Ning and the rest were outside the palace, looking to leave.
Edward arrived behind them quickly. "Jasmine!" he shouted. "Are you leaving?"
"I'm sorry, Prince Edward. It is ti I leave now," Jasmine said.
"Are you going to leave just like that?" Edward asked. "Not a goodbye. Not a single word of farewell?"
"I… I'm sorry. After what happened in there with Ning and your Grandfather, I did not think you would wish to speak with ."
"My grandfather is my grandfather, and I am . We are two different people. Why would I hate you for what happened between the two of them?" Edward asked. "Please, do not leave like this."
Jasmine hesitated.
Ning looked at her for a mont. "Should I get rid of him?" he asked.
"NO!" Jasmine quickly turned around. "Don't do anything to him."
Ning smiled and turned toward Edward. "Prince Edward, if you would like to, you can co with us."
The prince looked at Ning and the Jasmine. "Go with you? To where?" he asked.
Ning shrugged. "Wherever we want to. Wherever we can." He turned around to leave. "Make your choice quickly, prince. We'll be gone by the evening."
Tim and Arya followed Ning, but Jasmine stayed behind to say a few words to Edward. After a while, she followed as well.
"Arya, why are you here? Where's your father?"
"I decided to stay," Arya said. "Father wanted to go with him, but since you were captured, given what knowledge you have, I thought it was a good idea for to stay behind."
"You want information from ?" Ning looked at her. "Is that the whole truth?"
Arya did not et his gaze. "Maybe."
Ning chuckled. "Then do you want to co with us on the adventure as well?" he asked.
"Is this the sa type of adventure that Tim told about? The ones with pope, pirates, and priceless treasures?" "Of course," Ning answered. "That and so much more."
"We're still going on an adventure?" Jasmine asked, quickly catching up to them. "I thought we were done now that you…"
She stopped for a mont to look around before getting close to whisper the rest.
"Now that you have killed Zurinus."
"Oh, you guys guessed it already, huh?" Ning asked. "No need to whisper it to . Tim already knows, and I suspect Arya already guessed it too. I already told her what I was doing here."
"Did you really kill Zurinus?" Arya questioned. "I've been aning to ask you this for such a long ti."
"I did," Ning said.
"I never thought Zurinus would be a girl," Jasmine said. "All of her depictions are male."
"Also, wasn't Zurinus supposed to be so big shot according to you?" Tim asked. "That woman who died, I've never even heard of her before. If her body hadn't vanished as it did, I would've fully suspected you of killing a defenseless old lady."
"I'm not that cold-blooded," Ning said. "And I was mistaken in telling that Zurinus was soone big. It took away the more important aspect of Zurinus, which was that he had to be soone in power."
"That old woman was in power?" Jasmine asked. "Wasn't she so custodian in an orphanage?"
"There are different forms of power other than the visible ones," Ning said. "There are ones that control your world from the shadows, but you'll never even know about them because that's how they control you."
"He was sothing like that too."
"Don't you an she?" Jasmine asked.
"He. Zurinus has no gender. He is whoever he wants to be. He took on the female persona to beco a maternal figure to orphans who had lost their parents, to brainwash them into becoming small puppets for him to maneuver as he wanted to."
"He wasn't just that single custodian. He was every custodian in every major orphanage around the world, constantly brainwashing people all around to keep the religion at an all-ti high."
"Not only that, he also gave extra benefits to so people in power. You saw how young the Emperor was, that was Zurinus' doing."
"His main man in power, the pope also has these benefits. That's why he's lived for so long. He is also the one who gave the pope an ability to sense people with power, who could be pope next, as only people vetted by Zurinus would have these powers."
Tim stopped and looked at Ning. "I'm not an orphan. I've never t Zurinus or am even that religious. Why do I have that power?" he asked.
"That's… because Zurinus did not expect just how smart this world was," Ning said. "He did what he did for so long with so many people, that your world learned it as sothing that was common."
"Just as it was common for it to create treasures, it was also now common for so sparse people of young age to manifest so sort of power."
"You, my friend, were one of the first few people to directly gain power from your world. Congratulations."
Tim looked at Ning in shock. The planet gave him power? The only thing he knew that the planet did was create treasures. Did that an he was on the sa level as Treasures?"
"Wait, so was the custodian I ran away from also Zurinus?" Jasmine asked. "She was indeed very religious, almost a fanatic."
Ning closed his eyes for a second. "Yes, she was. Good job on escaping back then. I fear what your life would've been like at this ti had she completely brainwashed you."
Jasmine didn't know what to think.
"Then… now that you've killed Zurinus, what do we do now?" Tim asked. "Are you going to leave now?"
Ning shook his head. "I promised you two a 1-year long tour around the world, and I'm gonna see it through to completion," he said and turned back toward Tim.
"Besides, I still have one more treasure I need to find for you, don't I?"
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