Chapter 120: Incredibly Pathetic…
Lucien looked at him with an expectant smile after dropping his statement, while Axel hummed to himself with a thoughtful expression, he already found it weird that the Valkyrie or Lucien neither came to him in obvious anger, it would not have been weird for Sophia to come and beat him up, he was not a match for the Valkyrie as of now, even if he put his life on the line and fought intending to die, that’s how big the difference in power was between them.
Most likely, it was Lumina who was vehement that she did not do anything to him. As for the prince, he most likely weighed pros and cons, thought it wasn’t worth it in the end, considering he could be a greater asset to their goals, thinking for the far future.
A smile appeared on his face, and he said to Lucien, “Well, there might be a price in the future, but for now, there isn’t anything significant that can make me change my mind, however…”
“There might be a few things you can do to smoothen our co-operation, but I cannot promise anything in return.”
Lucien looked at him in bewilderment and let out a small laugh,
“Are you saying I have to help you with something just for free, without having any cooperation from you guaranteed, for a mere empty promise?”
Axel nodded sagely as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, “Indeed.”
Lucien let out another laugh while placing a hand on his face,
“Good, good, good, I like smart people who know their worth. Not bad, not bad, indeed, Axel Nomrad.”
“But I suppose it’s only right since that useless cousin of mine decided to offend you unnecessarily, and at that time I asked you some…..inappropriate questions in front of Gareth, in light of that I suppose I could do one or two favors, depending on what the favors are of course.”
Axel chuckled and put 2 fingers at the front, “Two things. One, I need to see your forging, which I should have already seen by now, if not for your unnecessary curiosity.”
“Two, I need to learn how to fight while being blinded in multiple senses,” added Axel.
When he stated his 2nd sentence, a small tremor ran through the eyes of the 4th prince, barely noticeable, but Axel did not miss it; he acted oblivious to it, but he knew that while Lucien barely reacted to his 2nd favor, a storm of thoughts was raging on Lucien’s mind.
But Axel acted like nothing happened, and there was a big reason behind it; it was related to what Lucien went through in the trial. Lucien, as expected, hummed thoughtfully, trying his best to calm down his raging mind. Then, thinking logically, he said,
“Well, I must say this made me quite curious about your second favor? May I ask what could be your reason behind such a bizarre request?” asked Lucien about the thing he was most curious about, without walking round and round about it.
Axel lingered for a moment and answered, “Well, all I can tell you is that I faced a certain situation in the trial, which forced me to live without my senses or fight without them for a certain period, something that I barely survived.”
“I occasionally revealed this to Lumina about it once, she told me that you might be able to help me with that particular thing. She says that you are extremely good at fighting with closed eyes, only using your other senses or just mana sense, from her words that is, but are you really?” asked Axel, sounding unsure of Lumina’s statement.
Lucien looked at him with a raised eyebrow, but Axel could tell from his facial expression his guard went down a lot, after hearing his explanation and what he said was indeed the truth, Axel had already planned everything, he knew he was going to encounter Lucien one of the days while doing forging for several days, he laid the groundwork by already revealing Lumina about his difficulties in the trial. Not that he actually went through any such situation, though.
And as expected, she indeed suggested that Lucien could help him with that. Lucien would question Lumina about it, he would likely talk to Sophia about it as well. The reason why Axel needed to learn fighting without sight as a contingency is obviously because of that scarlet floating light within his secondary aspect chamber.
He would obviously try and fight Sin while resisting the mind alterations done by Scarlet Light, but there was an 80% possibility it would not work, as such being able to fight while having his eyes closed would be a backup or an assurance, he could continue fighting it. In fact, Axel was hoping to gain access to one of the key abilities of Lucien, a powerful external sense that works independently from the usual 5 senses.
Lucien told him that he would think about it for a while first, and he would tell him about it 1 or 2 days later. Axel chuckled internally, hearing that, the guy would obviously talk to Lumina and Sophia about it, but outwardly he expressionlessly agreed to it while he went about his way in the forging room he had booked for himself. He emptied a large number of materials into a large container to keep the raw metals for use.
He started forging without much fanfare, Another task would be added to his daily list from likely tomorrow, which is watching Lucien’s forging for a few weeks, learning from him to improve upon his forging ability. Also, learning to fight without sight from him after that.
Just as he expected, Lucien came to him tomorrow when he was busy forging, which was sooner than expected. He saw him forging for a while and stated,
“I must say it’s incredible.”
Axel let the molten metal cool down after putting it in the casting mold and hammering it for a bit. Hearing that unexpected statement from Lucien, he looked at the guy with some visible surprise.
He thought he had misheard, he couldn’t believe it, he was always insulted for his lack of talent for the forging part of the weapon making, in particular, but could it be?
Could it be he actually had some kind of hidden talent in it, some kind of special process that would show his real talent? He was just feeling hopeful. Lucien added matter-of-factly,
“Incredibly Pathetic that is….”
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{Author Note = If we hit 200 power stones and 50 Golden Tickets by the 6th of June, there would be a 6 chapter mass release on that date, if not, then a 4 chapter mass release on 6th June for the magic castle I was gifted by [Zamir].}
50 Golden Tickets = 1 Extra Chapter
200 Power Stones = 1 Extra Chapter
1 Magic Castle = 4 Extra Chapter