Chapter 409 Brothers Reunited
One month later.
Lucian had gone to investigate the Martin family, so Zara decided to call and ask how things were going. For some reason, however, he did not answer.
Zara stared at her phone.
He hadn't managed to get himself into trouble while investigating something again, had he?
Lucian was an extremely busy man. Even while undergoing tests at the hospital, he never turned off his phone. Besides dealing with everything here, he always had plenty of work to handle, so shutting it off was practically unheard of.
The call was going through. He simply was not picking up.
After thinking it over, Zara called Lucian's secretary instead.
The answer she received was unexpected.
"Mr. Martin stepped out, but I'm afraid I don't know where he went."
In other words, even his secretary had no idea.
Zara was surprised. "Did he say where he was going?"
The secretary thought for a moment. "No."
Lucian had seemed perfectly calm when he left the office, and he had not been gone long. The secretary had not expected Zara to call and ask about him so soon.
Zara ended the call.
She clicked her tongue and released her vital essence to search for Lucian.
She was not worried about him, of course.
The main problem was that he was carrying half her power inside him. If something serious happened and the power returned to her, Lucian would be a goner, and inheriting his fortune under those circumstances would leave her feeling rather uncomfortable.
Besides, he had not even drawn up a proper will yet!
Zara had spent plenty of time around Lucian. She had never placed vital essence directly inside him the way she had with her family, but she should still have been able to locate him without much difficulty.
This time, however, the moment her vital essence spread outward, it vanished without a trace.
There was only one possible explanation.
Lucian was no longer in Magior.
Zara stared blankly ahead.
What the hell was going on?
There was no way her abilities had failed, but Lucian could not possibly have left Country A in the space of a single morning, could he?
Frowning, she called Allen and asked him to use modern technology and official resources to track Lucian down.
******
Meanwhile, Owen encountered someone he had not expected to see.
He was just leaving home to report for work at the base. The base had arranged for him to live in an older residential complex, and in theory, no one should have known who he really was.
Yet the moment he stepped through the gate, he saw an unexpected figure waiting outside.
The man had a fairly handsome face and wore a white lab coat. He was of average build, but there was something almost otherworldly and refined about him.
Owen stopped in his tracks.
The man looked over at him, the faintest hint of a smile playing at the corners of his mouth.
Owen sighed softly. "So you found me after all."
Valerius smiled. "You've gotten very good at hiding over the years, Brother."
He looked Owen up and down. "You certainly look nothing like you used to. Even after confirming it several times, I still had trouble believing you'd let yourself become this."
Owen's current appearance was the complete opposite of everything he had once been. It was an image his former self would never have tolerated.
Apparently, he had been willing to go to extraordinary lengths to conceal his identity.
After all, Valerius knew what his brother had valued most back then.
His face.
Owen tilted his head. "Forget it. Let's find a coffee shop and sit down. If we talk here, people are going to think we're crazy."
An older woman passing by with a grocery basket happened to notice Valerius. Her cheeks actually turned pink. "My, aren't you a handsome young man?"
Valerius fell silent.
Then he nodded and accepted Owen's suggestion.
As Owen led him away, he glanced around casually and asked, "Where's your wife?"
"She set her sights on Pyrelion. He refused her advances, and she got herself killed."
Owen paused. "...Judging by their kind's lifespan, Pyrelion only reached adulthood recently, didn't he? Your wife's taste was certainly unconventional."
Valerius smiled and inclined his head. "It worked out well enough. How could I openly keep my mistress around while she was still alive?"
Owen had no response.
After all these years, they had both become thoroughly jaded men of the world.
What had society come to?
Once they were seated in the coffee shop, Owen got straight to the point.
"How did you find me?"
Valerius replied, "Brother, have you forgotten? The Upper Realm still possesses plenty of sacred artifacts, many of which are beyond anything you could imagine. You took the most important one. Are the rest of us not allowed to use what remains?"
Owen frowned. "Don't you know that using the Upper Realm's sacred artifacts comes at an enormous price?"
Nothing that powerful came without consequences.
Soraya's case was a perfect example. That artifact had been created through bloodshed, so anyone who used it would inevitably have to pay a price.
Valerius shook his head. "That's where you're wrong. If the price buys me dominion, then a small sacrifice is nothing."
Owen studied him for a long moment before giving a quiet laugh. "You already have the position you wanted. What more are you after?"
Valerius waved a hand, took out his phone, and scanned the table's QR code to place an order. "Relax. Let's have some coffee and take our time."
Owen watched how smoothly he did it, and the corner of his mouth twitched. "I didn't expect you to adapt to life here so well."
His younger brother had always loved putting on airs.
But now that he was on Earth, even Valerius had learned to follow local customs.
He even asked politely, "What would you like?"
"Anything."
"Then have some water."
Owen fell silent.
Valerius was not joking. He ordered only for himself.
Owen did not care enough to argue about it. He simply returned to the subject. "What are you here for? You know I pose no threat to you now."
He had completely abandoned any intention of returning to the Divine World, and his body would no longer allow it anyway.
He could not even restore his original appearance.
Valerius smiled faintly. "You went to extraordinary lengths to protect her."
Owen's pupils contracted.
Valerius continued at a leisurely pace. "Do you know the greatest mistake you made, Brother? You had such a powerful weapon in your hands, yet you refused to use it against the mystic beasts."
Valerius added, "You knew perfectly well what the situation was between us and them. Why have you never once put the Upper Realm first?"
"Put it first?" Owen clearly disagreed. "You know that the mystic beasts ruled that world from the beginning. If our ancestors hadn't reached an agreement with them, humanity would have become their slaves long ago."
Owen added, "The balance we have now was difficult enough to achieve, yet you still dream of subjugating them?"
"Brother!" Valerius said earnestly. "You're far too rigid. That's why you made such a disastrous decision."
Valerius added, "If you hadn't sealed her power and transferred half of it into someone else, none of these problems would exist now."
Owen seemed to realize something. His expression changed sharply. "You..."
Valerius smiled. "We've spent decades cultivating this plan. Now it's finally time to close the net."
Owen's face went cold as the pieces fell into place. "You tampered with Lucian?"
But that should have been impossible.
Zara had noticed nothing.
Neither had Owen.
And there was no way Valerius could have known that Owen had transferred half of Zara's power into Lucian all those years ago.
How could he possibly have used that information?
"That's exactly why I call you rigid," Valerius said. "You never understood the importance of technology."
Valerius continued, "Do you really think we needed some mystical method to uncover what you did? Everything leaves traces. We only had to find them. For us, that was never difficult."
Owen said nothing.