Chapter 118
Getting ready to watch the upcoming match between his Kingdom and India, Pharaoh lazily rested his head on one hand. A small, amused smile tugged at his lips—he was satisfied with how the tournament had unfolded so far.
It was then the wind itself seemed to curl toward him, carrying a whisper only he could hear.
"Hey, Kei’s dad, can I ask you a question? …Owww, you stupid panda."
Pharaoh’s expression didn’t shift as he kept his eyes on the arena, though a faint sigh escaped him. His voice threaded directly into Kei Y’s mind, smooth and controlled.
"Impressive—you’ve managed to speak across distance without using aether transmission, subtle enough that others can’t detect it. What is it you want to ask, young one?"
Kei Y nearly spun in a circle, looking around frantically. "What the—?!"
A low chuckle echoed in his head. "You’ll learn this soon. Don’t panic. I won’t haunt you."
Kei Y continued, "Uh, okay? Anyway—if you knew what your wife did to your son, why haven’t you done anything to her?"
Pharaoh exhaled, eyes narrowing slightly but never leaving the field. "The politics of a kingdom are not so easily shifted, young one. The Queen’s status is… untouchable, even for me. Killing her would only destabilize the court, and in the end, it would not undo the damage already done. Besides…" His voice softened, weighed down. "I knew Kei hadn’t truly died. I’ve always kept my eyes on him."
Kei Y tilted his head, munching on something he’d bought from Auserre’s stall. "Yeah, I can get why Kei hates the lady—but why you? What did you do?"
His voice carried no hesitation, no fear of speaking so bluntly to a Pharaoh. Kei Y wasn’t bothered by the political weight behind the question—after all, he’d been dealing with politics since the age of ten, not on a small scale, but on the global stage. Compared to that, court drama in one kingdom didn’t impress him in the slightest.
Pharaoh’s lips pressed into a thin line. The question stung. "That young girl he brought close… her origins, her weakness, her lowly standing. It never sat right with me. And when the Queen whispered her concerns, I listened. I was cautious."
Kei Y crunched down noisily and said through a mouthful, "So you’re just a posh jackass?"
Pharaoh’s jaw twitched, but he forced composure into his voice. "Kei was destined for greatness, to stand at the pinnacle of this kingdom, the world even. I feared she would drag him down. I voiced my disapproval, believing I was protecting his future. And yet—he stood against me, for her. For a girl he had only just met, he defied me with a conviction I did not expect."
His gaze softened briefly as it drifted toward Mia in the arena. Her balance, her strength—despite her frail frame, she stood unshaken. "Looking back now… yes, I was shortsighted."
"Don’t forget foolish," Kei Y cut in.
Pharaoh’s temple throbbed, but he managed to swallow his irritation. "Yes. Foolish. And in the midst of our quarrel, the Queen acted. She crafted the toxin that ruined Kei’s body. By the time I realized… he had already fled with her."
The Pharaoh’s voice lowered, almost breaking. "I saw them escaping. He turned back once. His eyes were daggers—betrayal sharper than any blade. I could have stopped him… but I didn’t. Because in that moment, I knew. I had failed him when he needed me most."
His hand clenched on the throne’s armrest, a flicker of regret cracking through his regal mask.
Kei Y licked sauce from his fingers. "Still doesn’t answer why the broad is still alive."
Pharaoh sighed. "It is… complicated. And truthfully, I knew Kei would rather reap vengeance with his own hands. Letting her live ensured that."
Kei Y narrowed his eyes. "Feels like you’re leaving something out."
There was a long pause before Pharaoh muttered almost absentmindedly, "Also… the Queen is quite skilled in… marital affairs. Have you seen her mouth? The wonders it can do—"
He froze mid-sentence, the realization of what he had just said slamming into him. His face drained of color.
Kei Y blinked, baffled. "…Huh?" He tilted his head, then used a wisp of wind to whisper toward Auserre, "Hey old hag, what’s a mouth supposed to do? Pharaoh started smiling weird when he talked about it."
The moment Auserre heard the question, Pharaoh felt the air around him shift. Moisture in the air suddenly shifter, feeling unnaturally, sharp and suffocating. Even his own sweat felt like live explosives ready to detonate. His breath caught in his throat as he turned—
Auserre stood there, smiling sweetly. Too sweetly. Her eyes promised murder. "Go ahead," she said, her voice honey over blades. "Instead of telling my young student, why don’t you enlighten me on the wonders of what that airheaded Queen’s mouth can do?"
Pharaoh paled instantly. "Aus, it’s not what you think—!" His voice cracked, tears welling in his eyes. A heartbeat later, both he and Auserre vanished in a flash of movement.
Kei Y sat there, panda cub perched on his shoulder chewing happily. He scratched his head. "So is no one gonna tell me what that lady’s mouth can do?"
"Hehe, seems like you finally got her to kill that Break Force idiot," the Vendor’s voice slid into Kei Y’s head, smooth and amused. "Knew I liked you the first moment I saw you." A mental image of him giving a lazy thumbs-up flashed across Kei Y’s mind. "Been trying to get rid of that guy for ages, but master always kept interfering."
Kei Y blinked, utterly lost. "I don’t even know what’s happening right now," he admitted honestly.
"That’s fine," the Vendor chuckled, the sound echoing in his skull. "You’re a bit too young for the details anyway. Speaking of being too young—" his voice sharpened mischievously—"are you done using your Breeze Force to scan the crowd and eying their belongings?"
Kei Y flinched like a kid caught red-handed, nearly choking on the food he was chewing. "Why’re you so nosy? Mind your business!"
The Vendor’s laughter rang in his head, loud and unrestrained.
Kei Y grumbled, scratching his cheek, but his next words slipped out without much thought.
"Actually… I already transferred a few equipment pieces from their inventories to mine. They’ve got some really powerful stuff, high grades too. I’ve been studying the runes on them—they’re really neat."
He said it casually, like he was talking about pocketing loose change, but in the back of his head, he couldn’t shake how strangely familiar the Vendor’s teasing felt.
Meanwhile, in front of his stall, the Vendor violently choked mid-laugh, spraying spit over the skewers and soups he was serving. His hands slipped, ruining an entire tray of food. Customers recoiled in disgust as the Vendor slammed both palms onto the counter, eyes bulging.
"You did what?"
Kei Y tilted his head innocently. "Something wrong?"
"You just said—" the Vendor’s voice cracked, incredulous, "—you got into other people’s inventory and stole their stuff?"
"Yup," Kei Y nodded, completely unfazed.
The Vendor stared at him in absolute silence. His jaw clenched, his temples twitched. Finally, he exploded.
"…WELL HOW THE HELL DID YOU DO THAT?!"
"Oh. Since I got these eyes, I kept playing around with my inventory. Every time it opened or closed, I noticed runes floating around the edges. So I studied them. Eventually, I wondered if I could use my understanding of those runes do the same with other people’s inventories. Turns out, I could. And it’s really helpful that Breeze Force’s unnoticeable nature carries over—people don’t even notice their inventories being opened unless they’re actively paying attention. Just took some practice over time, really."
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
The Vendor’s brain short-circuited on the spot. His mouth opened, then closed, then opened again, no words forming. Runes? Inventories? That’s… tied to one of the highest tiers of Space Force. This brat just… learned it by poking around his damn inventory? His mind was spiraling into a breakdown.
Desperation hit him, and he managed to croak out, "Wait—who exactly did you practice this on?"
Kei Y blinked, then gave a sheepish smile. "You want your knife back?"
The Vendor froze, his eye twitching violently. He remembered that missing knife—hisfavorite knife—that he’d sworn he just misplaced a few days ago.
And now the brat was looking at him with a guilty grin.
Immediately, the Vendor vanished, dragging Kei Y with him.
Mia, who caught the flicker of their disappearance, blinked and then noticed both her King and Master vanish as well. Kei M had left the arena after his match to cool off and has yet to return. She sighed, as she pulled Olly into her arms.
"Guess you’re the grown-up here, Inpu. I’m hungry. Olly is too"
Inpu froze, his little body stiffening as if the weight of responsibility had just crashed onto his back. His wide eyes darted around, utterly lost, as though the words had sentenced him to carry burdens far beyond his years.
Meanwhile—
They reappeared in Auserre’s training grounds, the air whipping from the sudden teleport. The Vendor wasted no time—he hoisted Kei Y by the neck with one hand, the boy dangling helplessly, and with the other he pressed and prodded different spots across Kei Y’s face, as if trying to force something hidden to reveal itself.
"I’m too scared to ask what you’re doing," Kei Y muttered nervously, his voice trembling.
"I’m trying to get your eyes to activate," the Vendor replied gruffly, his focus unshaken. "I need to see something."
Panic jolted through Kei Y, and he hurriedly flared his Kaleidoscope Eyes to life. Brilliant colors whirled into being, forces flickering and overlapping like shifting glass. Every alignment he carried lit up, surging in a radiant dance, flooding the room with his presence.
The Vendor leaned in, eyes narrowing as he examined the boy’s gaze. He searched desperately for any hint—any sliver—of Space Force lingering in the kaleidoscopic depths. But no matter how hard he looked, there was nothing. Just the familiar forces he already knew Kei Y commanded.
If anything… something else caught his attention. Not nearly as numerous as the others, but still undeniable: fragments of Earth Force were multiplying inside those eyes. Small, steady signs of growth. Evidence of Kei Y’s slow but undeniable proficiency blooming in a force he had once barely touched.
The Vendor froze, his hand still hovering.
Slowly, he lowered Kei Y back to the ground.
The boy’s helpless, teary-eyed, trembling, scared expression stared up at him—the wide eyes of someone who had been manhandled without understanding why. The Vendor’s chest tightened, guilt cutting into him like a blade.
His shoulders slumped. "I’m… really sorry about that," he said at last. "I was surprised by what you managed to do, and I acted on impulse. I shouldn’t have been so rough."
For once, it wasn’t the teasing merchant or the sharp-tongued schemer speaking—it was a man honestly remorseful, bowing his head to a child.
Kei Y merely nodded at the apology, unsure of what else to do.
The Vendor, still guilt-ridden, sighed. "I really am sorry. It’s just… you tapped into an extremely advanced application of Space Force, and it shocked me. I shouldn’t have treated you like that."
"Uh, no, it’s fine," Kei Y replied. "I don’t even know anything about Space Force. The runes I saw when inventories opened and closed just… reminded me of when I fold into the wind currents to teleport."
The Vendor blinked. "Folding… into wind currents?" His voice cracked with disbelief. He remembered Kei Y mentioning it before to Auserre and Oceana—both of whom had dismissed it as nothing more than an odd quirk of his movement skill. But now, here the brat was, casually saying the technique reminded him of Space Force?
Kei Y shrugged like it wasn’t a big deal. "A monkey beat me up once. He kept doing that trick a lot, so I learned it from him and used it back on him." He said it casually, as if describing a playground scuffle.
The Vendor froze, his expression twisting. "…Monkey? You mean a Wind Force beast… beating you up?" His eyes narrowed, suspicion mixing with disbelief. "No ordinary creature could have done that. Only an Apex Boss could push someone like you that far."
His words grew more frantic the longer he spoke, his mind piecing things together. "But folding into the wind currents… that isn’t normal Wind Force manipulation. Most users twist the air for bursts, for acceleration… but folding into currents to vanish and reappear? What you’re describing sounds almost like… an Echo—"
The Vendor’s voice trailed off, his eyes widening as the realization hit him like a hammer.
He leaned forward, staring at the boy as if seeing him for the first time. "…Did you defeat an Expanse Apex Boss? That’s the only way you’d have encountered an Echo ability before ascension into the Ascended realm…" His voice dropped into a reverent whisper. "You… you actually fought and won against one? and also learned to use it's Echo?"
His face paled, awe mixing with horror. "A monster… to take down an Expanse Apex Boss on your own? Truly… a God Spark."
Kei Y tilted his head, blinking at the weight of the words. "Well, I had help from my creature companion," he corrected plainly.
"Later on," Kei Y continued casually, as if he were describing a walk to the market, "I managed to fold into the wind and drag another Expanse Apex Boss with me. Dropped it right onto a spear of vines Sanu conjured—skewered the thing clean through. Looked really cool."
The Vendor froze mid-breath.
Kei Y nodded to himself, recalling it with the same energy someone might use to describe a fun card trick. "That’s when I realized I could fold others into the currents against their will if I wanted to. I just… pull them along. So I started applying that same principle with the runes from the inventory. If the inventory gates are like folds, then all I have to do is slip my will through the opening and slide their stuff out. Really tricky, though—takes a ton of concentration."
The Vendor’s jaw went slack, his thoughts collapsing in on themselves.
Fold others against their will? He’s describing high-grade spatial binding like it’s nothing.
Using runes from an inventory as dimensional gates? That’s top-tier Space Force manipulation—something even experts barely dare attempt.
His hands trembled against his knees as he leaned forward, staring at Kei Y like he wasn’t sure if the boy was a prodigy, a monster, or the world’s biggest joke.
"You…" His voice cracked. "You dragged an Expanse Apex into a fold and… weaponized it?"
Kei Y tilted his head innocently. "Yup. Sanu got the kill, though. I just lined it up."
As if that somehow made the impossible sound casual.
"What’s an Echo?" Kei Y asked, tilting his head.
The Vendor sighed, folding his arms. "Throughout your journey, in every major cultivation realm—Mortal, Ascended, Divine—each breakthrough you make condenses everything you’ve experienced in that stage into something existence itself acknowledges. That crystallization becomes an Echo."
He gestured vaguely as if trying to pluck the right words from the air. "It’s more than just a technique. An Echo reflects your survival, your adaptability, every skill, instinct, and title you’ve earned up to that point. It grants an ability, either passive or active tied directly to your core talents and outlook on life—something unique that no one else can replicate."
"Like a personal stamp?" Kei Y asked.
"More like existence saying, ‘Yes, you lived through this, and here is the proof,’" the Vendor replied. "Even God Sparks like you with extremely high potential don’t get access to another being’s Echo ability. They’re unique windows into a force—ways of wielding it that only existence allows that individual to touch. In some rare cases, an Echo represents their entire outlook on life and manifests as such."
Kei Y began counting on his fingers. "Mortal, Ascended, Divine. So that means… three Echoes?"
"Yes," the Vendor nodded. "Or, more technically, First Realm, Second Realm, Third Realm Echoes. That Apex Boss you fought—the one that folded into wind currents—that was more than likely an Echo ability. It wasn’t just Wind Force. It was that creature’s survival carved into reality itself."
Kei Y blinked, unimpressed. "But we’ve been telling Master we don’t have issues with Apex Bosses."
The Vendor pinched the bridge of his nose. "She probably thought you meant the ones in the world. Apex Bosses here are rulers of their regions, strong but limited. An Expanse Apex Boss is different. The quality of aether in the Expanse allows even Recruit Class beings to develop Echoes. They’re the only creatures who can wield such abilities at that stage… and you killed one. They're the only ones who normally wield Echo abilities at such an early stage."
"Defeated." Kei Y corrected.
"Hehehe, Echo… Cardiogram," Kei Y giggled, clearly unbothered by the heavy explanation he had just been given. To him, the word sounded more like a medical procedure than a grand cultivation milestone.
The Vendor blinked. "Cardiogram? What’s that supposed to mean? You… you aren’t even taking this seriously, are you?" His voice pitched somewhere between confusion and exasperation.
Kei Y shrugged. "I don’t even know what’s happening right now. One moment I was eating, then I asked why the Queen isn’t dead, and before I know it I’m dragged back here again. Now you’re dumping future advancement theories on me."
The Vendor’s eye twitched. "Y-yeah, but that still doesn’t explain how you learned to use another being’s Echo!" His tone sharpened as his thoughts spiraled, trying desperately to piece together threads that refused to connect. It was like trying to solve a puzzle with missing pieces.
Kei Y thought to himself,
An idea sparked in his head.
He looked at the Vendor with mock seriousness. "Hey… if you die from shock after what I tell you, do I get experience points from your death?"
The Vendor froze, the blood draining from his face. His entire body gave a visible shiver at the child’s words, like someone had run an icy blade down his spine. "H-huh…?" he stammered.
Silence lingered for a long, uncomfortable moment before the Vendor finally exhaled, muttering under his breath. "Another Recruit Class who can actually use an Echo… Heh. Some odd quirk this world has with its luck." His voice was thin, like he was trying to convince himself it wasn’t as terrifying as it sounded.
But inside, his mind was breaking apart.
And the boy was sitting there… giggling about cardiograms.
"Can we head back? I don’t want to miss Sanu’s match," Kei Y asked.
The Vendor rubbed his temples, his head pounding from the whirlwind of revelations. "Uh… yeah, sure."
A flicker of movement, and the two vanished from Auserre’s training ground.
Moments later—
Kei Y was back at the stands with Mia and Inpu, slipping seamlessly into his spot as though he’d never left. The Vendor reappeared at his stall, furiously scrubbing and cleaning every corner in exaggerated motions for the crowd to see, loudly proclaiming his food was freshly prepared and sanitary.
Mia, her cheeks puffed like a chipmunk as she shoveled food into her mouth, glanced at Kei Y. "What was that about?" she mumbled through bites.
Kei Y shrugged, taking Olly back into his arms. "I don’t even know myself, to be honest."
"I’m broke," Inpu groaned miserably, staring at his empty coin pouch after buying Mia more food than he could afford.
"Huh? What’d I miss?" Kei M asked as he casually strolled back.
"Nothing much, I think," Mia replied cheerfully, still munching without a care in the world.