245 Heartless. (1/2)

Luthien's head hung loosely as he stared at the blood-stained ground.

Even as a Rank-9 Mage, accepting death wasn't an easy matter. After all, no one wanted to die.

”...”

After a few moments, he seemed to have muttered something, but it was too low for Ozul to understand.

”Stop mumbling to yourself,” he said, running out of patience.

Luthien slowly looked up with a despaired look on his face and said in a low voice, ”I... will answer any question. So end it quickly and painlessly...”

What some people feared more than death was the pain before they finally left this world. Some might agree to death, but only someone sick in the head would ask for pain.

Also, since he was the Emperor of Silverbird Kingdom, he would very much prefer death that would let him keep his dignity.

”Alright,” Ozul nodded his head and continued, ”Do you know where the Church of Light has kept my arm?”

Luthien did not look shocked nor was he emotionally stable to care how he already knew that his arm was with the Church of Light. He slowly shook his head and spoke ever so softly, ”...I am not aware of it. I had just given the arm to Lammert.”

Ozul nodded his head in understanding and followed up with another question, ”Why did you give it to the Church? Explain in detail. After all, you live as long as your explanation lasts.”

Behind him, the old man chuckled to himself hearing his words, 'This kid is truly heartless! Gahaha!'

Luthien stared at him for a while. His eyes showed that he was struggling from inside. After he had already accepted that he was about to die, doing such a thing was cruel!

Just as he was about to explain, Ozul stopped him, ”Actually, no. Let us find a quieter place.”

Although their spot was already calm and quiet, Rufus with his subordinates and the Empress with a few more people in the shadows were all watching them. After a few moments, there might even be a commotion of people all running in here to check on what was happening.

So it was better that he explained everything somewhere else.

Luthien nodded his head in understanding. He didn't wish to die in front of all the people who looked up to him either.

He calmly nodded his head before looking in the direction of his wife above the Palace with blank eyes.

Ozul took him to a remote area and the old man followed right behind them, but to a pleasant surprise of Ozul, he kept a considerable distance from them.

Meanwhile, the Empress began to shout Luthien's name, but a few people emerged from the shadows and held her in place. They didn't let her run to her death.

On the other hand, Rufus had felt the pressure from a much closer distance and he was a little too shaken to do anything about the situation.

. . .

He always wanted to know what they had done with his limbs. Previously, he had killed Edwin without getting any real information at all.

Luthien took a deep breath and started explaining from the very start,

”I first got to know about the three 'limbs of the devil' from Edwin. He had recently killed his brother Edward back then, and I was naturally not happy. He was aware that I would probably not like his little scheme, so he one day appeared out of nowhere with the 'limbs of the devil' and explained to me that he had found them with his brother and didn't know how his brother came into possession of them.”

Ozul nodded his head. He knew this much that it was either Edward, his 'father' or Edwin, his 'uncle' who had given his limbs to the Emperor.

”I and my wife immediately took an interest in those limbs after noticing those weird symbols crawl on the skin like a snake... But even after I told the best physicians in the palace to look at those symbols, they couldn't find anything. And they couldn't even touch the arm to examine it closely because whoever did so, instantly crumbled to death.”

Luthien's voice expressed no emotions as he narrated everything in detail.

”Not knowing what to do, I secretly sent one of the arms to the Church of Light. They were allies, and I knew that Lammert had better physicians and since they all had Light Element, they were more likely to find out what was wrong with those limbs.”