"Oh right, i almost forgot. I wanted to ask you for something. Um...You can think of it as a price for me helping you."
"Speak your mind."
"Um... I just wanted one of those bags of dormant soul shards, the one they were showing at the last court session. I don't that'll be a problem right?"
"..."
"Right?" Say something goddamn it! I'm out here almost pissing myself!
"No, it's not a big deal. I suppose you want to awaken using them, then awakened soul shards will be much better. I'll give you a bag of them on our way back."
Sigh...
***
Sniff sniff.
Ashoka sniffed and sniffed again, taking in the sweet and nonexistent smell of the item in his palm.
One might ask what that smell was, and Ashoka had a perfect answer for it.
Of course, it was the smell of expensive stuff!
It was the smell of gold, which actually just meant that it was odourless, but Ashoka's mind hallucinated a smell anyways.
It was a small, roughly spherical bead with a jagged surface. There was a hint of a white glow hidden within its glassy semi-translucent surface that shined like a beautiful diamond.
Of course, what Ashoka currently held between his fingers was a singular awakened soul shards. Looking down, there was a whole pouch of similar glimmering soul shards sitting on his lap.
If he had to count, there would be at least 150 of these soul shards inside the leather pouch.
Ah... I'm finally rich.
Once again, that familiar feeling swelled up from within him. He didn't have a name for it, but it wasn't hard to describe. It was the feeling of finally seeing the official art of novel character you had imagined to be a skinny black dude, and finding out that he was actually a buff asian instead.
The author of shadow slave had never really described how a soul shard was supposed to look, atleast that was what Ashoka thought, and so, being the imaginative genius that was, Ashoka had instead imagined that the shard to look spindle shaped, being made of plain white jade. That, or a shape similar to a shark tooth.
Looking at the glimmering soul shard, Ashoka had a feeling of both disappointment and enlightenment. Because, of course, that's how a soul shards should look like, not whatever strange object that Ashoka had hallucinated in his head!
Of course, these soul shards weren't just for decoration, nor were they a form of currency. He had asked for them for a reason after all!
Time for some cultivation, baby!
In the next second, his hand sank into bag full of glimmering soul shards, pulling out two more of the glimmering gems. Placing the three soul shards on the table, he pulled out a metal object, intending to use it as makeshift hammer.
With a crunch, the three soul shards shattered, transforming into a swirling vortex of white essence spark. After a full second of admiring the magical view, Ashoka moved his hand towards the small cloud of essence with some deliberation.
As soon as his hand made contact, something within the whirlpool of essence changed. The flow shifted, as if it had come alive, and then, it seeped into his hand.
The feeling was strange and hard to describe, as if a strange coldness had suddenly entered his body, slowly spreading throughout his entire self, both body and mind.
3 shards at once, six shards daily... Ashoka silently recited the numbers in his mind. This was the optimal number of soul shards that Gaius had suggested to absorb. Any more and there was chance that the progress will slow down instead of accelerating. He didn't knew why, but it was better to trust the professionals.
After a few dozen minutes of waiting, Ashoka took out 3 more soul shards and repeated the process. It was as if he was cultivating, like those cultivation slops he refused to read.
So shadow slave has always just been a cultivation novel in disguise?! Ashoka mused to himself.
Yep, always had been. To think such truths had always been hiding in front of our eyes, truly shocking! Ashoka suddenly had the urge to roleplay, but realising he hadn't read enough cultivation in the first place, he gave up.
Well, not like I'll be a young master anyways, and getting a jade beauty or two is also out of the question!
Next, he directed his senses inward, trying to feel the essence that had started to saturate his entire body. It wasn't that hard to do so, after all, Ashoka also had spirituality flowing within his body as well.
According to Gaius, it'd take around 120 or so awakened soul shards for the essence inside him to awaken fully.
The number would have been less if he had decided to take the slower and arduous route, absorbing fewer soul shards at a time, but he in fact did not have the time, as there was only 30 or so days left before the calamity arrived, and Ashoka wanted to complete this nightmare before that happened. This was the price for Speed running his way towards awakening, one which Ashoka was happy for not having to pay—acting like a true nepo baby!
No! I have worked hard for this reward!
Indeed, he had suffered and worked hard a lot for everything he had achieved till now. He had also done stuff he would've never thought of in his previous life, the encounter with the heart of the pillar that almost turned his head into a smashed watermelon, getting closer to the king, deciphering the secrets of the crown and twisting the truth when retelling them to the prince, among other things he had done that night — everything till now felt like a long dream(which was technically true) and not something he could've been able to do.
But the wonders of a potion were many, and the lawyer potion in particular had given him numerous things, one of them being the mindset of a lawyer.
Indeed, law proficiency had allowed him to clearly understand the intricacies of the crown's laws, but deciphering the secrets of how the crown and the pillar worked and the discovery of the existence of two domains was not something it could do.
The thing that eventually helped him was the mindset and intellect of a lawyer, the ability to connect the various different informations and clues and filling the voids with reasonable guesses to create a complete case of a situation.
Sigh...
Actually, the idea of using soul shards in the middle of a Nightmare hadn't come to him at all until he had revised the Information he had received from the pillar, and even then, he hadn't thought it possible until he was right in the middle of the conversation with Gaius.
The idea bloomed from a random thought he had when reading the section of the story where Rain was being chased by an Awakened Tyrant, far away in the outskirts of Ravenheart. Back then, Rain had contemplated the idea of challenging the first Nightmare in hopes of awakening.
But there lay in the problem. Completing the first nightmare was supposed to turn an ordinary human into a sleeper, afterwards, once the sleeper anchors themselves into a citadel, they would become an awakened.
But the main distinction between a sleeper and an awakened was the ability to control their soul essence, and at that time, Rain had already gained the ability to partially control her soul essence as well.
So the question that Ashoka had asked himself was: 'what would've happened to Rain if she had challenged and completed her trial?'
Would she have just instantly ascended to became an awakened, or would something entirely different and strange wouldve happend?
Well, he didn't had to ponder on it too much now, since he was already on his way to achieve that enlightenment!
He was also not afraid that the spell wouldn't count his progress in awakening his soul essence just because it happened in the nightmare. That was because he remembered how Sunny had been able absorb and keep his shadow fragments, even after completing his second Nightmare.
In the end, Ashoka decided to ask Gaius for some soul shards as a small prize in his help in overthrowing the king. The reward was almost negligible in comparison to what he was giving in return, but in the end, it was just a formality, since if he really hadn't asked for anything, it would only look suspicious, after all, free things costs the most.
Of course, neither Ashoka nor Gaius believed in this bullshit, but they decided to play along anyway.
Some could even say that 'it's basic courtesy.'
The talk with Gaius on the other hand... Had actually gone surprisingly well, quite the opposite of what he had expected. Yep, he had not expected much from himself, but there were indeed miracles in this world! Most of the planning and refining was actually done by Gaius, but Ashoka was patient and quick witted enough to subtly guide and twist the plan into a one that would follow through with his arrangements.
Now, he just had to make sure that the plan went as accordingly.
Rays of sunlight pierced through curtain of his chambers, pouring into the rooms like waves of ember flames, signalling the arrival of dawn as the noise of the market being set up by the shopkeepers filled the city center down below. Ashoka slowly moved towards the window, silently admiring the beautiful sunrise.
This marked the start of his third day within the Nightmare, three days since Ashoka had drank his lawyer potion. Thinking that, he summoned the runes of the spell. Last night had been quite eventful, and while experimenting with his "status window" —as he had began to call it — he had discovered a peculiar function of the spell.
In the next second, the golden runes shimmered into existence infront of him. His attention quickly shifted to his attributes.
Attributes: [Cursed], [Quasi-Proxy of The Nation of Disorder], [Beyonder], [Lawyer].
He focused his gaze on the [Lawyer] attribute and the description of the attribute appeared.
Attribute: [Lawyer].
Attribute Description: Your words carry the faint weight of judgement. When presenting an argument or defence, your voice subtly influences the minds of others, nudging them toward believing your reasoning. The stronger and more logical the argument, the harder it is to refute.
This was the attribute defining his pathway and sequence. Focusing on it even further, another section appeared below the description.
Potion Progress:
[12%{——||——————————————————100%}]
What a surprise! It even shows my progress!
Last night, during his talk with Gaius, he had felt his potion digest multiple time. Back then, he hadn't been able to grasp the particular acting principal responsible for his progress, but after a bit of backtracking and experimentation, he had finally concluded it.
'For a lawyer, winning a case is the most important thing, even if they're on the wrong side. Twisting the truth, lying and gaslighting are all necessary as long as they serve to further their case towards completion.'
Although this principal looked extremely evil and completely unethical, and something he would never do or recommend, it fitted the theme of the Black emperor pathway perfectly.
In fact, if it weren't for this world being just a Nightmare, he never would've even considered putting this acting principal to use, not just for ethical concerns but also some very very personal reasons.
Looking at the numbers, Ashoka's lips twisted into a grin.
Damn... 12 percent in only 3 days? At this speed, it'll take only a month to digest the potion entirely. That's... That's almost twice as fast as klein! I guess I wasn't a delusional dumbass after all.
Nodding to himself, he turned around.
"Indeed, I truly am a genius!"
Just then, a knock resounded within the room, causing Ashoka to break out of his reverie.
Eh? Who is it now?
"What is it?!" He asked out loud.
A female voice replied from beyond the wooden door, "Prince Gaius wishes to meet with you, master Ashoka."
Ah yes, there was also that. He needed to meet with Gaius in the morning.
Master... It still felt wrong and unnatural to hear his name with such honorific. He knew he was addressed with this respect because of his connection with Alariv, but he didn't knew what relationship he exactly had with the prince. He clearly wasn't royalty or nobility of any kind, that much was clear. He knew that Alariv had taken him under his wing around a year ago, but why exactly?
Was he his squire? Well definitely not that, since he wasn't being trained to become a knight. So a page maybe? If he really wanted to go into the crazy side of theory making, he could say he had been adopted by the prince after he got saved by him from a corrupted creature while his entire family massacred.
That sounds odly specific... but whatever.
Opening the door, he saw the owner of the voice. He had expected her to be a servant, but as it turned out, she was a soldier instead. As he peered outside, the female soldier spoke in a hushed voice, "The Prince wants to discuss some matters regarding the investigation of prince oswald. He's waiting a corridor away."
Right, most of the servants are working under Oswald. Eldrin's order might stop them from telling Oswald about the court case directly, but something like this secret investigation lead by Gaius and the young proxy of Alariv might eventually slip out. Smart of Gaius to use his own men then. Or women in this case.
The soldier left after delivering the message, disappearing into the dimly lit corridor. After making sure that no one was around to notice, Ashoka too disappeared into the opposite corridor, where the prince was waiting for him.
He found Gaius leisurely standing on a three-way intersection a small distance away, his eyes closed shut. When Ashoka approached, he opened his eyes slowly.
Before he could say anything, Gaius threw something at Ashoka which he nimbly caught with his right hand. Feeling the glassy texture, he quickly pocketed the item. Then, as if the strange encounter hadn't happened, he casually asked;
"So what did you came to meet me for?"
Gaius did not stand up on ceremony and answered in an even tone, "I just came back from the interrogation with Kirison, although it took a lot of convincing, he eventually opened up."
Kirison was the corrupt official who had helped Oswald in illegally seizing the old farmer's land. They had been able to dig out his name after questioning the old farmer a bit.
Convincing you say? Sure buddy. Poor soul, that guy. May he find peace in heaven.
On second thought, no, that guy deserved every bit of "convincing" That he recieved.
Also, Gaius and his men sure were efficient. It hadn't even been 6 hours since they had gotten the name and they were already finished with investigating kirison!
Gaius continued, "it was as you said, there had been multiple cases like this before, all of them silently buried by Oswald, and although I had believed there to be some, the seer number of them astonishes even me. If we are to go by the first estimates, there are atleast 30 such cases, which will account for almost 70 percent of Oswald's entire capital. Heh, no wonder that pig became one of the wealthiest in the kingdom."
30 cases... That's more than 30 family ruined and turned to ash over a single man's greed. In that moment, Ashoka suddenly felt a scalding anger rise within him, but in the next heartbeat, he noticed a particular detail.
"70 percent you say? That's more than half his entire estate." As he said that, a cold and ruthlesss smile appeared on both their faces.
After a few minutes, Gaius prepared to leave, but before he did, he turned around and faced Ashoka with an impasive look.
"Right, today will be my last day in the palace before I leave for the border cam, to prepare for the hunt. So, If you want something, better ask for it today."
Ashoka thought for a sec, then gave him a nod. And with that, Gaius finally turned to leave.
Silently gazing at the retreating back of the aloof prince, Ashoka sighed.
Today, huh?
Although he had talked about himself, Gaius words held another meaning. Since both Gaius and Alariv were part of the expedition, it won't only be Gaius who would be out Ashoka's reach after today, but also Alariv.
He had wanted to delay it, but it seemed he would finally have to meet with Prince Alariv tonight...
[A/N: oh look! The synopsis of the fanfic has mysteriously changed! Oh well, I wonder who could've done that. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ]