Galaxy's First Ruler

"Wh… No, I am not."

The little girl stuttered and rejected Aldrich's accusation of her being a liar. Aldrich walked around her, with his hands behind his back. The mask on his face was already wriggling as if something had angered it profusely.

"Haha! I said one sentence and you are already stuttering. Let me tell you what you are thinking, or what you have been thinking for the last millions of years."

Thrrrr!!!

As soon as Aldrich mentioned millions of years, the little girl and the entire tower shuddered. Aldrich felt quite amused by the way she snapped her head to look at him in fear. He conversed with Sha through their shared bond as if teaching her a great lesson.

'Tsk! Sha, did you see? People often underestimate these old tricks. I just wildly guessed, and she has already fallen for it.'

"Mmm-hmm… Daddy… awesome… now… I… eat… her?"

Aldrich furrowed his brows at the Sha's unusual hunger for this girl. Putting it to the back of his mind, he continued.

"You must have thought I wouldn't know anything about Dungeons. But I know enough. Dungeons are nothing but imprisoned legends from Barren Earths. And mostly they aren't even real. If a false story about a made-up legend were to circulate among the people of Barren Earths, then there would be a Dungeon of that legend too in some corner of the Galaxy. It's like the thoughts of people about that non-existing legend that had come alive."

With every word that came out of Aldrich's mouth, the smooth, milky white color of the Ancient Oracle's face gained a purplish hue. Alas, neither space nor time could stop Aldrich's flurry of swordlike words.

"And that's why you don't expect a resurrected legend to know anything about the Galaxy. Heh! Don't make that face! I have already confirmed it by the excitement written on Earl's face when I asked him about the power structure of the Galaxy. But what baffled me for quite a long time was, why me?"

Aldrich came to a stop after making a complete circle and looked into the green eyes of the Ancient Oracle. He noticed the quiver of her pupils and her lips that kept parting and closing in efforts to utter something out. He saw her trying her best to put up an unfazed appearance as a cute smile came upon her face.

"Hehe! I don't know what you are talking about? It must be the aftereffects of resurrection. As I have already told you, it's a prophecy…"

Aldrich cut off her words and took a step towards her.

"Oh, I don't doubt that! You may have glimpsed a thing or two about me that made you select me. Let me guess, what was the undeniable distinction between me and other Dungeons. Hmm, I was the freshest Dungeon based on a real person."

The eyes of the Ancient Oracle became wide and a few drops of sweat fell on the mirror like red floor. The gusts of wind seemed lacking to cool the face of the little girl. A pained expression appeared on her face and she feebly said.

"You are just making this up? You… You can't just guess everything."

HAHAHA!

Aldrich laughed out aloud, and even the mask felt like laughing along with him. He put his hand on her head and tousled her hair.

"Sure I can. And here are some more guesses. As you could not do it by yourself, you manipulated the progenitor of House Venomous Rose to do your bidding by mixing true and false prophecies. For hundreds of thousands of years, you have been doing the same with every head of the House. Showing them the glimpse of a false future, making them sacrifice millions of people for the materials, and promising them a status that you had snatched from them, to begin with."

The Ancient Oracle couldn't hold any longer, and her knees buckled. The average height of Aldrich must have looked as a towering figure to her, for her pupils had widened considerably. Words that even she must have not completely believed herself escaped her mouth.

"No… you are wrong."

Aldrich crouched down near her and, using the tips of his fingers, wiped away the single drop of tear from the corner of her eyes.

"Just one more guess, and it will all be over. Let's ask ourselves, why the trouble? If you are what I am thinking you are, then you didn't need some Duke to do your bidding using such a roundabout method. You are cursed and confined to this state, aren't you? And your original prophecy was related to its solution. Let's see…"

"Daddy… Daddy… Sha… knows…"

Aldrich brought his face near the red and blue face of the little girl. The wind and the Everlasting Tower seemed to have lost into oblivion as Aldrich's words reached her ears.

"To have a child with a resurrected Legend, having a real past, and put your consciousness in that child…"

The little girl's teeth clattered and the entire planet quaked and thumped as if there was a heart within it. Tsunamis overtook the oceans as she tried to slip away from Aldrich. The pain ravaging her mind became flood and people awaiting rain watched as the thundering black clouds just passed over them.

"… You aren't some Oracle, you are just a hypocritical manifestation of a dying planet's spirit. You are... Rosalia."

Sniff!

The tears coming out of her eyes couldn't be wiped away with a single finger. Her dazed eyes distinctly showed the chaotic state of her mind and her thoughts. A meek voice came out of her as if it were her last words.

"What are you… Are you truly a God?"

"Yes… Daddy… is… God… bitch!"

Aldrich went to the edge of the platform and looked outside. His eyes lost focus as if he was looking through the vast distance towards a blue planet. And the wind carried his words to the ears of the Ancient Oracle.

"God… No. I am just a normal Scholar…

… A Scholar strayed away from his home.."