Supreme Monarch

Although Tyler didn't think there was anything else he needed to know from this girl, he decided it best to ask some more questions on this so-called Ghost Legion of a thing and their activities in the city. Everything she knew about Aur as well as detailed information on this prince Nullen of a person that had recently taken over from Aur.

However, there wasn't much information about him and the people he had brought along with him.

With that, he no longer had any use for the ghost girl which brought about a new problem as he couldn't just let her go scot-free. It also wasn't wise to just kill her and turn her into one of his shadow rogues designated to Winged city.

That would only serve to increase the City Lord's wariness of him. He also couldn't afford to repeat what he had done with Misty and Brethal where he goes through their memories and minutely made changes to them in order to gain her loyalty as that emotion was all jumbled up and mixed with the irrationality of love and couldn't be affected by memories alone.

Besides, her mind and body weren't nearly strong enough to handle such a strain as her mind might actually collapse in a complete meltdown. With her weak constitution, even the highest-grade resurrection skill and spells wouldn't be able to save her mind and body.

The only thing that had a possibility of working would have to be the skills, Temporal Resurrection, and Historical Void Resurrection.

However, both of these were unknown to Tyler at this moment, and thus, he needed to find another alternative.

"I suppose I'll just have to take the risk and forgo the long game."

Tyler sighed inwardly, personally, he didn't particularly care for this method as he only targeted Aika's recent memories of what had only just recently transpired and immediately left her mind's world.

In the next instant, he used Placate and Heal in juncture to maintain her health. Seeing as his body didn't convulse in protest of the changes as they were fairly recent and had jot stake in a personality yet. Tyler finally relaxed.

With a snap, the female rogue clad in a skin-hugging black outfit, opened her eyes with a slight headache as she casually wore back her mask as though nothing had happened and proceeded to knelt before Tyler.

"Mr. Lix, I'm glad you've decided to accept my Master's request. You will soon be summoned to participate in the rescue mission of the city's Hunters and Merchants, please accept the request and do not let the others find out about the Runites until my Master arrives."

Her words were smooth and without hesitation as she spoke with earnest determination, believing every single word that left her mouth.

"Very well then, it's a deal. Make sure your master keeps his promise and we'll be fine."

"No problem."

With that, the ninja-like rogue disappeared from Tyler's sight in widely saturated lights. Tyler stared at the empty space for a while before simply nodding his head.

"Giving as the memory alterations worked without a hitch, let's hope those psychological cues play out as expected. I wonder how long it'll take to reach that point."

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"Hey, Lord Ty, Lord Ty..."

"Hmm?"

"You said I did a good job earlier right? Can I get a reward?"

"You know one can't always expect a reward for being good. Such is the harsh reality that we live in."

"Really?"

"Sigh... Never mind that, exactly want reward did you have in mind?"

"Oh right! Can I please lie on your lap while you pat my head? Can I? Can I?"

"Huh?"

"I saw Lady Rain doing it to you the other day. So can I please..."

Tyler was at a loss for words, he hadn't expected Nadine to be so bold but perhaps this was his fault for not setting a good example. Then again, he was unconscious at the time so there was no way for him to have handled that situation better.

However, he could surely do better this time. When raising a child, it is important for the adult to be strict sometimes and set clear ground rules and boundaries so as not to spoil the child.

Yet—

"Sure, why not."

Unable to refuse such an adorable request, Tyler fell into her whims yet again and resigned himself to his fate. As for Nadine, the moment she heard Tyler's response, a big and bright smile, usually uncommon for her, appeared on her face.

She immediately jumped on his lap and curled herself into a little ball as Tyler gently stroked her hair, her tail wagging gently until she fell asleep.

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—A few hours earlier.

In the miniature castle located at the center of Winged city, the city's Lord's domain.

A single knock was placed on the exquisite wooden door before the doorknob was turned and the door slowly gave way for a male figure to slowly enter the room.

This figure was a young man clad in purplish black robes. He had long raven black hair with purplish streaks running along its edges. An assortment of Magic rings decorated his fingers as he strolled into the office with barely a care in the world.

Situated in the City's Lord's office were multiple figures clad in varying yet similar purplish black attires. There were three of them sitted in the lounge portion of the office playing a certain card game with what looked like Tarot cards mixed with poker cards.

There were two females, one of which was clad in the same mage's robe as the young man that had just entered the room. While the other was wearing purplish black leather armor of the same design.

The only other male in the group wore a light suit of Raven black metal armor with purple lining and a refined and run edge. He had two curved swords resting on the sofa next to him, as the light in the room beautifully glistened off of them.

"You came back earlier than expected kid. How did your meeting go with the Merchant Guild."

Seated at the other end of the room and behind a more majestic desk than the one that had once served the former lord of this city, was a young child that stared at the young man with an inclined gaze as he slowly rocked the chair back and forth with his legs— that could not touch the ground— swinging along.

This child had long blonde hair that fell to his lower legs and almost touched the ground. With an adorable-looking face and baby blue eyes, one would find it difficult to ascertain the gender of this child.

However, this was none other than the youngest prince of the Zorak family, Nullen Marx Zorak. He was rather on the shorter end of the height spectrum as he had a petite build that made him not only look like a child but also like a girl.

Hearing the word kid being thrown at him, especially from the mouth of someone with Nullen's figure made the young man known as Ral Fox crease his brows for a moment.

"Ahhh... Lord Nullen, I've asked you to please don't call me kid anymore. It makes it hard to feel motivated."

Ral scratched his head awkwardly as he spoke, causing the other three in the room to snicker in his direction. However, Nullen didn't seem amused by this joke as he paused for a moment and clarified his words.

" Stop focusing on the wrong thing and answer my question."

While Nullen's expression hadn't changed much, the air around him spelled impatiently and even someone as lackadaisical as Ral would not make the mistake of missing the subtle signs in the air around him.

"Right. Well, there wasn't much to discuss with those Merchants anyways. They have no choice but to eventually conform to your will. Unlike the Hunter Association, the Merchant Guilds are less structured and barely united, with enough pressure, there's nothing a single Merchant Guild can do to resist you."

"You don't say."

Nullen nodded his head as he resumed rocking his chair back and forth seemingly in deep thought when a crude voice suddenly broke the silence as it addressed Ral Fox.

"And if that's the case, then why are you here "Kiddo"? Did you forget you still have much to do?"

Hearing that annoying voice made a vein budge in Fox's head as he turned a fierce gaze at the one who spoke. However, the thoughts of his master's presence soon calmed his mind as he sneered condescendingly and restored.

"Says the ones completely lazing around in front of me."

As though expecting such a reaction, the man with the crude voice paused for a moment, giving Fox a quick glance before chuckling to himself and then responding.

"Hehe... While it may not look like it. We're actually quite busy you know."

"Right, of course, you are. I wonder what on Neron made me think  you were just playing cards like bums."

"I wonder that as well. You may need to get those things you call eyes checked, no clue why you would assume such a thing."

"Ack!..."

Receiving such an immediate response had taken Ral completely off guard that he was unable to immediately respond, almost completely stunning him. For someone to be so shameless as this was beyond his understanding.

"Hmm... so Ral, why exactly are you back so soon?"

Still rocking his chair back and forth like he was on a swing set, Nullen suddenly stopped and turned to ask the question seriously. The moment his casual tone shifted, the trio playing cards to the side immediately stopped and took on a serious expression as well.

Everyone's gaze was immediately shifted to Ral, who silently took a breath to regain his composure before responding with a serious smile on his face.

"I've met him."

There was no need for anyone to ask who he was referring to by intentionally playing the pronoun game. There was no one else any of them would remotely be interested in such a backwater city like this one so the answer to that question was obvious.

The only person that had managed to garner their interest in this city was none other than the mysterious VIP merchants known only as Lix and Lilith.

"So he finally returned to the city. How fortunate. The timing is almost perfect."

"Indeed... it also looks as though our report on his origin were right. They seem to be hailing back from the Far East based on the rarity and kinds of the materials they had sold to the guild."

"Is that so? That should indeed narrow down our area of interest by a lot. Still, our family's influence in the Far East is quite minuscule. We'll need to divert quite a bit more resources into that area in the future."

"It's just as you've surmised Lord Nullen. We know too little about the Far East to make any accurate predictions even now. Such ignorance can pose a threat in the future."

The one who spoke this time was one of the girls that had remained silent the entire time even during the banter between Ral and the crude man she was playing cards with.

Her demeanor was that of superiority but Fox's expression didn't change neither did he take offense to her sudden interruption between his conversation with Nullen. If anything, he immediately fell silent so as not to draw the wrong attention to himself.

"Well, whatever. Let's focus on what's in front of us first."

Taking her words into consideration for a moment, Nullen quickly gave up on the thought as he made his decision on the matter.

"As you command."

"Alright, Ral... Notify the Magic institute that our preparations are complete. Have them send over their members for the Rescue mission, then send someone to personally invite this Lix and his comrade to participate. I'm truly  interested in meeting someone capable of piquing my mother's interest like this. This should prove entertaining for a while."

A gentle smile slowly bloomed on his face as Nullen returned to swinging his feet back and forth as he sank into the large black leather chair that was several sizes bigger than him.

The room also went silent as everyone simply stared at him with the same smiles on their faces.