THE GOD EATER

To the question Tepid Scholar asked her, she wanted to say, ”No.”

But she knew that there was no way they would believe that she would be ignorant of the fact that she was hiding a fugitive when she had such great eyes.

So she said, ”I did.”

After getting the answer, Tepid Scholar sighed and said, ”Then I don’t believe that you are blameless in this.”

Sword Maestro tutted in disapproval as he said, ”You used your power to hide him, and you knew that he was hiding there, yet you didn’t tell us about it. That’s going too far.”

Heavenly Eye chuckled and said without shame, ”What can I say? I did what I had to do. I’m sure you too would have done the same thing if you were in my shoes.”

Instead of getting sympathy or understanding from them, Black Chains said, ”Fuck you.”

Martial Will said in agreement, ”Yeah, fuck you.”

Tepid Scholar also added, ”I mean, this is not the first time you’re doing something like this. You’ve done it before, and you know how badly that went. Yet, you did it again. So fuck you.”

Sword Maestro didn’t have the seniority or power to berate her to her face like that, so he limited himself to saying, ”If you can do this two times, it is highly likely that you’re already doing it a third time. I wonder who it is you’re still hiding, though.”

Black Chains exploded in anger as he said to her, ”It was you who hid this dragon from us, right? You did it, you scheming bitch.”

While the Dao Lords were exchanging unsavory words above, Golden Sun and Loki were having a pleasant conversation below.

Loki said, ”So what did Lord Black Chains mean when he said this was a dying domain? What’s even a domain?”

In response, Golden Sun tsked and would have rolled his eyes if he had one, as he said, ”Not so fast. You have to swear an oath to let me go.”

”Oh come on,” Loki said in exasperation. ”Why must you do this?”

Golden Sun replied as if he was stating the obvious, ”To stop you from going back on your word.”

With no way around it, Loki said, ”Fine. You want an oath, you will get an oath.”

Then he said, ”I swear on my Dao that I will let Golden Sun go after he answers all of my questions.”

After the oath, he asked, saying, ”I hope that satisfied you.”

Golden Sun replied, ”No, that wasn’t good enough. The time you set to let me go is vague.”

”According to your oath, if you keep asking me questions, you won’t let me go. So I could be stuck answering questions for you forever, and then you will kill me before you’re done asking all of your questions. That’s not good enough for me.”

”You also didn’t add anything about helping me recover my power. So when you swear the oath again, add something about helping me reincarnate and recovering my strength.”

Loki sighed and said, ”What would it take to deceive people nowadays? Everyone is just wary for no good reason.”

Then he said, ”I will ask Golden Sun questions for ten minutes. In those ten minutes, I won’t harm him, but he must answer all of my questions to the best of his abilities.”

”If he answers all of my questions, I will let him go after ten minutes are over, and I will help him reincarnate and recover his strength if I can. All of these I swear on my Dao Heart.”

After swearing again, he asked, ”Good enough?”

In reply, Golden Sun wobbled his entire star body in a nod and said, ”It is good enough.”

Loki was somewhat surprised by his answer. His surprise made him look at Golden Sun with a strange inquisitive gaze.

As if sensing his thoughts, Golden Sun said, ”Are you wondering why I didn’t ask you to swear never to attack me across all timelines?”

Loki nodded and said, ”Not to kick the gift horse in the shin, but I was wondering that. I mean, since you already know that I can reverse time, you should know that this oath will only be effective in this timeline.”

Golden Sun shook his head in dismay as he said, ”It seems you’re really lost. You’ve let the power go to your head too much.”

”What do you mean?” Loki asked with a strange expression on his face.

”I mean that you believe that you should use the ability to reverse time anytime to avoid whatever you deem inconvenient. This is the same thing that happened to my brother. Trust me when I tell you that it will lead you to a dead end very quickly.”

”You’re only supposed to use this power when your life is in danger, not to avoid slightly inconvenient oaths. If you waste your power in things like this, you won’t be able to use it when you need it.”

Loki nodded earnestly and said, ”You’re right. I was wrong. I really need to change my ways.”

But Golden Sun shrugged and said, ”It doesn’t matter what you will do later on. I asked for that oath because it has to be good enough for me.”

”I know that the power has fallen to your head, so if you don’t get what you want now, you will never swear the oath and will keep pestering me in every timeline. So if I ask for a stringent oath, that will only succeed in pissing you off and making you my enemy in every timeline.”

”But once I give you what you want, you will have no use for me and will eventually let me go. Even without an oath, once you have no reason to keep coming after me, a version of myself in another timeline will finally be able to have peace.”

Loki nodded in understanding before saying, ”It looks like you have everything planned out. Makes me wonder how you became like this.”