The Gamer's POV

Clara brought a large cup of coffee for Cedric, who was leaning casually against the edge of her table.

He nodded as he took the cup from her, then stared at the dark liquid for a moment.

Meanwhile, Clara narrowed her eyes suspiciously. After a moment, she asked, "Have you been spying on me all this time?"

Cedric suddenly coughed and smacked his tongue. "God, this is bitter."

"Oh." Clara’s expression immediately turned apologetic. "Sorry. I drink coffee without sugar or milk, so I forgot not everyone is like me." She reached out her hand. "Give me, I’ll go put some sugar in it for you."

Cedric shook his head and smiled. "It’s fine, it’s fine."

He then took another sip and swallowed it down. "I actually like it this way."

"Ah..." Clara smiled.

Cedric glanced at her through the corner of his eye.

’How can she be so careless? This is the Winterberry Blend of the Evrarel Empire.’

He sighed as he stared at the cheerful blonde girl in front of him.

After a moment of hesitation, he asked, "I’ve noticed you love tinkering with stuff. Can you show me around?"

Clara suddenly beamed as if she had been waiting for someone to ask her that her whole life.

"Yes!"

But then, she caught herself and cleared her throat, puffing out her chest. "Uh, yes. I don’t mind."

Cedric smiled as he straightened.

Clara then walked up to a different workbench and began to show him her pride and joy.

"Look at this!"

She pointed to a metallic glove that was covered in thin golden conduits and multi-colored elemental gems.

"This took me two years to develop. I call it the Elemental Relay Glove. It can let even a normal person without a mana core perform magic from different types of elements!"

"Oh?"

Seeing his curiosity, she grinned and leaned closer to explain. "Those with mana cores can simply insert their mana into this and let the glove translate it. I was able to study the runes of some basic magic and I inscribed them right into this crystal here." She pointed at the largest gemstone on the center of the back of the palm. "Once the glove is activated, the user can choose from the few runes here and perform the magic. It can let one make fire from nothing, a bit of ice magic, and even a bit of basic water manipulation. Though those are all basic and can’t be used in combat. However, worry not because this glove can even shoot out concentrated mana blasts!"

She pointed the glove toward the wall and pretended to shoot, making shooting noises with her mouth. "Boom! Boom!" "How cool is this?!"

"Woah..." Cedric was genuinely impressed.

Clara turned to the already messy bench and scattered her tools as she looked for something. When she found it, her blue eyes beamed as she picked it up.

It was a thick, gold-colored bracelet with many small blue crystals embedded along the outer rim.

"This one here is the Mana Accumulator," she said proudly. "It can automatically draw in mana from the environment, storing it into the crystals here."

She stepped closer to show him the intricate engravings around the gems. "Remember how I said that someone without a mana core could use the Elemental Relay Glove? This bracelet can also act like a conduit. If someone without mana wears it, it feeds the stored mana directly into the glove, letting them cast spells without needing any magic of their own!"

"That’s really impressive work, Clara." Cedric couldn’t help but commend her.

"Right?" She puffed out her chest with a grin, but then her smile faded slightly. "I wish my brothers would also acknowledge my work instead of calling it useless junk."

She turned away to put the bracelet back on the bench.

"Anyway..."

She continued showing Cedric a few more of her works, including normal stuff she had worked on like pocket watches that had too many gears and hands, or brass lanterns that burned without oil.

’She makes really impressive stuff. Though I must say, she has poor naming skills,’ Cedric thought to himself, smiling as he quietly listened to her chatter.

At the end of the tour, he pointed to the first workbench and asked, "What about that stuff you were making when I got here?"

"Oh, the Mana-Vision Box?" She walked over to the main desk. "It’s not complete yet." She smiled as she picked it up to show him. "Once it is, it would let you record stuff in real time or take still pictures. Then it would store them so that you could either print them out later or project them through the lens as live memories."

’So it’s basically just a camera?’ Cedric thought, raising an eyebrow.

Seeing the things she made, the things she planned to make, and the joy she had in her work, Cedric felt sad because of what he came here for.

Now, he was feeling a bit hesitant.

After a moment, Clara dropped the Vision Box, then, as if remembering something, she turned to him. "Oh, by the way, you didn’t say what brings you here."

At that question, Cedric was jolted back to reality. He sighed, then with a bitter, hesitant voice, he said, "I will soon be taking back the life I gave to you, Clara Pendleton."

"Huh...?" Clara’s expression turned ashen. Her blue eyes were wide, and her mouth had turned agape.

Cedric sighed as he walked over and leaned on the workbench.

After getting the execution mission from the Vice Dean, he had discovered that one of the people to be executed was Clara Pendleton.

To be honest, Cedric’s initial plan was to screw up that bastard of a Vice Dean by just going to Isola Bella and farming exp without attending to the mission. He did not like that the Vice Dean had asked something of him and had no intention of doing it.

However, when he discovered that one of the targets was Clara, Cedric became conflicted.

This was someone he had brought to life. He had given her a second chance, but now she was going to be executed by another person for some stupid war he had no idea about.

So, in the end, Cedric decided that since her life was his responsibility, he was going to be the one to end it painlessly.

"M-may I ask why?" Clara stammered.

Cedric looked up at her, then exhaled. "You know what happens to Houses who commit treason."

Clara’s eyes widened.

And then, she felt her knees buckle.

Of course, she suspected that her father was in cahoots with the Evrarel Empire. Even her brothers were in on it too. However, they did not let her in on anything. They kept her isolated from the family business, claiming that she was too young.

To be honest, she wasn’t really interested in politics and just focused on her inventions.

"The Grand Council already knows," Cedric said softly. "I had wished they would do something like strip your nobility and kill only those responsible, but you know how it is in our empire."

Maybe they did not want to leave a successor who could come back for revenge, or maybe they simply wanted to make an example of the Houses, but under the King’s instructions, those who committed treason had their entire house wiped out, including the children, innocent or not.

Knowing this, there was no need for Cedric to approach Clara. He could have just killed her on the day of the Games. However, after watching her for some time, he did not want this innocent girl, who only loved tinkering with stuff, to die without even knowing why.

As he looked at Clara, who was now being comforted by Barnaby, he couldn’t help but sigh.

After a moment, Clara stood up and wiped her tears. Then she forced a smile and said, "When has the empire chosen to execute the sentence?"

Cedric closed his eyes. "Tomorrow."

Clara’s expression faltered for a second, but she quickly regained her smile, then asked softly, "Why did you choose to tell me?"

"Because a person like you doesn’t deserve this," Cedric answered honestly.

Hearing that, Clara exhaled deeply and ran a hand through her hair. She walked over to support her weight on the bench near Cedric. After a brief moment, she looked up at him. "Aren’t you afraid that I might tell my family?"

Cedric shook his head. "I know you won’t."

Clara gave him a surprised look, then she chuckled. After a moment, she exhaled. "Thank you, Cedric. Thank you for the life you gave to me, and thank you for telling me about this."

Cedric didn’t say anything.

Clara rubbed her forearm, then took the initiative to say what she was sure Cedric wanted to hear. "You don’t need to worry. I won’t tell my family about this."

Cedric nodded.

Of course, he was not worried. If she did try to warn them, he’d know and take her life before she had the chance to.

He straightened, then turned to her. He tapped her shoulder and said honestly, "I really loved your work, Clara."

Her eyes widened and her breath hitched for a second. But then, a wide smile, one that showed the gap in her teeth, appeared and she puffed her chest.

Cedric smiled and broke apart into feathers that disappeared, leaving just one that fell quietly to the ground.

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