Chapter 52: Waking Up
The crowd outside Aakesh's store had grown even larger than before. Seeing all the high profile people in Kakot city entering the store made the number of people outside the store waiting for the drama to grow.
While inside the store, several people were standing.
"Where is the store owner?" One of the latecomers asked one of the men who had arrived in the store before him.
"No idea, we had been waiting for him too," The man responded.
Many in the crowd were whispering to themselves.
"What kind of store is this? They're only selling three things and that too inferior pills. And the prices are sky touching for them," One of the men whispered to himself after seeing the shelf containing the pills.
"What kind of a store owner he is? He let his store without any supervision," Another man whispered to himself.
"Where is the store owner?" Suddenly a loud voice echoed in the store. Everybody turned around and was shocked to see the owner of the sound. It was the army chief of the Bisan Kingdom. A peak Void Condensation expert had himself come to the store to look for the store owner.
Everybody's eyes shined, seeing the army chief. They knew something significant was going to happen in the Kingdom.
"He isn't here, army chief," One of the men standing in the store stepped forward and respectfully informed him. He wanted to get into the good books of the army chief, and no time could be better than right now when they both were looking for the same person.
"Did he escape the city, thinking of the consequence of his actions?" The army chief murmured, hearing the man. "Ask if anybody saw someone escaping or a blur passing through," He then ordered one of the soldiers who followed him here, ignoring the man standing in front of him. The soldier nodded and went outside. He shook his head when he came inside.
The army chief nodded, seeing the soldier shaking his head. He didn't expect the crowd to catch the store owner escaping. If a crowd member caught him leaving the store, it would be a miracle since he had killed a Void Condensation expert.
It never occurred to him that the store owner was currently present in the store as all the rooms at his door were locked from outside. He tried to sense what was inside the room, but the only thing he saw was darkness without a hint of life.
No outsider could see the room of Aakesh as the system didn't want anybody to disturb him when he was in the room, so everybody thought Aakesh had escaped. But everyone was wrong, and he was currently waiting for Lily to break out of her cocoon.
"Johnny, what are you doing here?" Said a familiar voice as the army chief turned around to look for the person who called him by his name.
"You are here too, Twinkle," Johnny said as he found the woman entering the store. Twinkle belonged to the Stiller family. They were only slightly weaker than the Schiller family. Both he and Twinkle came from the same family; he was the son of the current head of the family, and Twinkle was his cousin, the daughter of his father's youngest brother.
"How could I miss someone who had the guts to kill the prime minister's son in the capital city," Twinkle smilingly responded. "What are you doing here? You're the strongest person in the city after his highness," She added as Johnny's appearance stunned him.
Only Pinto and Punta were stronger than him when it came to the entire Bisan Kingdom. So if he was here, that meant the king took the store owner seriously.
"His highness sent me here to take the store owner," Johnny responded. His tone, reverential when he talked about Pinto. He was one of the few people in the Bisan Kingdom who respected Pinto that's why he was also Pinto's most trusted advisor.
"I thought this much. But, I didn't expect the king to take the store owner so seriously," Twinkle nodded and curiously responded.
"The prime minister had refused to compromise with the store owner. He had decided to fight him no matter what, so his highness had no choice but to take this matter seriously," Johnny responded in a soft voice. Only Twinkle heard what he said.
***
While in his room, Aakesh was tensely waiting for the cocoon to crack. It has been hours, and Lily never took such a long time for her breakthrough.
Time passed, suddenly, there was a movement in the cocoon. Aakesh turned his entire focus on it not to miss anything, and if something wrong happened, he wouldn't even think twice and take the help of the system no matter what cost he had to pay.
"Meow!"
The next moment, a meow echoed in the room as Lily broke out of her cocoon, but her eyes were still closed. There weren't any changes in Lily's body. She still had the same size as before and had the same white fur covering her entire body.
The next moment, she opened her eyes. "Wow!" Aakesh exclaimed in amazement, seeing her eyes. The vertical slit like the dragon in her eyes disappeared, and instead, it turned into a burning fire. Her sclera was still orange, but there was a black fire burning instead of the vertical slit.
"What happened?" Lily confusedly asked in her childlike voice, seeing Aakesh looking at her with amazement. He didn't speak anything and waved his hands. The next moment, a mirror appeared in front of her. "Wow!" She also exclaimed in amazement when she saw the change in her eyes.
"Look, how cool I've become, unlike you," She narcissistically said while pointing at herself than at him.
A smile spread across his face, hearing her complimenting herself. "You're my daughter. You would only look cool when I'm cool," He smilingly said.
"Hmph, you're my daughter," Lily scoffed while she continuously looked at her eyes. She couldn't take her eyes off of them.
"Okay, what skill you learned this time?" Aakesh's face turned stern as he asked.
The next moment, Lily's jaw dropped when she checked the new skill. She looked at Aakesh with her mouth wide open.. Aakesh had no choice but to call out her status as she didn't speak for a long time.