Chapter 40: Conversation
A pigeon sat silently on a roof. It titled its little head as it stared down on a crowd of people. Although they surrounded a blue hemispherical barrier, they didn't dare to approach it. They only glanced towards it before they turned back to their conversation.
A gust of wind blew, and the pigeon cooed before it flapped its wings to soar up into the sky. The gust has blown the hat of a man away. Annoyed, the man cursed as he quickly chased after his hat. At this moment, the pigeon pooped, and the poop fell on the man. When the surrounding crowd saw that, they burst out laughing. Annoyed, the man cursed at them as he quickly walked away.
The gust swept across the crowd until it finally crashed against the blue hemispherical barrier. Soon the wind scattered in all direction and the wind calmed again.
The father and Libertas stood across each other. A resigned expression covered the face of the father as he began to speak, "Boy, I am sorry. I won't be able to do anything to help. You should go with him. Be careful."
Libertas glanced towards the butler. As always, the butler smiled radiantly at him. Shaking his head, Libertas asked, "Who is he?"
Stunned, the father frowned. Following, he hesitatingly questioned back, "You really don't know who he is? Then have you heard of the founder?"
Without any hesitation, Libertas shook his head. After seeing this, the father's frown deepened. Did that kid suffer amnesia? Sighing, he thought back to his past. Unwittingly, he glanced towards the butler and the troops with a deeply hidden resentment. He then began to tell, "Around 260 years ago, there were four kingdoms in this world at peace. One day the founder suddenly appeared and started a cruel war all over the world. She gathered the cursed children and built an army, the blue earth."
When Libertas heard the father telling about the history, he frowned. Four kingdoms in the world? Did he drift from the river to an island? Or maybe another part of the continent? Would he be able to go back to meet Igor again? He sighed. In the end, he was still too weak to do anything.
Suddenly something piqued his interest. Cursed children. He didn't like the term. Hence, he frowned, as he asked, "The cursed children?"
The father glanced down towards Libertas. After he sighed, he explained, "The cursed children are kids like you. However, the devil bestowed them with strange powers and cursed them with early death. They had never lived up to adulthood, but now things are different. However, now thanks to the founder, things have changed. They are now called blessed children, and with the help of the founder, they can withstand the curse of early death. However, only the founder sought for them. The others are still avoiding them. It was as if they were a plague."
"Do you think I could be one of the blessed children? And the founder wants to meet me because I am one of them?"
Hearing this, the father laughed out, "No! It is unlikely. Usually, the blessed children seek for her on their own, or else they would have died early. Besides that, she had never invited anyone to her tower or even appeared in public. Her butler was handling everything for her! Moreover, you don't have the mark that every cursed child has."
The father pointed at his and resumed to speak, "They have scales at their neck. Now, where did I stop? Ah! To be short, after she had built the army, she conquered the whole world. Since then, we called her the founder. And that butler waiting there outside, is her butler."
For a moment, Libertas fell in deep thoughts. Then he gradually formulated his question, "Do you think she wants to meet up with me because of the spirit inside me?"
Stumped for a moment by the question, the father stared at Libertas. Following, he shook his, while saying, "Impossible. She is an emotionless and ruthless beast. Other may hail her as the founder, but that is only like this because they have never met her. Never mind her, you would meet her soon anyway."
All of a sudden, the father took a ring off his finger and gave it to Libertas. It had strange engravings of runes, and a blue jewel embellished its centre. Puzzled, Libertas looked at the father with a tilted head. Smiling weakly, the father spoke dryly, "This is my farewell gift to you. This ring can detect if that spirit inside you is trying to take over your body. With other words, if it breaks, do whatever you want, it is your last moment. Well, do you have any other questions? I don't have anything else to say except, be careful."
Libertas first shook his head before he nodded it, "No, well, maybe yes. Although it is off the topic, I am pretty much curious about that."
The father chuckled and lightly knocked on Libertas' head, "Then go ask away. There is no need to hesitate between us."
Libertas smiled as he happily asked, "Thank you. I would like to know how the runes and the laws interact with each other."
Only as Libertas said it out, did he realize, he made a mistake. He had never heard someone mentioning the laws here. Maybe they were two independent systems and had nothing to do with each other. Nevertheless, it was nearly impossible, as both systems used Mana. However, could he master both of the systems?
While Libertas stood there frozen and was lost in his thought, the eyes of the father widened in shock. The father stared speechless at Libertas, wondering how a little kid knew about laws. Stammering, he spoke overwhelmed, "Y, y, you know of laws!?"
Hearing this, Libertas smiled elated, "Yeah."
The father wryly smiled while he shook his head. He pointed at the butler as he sighed, "If it is about that, you should ask him. Before they propagated the concept of laws, only the royal families of each kingdom knew about it. However, before my father could teach me about it, they have already unified the world. Due to this, I can only learn from a book he left behind for me. You should go now."
Libertas glanced towards the butler. Even now, he was smiling radiantly at Libertas. Sighing, he asked, "Will I be able to see you both again?"
The father ruffled on Libertas' hair, "If fate allows that, we will meet again! Now go."
The father waved his hand, and the air immediately filled the vacuum. Then as the butler saw that, the blue hemispherical barrier promptly vanished. Subsequently, he smiled at Libertas, who walked determinedly towards him. However, his smile stiffened as Libertas suddenly turned around. Following, he heard Libertas saying towards the father and Maria, "Thank you very much for everything you have done for me. It was a fun time with you two?"
Then, Libertas turned once more around and walked towards the butler. No one noticed his soft muttering, "Even if I die now, I won't regret it! Maybe only that I couldn't meet Igor or Caesar again. Whatever, I will face everything coming at me! I will really face anything!"
The butler smiled as he swiftly bowed to Libertas, "Can we go now? Or do you have any other requests?"
Libertas shook his head. Then he replied, "We can go now. As for the questions I have, you can answer them while we are walking."
Hearing this, the butler quickly commanded the blue earth troop following him before he turned his attention back to Libertas. Following, he inquired, "As you wish. Please follow me."
Libertas nodded, then followed after the butler, while he glanced around. The blue earth troop didn't need to do anything, as the people retreated on their own. They whispered under themselves as they fearfully stepped back. After a while of walking, he finally asked, "Hey. Do you know about the laws? And how do runes interact with laws?"
The butler smiled courteously. After he thought for a while, he answered carefully, "Everything in this world is affected by the laws. However, we can't directly influence the laws. Hence, we use the runes to act as an interface to interact with the law. Through our influence above the law, we can exert changes in the world."
Nodding his head, Libertas continued to ask another question, "Then why are the runes always in a circle, and a line needed to connect them?"
Then why do you create a picture at the centre of the runes?"
"The lines give the runes a structure. Without it, the laws wouldn't know how to interpret the runes. A bunch of runes in a single spell can have countless variations by simply rearranging the runes. Hence, we need the line structure the runes. Then, of course, you can do it in various forms instead of a circle."
"If it was only structure, wouldn't a line be a better option?"
The butler chuckled, "No. The further away our Mana is from us, we harder it would be to construct. Furthermore, it will be harder to determine where the spell will occur at the end. Usually, the spell will occur at the centre of a spell circle, and this will remain the same with a line. However, at the later stage, it would be too long, to accurately determine where it would occur. Moreover, it is too arduous to constantly adjust the runes in a line during a battle. As such, it became common to use a circle."
"Then why does the spell circle vanish, if a spell is cast?"
"If it didn't vanish how else would the runes interact with the laws? However, they didn't vanish. They instead appear at another place. It is the same with law. You can't see them too, but they exist somewhere. Besides that, the runes are still connected with us as long as we provide enough Mana for them to function. Through this connection, we can even rearrange the runes to make changes in the spell. However, we can't add further runes into the spell circle. We can only delete and rearrange the runes. Nevertheless, we can't do that forever. Each time we rearrange the runes, it will become harder for the next. It is because the line connecting the runes distorts and became messier."
The butler stopped walking. He slightly smiled as he looked ahead. Then he said softly, "Well, do you have any other questions? If yes, I would like to request from you to ask them later. We have now arrived at the founder's tower."
Libertas nodded his head and looked around, stunned. When did he arrive in a forest? The trees waved under the gust of wind. A tower stood proudly over all of them.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone