Chapter 117
Chapter 117
Chapter 117
Agreement
Giovanni nodded his head cheerfully.
"Right, we need the Blue World. It's practically the ultimate divine artifact that only magicians can use. Recovering it is one of our paramount missions."
Rudian asked Giovanni with an expressionless face.
"Let me ask one thing. Do you think we'd have a chance of winning even if we had the Blue World?"
"No..."
His expression immediately turned bitter.
"We were defeated 800 years ago even when we had it, let alone now with our current forces facing the gods head-on. Moreover, the gods' restrictions will soon be lifted."
"Then why are you still looking for the Blue World?"
"Tsk, asking mischievous questions when you already know everything. Isn't there a big difference between having the minimum possibility or not? Especially when you folks also possess the Green World."
"...!"
Rudian and Elvin's expressions instantly hardened.
Luciella and Gray, who didn't know the full situation, tilted their heads in confusion, but the fact that an outsider - and Giovanni at that - mentioned this was quite a serious problem.
Giovanni chuckled at Rudian's reaction and waved his hand dismissively.
"Well, don't look so grim. We're not particularly interested in anything that's not related to magic."
"How did you know?"
"Quite by chance. This fellow here saw that friend of yours use the Green World in the imperial palace."
At the tip of Giovanni's finger was an old man with the number 9 carved on his forehead.
'Come to think of it, that's right.'
During the Imperial palace battle, Maria had briefly lent the Green World to Elvin when he was about to step forward to fight Karen.
So that's what gave it away...
'Bad luck.'
Since it had hardly ever leaked to the outside until now, the fact that someone capable of immediately recognizing that aura had infiltrated the imperial palace as a spy was an unexpected variable.
'With that person's skill, he could have stolen the Green World in that situation... but he didn't, which means he really wasn't interested, or there was some other reason...'
Glancing to the side, Rudian noticed Elvin looking particularly pale.
Rudian gently patted Elvin's shoulder to reassure him.
"It might be different if it were the Red World or Purple World, but psychic powers are incompatible with magic. Not only is application itself difficult, but considerable talent must be consumed to master it."
"That's true."
Unless one plans to collect them all like Rudian, powers with incompatible attributes that require talent consumption to handle are worse than useless.
"Now, let's seriously sound out our intentions. We want ownership of the Blue World. We'd also like your active cooperation."
Rudian hid his expression and put on a manufactured smile.
"You've been searching for it for hundreds of years, so isn't it unreasonable to ask us to cooperate in searching for an object that might not even exist in this dimension?"
"No, the Blue World exists. And I'm not asking you to search for it. I'm asking you to lend your strength."
Giovanni looked directly at Rudian with conviction.
Seeing this, Rudian fell into thought for a moment.
'He probably doesn't know the exact location, but seems to know who the owner is.'
If not, he wouldn't have said to lend strength.
Rudian continued speaking while hiding his interest.
"How do you know where that one is hiding? Even for someone like you, finding him would be difficult, wouldn't it?"
A gleam appeared in Giovanni's eyes at those words.
"Certainly so. But if we turn the southern continent into a wasteland, won't he crawl out on his own?"
"...Are you planning to wage war against them? The odds of winning would be slim."
"We have to do it even if it doesn't work. That's our only lead."
"W-wait! What are you two talking about? Explain it so we can understand too!"
Gray, who had been watching the conversation between Rudian and Giovanni, raised his voice with slight irritation.
"Haha, sorry. You deserve to know too, but I was a bit inconsiderate."
Giovanni laughed while patting Gray's back as he sat beside him.
"But since your group's leader seems to know more details than expected, it would be better to hear the explanation from the leader."
Immediately, the group's attention turned to Rudian.
Moreover, Giovanni and the other executives were also looking this way with interest.
Under that burdensome gaze, Rudian let out a small sigh.
Then he mentioned the most important keyword from the current conversation.
"Dragon."
"...Huh?"
"Blue Dragon Kirchrus. He's probably the being most likely to currently possess the Blue World."
"Hehe, how can you be so certain?"
Eugene, sitting across from them, asked with a spinning smile.
Rudian slowly continued while recalling the setting of .
"Kirchrus was a member of Celestial 800 years ago and was close to the leader at the time. If there's any possibility, it would be this direction. Even gods are reluctant to mess with dragons."
If the gods had definitely taken it, these guys wouldn't be desperately searching for the Blue World like this.
Kirchrus.
The only dragon who participated in the war, breaking the unwritten rule of his race that prohibited interference in the middle realm.
From the gods' perspective, they would have wanted to kill Kirchrus for defying them, but doing so would have made enemies of the entire dragon race, so they had no choice but to let him go.
"You know quite well. This is top secret information that even few within our organization know..."
"Don't underestimate our intelligence network."
Though Rudian had planned to form an alliance anyway, it was necessary for Giovanni's group to maintain appropriate tension toward Rudian's party.
Especially when the power difference was so extreme.
"Well, I suppose that's possible."
Giovanni nodded as if he understood.
Currently, what information Rudian held wasn't much of a consideration for him.
What mattered was whether Rudian could help recover the Blue World.
And whether he would acknowledge their ownership of it.
...Only these two things.
Rudian looked directly at Giovanni and opened his mouth.
"Then let me state our conditions as well."
"Let's hear it."
This was the real showdown.
If negotiations failed here, Rudian would likely lose all his current companions.
"First, I know the exact location of the Blue World."
"...!"
DING!
Sure enough, as Rudian expected, as soon as he said this, the executives near Giovanni immediately raised their magic power to subdue Rudian.
"Ugh...!"
Except for Rudian, the party was immediately overwhelmed by the magic power generated by the 9th Class Great Magicians, their entire bodies bound.
However, only Rudian calmly withstood that force.
"Stop."
"Gasp...!"
The magic power that had been pressuring Rudian and his companions immediately disappeared at Giovanni's single word.
It wasn't that the executives had withdrawn their magic power, but that they were immediately suppressed by the power of the incantation Giovanni uttered.
'The difference in rank is tremendous.'
The current Giovanni might even be able to compete to some degree with Marbas from back then.
"Sorry, they're rather overpowered guys..."
"I understand."
"You five are forbidden from using any magic power from now on."
"Yes... We're sorry, Master."
"I didn't do anything though..."
Eugene pouted his lips in complaint, but since collective responsibility was imposed, there was nothing to be done.
Giovanni looked toward them and bowed his head slightly.
"I apologize once more."
"No, it's understandable."
Though Rudian waved his hand dismissively as if it were nothing, his inner feelings had grown cold.
'If I had been subdued, they would have proceeded as planned.'
Rudian knew the character Giovanni very well.
Despite his flashy appearance, he was an ideal leader who was easygoing and anti-authoritarian while possessing both skill and leadership.
But that was only the image he showed within the Celestial organization.
He was a thorough pragmatist who would naturally backstab allies for his goals and wouldn't hesitate to bloody his hands.
He was a decent enough ally when there was a common enemy or mutual benefit, but the moment their interests diverged, he would naturally stab them in the back.
"Continue with your conditions."
"In exchange for telling you the exact location of the Blue World, I have five conditions."
Not just one or two, but five - this naturally made the other magicians' faces sour.
"That's quite a lot... Let's hear them first."
Rudian calmly enumerated the conditions.
"First, obtain the Blue World through legitimate trials. Second, instead of Celestial using the Blue World obtained this way entirely, acknowledge exactly half as our share. Of course, we have no intention of forcibly taking it under the pretext of our share."
"Hmm."
"Third, while we jointly undergo the Blue World's trials, use Celestial's power to prevent other organizations from targeting the Morian Empire. Especially guys like the Iron Guards or Seven Arks."
"That's not difficult."
"Fourth, lend your strength to the front lines against the demons after obtaining the Blue World."
"Why after obtaining it, not now? Interesting."
Rudian ignored that comment and stated the final condition.
"Last. Giovanni, you will teach magic to this guy here for the next 10 years."
"Huh...?"
Giovanni's eyes widened slightly upon hearing the last condition.
"To this kid?"
"Brother...?"
"That's a bit difficult? Not 1 year but 10 years - I'm much busier than you think. Won't Eugene here or the other executives do? They're guys who could easily be called Great Magicians if they went out into the world right now."
Naturally, they would all be 9th Class, so they would be more than sufficient as teachers.
But...
Rudian's attitude was firm.
"No. It absolutely must be you, Giovanni."
"Why?"
"Because only you are the vessel that can contain Gray."
"This kid...?"
Giovanni's gaze began to sweep over Gray with interest.
"Hmm, 6th Class... Certainly an uncommon gem..."
Actually, he hadn't been particularly interested in anyone except Rudian.
Given his circumstances, he was looking at current position rather than future talent.
Rudian's other companions, who weren't yet complete, hadn't been objects of interest.
But looking from a different perspective, Giovanni's view changed considerably.
"They're all decent? Compared to our kids, they're not inferior at all... No, they might even be a bit better."
Of course.
These were all talents verified in the main story of .
Among them, Gray, the only magician, drew the greatest interest from the Celestial magicians.
Giovanni's and Gray's eyes met.
Gray glared at Giovanni with wide eyes as if he wouldn't back down.
"Hmm, it does seem like it would be interesting... But still, 10 years won't do. Even if we obtain the Blue World, preparing for war against the gods will take considerable time."
"What if the actual time that passes is about 1 year? That should be enough time for you to spare."
"Huh...?"
Giovanni was no ordinary person - there was no way he wouldn't understand this.
"Time dilation adjustment. If there's a place related to that, wouldn't the story be different?"
"Really? Such a place exists?"
Giovanni's eyes widened.
"Of course, it's not a place just anyone can enter. That place is related to obtaining the Blue World, and since you, Giovanni, will personally step forward for that purpose, I'm suggesting we handle it as a bonus."
Though 1 year was still burdensome to call it a bonus, Rudian was confident that Giovanni wouldn't be able to refuse.
"Such a place exists? We've searched desperately but couldn't find it...?"
Even if one reaches 10th Class and can manipulate spacetime, time dilation control is clearly in the realm of gods.
The Leviathan's tomb, where they first experienced temporal distortion, was possible because Leviathan showed a rank equivalent to higher-tier divine status under the name of Seven Seats.
No matter how much Giovanni was the leader of a group, his essence was still that of a magician.
Before the double-edged sword called curiosity, even he was helpless.