Ryu's grip loosened on Patriarch Ember's neck slightly, his expression becoming one of intrigue.
Could it be that there was more than one Fey? Ryu highly doubted it… But soon, he couldn't quite come up with a reason for why he should. Who was he to say if there weren't others like Sarriel?
Regardless, it didn't matter much. What was important was that even if there was more than one of them, it made no difference. The likelihood that there was more than one Fey and that they didn't have a connection with Sarriel was astronomically low, so low in fact that the other possibilities weren't even worth considering.
'So she's been here the whole time? I wonder, has she been watching me?'
Ryu had concluded that Sarriel likely got close to him for the sake of the Ice Devil Legacy World. It was obvious that even if Ryu hadn't appeared, Saintess Kunan would have never handed over the entire treasury of the Ice Phoenix Clan to an outsider. At best, she might give them one or two treasures for their troubles and continue to wait for Ryu.
However, if Ryu's life was under Sarriel's control, that would be a very different matter. There was very little Ryu's grandmother could have done as the mere sliver of a soul. If Sarriel controlled Ryu's life and death, his grandmother would have been forced to give Sarriel what she wanted.
Had such a thing happened, it wouldn't have been the worst case scenario. After all, Saintess Kunan could choose to hand over all the treasures of the Ice Phoenix Clan and still leave Ryu the life saving measures that could take him to the treasuries of the Tatsuya, Kunan and Fire Phoenix Clans.
In the end, though, Sarriel's plan had obviously failed. But… Ryu was still confused.
He wasn't confused about her intentions, that seemed obvious enough. But, why had she chosen the approach she had? And, how could she have been so certain that Ryu would end up at the Moonlight Blossom Sect?
Sarriel's personality shift was baffling enough. Even with his intelligence, Ryu never doubted it. It was only the other factors that made him realize that the robed woman before him was, indeed, her. There was simply no one else that could fool his grandmother's eye and allow Path Extinction Realm experts to enter. Only the Truth Pupils could accomplish this feat.
But, their coincidental meeting truly felt coincidental. It shouldn't' have been possible for her to tell where it is that he was going.
Also, why hadn't she just attacked him and taken control of him right then and there? It had to be remembered that Ryu's initimacy with Ailsa back then had yet to reach the depth it did now. As such, she was only able to display the strength of a Path Extinction Realm expert for a few hours at best.
Considering the poor battle prowess of Cultus Faeries and also considering the fact that Ailsa's meridians were still sealed, Sarriel could have wiped the floor with her then treated Ryu like a broken ragdoll.
As though that wasn't odd enough, when Ryu and Ailsa's intimacy finally did reach its deepest levels, she fell into a coma, leaving Ryu alone. That meant that in that stretch, Ryu had no other protections but himself.
Putting these things into perspective, Sarriel's actions were quite… difficult to comprehend.
Of course, there was the possibility that she simply didn't know all of these things. After all, though the Truth Pupils started quite like the Mysteries of Heaven and Earth Pupils, they diverged quite quickly. This was to say that Sarriel's ability to read situations and see through deception and layers wasn't as good as Ryu's own. She was more focused on Deception.
Knowing this, maybe Ryu really was overthinking things. For a woman so adept as fooling others, why wouldn't her actions seem baffling? For all Ryu knew, she might not have even been as powerful as he thought her to be.
This was nonsense, of course. But, it painted the image of just how little he knew.
'I really want to see if there's still something she can hide from me with my fully unsealed Pupils.'
Patriarch Ember, who had begun to see the light at the end of the tunnel and felt that he truly had a chance to survive suddenly felt the grip around his neck tighten again.
"So you know Sarriel?"
Patriarch Ember froze. He had never known her name before, but he felt something within him shift when he heard these words.
It was quite a simple trick on Ryu's part. With his affinity for Fate and the like, especially after he had comprehended a part of his Dao, manipulating it to a limited extent with his words wasn't difficult.
Even if Sarriel had given him a false name or even if Patriarch Ember didn't know of what her name was, by using the Karmic strings she had formed with the both of them, Ryu could test to see if they knew the same person.
Of course, Ryu could have done this with just his eyes alone without asking questions. But, he was still testing the limits of this Dao of his and how flexible it could be. In the future, these small comprehensions would only help him all the more so.
Seeing Patriarch Ember's reaction, Ryu got all he needed out of him.
CRACK!
Patriarch Ember died with his eyes wide open. Even up until the last moments, he hadn't been able to reconcile with the situation he had been in.
In truth, Ryu was quite a vindictive person. He was in a special sort of mood when he had let Fidroha live and he wasn't sure if he would do it again. Controlling his rage and fury was one thing, allowing those who had trampled all over him and would kill him if they had the chance was a different matter entirely. Since Patriarch Ember had actually targeted him and even slandered his Sect, he deserved to die.
City Lord Loom still lay in the snow, looking up in shock. Even after several moments, he couldn't believe what he was seeing.
When he realized that Ryu had actually turned his gaze toward him, he scampered backward, his heart almost beating out of his chest. Ryu could hardly believe that such a person had actually once almost forced him to kneel. The disgust he felt in his heart seeing such a thing couldn't be explained. He almost wanted to kill City Lord Loom simply because his existence was an embarrassment to him.
In the end, Ryu shook his head.
"Even after all these years, you're still so pathetic. You don't have many years to live but you're still rushing around being the lapdog of others."
City Lord Loom's expression reddened before something within him seemed to snap. A fury he had buried deep within his heart threatened to bubble forth, but he clenched his teeth hard, so hard that blood seeped between his gums.
He was still a man at the end of the day, how could he take such humiliation?
"Do you have something to say? I'm curious." Ryu continued to look down. "I won't kill you for the sake of your granddaughter and grandnephew, speak."
Ryu didn't know why, but he truly was curious about what City Lord Loom had to say. And he was correct to be, because the words the old man spoke made him pause for a moment.
Out through clenched teeth and looking on with crimson eyes, City Lord Loom squeezed out his words.
"… You're nothing but a lucky brat. Had you ran into any other Connecting Heaven Realm expert that day, they would have killed you on the spot for your arrogance. You live today because I showed mercy. You're nothing without your luck."
Ryu fell into silence. The City Lord's meaning was clearly deeper than just that. He was referring to Ryu's talent as a whole. Not everyone could be born like he was, especially not City Lord Loom stuck in a middle Inner Ring unable to move forward for fear of offending the wrong person.
Ryu could say that it wasn't luck that made him survive, but rather the fact that Loom City needed a genius to rely on for the Selection. But, ultimately, didn't that just go back to his talent?
"You know, I've been thinking about that a lot. You'd be surprised how many people have said those exact words to me, one of whom is actually now my lovely wife. I've even now heard that there's a world out there somewhere where I might very well be average… And you know what I decided?"
Ryu's placid expression became a fiendish grin.
"If I had your pitiful amount of talent, my corpse would have already been hung out to dry and picked clean by passing birds.
"I would rather die than become like you."
Ryu took a step through the air, letting Patriarch Ember's corpse fall through the skies. With a wave of his hand, the latter's spatial ring shot into his palm. He had a feeling he just might find something useful in there.
He didn't spare the City Lord another glance as he vanished into the distance. He would clear out some trash before he went to the Moon World.
'Hm? Could this be considered to be helping that woman?' Ryu's grin widened. 'Well, I took her first kiss, this is the least I can do as a proper gentleman.'
He could already imagine Sarriel's furious gaze if she knew his thoughts, but that only made his carefree laughter more boisterous.
Every beast he came across fell beneath the strike of one arrow, the momentum of an expert bathing the Pedestal Plane.
He was Ryu Tatsuya, he wouldn't be sneaking around any longer.