The Devil WithInn 183 A King's Guardian

Saleziel felt Modor's presence vanish and he stopped his stride momentarily.

"s.h.i.+ San, s.h.i.+ wu."

The two reapers immediately appeared behind him with grace in their movements. Then, they both knelt on one knee as a sign of deep respect and servitude.

"Anything to report about the man that was held hostage?"

Hearing Saleziel's question, s.h.i.+ San answered with his head bowed down, not daring to look at the King of Souls.

"He seems to be cooperative and calm, Esteemed diety. He didn't cause any trouble to the Emperor's servants that served him in the past days. So far, his only wish was to be moved towards a room with a better view."

Then, s.h.i.+ Wu added what he observed as well.

"There's been no suspicious activity towards the people he's interacted with as well. Though, from recent days, he's become quite too friendly with one of the palace maids."

Saleziel slowly nodded as he listened intently. Then, he waved his hand lightly to gesture for the Reapers to stand.

"A friend wouldn't hurt. It might help him feel less… caged. Just continue to monitor him in the unlikely case he'll try something. But don't touch him in any way. If he tries to escape, report to me immediately. Remember, only when the deadline is up, can you take his soul."

The Reapers made a grunt indicating they understood his orders. Then they gracefully stood up and bowed before disappearing into thin air.

When both Reapers were gone, Saleziel continued to slowly walk towards the empty manor, a place given to him by Anemoly's Emperor.

His manor was actually the Emperor's most well-hidden estate known only to the current and previous Emperors. Though, in a normal human's eye, it was much less of an estate but more of a religious shrine dedicated for Kings like him. It was because the Kings were revered as Immortals in the Eriden, the current religion of the world he's in.

And he was able to garner the help of the current Anemolian Emperor due to a great tradition and agreement they upheld for thousands of years.

Centuries ago, the Anemolian royal family was chosen to be something like a King's Guardian.

In fact, in every world made, there would be a bloodline chosen by the Fates, that will receive the role of a King's Guardian.

And the duty of a King's Guardian is simple.

Once a King descends into their world through an alter ego, they help them with worldly affairs that needed ma.s.sive human intervention. The Kings rely on them since the Kings or any heavenly figures for that matter are prohibited from interfering too much on human relations to avoid tipping the balance of the world.

Hence, they use the King's Guardian to help with their work. And these chosen Guardians would always gladly agree since, as part of the agreement, the Kings would make sure that there would be peace in their nation.

But to avoid imposters from parading as Immortals or Kings, a certain phrase would be pa.s.sed down from generation to generation on that chosen bloodline. And once a King visits and uses that phrase, then the Emperor would know that he was a real Immortal. And when the King leaves, a new phrase will be given by the King and will be once again pa.s.sed down from generation to generation.

But a King rarely comes to visit so some rulers in the bloodline would never even have the chance of hearing someone ever using the phrase in their whole lifetime. So when the Emperor of Anemoly finally heard someone use it, through his joy, he somehow overdid his welcoming, having prepared to set up a feast in honor of his name. But Saleziel turned him down quickly, saying that he wished for the Emperor to respect the secrecy of his presence.

Hence, the Emperor just settled on giving him a whole oversized manor, which was as big as a football stadium, filled with differently design rooms and furnis.h.i.+ngs along with thousands of servants.

But much to the King's disappointment, Saleziel immediately told the King to remove any human from his sight.

So, only the overgrown manor remained.

Actually, the whole manor used to be just a humble home built to be a place for Heavenly Kings to simply reside in. But the numerous rulers of the following generations saw it as unbefitting of such a powerful being. Hence, they enhanced the manor more and more while hoping to please the King. And as time pa.s.sed, the manor just grew and grew from all the pampering and money spent by the Anemolian Emperors.

Now, in Saleziel's eyes, it looked simply like a tool intended to gain favor of a powerful being. The lingering emotions behind almost every object were just screaming of greed and l.u.s.t for power and wealth.

He remembered when he first arrived a week ago. When the Emperor showed him the manor, it was everything that could be expected coming for a rich bloodline. It was about three storey high, with approximately sixty rooms inside it. Though, surprisingly, the architecture was quite good. It had a great feel of a Victorian Mansion with its linings and intricate details on its outer appearance. But inside was a chimera of designs, each hall were designed differently but the things at every room and hall all share the same quality. They were all made from precious and expensive materials that can make a poor man shrivel up in anger at how unnecessarily lavish they were.

But sadly, as the days pa.s.sed, the beauty of the mansion was lost to Saleziel.

Because in his eyes, he can only see the abuse and the death of slaves from past centuries and the greed and expectations the rulers had as they built the manor. And so, he could never calm down whenever he's in it.

Hence, he preferred to stay by the gardens instead of inside the manor. And the only time he'd ever enter was when his fragile human body needed to sleep.

But since he knew that the best way to get used to his human emotions was to trigger them, he decided that his first step to help him adjust to his body's emotions was to stay in the manor longer than usual to try and control himself towards things he disliked.

And after trying out more methods, Saleziel finally got used to his human emotions.

And by that time, only half a month was left before the Yearly a.s.sessment Tournament.