Life Of A Nobody - as a Villain

While Rio was busy talking with his system, Artemis on the other hand was busy arranging stuff to settle the mess that her dear son created. Attacking a Baron and killing his son, if the news ever leaked that Blake family was behind this it could tarnish their reputation. Though no one would be able to do anything to Blake's but it would give their enemies some leverage and public outrage could be a lethal weapon.

Despite being one of the Duke's and owners of one of the top 5 guilds Blake family had maintained a good image till now in front of general public and Artemis had no plans to ruin that now. 

Just after getting the report from Camilla she had ordered her to ignore Esme and first remove all traces of her. Since Esme had to show her true powers during that fight there was a chance that some residue mana would be left and with some advanced mana tracking artifacts someone could track her. 

Even though getting those artifacts and that much resources would be impossible for a mere Baron rank noble, but it is always best to be safe than sorry.

Artemis had also sent alphas to capture Esme and bring her back. Her sister Erza has been cured and two of Myra's guards follow her daily. Even if Rio had asked Esme to do this for whatever reasons, she needed to make sure his reputation stays clean. 

The news about his successful awakening was already spreading and the rumours of Nyx's arrival had brought much attention to him. It was good as her son would be known a genius and get the respect he deserves. 

  She wasn't worried about his blessing as whatever blessing Nyx gave, would be hundred's of times better than some lesser Gods could ever give.

After settling all matters about his little fiasco she took a deep breath and sat down on her chair. It has been a long stressful day for her. From the nervousness of his awakening to the shock of Rio's methods, it's been a rollercoaster ride of her emotions. 

Since Rio was awakened now she could start training him herself. Though Darkness element is different and purer form of her Shadow element, but because of both being similar they have the same concept and same spells. She could teach Rio everything and train him herself. 

She went through the training regime she had prepared for him just in case months before and double checked everything again. She even increased the difficulty of some excercises a little considering his talent and blessing.

Artemis who was lost in her thoughts, was startled when someone entered the room unannounced. She thought it must have been Amelia who entered and  her face had an tired expression. Though she loved her little doll and her cute antics but sometimes dealing with her becomes hard as she doesn't listen to any explanationns. That's why she liked having Rio arround at those times as he could perfectly distract her mind but since he was sleeping now, Artemis could feel that calming Amelia who was put in a sleeping spell before would be a hard job.

Her expression softened as she looked up and saw who it was. Someone whose presence filled the room with calmness and his aura of strength. The one who has been with her for years and always supported her in everything she did. The one she loved and admired for years - her husband, Duke of Damascus and owner of the gifted sword shade - Agnus Blake.

"Ah Agnus, you're right on time. Can you check this for me. I made it for Rio." She said as she got out of her reverie of emotions and handed over some documents to him. While Agnus was busy going through them, she continued - "You can tell me if I need to add something."

"Add something, my love it's already enough as it is. Any more and you might break our little boy." Agnus said as he looked over at the detailed training patterns she designed and he couldn't help but smile thinking what Rio would look like after finishing any one of them.

  Artemis leaned back on her chair and ignoring her husband's laugh and jokes replied in a serious tone -  "Very funny, but I'm serious. I want to teach him everything before he decides to join the academy."

  Here in Damascus they could always protect him, but the world wasn't peaceful and at the end it was all about personal strength, especially in neutral places like the Academy where they couldn't interfere.

Agnus looking at her serious expressions walked behind her and started pressing her shoulders gently, Artemis too relaxed and closed her eyes, feeling the cold hands who were massaging her in a gentle care. She was enjoying the caress when Agnus said - "He just awakened today love, give him some rest. Your niece's birthday is coming up soon. You can start his training after that."

Artemis shook her head as she put her hand, as  she said - "Fine, I'll just try to increase his current training a little to make sure he's comfortable with his new strength and mana usage so he doesn't end up exhausting himself like today."

"Did you learn where he found the mana suction method." Agnus said as he came forward and started fixing the table filled with all kinds of documents and scrolls lying around.

"I've checked, he's been reading all kinds of books in library everytime he's free from his classes last couple of days. He even stopped playing with Amy last week can you believe it."

"She must have been furious." Agnus replied with a chuckle , which made Artemis nod her head and smile too. 

Artemis asked "Is she still sleeping yet." Knowing very well her husband must have been with her, as while she doted on Rio, Agnus preferred spoiling Amelia whenever he could - but sadly for him Amy preferred her brother's company more and would only remember about her father when she needed to complain about something.

"Yes, She'll wake up soon. You really didn't need to put a sleeping spell on her." Agnus said as he remembered that when he was busy checking everything in the room, Artemis had put Amelia to sleep. He could understand why she did it but there was someone else who wouldn't and that's why he continued saying "I'll warn you I'm taking her side today."

"Hmm same as always then." Artemis replied as if it was nothing new.

After Agnus cleared the table, he sat there in front of his wife and said - "Maximus called, he was congratulating about Rio's awakening." 

"So he knows." Artemis asked in a serious tone.

"Well he is the king, so of course he knows. Besides not like we could hide the news this big when her followers were already able to sense her presence." Agnus replied in a helpless tone.

As everyone in Arcadia said and believed 'every blessing comes with a curse'. 

Nyx's arrival too was something like that. He was sure with Nyx's blessing Rio could improve much faster and grow more powerful, but it had also brought a lot of unwanted attention to him. There won't be many Gods or people who would be stupid enough to go after someone chosen by a primordial Goddess. But still there are always some lunatics and that's what worried him.

Agnus's thoughts were stopped as he heard Artemis's voice - "What else did he say?"

Agnus smiled as if he remembered something funny and said - "He asked about the engagement openly today. He also said that Rebecca agreed to it. I think Rio's talent might have increased his motivation a little."

"Sigh, he already knows we'll support him. I don't know why he gets so paranoid over stuff like this." Artemis said in a helpless tone. It should be obvious that king Maximus would have their support as Queen is her sister, but this king still feels paranoid and needs one more assurance.

"The God he became an avatar of is like that but you know that already."

King Maximus was good at everything, he had managed the Schilla Empire kindly and always maintained the peace and prosperity of it, but even he wasn't perfect. He had always been a little paranoid before  and that habit only increased after he became the avatar of that God.

"So what did you say?" Artemis asked.

"Well I left this decision on you remember. Rebecca is your niece, and you were the one who put that idea in your sister's head in the first place." Agnus said as he put his hand on Artemis's cheek. "Personally I like that little girl."

  "Right, she's so cute and smart. She reminds me of Athena when she was little. Plus Amy and her are bestfriends but _ " Artemis smiled as she heard that Agnus liked Rebecca too, and started praising her in an excited tone, but her happy tone took a nose dive and turned sad as she remembered something and stopped her sentence.

"But what?" Agnus said.

"I don't think Rio likes her."  Artemis said in a serious tone as she held Agnus's hand.

"Did something happen?" Agnus said in a serious tone as he looked at their intertwined hands.

"No, it's just I've seen them playing together, and I could see that Rio just wants to avoid her or something. It doesn't feel like he really enjoys her company. Even more I could feel that he's angry at her." Artemis said what she observed and felt when she played with everyone some days ago.

But Agnus didn't share the same sentiment as her, last he knew when both kids met they were quite friendly and happily played with each other so he replied as he put his hand on hers -"He's just a kid so maybe he was angry over a loss or something. I'm sure it's nothing serious. You're just overthinking it."

"Yeah maybe" Artemis said. But the worry was still evident in her eyes. She quite liked Rebecca and would be happy if Rio married her, but she also didn't want to force Rio into any relationship he didn't want and have him hate her later.

Agnus who could understand his wife's behaviour completely , gently held her face in both his hands and said - "Whatever it is, you don't need to worry over it. They're both kids yet and have a lot of time , they can get to know each other better later in the academy. And we don't need to push this engagement on them now, do we?"

  Hearing that calmed Artemis's heart a little as maybe over time whatever misunderstanding these kids had could be solved and if not, then it's simply Rebecca's lose. 

  "Yeah, and not like my Rio lacks a girl anyway. After the news of his blessing spreads everywhere I bet lots of people would be lining up outside our house to marry their daughters to him." Artemis replied with a chuckle as she could imagine herself receiving couple of letters about it soon.

  Agnus nodded his head and believed it too. The background he has and the talent Rio showed are enough for anyone to consider having them as allies. He could see Artemis worrifree now so he changed the topic to something else. 

  "Do you know what blessing he got"

"Well looking at its Nyx, it's hard to say. since she has too many powers and too little followers so who knows. We can only know for sure after he wakes up." Artemis replied as she had asked her family for all the information on blessings Nyx had given to anyone in the past and they were all random, so even she wasn't sure. 

Agnus felt the same too , so they could now only wait for Rio to wake up and ask him about it. It was then that he remembered something and said - "I'm amazed at his control over his element. Its much better than anything I've seen during awakening. His rampaging darkness was even enough to chip away at your barrier a little." 

Artemis thought about the scene where at the end when Rio used mana suction method and pushed himself to the limit , even her barrier was getting consumed but it only lasted for a moment and stopped again. That image fueled her determination to train Rio harder again, so she said - 

"And that's why I'll train him to be the strongest. Stronger than me , and you too."

Her fiery words only made Agnus smile as he put his hands around her, and hugged her while saying - "Yes you will wife , yes YOU WILL."

_

While the duo were talking about Rio and his future, Rio on the other hand had the biggest surprise of his new life in Arcadia, as he stared at the girl standing in front of him and the system notification floating on his status screen. He could see that one more shop item of his had opened and it was _ ...

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Question - Any guess on the king's God?

What would Rio do for his engagement plans?

What's the surprise and the 2nd item of shop?