A powerful sound of ice breaking is heard before a shockwave like a powerful wind hits the entire village and the nearby forests, destroying huts, shaking the treetops, and even moving the clouds.
The shock is like a large object colliding with the sea, completely enveloping Albedo's body in an attack of ice that is very close to reaching absolute zero.
All this happened in less than 5 seconds, and by the time Ainz begins to react by casting several spells in succession, Hiyama has already escaped from the scene at high speed.
"Albedo!" Ainz's worried voice is heard as several villagers from Carne Village are blown away like leaves by the wind generated by the shockwave.
...
"I'm sorry, Sir Matt, I'm late..." Armin, wearing elegant armor resembling paladin plate armor, enters through the shop door.
Upon entering, Armin notices Matt leaning his head against the counter, seemingly asleep.
"Sir Matt?" Armin approaches cautiously. After all, to Armin, Matt is a powerful being without equal. How could such a being sleep with his head resting on the counter?
"Maybe he's working on something important..." Armin murmurs quietly before heading to a corner, picking up a broom, and starting to clean the shop.
Sweeping, cleaning, scrubbing, Armin grabs various cleaning tools and begins to polish every part of the shop.
Time passes quickly, there are no customers today, Matt continues for hours with his head resting on the counter until late afternoon.
At that moment, Armin finishes his careful cleaning, rubs his sweaty forehead before looking at Matt.
"What is the boss doing?" Armin doesn't understand, but simply smiles when he sees the shop shining and smelling like a fresh forest.
At that moment, the store door opens, and two young men wearing tunic-like clothes enter the store. One is a young man in his twenties with golden hair, and the other looks like a slim teenager with black hair. He has a handsome face that could captivate any woman.
"Is what the shop sign says true?" the blond man asks almost bluntly as he focuses his gaze on Armin.
Sign?, Armin hadn't paid attention to the sign on Matt's shop, so he doesn't know what it says, but shouldn't it be something related to destiny?
Armin was about to shake his head when a calm, not-too-distant voice is heard.
"What was written on the sign?" Matt's calm, slightly bored voice is heard not far away.
The two men quickly turn their gaze to the man behind the counter, a middle-aged man with a sour face and a scruffy appearance.
The two men ignored Armin and walked solemnly toward the counter, their eyes focused on Matt. At first glance, they looked like people who were ready to kill anyone without thinking twice.
"About the power to stop the Titans," the blond man said, placing a hand on the glass counter.
Titans?, Matt thinks about it for a moment before smiling slightly. That sign in the store has been strange since his first day here.
Although to Matt the sign is completely blank, with no letters, the people who entered his store the first few times always said they saw a message that captivated their hearts.
That's why Matt is curious to know the message these two people saw on the sign.
"What exactly was written?" Matt asks with genuine curiosity.
Matt's sudden actions took the two men by surprise. They look at each other for a moment before speaking again. "The power to stop the Titans is here," the black-haired man murmurs close to Matt's ear.
There is a brief moment of silence. Matt's previously tired eyes become a little sharper, and he raises his head slightly to look at the two men before smiling slightly.
Matt had heard that word before, "Titans," more precisely during one of his conversations with Nfirea. It is said that one of the neighboring kingdoms, Paradis, is constantly attacked by strange, gigantic enemies who appear to be quite powerful.
These strange enemies are called "Titans" by the people of Paradis themselves.
"Are you from Paradis?" Matt asked before standing up, both men nodding their heads with some caution.
There was a brief moment of silence, both sides analyzing each other. After all, the Re-estize kingdom prohibits entry to people from Paradis, and Matt could simply shout and ask the kingdom's guards for help to remove the two men from his shop.
However, Matt watches the two men for a moment before simply shaking his head. "So, what would you like to buy?" Matt asks, motioning for both men to look around the store.
The two men, who were about to draw their weapons to kill Matt if he shouted, look at each other, First of all, they had entered the store out of curiosity.
At first, they both thought the sign on Matt's shop was some kind of sick joke, after all, "Writing something related to a non-Re-estize friendly kingdom on a local business sign was..." in short, playing with danger.
And even called a guard to look at the sign on Matt's store, but the guards said they couldn't see anything written on the sign, which piqued the curiosity of these two men from Paradis.
"Aren't you going to call the guards?" the blond man asks, but Matt simply shakes his head with a slight smile.
Then, Erwin stares at Levi for a moment before they both nod. Not only because of the strange sign that seemed to have writing on it that only they could see, but also because of the strange feeling they get from being inside this store, they both decide to trust Matt a little.
Now, looking at Matt, the blond man steps forward, "My name is Erwin Smith, the man next to me is Levi Ackerman. May we know your name?" Erwin says in a slightly respectful voice.
After all, owning such a strange shop must be an indicator of something, for Erwin, it's an indicator that Matt is someone powerful in one way or another.
"I'm Matt, just Matt. This is my magic item shop, if you want to call it that. Here you can buy whatever you want as long as you have enough gold coins..." Matt says with a slight smile.
Levi steps forward, his eyes quickly scanning the shop and focusing on something hanging on the wall behind Matt, a small transparent glass box with four books inside.
The box had caught his attention from the moment he entered the shop, and now that Matt mentions that they can buy things from the shop, Levi doesn't hesitate to point to that box.
Looking at the box Levi points to, Matt smiles slightly, "Jajaja, nice bro, the single-use experience books, it automatically teach you the three types of Haki and the six naval styles," Matt presents the item as he walks over to the wall to pick up the box and then place it on the counter.
"This item is from a distant land. They are single-use books that inject knowledge into the brain of the person who buys them. They are powerful books that require no practice to master the three types of Haki and the six naval styles of the Navy," Matt gives his classic presentation of an item.
Levi's eyes, completely focused on the transparent box, do not blink. His mind, his soul, his consciousness are taken over by a strange sensation almost enough to kill him.
Levi saw countless people being slaughtered by men armed with all kinds of weapons, people using abilities to deform their bodies, strange things, but above all, the cruelty of a world where pirates are just around the corner.
And then, he saw a white uniform, consisting of an elegant white shirt with two rows of buttons, matching white pants, and a beautiful cape with one word written on it: Navy.
It didn't matter that some people in the Navy were, at times, more cruel than pirates; the truth was that the Navy was mostly made up of people willing to give their lives for their neighbors.
The faces of the people he saw in his mind when someone dressed as part of the Navy passed by reminded him of Levi in Paradis, where ordinary people had that kind of look every time Erwin passed by them.
That look reflected peace, hope, appreciation, and above all, admiration, the deep admiration of another person, one that could only be obtained after having done something that truly amazed the masses. That kind of admiration was something Levi appreciated deep in his heart.
So he did it. Levi raised a hand to lightly touch the transparent box, and in the next moment, he stopped blinking, stopped moving, and simply continued to observe the books inside the box.
Erwin, standing next to Levi, watches with curiosity and surprise as the books inside the transparent box slowly begin to disappear, melting into a kind of colored smoke that is absorbed by Levi's hand.
Erwin's amazed eyes look at Levi with some concern, "Hey, Sir Matt, Levi is..." Erwin doesn't finish speaking just as Levi's body begins to turn black.
The books in the small box have finished disappearing, and the box itself begins to slowly vanish.
Levi opens his eyes, his mind flooded with new knowledge. Now he can say that he has acquired a power he could only dream of before.
Levi clenches his right fist, his eyes focused on Matt's counter, and begins to scan the entire store.
The store, filled with products that look like strange decorations, seems somehow spectral, magical, and Matt, in his eyes, looks like a man—no, not like a man, but like a god.
Levi looks at the man in front of him with eyes filled with mixed feelings, his heart weighed down by the burden of different emotions beginning to calm down, to relax.
In Levi's mind, only one phrase stands out among his various thoughts about what has just happened: "Power to bring peace to Paradis." He smiles as he hasn't done since childhood.
Small, slow traces of something wet moisten his cheeks as a smile of white teeth takes over his androgynous face.
"Sir Matt, thank you..." Levi says, bowing to Matt as a new resolve takes hold of his soul: loyalty.