1393 Zaria’s Farewell
While the entire Great Crown Domain was getting rowdy, and almost everyone was on guard against the newly emerged thief, Sky Stealer, Zaria's closed shop suddenly received an unexpected visitor despite the curfew.
This visitor was tall and had a burly build, wearing black ceremonial robes with a golden runic pattern.
His amber eyes shone with hesitation when he looked at the closed shop before he muttered, "Well, I'm only here to make sure they are both safe and out of trouble. Also, to make sure that the boy is still alive or not…Albeit, I highly doubt it."
Despite his extraordinary status and prowess, there was a hint of fear in the man's eyes, but he gritted his teeth as if he was getting ready for a great battle before he placed his hand on the sealed door of the shop.
A vague mystical light suddenly shone under his palm, and then sounds of a few clicks rang before the door was unlocked. A faint frown appeared on his face.
'Why is the entire formation active? Could it be she's not present in the shop? But Leah should be there, and if she had activated the entire formation, Leah would be locked up in her room as well…what is that troublemaker thinking?' Like a sneaky, perverse man, he slowly opened the door and peered through the crack. When he saw no one, he pushed the door open and walked inside. The moment he entered, he knew there was no one inside the shop.
The 'intruder', who was actually Zaria and Leah's grandfather, Falcon, fell into deep thought as he found this entire thing very strange. He knew Zaria wouldn't take Leah outside the shop, nor would she lock her here, at least not for many years.
But today, Zaria had broken her habit and took Leah outside while locking the shop for the first time in a long while.
Just as Falcon was wandering about what his troublesome granddaughter was scheming, suddenly a rune flickered on the counter, and Falcon sensed it even before it was activated and looked over.
He wasn't startled or on guard against any attack, and curiously looked at the rune that suddenly appeared. It didn't even take Falcon a second to see through that rune, and he was intrigued.
"An encrypted array which is set to activate the moment someone opens the shop with a 'backdoor' key…but why did she leave this encrypted array?"
Extremely curious and somewhat expectant, he pointed his finger at the rune, and a tiny string of runes suddenly formed on the tip of his finger. Then, that rune string suddenly shaped into a single rune before he flicked his finger, and that rune shot towards the rune on the counter.
The moment that the rune touched the encrypted array, both runes suddenly merged together before both turned into light particles.
The next moment, a small projection of enthralling Zaria appeared on the counter right where the encrypted array was before, which Flacon had easily decrypted, that might not even a 7-Star Ascension Rune Crafter could achieve.
At this moment, Zaria's projection spoke in a cold tone, "So, you're finally here, you Stinky Old Pervert! I knew you had a backdoor key!"
Flacon's expression instantly changed as he overlooked this point, despite having said himself that the encrypted array was set to activate when someone used a 'backdoor key'.
"Ahem, t-that was just a spare key that I held on to just in case she lost her own." Falcon suddenly started to explain himself when he found that his 'trick' had long been discovered by Zaria, despite the projection in front of being just a message. However, he seemed more proud than guilty after realizing that Zaria had seen through his trick, and then she used it to leave an encrypted array for him, knowing he would come and wouldn't be able to stop himself from entering her shop.
'At least she knew I'll be worried about them…' A warm smile appeared on his face as he looked at Zaria's projection, and he was now even more curious about why she went through all this trouble to leave him this message, 'Is she shy? So, she decided to use this message to tell me when she'll be coming back?'
The old man was extremely delighted under his own delusional state, and it didn't even occur to him that Zaria might have left the Great Crown Domain or the Runic Forge City because there was another trick involved in this. This trick was something Zaria would've never been able to see through unless she reached the realm of Falcon. "You don't know how much I wanted to leave without saying anything and vanished just 'that bitch' did to us. But I know we matter little to that 'bitch' yet you insist on uniting us.
"I don't know if you are just naïve or simply shameless to have still face to come here all these years and try to take us to that stinky palace of that bitch! You just don't want to admit that 'bitch' doesn't want us, her life's 'blemish', her 'mistakes'!
"Yet you are so persistence and foolish, you refused to admit defeat, sometime I even wonder if you are that heartless bitch's father, or you just happened to pick her up from some trash, well I hope it's the latter.
"Anyway, I owe you nothing but no matter what, you also showed Leah kindness and keep her save all these years while not telling that bitch about her true talent for my sake, so, I'm leaving this message to tell you that I'm leaving the Great Crown Domain.
"I don't know when I'll be back, or if I even want to come back. Oh, and the place I'm going is somewhere even you can't reach, if you don't believe me, then just tell that 'bitch' about Leah's bloodline, you have my permission and I can guarantee you that it'll break her pride to shambles! "Yeah, that's all I have to say, and one last thing…" A mischievous smile appeared on Zaria's face at that moment. "The reason we're leaving is that your 'Grandson-in-law' has successfully kidnapped us!"
The next moment, her projection suddenly vanished in a wisp of light. However, in the eerie silence of the shop, hurried breathing could be heard. Falcon's face was almost as pale as a ghost's, and he kept staring at where Zaria's projection had vanished, in utter disbelief, as if he were in a nightmare.
However, he knew it was a nightmare, but a huge disaster, and instantly closed his eyes. The next moment, runes started to flicker around his body like stars; it was a mystical scene. As more and more seconds passed, Falcon's expression paled even further. A terrifying pressure filled the shop, and even the space started to tremble, with cracks appearing.
Finally, the runes vanished and Falcon opened his eyes, which were now bloodshot, "H-h-how is that possible!? T-that degenerate bastard dare! He dares to take them away without even getting my blessing?! I'm going to find him, and then I'm going to beat him, and then I'm going to chain him to the palace walls, and then…" He suddenly started to mutter like an obsessed lunatic.
But at this moment, a powerful voice filled with fury suddenly rang outside the shop, "Zaria! Come out and admit your mistakes in front of Young Duke!"
Falcon suddenly stopped and turned around…at this moment, he suddenly felt like going on a rampage, and he knew exactly where to start before he went to hunt for that bastard who stole his precious granddaughters!