“I thought you would become more muscular and rough after living in the forests all the time,” Serena stood in front of Rasmus, fixing his collars while staring into his bright blue eyes. “Well, I heard a little about your… evolution? But we want to know the whole story from you personally,” she looked up, noticing that Rasmus had gotten even taller.

Rullein looked at each one of them with that smirk on her face, but the ones that she was interested in were Serena and Videl after knowing their background. She couldn’t see any energy coming from those two, and she knew they were hiding it. However, when her eyes met Videl’s, her smirk turned into a grin, and her eyes began to glow and her pupils shrunk until it became as narrow as a slit.

“Oh? So this is the one that Aris mentioned,” Serena stood in front of Rullein, looking at Rullein’s voluptuous body. She was a bit jealous and excited to see the woman in front of her who wore a black see-through dress. “You must be Rullein, yes?” She asked with her brows raised and offered her hand for a handshake.

Rullein grinned widely as she took Serena’s hand and shook it and tried to read Serena’s memories. The moment she took a peek at Lilith’s memories of hell, Rullein’s eyes widened and black mist appeared from her back as her defense mechanism because she felt threatened by it. She yanked Serena’s hand and immediately wrapped her hand with her other hand as she stared at Serena with both anger for being deceived and fear for seeing what Lilith had been through. Serena at the same time, only gave Rullein a smirk, challenging her to take her hand again.

“Why are you so pale?” Serena asked, still offering her hand at Rullein. “I promise, I won’t let you see those memories again,” she chuckled.

Rullein narrowed her eyes and looked at Serena’s hand for a moment before she reached out her hand and shook Serena’s hand. This time, she felt something refreshing running through her body and her body accepted it, which was not possible because her body only accepted dark energy. She was confused and suspicious with the energy that Serena transferred to her, however, she didn’t feel weird about that energy, in fact it made her feel a lot lighter and stronger.

“What’s this?” Rullein asked and her hand was still holding Serena’s hand.

“A welcoming gift? To welcome you into the group,” Serena answered with a smile on her face, and then pulled her hand away from Rullein’s. “It’s just purified Mana,” she answered.

Rullein looked at her hand and she had never felt anything like that, and it somehow made her want more. On the other hand, Rasmus looked at Serena and noticed a subtle change within her. He had heard about the incident that happened during Aris’ spar with Videl, and he was told by Aris that Serena could manifest a divine power that was similar to what Harot could do.

Rasmus glanced at Aurelia and the others, and he could see that they wanted to approach him, but they were too scared to do so because he was being surrounded by his people. When he gave them a smile and nodded, giving them permission to approach, Aurelia and the others immediately approached him with a bit of a smile on their faces because they were happy to see him again.

“So? Anything new?” Videl asked, standing beside Rasmus.

“I should be the one asking you that. I heard from Aris you were sleeping with the priestesses here. You sure love to drag souls to hell with you,” Rasmus said quietly so nobody around them could hear their conversation.

“You know it’s getting boring to stay in this place. Even for me, this place is starting to be suffocating,” Videl said jokingly with a smirk on his face. “But yes, there are so many things that we have to discuss,” he said and than lowered his head to Rasmus, hadn’t forgotten his role as Rasmus’ personal butler before he walked away.

Erlina and the others moved to the side because they knew Rasmus wanted to have a moment with his former students.

“Count…” Aurelia looked up at Rasmus, surprised to see his changes. “I…” She paused to look around. “I’m happy to see you here,” she confessed.

Rasmus stared into Aurelia’s eyes then to the others, and they all had the same gaze toward him, a gaze of longing. He could see everyone’s struggle, guilt, regret, and burden that only he could see them. However, he noticed that Monica and Maximilian began to avoid his gaze.

“Monica, Maximilian, you two did your best. Your time isn’t yet to come. There’s no shame for not being able to do anything because oftentimes the world doesn’t need your presence at all,” Rasmus said as he looked at both of them, knowing that they failed to protect the North and couldn’t do anything about it, especially since they were still young and powerless. “There will be moments where you will get your opportunity, but again, what’s the purpose of your action to take that opportunity. If it’s just so you can be seen as useful, then you can die for nothing. If it’s so you can gain an advantage, then do it very carefully,” he continued.

Monica and Maximilian lowered their heads, closing their eyes, and took a deep breath before they opened their eyes and lifted their heads to look at Rasmus. They remembered as to why Rasmus’ words stuck in their heads more than any teacher could. His words were never meant to motivate them, to belittle them, nor to make them feel good or bad about themselves, his words always opened their eyes to see a different perspective.

“Three of you are failures, and that’s unfortunate,” Rasmus looked at Monica, Maximilian, and Isador. “One of you is ahead of the others, capable of moving forward and gaining recognition from the eye of the world,” he glanced at Aurelia. “Then the other one… is slowly making a move,” he glanced at Alexander.

Monica, Maximilian, and Isador glanced at each other, knowing exactly why Rasmus called them failures. Being called failures by Rasmus didn’t make them feel useless or powerless because it was a fact, and coming from his mouth felt different from others because they knew he said it without an intention to belittle them. Aurelia on the other hand, she didn’t feel proud when Rasmus recognized her effort because she also knew that he was just stating a fact. Alexander also felt nothing because he never asked to be recognized and only came all the way from West Neva to the Holy Nation because he wanted to help his friend.

“However, none of you can do anything to change the world…” Rasmus crossed his arms and looked at the five of them with a stoic expression. “Now? What matters?” He asked with his brows raised as he leaned his weight to one leg.

Aurelia and the others looked at each other, wondering if anyone knew the answer because they had never questioned that to themselves, ever. They all shared a look, and they all had something in common and that gave them the same answer.

“To defeat the enemy because there’s no point in running since it’s just prolong our defeat,” Monica answered with a straight face, her eyes staring right into Rasmus’ bright blue eyes.

“How? You and Maximilian are failures because you failed to even defeat them once. Isador and Alexander are useless because they have nothing to help you in doing so. Aurelia might be able to do something, but we all know she’s not strong enough to even lift the weight,” Rasmus asked.

In front of Rasmus, all of them always ended up having their mouths shut tightly because they didn’t know the right answer in his eyes even after all this time.

“Don’t find an answer that I want to hear,” Rasmus said as he looked them in the eyes.

“But you always questioned our resolve and made us feel like we were doing the wrong thing,” Alexander answered with his brows furrowed.

“If I can easily affect your resolve, isn’t your resolve is too weak to begin with?” Rasmus arched his brows.

“Fine, then my answer is we can use you as our tool,” Monica answered with a serious expression.

Rasmus glanced at Monica as he slowly raised his brows, intrigued by her answer.

“Me? Becoming your tool? How?” Rasmus asked, shifting the weight of his body to his other leg.

“Well, if we all have to die here, then we’ll die. But, if you let us all die here, the enemy will get even stronger and you’ll have no way to win against them. I have a blood of a Saint, Aurelia is the same, this whole place is filled with souls for those demons to consume. You know that, you know the demons are trying to corner us here so they can feast on us. So, yes, you’re going to be our tool because you don’t need us but you don’t want us to make them stronger either. You have no choice,” Monica explained, her expression unreadable.

Rasmus smirked as he narrowed his eyes, staring right into Monica’s eyes with interest. He was mildly surprised that Monica could think that way, and he noticed that she might have learned a lot after what she had witnessed and experienced in the North.

“That’s correct,” Rasmus nodded in agreement. “However, are you ready to pay the price from doing so?” He asked.

“Price? What price? You have been treating others like tools, what else do we need to be so afraid of?” Monica asked back.

Rasmus approached Monica and stood right in front of her, towering over her and making her look small.

“That I might reconsider that all of you are no longer useful,” Rasmus stared down into Monica’s eyes. “That you are not worth saving…” He said with a stoic and cold expression.

At that moment, Monica felt chills down to her spine and her blood ran cold from just listening to Rasmus’ words.

Everyone watched from the sides, listening to their conversation with such intensity. Even those who shouldn’t feel affected by it, they got chills down their spines. However, Lazarus’ eyes never stopped staring at Rasmus, trying to dissect the man that affected the whole world from just existing.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep