Chapter 627: Intermission 105
Fisher was quietly reading the first part of the Death Completion Manual, which analyzed the “Death of Animals.”
The first part detailed how to draw upon the mysteries contained within the death of animals.
Among them, Abraham believed that “the death of animals” is a lower form of death compared to “the death of wisdom,” and therefore did not require further learning; its only use was “utilization.”
This indicates that the Death Completion Manual could draw certain energies from the death of non-sentient life such as animals, which is the fundamental basis of the first part.
The remaining sections focused on how to use the energy drawn from the death of animals.
Simpler applications involved using this energy to awaken dead animals and utilize them, as Holland had done with those small birds.
This reflected how Fisher, in his quest for death, had not delved deeper into this path; otherwise, he wouldn’t still be lingering at the beginning of the first part after having the Death Completion Manual for so long.
It is worth mentioning that due to the hierarchy of death, until one reaches the realm of “Death Trinity,” the death drawn from animals can only be used for animals and not sentient beings.
Deeper applications could involve using this power to directly transform living animals into undead states and draw energy from them.
In summary, this portion targets “the death of animals” entirely, which is essentially of no use to Fisher at the moment, and thus he didn’t particularly focus on memorizing or marking certain contents.
Even so, just reading the first part took a lot of time for him, primarily because the author, named Abraham, had incorporated many religious terms from other worlds, making it quite difficult for Fisher to comprehend.
Throughout the text, there was no shortage of his sincere belief in the one called “God,” reflecting a rather unique writing style compared to the Completion Manuals Fisher had read before.
He hadn’t read too much content, after all, he had already figured out the method to fully read the Death Completion Manual.
To be honest, the reading conditions for the second part became somewhat troublesome because they likely required the deaths of numerous sentient beings.
By the time he reached the third part, “Witnessing the Death of Divinity,” he found himself feeling somewhat helpless.
These Completion Manuals either demanded enigmatic riddles like “the ultimate treasure,” or, as in this case, even if they specified requirements, those requirements were challenging to fulfill.
However, perhaps because only someone like Fisher throughout history could read more than one Completion Manual made this path seem so complicated.
Looking at the sky outside that had fully brightened, no longer the haze from when he first got up, Fisher temporarily closed the Death Completion Manual and stood up, preparing to go back and check on Raphael and Jasmine.
Unlike when he read the Soul and Life Completion Manuals, Fisher hadn’t noticed any obvious side effects from reading the Death Completion Manual, almost akin to reading a bizarre and obscure academic tome; aside from feeling a bit of pressure in his head, he felt nothing else. He wondered if this was due to his beginner status.
“Tsk tsk tsk, it’s hard to imagine what expressions those two are making right now. They’re generous; I wonder if it’s because you’re about to leave the Southern Continent, and they specially gave you a little keepsake, afraid that when you go to Nali, Elizabeth might steal your soul away?”
Just as Fisher pushed open the door and walked along the corridor within the royal court, pondering over the Death Completion Manual, Emhart on his shoulder smacked his lips and said this.
Fisher glanced at him, speechlessly replying, “As if Elizabeth would welcome me with a bunch of flowers. There’s a lot of trouble to sort out when I go back to Nali. Besides, Valentina has already contacted Elizabeth, and no matter what’s written in the letter, Elizabeth will definitely blame me for not going to see her right away.”
“Well, if you’re willing to obediently lie down on her bed in the Golden Palace, waiting for you will be more than just flowers; there will also be diamond rings.”
“Yes, and shackles and whips.”
Fisher sighed, and just as they were conversing in low voices, they quickly returned to the door of Raphael’s bedroom.
Fisher opened the door to take a look, only to find it empty; the bedding, towels, and clothes scattered on the floor had also vanished, clearly indicating that they had already gotten up and cleaned the shy battlefield from last night.
Although this left Emhart unable to imagine the intensity of the battle from last night, it was certainly not possible that the three of them were lying together counting stars, right?
Fisher stepped out of the room and went to check on Aria’s situation in the nearby room; she was still asleep, lying on the bed with her eyes closed.
Emhart couldn’t help but say, “You really have guts. Last night, Aria was still here sleeping, and you dared to sleep next door, bringing Jasmine along.”
“Earlier, I was in the hot spring with Raphael and Jasmine. I was about to come back to rest.”
Emhart opened his mouth and asked with the same words, “About to?”
Fisher nodded earnestly and repeated, “About to.”
“…”
Emhart was once again at a loss for words, which seemed to be quite common in front of Fisher.
As Fisher scrutinized Aria on the bed, he suddenly felt it was a bit strange; she didn’t seem to be merely fainting from the tsunami.
First, Aria had no visible external injuries, and Raphael should have noticed that when she checked yesterday. Otherwise, she would have mentioned it.
Setting aside physical injuries, even if Aria had been startled due to the sudden event, it was unlikely she would faint for an entire day and night.
Thinking this, Fisher reached out to perform a simple check on her again.
While observing, he suddenly noticed that the color of the dragon horn on Aria’s head was somewhat dim.
Recalling what the dragon horn meant for Dragonkin, he checked Aria’s magical circuit again, only to unwittingly discover a clue.
It seemed that Aria’s soul was missing a tiny part, and this part was slowly regenerating, which was why she had not yet woken up.
A missing part of the soul means a deficiency in consciousness; just like physical wounds can heal, the healing power of the soul could even be stronger than that of the body.
However, the key was that Fisher discovered a faint residual morning light on the dim dragon horn on Aria’s forehead.
Hela?
She took away a small part of Aria’s soul?
Fisher was slightly taken aback, and soon a spark of inspiration crossed his mind, recalling how Raphael had looked when burned by the soul flame. It was Hela who helped her then, but Fisher hadn’t inquired how she did it.
Intuition from the knowledge in the Soul Supplement Handbook told him that the method was likely related to the soul that had been taken from Aria.
In other words, from the very beginning, Hela had prepared for her plan in two ways, in case Raphael died after a failed attempt.
However, ever since the chaos of the soul stabilized within him, his memories of that knowledge had gradually begun to blur, and even the black mud “Cupid” no longer conversed with him, so he couldn’t be sure whether the connections were inevitable.
Knowledge is a vessel of chaos. Fisher’s inability to recall the contents further implied that its current state was quite stable.
“Fisher? So you were here with Lady Aria. Lord Raphael has been looking for you for a long time; we thought you had gone out.”
At that moment, the door from behind opened, interrupting Fisher’s thoughts.
He and Emhart turned to look and saw Fashir and Keshil standing at the door, holding a tray covered with towels, looking at Fisher and Emhart in the room. Keshil spoke up, followed by Fashir adding, “Right now, Lady Jasmine and Lord Raphael are having breakfast in the front hall. We didn’t expect you to come here alone. Go hurry up and eat; we still need to help Lady Aria change her clothes.”
“Ah, okay.”
Fisher stepped back, taking one last look at Aria’s soul that was recovering, and then as he walked towards the door, he told Fashir and the others, “Aunt Aria’s recovery will take one to two days; she will wake up on her own then.”
“Okay.”
The so-called front hall was actually the large hall at the periphery of the royal court, where Raphael had first brought Fisher back and enthusiastically introduced him to Jasmine. However, when Fisher arrived this time, the atmosphere felt slightly different from the first meeting.
It was notably quiet aside from the sound of knives and forks clinking, but when Fisher walked in, Jasmine and Raphael both turned to him at the same time and blushed, quickly avoiding his gaze, perhaps reminiscing about what they experienced last night.
“Good morning.”
“…”
Although it was a regular morning breakfast, the atmosphere became ambiguous due to this small episode, almost as if it still felt like last night.
“Ahem.”
However, compared to the timid Jasmine, Raphael appeared more natural and broke the awkward silence first, saying, “Where did you go just now? We didn’t see a shadow of you in the morning.”
“I considered going to Nali and then checked on Aunt Aria’s situation. She’s fine; she will wake up in a few days.”
“That’s good.”
Raphael breathed a sigh of relief. Previously, the royal court’s doctor had come to check, and could only conclude there were no external injuries. Although the treatment method remained the same—rest—having it confirmed as not problematic was still reassuring.
“Teacher Fisher, you can’t do this next time,” Jasmine pouted slightly, carefully holding her knife and fork as she said, “Because you weren’t here, in the morning, Raphael mistook me for you and called your name, hugging me instead; as a result—”
As a result, upon encountering Jasmine’s ample chest, Raphael woke up from her dream, puzzled about when Fisher had undergone a second growth spurt.
But Fisher didn’t know the reason and instead looked at Raphael, who suddenly froze, curious about her reaction at that moment.
“Jasmine!!”
Feeling the intensity of Fisher’s gaze, Raphael’s face reddened even more as she squeezed her knife and fork, seemingly wanting to mention some comedic flaw of Jasmine, such as how last night she surprisingly…
No, wait! That’s too shameful!
Raphael opened her mouth, prepared to say something about Jasmine, but her shyness melted the words in her throat before they could escape, generating heat that almost made her steam from behind her scales; she had to abruptly stop this topic.
“Alright, alright! Let’s just drop this topic right here, no one is allowed to say any more about it!”
“Okay, I’ll listen to you.”
Fisher helplessly smiled and took his seat, while Jasmine nodded, cheerfully shaking her whale tail behind her.
Seeing this scene, Emhart could even summarize a pattern.
Previously he thought that Fisher engaging in such acts was to satisfy his own greed, thus naturally appearing radiant and spirited afterward; but now it seemed that perhaps the same effect extended to the ladies related to him, looking no worse off, making it a win-win situation.
“By the way, Fisher, this is for you.”
While eating, Raphael suddenly remembered something and reached out to hand two small fabric pouches from the side table to Fisher, while Jasmine also smilingly offered him two similarly shaped but differently colored pouches.
Fisher focused and quickly recognized these two items that bore the unique characteristics of Nali.
“This is a memorial offering. Jasmine told me about this custom of yours from Nali. It is said that friends and family of the deceased select a gift and words of condolence, wrap them in cloth, and then the priest officiating the funeral will directly burn them. You are returning for your teacher; although I have never met your teacher, it is only right that I extend my regard with this offering to someone closely related to you, so…”
Raphael then split the small pouch she held into two, the top one for Heilson, while the bottom one was prepared for another person.
“And this, you have already met my mother, but I currently do not have the opportunity to visit the church school where you were raised, nor the nun named ‘Teresa.’ Bringing our memorial offering to Nali should also be seen as a greeting to them.”
Fisher slightly stunned, looked at the four small pouches on the table, gently extended his hand to take them, feeling that the pouches in his hand were quite heavy.
He didn’t ask what gifts were inside those small pouches or what she had written within them; he simply responded, “Okay, I will definitely bring them with me.”
Raphael and Jasmine smiled, continuing to enjoy this rare breakfast time.
“Rip, rip.”
Just as Fisher safely tucked the small pouches into his pocket, a ripping sound suddenly reached his ears.
He turned to look at his shoulder and saw Emhart awkwardly curled up, trying to use this method to tear off the excess sheets of paper he had inside.
“Ouch, no! Fisher, please help me.”
“What are you doing?”
Fisher opened his mouth to ask, while Emhart glanced over with dead fish eyes, then looked at Jasmine and Raphael before tentatively asking, “The small cloth pouches are fine, but what about the small paper pouches?”
“…”
“Pfft.”
“Hahahaha, Sir Book!”
Fisher speechlessly grabbed the book cover that was twisted due to Emhart’s posture, stopping him from such foolish behavior, momentarily unsure of what to say.
Raphael and Jasmine across the table could no longer hold back, bursting into soft laughter while covering their mouths.
Jasmine, of course, was empathetic and patiently explained to Emhart, “Sir Book, you can have either me or Fisher write for you; there’s no need to tear your own body.”
Meanwhile, Raphael, who had never properly examined this friend of Fisher’s, smiled as she looked at him like this, saying, “Of course, that’s not acceptable. But the great Sir Book shouldn’t need anyone else’s help to create a memorial offering, right?”
“Your mother!”
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(End of Chapter)
