God Of Crafting

"It seems like I've come a bit late, didn't I?"

Chihiro, just like the rest of himself, was beaming.

It felt as if his very presence suddenly multiplied many times over, growing all the more profound, all the more real in my spiritual view.

"And well, I'm sure you guys won't agree to it, but I would like to recommend for everyone to stay as you are. I know you think I don't have the right to request that," Chihiro breathed out before fixing his gaze on Dickins' face, "but if you could just hear me out for a moment."

'This is… strange…'

Silently trying to hold my breath, not to let Claire squeeze the rest of it out of my chest, I stared at her father, baffled by the sight.

'He really looks nothing like usual…'

This wasn't only a feeling by now.

Right before my eyes, Chihiro wore a complicated expression I had never seen on his face before, all the while acting much meeker than I would expect him to.

"What is it?" Dickins barked, somehow able to hold back his raging emotions when faced with the weirdly pleasant yet oppressive aura surrounding the man.

"Judging by the scale of this disaster, the sages' council is sure to get involved. And they will examine every mark, every spiritual residue, every tiniest element."

Chihiro explained in a calm, controlled tone.

"And for every detail in this place that's left by you… by us, they will use it to pin the blame accordingly."

"So this whole thing will get properly investigated and dealt with?" Dickins countered, locking his arms on his chest. "Sounds good to me, so why do you care so much?"

Chihiro squinted his eyes a bit; the look on his face softened as if he suddenly found a whole reservoir of sympathy for the policeman.

"Because as of now, it is most likely decided for this event to be marked for operational cover."

A man, one of the group's officers, stepped out from behind Dickins' back.

"And how would that be?"

Chihiro's smile grew slightly wider.

"Major Nova, it's a pleasure," he greeted the man whose rank, as it turned out, was two whole degrees higher than Dickins', whom I took for the operation's leader thus far.

"Don't give me that," the senior-staff officer cut Chihiro's small smile off, actually forcing him to assume a more serious look again.

"Any moment now, one of you should be getting a call from the chief of staff with the new classification for the whole operation we rightfully withheld any information about until receiving the green light from his desk."

Chihiro didn't hesitate even for a second when bringing out the big guns.

'To think that I believed having a connection with my uncle would be significant…' I thought, taken aback by the sudden news.

Officer Nova, however, merely raised his eyebrow while mimicking Chihiro's pose and closing his arms over his chest.

"Stop bullshitting me. As if something that big could ever evade my ears…"

Ring! Discover stories with m,v l'e-NovelFire

This wasn't the sound of a phone calling.

No police officers would be dumb enough to keep their phone off silent mode while on an op.

It was the slightest of sounds, a vibration spreading through the air, a vibration I could track thanks to my spiritually-enhanced senses.

Nova's face darkened a little.

Then, against my expectation, he actually reached to his back pocket and pulled out his cell, only to throw one glance at its display and then have his face darken even further.

Saying no word, he raised the phone to his ear before tapping to accept the call.

"Major Nova reporting," he threw silently into the phone, finally pouring a bucket of cold water over all those who still had any plans to disobey Chihiro's request and move.

For a moment, officer Nova simply nodded his head while listening to the voice coming through the phone, a voice way too silent for me to catch.

"Yes, I understand," he finally said before nodding his head again. "I will pass it on."

With this, the short call came to an end, leaving the hall in a state of even greater freeze than it was following Chihiro's request.

"It seems you were telling the truth," Nova sighed while shaking his head a bit. "What is going to become of this place, then?" he asked while looking around at all the scrapped corpses, destroyed machinery, devastated power plant…

The major then raised his eyes back to Chihiro.

"It's not going to be easy covering it up, you know? And there's no way we can avoid any news from leaking."

'Wait, what?'

Taken aback by the development, I breathed out… only for Claire to remind me of her presence as she squeezed down on my chest even harder, burying her face right in my shirt, refusing to let go.

'Are they seriously thinking about…' I gulped my saliva down as I looked around myself, 'covering it all up? But if so, then why?'

I gulped my saliva down.

'Why would you even want to cover this whole incident up?!'

This was the greatest opportunity to just go and dismantle the whole clan that set this event to happen. The guys that so relentlessly pushed against my factory project, even though they likely had no clue what it was all about to begin with.

And now… Chihiro wanted to have it all covered up?

"I will explain later," as if sensing my doubts, Chihiro turned to face me and nodded his head, only for his eyes to turn slightly hostile when he saw just how desperately Claire clutched onto me. "For now, however, good job," Chihiro suddenly changed the topic, catching me off guard again.

'Why would he…'

Then it hit me.

The change to his vibe, the words just now… even the fact that he actually came out of the factory along with Claire, who I was sure would do everything in her power to keep the process going by whatever means necessary even if the power went out…

"So it… it worked…" I muttered, finally feeling as if all my strength suddenly vanished from my flesh.

Chihiro, by every means I had to check it, has advanced to the tenth and last stage of mortal cultivation. And according to the timeline we worked on, he did so with some time to spare before his deadline!

Still, while it was great that he advanced, just what could be so important for him to forego this advantage he had over Cassandra's clan…?

"Oh, on that point, Cassandra came to warn us about the power plant. Unless she took off running, she should still be around somewhere…" I added, hoping to fill Chihiro in on the important details of my end of this whole scenario before my missing strength would culminate in me outright passing out.

"That's great," Chihiro nodded his head, only to throw me a slightly intense look.

'Oh, I better shut up now,' I thought, realizing how exhaustion was making my thinking patterns convoluted… thus rendering me much more likely to speak more than absolutely necessary on the matters that by all means had to stay private.

'I guess that's what this whole cover-up is all about too,' I realized.

Since we were to expect an investigation from the spiritual council of sages or something, they would surely wonder what made Cassandra's grandfather so desperate to interfere so much in.

And now that Chihiro involved the chief of staff of the joint services, the fourth man in the country in the central military hierarchy, this matter was no more just a local investment protected by the mayor.

This has now become a matter of national security, with how I've managed to turn the advantages of technology into advantages in cultivation.

'In other words, I've pretty much stolen the trump card of the spiritual world and sold it off to my own government…' I thought, as I realized the long-reaching consequences of my discovery.

In ten years, if my technology would grow like nothing before, there would be no reason for people to wish to enter the spiritual world for any other purpose but sightseeing or family visits, with how the modern side of the world would enjoy both the benefits of technology… and the benefits of all the practically free cultivation the technology evolved from what we just accomplished in the factory would provide.

"Hey, Claire…" feeling even more overwhelmed now that I've noticed quite a lot more points to worry about, I couldn't hold myself upright for much longer.

"Mhmm?" Keeping her face pressed against my chest, Claire merely muttered to communicate she heard me.

"I think I'm about to drop, so if you could hold me up starting right… next…"

Before I could even finish my request, the last ember of my strength went out, dropping all of my weight down into Claire's feeble arms… only for her not to have even the faintest problem with holding my body up with ease.

"You've worked hard, didn't you?" Claire whispered as I felt my consciousness slipping. "It's okay, just rest now," she continued to whisper as if to soothe my passage into the realm of dreams. "I will wake you up once it's all done."