A Peacock Husband of Five Princesses by day, a Noble Assassin by Night-Chapter 44: Kael and the Necromancer (4/5)

Lilith leaned forward, her golden eyes gleaming. "And if you become my disciple, you can live that long, too. After all, you were also a possessor of the primordial darkness, just like me."

Kael exhaled sharply. "And if I refuse?"

Lilith smirked. "Then you walk out of here, good as new. No strings attached. But, Kael…" She leaned closer, her voice dropping to a whisper. "You don’t have any valid reason to refuse my offer. Do you?"

Kael clenched his fists. The power she spoke of—it was tempting. Too tempting.

But then something popped up in his head. "Earlier, you trapped me. If I didn’t have this primordial darkness, I would have been dead by now. So, my question is how many have you killed so far?" He asked, a frown creeping up to his face.

Lilith’s gaze never wavered as she met Kael’s questioning eyes, the flicker of amusement still present in her expression. "How many?" She repeated, the question seeming to amuse her. "If you ask me whether I have killed people using this trap and experimented on, the answer is nil."

"Nil?" Kael’s eyes widened in disbelief as he absorbed Lilith’s words. "You… you’re telling me that all of those people you’ve trapped and experimented on… you just let them go?" His voice was filled with doubt, disbelief still etched across his face. "After everything you’ve done to them, you just let them walk away?"

Lilith nodded slowly, the calmness in her demeanor never faltering. "I don’t kill people, lad. Their minds are wiped clean of their experiences. I don’t need their death to prove my research. As for those who retain a shred of memory, they live their lives haunted by nightmares they can’t explain. Well, I can’t do anything about that side effect. Anyway, what matters is that I haven’t killed a single one." She paused, her golden eyes locking onto Kael’s. "Actually, it would have been the same for you if you hadn’t possessed the primordial darkness, although I wouldn’t have used Riversis on you and returned your cultivation. After all, you took the quest and accepted possible consequences. You would have turned into a cripple and wake up with no memories by sunrise."

Kael’s brow furrowed in confusion. "Then why do it in the first place? Why all the traps, the deception? Why pretend to be some helpless old man needing help? For a demigod like you, abducting someone is a piece of cake."

Lilith tilted her head slightly as though considering his question for the first time. "You might call it a trap, but to me, it’s an invitation, which they accept. Most importantly, posting the quest in a merchant guild invites greedy individuals who want to make money and become richer instead of protecting humanity by hunting down the beasts. Such people deserved it. I don’t have any pity for those types of people."

Kael remained silent, the weight of her words heavy in the air between them. After all, he was one of those individuals, too, except that he was secretly an assassin and has been contributing to society in his own way.

He ran a hand through his hair, still processing everything she had said. It didn’t seem possible. "You’re telling me that you’ve been doing this for centuries, experimenting on people, and you’ve never killed anyone? Not even once?"

Lilith’s expression remained unreadable, but there was a flicker of something in her eyes that Kael couldn’t quite decipher. "I didn’t say I have never killed in experiments. I said I haven’t killed anyone in this way. You know, posting quests about a haunted house, inviting merchants or low-level adventurers to spend there for a night and then experiment on them." She paused, her gaze hardening slightly. "But, you know, humans are basically the worst kind of predators. If they see a weakling who can’t do anything to them, they go on using them for their own gains, harassing them for their own happiness, hurting them, and even killing them, whether it is a different species or their own. I don’t have mercy for such people. And when such person goes out of their way to offend me, they invite suffering and eventually plead for their death. If I had to count them, the numbers would roughly amount to 7 or maybe 8 thousand."

Kael’s mind raced as he processed the sheer scale of Lilith’s actions. "Seven thousand... or eight thousand?" His voice was almost a whisper, the weight of the number sinking in. "You’ve experimented on that many people?"

Lilith nodded, unfazed. "Yes, that’s about right. But, I lived for six centuries, mind you. So, that’s only like 12 people for every year. It’s not that many if you think about it."

Kael’s thoughts were jumbled, unable to make sense of the revelation. "What were you researching? What did you need all those people for?"

Lilith gave a nonchalant shrug, as if discussing the matter was as simple as picking herbs for tea. "Sometimes, it’s about souls. Other times, it’s about mana cores, seeing how they react under stress or how to manipulate them. Then there’s human anatomy. The internal workings, and how they change when subjected to different forms of magic. Sometimes, I study dreams—how to plant them, alter them, manipulate them." Her eyes glinted with a strange mixture of fascination and boredom. "I’ve even experimented with false memories, placing seals in their heads to control them telepathically whenever I feel like it. It’s all part of understanding how the human mind works, and how it interacts with magic. Sometimes it’s necessary, sometimes it’s just for the sake of boredom."

Kael’s jaw clenched. "Boredom?" He couldn’t fathom that someone could casually speak about experimenting on thousands of lives because they were bored. "That’s what all of this is to you? You’ve caused this much suffering just because you were bored?"

Lilith’s expression softened as though she were explaining something simple to a child. "I told you. I’m immortal. I’ve seen it all, done it all. After centuries of life, there’s nothing left that excites me. At least, not without some kind of challenge." She paused, looking at Kael with a hint of curiosity. "But you, Kael... you’re different. I think you could be something interesting. You could make it all worth it. Teach you everything I know. It’ll keep me busy for a few decades, at the very least. After that, you would be qualified enough to help me in reaching the transcendent realm."

Kael’s anger simmered beneath his calm facade as he realized she indeed wanted to raise a partner for her research, but he kept it under control. "And you think I would just... agree to this? Become your disciple? Learn from someone like you?" His voice was low, but there was a hardness to it. "What makes you think I would even want to?"

Lilith seemed to consider his question for a moment before answering. "Because you want more, Kael. You’re not like the others. You’re not just after power for power’s sake. You want something beyond that, something that most humans could never understand. I can give you that. What else do you have? You’ll die in the blink of an eye compared to me."

Kael’s eyes narrowed. He didn’t want to admit it, but there was truth in her words. "And what do you get out of this?"

Lilith’s smile was tinged with something dark, something almost mournful. "I told you. Immortality is not a gift, Kael. It’s a curse. Not because I’ll watch my loved ones die or grow old, but because I’ll watch everything else decay, wither, and die around me without any proper progress. I’ve seen it happen so many times, I’ve lost count. And all I have left is time."

She leaned forward slightly, her voice quiet yet piercing. "But if I become a transcendent if I reach that next step... I’ll have a chance to create my own world. One where I can shape everything to my will. One where I can make something that will hold my interest for eternity. That’s my ultimate goal at the moment."

Kael stood silently, his eyes searching Lilith’s face for any hint of sincerity or deception. He was no stranger to power-hungry individuals, but something in her words resonated with him. Was she simply a monster in disguise, or was she, in some twisted way, telling the truth? The most pressing issue here is that he wasn’t sure whether he truly possessed the primordial darkness as this Necromancer revealed it to him. This entire long conversation is built on that simple fact.

He shook his head, trying to dispel the thoughts swirling in his mind. "I don’t know, Lilith. You’ve told me a lot of things, but I’m still not sure about trusting you."

Lilith leaned back, her smile returning, though it lacked any warmth. "Trust is built over time, over experiences, Kael. If you just trust me based on my words, you would be a fool. Just consider this as an equal exchange and see how it goes. And the offer is always there. I’m not going anywhere. I would live even after your death. But I want you to remember that you won’t find anyone else who can teach you what I know."

This 𝓬ontent is taken from freeweɓnovel.cѳm.

Kael’s heart pounded as he considered her words. Could he trust her? Should he? For one thing, she knows that he is not a weakling merchant as the world thinks so, although she doesn’t know his other identity yet. She only knows his first name. But that will change once he becomes her disciple.

After pondering for a while, Kael’s eyes widened as something popped up in his head. His consciousness reached out to the storage ring, taking out a parchment. "Here."