A Tough Bargain!
Author: P. Artim
last update Last Updated: 2024-10-29 19:42:56

'Not lie.. But also not worry them?'

The Phoenix repeated Ian's words and asked back. Ian nodded his head and asked back.

'Yep. Should be easy, right?'

The Phoenix repeated Ian's words in his mind for a few seconds, a vein was popping out on his forehead as he kept thinking and thinking. And at the end of his thought process, he decided that-

'Like hell it is!'

It wasn't easy.

He decided that it wasn't easy at all. All of Ian's people's were extremely knowledgeable, not just comparing to kids their age, but also compared to adults.

Ian was always filling their head with new knowledge and information, even while playing around. And even without that, they all had a certain hunger for knowledge which he noticed clearly specially in Ash.

The way that kid always holed himself up inside Ian's bedroom and kept reading one book after another looked like his life depended on it or something.

And they also grew. Faster than anyone and everyone around them. It was fascinating to watch. And
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    'That's thirty percent off brother's shoulder!''It's a good start!'Ash and Louis communicated with each other through their gaze. They were happy since Ian let them help. It was frustrating for them to feel like a burden and be of no help to him. Soon, the direction of the mana stones were diverted slightly with Ash and Louis taking fifteen percent of the burden of transformation each from Ian's shoulder. 'Ugh!''It hurts!'As soon as they started absorbing and rapidly purifying the mana just like Ian was doing till now, they felt their stomach curl and a severed pain similar to needles travelling through their veins. They bit their lip hard and tried to get used to the pain all the while wondering how Ian had managed to bear multiple times the same pain till now. The pain they felt in their heart as they imagined Ian going through pain several times severe than their was more cruel and hurtful than the pain they felt from the poisoned mana. As such, they could hold onto their g

  • An Important Villain   The King's Recovery

    "Whoa! My legs gave out!" Ian spoke to himself with a surprised voice while being supported by Ash and Louis on both sides. He had practically no mana left in his body at the moment. As a result, he grew momentarily dizzy and lost balance. "What happened to the poison? Are you okay?" Louis asked as he checked Ian's condition. Even moments before the explosion, his body was completely purple as an indicator of the severity of the poison. And the mana inside his body was as chaotic as a raging ocean. But right now, his skin tone was back to normal, and although he looked a little pale, he was fine otherwise. Even the inside situation of his body was as calm as the surface of a frozen lake. "Blew it away." Ian replied with a, what looked like somewhat smug expression. He was slowly taking in the pure mana from outside once again and regaining his health. "Blew what away?" "The poison?" The kids kept asking questions one by one but Ian didn't answer anything in detail and just

  • An Important Villain   They're Back

    The Imperial Palace was in complete chaos following the huge explosion. The Royal guards were in panicking since Rick was missing following the chaos. Troops were departed on every part of the town to search for their King while the Knight captain remained to investigate the mysterious crater formed due to the explosion. "Did you figure anything out yet?"He asked someone nearby. It was one of their researchers. They were calculating the residue mana to figure out the source of the attack. But no matter how many times they did the calculation, the expected results didn't come out."Hey!"Seeing how hard the researcher was frowning, the captain nudged him once more in an attempt to make him speak. They were currently facing a crisis of national level due to the missing King and the unknown enemies. He didn't have time to spare."Umm.. Yes.. The results came out."He replied with a slightly confused tone."So..? What is it?"Asked the captain with impatience."No matter how you look a

  • An Important Villain   The Greatest Greed

    "We waited patiently just like you wanted!""But we missed you!""Yeah. It's hard staying away from brother."The kids shouted one after another as they clung to Ian from all sides. A small smile appeared on Ian's face automatically as soon as their laughter and giggle reached his ear.It was afternoon. The golden sun reflecting on their faces full of smiles and happiness made Ian feel something warm inside. At times like these, he truly felt grateful for this second chance in life that he received. 'It's truly a blessing.'He couldn't help but think that.'You're weird.'A reply from the Phoenix came as soon as he was done with his thought. He wondered what that guy meant this time as he put the kids down and started patting their head.'Reason?'He asked.'You're satisfied too easily.'A straight answer came from the Phoenix. Ian waited silently since it looked like he had more to say.'No matter what your origin is, in the end you're also a human. And humans are supposed to have g

  • An Important Villain   Time to Leave

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  • An Important Villain   Another Misunderstanding

    'Let's have breakfast together!'Rick's words were directly delivered to Ian through the servant. He nodded his head with a smile and-"Alright."-followed the servant out of his room and went to the location where Rick had arranged for him and Ian to have breakfast together.They walked for a few minutes and the servant finally stopped in front of a giant door. There were two guards standing outside the door and securing the room.Ian looked at the guards and was surprised when he found the two familiar faces he had seen before. It was none other than Amber and Richard.The red headed wolf looked as playful and sneaky as ever while the blue wolf looked as straightforward as one could be. Even while standing still, their aura was clearly different from each other."Long time no see!"Ian greeted the two of them with a happy smile as he approached them. The servant bowed and left Ian in their care so they could speak comfortably."We just saw each other yesterday.""I'm glad I could me

  • An Important Villain   Going back to being Noah

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  • An Important Villain   The One He Fought With

    "I'm not crying! It's just.. something's wrong with my eyes.."Rick said those words in a fluster as he tried to wipe away the tears dripping down his eyes. Ian and his two guards simply looked at him with caring and gentle eyes as he did so.After a few moments passed like that, Rick managed to control the tears rolling down his eyes involuntarily and finally sighed. With his ears and eyes turning red in the process, he didn't look as majestic as he did the first time they met.After that, although the atmosphere was a little awkward around the room, it was also more comfortable and soothing than before. There was a strange sense of tranquility."Brother requested for all your party members to be present in the luncheon."The King had arranged for a small luncheon since Ian refused to go public. The luncheon would only be attended by the royal family and Ian's party. But due to the status of the two party that would be attending the luncheon, the preparation was still pretty grand."

Latest Chapter

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    A butler's point of view - 2

    Ian returned. After wondering the continent for half a year, he came back with a 'Bang!'. Right when the nobles all around the country gathered to 'show the hero his place', Ian returned. Crazy hypothesises such that Ian being a Devil worshipper, betraying the country and being on the run or that he's actually a demon etc etc all came to an end as he openly took Arthur's side and threatened the other nobles.Of course, most of those rumours weren't too far off the mark. Ian did prefer villains over heroes, demons over angels, he had no love for their country and lastly, he was a darkness ability user with a twisted moral sense. And! To top it all off, he also preferred these rumours over ones that would hail him as a hero. he'd rather be on the run after being called a demon rather than be called a hero and worshipped. Again, twisted morality. But he couldn't do that this time. There were too many people using his name so he couldn't just let it be as those people got treated bad

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    A butler's point of view - 1

    "It's been a week since young master lost consciousness."Rob wrote in his diary as he sighed. There was a heavy atmosphere surrounding the duchy ever since the day Adrian fell down from the roof and went into a coma. How or why it happened was still a mystery around the duchy but speculations about an attempted suicide was slowly spreading around. Rob didn't believe them though. The Adrian he knew was too selfish and arrogant to do something like that. Yet, even when he was so sure, a small part of his mind kept lingering over that quiet and motionless room where Adrian was."Ah.. It's been a while."With that, Rob went to take another look at the sleeping Adrian for the 36th time that day. Although he was telling himself that Adrian's situation wasn't that serious, that he'd wake up soon, as he tried to remember all the bad things Ian did in his short lifetime just to mask his worry, he didn't even realise that he was unconsciously heading towards Ian's room again. After worryin

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    A Good Kind of Pain

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    Glad to be Back

    "YOU!"Smack!"THOUGHTLESS!"SMACK!"BAS-! JER-!! PERSON!"Ian had to wake up from his peaceful sleep with the sound of someone's shout along with the obnoxiously loud yet not so painful smacking of the pillows."Ow ow ow.. what the hell...?""Huh?""I'm back?"Ian woke up rubbing the back of his head that was the victim of continuous battering and looked around. The changed bedroom and the familiar faces made him aware of the fact that he had indeed come back. "What?""What are you talking about, young master? You didn't go anywhere."Both Albert and Arthur looked concerned as they checked Ian's status for any abnormalities. Only after multiple checking did they finally sigh in relief. "Ah no.. ""Hey guys.. Long time no see?"Ian greeted the kids and the Prince and the Knight all together while leaning back on his bed. The one responsible for the ruthless battering from before still had a massive pout on their face as they silently glared at Ian. "Are you angry? I'm sorry. How lo

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    A Week Without Ian

    Ian enjoyed the tea from hell while having a long and informative conversation with death, or at least that's who he assumed the other person was. He learned about the past that he had locked away and the people he had forgotten. But it all felt distant, like he was viewing the life of somebody else. "Why did I do that? Lock my memories?"Ian was curious. Just by watching the memories of Noah's future, he could tell that he lived a pretty okay life. The daughter he adopted also turned out to be great. She became his family. These were precious memories. So he couldn't understand why he'd lock them up like this. "After I presented you with my request, this is what you told me."Death continued showing Ian another set of completely different memories. An old man, wrinkly hand, white hair, hazy eyes. The room looked similar to the one he was in right now, and so was the person in front of them. "The me right now cannot save a world.""The blade has already lost it's edge.""I've grow

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    Unfiltered Memories

    "What do you mean by welcome back?"Ian asked, confused. As far as he could remember, never before in his life did he see this man or these scenes. And these weren't circumstances that he'd forget 'by chance' either. "After your first death, you came here.""First death.. Ah.. When I jumped down the bridge?"Ian remembered his last moments as Noah. The music that played, the scenery he watched on top of that bridge, they were all very memorable. Yet, he had no memory of coming to this place.But unlike Ian's thoughts, the guy in front of him shook his head in denial. Not understanding exactly which part he was denying, Ian tilted his head to the side slightly."What death are you talking about then?""You didn't die back then."The guy sat down on the bed, facing Ian and the endless hell behind him as he spoke. "When you were at the verge of losing consciousness, you heard a childs cry.""A child?""Yes. It was the final monster outbreak." Ian wondered what this guy was talking abo