Aethernea : Soulbound [Book 1]

Episode 93 - Anti-theft

Previously:

Elaru gives Kiel the ring she had made for him two days ago. It had now been enchanted with the spell she had designed and mystified. She claims that she thought about everything and no one would be able to tell that his artifact was fake. She also claims that Venric Rroda won't take this artifact away from him.

* * *

Inexplicably, Kiel suddenly had a bad feeling. "What do you..." Kiel tugged on his ring. "...mean?" He stopped talking and instead concentrated fully on taking his ring off. He tugged, pulled, and twisted for a whole minute before his hands stilled.

He turned to Elaru and looked at her with his signature ice cold glare. "El...a...ru...why... can't... I... take... it... off...?" He pronounced every syllable clearly in a most chilling voice he could muster.

"Ah! I forgot to mention! It also comes with anti-theft function." Elaru's face blossomed into a most wonderful smile, completely oblivious to the murderous chill being directed her way.

"...in other words... no one can take it off... including me?"

"Handy, isn't it? Since even you can't take it off, it means that your family can't force you to hand over the ring."

I should have known!! She always has a trick up her sleeve! The temperature in the room was rapidly dropping, the air turned stifling, yet Elaru still continued smiling as if nothing was going on. Kiel brought his right hand to their eye level, showing his ring. Through gritted teeth, he spat out. "'Handy' isn't the word I'd use."

Seeing Kiel's twitching hand that seemed to want to wrap around her neck and strangle her, Elaru unexpectedly started giggling. "It's about your hand, so I think 'handy' fits quite nicely."

The relatively calm atmosphere in the room was instantly shattered by a loud slam of Kiel's hand against the table. "I can't believe you thought that making a ring that can't be taken off was a good idea!!"

"It's not that it can't be taken off... I mean, there are ways to get it off..."

"Like what?" Kiel growled.

Elaru scratched her head sheepishly.

"Like having someone cut off my finger for the sake of obtaining my "divine artifact"?!" Kiel spat out. If eyes could kill, Elaru would have been deader than dead.

The red-headed troublemaker, however, showed no sign of being agitated. She rubbed her chin in thought. "Easier said than done. It is stuck to the base of your finger. It's practically impossible to cut your finger off. All attempts would just end up cutting either your hand or the ring instead of your finger."

Kiel stared at Elaru in a complete lack of words. As if she didn't notice his gobsmacked expression she continued: "Although, to be honest, if someone wanted your ring that badly, it would be easier to just cut off your entire hand at the wrist." She then proceeded to make a chopping motion with her hand. "And then, just disintegrate the hand, leaving only the ring behind."

With a violently twitching eyebrow, Kiel stared at Elaru in silence for several seconds before he finally managed to squeeze out: "How reassuring... instead of losing a single finger, I lose an entire hand..."

Elaru attempted to give Kiel a reassuring pat on the back, but when she saw his expression, which looked like that of a rabid lupax that would bite her hand off if it came in his proximity, she decided against it. "I hate to break it to you, Iceblock. But if you run into someone crazy enough to cut off your hand, the chances are that they are crazy enough to kill you too. If you're dead, it would make little difference whether you are missing a finger or a hand."