Chapter 76: Greed
Greed, a feeling that was decidedly most human. It was the basic desire of yearning for more, and better.
More power... More freedom... More comfort... These kinds of things.
More of everything that had value to one's own mind.
Little by little, while Julian exchanged dagger strikes with Elsa. That was the sin he convinced himself he had in excess. Of course, with a little tweaking from his EC to help, he had no knowledge at all of self-hipnosis after all.
At first, it only made him eager to assimilate Elsa's teaching with daggers. It gave him the motivation to steal her skills for all they were worth and surpass her. A greed for excellence, precisely.
Then, the more the fight progressed. The more his thoughts shifted from the now to the what could be. To the future.
His mind spiralled out of control. It slapped him in the face with what he could achieve, what he could HAVE. It showed him image of unmeasurable grandeur, in no way comparable to the little utopia he had tried to create in his past life on Earth.
It MADE him desire everything, not just material goods. But sights, knowledge, powers, beauties.
It put things into perspectives. It made him... Ambitious.
He had never been ambitious, not truly. Not since he conquered his past world and got nothing of true value out of it.
But greed didn't care about any of that. It hungered for everything that could be his and beyond.
It was, for a lack of words, an eyes opening experience. As if he viewed the world and himself through another pair of eyes.
The eyes of Greed.
And in the state he was in right now, Julian wholeheartedly agreed with the assessment.
*CRACK!*
With a stagger, Julian disengaged from the fight and put an hand on his head as the timer he had put on his experiment for safety measure wore off.
Yet, despite coming back to normality. There was no going back from the experience.
A green fire had been lit inside him.
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EMBODIMENTS
–Greed (Minor): You are a weak personification of the sin of greed.
Abilities:
~One of mind and Desires: Your wants become needs, motivation fill you and make you hunger for more. (Passive, Core)
~Treasury (Minor): Grant a small personal space to hide ones valuables. (Active)
~Don't even try (Minor): Make people feel subtly ominous if they were to ever yearn for what is yours. (Passive)
–Wrath (Minor): You are a weak personification of the sin of wrath.
Abilities:
~Anger empowerment (Minor): You find strength in anger to a small degree, your own or the one of those in your immediate surrounding.(Passive)
~Anger inducement (Minor): You can induce supernatural anger to a weak degree and provoke anger more easily if you so wish. (Active)
~Controled Wrath: Less chance of losing control when angry. (Passive, Core)
–Lust (Minor): You are a weak personification of the sin of lust.
Abilities:
~Veiled Mind: Allow the masking of one's intentions. (Passive, Core)
~Lust manipulation (Minor): Allow the manipulation of Lust to a small degree. (Passive)
~Lust Reading (Minor): Make possible to read the Lustful thoughts of weaker beings. (Active)
–One spark Impossibility (Extremelly minor): No matter how little of it you are. You still shouldn't exist.
Abilities:
~Lucky time: Allow the manipulation of causality to an almost non-existent extent. Shifting the odds of a situation in one's favor. (Active)
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"What's wrong, master? Can't keep up with the very power you granted?" Elsa lowered her blades and asked with a raised eyebrow.
Julian stayed silent for a bit, looking thoughtful and ignoring her. Before he shook his head and grinned. "Me? Nah, just got some of my shits set straight is all. And learned something valuable."
"Oh?~ What is it?"
"It's all about the mindset." Julian tapped his temple and laughed lightly, a strange glint in his eyes. Before without warning, he launched himself at the confused former assassin.
"So let's do our best, shall we?"
—————
Despite Greed being a sin, Julian found his little experiment to be inestimable.
It was a strange thing to realize, but if there was something he truly lacked sorely in his life. It was drive. Motivation.
While he was not going through the motion of living like before — like a lost man with no purpose — he was not doing that much better setting up some arbitrary goals because they were 'logical' and 'beneficial'.
He was going through the motions of achieving them, but without any opinions. Other than it would be interesting to get this thing or that.
He needed to obtain shards of impossibility. Why? Because he had wronged his adoptive parents.
He needed power. Why? Because he had to repay Kass and fulfill his promise to Emilia. Though he was forced to admit protecting everyone around him was a big part of why. He refused to ket them down because he was too passive in a way.
All that to say, his goals were more obligation than anything else. Partly obligation toward himself, certainly. But obligations nonetheless.
Greed gave him a taste of what it was to be driven by the most basic of need — yearning for the world and above.
And he was hooked.
Greed told of a very simple solution to his problem of not beimg able to know what he wanted in life.
He just had to to do and obtain everything.
—————
Julian yawned, stretching out. He gazed out of his room's window to see the sunrise lightning up the manor's garden in shade of oranges.
It had been 4 days since he made the deal with Roswaal, and everything was going swimmingly.
Unsurprisingly, he was taking to the Archmage's magical classes like a fish to water. He had no trouble with pronuncing the incantations and even less with vizualisation. Because who would have thought that having a inner realm where he could realistically reproduce a spell and its effect would make the process a breeze?
With it, he just had to see the spell being cast once and he could perfectly recreate it back within his mind. The only real trouble he had was with shaping the mana through his gate, and memorizing the combination of words lording over the element, the effects, and the power of a spell. But these took more conscious and deliberate efforts, talent having no part in them. So it couldn't be helped.
Simirlarly, his lessons with Elsa on knivefighting and stealth were going well. And he was making rapid progress. Though with the little time he had for the training, combined with Elsa's natural talent and years of experience. It would take a couple of months to reach her level. She was a genius in the subjects herself after all.
Taking off from his position, he prepared himself for another long day. Only this time he was visiting the nearby village with Subaru and Rem.
Speaking of them, between his bouts of training. He would either hang out with Subaru as he was taught how to be a good maid by the sisters or assist Emilia in her studies. Both because he felt lonely and a bit bored, there was just that much training he could do after all.
Occasionally, he would gloat over Subaru his status as Roswaal's student and how he opted to become a servant instead. Needless to say, Julian alone may be enough to drive the japanese boy into insanity. No need for any horrible deaths with him arround.
Choosing a random door in the corridor he was in, Julian knocked on it. "I know we don't know each other that well, but whatever Puck said to you about me. I'm sure you understand that mistake happens. And besides, If I have the ability to block him from reading my mind. Why shouldn't I use it?"
He shook his head at the thought, the old beast was unreasonable. "I just want to talk a bit more in details about what I proposed the day of my arrival. You okay with it?"
Opening the door and finding a normal closet, Julian sighed before leaving. He had actually been talking to Beatrice. Because besides his first day, he had not found the door leading to her library even once. Meaning that the spirit didn't want him to find her.
It was annoying, Beatrice was the greatest Yin magic user in the world. He could have learn a lot from her. Especially since Yin magic had a relation to space.
But in the end, she wasn't essential. If he wasn't able to get through her during his stay here, he would just take what he wanted by force. It was one thing to dismiss him because she didn't personally like him. And another to listen to the words of an overprotective cat with trust issues. And not even give him a chance.
Same thing with Puck, if he didn't change his attitude before he was able to beat him. He'd better be prepared for a bad time.
Oh, he wouldn't kill him. If only because he was Emilia's father figure. But damn would he kick his ass for being such an ass.
The more he stayed here, the more he realised how everyone had serious issues.
He fit right in.
Now, it was time for some action. And unfortunately, letting Subaru die.
—————
"Who're you?"
"Woah, you look so strong! Are you a knight mister?"
"Poah! I'm sure my dad's stronger than him. And I'll be stronger than my dad one day! He said so."
Julian was immediatly locked upon by a horde of children as they came into the village. As a new, interesting face. It was pretty natural.
"Whoa there! One at a time. His name's Julian, and he's a magician. So be good with him, and maybe he'll show you a magic tricks or two." Subaru said, clapping Julian on his back.
If the children were merely curious about him before, now they were downright fascinated.
"Show us!"
Julian threw a dirty look at Subaru at basically having been thrown under the bus. Meanwhile, the culprit only rubbed the back of his head and smiled wrily before promptly sneaked out with Rem to go stock themselves up with supplies.
Contemplating the mass of little people now crowding before him and considering just fleeing, he relented after a couple of seconds and sighed. "What magic do you want to see?"
Immediate regret assaulted him as he was hit by a cacophony of voice. Each fighting to be heard over the other.
"Can you fly!?"
"I want an Ice rose!"
"Can you throw fireballs!?"
"Can you lift my mo-"
Despite the chaos, Julian let it wash it all over him with his arms crossed. Seeing out of the corner of his eyes nervous parents who didn't know what to do. He deduced that their nervousness came from the fact that they heard he was a mage, and they didn't want their children to annoy him.
It didn't take long before the cries puttered out, as they didn't saw any magic flying yet.
Seeing that, Julian smiled. "If I heard everything right, I can do everything that was said. But I will not, I have other things to do here and I can't possibly spend all my time with you, unfortunately."
Before his crowd could protest or be dissapointed, he followed immediatly. Lifting a finger. "But! I think I have the perfect spell that can satisfy everyone."
Counting the number of children and putting it at 15, Julian flourished his hand behind him. Creating a table of Earth.
Ignoring the oohs and coos of his spectators, he tapped his finger on the table. A sheet of ice rapidly covering it as a result and converging on 15 points in little balls of ice.
Then, the little balls sprouted into small roses with a shower of ice sparkles.
His face away from the villagers, he frowned. Now came the tricky part.
As he touched every roses, they got covered with a film of red blackness. So thin it almost couldn't be seen. After that, he touched them again, this time lightning them up with an inner orange glow.
The result was 15 tiny orange-blue, ice flowers seemingly covered by a dark red enchantement.
"Here's, one for each of you. It's a gift, they will never melt and they keep evil spirit away, it's a kind of lucky charm too. So be sure to always keep it on you when you go outside, okay?" Julian grinned, amused by the round eyes of awes and admiration that greet him upon turning back toward his audience.
Not only the children, but adults too as it seemed his little show had attracted quite the attention.
Seeing nobody going to take a flower, he plucked one and offered it to a little girl. Saying for them all. "Go ahead, they're yours."
After the girl picked it and thanked him cutely, the rest of the children finally got the message and rushed around him to cash in their loot.
Shaking his head, he stepped away. Finally ready to do a bit of scouting and take in some fresh sight and air to relax.
Concercing scouting, he hadn't seen the girl with the cursed puppy yet. And that was something he certainly had to look out for. Lest some people die while he could have prevented it.
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