翁公在厨房和我猛烈撞击

An offering to the gods.

There were countless gods and countless souls offered to them. They condemned Nikolai with the curse of devouring souls while they asked for worshipers to offer them.

\'A group of hypocrites,\' Nikolai knew. The archeologist in front of him didn\'t seem to be lying, nor did the ugly scar on her stomach. It wasn\'t ugly because of its shape, but because it signified how weak humans were.

They were ready to kill each other just to appease creatures who treated them like ants. Hence, the gods weren\'t the only ones deserving of hate, but also those who worshiped them and sacrificed others for their moral cause.

"Which god?" Nikolai asked, even though he had no use for such information. However, Taly didn\'t answer him and hid her stomach instead.

"One who would die eventually," she said with hate in her eyes. "Along with his dear worshipers, of course," the archeologist gritted her teeth.

Her words sent his mind into turmoil because they made him realize how ambitious this woman was. She wanted to kill a god and everyone who worshiped him.

"Maybe you gave this scar to yourself," Nikolai\'s cynicism came to the surface. "A prepared sad story to get you out of prison, a pinch, and assault."

"You think I did this to myself to earn pity and avoid being raped?" Taly laughed with disbelief. "You are truly a devil because you know that you can\'t trust others."

"I am one banished by Celestia," his hoarse voice cut across the forest as his feet brought him closer to the woman. His arm was inches away from grabbing her throat, and the darkness was thirsty. "I find it hard to believe that you would conveniently be on my side when you needed me to survive."

"I am not on your side, devil," Taly said without fear, even with the darkness inches from ripping her throat. "This is an equal trade."

"And what do I get in return?"

"Whatever information the tablet carries, once I am done," Taly said as she began to grow weaker. "I will decipher the rest of it in a few days. At that time, you can have the tablet and the information within it."

"And what did you find out within it so far?"

"A secret concerning Celestia," Taly said as she slid down on the tree. Nikolai realized that his darkness caused it, the same thing that happened to Sergio. "I never... go back... on my words..."

The archeologist passed out afterward. As she fell to the ground, Nikolai sighed, and his darkness disappeared like smoke to reveal him in his black suit.

"Then you have a deal," he said, looking down on her. "It seems you realized that I am the only one capable of surviving against the fairies, so you used the tablet as a bargain. Smart."

Nikolai picked up the archeologist and entered his stealth to return toward the city. The curse has been sated, and his historian has been saved. The sun was coming out by the time he reached the city.

As he didn\'t know where she lived, Nikolai had to sneak into a room in an inn and leave her there. He left a letter in her pockets with instructions about their next meeting and how to summon him if she was in danger.

Nikolai left her an anonymous username to contact him on the Wide Mana Array if she was ever in danger. She also needed to share her location with him using the wide mana array to save her when the time came. 

Nikolai returned to the mansion as he thought about how technology was useful so far. They lived in a weird age where technology evolved every day alongside magic, without anyone losing to the other, and each one helped the other instead.

A few minutes after he sneaked into his room using his stealth, a knock arrived at the door. It was still a bit past dawn, but someone decided that the day had started already.

"Yes?" he asked, acting sleepy, as he opened the door. The one behind it was one of Saint Maria\'s handmaids.  She acted as if he was slacking, glancing at him up and down.

"You need to pick up her highness\'s jewelry today and make arrangements with the florist for the perfume," she said, glaring.

"What do I have to do with that?"

"Her highness instructed that you are the one to choose them, even though they are our responsibility," the handmaid almost spat out flames at him.

"Choose them?" Nikolai tilted his head. "So, it\'s only about picking them up."

"Stop sleeping and get going already. Her highness wrote you this letter, and it includes the name of the shops, so visit them today," the girl shoved a paper into him and left him dazed.

"I don\'t think this was a part of the job\'s responsibility?" Nikolai turned around and opened the letter, which was a lot less formal and shorter than he had imagined.

"Meet me, without being seen, in the flowerbed south of the river," she wrote and then signed it. "Your friend, Maria."

Nikolai stared at the two lines for almost a whole minute before he had to bring himself back to reality. This was unexpected. The princess wanted to meet him, alone, in a flowerbed?

"Isn\'t this... too childish?"

A regular guy would have been over the moon for being asked out by a beautiful girl as the princess. However, Nikolai only found the whole matter childish.

Maria was a princess, no matter how sheltered she was. It was childish to sneak out of the mansion on the night of a grand ball, not to mention with a friend who you only made because he wanted to use you.

"What if I was a killer?" he sighed as he placed the letter away. "If Master Edward finds out about this, then it will be... I have no idea how it would be."

Another sigh escaped his mouth as he looked out of the window. The sun broke behind the horizon to give the city a drowsy color, but he had to go out already.

After wearing his suit, Nikolai walked out of the mansion. His legs dragged themselves toward the river, hoping he would find the flowerbed easily.

After finding the river cutting through the city, Nikolai had to walk on its bank and look around until early morning. Then, at long last, Nikolai found the flowerbed, and someone was sitting atop a tree\'s dead trunk.

"Your highness," Nikolai sighed as he saw the girl swinging her legs on the trunk. She wore a large hat over her head and a simple flowery dress with a belt around the waist. "I don\'t think..."

"Shush!" she raised a finger on her lips while looking at him with a smirk. "I helped you with a secret, and you need to help me too."

"Master Edward can know where I am," Nikolai said, knowing fully well that the monster was already suspicious of him for leaving the mansion at night. "Sneaking out is useless if you do it with me."

"Don\'t worry. My uncle has yet to return since going to see his friend yesterday. I am sure that he has his hands full at the moment to notice anything about you."

"I sure hope so," Nikolai sighed in relief, but she thought he was worried.

"Grow some backbone, Lyle!" she jumped to stand on the tree\'s trunk. "This is another adventure and a grand secret!"

"A secret?" Nikolai looked interested because every secret she knew could be useful. Then, seeing him hooked, the princess grinned.

"Yes! We are going to monitor for the most loathsome young master in all of Rosia, The Bastard!"

"The..." Nikolai was speechless that a princess would say such a thing, not to mention a future saint. "Why do you want to monitor him?"

"Everyone says that he is a horrible human being, scum of the scum, and a philanderer!" as she listed his misdeeds, Nikolai noticed that she didn\'t seem convinced.

"There is no smoke without fire, your highness," Nikolai had to tell her the ugly truth, but this time, she was headstrong and stubborn.

"The fire is his birth," the princess gave a sly smile. "No one would say anything good about a bastard. Not to mention the bastard son of the man known as the world\'s strongest!"

This time, Nikolai didn\'t need to fake his interest. There was only one man known as the world\'s strongest, and he was the reason the royal family was still ruling Rosia. He was an outsider to the royal family and a duke.

"That man had a bastard son?" the words left his mouth, and Nikolai saw a large smile appear on the princess\'s face. She knew that he was interested, and there was no escape now.

"If you want to know more about the secret, help me uncover the truth! Is he truly the scoundrel and rogue of this kingdom?"