Headquarters Meeting (2)
"For free?"
At my words, Qing’s face went pale.
She must have known exactly how rude it was to show that kind of attitude before her own lord.
And yet I remained perfectly calm.
At least with the Arkan I knew, any kind of deal had always been give and take. She was not the sort to shove one-sided terms down someone’s throat simply by leaning on her authority.
But this time, things were different.
"You’re really crossing the line, aren’t you?"
A vast mana began to stir. Arkan was openly concentrating her killing intent in one place, and that target was me.
It was only killing intent, focused to a single point, but the force of it was enough to spiderweb the floor beneath our feet with cracks.
Rudine and Qing were having trouble even breathing.
"Did I not make myself clear? That belongs to me."
I lifted my head and stared straight at Arkan.
That overwhelming pressure was enough to crush the space around us, but still, I felt no threat at all.
What mattered was that Arkan’s previously friendly attitude had changed in an instant.
Well, I can’t exactly say I don’t get it.
Of course she was angry.
The True Ancestor she’d been searching for had died at the hands of some human she’d never even seen before, and now the moment she asked for her stolen grimoire back, I was demanding compensation first. In a way, it was only natural that she’d be furious with me.
But that was a misunderstanding.
"Are you saying that cursed grimoire was a stolen item?"
"You’re making me repeat myself."
The killing intent dominating the space grew even stronger.
As Rudine clenched her teeth and reversed her dagger in her grip, Qing also drew his sword, and the atmosphere turned grim.
Of course, none of it was affecting me, but the tension was rising as if a fight could break out at any second.
"Well, I can understand it. The fact that you’ve been looking for it all this time means it must have been important to you."
"And you know that, so why are you—!"
"But that’s only your side of the story."
That was exactly right.
Her position was her position; it wasn’t something I was obliged to care about.
"As you know, I’m the administrator here. Naturally, that means I have a duty to investigate the western district as part of my administrative work. In the course of that, I happened to discover a labyrinth. So what choice did I have? I had no option but to investigate it as part of my duties. And while doing so, I happened to find the True Ancestor. Since he was obviously a dangerous individual, I dealt with him personally. Is there any problem with that?"
I sounded confident.
Because I actually was confident.
"You said it was called the Grimoire of Pindal, didn’t you? That ominous thing was also a trophy from conquering the labyrinth."
The witch Arkan.
As the head of the Arkan Monarch Assembly, she was one of the continent’s most powerful figures, and she possessed a rather unusual authority.
The original work had described that authority in all sorts of complicated ways, but the core of it was simple.
She can see through lies.
Nothing could get past her.
All she had to do was look someone in the eye, and she could tell whether they were lying or telling the truth.
But even insight wasn’t all-powerful.
"The spoils of a labyrinth belong to the first one to conquer it. And I was the first to conquer that labyrinth. Isn’t that only natural after investing so much time and resources into it?"
Just as there were countless shades of gray between black and white, the same was true of truth and lies.
It had taken only a few hours to explore the labyrinth.
To anyone else, it might have looked like I’d gotten away with something for nothing, but if it was hard for me, then it was hard.
So by now, she’d probably realized that everything I’d said was true.
"That’s why your claim is unreasonable. I explored the labyrinth through legitimate means and simply took the spoils as payment for my success."
"…"
"And who cares whose property that cursed book originally was? If it was so precious, then shouldn’t you be blaming your own negligence for letting it get stolen in the first place?"
"That’s…"
"And now what? You want it back because it was originally yours?"
As if.
Not a chance.
"I was the one who removed the curse from the book, and I was the one who killed the True Ancestor. Where exactly do you think your share is in all this? Honestly, the moment the book was stolen, didn’t you already lose your claim to it? And now you expect me to hand it over just because you’re asserting ownership? Do I look like an idiot?"
"Uhh… well…"
There wasn’t a single opening.
It was only natural in this world for the conqueror of a labyrinth to claim its spoils.
Someone who had lived for hundreds of years would surely understand that much.
Arkan’s mouth fell open.
She looked so stunned that she even blinked.
Before long, the killing intent she’d been radiating quietly ebbed away as well.
"Once you’ve calmed down, let me ask again."
"…"
"Like I said earlier, I understand where you’re coming from. I’m not planning to be stubborn about this either."
I stopped the beating here.
For negotiations to proceed smoothly, I needed to soothe her wounded pride to some extent.
"But the scales of a deal have to stay balanced."
"…A deal?"
"Exactly. Whatever the result, I found something you’d lost and couldn’t even track down for all this time, didn’t I?"
So just shut up and hand over the compensation.
Arkan stared at me in disbelief.
I stared back with a look that said, Well? What do you have to say for yourself?
"…Hah!"
Only then did she finally burst out laughing after standing there dumbfounded for so long.
"Wow, what kind of human are you?"
"And your answer?"
"Fine, fine. You’re right about everything. Really, this is embarrassing. I’ve been looking for that thing for so long that I got a little touchy without even realizing it."
"I understand."
Yes, Arkan was that kind of person.
She repaid resentment twofold and kindness tenfold.
That was why I’d chosen to reason with her.
As long as she acknowledged that she owed me a debt, Arkan would definitely provide something equivalent in return.
"Good. Things got a little weird along the way, but let me formally thank you again. I’m grateful. Thanks to you, I’ve been saved a great deal of trouble."
Arkan’s expression softened, and she broke into a bright smile.
"You can forget about the Shadow Society matter. I’ll take responsibility and clean it up myself. I won’t be holding you liable for anything related to it anymore."
"That’s wonderful news."
"Right, well, that’s one thing. But… I can’t avoid bringing up the matter of compensation."
There it was!
She’d finally come to her senses!
"There are two kinds of compensation I can offer you: money, or an item. Which would you prefer?"
Money meant money, obviously. An item would be an artifact, or perhaps a relic.
Neither is particularly necessary, though.
I already had plenty of money.
Officially, I was the son of a ducal house in the Empire, after all.
An item? That wasn’t much use either.
Artifacts and relics required mana to activate, and unfortunately, I didn’t have any mana to speak of.
Then I guess there’s really only one thing.
Mm. So that was all there was.
After finishing my thoughts, I lifted my head.
"I’d like to ask for something else."
"Go on."
"I need people."
People?
Hearing that, Arkan tilted her head.
"I’m not following. Could you be more specific?"
"Like I said, I’m the administrator of Blackmore. But the territory’s so large that it’s too much for one person to manage alone."
"So?"
I grinned, just a little.
"For five years. I need manpower to help me with my work for exactly five years."
I prayed desperately to myself.
The Arkan Monarch Assembly was a cradle of talent.
Merely being affiliated with it meant no one would need to question their ability or qualifications.
And that wasn’t all.
It was a system in which power was concentrated in the hands of a few, so loyalty would be high as well.
If they sent me just a few people, managing this damn hellscape would become much easier.
And since it looked like we’d be seeing each other often in the future, there was no harm in building some ties now.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
"Seriously? That’s all you want?"
"More than enough."
She stroked her chin as if intrigued, then let a wicked little smile curl at her lips.
"Interesting. Fine. I accept."
"Good. Then I’ll hand over the grimoire at once."
And while that satisfying deal was being sealed, in front of Luke Richter’s office, where Adina was left alone…
"Huff… huff…"
Three men.
Clutching the wounds at their waists, they were gasping harshly for breath.
They were assassins.
Elite operatives who had rushed here after receiving a contract to assassinate Luke Richter, the man who had become infamous as the Empire’s hidden hand.
They were certain.
If veterans like them made a move, there was no way the mission could fail.
But then—
"Wh-what… huff… what the hell is…"
Their grand ambition crumbled into nothing.
And it wasn’t because of Luke Richter, nor because of the demon realm’s bizarre terrain.
It was the fox beastman standing before them, with her pointed ears twitching.
Just that damned girl.
"Mm-hmm, this is normal! So the two of them were the weird ones? See, I’m not the strange one after all."
"…?"
Had her mind been scrambled by the conditions of the demon realm?
The fox beastman muttered something incomprehensible, then suddenly turned her head.
Her violet eyes flashed, gleaming with a sharp inner light.
"I’m sorry."
Silver rings encircling Adina’s body burst forth with radiance.
The pure white wave that seemed to slice flesh brushed past their skin in a cool whisper.
It was a cold, sticky sensation, as though it were carving away at every nerve in their bodies.
They couldn’t understand it.
They only realized that some strange force had passed over them.
Then—
Gooooo!
The compressed purple energy that had been pressing down on the space transformed into an intangible will and shot up into the heavens.
It became a light that brightened the night sky.
And the instant it exploded outward in all directions as a burst of brilliance—
!!!
KWA-KA-KA-KA-KA-BOOM!
A colossal bolt of lightning tore through the sky, smashing the moment in half and striking the ground below.
An appalling blow.
It was truly an attack powerful enough to steal a person’s soul right out of them.
The men exposed directly to the thunder strike were erased without leaving even a trace behind.
All they left in the world was a brief death cry.
Meanwhile, Adina, the one who had displayed a martial art that could only be called a White Hair Tribe secret technique—
"...Heh heh."
She swished her silver tail with great satisfaction.
Today, too, she was completely absorbed in the strength that had allowed her to defend her home.