Life Hunter

When Arima arrived at the hall, James was already there waiting for him.

"Mr. Blade, please follow me," he asked him to follow and then turned around. He seemed to have gotten over his initial fear and was acting normally in front of Arima.

"Stop calling me like that. 'Arima' is fine. Last time someone addressed me as you do, he tried to assassinate me. I had to kill him in the end."

But one more time, his composure was destroyed. 'Is he doing it on purpose or what?!' He screamed in his mind.

Arima followed James with Night behind, who was a wolf again. They soon reached a sort of treasure room with a stack of gold coins neatly arranged on a table.

"This is your prize, one thousand gold. You can take it. Or if you want it in white silvers you can make the request," James smiled but Arima just froze.

"Huh?"

"What is it?" James was confused and Night tilted his head.

'Right! I was so focused on the audience with the royal family that I forgot about this. There's a one thousand gold prize! Just that is enough to compensate for my participation!' Arima faked a cough.

"Nothing. [Umbra, Manducare] (Shadow, eat)," he stowed all the gold coins inside his shadow.

"I see, that's good. Now, I'll act as an envoy and bring you to the castle. Do you want to go now?"

"Sure," Arima immediately agreed.

"Then let's go." They left the coliseum together and headed to the center of the city. As they neared it, they could see the castle more and more clearly.

When they reached their destination, Arima looked at it for the first time and thought that the castle looked like an old European one. James approached the gate alone and talked to the guards stationed there. One of them went inside the fort and came back five minutes later. He then said that they were allowed to enter.

After going through the gate, they ended up in a big corridor filled with decorations, cheap and expensive altogether. There, an old steward welcomed them.

"Greetings, sirs. The Queen and the princess will receive you shortly. Follow me please," the old steward led them to a luxurious room, which was apparently a waiting room. And because his job was over, James left afterward.

Ten minutes after that, Arima was called. He almost fell asleep waiting. He was taken to a huge hall on the second floor. The throne room was around 2500 square meters big, and one of the walls was made of only glass, letting the sunlight illuminate the place. There was a row of marble pillars on the other side and really made this place look majestic.

There were three seats in the back. One was the King's throne and the two others were most likely for the Queen and the princess. Just that, right now, the throne was occupied by the Queen and one of the smaller seats was empty. As expected, the King wasn't present.

"Are you Arimane Blade?" The Queen inquired calmly.

"Yes, I am. Please to make your acquaintance," Arima stood in the middle of the hall, he was not kneeling nor bowing but he still had a polite attitude. Night sat down without a care in the world though. Some of the court members present were a bit dissatisfied but they didn't say anything as long as the Queen herself didn't mention it.

"Congratulations on winning the tournament. You seem to be very strong from what I've heard. From the words of my soldiers, you were not even using your full strength," she actually praised him.

"Thank you," Arima simply smiled and nodded. "Then?" His tone suddenly changed as he asked sharply.

The Queen trembled a bit but sighed in the end. "Looks like you're also quite clever. I won't beat around the bush then. Will you help the Kingdom?" The Queen bowed her head. This kind of respect was already the best she could do in public as the temporary ruler.

Arima smirked. "What if I said that I could destroy the Empire for you? Would you believe me?"

"What?" The other party couldn't help but be shocked by those words. Even the princess listening behind, who didn't show any expression before, was stupefied. The other people present raised their voices. Some sounded disdainful.

The Queen waved her hand to silence them. "Why are you saying that?" She thought it was strange. It was true that she wanted to find talents with this tournament. It was her last hope. She knew that in this world existed people whom strength could make an entire continent shake in fear. But there was no reason for the man in front of him to propose that to her.

"Because I can. But I'm afraid it will only stay as a possibility. For now, at least, I don't plan to do anything. I merely wanted to have your attention. Instead of helping you in this war, let me see the King. I can help him," Arima replied.

Ultimately, the Queen lost her composure when she heard about her husband. "...Why should I trust you?"

"What about this? If I can't heal him, I'll help you win the war without demanding anything from you. You shouldn't be losing anything, right?" He smiled. "There's also no risk for me trying to assassinate the King because if I'm not wrong, your husband will most likely die soon no matter what I do."

After that, she froze. If the man in front of her could really save the King, that would the happiest day of her life. She gritted her teeth. "Fine, I'll let you see him. No, I want you to save him please."

"Your Highness!" The first minister shouted urgently.

"Enough! I made my choice," she hollered. "Come with me, Arimane." She stood up and started walking to the quarters behind the throne room, her daughter followed her and glanced at Arima.

"What are you trying to do?" Night asked.

Arima grinned. "Some 'business'."

***

The Queen led them to a huge door made of fine wood. The room behind was as big as half of the hall, and even though there was a queen-sized bed it looked like a normal furniture in this room.

'Seriously? His room is bigger than my former house,' Arima thought. 'Well, not as much as my premises obviously but still…'

The Queen and her daughter walked to the bed with worried expressions. Arima also approached the bed. Lying there, was a burly middle-aged man with good features. His skin was pale, his forehead was full of sweat, and he was breathing heavily.

Arima looked at the Queen, and she nodded. Arima placed his hand above the King.

"The best healers of the country all tried but couldn't heal him, how could you do it?" The princess spoke for the first time and it was to scorn him.

Arima glanced at her with a frown. "I'm not using healing magic. And as of now, don't say anything else," he disliked people who couldn't mind the situation before saying their pointless and stupid comments. He was usually kind to children but only to those who could behave correctly.

The princess was about the erupt in anger but stopped when she received the glare of her mother.

"[Comparand Indicate] (Appraisal)," Arima cast his magic and a blue light scanned the King's body. In Arima's mind, a detailed model of the King appeared. From the skin to the bones, everything was there. He inspected it for a moment.

"Oh?" Arima then exclaimed.

"Did you find something?" The Queen quickly asked.

"Well, yeah, I found the problem." Arima pointed with his finger and sent mana through the body of the King. As he was unconscious and weak, mana could easily go through his natural defenses. Then, the next moment, a strange black smoke became visible above his abdomen.

The Queen's expression darkened gravely. "What is that?"

Arima waved his hand a bit in the smoke. He managed to capture a part of it in his hand before it vanished. "Curse. A death attribute magic."

"A-a curse?" The princess shivered. Her mother's expression fell.

"...How did you know?"

"I dabbled in death magic myself at one point. But the death aura coming from me was so strong that I almost lost control of it," he uttered whilst thinking. "I was at this from letting out an uncompromising large-scale curse," he casually admitted.

"What?" The mother-daughter pair were lost as to how to react. But the Queen still got her priorities right. "Can you dispel it?"

"Yeah, but this curse is actually a bit special. If it wasn't, the previous healers would already have detected and dispelled it," he explained. "Well, anyway, what I'm going to do now is something you shouldn't see. [Tenebris] (Darkness)."

The whole bed and Arima became hidden by a black box and the Queen and her daughter were kept outside.

"What is this?" The princess looked at the dark wall in front of her.

"Let's wait…" Her mother said with a darkened expression.

Inside the black box, Arima took out a knife and made an incision on the King's abdomen. He used magic to sterilize the air, the knife, and to slow down the blood flow of the King. He cut until the stomach was opened, he put his hand inside and fished out something. He healed the incision, washed the blood and dispelled his dark box.

What the Queen and her daughter saw first was Arima holding a sort of black stone in his hand, oozing the same smoke as before. And the second thing was the King who seemed to have regained some color and his breathing that had become steadier. It looked like he was only sleeping.

"Dear!" The Queen rushed to the bed to check on him. When she realized that he was cured, she already had watery eyes. Her daughter was excited too, she looked at Arima. "What is that stone?"

Arima glanced at her. "…It's a stone enchanted with death magic. It was hidden in his stomach and no matter how many times the curse was dispelled from the outside it would always come back from the inside because of it."

He lifted the stone to observe it closely. "[Auferte] (Expel)." The stone was enveloped in a blue light and became a normal gray stone.

"I expelled the magic inside, it's just a rock now," Arima said while juggling with it. "It must have been put inside his body as a powder. Then that powder condensed together inside his body to create this stone. And since it was in his stomach, you should try to find the individuals who entered in contact with your husband's meals."

The Queen left her husband's side and deeply bowed toward Arima. "Thank you very much. I will do as you said."

"He should be awake in no time," Arima added and turned around. "Then, bye."

"Huh? Wait! Why are you leaving so fast? We have to reward you!" The Queen hurriedly said.

"No need. By the way, let me tell you something. A message to your King: 'Beware before turning your back to someone'. It's something that always kept me alive."

After saying that, Arima left with Night.

***

Outside of the castle, Arima was nonchalantly lying against a wall, looking at the castle from afar while eating some candies as a snack.

"What was that business about in the end?" Night questioned.

"What? You don't understand? It's simple. Now that I healed the King, they owe me one. Why do you think I left so quickly? Like this, they can't compensate me and I got them a debt for almost no work. And now that the King is cured, this country should be able to survive. And if I ever help them, I would be able to ask two things from them."

"You did all of this just for that?"

"Of course. It's a habit of mine to make influential people owe me favors."

"A habit? What kind of habit is that?" Night wore a strange expression.

Arima ignored him. "Well, what to do now? I suppose the next one will be the Alliance. I seriously don't want to go to the Empire, and on top of that, Lifa owes me a favor too," he paused and chuckled at Night. "See? Everything is much easier when people owe you something."

"Yeah, yeah…" Night just brushed it off.

Arima raised his head to look at the sky. "Let's go to the Inn, we'll leave tomorrow," he said and started walking first.

Night looked at him from behind. "How did I end up with this guy?"

He bitterly laughed after he remembered that he was born from his soul and then followed behind him.