The Gamer's POV-Chapter 183: Personal Slave

Midnight of the day of the departure of the grove...

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"Ah... what is that saying? Oh, oh. I remember now. What the gods give, they may also take back. He who grants life holds the keys to death. Something, something like that. Yada, Yada, Yada."

Cedric sighed. With his hands behind his head as a pillow, he was lying on the ground chewing a blade of grass and staring at nothing in particular. His legs were resting on something... no, actually, not something, but rather, someone.

The blade of grass tilted to the side as he muttered again.

"At this point, I’m just blathering rubbish, right?"

His eyes slowly went down to the individual his legs were resting on.

Kneeling and acting as a human footstool was Levi. The boy was shivering in fear and tears were rolling out of his eyes, dripping onto the ground beneath him.

When he heard the question, he flinched and shook. Then, stuttering over his own breath, he managed to choke out, "No, no. You are not blathering rubbish."

Cedric arched a brow. "Hm? Are you sure?"

Levi nodded frantically, his teeth chattering as he tried to keep his back straight enough to support Cedric’s weight.

At that moment, Aika groaned angrily. "Gosh, I can’t sleep. It’s too hot."

She was lying down in a sleeping bag some meters away. She opened one eye and looked at Ifrit who was kneeling over her, fanning her with a large, makeshift palm leaf.

Then she repeated more sharply this time, "I said, I can’t sleep. It’s too hot."

Ifrit winced and apologized. "I’m sorry. I’ll fan faster..."

He began moving his arms even more vigorously, his own forehead beaded with sweat as he tried to appease her.

"Tsk." Aika then rolled over, and continued sleeping.

***

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Did Cedric hate Levi’s guts? Yes.

Did Levi deserve to die for what he did to him? Mm... Of course. He was unrepentant about the whole thing anyway, and even said he’d do it again if given the chance.

But was it Cedric’s intention to kill him? Well, yes and... no.

Cedric didn’t want him dead just yet. As he mentioned some time earlier, Levi was indeed an important character later on. Specifically, because of a place in the second ring.

So he couldn’t just kill him, despite how much the bastard may have deserved it.

However, after all Levi had done to him in the past, Cedric wasn’t going to be satisfied with just beating him up a few times.

What sort of payback was that?

Besides, Levi was in Princess Aurora’s party. If Cedric just gave him a few bruises, their healer would probably fix him up almost immediately and it would be over. So what was the point of a physical beating if it could be erased in seconds?

No, that wouldn’t make up for all the time the previous Cedric suffered under him. So... this Cedric decided. You know what? I’m going to make this guy my slave. Even death was far too easy a way out to be honest.

He needed to ensure that every waking moment Levi spent was a living reminder of who truly held his leash.

When Cedric said to his party some days ago that he would cripple Levi, they probably thought that he was going to just give Levi some kind of physical injury or a permanent scar or something.

But that was not what Cedric meant. He meant to cripple Levi’s very existence.

You see, a few months ago after Cedric used Chrysalis to raise Evelyn from the dead, he noticed something quite interesting. He noticed that he could feel the spark of life he gave to Evelyn within her.

At first, he didn’t think much about it as he couldn’t understand the sensation exactly. But once he raised Audrey up, he could feel the same tether vibrating between her and himself. Curious, he decided to probe it.

It felt like an invisible cord of energy that connected his own soul to theirs.

It was then that Cedric realized that Chrysalis didn’t create life out of nowhere, it simply transferred it. In other words, the spark of life he bestowed unto others, came from his own essence.

And so, whoever he raised up from the dead, was running on borrowed life.

If Cedric were to die completely, all the people he raised up from the dead would drop dead with him.

But that was not all Cedric realized.

He also discovered that since the spark of life belonged to him, he could simply reach out and reclaim the life at any moment he chose.

’Ah... what is that saying? Oh, oh. I remember now. What the gods give, they may also take back.’

Anyway, this answered Cedric’s question as to why he always felt like shit every time he raised someone from the dead. It seemed that after raising a dead person, he would remain a hollowed-out version of himself for some time until his internal well of essence recovered, which usually took some hours or days depending on how long they’d been gone and how much effort it took to drag their soul back to the surface.

That aside...

Cedric’s plan for Levi was not to kill him. He wanted Levi to live every day knowing that if he looked at Cedric wrong, refused an order from him, or if he even dared to feel any emotion toward Cedric besides pure, paralyzing fear, his borrowed life would be snuffed out in an instant.

That was Cedric’s way of crippling him.

***

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By the time the first light of dawn fell upon the entire grove, all the cadets from the different bastions were already set to move, and by the time the morning mist began to lift, the forest was alive with the sound of marching feet.

Everyone moved as a single unit, so Princess Aurora’s party of almost a hundred members took charge, leading the way.

Among the cadets who followed behind them, were the few surviving cadets of the bastion of the Somarian Pride.

To be honest, the only reason they had not all been killed for their attempted betrayal was because the more cadets raiding the hollow ones, the better. It wasn’t wise to keep trimming the numbers even though leaving them alive meant keeping a nest of vipers among the ranks.

So, steps were taken to ensure the prisoners wouldn’t try anything stupid. There was someone in Princess Aurora’s party named Roben whose ability was perfect for keeping people in line. From what Cedric discovered, Roben had forced them all to swallow a specialized seed. In the event that any of them decided to act out or attack a fellow cadet, that seed would bloom from within them, killing the culprit instantly.

Those cadets aside, Cedric’s party could also be seen among the ranks of Princess Aurora’s party by virtue of their earlier "agreement."

Of course, there were those among her party who were not really happy with the fact that Cedric’s party was part of them, not as their subordinates, but as equals. They couldn’t give any commands to Cedric’s party because the party was independent of theirs. Yet, they had to make sure that if Cedric’s party needed help, they were obligated to provide it as if they were protecting their own.

This annoyed some of them to no end, especially someone like a young boy called Xavier Von Caprio for instance. To someone like Xavier, who valued bloodline and status above all else, seeing a group of "nobodies" walking alongside the Princess was a personal insult to him. He didn’t mind having extra swords in the meat grinder, but the idea of risking his life to pull a low ranking noble out of a tight spot made his blood boil.

However, since no one could challenge the decision of Aurora or the strength of Cedric, they had no choice but to shut their mouths, swallow their pride and keep their distance.

Speaking of Cedric’s party, Leon looked at Dion and muttered in disbelief.

"Damn, so you mean he can bring the dead back to life?"

Dion shrugged. "Maybe, maybe not. Actually, I’m not exactly sure how it works, but I think if some kind of conditions are met then, probably yes." 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

He looked to some meters in front of him and added, "Although, I must admit Cedric is a bit petty. I don’t know what his cost is to use his bonded ability, but since costs are usually proportional to the feat, I’m assuming that his is even more exhausting than we can imagine. However, he saw no problem paying it just to bring this guy back and make him into his personal slave."

Leon turned back to look in the direction Dion was pointing.

In front of them, Levi was carrying a sleeping Cedric on his back. As they trudged through the forest, Levi was all sweaty and shaky from exhaustion, and the poor boy looked like he was one heavy step away from collapsing into the dirt.

Leon whistled low, glancing at the back of Cedric’s head. "That’s a lot of effort for a grudge."

"That’s Cedric for you," Dion replied.