Thirteen minutes and twenty-two seconds.
That was how long Aaron Grimstall could successfully continue to keep Absolute Tranquility enabled before he would run out of mana.
Currently, the same boy sat within a room lined with long, vertical window slats that filtered soft sunlight, which spilled through the clouds in pale rays while light rain fell over the desert outside.
He was firmly planted on an antique wooden chair curated by Vaelmyr Droskyn to be the centerpiece of his bedchamber inside the Chrone Castle.
The room itself was monumental compared to the boy's own bedquarters, a space that could easily be mistaken for a separate mansion.
Hallways stretched out far and wide across five separate floors—each having a miniature indoor balcony, creating the illusion of a never-ending spiraling tower to heaven.
The accommodation was definitely much too large for the man and his skeleton subordinates, who, as dead people, did not need beds.
Therefore, he opened nearly one hundred chambers, all but his own bedroom, to struggling families across the island, those who had lost their homes to make way for the construction of the arena where the Lispentine Tournament was now held.
For the conversation with Aaron Grimstall, however, he had asked them to leave; no onlookers permitted in a discussion limited to two Kings and the challenger.
Now, with the local time of twelve seventeen, only five minutes after his fight with Raphael von Steinfeste had concluded, the boy shifted in his chair as Lepaie Quinn began the conversation.
"Who do you work for?"
Aaron's brow furrowed at the question, the purple-haired man staring intently at him as if trying to see into his blank presence shielded by the layers of protective measures.
"I don't work for anyone except the Hunters' Guild, sir."
His answer was issued in a calm and collected manner, differing from his thoughts of course, which were a mix of screams and prayers to the turquoise crab who observed in the corner, invisible to the two Kings.
Vaelmyr Droskyn, the King of Souls, laughed at his reply before responding in a light-hearted tone that betrayed a hint of hidden sharpness.
"C'mon, kid. No need to lie to us. We aren't able to harm you, no matter if we wanted to—which we don't anyway—because of your master right outside the door."
Pointing to the massive double doors, he spoke again.
"You saw her stand there, so you know as well as I that we ain't lyin. Now c'mon. Tell us the truth. We know you ain't working alone. Just tell us who's paying you and who supplied you with that blade, and we'll move on to the other business we need to discuss. I'm sure you know what I mean."
Aaron's face drained of color, the remembrance of his refusal to work with the two Kings in front of him returning to the center of his memory.
T-this is it… I'm dead…
Looking over at the crab in the corner, Aaron shot the crustacean a begging glance; however, his black, beady eyes turned upward, and he turned towards the wall.
Traitor.
Taking a deep breath, the boy summoned Penelope to his palm, both of the men in front of him tensing at the sight of the dangerous blade.
"Spatial magic, eh? What kind of emblems do you have on this thing?"
Lepaie reached out to grab the blade; however, a harsh pulsation of red from the weapon made him freeze, his magenta eyes looking up at Aaron.
"Was that a threat, boy? I'd advise you not to flash bloodlust at me again."
The blond boy flinched, his breath coming out ragged as he tried to explain.
"N-no that wasn't me… I have a Dragon Emblem engraved onto my blade…"
The King of Souls instantly widened his eyes, and a look of understanding also emerged across the King of Dreams' face.
"Your spirit doesn't seem too fond of us. Was it killed by a King of something?"
Backing off from taking the weapon, Lepaie gazed over at Aaron with intrigue—the idea of a Dragon Emblem had always fascinated him since he was a child.
"N-no… She's just shy…"
Closing his eyes and hearing the aggressive and vulgar shouts of the deity-hating blade within his mind, he sighed out hard.
Shifting in his seat, Vaelmyr Droskyn spoke up, steering the conversation back to the main topic.
"Any other emblems you have that are capable of doing that? I've never heard of ones able to break through manifested Divine Interference before…"
Aaron's head tilted to the side, a confused blurb of words exiting his mouth quickly.
"Divine Interference? When did I break through that?"
Thinking back to his fight with Raphael, a strange headache he had been suffering from during the battle suddenly stood out to him.
The King of Souls noticed the boy deep in thought, deciding to simply answer his question rather than wait for him to fish it out of his goldfish memory.
"You didn't know? Lispentine said you and Steinfeste were friends, so I assumed he had told you of all people…"
He paused, as if hesitant to say more, but then finished his sentence anyway.
"He inherited the Mark of the Sun, a tattoo-like symbol that marks its user as the successor of the Ghostship of Wishes."
Aaron's jaw dropped, his mind working overtime to process the information he just learned so suddenly.
H-He's going to get a Ghostship, too? S-so that's what he meant by him winning even if he lost… Now he'll be trained by Belvedere himself…
With the pieces clicking together, he exhaled slowly and decided to push aside this new information for the time being, switching his focus back to the two Kings as he spoke.
"I don't know what the emblems on my sword even mean… When I found it on the beach ten years ago in my hometown, I just thought it was a cool-looking sword that could help me cheat on my homework… I didn't expect it to be like this…"
Completely fabricating a story about how he found his blade, he waited for the two men's response.
Normally, the Kings would be able to distinguish truth from lies easily; however, as Absolute Tranquility was enabled, they could not observe his mana to detect its fluctuations.
Lepaie Quinn spoke up first, a hint of confusion in his voice.
"You don't know what emblems are engraved onto your own blade, you've had for ten years? Have you never visited a blacksmith?"
Reaching for the sword instinctively, he realized what he had come to find out only a few moments earlier and decided a different option would work better.
"Do you know what the emblems do?"
Posing a different question, the man hoped to figure out some of the unfamiliar emblems on the sword so he could decipher them all more easily.
However, much to his displeasure, the boy gave an answer that didn't help him much.
"Honestly, I don't really know anything other than the Dragon's Emblem…"
Sighing hard, both he and Vaelmyr Droskyn leaned back in their chairs, new questions circulating in their minds.
The King of Souls, having had enough of the conversation of weaponry, returned to the central point.
"So, do you have any explanation for how you broke through Divine Interference then?"
His brow was furrowed, and his eyes were pointed straight into Aaron's own.
The boy took a moment to think of a reasonable explanation, but stopped short, an idea coming to mind.
"The reason I was able to break through Divine Interference is…"
He stopped deliberately, looking both men in the eyes before stuttering out a few hesitant words.
"Uh… Actually… I don't know if I should…"
Lepaie clenched his fist tight, standing up quickly.
"Well, spit it out, boy!"
The man was reasonably irritated; the idea that a random boy who had appeared from nowhere posed a significant threat to the heir of a King was already reason enough to question him, and now he was even withholding information about it.
"I can break through Divine Interference because I'm contracted with a god…"
Both men's eyes narrowed instantly, and they exchanged a glance before Vaelmyr leaned forward in his seat.
"Do you have a Ghostship?"
There was no longer any kindness in his words, a flat, unfamiliar seriousness eclipsing his normally easygoing demeanor.
"N-no…"
The boy barely managed to stutter the response, blatantly lying to the strongest living Sea King in his own bedchambers.
The white-haired man, along with the King of Dreams, exhaled hard, both leaning back in their seats, visibly relaxing.
"So then, who is it?"
Lepaie spoke first, disregarding the tense atmosphere that had fallen over the room and questioning the boy further.
Aaron, who had already been forced to go outside of his comfort zone multiple times in the conversation and was tired of sighing and exaggerating his responses, simply gave up and revealed his carefully planned false backstory.
"Goddess of Poisons… She contracted with me six months ago, and ever since, I've been trying to work for the Hunters' Guild, as you can see. The only abilities I have are complete and total poison immunity, presence erasure, and the ability to break through Divine Interference with a layer of my own, kind of like anti-magic."
Hit by waves of information in quick succession, both men took a second to ponder it, realizing that their questions had been answered before they could even ask them.
"That was—"
Lepaie spoke up only to be interrupted by Vaelmyr.
"Helpful."
Nodding to each other, the tension over the trio relaxed even more, the conversation beginning to shift elsewhere.
On Aaron's mental clock, he still had seven minutes remaining, an amount he hoped would be enough to round out his surprise meeting with the Sea Kings.
"Now then."
Vaelmyr spoke up.
"Let us discuss the sea terror in the room. Aaron Grimstall, can you tell us again why you won't work for us?"