Chapter 450: Duty of A Safekeeper
A great burst of light blinded the audience. The wounds healed, bones mended, and limbs reattached under the rune"s command. The crowd gasped as the two knights were fully recovered under their eyes, and the man in question gave no regard to the honor of the fight.
"You are mad!"
Count George jumped from his chair and pointed; his thick beard was splashed with saliva. The veins on his face were protruding, almost as if he couldn"t wait to eat Arthur"s alive.
"I am mad... for healing your knight?" Arthur almost laughed at the absurdity and selfishness of his words. "Do you people hold no regard to the lives of your knights?"
"Who made you the savior of this land?" the Duke of Contracts said as he looked down on him. The rest of the crowd looked at him with a similar gaze, including the guests from Alva.
"I am no savior," he grinned. "I am a punisher of those using my artifacts in such ways. I gifted the kingdom with these artifacts, and I will never allow them to be stained with blood."
"Your artifacts?" the King"s Hand rose in the air, glaring at Arthur with terrifying anger. "You are a child! Do you think that you are still their owner after the kingdom claimed them? This is not a game!"
Arthur knew that the king"s hand hated him for trying to s.n.a.t.c.h half of his authority, but he never thought this man would be this idiotic.
Enemies and idiots surrounded Solomon. However, they were all united in hating the outsider who tried to control their kingdom"s economy.
"I will never ask back for something I gave," Arthur grinned as he looked at the Blessing Spirit, which has been placed as a reward for the duel. "However, you forget that I am the safekeeper of these artifacts."
"And?" Count George smirked at him. "What are you going to do once I win this artifact?"
Arthur stared at the n.o.ble with amazement. How could anyone be this blind? Did they think that these artifacts were treasures more valuable than being on his good side?
"Oh right, they don"t believe that I can pull it off again," Arthur realized with amus.e.m.e.nt. "They think that it took the Ghost Runemaster years to create all those artifacts and that it would take him more years to produce another batch."
It was understandable since inscribing runes was a time-consuming process with a low success rate. Moreover, there couldn"t be another inheritor of the scholar guardian like Solomon, so they felt at ease when they offended the outsider.
"Manager Ma," Arthur called out as he stared at the count. "Please write down the names of those partic.i.p.ating in this duel and anyone who fought over Blessing Spirits. They are officially on the blacklist of Hidden City and have no right to purchase anything from my city."
"As you command, Seika," Manager Ma answered from the crowd with a bow. The n.o.bles were silent before they burst out laughing at his actions.
"You fool," Count George said after he stopped laughing. "You need us to buy from you! We know that you are spending more than you can handle. Who are you bluffing? You are free to dig your own grave!"
"It seems you have grown silly since the last time we met," the Duke of Contracts couldn"t hide his smile. "Do you think that anyone cares about your city while mine still exists?"
"As for the three artifacts I gave to the kingdom," Arthur didn"t reply to them and carried on with his words. "As their safekeeper, I have decided that they resulted in outcomes their creator doesn"t desire."
"You have no power to take them back, boy," the hand of the king glared at him. "Step back now and save the rest of your face."
"That is why," he ignored their words and raised his hand. "The three artifacts will be," he snapped his fingers, "destroyed."
The sound of his fingers snapping and his words made the crowd silent. The Blessing Spirit on the stand suddenly shone bright, its runic lines glowing and expanding to leave the decorated relic.
Crack!
A loud cracking voice rang in the arena, and it came from the runic lines on the artifact. Then, the pot fell to the ground, rolling as the lights disappeared from it.
"What... just happened?" Countess Elisa rose from her seat, despite being calm all this while. "What happened to my Blessing Spirit?"
"It was never yours, to begin with," Arthur glanced at her. "You lot think that everything is yours. It seems I was too generous. I would like to see your faces when the new Blessing Spirits appear in my city, and you are on the blacklist."
His words made the rest of the n.o.bles snap out of their daze. The first to rush toward the pot was no other than the King"s Hand, who split the caged arena and descended beside the pot.
"It is... broken?" he listlessly asked as he picked up the pot. After infusing it with mana, nothing happened. The King"s Hand used more mana to activate it until the pot began cracking and fell into pieces in his hands. "What have you done?" he turned toward Arthur with bloodshot eyes.
These artifacts were the recent pride of the kingdom. The crops they produced were the last hope of the people who suffered from famine. If the kingdom couldn"t feed its people, why would anyone keep serving it?
"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?" The King"s Hand roared with killing intent as Arthur grinned in response. "YOU CRAZY b.a.s.t.a.r.d!"
"I am the safekeeper of these artifacts, and I hold the right to control their fate," Arthur answered without fear. "You never paid for these artifacts, but you treated them as if they were yours. Therefore, as long as they are mine, I retain the ability to destroy them."
"There is no such thing as destroying an artifact," the Duke of Contracts pointed with a shaking hand. "What are you?"
"You all laughed when I mentioned the blacklist because you thought that I hold no power anymore. However, let this be a kind reminder to everyone here. I am the owner of these artifacts. If they are ever stained with the blood of innocents, they will be destroyed. If you ever oppose me, they will be destroyed. If you don"t want to buy them, then you can hold onto your bags of money. I am sure that I will have no shortage in sales."
His threats were real, and they were the last words he offered before leaving the arena. Yet, despite the murderous auras locking on him, no one dared to attack him for a single reason:
His artifacts.
***
"Have you summoned me, your majesty?"
The king blinked his eyes after Arthur came to meet him in his study. Arthur looked genuinely confused by the summoning of Solomon.
"You don"t know why I called you here?" Solomon furrowed his brows as he tapped on the table. "Nothing you can think of that might have been a bit problematic?"
"No, not really," Arthur held his chin in thought. "If anything happens, I"ll make sure to tell you, though."
"You know what I called you here for," the king sighed in annoyance. "You destroyed the artifacts you gave to the n.o.bles."
"I am glad that you didn"t consider them as gifts to the kingdom because they didn"t end up that way," Arthur smiled. "I only did my job, your majesty. I am nothing but a safekeeper who follows the runemaster"s wishes."
"You didn"t have to do it in such a way, though. There are channels to handle misuse of public a.s.sets and courts to decide who is right and wrong," the king said with a frown. "You made most of the n.o.bles your enemy through this."
"Most of them are corrupted, so it does not hurt me to have them as enemies," Arthur shrugged. "I would prefer that they fear me and need me."
"... how did you do it?" King Solomon said after a brief silence. "I never heard of such a case of an artifact losing its function."
"I don"t know the details, too, but the runemaster somehow gave me authority over them. When I asked him how he just said that there was a rune to a.s.sign ownership of an artifact."
"Ownership?" the king"s eyes gleamed with interest. "Does that mean that a user can be a.s.signed to each artifact?"
His interest skyrocketed because the kingdom suffered from stolen or lost artifacts. If a single user could indeed be a.s.signed, it would strengthen the Freda kingdom"s monopolization of artifacts.
"A Usage Ownership includes restricting the usage of the artifact, and Secure Ownership gives the right to destroy them," Arthur was making up things at this point because he wanted the king to stand on his side against the n.o.bles.
However, he was sure that such runes existed, and he could always set certain conditions like he did countless times before. This was his authority as the creator.