Chapter 405 When It Rains It Pours
The Minister felt such a strong humiliation, even now in front of him, the silver haired masked youth, was sitting on the throne ignoring him, what a joke, Daimon sat on the throne Horals made for him, right on the face of Triten, why would he hesitate to do the same when facing the Minister.
Speaking of the bone general, Horals was thunderously laughing right now, this scene of his young master sitting on a huge throne surrounded by beauties, while others had no choice but to lower their heads, is his future image of Daimon.
'Ah, young master, be it in this life or any other one, let this Horals serve as your right hand forever hahaha!', he shouted, making Daimon sigh.
The only other one who could hear him was naturally Rita, who immediately reprimanded him for spoiling the moment of victory of Daimon.
'Shut up bonehead, you are ruining the moment, right young master?', her tone of voice was completely different at the beginning and at the end of her sentence, the first was death cold as one would expect from an undead, while the second one was more girlish and appealing, akin to her self-claimed position as the head maid of Daimon's household.
'Humph, you scold me, but you would have loved to si... fuck not again!'.
Horals's was interrupted by a black miniature castle which appeared in Aisha's shadow, where Horals's head was hidden and sucked him in to experience the nightmares that were contained in its walls.
'Cursed Doll House!', Rita said with an accelerated voice and slightly gritted teeth, which is strange considering her usual cool and calm demeanor.
'Don't worry young master, a minute in the real world is a day inside my spell, I'll leave him out in five minutes', respectfully said Rita.
Daimon inwardly shook his head.
'Okay, you two fix your personal differences by yourselves', he said.
Daimon returned to reality when he saw the judges landing on the platform in which the throne is positioned, normally the top three would come here for the ending ceremony, but the crowned prince, Ezequiel and Walford weren't in the state to participate in anything right now.
In any case, all the Blackfin family participants had left long ago, the king also descended from the royal skybox, because he had to, but his hatred filled expression made it obvious for everyone, he was angry beyond words by the loss Terry suffered at the hands of Daimon.
So, for the first time in the history of the Clear Water kingdom, the two major sponsors of the tournament were angry at the winner, not like Daimon cared, he didn't even get down the throne, until Vincent and the queen arrived.
Lance and his scholar were tired but in a good condition so they did join at the platform, along with the neo noble general Dominic, besides them, Tideus, the Delphini Duke and also the long bearded old man scholar which acted as a commentator earlier participated in the ending ceremony.
The Minister endured the urge to unsheathe his sword and attack Daimon, as he announced.
"Thanks for all the heroes of the young generation and guests from the Elemental Sea who participated in my tournament, I hereby announce the ending of the event, with Gabriel's team as the champions".
Surprisingly and for the first time, Vincent voluntarily participated in the announcements.
"After a detailed discussion, the second place goes to the young spear of the neo nobles, Lance Varsi".
That did take a lot of people by surprise, they expected either Terry or Walford to get the second place since Lance was eliminated first, but Walford purposedly harmed his teammates for the sake of staying longer in the tournament and was penalized for that.
As for Terry, the fact that he as a captain lost his capacity to reason, which is a must for a captain, earned him a penalization too, in comparison Lance might have been eliminated first, but his display of abilities wasn't less incredible than the other captains, not to mention his scholar which is actually his vice-captain, took the wisest decision of facing Daimon's right hand, to prevent them from reuniting.
While all the others just rushed to the throne room, and no one could say any negative argument against that, which earned Lance the second place.
"The third place goes for the crowned prince, Terry Malleus", said the king as he glared at Annete, in his mind all this was orchestrated by her, and Daimon was just her subordinate.
And so, Walford ended up in fourth place while Ezequiel got the fifth place just as Daimon told him he would, both were announced by Aurora, and the rest of the ranks were told by the other special guests.
Both the king and the Minister approached Daimon, and with unwilling expressions handed him a token with the emblem of their respective families, those were the entrance permits for their respective treasuries, which were the prizes for the winner of the both the beast hunt and the tournament given by the royal family, and the winner of the tournament given by the Arcarius family.
Naturally to access the royal treasury Daimon also needed the token of the queen, which Annete was handing him in front of everyone just as a mere formality right now, since she gave it to him the moment he signed a contract with them as the necklace in Daimon's neck, which she handed to him proved.
"Congratulations Mr. champion, don't forget your supporters now that you are famous~", jokingly said Annete, which made Daimon chuckle.
Since the people started leaving, the king quickly made his escape, he didn't want to be here even a single second more than needed, as his most treasured son was in the infirmary at the royal castle right now, being treated.
Lance's group congratulated Daimon and invited him to pay them a visit, before they took their leave, with their heads in high position and shouting the word "training" at full volume.
The Minister also wanted to leave even if it was his family's territory, but Vincent's words made him stop in cold.
"Aren't you forgetting something old turtle, I seem to remember you owe me and this little friend a few more things", said Vincent.
Raymond trembled due to anger, not only his treasury will be open for the silver haired youth he hated so much and he couldn't play any tricks with the queen's tax department breathing on his neck, but he actually forgot about the bet he made with Vincent and now he had to pay.
"Humph, my Arcarius family always pays its debts, what's a mere pair of incomplete Sea Emblems for me", he said as he threw them at Vincent, who still didn't let him off the hook.
"Yeah, yeah, your family is quite rich, so don't forget you also have to give Gabriel the three-colored water that is harvested this year", he said.
Raymond poisonously glared at Vincent as he said.
"Don't you think you are taking things too far Vincent", he said with an angered voice, unfortunately the queen dropped a bucket of cold ice on his head by saying.
"I was a witness of that bet as well as lady Aurora, if the Minister is trying to not acknowledge it, then a royal court will be organized for both parties to defend their claims".
Raymond's teeth nearly cracked due to the excess of strength he was putting on them, but he ultimately calmed down, right now it was a private matter, as everyone besides the members of his Arcarius family, and the party involved with Daimon left.
But if the queen announced a royal court for this, then everyone will know and he is sure she had already something prepared to make him lose, not only the thing in dispute, but also his reputation and other kinds if penalties, only a suicidal idiot will try to take the legal and politic route against the queen.
"Miss Delphini is misunderstanding my good intentions, it's just that the amount of three-colored water that is harvested each time, is completely random, the highest possibility is that there might be just a couple of drops of even nothing, so I was thinking of exchanging that for the right of picking two items instead of one from my treasury, but since the idea is not up to the liking of the champion, then we can proceed with the harvesting", said the Minister with a fake amicable expression.
Since no one bought his feigned hospitality, Raymond left for a moment and then returned with a large wood tub, the size of a small pool, it looked quite heavy and hard to move, but the Minister had the nerve to say.
"This is the ceremonial tool used for the harvest of the three-colored water, it happens that this year is a special anniversary since my Arcarius family was founded, naturally it isn't just a large tub for showing, this wood has the property of keeping the three-colored water perfectly clean and fresh, the containers used for the dosages that Walford and the others drank, were made using this same material, naturally the champion himself has to harvest the water, unless he is willing to offer a percentage to us".
Daimon softly snorted, though indeed this wood tub had some water laws floating here and there, meaning the property mentioned by the Minister was true, the size was large so it was hard for him to harvest the three-colored water with it.
But then his eyes glowed behind his mask as he said.
"If that's the case, can you gift me more tubs like this, I have no experience harvesting the water of the lakes, so I might end up empty-handed if I don't have enough tubs to cover a large area".
The Minister had the sudden urge to laugh, the three-colored water is expelled out of the lakes yes, but its appearance is random, it can go in the direction of the platform, or just appear at some point on the surface of the three lakes.
That's why he gave Daimon that huge wood tub, the quality of the water will drop since he will be forced to grab it with another container or something, that is if he is even able to move fast enough and if the amount of three-colored water is enough to even form a small stream, instead of just scattered drops.
"Sure, we have made one each year since my family was founded, but we don't have any use for them, you can take as many as you want", said the Minister as he waved his hand and a mountain of those large wood tubs appeared next to him.
Daimon nodded, the girls followed Vincent and the others out of the platform to give Daimon space to prepare for the harvest, before leaving they saw Daimon smiling and knew a disgrace was about to fall upon the Minister, which made them giggle.
'Old man, if the Minister tries to interrupt me stop him, I'll give you a nice reward in exchange', said Daimon directly to Vincent, who raised an eyebrow, he was now being hired as a thug to bully others he thought, but he still said.
'Sure, I hope it's something as good as you make it sound, just like you, being guarded by me isn't cheap you know'.
Daimon chuckled, he then grabbed one wood tub and threw it in a specific direction, he repeated the same process until all the tubs were displayed all over the place on the platform, and a in a ring surrounding it, the arrays that covered the surface of the lake remained so they were floating on top of them, the three-colored doesn't have any negative effect, so the arrays doesn't block it, that means that it can pass through it, in both ways, out and in.
That's what the Minister aimed at, that Daimon missed the water and the latter just returned to the lake, and maybe accumulate for the next harvest or something like that, they actually don't know if that works, since they never let a single drop escape their grasp after all.
In fact, this is the first time someone with a realm lower than a peak Arch rank is performing the harvesting in the history of the Arcarius family.
For some reason the harvest of the three-colored water, happened every year at the same exact hour, exactly at 2:00 PM, which was in exactly twenty seconds apart from now.
Daimon's eyes behind his mask glowed as a vertical yellow line appeared in his pupils, then a surprisingly pretty scene unfolded in front of all the presents, the sky blue, sapphire and cobalt blue lakes, mixed together turning into a single entity, a three-colored lake so to speak.
And then the harvest which will leave three-colored in and out but nothing else, like every year finally started.
The Minister had a smile of sufficiency, there wasn't a time limit for the harvest, the lakes stayed mixed sometimes even more than half an hour, but that normally meant there will only be a few drops of three-colored water as a result or even less, a whole five minutes passed without nothing emerging from the lakes, which made the smile on the Minister's face widen.
"Sigh, that's why I offered to change this for a safe secondary reward for the champion, alas, the young generation is often too hot blooded...", the "good old senior" tone in the voice of the Minister frozen, when he saw the whole surface of the lake trembling at the same time.
And his eyes nearly popped out of their sockets, when a water stream as wide as an adult exploded out of the three-colored lake.
"W-What!", his mind almost stopped working for a second, but he returned to reality when he saw an even more absurd scene unfolding in front of him, that stream of three-colored water didn't disperse or return to the lake, instead it started going from one wood tub to another, as if it was snake jumping around, filling each tub in its way to the brim.
Soon all the tubs surrounding the platform were completely full to the point that a single drop couldn't fit in them, only then the water stream exhausted itself, but then the Minister felt as if his heart was about to fail him, when a second stream popped from another side and started doing the same, this time all the tubs on the outer layer of the platform were filled before it exhausted itself.
The Minister actually forgot of his face and any reputation, he was about to jump to the lake, if he had to catch the water with his mouth, he was ready to do it and order all his family members to follow him, but then a steel grip grabbed him from his shoulder.
"Now, now, we old men shouldn't meddle in the matters of the young generation, old turtle, why don't you enjoy the view, I doubt you'll get to see something like this in your lifetime again after all", at the same time Vincent surrounded the lake with his mana, to prevent anyone from the Arcarius to interfere with Daimon.
Raymond looked at Vincent as if he had murdered his parents, as he was about to fight Vincent to death if that's what it took for him to jump to the platform, he saw a huge column of three-colored water raising behind the platform and then raining from above upon Daimon and all the wood tubs that were still empty.
Daimon stood there calmly, hidden from the gaze of the Minister and everyone else, inside that torrent of water, he extended his hand and saw an especially bright amount of three-colored water twirling around him affectionately.
"So, when those three lakes mix, the result is the water from the so famous "Northern Sea", now that's something I didn't expect, however I can't take you all out or that turtle bastard will fight me to death on the spot, be nice and wait for my return, I'll take just a small bottle of you with me".
Daimon took out the best bottle he had in his inventory, and then opened the lid, a small current of blue gem-like water separated from the three-colored torrent of water and entered the bottle, which then Daimon sealed and sent to the inventory on the spot.
The torrent of water then immediately stopped, since all the wood tubs were fully filled, and Daimon was bathed by it too, his body felt refreshed and smooth.
"Phew", Daimon let out a small quantity of white flames to dry himself and then he waved his hand, the dream-like scene of tons of large water tubs containing three-colored water of the best quality the Minister has ever seen, turned into a nightmare as all the tubs disappeared into Daimon's ring.
Naturally he sent that ring to the inventory as he feigned to put it in his pocket, just in case the Minister went crazy in a second and tried to steal his ring.
He then gazed at the Minister who was at the border of collapse and then smiled.
"It seems that indeed it was a special year for the Arcarius, I thank the Minister for his generosity, the exact number of tubs I used were barely enough to contain all that water".
"Blegh!", this time it was a torrent of blood what suddenly appeared as the Minister vomited blood on the spot due to anger, today he experienced the meaning of the saying "When it rains it pours" to its fullest.
The other members of the Arcarius family were dumbfounded, those who were able to recover from the shock went to assist the Minister, in the meanwhile with Vincent's supervision Daimon and the girls left the Calm Tri-Lake Forest and returned to Arc city, before Vincent used space shift to take them back to his Warhammer city, making sure that other people saw them leaving per Daimon's request.
Seeing the expectation filled expression on Vincent's face, Daimon laughed as he took out the ring from his inventory and then took out one wood tub of three-colored water, which Vincent gladly kept in his ring, anyone with water affinity will have a thousand uses for this after all.
Daimon could feel a few sharp predacious gazes on his back, naturally they weren't malicious, but instead belonged to Annete, the Valas Duchess and for some reason Thea, the first two were understandable, despite how it looked Annete and also Mellie have water affinity, they are dual affinity mages, having water and vibration affinity which is an advanced specialization or maybe an evolution of wind affinity apparently.
But Thea's affinity is darkness, so she had no use for it, well maybe there is some use for her, since she comes from some kind of marine snake race... probably.
In fact, now that Daimon noticed, all the girls had particularly expectative gazes on their eyes, even Leslie whose affinity if fire was the same, not that Daimon really cared, since he planned to give a few tubs to each one, as he learned something important about the three lakes.
It was then when Aisha enlightened him, she poked Daimon's cheek with her pretty finger and nodded in an approbative way.
"That water is such a good skin care product, let me take a bath on it too later~", she playfully said
Daimon didn't notice but he had a pretty glint on his skin right now, if it wasn't for the mask and the overbearing aura that he always radiates, others will confuse him for some kind of pretty boy.
Thea on the other hand was imagining the drinks she could prepare using the three-colored water as the base.
"That water is supposed to have mind calming effects, so I won't get drunk, ahem, general Daimon, don't forget the annual tribute you must offer to this Empress", she said.
Daimon bitterly smiled, if the Minister were to hear that these girls wanted to use the three-colored water, that he has been so desperately gathering through the years and that he won't ever have the chance to own again in his life, as bath water or as a drink, he will probably bang his head against a wall and die.