CH346 Foreknowledge

***

"Then, do you plan on betraying me?" Alex asked.

"No, of course not," Eleanor replied instantly.

"Then there you have it."

"But still—"

"But nothing," Alex cut her off. "I told you before—I don't use people I don't trust, and I always trust the people I use. If you ever do end up betraying me, then I'll only have myself to blame for not seeing through your façade. But until that happens, I trust you. That's all the reason I need to tell you what you want to know.

"This is what our relationship is based on, isn't it? Trust?"

"Yes," Eleanor said quietly.

"So, can I continue now?"

"Yes."

"Finally."

Alex exhaled in relief. He couldn't believe it had taken this much effort just to tell someone his own secret. A small chuckle escaped his lips at the absurdity of it all.

"As you've probably already guessed," he said, "I'm the Palace Master—or rather, the majority owner—of the Golden Palace."

Eleanor nodded. That much she had suspected.

"But that's not all," Alex continued. "The Palace's major products—the Rune Phone, the Arcane Library, and even the Coinage Moonstone Interspatial Ring—were all created by me."

"What?!" Eleanor gasped.

She could accept the first two, but the Interspatial Ring? That was something else entirely.

Countless top-tier craftsmen had spent decades attempting to create a storage artefact of that size and stability, yet all had failed. The most advanced storage device in all of Pangea was the Interspatial Storage Chest, the one showcased during the auction demonstration.

The Coinage Moonstone Ring had shattered that standard completely. To think that the one who had broken Pangea's greatest crafting bottleneck was a young man who hadn't even reached Elite rank—

Eleanor was speechless.

Alex chuckled at her expression.

"Do you remember the name of my unique class?" he suddenly asked.

"Yes, of course. Rune Mast—" Eleanor froze mid-word, her eyes widening. "Oh!"

"Exactly." Alex smiled. "It's called Rune Master—not because of some inflated ego, but because my class literally requires me to master runes: their meaning, their logic and their function. It allows me to create anything I can imagine, as long as it follows rune logic."

He leaned back slightly, his tone thoughtful.

"Runes are the code—the logic, the very backbone—of every phenomenon in existence. Most people just don't realise it. My class allows me to extract those strings of code—rune logic—and repurpose them for my own use.

"For instance," he continued, "I studied nature and deciphered the 'code' that governs the spatial phenomenon responsible for forming independent spaces. By repurposing that logic—and combining it with a few key ingredients—I created the Coinage Moonstone Interspatial Ring."

Eleanor could only stare in awe. She didn't fully understand the technicalities of what he was saying, but she grasped one thing clearly—Alex had learned to manipulate the building blocks of creation itself.

'In that case,' Eleanor thought, wide-eyed, 'wouldn't it be possible for him to one day create a replica of this world—just by applying those same codes?'

Before she could dwell on that thought, Alex gave her yet another surprise.

"Actually," he said with a grin, "the Coinage Moonstone isn't even the most important construct I've made by repurposing the spatial code. Let me show you something far more extraordinary."

Alex's smirk deepened.

He prompted OmniRune, and a spatial gate opened in the middle of the room. He rose from the sofa and extended a hand toward her.

When Eleanor hesitantly reached for it, he gave her a slight tug—and the next instant, the world around her shifted.

The moment her feet touched solid ground again, she realised they were no longer in the Enclave.

"Welcome to my personal Sanctuary subspace," Alex's voice echoed beside her as she took in the breathtaking sight before her eyes.

A radiant bonsai tree stood proudly at the heart of the space, exuding an aura of tranquil majesty. Nearby, a golden cocoon pulsed with life—like a celestial egg waiting to hatch.

Around these two wonders lay a carefully structured partitions; a work area beside the cocoon, a rest area near the bonsai's roots, and a storage zone vast enough to shame even the largest interspatial chests.

Eleanor was speechless.

The end goal she thought to be a distant possibility was already a reality before her eyes.

And Alex still wasn't done.

"Although it's quite small now," he said, his tone casual, "it's continuously expanding as it absorbs energy. Once I find a higher-grade energy source, I might be able to fuel its transformation completely. Who knows? It might just grow into a fully independent world of its own someday."

He laughed softly—but those words sent an involuntary shiver down Eleanor's spine.

"You can create… an independent world?" she whispered.

"No," Alex shook his head. "Not with my own power. I doubt anyone can. What I did was… trick the world into doing it for me."

He folded his arms, his tone thoughtful but measured.

"I simply strung together the right pattern of rune logic—an instruction that directed the natural order to create this space on my behalf. It's far beyond the power of any single being… myself included."

Eleanor nodded slowly, still processing what she was hearing.

Alex wasn't sure if she truly understood or if her mind had simply gone blank.

'Maybe that was too big a reveal all at once?' he wondered. 'With the others, I usually broke it down over time—gave them room to digest.'

He sighed inwardly. 'Oh well. Might as well finish it while we're here.'

A moment later, they were back in the living room. Eleanor sat once more, looking both dazed and fascinated.

Alex continued calmly, "Aside from creating independent spaces, I can also modify spell and array formations to perform far beyond their usual limits. As a Rune Master, I can restructure the spell logic itself—adjusting its formation to behave in ways that are… atypical."

To prove his point, Alex clearly chanted a [Magic Ball] spell.

Under his control, the spell formation appeared visibly over his palm, and from it, a glowing sphere of mana materialised.

Then, under Eleanor's stunned gaze, the rune formation began to shift—

and the mana sphere followed.

The simple [Magic Ball] transformed into a bolt, then a spear, a star, a cube... each shift smooth, elegant, and deliberate.

Eleanor could only stare wordlessly as Alex casually demonstrated absolute command over spell logic itself.

With a lazy flick of his wrist, the spell dispersed into harmless motes of light.

"Is that enough," Alex asked, his tone teasing, "or should I continue?"

"There's more?" Eleanor blurted, wide-eyed.

Alex smirked.

"Do you know why Magic Armours are so powerful?" he asked suddenly. "It's because they serve as platforms that grant portability to runes.

The real secret behind Pangea's success isn't the armour system itself—it's the runes they bear."

He leaned forward slightly, eyes glinting.

"In that case… what if we remove the need for the armour entirely—and inscribe the runes directly onto the body itself?"

"It's impossible, runes can't—" Eleanor froze mid-response, her mind catching up. "Don't tell me…!"

Alex chuckled and lifted his vest and shirt just enough to reveal the rune tattoo etched along his left side.

"This," he said, tapping the luminous lines, "is the Evergreen Rune Tattoo. It's based on a mana-gathering formation. Thanks to it, my mana recovery rate is far higher than normal."

He lowered his shirt and smiled faintly.

"This," he said, "is a Rune Master. The person you just made a deal with—me."

Eleanor stared at him, her pulse racing.

A strange feeling welled within her chest—one that felt like fear at first… but wasn't.

'No,' she realised. 'It's not fear… it's—'

Her eyes widened with sudden clarity.

"I need to go," she said abruptly, standing up.

"Afraid, are we?" Alex asked with a half-smile.

Eleanor froze mid-step.

Then, in a move that caught Alex completely off-guard, she turned back, strode up to him, grabbed his collar—

and kissed him.

For a heartbeat, Alex didn't process what was happening.

Then his instincts took over.

Her kiss was clumsy yet searching, filled with unspoken emotion.

And Alex, ever the opportunist, was more than happy to respond in kind.

He wrapped his arms around her and deepened the kiss, his hands wandering of their own accord.

It lasted several heated moments before Eleanor suddenly pulled back, her face flushed and breath uneven.

"I'm not afraid of you," she said, her voice trembling slightly, "but I… can't stay here right now."

Then she turned and ran out.

Alex sat back on the sofa, eyes still fixed on the door she'd just left through.

A moment later, he tilted his head back, staring at the ceiling—

and burst out laughing.

"So that's how you lean, huh?" he chuckled to himself, recalling the fire in her eyes and the softness of her lips.

In this little game of hearts, it seemed he'd just drawn a royal flush.

**Sapiosexuality**

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