“Wow… who let pigs into the banquet?” A haughty young noble walked up to Cain’s table, followed by two groupees, one male and female. “...You are so, so late.” Cain said sarcastically. “Are you so deaf that you did not hear my statement earlier? A banquet is for eating, and yet you’re implying that we shouldn’t be eating? Are you just dumb or stupid?” Cain continued to ridicule the young noble while turning to face him, leaning his left side on the back of his chair.

The party observed from the sidelines while occasionally snacking on what little snacks remained, Veronica even sat up to watch the show. Her head kept bobbing up and down, so Cain converted her wine into soda. She hastily chugged it down to remain awake for what was to come.

—Group Chat: Cain, Dresil, Bob, and Rex— (13ms)

Rex: oooh, some new entertainment.

Bob: Indeed.

Dresil: Master, don’t overdo it.

Cain: Don’t worry, I’ve always wanted to play with a young master. So easy to mess with.

Dresil: :sigh:

Rex: Why did he even come so late?

Cain: He probably saw me dancing and was about to approach me, but had to wait until Freya left.

Rex: …coward.

--------------------------

“You dare ridicule me?! Do you know who I am?” The haughty noble yelled, gathering a small crowd. “Should I know who you are? Do you have posters around the capitol with your face on it so that everyone knows who you are?” Cain continued to mock and goad Hunter with a slight smirk. Hah… and here I thought 2d people didn’t exist.

“You da-” Hunter attempted to yell at Cain, but was interrupted by his sigh. Hunter immediately stepped back when he heard him, expecting something to happen. “Huh… so you know what I’m capable of and yet you still pester me? Also is your vocabulary so limited you can’t even form a complete sentence?” Cain gauged Hunter’s reaction, waiting for the right moment. C’mon little guinea pig…

“You…!” Hunter was about to speak but realized Cain’s words. He threw his right glove on the floor proclaiming, “Fight me in a duel!” Cain waved his head while eyeing a pastry, not even sparing Hunter a glance. “Nah, man. I’ve already had a duel two days ago. You nobles like gambling right? Let’s go with a bet instead.” Cain baited Hunter into his trap while also using his mana to pick up Hunter’s glove. The glove floated in the air as it returned to its owner, then slapped him several times across the face and dropped to the ground.

“Wow… even the glove knows how much the owner has misbehaved…” Cain mocked Hunter from the side, egging him on to accept his bet. Hunter’s face contorted in pure rage, almost becoming a tomato. “Fine! I accept! If I win, I get your familiar for a night.” Hunter stated while eyeing Dresil. Truly… he’s so stupid and one dimensional… Cain thought while gauging the audience’s reactions.

“You really accepted a bet without knowing what it was? Well… we’ll bet on whether or not you’re alive after I blow up your head. When I win you leave and never interfere or talk with us again.” Cain’s statement made some of the nobles who were in the meeting silently leave. Most of these nobles could not handle the scene of the first head that blew up and thus left before they embarrassed themselves again. “You dare kill the heir to the Shadowtrap family?!” Hunter’s male groupee yelled from the side.

“Seriously… you guys are so needlessly loud. He won’t die anyways.” Cain said while using SRI to open a portal from the Mana Storage. The scheduled portal appeared on top of the table, giving rise to a camera that Cain made from mana. “This camera here will record everything so no one can say ‘It’s a trick, it doesn’t count!’” Cain explained the usage of the camera while showing a video above it, large enough for everyone in the banquet to see it. It was a closeup of Hunter’s face when it was nearing tomato levels.

“Alright when do we start?” Hunter asked eagerly, spurred and blinded by the constant rage and embarrassment while also eyeing Dresil on the side. The female noble that walked up with Hunter mumbled, “What’s so great about that monster anyways? She’s not even as pretty as half of us here.” She didn’t bother to hide her jealousy, disdain, and contempt. Yet she spoke when the crowd of nobles were laughing or gossiping about Hunter’s face on the screen, trying to hide it to some degree. Cain raised an eyebrow and spoke before Dresil could do anything. The screen with Hunter’s face plastered on it disappeared at this moment.

“Oh? Is this before or after you dress your faces up with enough makeup to cover a dog? Even then it’s futile. Dresil still outmatches everyone here.” He paused to let the noble’s emotions build up while eating the pastry he eyed earlier. “Well… I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder. However, one thing every beholder can agree on, is that you use too much makeup.” Cain flicked a crumb of a cookie towards the female’s head as he said this. He encased it in mana to protect it from falling apart in transit, releasing the casing moments before impact.

The impact caused a shower of dust to fall from the lady’s face. Seconds later, the crowd realized that it wasn’t dust but makeup powder. Numerous gasps echoed off the walls, followed by some laughter. The peeress, in a moment of mindless fury, grabbed the nearest glass of wine from a tray and threw it towards Dresil. Cain caught the glass instinctually, but forgot to secure its contents since he was trying to suppress a laugh at the same time.

The wine spilled on Dresil’s chest and dripped onto her dress. Cain realized his mistake yet in a moment of peak frustration and a small tinge of anger, he accidentally released the disguise on the Mana Zone despite wanting to take care of the stain. The sudden revelation of 10 million mana suffocated and pressured those with low magic circles. To make matters worse, the mana in the air vibrated as it resonated with Cain’s mood, further increasing the havoc it wreaked.

[Master, that’s enough.] Dresil transmitted to Cain, immediately snapping him out of it.

—Dms: Cain and Dresil— (6ms)

Cain: Sorry, I don’t know what came over me.

Dresil: It’s alright, Master.

Cain: Create a layer of cloth or something under the stained parts then I’ll convert the stained parts into mana. You should be able to replace it with the layer underneath.

Dresil: Understood, Master.

--------------------------

Dresil blushed slightly, but it quickly faded and was replaced by her usual emotionless face. The two enacted their cleanup plan smoothly, to the point the nobles thought it just evaporated. The parts on Dresil’s bare skin were encased in a mana net and turned into mana smoothly. “Sorry about that. Let’s continue with the bet now.” Cain stated while placing the glass he caught on the table. Hunter tried back away, yet he was stopped by Cain’s words.

“Oh dear, are you trying to back out on your bet, even though you agreed to it with so many witnesses?” The nobles and the party eagerly awaited Hunter's reaction. They expected him to mock Cain or to command one of the two nobles that were beside him to do something. Only those who sat at Cain’s table could see Hunter’s frightened, pale face. They tried to stifle the laughter that was swelling up, but it did not go unnoticed by Hunter and his clique.

Despite wanting to run away, insult, or even threaten those who were mocking him right now, Hunter could barely stand upright. He had heard of what Cain did in the meeting with the king and thought they were just rumors. Now that he was face to face with the person in question, witnessing Cain’s confidence and his companion’s relaxed behavior, every fiber of his being was frozen in fear. Some even shook slightly. The noble lady that accompanied Hunter and stood to his left scoffed when she saw his behavior.

Cain took this moment to create a magic circle that only he could see in front of him. It was disguised as much as possible while still allowing Cain’s unique eyes to see it. For reference, Cain’s Mana Zone is disguised to the point he only knows it’s there because it is made from his mana. The level of concealment on this fresh magic circle would be somewhat equivalent to the wards and protective measures on the outer walls.

Cain infiltrated Hunter’s skull with his mana, mapping out every minute section of his brain. Each part that was mapped appeared above the magic circle, slowly forming a mana model of Hunter’s brain. Roughly a minute passed until the model was complete, during which Cain eyed the audience to see if any of them noticed the model. Some nobles talked among themselves during this time, wondering if Cain was actually going to do anything.

Hmm… doesn’t look like anyone here can see the model. This experiment appears to be a success, but the testing audience is also limited… Looks like I’ll need to do something similar later. Cain analyzed his mini experiment while Hunter used this time to recover enough strength to stand up properly. He opened his mouth to ridicule Cain since nothing occurred for a minute or so, but immediately stopped the moment he saw a small smile appear. The mana model was completed and it was time for the fireworks.

“Explode”

Cain used SRI to open a portal inside Hunter’s skull. The portal fed immense amounts of air into the confined space, more so than when it was used to blow up Robert’s head. Cain had tweaked the flow rate of air so that Hunter’s brain would explode within a few seconds. A few seconds had passed, yet nothing occurred. Hmm… were my calculations off? Cain thought as he checked the export rate on the portal. Ah, they were off by a few cubic meters per second, but the portal was configured way less than it should have been… Should be any moment now.

As Cain thought that, Hunter looked around the room confused. He started to laugh silently, relieved that he wasn’t going to die. Then his head blew up mid-laugh. Numerous gasps and screams resounded off the walls as brain matter and blood spewed forth. Hunter’s groupees were covered in their former leader’s brain tissue; the noble lady screamed out in fright, causing some of it to land in her mouth.

Cain used his mana that was still attached to Hunter’s brain matter and some extra within his mana zone to stop the explosion’s spread roughly one meter away from Hunter’s body. Although he didn’t stop the bits and pieces from landing on those within the blast zone. Cain controlled the once organic matter to converge where Hunter’s head should have been. He used SRI to open a portal to the Mana Storage within the clump of tissue.

Cain then simultaneously converted the matter into mana while recreating Hunter’s skull, hair, face, and skin. He ignored the nobles gasps and murmurs and continued to recreate Hunter’s brain using the mana model as a reference, then connected the nerves, made sure there was no obvious damage, and triple checked his work.

—Group Chat: Cain, Dresil, Bob, and Rex— (10ms)

Rex: …this man really just made a brain from mana.

Rex: The fuck?

Cain: ye, but it’s not perfect. There’s plenty of problems, but none of them are short term.

Cain: The question is whether or not he’ll come back to life rn.

Cain: Dresil, can you make sure there is nothing wrong biologically then double check my work on his brain?

Dresil: Understood, Master.

--------------------------

Dresil contacted Bob to help her remotely check Hunter’s condition. A few minutes passed as she did the detailed checks then gave Cain the signal. Cain used his mana to forcibly restart Hunter’s heart and keep his lungs breathing. He kept doing this for roughly a minute until Hunter blinked his eyes and looked at the surrounding nobles in confusion.

“What…? Why are you all looking at me like that? You all saw that Cain didn’t blow up my head, right?” Hunter tried to bait the nobles' thoughts and emotions against Cain, but it was no use. Every single one of them stared at him with a hollow, fearful expression. Each one of the nobles echoed the other’s dread, creating an eerie and haunting atmosphere. The nobles that followed Hunter were no exception.

“Hunter.” Cain grabbed Hunter’s attention then pointed to the screen above the camera on his right. It showed the scene of his head blowing up then reassembling on repeat. Hunter’s legs went limp from the sudden realization he died; he collapsed to his knees and sat on his feet. His hands fled to his head, frantically feeling every curve, protrusion, and piece of hair on his face as he desperately checked to see if his head was still there.

“Th-that’s not possible…” He mumbled, unable to come to terms with the reality of his head being blown up and put together. Numerous questions flooded his mind, further driving his panic to newfound heights. He subconsciously decided to deny reality and instead focused on trying to bring Cain down with him. His state of mind was in no position to think clearly though and in a moment of the frustration caused by the confusion and horror, he cried out. “You dare kill the heir of the Shadowtrap family!?”

“...you’re still alive though?” Cain replied while turning his body to sit properly on his chair.

—Group Chat: Cain, Dresil, Bob, and Rex— (32ms)

Rex: :kek:

Rex: amazing, his reactions are priceless.

Bob: Indeed.

Rex: Although… when are you going to show off your superior iq?

Cain: …why would I need to?

Rex: Well, all of your plans and actions have involved mana in some shape or form. It’s getting kind of boring tbh…

Cain: …it’s been what, 3 days since I’ve summoned you? If you’re that bored I can assign you homework.

Rex: noooooooo, please! I beg you not to.

Cain: :kek:

Cain: Hmm… I guess it’s not a bad idea to enact something without mana or very minimal usage of it to keep my mind sharp.

Rex: Hell yeah!

Bob: …are you sure you’ll even be able to understand any of it?

Rex: Probably not, but that’s what makes it fun.

Dresil: The surprise of finding out the obvious?

Rex: …I’m just going to go back to making mana :sniff:

Bob: Any spoilers about the new plan for us?

Cain: This boi will end up giving me free snacks and I can link the result to another plan in the works.

Bob: :popcorn:

Dresil: :popcorn:

Rex: :dead:

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