Chapter 484: The Plus One
Northern's new perspective on the run-through of how his entire life had been and the situations he had found himself in granted him the privilege to overlook certain things.
Rughsbourgh, for example, was a driving force to the beginning of his hell. But the beginning of that hell led him to meeting Koll, then to resealing Kryos.
As a matter of fact, how had he not been sure that all those events of disaster had not been to the end that he would encounter Koll and seal Kryos again?
After all, Kryos had been sealed there by the Origins themselves because it was impossible to kill him like they had killed the Chaos Prince.
So it was possible that fate, who Northern was to believe could be an Origin in this world, had intentionally played people like chess to move him towards accomplishing what it was they wanted.
And perhaps it is playing some move again right now, pushing them towards a certain destination.
As all these thoughts ran across Northern's mind, he felt they were wild and insane at the same time.
But this was a new world. A world where powers like this exist, concepts can be twisted and maneuvered, and even he is an embodiment of the proof of it.
So, how could he not believe this notion? It was something that he had never given thought to before.
And now that he was actually thinking about it, he felt like his mind was being liberated from a shackle he never noticed or thought was present.
Somehow, Northern felt like there was this new wave of control that he had over his mind, not to speak of the amazing perspective that this information flowed in with.
If he was to be cocky, he'd say he suddenly began to feel sagacious. And it felt like this was because of his eyes.
'My eyes are affecting my brain...' Northern almost scoffed at the conclusion of his thoughts.
He folded his arms and sighed again. He'd been sighing for a while since Shin had left his room after what he said.
At first, Shin had been surprised by the tone of his words. But Northern quickly encouraged his father to find out how they could find clues whatsoever.
Even though Shin didn't have any, he had informed Northern that there was a way to find information if that was needed.
However, they would need to go to Southern Drywall. As to what was in Drywall, Shin had not explicitly said.
But he had gone ahead to prepare all they needed to make the journey, which meant they would be leaving very soon.
A few hours after Shin had left, Northern had found himself restless; that was how all the progression of thoughts started.
Northern sighed, collecting every piece of his thoughts together, and focusing to one point what he intended to do going forward.
There was not much way to go about it.
If it was an entity as large as fate that was moving him like a pawn, he needed to keep moving for now.
But he was not going to just keep moving like he did before.
'If I had known that all I went through was to reseal Kryos, since it was an effect that couldn't have been undone, then I would have struck a deal with Koll and been an important part of his mission being accomplished. I refuse to be anyone's tool!'
Internally proclaiming that suddenly made his memory juggle through all the shit he had been taking with Raven.
It was a personal decision that was birthed out of his desperation to go home. He didn't think they would use him like that.
And when it indeed felt apparent that he was being used, he didn't care as long as he got to have what he bargained for.
However, the destruction of the ship and the fact that Terence knew all that was going to happen in that moment threw him off.
At what point did she find out? Did they approach him knowing very well that he was never going to get what they bargained for?
They deceived and used him? And at the end of the day made a great fool out of him.
No, he was never going to forgive them.
And thanks to this experience, his sense had suddenly sharpened to hatred at the thought of being used against his own consent.
'Be it fate or destiny, tyrants or Origins... I will molest anyone that tries to play dirty with me.'
Now, all he had to do was play fool until he realized what it was that was the endpoint of this movement.
Since it was involving the underworld, Northern was definite that it was going to be something magnanimous. Perhaps as magnanimous as Kryos.
'It's insane to think that these guys are using me to do some world repair of some sort. And here I was thinking that I wasn't under any radar.'
The more his thoughts progressed, the more revelation his mind opened to. And he didn't even see all of this before!
He gains new eyes and it's like endless knowledge started pouring in. Northern felt confident, smart, and insightful.
That was just a passive thing that his new eyes could do. He wanted to know more. He wanted to know more so bad.
After a couple of days, Northern was finally ready to leave the border.
By that time, Annette and Gilbert along with Ayu and Myu had already left.
Several other people too had left. However, almost half of the population still inhabited the
building.
Hao had informed Northern that not all the natives of Starlock decided to march to the Central
Plains.
But he had specifically chosen to go because of his business.
"Staying in a dead continent served no purpose to a man that wants to build fortune" was the statement he had said to Northern.
And with that, Northern had showed him his stack of soul cores. He, as a matter of fact, only showed him barely half of what he had.
The bottomless could not take anymore, so he had created a room in the Void Palace where his clones were storing them.
There were also the resources that were being mined from the mountain.
Now that he was in the Central Plains, the first thing he wanted to focus on was building
wealth, which he had several potential sources for.
The red crystal was one, the two minerals that were gotten from the glacial mountain and the volcanic mountain were another.
Although he had not seen a use for these materials, they each had special nature that made
them different.
The red crystal's healing properties. The volcanic crystal had a heating effect while the glacier crystal had a cooling effect.
The glacier mountain crystal had a glass-like appearance and Northern suspected that it probably could be used for ornamental purposes.
This was all just his speculation anyway, and he hadn't even told Hao about all these things
save the soul core.
He wanted to see if this is a man that can be trusted and if truly Hao's art of trading fitted well into the market of the Central Plains.
If it didn't, he was not going to waste resources, but if he was, then all the trouble of saving
him was worth it.
Hao was, as expected, flabbergasted at the amount of soul cores Northern had.
Northern explained his desire to make wealth and Hao was very pleased to accept this offer.
Although he had also told Northern that what he knows of the Central Plain are from tales told by his merchant friends.
He had a few contacts but it was difficult getting to them from a state like this. In the end, he joined Northern and his father who were going to be leaving for Drywall.
And so did Ellis. Although Ellis gave no certain reason, claiming that he just wanted to spend
more time with his best friend before going home.
Northern had cringed at being called best friend.
The one person whom Northern does not understand why he insists on following them too is...
Northern heard a knock on the door and sighed, pulling himself to go open it-since he had locked it from inside because Ellis kept coming every three minutes before now.
He opened the door and before him stood the plus one. The extra, dark-haired, pale skin and a bland look plastered to his face.
He wrinkled his nose in disgust as he looked at Northern then fixed his face back to his usual
bored face.
"I don't understand. Don't you have a home to return to?"
Ryan looked at Northern, his eyes were unchanging, almost looking frozen.
"No. I don't."
Northern sighed, "You could have gone with Annette though."
"She was going to the academy, I don't want to associate with new people."
Northern looked at the boy and felt truly sad for him in his heart.
He was supposed to be eighteen or even more and yet, Northern couldn't help but feel like he
had just gained a younger brother.