The Lord Is Too Overbearing

Weird as it was—the way Charles quelled his guilt—one couldn't expect less from someone like him. No one could ever know the way he thought things.

Not even Basil, who had heard many things about Charles in his past life, could exactly tell how he thought. Charles was a complicated and secretive individual—like Basil himself, it wasn't easy to figure him out.

"How... Did you know about it?" Charles spoke with difficulty as the chain tying his neck to the cross had been tightened. "There should be not a single person know about it."

Giving Charles a faint smile, Basil said, "I can't tell you how I know it—we all have secrets, don't we?"

Although Basil had heard many things about Charles in his past life, he didn't actually know about what had really happened on the Blois Family's disappearance. He had only figured it out after he asked the Guide about it.

Charles was a good liar and a great thinker. The lie he had fabricated, which he had spread in Basil's past life had managed to convince everyone it was the truth.

If it wasn't for the fact that Basil had the Guide with him, he would likely never find out about it.

The truth didn't actually matter to Basil, but the fact that Charles had managed to fool him for years was something that amazed him.

"What are you actually aiming for?" Charles asked through difficulty.

"Reading your mind," Basil answered simply.

Charles laughed in disbelief at Basil's answer, but his eyes immediately widened the moment Basil put his hand on his forehead. As soon as he felt lightheaded, he could tell Basil was going to steal informations from his mind.

Charles tried his best to prevent Basil from doing to no avail. He was already completely under Basil's grasp and he was panicking—he couldn't find a way out of his situation.

Basil only looked at that Charles in silent amusement. He wondered how long it would take Charles to realize the more panicked he became the stronger his grasp on his soul.

Just like how different Iliana compared to the Iliana he had known in his past life, this Charles was more incompetent than the Charles he had known. If it was the Charles he had known, he would have figured out the way to get out of his predicament by now.

Since that wasn't the case however, Basil could finally completely take over Charles' soul. His hand that was touching Charles' forehead shone, and Charles' eyes immediately rolled to the back of his head.

Informations about what Charles was planning and going to do flowed into Basil's brain in the next moment. He, however, didn't focus on each of the informations; he just focused on absorbing as many informations as he could.

He couldn't pay any attention to a specific information, otherwise he would risk losing his control over Charles' soul. Despite so, he could already draw the outline of Charles' plans in his head.

Undoubtedly, it wasn't pretty.

Boom!

"Let go of me, Pacifer!"

Unfortunately, Basil's complete control over Charles' soul didn't last more than a minute. Proving himself to be the genius people hailed him as, he had found the way to get out of Basil's grasp.

He slowly regained his control over his soul, making Basil click his tongue bitterly.

"I will kill you, Pacifer!"

"Hmph! Don't keep entertaining yourself with delusion—it's bad for your mental."

After half a minute of power struggle, Basil finally decided to let go of him, thus releasing him from his shackle.

Charles charged at Basil with killing intent, but Basil didn't even flinch at that. In fact, he was sneering at Charles, who was really sure that he would be able to somehow hurt him.

Though not as experienced as most older Pacifer yet, in terms of handling soul, Basil was still better than Charles. Because of this, just as Charles reached him, he simply extended his hand to blast Charles away.

Charles, undoubtedly, didn't expect that to happen at all, so he was really surprised when he suddenly found his vision tilted upwards. Rolling on the ground once, he regained his footing in the next moment.

"This bastard..."

At that point, however, Basil's body had already half faded from his Mindscape—Basil was getting out of his Mindscape.

Immediately expelling his consciousness out of his Mindscape as he worried what Basil might do to his body outside, he was greeted with surprise the moment he opened his eyes.

Swish!

Charles' eyes widened the moment a needle wheezed pass him, scratching his cheek in the process. He was intelligent enough to know that Basil didn't actually miss, but had just done something more dangerous to his body.

Gulping his nervousness down as he looked at Basil calmly, he touched his bleeding cheek. As he had expected, he couldn't feel the area where the cheek was bleeding as half of his face was gradually becoming numb.

"Three hours... You can try concocting the antidote in three hours," Basil said with a smirk.

Charles couldn't speak—he couldn't move half of his face, so he relied on Magic to open his mouth. "Do you think a simple [Purification] can't solve the problem?"

Charles really wanted to smirk, but he couldn't. Therefore, the only thing he could do was staring at Basil with as much ridicule as his eyes could convey.

Basil gave him a contemptuous snort instead, which made his eyes instantly turn rigid. "Do you think someone like me will use a simple poison on a Mage like you? Cast [Purification], and see what will happen." Basil sneered.

Sneakily casting [Purification] to see what Basil was talking about, Charles immediately found the more he used his Mana, the more the poison spread. Proving his thought wrong, the poison wasn't in his bloodstream, but in his Mana.

[Purification], which was a Spell that allowed one's Mana to neutralize the poison in one's body, could never be able to neutralize the poison in his Mana.

He needed to even fuel the Spell with his poisoned Mana, which means casting it would further endanger his life.

"Let us meet again, Basil Pacifer..."

Swallowing his pride down, Charles took the humiliation, and turned his back on Basil. Casting a Motion Spell, he immediately disappeared into the purple mist surrounding the hotel.

Basil didn't chase after Charles nor did he have any intention to do so. He merely looked at the direction Charles had disappeared to silently with a faint smile of amusement.

Ione approached Basil, and politely asked, "My Lord, should I chase after him?"

"No, you don't have to." Basil shook his head faintly. "He is more than capable to completely obliterate you, which is also the reason why I don't bother to chase after him."

"... Even though he is having a Mana poisoning?" Ione quirked her eyebrow in wonder and astonishment.

"That guy is quirky. He won't even think think twice to blow himself up as long as it means he can take his enemy down with him."

Basil lightly huffed. "Of course, I could still survive if it happened, but there is no need to bother myself with an unnecessary problem that could easily be avoided."

For the current Basil, fighting Charles and won, unless there was a certain catch to it, would be simply impossible. Charles had many things under his sleeves that he could use against Basil, and it was troublesome for Basil.

Basil could risk it all and bet his life on the line to slay Charles, however he didn't dare to because his family was nearby. He didn't want to get them involved in his fight, and lose them like how he had lost Irene.

This was the reason why he had refused to engage in a confrontational battle against Charles and used poison instead. That was the only way he could think of to shoo Charles away for the time being.

Nodding her head silently in agreement, Ione stopped speaking. She turned around the moment Basil turned his body around, and they were greeted by Basil's worried family standing in front of the door and the nervous Knights of Hauler surrounding them.

Basil walked calmly towards them as if nothing had happened, and it instantly calmed the people down. He didn't say anything yet, but from how light the mood he was exuding, they could tell he had gotten everything under control.

"I guess everything is fine?" Danzel quirked one of his eyebrows.

"Indeed."

"That man... He is Charles Blois, isn't he?"

Quirking his eyebrow in interest, Basil asked, "How could you know about him?"

He, after all, had isolated the area around him when he was talking to Charles, so no one other than Ione should be able to hear their conversation—Danzel shouldn't know who Charles was.

"I met him once when I just became a Knight," Danzel said offhandedly. "He was around 12 at that time, and still had no fame. That was the first and last time I saw him directly, but I can still recognize him even though he is a lot older now."

"Hoh? I didn't know about that—I thought you had told all of your stories of journey to me." Basil lightly smiled.

"Well, I am already old." Danzel waved his hand mildly. "Such a trivial encounter with a criminal isn't that memorable to me."

"... Aren't you going to ask why he showed up here and what kind of business he has with me?"

"Nah, I won't." Again, Danzel waved his hand. "I have learned through time that the best thing I can do for you is to believe in you." Putting his hand on Basil's shoulder he continued, "You'll always make it like usual, won't you?"

Danzel glanced briefly at Ione before giving Basil a smirk. Ione noticed the slight cautiousness in Danzel's gaze, but she acted as if she didn't notice it.

She understood Danzel's worry, and she didn't blame him at all. Charles' visit to Raneil Barony was, after all, caused by her.

"How long are you going to stay here, Brother?" Shirley asked when she found it appropriate to.

"Yeah, we haven't talked to each other for two months now," Clarissa added.

"Why don't we spend some time to catch up to each other then, Senior?" Julia suggested.

Basil wouldn't normally pay attention to what they said and told them to wait for a little bit longer, however he needed to sort the informations he had just extracted from Charles' memory—he complied to their request.

Charles was planning to do something ambitious, and he needed to think a way to prevent it from happening.