371 Useless
Hours later, Dyon was in an entirely new inn. In order to avoid being annoyed, he had moved. He doubted that the Cavositas would do anything out in the open, or else it would mean losing moral high-ground with the elves.
The truth was the despite the disappearance of the Elvin King, his power was still a looming influence. After all, 10 years was a blink of an eye to a celestial expert. And this was even more true for an elf. Assuming that he would never show up again was something many weren’t willing to risk on. So, openly killing the man he’d know as his son-in-law was not a good idea.
This was the kind of unknown the elves wanted to continue to foster. To the upper-echelons of the elves, their king had disappeared without a trace or even a word of goodbye. But, to the upper-echelons of Earth and the other planets, the Elvin King was gone, but the elves were aware of why and that he’d be back. This was a subtle, but very important lie.
That said, the elves still had other celestial experts to maintain God Clan rank, including the Grand Elders and Head Sigebryht. In fact, Head Sigebryht was still known as a genius to many. And, no one forgot Uncle Acacia in all of this. He had been exposed as a peak level saint with the attack of the Daiyu on the Elvin Kingdom. It was suddenly clear to everyone that maybe his talent wasn’t too inferior to his brother.
In the end, the elves were able to make up for their lack of quality with quantity. Their status could not be ignored.
Without their king, they were among the peak God Clans. And with him? They rivaled any Royal God Clan. This wasn’t the sort of existence that could be so easily ignored and Dyon was more than aware of this, so he took advantage.
After treating Eli, Dyon let him sleep. In fact, he went as far as forging a coma-inducing pill set to allow Eli to wake up once his body was healed and his fatigue was gone. After what must have been years of a poor diet and no rest, Eli needed this rest the most.
Dyon knew that if he allowed Eli to wake up now, he’d be too worried about the rest of his family to get a proper rest.
Flashing into his spatial ring, Dyon walked toward the collection of tents he had created for the demon generals and let Eli rest in his. Afterwards, he let the demon know about Eli and that they should explain things to him should he wake up without Dyon’s knowledge.
Arios had gone to see his father with Ava after the gate closed, so, he wasn’t here. But, there were thousands of other demon generals to help out. Often times, Dyon felt bad about having them stay here, but, there was really no other place for them. In addition, they seemed to enjoy spending their days in relaxation and cultivation. ρꪖꪕᦔꪖꪕꪫꪣꫀꪶ
Many of them had even once been trapped within a gate during its recovery time. Compared to days like that, the demon generals saw this place as a paradise.
With everything settled, Dyon left the ring to appear within the hotel room.
Looking down at Ri’s sleeping figure, he couldn’t help but feel saddened. To Ri, Eboni and Ulu were people she should have been able to beat. But, the martial world didn’t have a place for fairness. In fact, in all this time, even as Ri tossed and turned in her sleep, clearly agitated, she had never once said anything about fairness. To her, victory should have been a foregone conclusion.
At first, Dyon blamed himself. He didn’t expect words as simple as ‘Sacharro’s don’t lose’ to have such a profound effect on Ri. But, he had to check himself after that.
He had a huge effect on Ri’s life, yes. But, not enough to cause a fundamental change to her personality.
Ri was a person who had started raising an army as barely a teenager with the goal of taking over the Elvin Kingdom in her father’s stead. She was a person that spent her entire life forcing herself down a path of wills that was never her forte. She was a person that loved array alchemy and studied it just for her fascination, despite having weak soul talent.
Ri was competitive to her very core. She did things because she wanted to and followed through with them to the end. Her hate of losing may have had something to do with Dyon, but it was definitely not the entire reason.
Alexandria Acacia. She had goals of her own. A purpose she wanted to achieve. Whether that be being worthy of standing by Dyon’s side, or finding her parents, each was important to her and each required her to win. Then win again. And then win yet again. Taking credit for her reaction, or more accurately, blame, would be nothing short of hubris on Dyon’s part.
In a lot of ways, Ri was still that little girl who lost her parents. Still that little girl that lost her best friend. Still that little girl who was training day and night to rebuild the things she had lost.
And now, Dyon was yet another thing she wanted to hold onto to. No matter what Dyon said or did, Ri still felt like she had to earn his love. It was just that this loss had caused all of these emotions to surface.
But, even thinking of all of this, nothing hit Dyon as much as when he heard Ri said something that made him tremble. Something that made him think back to his trials with the old man…
“I’m happy you have big sister Madeleine. I’m truly happy this time.” Ri mumbled in her sleep, an uncomfortable sweat coating her delicate features. “I can’t be jealous anymore. I’m too useless to be jealous.”