Rivers of the Night

Chapter 815: Friends in High Places

Neither Gione nor Jun moved after Theron’s words, but what tension there was could have been cut with a blade... not that Theron seemed to notice.

He was just smiling, and after a few seconds of them not saying anything, he shrugged and then reached for some grapes on the table.

"Ah, these are actually quite good. I found some higher quality ones in the wilderness before. Why don’t you take a taste and tell me if you like it or not?" Theron held up the grape to Ayame’s cherry lips.

The grapes themselves were quite large, probably twice the size of the tip of Theron’s thumb. Just squeezing them lightly sent a ripple through them that flashed with violet and amethyst-like shades. It was almost like there was a stream of liquid purple swimming through its insides, ready to burst at any moment.

Ayame looked at the grape, then toward Theron. She seemed to want to bite his head off, but her expression was also much the same as it always was.

Unfortunately, Theron didn’t give her time to think as he lightly pressed the grape to her lips. A bit reluctantly, Ayame took a bite and the juices spurted into her mouth. She was a bit worried about it falling down her lip, but she felt Theron’s Water Mana Control acting to keep it all under wraps.

Theron smiled as he popped the rest of the grape into his mouth.

"Do you like it?"

Ayame blinked. "It’s okay."

"I think so too." Theron flipped a palm over and another grape appeared. This one almost seemed identical to the last in shape and the texture of its protective skin, but the color... it was so much darker, so much richer.

Ayame’s brows jumped for a moment before they relaxed.

The grapes they had just had—she wasn’t all too familiar with them—but after tasting them, she knew that they grew from at least Saint Grade Mana Herbs. They were exceptionally high level, and only the ultra-wealthy could ever serve them at a banquet as an appetizer. No, this wasn’t even really considered an appetizer; it was more like an hors d’oeuvre casually served before the party or meal even began.

Even so, such fruits grown from Mana Herbs tended to be the favorites of many beasts and weren’t easily procured. It was even harder to find licensed botanists that could grow them in controlled environments outside of the wilderness.

Such things usually grew near dense Mana Crystal deposits or other natural sources of Mana that were incredibly difficult to replicate.

However, the version that Theron had brought out was very clearly of the Transcendent Grade.

Fruits like these had no real substantive properties to true powerhouses outside of being a pick-me-up. In some cases, they could replenish a small bit of Mana, but because they didn’t have a specific Path, it was very limited in its usage. You would probably have to eat hundreds, if not thousands, to replenish the Mana of the average Saint.

That was to say that the sorts of beasts that would use even the Saint Grade fruits as snacks tended to be far more powerful than the Saint Realm.

Because these fruits weren’t important, more powerful beasts tended to claim them as an excess in their territories. While some Saint Beasts might have them under their control, the majority would be Transcendents.

So... what did that mean for a Transcendent Grade version of these grapes?

Only beasts that even the Demon Prince himself would have to take with extraordinary seriousness would have these grapes in their territory.

Ayame took a bite and stifled whatever moan she almost released. It felt like the juices were flowing through her body in a cooling current. Somehow, it felt like the sweetest of wines, but it didn’t have the edge of alcohol or the warmth that came with it.

She looked at Theron and could see the grin in his eyes. Without even asking, she knew this guy had almost certainly used these grapes to create his own personal stash.

Gione’s chuckle suddenly filled the hall with something other than Theron’s sweet nothings.

"It seems you’ve got your work cut out for you, Jun. But you might want to look into where he came from. He doesn’t really seem all that normal. My suggestion? Use a few of these Demon Dukes to probe his bottom line and see what you can find. Worst-case scenario, you’re in DiBarr Clan territory already, are you not?"

Theron looked over and looked Gione up and down. "Who’s he?" he asked Ayame.

"He’s the Heir to the Versile Lineage."

"Demon Prince?"

"Yes."

"Ah, I see, I see. I didn’t expect Jung to have friends in high places."

Gione’s eyes widened.

BANG.

The chair Theron had just been sitting on was vaporized. Hair blew Ayame’s hair back and her pupils constricted. She had been far too slow to react. If it had been her that was the target, she feared that she would already be dead.

On the one hand, she didn’t want to get Theron into a mess that would intertwine her past. But on the other, it seemed that Theron was getting into more than enough trouble all on his own. It was to the point that she was starting to get worried about whether he was being self-destructive or not.

How could she know that Theron had to destroy the Demon Corps in a year’s time? Whether she was involved or not, he was going to be in a mess.

Theron appeared on lava a long distance away, looking down at a faint mark that had appeared on his otherwise pristine robes. The faint markings quickly healed, but he couldn’t help but chuckle.

Jun was actually somewhat capable of harming his fabrics. Now that... that was a surprise.

As for the man himself, he stood where Theron had just been sitting, looking as though he hadn’t been the one to attack at all. The chair had been so thoroughly vaporized that there wasn’t even the slightest debris left remaining...