Return of the Runebound Professor-Chapter 854: Quick on the draw

Yoru, the Rising Moon, slipped the mask back over her face. She ensured it covered the light of her eyes completely before she risked turning to look over at the terrified woman standing in the shadows of the alley behind her. “I’m done. You may emerge.”

“Fuck,” Seleth whispered. She stared down at the crumbled man on the ground before Yoru’s feet. “What did you— no. Don’t tell me, please. I don’t want to know.”

“Relax,” Yoru replied. “There is not enough of him left to be bothered about what I did.”

“That… isn’t relaxing. At all.”

“Is it not?” Yoru tilted her head to the side. Then she shrugged. “I see. I will keep that in mind. Perhaps it will ease your mind to know that nothing of value was lost.”

“Why are you doing this?” Seleth asked. She swallowed. “I mean… it’s good. That guy is scum. The worst of the worst. Slavery is obviously illegal in the Coral Empire, but working to pay off debt isn’t. What do you get out of this, though?”

Yoru laughed.

Maybe it was a little bit more of a giggle. The noise was sudden and unexpected for both of them, and Seleth flinched back as if she’d been struck. Even Yoru herself hadn’t quite expected the amount of amusement that line had pulled from her.

“I’m sorry,” Yoru said, the corners of her lips still twitching behind her mask. “That was rude of me. I have been trying to become more… friendly. Friends are not rude.”

Seleth stared at her. “Friendly. Yes. That describes you.”

“Thank you,” Yoru said. “It has not been easy. Such things do not come naturally to me.”

Seleth swallowed. Then she nodded. “That, at least, I can believe. But… if you don’t mind me asking, what about what I said was so amusing?”

“Nothing at all,” Yoru replied with a small shake of her head. “It is simply the nature of most living beings to wonder what benefit some activity has for them, isn’t it? What’s in it for me? I’ve heard and thought that more times than I can count. Reward. Control. People seek it desperately but only find themselves emptier the more they take.”

“I don’t know,” Seleth said. “I think life would be a whole lot easier if I were stronger.”

“Easier?” Yoru tilted her head to the side. “Certainly. If you were not so weak, your life would be magnitudes better. Every aspect of it would likely be simpler. The same goes for wealth. If you were rich, your life would be objectively better.”

“Wow,” Seleth said with a wince. “Gee. Thank you. That’s… painful. But I don’t think my life is all that bad. I’m actually pretty happy with most parts of it. There are just a few things—”

“No. I checked,” Yoru said. “You’ve made practically every wrong choice. It’s impressive how poorly you’re doing compared to how you could be. In a different life, you’d be a powerful Rank 6 by now.”

The two of them were silent for a while. Then Seleth’s shoulders slumped.

“Oh,” Seleth said.

“It’s okay,” Yoru said. She patted Seleth on the shoulder with a hand of shimmering moonlight. “To fail is to be human. In that other life, you likely never would have run into me. And that would have been the biggest mistake you ever could have made.”

“Right,” Seleth muttered under her breath, her eyes still cast to the ground. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Good. You should.” Yoru nodded. “And to give a proper answer to your earlier question, I found your words amusing because there was a time in which my decisions were governed only by the question of what I received from them. I was compelled to only choose the path that objectively led me to more power, foregoing everything else in the process.”

“Is that no longer the case?” Seleth asked in mild confusion. “And if you have power, what more could you possibly need.”

“It is occasionally the case,” Yoru replied. “And I will let you figure the answer to that out yourself. It will be more fulfilling and meaningful that way.”

“Will it really?” Seleth asked.

“I am unsure,” Yoru replied. “But it will amuse me more.”

The corner of Seleth’s mouth twitched. “Well, at least you’re honest. Can you at least tell me what the point of all this was, then? If it wasn’t for personal gain, why did you do it? Is everything just to grow that legend you’re making?”

“Good questions. You should ask more of them,” Yoru said. “No. Not exactly. This will help. Of that there is no doubt. The brutal deaths of everyone running this ring will spread through the city. The right people will hear of it.”

“What about the other stuff?” Seleth hesitated for a moment. But when it became clear that Yoru wasn’t going to interrupt her, she continued. “Why are we keeping Spider from meeting his allies? Why aren’t you yourself saying hi to him? Aren’t you friends?”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

“Because it’s not yet the right time,” Yoru replied simply. “They would be happier — and weaker. Their paths are best served not crossing for just a short while longer. Even mine. There is much I wish to speak with him over, but I can wait a few more days.”

“Didn’t you just imply power wasn’t everything?”

“It isn’t,” Yoru said. “But it is a lot. So long as you control the power, then it is good.”

“There’s another option? Can power even control—”

“Yes,” Yoru said. “Yes, it can.”

Her recently re-formed Rank 7 Rune shuddered. She had built it after her return to Obsidia, but this time in her image without letting Moonlit Prophecy influence her decisions. It was a tool. Nothing more.

Intelligence spun within the powerful Master Rune, a hunger to become what it once was shattered by the knowledge that it never could. Things would never again be the same as they were.

Moonlit Prophecy was hers.

Not other way around.

She no longer had to worry about it wresting control of her mind. The Master Rune had been broken. Its power was now entirely at her fingertips. And, while she was still working on ensuring that she didn’t rely on it overmuch in personal relationships, there were some things that were a little too important to leave to unchecked chance.

“I don’t know if I understand,” Seleth said slowly. “But I think my dad occasionally said something similar about power.”

“Then he is either a wise man or an unfortunate one,” Yoru said. “Were there any other questions? We have two minutes and thirty-three seconds before we need to leave.”

“That’s a very specific number,” Seleth said. “But while we’re on the topic, I do suppose I have one more. I can understand that you’re doing some of this because you’re just helping Spider out. But what about the random murders?”

Yoru tilted her head to the side. “Random?”

“Is there really any other word for it?” Seleth asked.

“You’ve killed, what, ten or so people since we’ve gotten here? And you haven’t even spoken to them, nor have they spoken to you. It’s just kind of indiscriminate murder. I wouldn’t claim to know you… but that doesn’t seem aligned with how you operate.”

The hesitation in her voice was clear, but Seleth spoke despite it. Yoru hid a smile. The girl never would have dared to ask something like that back when they’d first met. She was growing a bit more of a backbone. Either that or she was getting comfortable. Either way, it was fine with Yoru. Seleth wasn’t going to be of any use when she was as timid as a mouse.

Yoru’s attendants needed to have a spine.

“Oh,” Yoru said. “Those.”

“Yes,” Seleth said. “Those. Was there a reason?”

“Of course there was,” Yoru said. “I rarely do anything without a reason.”

They were silent for a moment. Seleth scratched the back of her neck awkwardly.

“Are you…”

“Going to answer?”

“Yes,” Seleth said.

“That depends,” Yoru replied. “Are you going to ask?”

“Should I?”

Yoru shrugged one shoulder. “What do you think?”

“Something tells me it’s probably a bad idea,” Seleth muttered.

Yoru nodded sagely. “Perhaps so. If I’m one of those people that goes around indiscriminately killing, then it’s probably best not to pry. It’s best for the weak to stay out of the way of such individuals to avoid becoming one of their victims.”

“Yeah,” Seleth said.

They were silent for a few more moments.

“Well then,” Yoru said. She turned for the exit of the alley.

“What was the reason you killed them?” Seleth asked abruptly.

A smile crossed Yoru’s lips behind her mask.

“Because I wanted to,” Yoru replied. “Now, let’s get going. I want to introduce you to one of my friends. He should be arriving soon, but we’ve got quite the trip across the city if we’re going to catch him before he gets himself dragged before the Prophet.”

***

There was blood on the floor.

It was on the walls too.

The ceiling as well.

For that matter, there was blood everywhere. It was largely Noah’s fault. Technically speaking, it wasn’t entirely his fault. The blood hadn’t come from his body. That meant he couldn’t be completely held accountable for this.

He hadn’t been the one that had forced Clarke to run around his sweatshop of an Imbuer operation like a headless chicken, spraying blood in every single direction. Clarke had done that entirely of his own free will.

Noah had, however, been the one who unmade his head from existence.

He hadn’t originally been planning to kill Clarke like this. That might not have been the best defense. But it was true. He hadn’t even been entirely planning on killing the other man. There were other ways to get rid of someone. Perhaps there was some manner of justification — no matter how little Noah felt he could accept it — for this whole thing.

But laying eyes on the group of teens sitting in dingy conditions in wait for Clarke’s return had pushed Noah over the edge. Something must have shifted in his posture. Clarke had realized what was happening and drawn on his magic.

And Noah had drawn on his own. Perhaps he’d acted a bit faster than he should have. The other man hadn’t been expecting Unraveling Disruption’s power in the slightest, and the rune was a little too strong to be completely nullified at such a close range by anyone less than a powerful Rank 6.

And as it was evidenced by the events that had followed… Clarke was not a powerful Rank 6.

Thus, Noah was willing to accept approximately 60% of the blame for this incident.

His outfit had fortunately protected him from the entire incident. All the blood sloughed right off the shimmering black and silver cloth to the ground all around Noah, leaving him spotless.

The same couldn’t be said for the Imbuers. There were four of them, all male, ranging from the late teens to early twenties by Noah’s best guess. Not one of them had managed to utter a single word.

That wasn’t entirely their fault, as Noah’s patience had broken approximately one second after Clarke had closed the door behind them.

The young men all stood, stunned, completely drenched with their former employer’s blood as they stared at his corpse. Only then did it strike Noah that he should have perhaps considered a slightly less horrifying entrance.

Damn it. I’m going to get in so much trouble for this. I’ve gone and killed people without Lee twice now.

Oh well.

“Sorry,” Noah said, raising his hands before himself sheepishly in what he hoped to be a placating gesture. “I just couldn’t help myself.”