“What are you trying to imply, Your Highness?” Makoto’s voice carries caution.

“Simple. I want you girls to join under my rank. You girls’ power is quite amazing. Different from the heroes who acquired their power through the summoning ritual, you already have your own power before coming here. I can sense the otherworld’s power flowing inside you, different from the power in this world. You can’t hide that in my eyes.” Xavier’s eyes suddenly become sharp. His words are deep and dominating, and then an intense pressure weighs on everyone in the room. “I will ask you again. Which one will you choose?”

Like standing in front of an almighty being, Makoto, Yuuko, and Lexar are caught off guard. A heavy feeling appears in everyone’s heart, making them feel submissive to the king in front of them. Unconsciously, they now kneel in front of the king head down, not daring to speak anything.

(Such an overwhelming presence, and that intense killing intent too. He is like a cold heart monster, completely different from the carefree man a while ago) Yuuko is intimidated by the pressure.

(He is forcing us to accept his offer. What on earth is he trying to do? What will happen the moment we agree? This is bad. I have an omnious feeling about this. But if I decline here, no doubt the other guards will immediately apprehend us. What should I do? The guards here are too strong, and that guy is even stronger.) Makoto is also panicking. The sudden change in the emperor is too abrupt, and her sense of danger is tingling, warning her not to agree. But if she declines, the guards will move. The numbers floating around her are too scary. Those lv 60 stats are a whole dimension apart from the previous enemies she has fought in the past. Furthermore, surpassing those lv 60 guards, there is even more of the monster in front of her, a level 200 cultivator! What is even scarier are those ‘?’ marks in the tables. That means the cultivator in front of her is an existence that cannot be measured by this world’s normal means.

Lexar, without exception, is also compelled to kneel down under the pressure. He is also surprised for a moment but soon regains his calm. The man Xavier does not look like a good nature king at all, but an arbitrary and dangerous one. Similar to Makoto, he notices that there is something wrong with his compulsion  His words carry the power of those who have high standing, the power to makes everyone submissive below him, the same power as Hinami's! Luckily, he and the girls are not normal people so they can resist his pressure, not saying anything. But if it was any other person, he would already accept it by now. 

In such a situation when both options are dangerous and no good, dealing with such a difficult opponent is still too difficult for the girls. At this time, as their guardian, he has to step out and deal with this.

“I will have to decline those offers.” Lexar speaks out, in Chinese and human voice that the other people can hear.

“Hou” Xavier is surprised when the cat suddenly speaks human language, furthermore in the ancient language of the royalty. His interest is switched from Makoto to Lexar. “What gives you the permission to object my offers in their place?”

“I am their guardian, and also their teacher. Though my appearance is a cat, that is not actually my real identity.” Lexar answers. At the same time, the white flame rises and covers his whole body.

The guards all prepare their weapons and point at the trio. However, Xavier rises up his hand, signaling them to stop and stand back. His face does not have that intimidating look from before. At first, it is a look of interest, then turns in surprise, awed, and amazement. He stands up from the throne, walking closer to Lexar.

“That power, it is the first time I’ve ever seen anything like it. It holds too many things in it. I can sense energy, life force, many elements, mana, ki, … and evolution power. It is like all of them mixed inside, but at the same time not. Tell me, how did you do it? What is that power?” Xavier’s concentration is entirely in the white flame.

“Animium. The energy that can produce other types of energy itself. It is the source of our power.”

“Tell me. How do you obtain this energy? No, how do you train to get this energy?” Xavier impatiently asks.

“We don’t train to get this energy. We have to go through a ritual to get it in our world.”

“A ritual? What ritual is it?”

“For that, I am not very sure. What we know is that we underwent a ritual in our world, and then we had this power. And it also depends on a person to obtain it.” Lexar patiently answers.

“What else do you know?” Xavier keeps asking.

“The place we had the ritual is very special, a place with many criteria that can only exist in our world. That place was filled with animium itself, and many strange phenomena, monsters. The monsters there can also use the same power as us.”

“You seem to emphasize the word “our world” a lot. I see what you are trying to say. You want to return to your own world, don’t you?” Xavier suddenly loses all of his interest and throws himself back to the throne.

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“Yes, we want to go back to our world. Over there, we have an enemy that we have to fight no matter what.”

“Hm, so what? It’s not like you can go back or anything. For your information, we have summoning ritual but we don’t have the method to return them to your own world, especially when I don’t intend to let them do so. Give it up.” Xavier dismisses the topic, waving his hands.

“I am sorry to cut you in, your Highness, but we have a way to return to our world.” Lexar firmly denies the king’s offer. “As you can see here, Makoto is a mage and knowledgeable in many fields. And this warrior, Yuuko, she may not look like it but she has innate spatial magic talent. Yuuko, please demonstrate your teleporting skill.” Lexar then directs to Yuuko.

Being suddenly called, Yuuko is a little bit perplexed but then nods and stands up. With a turnaround, she immediately appears at the beginning of the hall, which surprises the guards there for an instant, then returns to the same spot before.

Seeing her instantaneous movement, Xavier frowns a bit then turns to Lexar “So? What are you trying to say?”

“You may have heard it from the summoned heroes, that our world does not have such thing like magic. However, that is incorrect. Magic also exists in our world, but it is on the hidden side, unknown to the regular people. The thing known as spatial magic also exists. In the battle with our enemy, to save ourselves, we used a spatial magic to teleport us somewhere far away. Unfortunately, because of the randomness trait of the spell, we ended up being in this world. That’s the story how we came here.

If we want to go back to our world, we can adjust the spell to send us back to where we were. However, because of the difference in the spatial rule of this world, it will take a long time to complete that. We want to hurry back to our world before the enemy becomes too strong. That’s why we search for the hero summoning ritual, for a reference traveling between worlds and fastening the adjustment of the spell.” The cat fluently constructs the argument.

“So if I let you guys examine the summoning ritual, you guys can configure the spell to go back to your world, huh? I don’t see any merit doing so. I have wasted a lot of resources on summoning the heroes. If the heroes know about it, they will start making a fuss and demand going home. It took me some time to settle them. Don’t cause any more trouble.” Xavier boringly waves his hand.

“Your Highness, what is the reason you summoned the heroes in the first place?” Lexar suddenly throws an unexpected question.

“Hm, what are you trying to say this time?”

“Pardon me for guessing. The reason you had summoned the heroes despite the taboo is to seek a breakthrough in the stalemate with the demons. With both sides going back and forth such a long time, I think it is very straining for the human countries. A positive change for the human side is needed, whether it is a very strong fighting force or a revolutionary development. The heroes can satisfy those two demands.” The current situation with fighting the demon is publicly known. The group has learned about it before from talking with the town mayor Brian. Lexar speaks until here then pauses a little.

Xavier gives a small nod, unknown whether he means correct or to continue. Lexar resumes his talk.

“However, from seeing the fighting potential of the heroes and the power of this country, I think it is not the heroes’ power that you are seeking. After all, they are just students, living in a peaceful world, not accustomed to fighting. Even though they underwent something and became the heroes, I doubt that they reach the expectation that you give.” Though uncertain, Lexar believes this is the current situation. He does not know the other heroes, but the three heroes they have met, Airi, Kazuko, Hitomi, mentioned that they could not defeat their instructor, a level 70 general.

There was a level and experience difference between the two. However, in this world, any human who has passed level 40, the rank of commander, is not simple at all. This world is not a game where strength is only displayed in number. Any human when they are born start from level 1. To reach from level 1 to 40, that means in their path, there are already countless of monster corpses. Any person who has survived through that much battle is pretty much an ace soldier. Not mentioning those who surpass level 60 and achieve the general rank. That is pretty much the ace of aces. Their fighting power and experience are not something those heroes can’t achieve without time.

Even if the heroes had the power that Xavier wished for, Lexar doubt he would be generous with them. To summon so many people at the same time, the risk of doing that is extremely dangerous, considering the history of this world. Only one was enough to shake this world up and down, and there are 30 of them now. What will happen when things start going out of control? The world will face the destruction itself. He doesn’t think that this king is so oblivious not to notice such thing.

As such, that leaves only one thing that Xavier can expect from the heroes: the change that the heroes can bring to the human countries.

The previous hero, a cultivator, not only did she possess an overwhelming power, she also brought forth a revolution to the human that the history recorded that period of time as the golden age of humanity. Advancement in technology, economy, management and so on. That advancement gave the human countries enormous benefits and great advantages in the previous war with demons. Those things are what the people in this world need, not a powerful yet uncontrollable mad fighter.

“The thing that you are looking for is the knowledge and mindset that those heroes have, and by having their knowledge, you hope to make a breakthrough in developing your country. With advancement, your country will be stronger, gaining a better position in the human alliance and a chance to win in this long war with demons.” Lexar continues his deduction.

A clapping sound, and Xavier sits straight on his throne, hands clapping each other loudly. His grinning tells that he is amused by the talking.

“Well done, well done. To think that there is such a smart cat in this world. Very insightful with just a few observations and information. I applaud you for that. You are right about one thing. The prime reason that I tried to summon them is because of their knowledge. And as you have guessed, their knowledge, though trivial and common in your world, gives this country many breakthroughs in developments in many fields. As expected of students from a prestigious school.

However, you are wrong about their strength. They match my expectation very well. They are pretty strong, strong enough to become the core of the army, but not too strong to be one-man army. They can also be used as the spears toward the demons as well.” Xavier says.