Asher remained silent as he watched the back and forth between Finch and William as though it were a TV show; one didn’t need to even look at them for more than two seconds to understand that these two were childhood friends who had been like this since they were children, their dynamic filled with an effortless familiarity that only years of companionship could forge.

Asher didn’t speak; a bowl of cherries appeared in his hand as he ate and watched these two. Since he didn’t have any YouTube or gaming console here, the short drama between these two best friends would have to suffice for now, serving as a mildly entertaining distraction in an otherwise uneventful moment.

As Finch and William were bickering, Lior vanished from his seat and appeared beside Asher, sitting directly beside him. He took a handful of Asher’s cherries with an unbothered demeanor as he spoke, "So, tell me, what’s the deal with you, kid?" Lior asked as he ate the cherries while staring at Asher, his curiosity faintly evident despite his relaxed posture.

Asher stared at the positive Emovira before him; a smile couldn’t help but appear on his lips. Nobody would have dared to dip their hands into his bowl and take anything off his plate, but Lior had, completely unbothered. Clearly, the guy was clueless and oblivious to knowledge concerning the Wargraves or even Asher himself, a fact that Asher found mildly amusing.

"What do you want to know?" Asher asked, his thoughts shifting from William and Finch as he became more interested in the positive Emovira. After all, this was the only one he had ever seen, making Lior an existence worth observing more closely.

"According to my fat soul-bound friend, he said your own family is as ridiculous as you. Is that true?" Lior asked, as he wanted to confirm whether Finch had been exaggerating or not, his tone carrying a blend of skepticism and intrigue.

"Well, that’s true, as over ninety-eight percent of the people born within my family possess the potential to get to the Crownstar Life Rank," Asher replied without any form of hesitation. Of course, he wasn’t entirely certain about that particular percentage; after all, he had only heard about a few Wargraves who didn’t make it to the Crownstar Life Rank, making his statement more of an informed approximation than a precise figure.

Lior arched an eyebrow at the ridiculous number he had just heard, his chewing pausing for a moment as though he were trying to process the information.

He wasn’t clueless about the world anymore after spending over a month with Finch and William, but hearing that a family like the Wargraves existed still left him momentarily speechless, as it defied the natural expectations he had begun to form about power structures.

"If your words are true, why hasn’t your family taken over the Empire and remained a Ducal Family?" Lior asked, as though anybody who possessed such a bloodline shouldn’t serve another person, his question rooted in a logical assumption.

"How should I know? I’m just an eighteen year old kid," Asher replied with a shrug, though he could already guess that the Wargraves hardly cared about such titles and preferred the position they held at the moment, as though managing an entire Empire was more of an inconvenience to them than a desirable form of power.

"My turn," Asher spoke as he threw another cherry into his mouth. "Do you know any other positive Emovira?" he asked, his words calm and indifferent, as though he were asking a completely ordinary question.

Lior stared at Asher for a moment, as though he were trying to determine whether Asher intended to hunt down this supposed positive Emovira and become their master.

"What do you plan to do?" Lior asked, his eyes narrowing slightly as he remembered the adventurers that had injured him when he refused to submit to them.

"Nothing, actually, just curious," Asher replied, his tone unconcerned, giving away nothing of his deeper thoughts.

After a moment of silence, Lior replied, "I know a few, but of course I don’t know their locations," his tone calm, neither defensive nor particularly open.

Asher stayed silent for a moment, then asked, "How versed are you in secrets concerning your race?"

"What do you mean?" Lior asked, wondering where Asher was heading with this line of questioning, his curiosity gradually sharpening.

"I mean, if you know about the soul-binding process, I wonder what else you know," Asher continued, his tone flat, as though he were merely asking simple, surface-level questions, despite the depth implied.

"Just say what you want to say, kid," Lior stated, slightly impatient.

Asher met Lior’s gaze for a moment, then asked, "Do you know anything about the Emovirae of the Old? If they are still alive? Like maybe the first positive Emovira or the first negative Emovira, or as your kind call it, an affected?" his tone still as flat as ever, as though he wasn’t brushing against unknown and potentially dangerous secrets.

Lior stared at Asher with an even harder gaze. If before he had thought that Asher was the reincarnation of some ancient human and dismissed the idea, now he no longer dismissed it so easily. To Lior, children of Asher’s age weren’t supposed to think this far; they weren’t supposed to be this curious. William and Finch were perfect examples of what he expected.

"Kid, where did you hear such things?" Lior asked as he stared at Asher, his tone now far more serious.

Asher didn’t reply to the question; he only spoke, "So, you do know something..." his eyes flickering for a moment, a subtle shift betraying his interest.

Of course, Asher was simply making a guess; he didn’t know anything about an Emovira of Old or whatever such entities might entail. After hearing about ’The Consumed’ organization, the Sinvairas, and a few secrets from Malrik, Asher couldn’t help but wonder if there were some sort of Emovira of Old who were still alive and hidden away.

Maybe such Emovira were behind ’The Consumed’ organization. So he had simply asked, out of curiosity. After all, if Lior knew about the so-called soul-binding, he was also bound to know other things. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

"Also, are you really a Rank 5 Emovira?" Asher asked as he met the Emovira’s gaze, his tone more serious this time, no longer casual.

Lior stayed silent as he met Asher’s gaze, as though Asher had seen through something. He neither confirmed nor denied it; he simply stared at Asher, wondering if he was truly speaking with an eighteen-year-old kid.

He had moved toward Asher to talk about the overpowered Wargrave bloodline, but instead, Asher had shifted the entire discussion with just a couple of questions, turning the flow of conversation entirely in his favor.

"I’m guessing you aren’t that old in terms of Emovira age. After all, Emovirae that are old enough already possess sufficient world knowledge and lore, like information about the Empires and noble houses like the Wargraves. So you being curious about the Wargraves means you are young," Asher continued. "But I wonder, how many things are you lying about, or telling the truth about?" he concluded with chilling calmness, his voice steady yet subtly oppressive.