Extra's Path To Demon King-Chapter 52: The Hypocrite [2]

Next was a little kid, an orphan who had no one to look after him. A little kid similar in age to his little brother, maybe a year younger. A bright kid with a tumor on his throat. The kid was extremely cheerful despite his bad situation. Which made Axel feel even worse.

The kid asked without understanding, "Big brotha? Will you cure me? The other doctor’s said I can’t be cured. But I don’t have enough money?"

Axel’s throat felt dry at those words, but he kept his composure, he said with a smile.

"No, I can’t cure it. But I can make it so that you feel better and can play with no worries for a week at least."

"A week? What is that?" asked the kid, confused.

"A week means 7 days," replied Axel with a smile.

"Yeassh, a week of play." The kid jumped up cheerfully.

Even the composed detective Malric’s expression turned sad seeing that. Axel put the magic necklace on the kid. He asked the detective to bring some other kids here and some toys for the kids to play with. A week passed as he studied the effects of the necklace on the kid.

The kid laughed and played with expensive toys, Axel even accompanied the kid to outside. Many people gave them strange looks. The kids state also improved, the cancer actually receded slightly even. A week passed like that for the kid happily. The cheerful personality of the kid rubbed off on Axel, he somewhat got attached to the little boy, unknowingly.

"I’m going to need that necklace back, punk," said Axel.

"Ummm, but really? Big brotha, won’t I get sick again when I take this off?" asked the kid.

Axel found himself unable to speak, as he said, with a lot of effort, "Yes. But I need to give it to someone else."

The kid hesitated and asked innocently, "Is it because I don’t have enough money to pay?"

Just as Axel was about to rebuke, the kid took off the necklace, handed it to him, and said with a bright smile, "It’s ok, brotha, I am going to earn a lot of money. And one day I am going to buy another necklace from you."

Then the kid walked away, Axel stood there like a statue not knowing what to say, but he saw something while the kid was walking out. Tears fell from the cheerful kids eyes, but he was still smiling. Axel took a deep breath.

"Please make sure the kid is treated well," stated Axel in a dry voice.

"Hahahahhaha..." but the detective laughed, hearing that.

Axel did not turn his head to look at Malric, nor did his expression change. The detective continued, "You say that as if you aren’t the one literally killing them."

"No, what you are doing is even worse than killing them, you gave them HOPE? JUST TO FUCKING TAKE IT AWAY........" shouted Malric from his side, unable to handle it any longer.

"Don’t pretend like you pity them, or feel bad. Because I know you don’t deep down," added Malric with disgust.

Axel smiled as he said, "Yes, you’re right. Perhaps I don’t really care about them. Because deep down, I know. I AM A HYPOCRITE."

Malric became even more furious at that comment and left the room, banging on the door. Axel was left alone there, standing, unmoving, unblinking. Tears gathered in his eyes, but he did not let a single drop leave his eyes as he stared high into the sky through one of the windows. He didn’t have the right to feel sad for them.

A trace of darkness gathered in his heart. Then, from the next patients, he did not deal with them directly. He hired a doctor through the detective to do the job, he simply observed from the sidelines as he studied the effects of the artifact.

But the same situation that happened with the mother, repeated many more times, they begged again and again to let them have the artifacts. Especially, the old parents of the young man, both of them kneeling down flat on the ground, while holding both of the doctor’s feet. Begging him.

It was a scene hard for him to erase. But unlike him, the professional did not care much. He kicked them all out while forcefully taking away the necklace. Of course, every single family or patient whom Axel tested the artifact was paid a hefty sum by him. As someone who always believed that money could buy everything, he was seeing it firsthand.

The limits of money. Yes, it could buy happiness and probably solve 99% of the problems. Yet, it could not buy a life. Without the person you care most about in this world. What’s the use of money?

After testing the artifact on a total of 10 patients, and not seeing any abnormality. He could finally be sure that it would work on his little brother without much problem. He often visited his little brother. But Akon was in a coma all this time. The sight of it kept him going, it gave him the reason to be cruel to those innocent people. He didn’t mind becoming a hypocrite to extend his little brother’s life.

Axel without hesitation, went to the place where Akon was being taken care of. With some hesitation he put the artifact on the small neck of his brother. But nothing immediately happened. Axel did not move from there. It was night at that time. He kept standing there all night, without even moving an inch.

Dawn arrived, sun rose. But there was no sign of his little brother waking up. But Axel could see the artifact working perfectly without problem. The situation of Akon was a bit too serious, it took time even for the magic artifact to contain the various cancer cells within the little boy.

Noon arrived, and only then was there some movement on the little boy’s body. His finger twitched. His legs vibrated, and the little boy started breathing more loudly. Soon, Akon opened his eyes, and the first thing he saw was his big brother, yes, in his eyes, his brother seemed to have changed significantly. Yet, for some reason, he knew it was his older brother and no one else.

He saw his big brother smiling, tears fell from his eyes. But he was happy, extremely happy. Akon also smiled and said with a smile, "Brother."

Tears fell from Akon’s eyes as if a dam had broken. Axel hugged his little brother tightly.

Axel said, "Little bro, don’t worry. From now on, things will only get better. I found something that will stop the cancer."

Akon felt like a thunderbolt had struck him at that revelation. A smile crept onto the little boy’s face as he asked fearfully, "Brother? I-I, I can live?"

Axel separated himself from the hug and placed a hand on his little brother’s head,

"Yes, yes, of course you can live, you fool."

The little kid gave a foolish smile while hearing that. Akon could not help but ask while tilting his little head, "Just what happened to you? Why are you so big and I so small?"

Axel wanted to tell his little brother everything, but the kid won’t be able to understand all that, as he said, "You have been asleep for quite a while, you punk. It has been a while since you fell into a coma."

Akon nodded in understanding. But Axel looked at his little brother with sadness. Similar to Ash, he was forced to mature quickly. To cheer his little brother up, he said, "Hey, do you wanna see magic?"

Akon became confused and tilted his head cutely in wonder, "Magic?"

Axel smiled, though Runecasters can’t use magic in the general method, and attack using spells engraved on their soul space or through chanting. But it wasn’t difficult for him to manipulate the mana in the air and do some small tricks to impress his little brother and leave the brat awestruck.

Axel showed various tricks to Akon, like creating small fireballs or creating little ice cube, generating some sparks of electricity on his fingertips, and many other tricks. While Axel himself was entertaining his little brother, he did not know that, he was already being spied on by the mages of the other towers.

Those mages were shocked to see Axel actually being able to manipulate the mana in the air so casually, every mage knew the weakness of Runecasters. They cannot use magic directly. They are not even able to manipulate the mana in the air even slightly as low-ranking mages. But the kid was doing it with ease. He began to doubt if the kid was truly from the Rune Tower of magic.

Of course, the spy could not notice the kid’s level, but he was fairly sure that Axel was at least a Rank 1 acolyte. As he was the candidate for being Sir Cedric’s disciple, he was someone the other towers needed to gather knowledge on.