Chapter: 812
A part of him hoped that entering her secretive vampire school would accomplish both goals, but knew it wouldn’t be that simple or safe.
“Thirdly, power…?” he thought, scratching his chin.
Power was currently a necessity for his safety. Jay didn’t care about glory or praise, but he was starting to wonder - if he had all power and ruled over everything, what would he do?
If he changed laws, built grand cities and vineyards, and ushered the world into a golden age of prosperity, that would be good and everything - but what would be the point, ultimately?
Whether he destroyed the world or saved it, he could see no point in either, as it would all return to dust eventually… unless he took on the mantle of immortality.
“Yet If I ruled over all things, and set everything in place, what would I do?” he pondered, “I suppose first I should set my own life in place and put things in order before even attempting it in the lives of others. If I can’t even do that, what gives me the right to rule another?”
“Even so, what would I do?”
“…could my true desire be as simple as to live comfortably and peacefully…?” he frowned.
Jay almost wanted to mock himself at that thought.
Something felt so scandalous about having a motive as mundane and basic as that. He searched his mind and could only come up with revenge as another motive, but something about that seemed pathetic and small, and he didn’t really hate anyone enough to remember their name anyway.
“Plus, if I did kill someone out of revenge - then what? How long should I hold a grudge against a corpse? How long should an immortal hold a grudge - for one thousand years or a day?”
“As for living a peaceful life, power is merely a necessity for my continued comfort because of all the bastards that want me dead.”
Jay thought back to his life as a butcher, “Didn’t I have that peaceful life? Well… I suppose there were some struggles and boredom as a butcher.”
“Hmm… this adventurous life is not what I thought it was. It’s not something I can easily escape.”
“As for power, I don’t really see the point in gaining power for the sake of having it… though bending the world under my feet does sound compelling, I can’t see the point from an eternal perspective anymore…”
Jay thought about his immortality book, wondering what profound impact it may be having on his thoughts.
“But I doubt I could become the most powerful in this world. The best thing I can do is grow powerful while being unknown and hidden; if no one knows about me, no one will come looking to kill me, and there’s no guarantee my skeletons will be able to protect me in every situation.” He nodded.
“Yes… that’s the safest thing to do - even if I do end up having enough power to conquer the civilized world, it would be better to remain anonymous, or at most, rule from the shadows while using my skeletons as puppets.” He glanced at Lamp.
“I wonder if that’s what the royals do. Perhaps they are nothing but puppets themselves? Maybe they aren’t even real?”
A part of him was looking forward to seeing the looks on peoples faces if they got close enough to realize Lamp was a skeleton wearing a human skin suit, but if he thought of ruling from the shadows, who’s to say it wasn’t already happening?
“As for my first goal, Asra probably won’t just enter the vampire school and bring necromancy books to me, so I will probably have to go in if I want them - but then I’ll need to worry about my safety.”
“Her mind-control spell messed up, but what about a higher-level vampire? Maybe they will have stronger powers, which might actually work against me?”
“Yet even if they think I am under her control, would she even keep me safe - would she even be able to? Probably not.”
*Hiss!~*
Suddenly the thick root the skeletons were chopping burst open, detaching and spraying green fluid everywhere - yet it was not filled with parasites, only the green fluid.