"My master?!" Hinata’s reply was imdiate. It wasn’t as though he didn’t want soone as powerful as Noctis to train him, after all, he knew nothing about the world beyond the wastelands, but the problem was how a ghost was planning on training him.
Absalom gave a cheeky smile. "Of course, your master. If you sign a contract to obey for the next year, I’ll make you into a being that far surpasses ."
Hinata thought over his words for a long mont.
If it was truly possible for Noctis to train him, he might have just stumbled upon a fortuitous encounter. Not only was Noctis the forr owner of the shadow core, but he had reached a realm far above what normal awakened could and was strong enough to leave wisps of his spirit inside that core, wisps that had been mistaken for a god.
However, Hinata knew he couldn’t sign a contract with Noctis, considering how unhinged the man was. It wasn’t out of the realm of possibility that he could very well torture him.
A little ti passed before Hinata finally spoke, gesturing with his hand. "I get the part about being your disciple, but why do I have to sign a contract?"
Absalom blinked. "Well," he said, shifting his weight awkwardly. "The training is going to be very harsh and draining. I won’t want you to give up halfway or stop showing up, hahaha..."
’This old bastard is suspicious as hell.’ Hinata kept the thought to himself, since in a way he too wanted to train under Noctis. "I’m not the type of person to give up," he stated. "If you agree to teach , contract or not, I won’t skip training..." A smile crept up his face as he added, "It’s for mine and your daughter’s safety, after all."
Absalom’s eyes widened before he began pinching the bridge of his nose, his expression tight with discomfort.
Hinata just smiled.
Honestly, he wasn’t fond of Lilith, nor had he forgiven her for what she did when he ca to the pleasure house. However, since Tamara had already forced him into an engagent with her, it wasn’t a bad idea to use it to his advantage.
Absalom’s lips pressed together tightly, jaw clamped shut. With a slight, stiff nod, he conceded. "Fine..." he answered hesitantly. "Since it’s for my daughter’s sake, I can agree. Though you have to promise to bring her here a few tis."
Hinata nodded.
Absalom let out a slow smile and turned his gaze toward the sky. "I guess I have to start preparing then."
"Are you starting today?"
Absalom shook his head. "It isn’t possible to start today. You’ll have to go back ho and return a week from now. Better bring enough food for three days. From then on we’ll keep rotating it like that."
Hinata nodded again. ’That’s doable, I guess. It isn’t like I plan on leaving Falmouth anyti soon.’
Without enough information, the road forward would always lead to a dead end. Besides, he still had a lot to figure out about his ability before heading for the outer zone.
Since only humanoid beasts could be found in the wastelands, and Lilith had never co across any other species except a few elentary ones, which Hinata had used for evolution in her dream realm, he couldn’t further evolve any of his other abilities.
Hinata raised his gaze and instinctively lurched back. Absalom was staring at him, his face twisted into the most hideous expression he had ever seen.
"You scared ."
Absalom mimicked Hinata’s words with a mocking lilt, exaggerating each syllable with a wide, cartoonish gape of his mouth.
Hinata’s gaze went flat. ’Am I making the right choice right now?’
He couldn’t even imagine spending a few hours with the old, young-looking man, so how was he supposed to survive three days of this, repeatedly?
Hinata couldn’t help but sigh. Perhaps this was the heavens’ way of handing him a great tribulation or a path to enlightennt.
If it was a path to grow stronger and better understand witchcraft, magic, and sorcery, he would take it even if it led straight to the devil.
Absalom, noticing the calm settled in Hinata’s eyes, smiled with quiet pride. "So what are you going to do in the anti?"
"Well," Hinata answered, "I’ll probably go back to the city and train a bit."
Absalom conjured a chair out of thin air and dropped into it. "Good for you. It’s always helpful to understand your power before pushing it further. Though I do have a mission for you."
Hinata folded his arms across his chest. "What’s that?"
Absalom grinned. "I want you to expand your current territory."
"What?"
Absalom’s expression didn’t waver in the slightest. "You heard right. So you see kid, there are three ways of entering the outer plains." He raised one finger. "The first is to grow stronger while you’re still young, or demonstrate extraordinary ability in tournants or during wars, so that factions from the outer zone take notice of you." He raised a second finger. "The second is to affiliate yourself with a church’s branch. Once they trust you and finish brainwashing you, you’ll be allowed to cross over."
He fell silent for a long stretch, prompting Hinata to ask, "And the last one?"
Absalom smirked. "Do what any other psychopath would do. Align with a church, expand your territory, betray that church, seize their territory, lure their allies out to the wastelands, and make it their burial ground. After all, the rule of the heavens is simple. Whatever happens in the wastelands stays in the wastelands."
Hinata’s gaze darkened. "Isn’t that plan too brazen?"
Absalom glanced at him from the corner of his eye. "If you hate it so much, why are you grinning?"
Hinata pressed his hand to his lips and felt how wide they had spread. Even knowing it, he still couldn’t hold it in. ’Am I going crazy?’
Absalom scoffed. "Seems you have a crazy obsession with defying others, you sadistic psycho."
’Am I really a psycho?’ Hinata wondered, finding the idea strangely appealing.
The first two plans ant basically selling himself out. The gods would use him like a pawn and discard him once he was useless. The last one, though? Sothing about it was weirdly intoxicating.
It wasn’t the most rational plan, that was for sure, but it sure as hell sounded like a lot of fun.
Hinata tilted his head, an innocent, almost angelic smile settling across his face. "Then I better get started, don’t you think?"
Absalom forced out a smile. ’This kid is crazier than I ever was.’ A shiver ran down his spine, as he too tried to hide his grin. ’You bastards thought you did well by killing . Now an even crazier monster is about to co for your heads.’
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