Lord of Annihilation

Chapter 32: Face of an Angel. Heart of a Devil.

"Say Ina, can we exchange tables?", a female voice questioned

"Nope!~ Absolutely not." a voice happily chimed.

"Come on, aren't you going to help your fellow sisters find happiness in their lives" another person spoke.

"What can you say, it's my lucky day!" Ina replied while humming a tune.

In the corner of a certain caf, 3 young woman wearing waitress uniforms were bickering. One had happiness radiating of her face while the other two were looking at her with an envious expression.

The target of their conversation was a young man sitting by the windows of their caf. He was wearing a dark blue t-shirt with black pants. He had black hair and similarly dark eyes. To describe in few words he was, elegant, refined and very handsome.

This young man had entered their caf 20 minutes ago and the three girls were blown away by his conduct. He seemed to be from a influential family, yet possessed none of their arrogance. He had been very polite to the waitresses and had a light smile on his face, that gave off a comforting feeling.

Upon entering he had politely requested to be seated by the window, leading to the current situation among the waitresses.

"What were you guys even talking on about?", one of the waitresses asked curiously.

Ina who heard the question, turned around and spoke, "He was asking me about the city and good places close-by to buy gifts from."

"What did you reply?"

"I explained him some tourist spots and the shop opposite to our caf." Ina replied.

"You think he is a tourist?" one of them asked.

Another waitress replied, "He should be, right. Ah! I wonder who that gift is for."

"Maybe his girlfriend?", the other waitress chimed in.

Hearing this Ina's face fell a bit and immediately replied, "Maybe it's for someone else. It doesn't necessarily be for his girlfriend right?"

One of the waitress having a dreamy expression spoke quietly, "I wish I had a boyfriend like that."

"Me too!", "Me three!" the reaming two spoke.

Ina hurriedly snapped out of her daze and lightly tapped her cheeks. "I must go ask if he wants something." saying so she made her way towards the young man's table.

The other two watched her with light envy and spoke, "We must have her treat us to some food later.", "Agreed!"

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Lucius who was currently sitting at the table all alone, was in deep thought.

'According to the waitress working here that exchange shop has a pretty good faade.'

'I can't simply barge in and use charm on the person. One the security footage would be an issue. Two the memories of events would remain, I cannot dispose of the body in such a populas location.'

The handsome young man that the girls had been discussing was naturally Lucius. After cleansing himself and changing into new set of clothes, he immediately made his was towards the location of the exchange shop.

The recovery of the crystal was very important not only because it Ka'lor'ah's Existence Crystal, but because it had a far more important use. It's could hide the 'Causality' of a person(the carrier) from 'Them'.

Strictly speaking Lucius' was not supposed to be here. Lucius' soul contained the memories and experiences of his life 300 years into the future. This meant that he knew the major events that would be taking place for the next 300 years. While knowing wasn't exactly scary, the power to change the events was.

The cosmos follow a set 'direction' placed upon it by 'Them', and any changes made to it was not acceptable.

To understand the situation better, consider a video game. Lucius' situation was similar to a person who has completed all the levels, knowing all secret location, boss strategies, etc and then proceeding to leak all this information before the game launch. Naturally from the developer's perspective, such an action simply cannot be tolerated.

This is why Lucius always needs to have the crystal on his body. While minor events such as him killing a few hundred insignificant people would not cause any change to the 'causality', making any changes to the important events will. Without the crystal he would be promptly detected and utterly crushed without any chance to defend himself.

This was a risk he simply could not take!

'I need to keep any interactions with Reyna minimum, before I get back the crystal.'

He suddenly heard the sound of footsteps coming in his direction. Snapping out of his thoughts, he looked up and saw a young waitress heading towards him. Seeing her come, Lucius put on a light smile.

'Great I hate this.' he mentally sighed. To have Lucius smile willingly was almost impossible. Ka'lor'ah who had remained with him longest in his previous life, knew this fact in great detail. in fact she had taken this as a personal challenge to overcome.

This smile of his right now was an act. Although he could remain in his usual expressionless demeanour, collecting information like that was impossible. People just felt too scared to approach him.

As he was lost in his thoughts again, he heard a pretty voice sound, "Is there anything else you require?"

Looking at this waitress, Lucius thought to himself, 'I need a cover for myself to enter that place. This girl should work fine.'

He then spoke in a gentle and apologetic tone, " Haha, there is in fact something I require your help in."

He then put on a pleading expression and said, "I am trying to pick a present for my sister's birthday and I am not quite sure what girls her age like. Could you please help me pick something?", he put his hands together and bowed.

"Huh? AH!", Ina was shocked. In her shock he accidently raised her voice and screamed in a loud tone.

Hearing her the rest of the customers and waiters turned to look at her with a queer expression.

Lucius 'panicked' and hurriedly saidm "Ah! It's fine if you don't want to. Please forgive me for saying something weird. It's just that I was studying abroad for the last 5 years and am quite out of touch with my siblings."

He then repeatedly bowed and apologized to her.

"Ah! I'm so sorry? It wasn't like that! I was shocked by your suggestion and accidently raised my voice." Ina's face had completely turned red in embarrassment. Like she said, she was simply too shocked by his suggestion, leading to their embarrassing situation.

'So it's for his sister. Not his girlfriend.' for some reason this was the first thought in Ina's mind. Realizing this, her face reddened even further and she apologized while bowing again.

The rest of the people looking at this scene of two people apologizing and bowing to each other, were quite confused to say the least.

Ina ignored the looks she was getting and thought, 'This is my chance! I can use this to opportunity to leave a good impression on him!'

Like most people her age, Ina wanted to experience the feeling of love. Coming from a small family, Ina had two little sisters and a younger brother. Her father had died when she was quite young and her mother had to support the family be herself. They weren't rich by any measure and lived a humble life.

Ina grew up with the heavy responsibility of being the eldest and had matured earlier than other kids her age. She had to work very hard to help her mother as much as possible and to take care for her younger siblings.

Her daily life centered around her studies and her jobs.

Ina gathered her courage and spoke, "I'll be glad to help you!"

Lucius heard this and put on a relieved expression, he then bowed again and said, "Then I'll be in your care."

Looking at this polite young man, she felt a little glad in her heart and returned the same expression, "Likewise."

She then paused for a second and spoke with a slightly guilty tone "Ah! Could you wait for an hour. I'm currently on my shift and will be leaving in an hour."

Lucius looked at her and gave a small smile, "Gladly. I will be sitting right here. Could you please get me another cup of coffee?"

"Sure!" she immediately exclaimed and walked off with visible joy.

Looking at her receding back Lucius thought to himself, 'Now that I have a cover. I won't get exposed easily"

His face was the picture of grace and gentleness, while his heart was cold as ice calculative like a devil.