Heart Enchantment Seal

Ares was teleported to one of Zanuki's mansions at the outskirt of the capital. He planned to directly give Rodriguez to his grandpa but unknowingly the moment he arrived, he was greeted by someone he didn't expect.

"Grand, what are you doing here?"

"Because I wanted to see what my favorite most troublesome brat is up to," Grand said while staring at Ares as if she was looking at a mischievous kid who act like he did nothing after breaking the window.

"....." Ares who knew he wasn't someone eloquent decided it's better to not say anything.

"Oh my~ It seems you brought back something again this time and it's human. What do you want to do with him?" Grand asked as if it was something funny.

"I want to give him to grandpa for interrogation"

"Heh my ability is far superior than any interrogator in this empire," Grand said calmly.

"Ok" Ares responded perfunctorily.

"Tskk, Come here"

It was unknown how but Ares suddenly felt his golden metal chains that were sealing Rodriguez suddenly move closer to Grand as if following Grand's order.

"Heh, interesting isn't it?" Grand said with a shallow smirk.

'What the-'

"This is my sealing technique, the Heart Enchantment Seal. Just now I only use a bit of it to control your technique without influencing your mind" Grand explained.

"....." I never thought the sealing technique could be used this way.

"I already explained to you that our family sealing techniques are unique from one another. The one you are using only the basic and you can make your own special sealing technique just like mine. "

While explaining, I saw Grand taking out a magic rope from her spatial bag and letting her butler tie up the half-conscious Rodriguez.

"Do you want to see what else my ability could do?" Grand offer.

It was obvious what I would answer, "Yes"

At that moment, we were sitting in the backyard garden of the mansion. Laying Rodriguez on the ground, Ares could sense the ground around him started to get warmer as if someone just had poured warm water on it.

He could see Grand's hands wrapped in a reddish aura before she put her hands on top of Rodriguez's head.

"Tell me your name" Grand started asking.

"Rodriguez Arno"

"What have you just done?"

"I tried exploding the plaza in front of those rotten noble and goody-two-shoes emperor and the royal family hehehehe.."

"What is the group you affiliated with?"

"It's the erghhhhh arghhh!"

Out of nowhere, Rodriguez started wailing in pain, and Grand didn't seem shocked in the slightest.

Ares who was in the midst of recording a video of the interrogation was stunned by the sudden development that happened.

"What happened to him?" Ares asked.

"It seems there was a trigger put in his mind. Once he tried saying something about his organization, it will immediately corrupt his mind and make him crazy" Grand explained as if it was something expected.

"So what should we do?"

"Nothing could be done since it already corrupted his mind. The only thing I could do is sealed everything and let someone crack his subconsciousness and trace any fragments of memories he had left" Grand said shrugging her shoulders lightly.

Mind corruption and instant suicide spells are the few commonly used spells among the villains' groups towards their underlings to avoid information leakage.

"So your ability could make someone confess everything to you?"

"Yes, sort of. I could use this ability to make people feel good about me and make them feel I'm the best" Grand said somewhat narcissistically.

'What a useful ability but how could you use it on other than humans?'

Seemingly could see what Ares was thinking, "When I fought monsters, usually they will instantly feel scared with me making it easier to kill them."

"Ohh I see"

Ares thought that it was no wonder when he checked the list of the current Supreme rank, his Grand's name, Zandra Zanuki was on the list. She could control people's feelings and abilities, which seems too overpowered.

"But it isn't the same with mind control. I can't control anyone's mind but move their heart how I want them to feel"

'Still a cheat-like ability no matter from what angle you looked at it.' Ares thought.

Watching Rodriguez writhing in pain, Ares called the other Shadows to move him inside the special mana restriction cage and sent him to grandpa since there was nothing else he could do.

This was the deal he made with grandpa, no matter what happened he had to give anything or anyone he get out of the incident to grandpa to be handled appropriately.

"It seems you are more proficient now in using your aura but don't push your body around too much," Grand suddenly said glancing slightly at Ares's bloodied palm.

'It's not like I'm purposely running around searching for troubles. Troubles always seem to happen around me even though I'm not the protagonist'

"Yes I know" Ares replied obediently.

"Go inside, treat your injury, and take the holy shower. It's been a while since you last do that aren't you"

Holy Shower

It's the term Grand used when I have to add a few things to my water bath. At first, when Grand taught me how to do it, I was skeptical but then I kind of enjoy it.

That's why I would take the Holy Shower once every week at least.

Entering the bathroom, Ares started to prepare specific holy water to use for bathing.

[Formula: A tub half full of holy water, 100g of evening Primrose, 60g of Shadows Flower, 20g of Pearl Powder, 0.1g of Gold Leaf. Mix and infused some mana into it.]

Soaking inside the 2.5-meter-long white marble bathtub, Ares closed his eyes as he felt his body become more relaxed. His body felt more comfortable and his mind seem to ease from stress.

He looked at all the scars and burn marks all over his body but as always his focus wasn't on them but instead on the circular-shaped tattoo on the center of his abdomen.

Until now he only knew the tattoo was a sealing tattoo to seal his unstable power. Currently, only half of the seal had been released to train his body more efficiently.

But he didn't know what would happen if someday someone fully release that tattoo.

'Will Ares go berserk?' That's what he always think every time he pondered about the issue.

"Fuhh I need to learn more about this world and I can't rely on what I read in the novel. The novel only showed Cedric's point of view and he isn't omnipotent let alone omniscient."

*********************

"The disastrous terror incident that happen earlier today have been put under control when authority managed to kill the leader of the terrorists and catch a few of its members for interrogation...."

The voice of the female news anchor reverberated across the silent room. A few blur silhouettes could be seen sitting in silence while facing each other.

"Those bastards think that they would succeed in the attack would they?" Suddenly someone breaks the suffocating silent atmosphere.

"There is a slight possibility of success thus it wasn't hard to know why he do it"

"Rodriguez is a crazy dog. No one was able to properly put a leash on him. It's better that he caused his own demise without affecting the organization," another person said solemnly.

"But it was shocking seeing those red hair bastards involved in this."

At that moment the screen in front of them was showing the figure of a white-haired lady that have a few red hair strands standing behind a podium, giving a speech.

"As the former Zanuki matriarch, I'm giving my most sincere condolences to the bereaved families who unexpectedly died during the incident. I also could feel the sadness and worries as my own great-grandson almost became one of the victims. Hereby the Zanuki decided to cooperate with the Royal family-"

Zandra Zanuki, a Supreme rank warrior mage.

Everyone in the room knew there was a reason why that old lady who was supposed to be enjoying her retirement suddenly came into the spotlight.

"It's her damn ability again!" One of the figures curses in fury.

Currently, the empire was in a state of slight panic. The citizens were scared and anxious.

Since the criminals dared to attack the royal family publicly, what would happen to the citizens, especially the commoners.

There were also a few protests going on in some big cities in the empire, addressing and criticizing the responsibilities and priorities of the royal family and the nobles.

A video had gone viral where the royal knights and mages were too focused on protecting the royal family and the nobles that causing many commoners to be neglected.

The result: All the casualties were commoners

It enraged the public thus causing the protest. If it wasn't addressed well, there might be riots across the empire.

However it was unknown what the royal family did, the Zanuki who always stay silent and acted indifferent suddenly decided to stand in front and appeased the public.

That's why Zandra Zanuki was there. Her ability to enchant people's hearts was effective as long as you were not deaf. Even if she didn't talk to you directly, it's enough to just hear her voice and you would feel better about the situation.

The more your emotions were invested in the incident, the more effective her ability affected you.

"Sigh, I thought we could at least take advantage of the mess to slip through but it seems Rodriguez's effort is in vain," another voice said after a deep sigh.

"So what should we do next?"

"What else, just continue with the plan. Nothing will change even if this kind of unexpected thing happened and Hargan wasn't our main target initially."

"But many of our sub-organizations have been ambushed by unknown forces. Should we-"

"Those worthless pieces of shit can be replaced anytime. Don't make me say the same things twice."

"Yes, I'm sorry."

"So should we start hunting?"

"Not yet."

"We need to see if the first initial plan succeeds before proceeding to the next step."

"You guys are too careful. Why not just crushed those red-haired bastards first then proceed?"

"I said Hargan is not our target! Is it so hard to understand?!"

"Whoa relax man. I'm just saying. No need to be so worked up"

"Proceed carefully. We can't afford to be reckless like Rodriguez."

"So how about your disciple?"

"He's already on the move."

After that, another moment of suffocating silence appeared since the discussion seemed to finish.

One by one the silhouettes vanished into thin air leaving only one figure left.

Meanwhile, Ares was currently being dragged to the Royal palace to directly receive an award for his contribution during the plaza incident. However, instead of directly meeting the emperor he sneak away and unknowingly reached a place that looked like a luxurious hospital.

"Ah it's the Royal Hospital" Ares muttered before he decided to walk away.

Currently, there were many people walking around the area and most of them were those who were injured during the plaza incident.

He was forced to come along and helped to uphold the Royal family image as among the videos during the terror attack that went viral, there was one particular video of him.

It was unknown who recorded it but it went viral almost instantly and that was also why the Zanuki decided to step up.

The restless citizens were grateful at least for them the prominent noble families were reliable and would protect them selflessly.

Ares in the video seemed to protect the people by directing the bomb to the air and also helped intimidate the remaining terrorists with the weapons around him.

To be honest, he took those weapons and made them surround him so he could protect HIMSELF. He never really thought of protecting the people.

The reason he warned the mages from SMT, is because he would be paid generously and might even score a regular customer.

However, due to the video, he suddenly became a selfless and noble savior.

He felt cringed every time he listened to people talking about him when he knew too well that he wasn't the same as what they thought he was.

He just wanted money and that was why he decided to sell the mana bombs that they took to those mages.

"How much should I reaped from those spell casting bunches?" Ares muttered while strolling around casually.

Suddenly someone seemed to call him, "Masked brother! Wait!"

Sensing that it was a kid's voice, Ares turned around and saw a familiar boy around 7 or 8 years old.

"...." Ares tilted his head since it was obvious this brown-skinned and brown hair kid with black eyes was actually calling him.

There was a toy that looked like a transformer or a mecha-like toy in his hands.

"It really is you. The kind-hearted villain brother," the kid said while grinning innocently.

Hearing that, Ares was even more confused thus two figures, one small and one tall were staring at each other with different impressions on their faces.