Chapter 227: Holy Relic
Chapter 227: Holy Relic
Lily followed behind her, holding her own set of trays.
Emir once asked his mother to buy automata maids and the like to help them but Laura wanted to do everything herself.
He remembered her giggling words to be:
"I\'m the bossman\'s mother, you know! I can\'t be seen loading my work onto others."
They argued back and forth as if they were making the toughest of decisions, one that reminded him of the time before their journey to the Academy.
But this time around he had Lyra and Lily to back him up and they were adamant about it too. In conclusion, Laura lost the three vs one.
The menial tasks like cleaning, washing clothes and plates, etcetera, would at least be done by machines.
"We got pancakes for all!"
"Grandpa\'s Mama!"
"Boss!"
Laura\'s words were met with loud reactions as most of the gang stood up to welcome her.
Each of their dominant hand remained stuck on their second heart.
\'Why didn\'t they do that for me?\'
Emir wondered if he was being too lenient with them, but he soon ignored that thought.
It was most likely that they simply forgot to do so.
And besides he didn\'t care for it, he wasn\'t a stickler for rules anyway.
As long as they showed absolute loyalty and respect to him and his family then that was enough.
The girls stood up and approached his mother and sister.
After a bit of pleasantries, they took the trays off them.
Emir lowered Faye to the ground so she could join them and the little one was quickly picked up by Lily a few moments later.
Then all the food was distributed, with some people getting more than others.
"Hey, why do keep giving me so much?"
"Yeah, why us? Look Evan and Hiro got half!"
Leo and Elijah complained in unison.
Emir scoffed.
"These have a lot of protein, something that you two need. And you guys are a long way from becoming celestial material, so stop fucking complaining and eat."
"Language!"
"Bad Grandpa!"
Emir glanced at Laura and Faye for a moment.
"Sure, Mom... and you too kiddo."
The group shared laughter, never getting used to seeing their boss be put down so quickly.
They then began to enjoy their time eating, each of their voices louder than the other.
It was chaos.
Emir didn\'t join in much of the fun, however.
He was busy contemplating many things like usual.
[Ly, you can send it now.]
[Done.]
As soon as her reply reached him, his gaze wandered over his family.
While doing so, his mind read out their Celestial status.
\'Laura, Spell Weaver, Life element, Tenth class.\'
\'Lily, Arcanist, Twelfth class.\'
\'Lyra, Shadow binder, Nyx\'s Dominion aspect, fifth ability.\'
\'Elijah, Reaper, Nether\'s River aspect, third ability.\'
\'Kiera, Gun Mage, Starlit aspect, fourth ability.\'
\'Jack, Ranger, Wild\'s Steward aspect, fourth ability.\'
\'Sarah, Zenith Warden, Osiris\'s Light aspect, third ability.\'
\'Hiro, Blade Dancer, Eternal Waltz aspect, third ability.\'
\'Evan, Knight, Noble\'s Pledge aspect, third ability.\'
\'Leo, Technomancer, Magitek aspect, third ability.\'
\'Raymond, Arcanist, Twelfth class.\'
\'Jamal, Technomancer, Magitek aspect, second ability.\'
\'Logan, Ranger, Wild\'s Steward aspect, second ability.\'
Then his mind wandered to the others.
\'Jake, Arcanist, Eleventh class, Elemental Enchanter.\'
\'Emma, Spell Weaver, Fire element, Ninth Class, The Veil\'s intern.\'
\'Mariane, Zenith warden, Osiris\'s Light Aspect, fourth ability.\'
And finally her sister.
\'Evelyn, Gun Mage, Starlit Aspect, fourth ability.\'
PS. \'Faye, cute, cute aspect, parrot ability.\'
Emir and Lyra didn\'t know nor care for their individual Celestial Essences since that differed between each Celestial as no two people were the same.
So for example, Logan and Jack had a different Celestial Essence even though they were of the
same specialization.
This was not only due to their distinct personalities but also the fact that they had named their Celestial Essence.
It wasn\'t that their minds thought of the name but their \'Spirits\' themselves.
Aspects were recorded but Celestial Essences weren\'t for that single reason.
\'Damn, I\'ve got a lot of fuckers to manage....\'
Emir chuckled.
\'Without Lyra around these lot would\'ve turned the whole sector upside down till their inevitable death by the UEF guard.\'
Lyra managed all their lives while simultaneously watching over their training regimen.
She created a training plan even better than what those Celestials in the UEF Guard had.
But that didn\'t matter much in the end, all of those in the Guard were cyborgs, with many
cybernetic enhancements installed.
They were an elite task force, like a swat team on steroids.
Even the prince wouldn\'t be able to last a second against them-
Emir\'s musings suddenly paused as he noticed his mother had increased the holoscreen\'s
volume.
"Breaking news: Judge Mercer, a prominent figure in the sector management department, was found dead in his residence earlier today."
"Authorities are treating this as a suspicious death, not of natural causes."
"Rumors say that the last time he was spotted outside was a few weeks back."
"Although we don\'t have anything concrete, we safely assume that his death was a long one."
"Judge Mercer, known for his strong stance on sector security, was presiding over several high-profile cases, including the Prince Emporium company last year."
"But that was his last case due to his questionable justice."
"He never openly showed himself to the public eye after that, as if his existence was wiped off
the Earth."
"Many are now questioning whether this shocking event is somehow related to the deaths of Hargrove and his family just a few months ago."
All the eyes of those in the room except Lyra\'s and Faye\'s immediately locked on Emir.
They looked shocked, to say the least.
But Emir showed surprise at the news.
This, in turn, gave them the answer to their unspoken question.
"I guess someone out there is cleaning things up for us."
No one bought his act, not even Elijah, well, Faye did, but the rest knew of Emir\'s promise
back then.
Hargrove would be the first, and Mercer would be the second.
They had finally repaid their debt of blood.
And the answer that the family received was clear.
With the way Emir had acted, they knew that whatever happened was not to be spoken about.
They had nothing to do with it and their deaths should be erased from their memories.
And that\'s what they did as they naturally moved on, conversing about whatever came up in
their minds.
Emir softly nodded at their actions.
\'Even mom and sis caught on....\'
\'I guess they learned a lot while I was cultivating.\'
\'Oh, and speaking of...\'
[Yo Ly, create a channel with Mom.]
[...I did it but what for?]
Lyra, who was sitting to his right replied in a heartbeat, even while conversing with the
others.
[Well, I want her to show off a bit.]
Lyra sounded a telepathic giggle.
[Don\'t be too surprised.]
Emir scoffed and turned his attention to his left.
[Mom.]
Laura twitched slightly at her son\'s unexpected call.
[Can you guys stop invading other\'s privacy like that?] Her complaining caused a grin to spread on his face. [You can\'t say that. You\'re the one who allowed us in.] [Pardon me but I don\'t recall ever doing that.]
[Hey, why are you acting all formal with me? Also, it\'s subconscious so of course you didn\'t.]
She mischievously giggled while disengaging from her conversation with Sarah.
Sarah was confused for a moment but soon understood that Laura was having a private chat
with her son.
[Now look at who\'s complaining.]
Emir sneered.
[Anyways, I wanted to ask, what\'s our current budget?]
[Why don\'t you ask Lyra that?]
[Don\'t you want to boast to your son?]
Her question was answered by another, one that Laura expected as her smile grew even wider.
After a pause, she told him the amount, but it didn\'t register in his mind.
Emir, who was in the middle of swallowing down his food, almost choked.
Even he, who had a broken sense of money, was surprised-incredibly so. Soon he composed himself, and as he didn\'t want to appear funny to the others, he forcibly
pushed the food down.
A loud gulp resounded while he looked back at his mother.
[Say that again.]
[146 Valora.]
[....We\'re billionaires, Mom.]
\'We\'re fucking RICH!\'
[Hehe, Yes we are!]
Lyra, who was listening in to their conversation, finally cut in:
[We are... on Planet Earth at least.]
[What do you mean?]
Emir\'s question was answered by the many holograms that appeared before his invisible
irises.
{Holy Relic: 300+ Valora}
Some time back, Emir had sent his weapons and equipment to Raymond while he cultivated.
The old man could finally afford to purchase proper appraisal equipment, so he requested to have a go at Emir\'s stuff.
Raymond took his sweet time with the appraisal but after a few weeks, he came by the roof to share \'exciting\' news.
Emir\'s twin swords were SS-Ranked, the highest rank there was.
But that wasn\'t what Raymond was excited about, it was Emir\'s backpack.
It was a Holy Relic, one that was made by an Arcanist\'s hand.
Those types of relics were not the norm as they were above the ranking standard.
It was all for a simple reason...
Those relics had a disadvantage ingrained in them to balance them and keep them functional.
A \'Flaw.\'
This showed how amazing they could be.
For example, the backpack was nigh-indestructible, but the caveat was that it had to be worn,
only then would it not be destroyed.
Raymond wasn\'t sure why, but he guessed that it needed to always be supplied with Aether.
But that mattered not to most Celestials, especially to Emir, as he didn\'t even detect the minuscule amount of Aether that left his core.
The one who worked on the backpack must have made sure to ingrain the best possible disadvantage, and it definitely went through years, maybe even hundreds, to reach the state it was in today.
This was something that Raymond gushed about for hours, but by then, Emir was alreadyn/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om
cultivating.
And now one could see why Emir was surprised to the extreme, as he set his eyes upon the cost
of such a relic.
Soon, however, his surprise grew even more as he looked at the other holograms.