Galaxy's First Ruler

Nothing else could explain how Aldrich had come up with the outcome.

Nothing else could explain how he reached from failure of some potion to a secret known to very selected few in Meuric's family.

Nothing else but Aldrich's identity as a spy.

And Aldrich had no mood to explain the truth behind his statement, either. He looked at Meuric without blinking, making Meuric's throat drier and drier. There was no smile on Aldrich's face, but in the darkness, it seemed as if he was grinning.

Words rang out in Meuric's ears just as this evil grin felt to make him lose his mind.

"No, I am not a spy. Heh! Can't you see my condition?!"

Aldrich scoffed, but despite him mentioning his almost crippled condition, Meuric's muscles didn't lose the tightness. Aldrich nodded, seeing these expressions and the condition of Meuric's body. He had successfully planted a seed of submission in Meuric's heart. And no matter what would happen after this moment, this seed would keep sucking out nutrients from Meuric's subconsciousness.

Gulp!

A heavy gulping sound came out as Meuric wet his throat. Aldrich noticed, contrary to the norm, the wilderness had become eerily quiet. Aside from some small clicking sounds, he couldn't hear anything.

'Hmm…'

Aldrich put this silence to the back of his mind and looked at Meuric.

"Why are you standing here? Don't you want to win?"

Aldrich delicately controlled the sound pressure waves to give some hallucinating effect to his words. Meuric's heart had already become defenseless, giving Aldrich the best time to get some answers which had been puzzling him since the start.

Meuric's eyes dilated, and the towering young boy seemed like a drunk man about to fall in the embrace of a long sleep. Not realizing what he was saying, Meuric blurted out as if he was talking to air.

"Haha! I want to, and I will win. But Boids don't forget their given words. I have promised that I will guard you, so I will. Besides, you are weak, Mr. Tudor. Only my punch has the power to blast a beast like that to pieces. Also, my father always used to say…"

"…"

Aldrich stared at the stupefying scene of Meuric keep blabbering even when he was under auditory hallucinations. But the surrounding silence had made him apprehensive about it. Keeping it short, Aldrich cut Meuric's words off and again asked.

"Why didn't you use your Summon to fight the beast?"

Aldrich had been thinking about it for quite some time. From Meuric's family name, and the Skill named Thunder Boa First Fist, Aldrich could guess that there was a link between this family and the creature known as Thunder Boa.

But even at that perilous time, Meuric hadn't used his Summon Skill. There must be a hidden fact behind it, and Aldrich wanted nothing but to know that as soon as he could.

Meuric licked his lips, hearing the question thrown at him. And though Aldrich could tell he was still on the boundary of complete hallucination and reality, he could feel the self-pity return in his heart.

"That… Mr. Tudor, I… I can't make it follow my instructions."

'Hmm?!'

Aldrich had encountered none of such cases so far, where artificial Summon formed between a Dreamer and a creature based on some contract. He was just familiar with only one type of Summoning, which he had got as a reward in the Dungeon on his home planet.

'Liath Macha…'

Aldrich remembered the name of his summon. On any other Dreamer, this creature could have been the most devastative summon, but Aldrich had rarely used it. Not because he couldn't, but because Aldrich had always found him involved in fights where the Rare Ranked Beast could hardly assist him.

Aldric did not know, with his Summon Skill being gone, what could have happened to the creature. But just as he was contemplating it, another piece of memory came back to him from tens of thousands of years ago.

He remembered getting a notification where the beast, Liath Macha, had demanded Aldrich prove his worthiness.

'Was that a type of contract?!!'

As this question formed in Aldrich's mind, he also thought of a possibility of what would have happened if he had failed to prove his worthiness. Aldrich looked at Meuric and gently controlled the sound waves.

"So you couldn't prove your worthiness…"

Just as Aldrich mentioned worthiness, he felt a dam of self-pity getting burst open in Meuric's heart. This sudden outburst of emotion also made Meuric come out of his hallucinated state, but Aldrich didn't prevent it from happening.

Falseness within Truth and Dreams within Reality were among the dirtiest weapons in Aldrich's arsenal.

Thup!!!

Meuric fell and his knees got buried in the slightly muddy ground. Even after being in that position, his head had reached Aldrich's chest. Silent tears kept streaming out of Meuric, and he almost cried out.

"No… No, I couldn't… What is wrong with me? What…"

'Hmm… It seems this proving of worthiness isn't as easy as I had thought it to be…'

Aldrich emphasized this point to himself, but it seemed even then he had underestimated this "proof of worthiness". One must not forget that even Aldrich, the abomination he was, had taken three full days to prove himself to Liath Macha. Although it included the fact that he didn't know how to ride a horse, with Class Generalist, it hadn't taken him long to do so.

Aldrich brought himself out of his stupor and gazed at Meuric, who seemed to have lost all will to even stand up. Suddenly, a devilish dark light flashed in his eyes. All around him, a sinister wind howled, and for the first time, Aldrich slightly parted his lips to let out a whisper.

"I… can help you…"

Meuric snapped his head up with a jerk and stared blindly into Aldrich's eyes. He didn't know that these same parting of lips had instilled terror in Baron Benjamin's heart in the afternoon.

Aldrich could do many things alone, but the place was foreign, and so were people. He had decided to be extra cautious until he finally regained his lost Ranks and Levels.

'If only Sha…'

This thought passed by Aldrich's mind, but he didn't stop mimicking the Skill Devil's Whisper.

"I can help you become worthy and much more… But you must pay a price."

Meuric muttered, clasped in the clutches of the Law of Devil.

"An… Anything…"

If Aldrich could, the corners of his lips must have reached to his ears in a heinous grin by now. Words, sweet like honey but rotten from within, came out of his mouth.

"Haha… Very well! So be it."

Crack-CLICK-Rackkkk!!!