Chapter 535 Greed
“So, in other words, Lady Anna wants you to promise not to harbor any kind of evil or bad intention against us anymore.” said Darren to Ragaz.
“That’s… this is actually…” replied Ragaz in hesitation.
“Mr. Thief, I suggest you choose your word carefully. We already know about your condition as the holder of strong Ancient Power. The only reason you didn’t experience something worse than death is because of our curiosity in your Ancient Power.” stated Darren.
“Besides that, you are just a worthless petty thief.” added Darren.
“W-Wait.. How did you know I have Ancient Power?” asked Ragaz back.
Before Darren could reply, “[Pain].” muttered Anna in an unknown word.
“Arghh.. stop!! Make it stop!! Arghhh!!” screamed Ragaz in pain.
“Humph!! Dumb Dumb Green Bubble, Anna is still here. How dare Dumb Dumb Green Bubble ignore the cute and smart Anna. Anna hates when Anna is ignored.” grumbled Anna while pouting.
If no darkness covered her, everyone could see her cute pouting expression contradicting her ruthless action. In the meantime, Darren observes the Ragaz, like watching an experimental specimen or lab rat.
As a true researcher and scholar, he was intrigued by what Anna did to Ragaz. Darren even wants Anna to keep torturing the poor thief to unveil the power behind the [Pain] and the surrounding Darkness. Fortunately, the pain soon recedes and leaves Ragaz trembling like before.
“So, Dumb Dumb Green Bubble, Did you promise or not? Anna wants to go back to sleep with Angus and Big Sis.” said Anna coldly.
Among all the words Ragaz hears from Anna, he somehow finds her tone is the coldest. Before, he only feared Anna because of the unbearable pain. Now, he truly fears Anna from her presence.
“I.. Yes.. I promise. I promise to not hurt all of you or have any kind of bad intention.” said Ragaz.
As soon as Ragaz says he feels something entering his body. He didn’t know what it was, but his instinct told him it was dangerous.
“*Yawn* Anna will go back to sleep. Silver Corpse, don’t tell Angus and Big sis. Or I will ask Mira to make you bald permanently.” said Anna before walking to Angus’ tent.
“Don’t worry about it, Lady Anna.” said Darren with a smile.
When Anna leaves, the darkness slowly disappears like it is a mist. A moment later, Darren and Ragaz could finally see the surroundings.
“I suppose I don’t need to remind you to stay silent about this and keep your promise.” said Darren as he glared at the goblin with his blood-red eyes.
“Y-Yes.” replied Ragaz in a hurry.
“Since you are already awake, could you please tell me about your Ancient Power and why you keep following us in these few days.” asked Darren.
“Haa… It seems you somehow notice me. No wonder when I run towards your group, all of you can react properly. Well, it is not that I want to stalk your group in the first place.” replied Ragaz.
‘ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ N ovelBi(n)’,
“Anyway, my Ancient Power is called Greed. It is a very terrifying and powerful Ancient Power. In short, this power is to make the user steal items. However, this power also corrupts the user’s mind with strong Greed to possess any item.” said Ragaz.
“The more valuable the item, the more Greed corrupts the user. I had strong malicious intentions toward your group because all of you possessed a treasured item. It takes my entire willpower to not charge and rob you at that time.” said Ragaz.
“I didn’t expect that after we coincidentally met again, some of you would possess more valuable items.” added Ragaz.
“Hoo… Does it mean you can see the value of the item we possess without not looking at it directly? I don’t remember one of us taking out any of the precious items during our travel.” asked Darren.
“No. I still need to see the item directly to judge its value. It is like an instinct for me that your group brings something valuable. The problem is I couldn’t ignore this instinct. Not after all these years possessing a curse.” explained Ragaz.
“I see… It seems Greed really corrupts your mind. I bet even now you are fighting hard to not charge and rob me, right? How long since you possess Greed?” asked Darren.
“Yes, you are right. Lately, it is getting harder to contain the urge to steal something. It’s been twenty years or so since I got this curse.” Ragaz said.
“Twenty years!! I didn’t expect you to survive that long.” commented Darren.
While Darren and Ragaz are chatting, Anna is sneaking silently to Angus and Big sis’ bed like a child sneaking out at night. Seeing the couple is still sleeping peacefully, Anna slowly lies between Jayna and Angus.
After a while, two hands stroked her head softly. She completely forgets about her previous deed and feels blissful, enjoying Angus and Jayna’s touch.
“Is it finished?” suddenly Angus asked.
“Um.” replied Anna innocently with a smile.
After a few minutes, Anna suddenly opened her eyes in surprise.
“Ahh… Anna forgot to thank Mira!!” exclaimed Anna while suddenly sitting up.
“It’s okay. You could thank her tomorrow.” said Jayna.
“Oh.. Okay.” replied Anna.
“Wait.. Since when did Angus and Big sis wake up?” asked Anna.
Anna finally noticed the couple was looking at her with a smile.
“Well, little troublemaker, you made us sleep for a moment. But, you also underestimate Big sis’ ability.” said Jayna as she hugged the confused Anna.
“Ehhh… Then, Big sis knows that Anna is torture…” said Anna before shutting her mouth with her hand.
“*giggles* Hoo… So, you sneak out just to torture someone? What a bad girl!!” teased Jayna.
“Nooo… Anna, just makes Dumb Dumb Green Bubble not become a baddie.” replied Anna trying to defend herself.
“Really?! We could hear a deafening scream, you know.” said Angus.
“No way… The blackie told me no one could hear or sense inside of Blackie.” replied Anna.
“Blackie?” asked Angus back.
“Yeah… Blackie is Blackie. It is very nice and quite clingy. Mira told Anna, it is very active during the night.”
‘So, that’s why I couldn’t sense or hear anything until a moment ago.’ thought Angus.
“I see… Did you feel tired after using Blackie?” asked Angus as he could guess some part of Anna’s new power.
“Nope. Anna is fine. Wait… Anna is not fine. Anna is sleepy and needs Angus and Big sis’s hug.” replied Anna mischievously.
“Hahaha… Then, let’s go back to sleep. We need to wake up early tomorrow.” said Angus.
Then, Anna fell asleep while getting cuddled warmly by the couple. During this time, the two couples keep conversing through their bond for a few minutes before going back to sleep. Since the fourth test incident, they have noticed some changes in Anna.
Her body is powerful, as she could even play with Jayna’s hot fire in her hand. They know Jayna’s fire could easily melt and destroy almost any material. Yet, she could touch, grab, and even play with the intangible destructive fire without getting hurt.
Her appetite also became ridiculous. Before the fourth test incident, she could still feel full after eating a lot of food. Now, she literally has a bottomless stomach that will not stop eating. If they don’t distract her with something, she will keep eating all their food reserves.
They find she could even eat roasted fifth-grade monster meat without a problem. According to Darren, this is an impossible feat, even for a sixth-grade beast. Not only is the miasma in the meat very potent, but it also contains a massive amount of energy.
A single bite of fifth-grade monster meat is equivalent to a thousand third-grade. If they can’t digest the energy or nutrition properly, they will only hurt themself or even lead to a painful death. Yet, the little gluttony even asked for another chunk of meat after eating it.
Now, they also find Anna somehow could control the darkness on a massive scale. As the contractor of Mundus, Angus is familiar with the darkness element. But, he still finds the darkness Anna controls is somewhat different as he couldn’t perceive anything from it.
It is like sensing or trying to see in the middle of complete darkness. If they don’t have any sort of connection with Anna and know she is fine, the couple will panic and rush out of the tent long ago.
However, they didn’t expect the little monster to sneak out to make the goblin’s not hurt them or have malicious intentions. After Anna came back, Angus could slowly perceive the outside once again.
Angus also overheard some conversation between Darren and Ragaz. After matching all the clues, he finally gets the gist of the problem and decides to go back to sleep.
The following day, Anna wakes up with droopy eyes and looks more sleepy than usual.
“Anna, are you okay? asked Jayna in worry.
“*Yawn* Anna is sleepy.” replied Anna.
“Did you feel tired or weak?” asked Angus.
“Nope. *Yawn* Anna just lacks Angus and Jayna’s sleeping hug.” replied Anna.
“Gezz… If you sleep too much, you will become fat. Then, no one will like Anna.” teased Jayna while pinching Anna’s cheek.
“No one will like Anna. No way!!” said Anna as she suddenly became energetic.
After cleaning themself and dressing up, they go outside and eat their breakfast, completely ignoring the pitiful bounded goblin.