.

My visions often occur at night while I'm asleep, and by the time I wake up, the memories of what's to come flee like a mundane dream. Sometimes I'll suddenly recall a vision in the preordained location like the smithy, while other times, I'll recall it weeks ahead of time."

Arthur intended for the explanation of his fake vision power to be vague in its workings. Not saying anything with any certainty made it easier to lie in the future, and should Jeren or Foster think to betray him, the unknowable conditions of the power would dissuade them or make them second guess any decisions.

"W-wait! You can see the future young master?!?" Foster yelped.

"Keep your voice down!" Arthur shouted back. "Yes and no. Think about it like picking up a book only to suddenly recall its entire contents as if you had already read it before. That exact situation has happened to me an uncountable amount of times. That's the reason why I've been able to gather so much knowledge despite my young age.

I've read nearly a quarter of the books within the Revan study without ever physically touching their pages, and because of that, I could focus on books that I hadn't read or had visions about. The time it saved allowed me to learn much faster than anyone else."

The fake visions also offered a convenient explanation of Arthur's ability to craft spells at such a young age. By pretending he could randomly read a book by simply touching one, he wouldn't have to constantly give answers about why he knows so much despite being thirteen years old.

"If you picked up a book and remembered reading it due to a vision, then wouldn't the choice to read another book overwrite that vision?" Jeren asked.

Arthur shook his head. "No, my visions only show a future that can or might happen. I can freely diverge from what I've seen, and it doesn't affect what I saw in any way. Meaning if I choose to read another book, I still retain the memory of reading the unchosen book from my vision.

Another example is in the vision that I remembered today. In that vision, after entering the smithy, the blonde mage waited around for a while before pretending to trip and closing the distance to Jeren, killing him in a surprise attack. After that, while the blonde mage's partner attacked Foster, he killed Thoran and took me hostage before killing Foster as well.

After a few minutes, the assassins outside entered the smithy to find out what was taking so long. Once they realized the blonde mage had killed my guards, they took their time killing me until my vision cut out."

Arthur specifically mentioned his fake death to garner some pity points from Jeren in hopes of kickstarting some sort of paternal instincts within him. He was weak, poor, and abandoned by his family, so Arthur was not above emotional manipulation if it increased his chances of survival.

The carriage grew quiet as Jeren and Foster chewed on his words.

"Wait!" Foster shouted as he came to a sudden realization. "Is that how the cook who tried to poison you died, young master?"

Arthur was taken aback. He really didn't have anything to do with that, nor had he prepared a response to such a question. The cook Foster was asking about was found dead one morning while preparing Arthur's breakfast. The official story was that the cook poisoned the food and simply tasted it out of habit before preparing it to be sent off.

However, Arthur was well aware of his luck, and it wasn't so good that his enemies accidentally killed themselves when they tried to murder him. He had always believed that the cook wasn't actually in on the plan, and he simply tasted the food before handing it off to Senna like he had done countless days before. Only that day, he wound up dead because the true assassin was unaware of his gluttonous habit.

While Arthur was still lucky in the end, incompetence from the true assassin not doing their homework on the cook was a far easier pill to swallow than the cook's stupidity leading to his own demise.

"...Ahem." Arthur awkwardly cleared his throat and decided to tell the truth since a half-assed lie could be easily refuted, destroying all the effort he put into the whole future vision story he invented. "No, that wasn't me. Perhaps if it had turned out differently, I would've recalled a vision, but the cook died without me ever coming close to him or the poisoned food."

Foster went silent while Jeren raised his head. "What about their cultivation levels? You never mentioned how you knew what they were."

Arthur shook his head helplessly and shrugged. "I don't have an answer for you on that. Sometimes when people are a part of my visions, their cultivation level becomes known to me as if I had always known it. I'm still not sure how it all works or why I have the visions at all, so I'm as ignorant on the topic as anyone else."

Jeren appeared to think for a while in silence before hesitating. "...What about that spell you used to control the dead? Does it really consume people's spirits if they look at it, lord?"

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