Galaxy's First Ruler

In a vast room, opening up in a hall, Aldrich eyed the three Barons, standing in a semicircle around him. He caressed the chair-arm and tapped it continuously, and secretly nodded, seeing the traces of tension and nervousness on their faces.

"Berb, take out the Darkness Seeking Compass, which you have picked up from the corpse of Viscount Ellington."

Berb's sunken eyes popped out, hearing Aldrich's words. Aldrich saw Tomislav putting his hand on Berb's shoulder to shake him and gesturing to him to hand the thing over. Berb reached out in his pocket and threw the compass towards Aldrich.

The Creatures of Darkness around Aldrich howled as Aldrich rubbed his fingers on the glassy surface of the compass. Its red needle, which was rotating like a maddened beast before, had pointed itself at Aldrich as if being petrified. This scene was enough to give Tomislav a life's worth of shock. Aldrich noticed these changes from the corner of his eyes and put away the compass for the time being.

Knock! Knock!

"Come in!"

A Recordless entered with a round tray in his hand and put it on the small table between the seated Aldrich and three standing Dreamers.

"My Lord, his Lordship Earl Drago has put everything you have asked in the FIR."

Aldrich saw a ring on the tray, placed in an upright position. The ring had a dull, tiny blue pearl embedded in it. The entire ring felt less like a piece of genuine jewelry and more like an incompetent forgery.

"A… A Count level False Inventory Ring?!"

A startled scream came out of Christin's mouth. Just as their names suggested, the False Inventory Rings were an imitation of a Dreamer's Inventory. They didn't have the privacy and safety of the real Inventory, but unlike the Inventories given by RECORD, they didn't have any restrictions. It was all a matter of if one could afford them or not.

Aldrich sent a trace of his Mana into the blue pearl and the sheer magnitude of the things and space within it even astounded him. He put the ring on his left hand's middle finger and thought about his brief conversation with Drago.

'No wonder the Earl described the Rank of Count like crossing a barrier between two entirely different worlds!'

Aldrich eyed as the Recordless bowed before leaving noiselessly out of the room. He pitied the fate of all the Dreamers who were forced to give up their 'Record' and become Recordless. But standing up for the rights of pigs couldn't save them from being slaughtered. The only way for them to be truly saved was to either kill all the butchers or replace the pigs with an even better choice.

And Aldrich's hands were already occupied with many other priorities. One of them was to prevent the Dreamers of Earth from a similar fate.

"Take out that pyramid."

"In your dreams…"

Berb's face crumpled, and he lashed out, hearing Aldrich's words. But the anger in Berb and Tomislav eyes only met with the deep calmness of his white eyes.

Hshhh!

"By now, you must have known that I am not the White-Haired Assassin, given my Rank and strength. Cooperate and I won't do you any harm."

Hshhh!!

Aldrich's words, though clear to the three Dreamers, spread out in the room as incomprehensible whispers. Aldrich didn't have the time to treat a fanatic, and he had to use Skills to shorten this meeting.

Change + Devil's Whisper!

Aldrich's words were like a compelling force, urging Berb to trust Aldrich rather than his intuition. He took out the pyramid-like object, covered in many symbols, and handed it over to Aldrich.

Unlike others, Aldrich could read the strange symbols, which seemed like a combination of hieroglyphs and Rumoks. But it was all a mumble-jumble, making no sense.

"What's his 'Name'?"

The sudden question and its content brought the trio out of their dazed state. What had just happened could only be perceived by their sweaty back and shivering spines. Berb's teeth clattered in fear as he answered.

"I only know one of the many…"

"NO! My Lord, it's disastrous to hear even a syllable. And… And… we might hear nothing but suffer all the consequences."

Aldrich saw the terror on Tomislav's face. The blue-haired Blessed One had already taken one step towards the door with his hand gripping Christin as if he was ready to drag her away.

"Look up and say it!"

Following Aldrich's command, Berb craned his neck up and mouthed out a string of words, not caring a bit about his teammates. Tomislav had already fallen to the ground with both his hands pressed tightly on Christin's ears. But just as a trace of sound came out of Berb's mouth, Aldrich's right hand glowed blue under his black sleeve. He stretched his hand towards Berb's mouth and pulled it back as if he was holding an imaginary rope. The Black Veil hidden in his body resurfaced as he put the palm of his right hand to his ear.

"…Harbinger of Pestilence.."

Buzzz!!!

Aldrich's mind churned with the buzz of countless insects, but with the sway of Black Veil, everything died down in the next moment.

"It's over."

Aldrich said and threw back the pyramid-like object which served no purpose for him anymore. Tomislav, who was prepared for the last struggle, using his blessing, stood up and looked at Aldrich as if he was seeing an actual miracle.

"Who… What are you?"

A slight evil smile surfaced on Aldrich's face when he saw the intended expression on Tomislav's face.

"Now you believe me? I mean no harm. You are an adventurer, right? I have a mission for you."

Even if Tomislav had been taken over by intense emotions, he still had a presence of mind.

"My Lord! No mission is worth dying for."

Haha!

Aldrich lightly laughed and stood up.

"Sure there are! It's just the matter of the rewards."

"There are no such…"

Aldrich cut off Tomislav's words and took a step towards Christin, who suddenly lunged like a cat behind Tomislav's enormous back.

"What a cute child! Do this mission for me, and in return, I will teach her how to control the Demon's possession."

Tomislav staggered and took a step back, only to run into the petite figure of Christin. The genuine fear of the Name that he thought had left him returned in the form of the Devil, hidden under the guise of the God of White and Black.

"You… How do you know…"