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Chapter 336: I Do Not Plan To Get Along
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On the five of them, he was the only human.
Being the focus of hate and hostility, Zelga had no choice but shrink his shoulders. By now, he had already lost all of his face. If there was a hole he jump down and hide into, he would have done it so a long time ago.
“Venerable.” Siva’s voice broke the hostile air in the room as he stepped forth.
And while he did so, he didn’t forget to eye the lackey whose been badmouthing from earlier.
With but a thought command, the [Smasher] took a step forward and without restraint punched the man in the face……………and buried his head to the wall like a plant.
The sheer speed of that attack surrounded all eyes that saw it, including, and without a mistake, the Venerable.
Lady Brea, however, had long been aware of his identity and she didn’t say a word or warning nor a word of apology.
Zelga was overbearingly arrogant. He brought this mess upon himself.
The attack was so fast and so powerful that the man was immediately sent out of the game and is forcefully logged out.
It was an attack on that degree.
Zelga gulped down his courage.
Just imagining the humiliation and the pain if he was the one to be forcefully logged out after just one punch from a gorilla in full armor. He might mentally collapse for his pride might not be able to bear the brunt of it.
“I told you, right?” Siva hissed through his faceless mask.
Now that Zelga got a look out of him. His faceless persona was quite terrifying. There was a monster hidden in his body and yet, there was no way to see what that monster looked like. Such a notion was quite terrifying to some degree to Zelga.
What if a mouth suddenly open somewhere in that mask and bite his face?
What is his eyes were mouths and when he come closer, it will suddenly open and…
What if…
What if…….
What if………..
His imagination won’t stop and it was killing him from within. He stared at the approaching Siva and his monstrous presence was making him stop his breathing naturally.
Zelga wasn’t even aware that he was sweating very large beads of sweat.
“Being held here for two hours… do you know how much business I lost here?”
Zelga swallowed.
Being castigated by a High Magistrate of the Enchantment Temple of all people, he didn’t have the earlier arrogance he once carried on his bones when he was seated on his seat.
Looking at him now, legs together, shoulders in a stooping angle, face sweating, body trembling… he was just like a cat picked up from the river.
“H-How much…” he unwittingly had already made the decision to give in to this defeat. “Tell me and I will compensate you for your trouble.”
Siva smiled underneath his mask.
It was a truly evi—er—bashful……… smile…..
But although his faceless mask didn’t show any signs of changing, in Zelga’s mind, he could still sense with his inner instinct that there was a wide grin plastered on that blank mask.
“I was supposed to close in a deal that was worth 50 Billion Zentra… do you know how much money I just lost? God damn…… money is one thing but the most important thing I lost is my client and my name… my reputation… my dignity as a trader and as well as a Knight. Is your measly status as a King Candidate even capable of being traded to what I have lost? Not even your proudly vaunted title and status in ten years can pay me back what I lost in that small two hours.”
Everyone of them in the room cringed at the digits he had just mentioned.
That is 50 followed by nine zeroes.
Yeah, just like he said, money can be earned, no problem… but the trust of the client as well as the reputation built by a trader… it cannot be bought by money no matter how much was offered.
The problem is, is this guy even capable of even pulling that much money from his pockets?
It was money in billions!
This was money in the range of the annual gross income of mammoths like the Quad Tower Hotel.
………and there were 50 of them…
Even if he sold his status to The Wall and paid it up upfront, this was a reputation-tainting incident to the entire organization itself. Who knows if he’s still able to retain his status as a King Candidate after this incident —if this was published!
—and that is another matter to discuss as well.
Even the Captain of the Guards, despite him also belonging to the same organization, couldn’t help but to sigh as he was powerless to close the matter with just his status alone.
“I will pay you in his regard.”
At this time, another elderly man-sounding voice came from outside the door and without any kind of fanfare or warning he entered the room with wide strides.
It was evident from his expression that he had rushed into this place with extreme haste.
“Well if it isn’t the despicable master of the most despicable King Candidate in history to the rescue of his poor dog.”
Halma didn’t even bother his disdain as he gave his words of welcome.
But instead of bickering with the old man, he gave Zelga a glance before looking with surprise at the direction of Siva.
His imposing presence vanished and he felt the real sense of danger coming from Siva.
“Honored Sir, my name is Elder Blue Draco, of the Bright Light Sword Faction, and one of the three Grand Knights charged of overseeing the Order of the Wall of Jeremiah. My subordinate had done you a great dishonor and disrespect but I plead on your magnanimity that you give him another chance. He is still, after all, one of the very few people with the qualifications of becoming the next King of Jeremiah. In behalf of the entire organization that I represent, I hope that you will give me this chance to show my greatest regret and showing of apology. No matter what it is that you have lost in this trouble, we will double it and even add anything that you desire to show you our willingness and our sincerity. What say you, great sir?”
Siva was really astonished.
This old guy is sly. He could feel it on his bones.
Sly people will be wary of sly people and although didn’t dare to announce himself as such, he still considered his tendencies and this feeling he had with this old knight was strong.
“The force is strong in this one.” he warned himself to not underestimate this person but he also won’t pass this chance.
He glanced at Zelga and gave mental command to Cortana who didn’t say a word more but acted.
BANG!BANG!BANG~~!!!
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Three consecutive sounds of explosive punches and wind barrier being broken. A slight tremor spread in the room, astounding every soul once more.
The rest of Zelga’s retainers were panting on the wall and ceiling of the room.
Including the first one, there were two of them in the wall as decorations with the two others more planted head first to the ceiling.
And it was all done by just one person: Smasher.
The two on the ceiling hanged shoulder-deep and as they sway there like plants, it was obvious that they didn’t manage to last even a second and are forcefully logged out.
Even Elder Blue Draco wasn’t that strong enough to plant three people that fast in the ceiling and rob them of their sanity in but an instant.
Whoever the guy behind that armor was, he was indeed a monster = that’s what Draco thought.
Siva looked down at the frozen Zelga, “You are very lucky we are inside the city.”
This was a warning to both Zelga and Draco.
After he spoke, Siva walked over to Draco and he didn’t beat on the bush as he stated full of hate.
“You will double what I have lost today? Are you even capable of that?”
Draco read between the lines and prepared his soul for the shocking amount that perhaps may be going out of his pockets today.
He stated with confidence, “Don’t worry sir, I am a Grand Knight of the Kingdom. We have 50 years of history and even before that I am part of the [Council of Elders], even if the Order failed to compensate you, the Council won’t. we have trust in the depths of our resources.”
“Then I will tell you then. I was on my way to have a trade with a client in this city regarding a very rare monster resource. I have already delivered my resource and I am supposed to receive his payment today… but sadly, a lascivious bastard had the audacity to think that he can mess with just about anybody in the world with his little bit of status… are you even aware of how hard it is to find a FireHeart? Many people will pay anything just to get their hands on a FireHeart and you just deprived me of a FireHeart…!!”
When he heard this, everyone without exception were astounded.
“Goodness, were you… perhaps, trying to create a…” even Venerable Halma couldn’t remain cam when he heard this.
Of course, Siva just made it up. He just mentioned the rarest and most expensive item he could think of to give Draco the idea of the thing he just lost.
Draco gave the assurance of being able to double the amount of what he lost. Well, he just lost a FireHeart = a material used to build the core of a magical formation that could protect a city against monster hoard attacks.
It was very to the point that in the entire history of Terroa, there were only three times that a FireHeart was recorded to have been found and in these three times, all of them were used to build the defenses of the now largest cities of Terroa… Jeremiah, Kora, and Dakar.
Now, a fourth one was found… no mined… and it was already contracted to someone but now, the item had slipped through his hands because of a meddling lascivious bastard.
Even Draco could understand the grave amount of hatred Siva felt towards Draco. No wonder that even in front of Draco, he would still lash out his anger on Zelga’s lackeys and issue a clear threat.
Walled Cities have their names having the “Wall” not because of their designs, but literally… all of the cities in Terroa had the “Wall” because there are constant monster raids happening here and there in Terroa.
The walls are there to protect the people and as well as the important historical values of the city.
For 25 cycles… 25 thousand years of history in Planet Terroa, the cities persisted and continued to stand tall because of the walls.
But everyone is aware that each and every time a monster raid happens many lives are lost.
In this manner, magical defenses are an important asset to a city. In this matter, a FireHeart is the most valuable resource to power a magical barrier that has enough strength to actually defend the city from attacks including the likes of dragons.
FireHeart is precious because it amplifies the Mana imbued to the magical barrier by 100 times.
Other similar effect materials can only increase the output of Mana by 10% at most so FireHeart is a really precious item to a city.
Any patriot who loved their home town will feel the same wrath as Siva’s. That’s why, perhaps, he hated Zelga to such a degree. Because he is a human driven by greed and lust… because he does not understand the feeling that he could be as brazen enough to actually act the way he did.
The loss Siva had —Draco felt— was indeed as Siva had said, something questionable by even his own standards.
No amount of money and resources can ever be enough to the value that a FireHeart could bring to an entire city.
In this regard, Draco sympathized with Siva’s loss.
“Do you understand now?”
“I do.” Draco replied solemnly and eyed Zelga who still doesn’t seem to be reflecting on the sin he had done as he clenched his fist, trembling, on his own seat.
“How can you even double that?”
Draco had an honest look of dejection, “I can’t double that, I’m sorry.”
“It doesn’t matter now. But in exchange, I will have to take you on in your offer. I will need 10 Billion NanoCubes, 50 Mega-Crates of Black Ironwood Alloy, 900 megaton of Tesla Coils, at least five people who are masters of monster disassembly, and six of the largest cryo-modules you have. You can give me all of that at least, yes?”
Draco had an ugly look of LMB on his face and if he actually have one right now, he’d treat it as a blessing instead to have a reason to walk away.
“This guy is asking too much!”
NanoCubes, manpower, and cryo-modules aside, the Mega-Crates of BIA and the Tesla Coils are all resources made to build warships!
He was basically extorting him of resources to build his own militia instead.
But he can’t go back on his word now that he had spoken them, especially in front of Halma who is a very annoying bastard on his own right.
And yet, it was also a fact that even with his own status as an Elder of The Council, it would still be hard to let go of that much resources without a proper justification. He can’t say that it was just a compensation for a King Candidate’s big mistake or he would lose all his voice in The Council.
He had no choice left in this regard but simply ask for compromise, “I’m very sorry but I’ll be honest here, I can only let go of 35 Mega-Crates of Black Ironwood Alloy at best. And in regards to your request for Tesla Coils, I can only give you 500 Megatons of it. In exchange, I would give you 20 Billion NanoCubes and seven of the largest cryo-modules we have in the capital… and to show my sincerity for asking apology to this inconvenience, I shall also add in a NanoMachine Converter.”
“An NM-Converter?” Siva was surprised, it was a machine solely made to produce NanoCubes.
If he had that, then he wouldn’t lack NanoCubes in the future. He could just throw in anything in it and it will automatically create NanoCubes for his consumption. Thinking about it is already making Siva smile. Good thing he had his mask on.
Besides, the reason why he exponentially increased the amounts of Mega-Crates and Tesla Coils he needed was to achieve this effect.
And he had succeeded.
He can now build the ultimate defensive network for Asgard with a few extra more to make all the necessary improvements to the [S-Generators].
Siva was now satisfied. Being able to convert the impending trouble into a fit of blessing was truly one of his specialties.
—all of it because of his habit of taking up many different persona.
“Although I know there will eventually be a limit to the effects of my alter personas, my instincts still tells me that this is the best method to avoid troubles in almost any kinds of circumstances.”
If one of his personas becomes wanted, then he can just switch to another persona.
From the very beginning, why did he started to wear a mask? When he was the destroyer, he would wear the red-black mask.
When he’s assuming the “Volume Hunter” (which is by the way just the people’s call for him), he’d wear the white mask because he didn’t want to be linked to The Destroyer while delivering his hunt to the city.
And when he’s Siva… he would be just the same carefree teenager who only wanted to have some little bit of fun.
So why did he started to take these persona habit of his seriously?
—because of his curse.
The «Malevolent Aura» is a sinister curse aimed to specifically stop the [Keeper of the Chalice of the Blood Dragon God] as the one tasked to renew the seal on that Cursed Dragon to successfully do his mission.
It was a really baleful jinx that turns an ordinary person into a world-hated criminal.
Just one mistake and he will be issued a hunting order by the world’s organizations.
Until he keeps Baron safe, he must not let anyone find out about this curse.
But…
It’s not that he hasn’t placed a backup plan if that actually happened… there was the foundation of this backup plan back in Magic City Loire where he had invented the [Forest Spirit] that will curse all those who continue to defile his home ground.
But in the bigger picture, that was a shallow back up plan; what he needed is both power and ability to completely defy all future pursuers if ever he’s found out and as well as a backup plan to defend his ‘curse’ from the nobles of society.
Loire is but a test, and he had the results of that test in his mind. He just had to increase its range of effectivity.
With the NM-Converter, he can make it happen.
*****
“I accept.” Siva told Draco, “I need to meet with the Grand Elder Mage in regards to a mission he had asked me before coming here. And…” when he spoke to this point, Siva glanced over Zelga but didn’t say a word before going back to Draco who waited, “…I still have two more missions to complete so I need to maximize my time. Gather all the resources I need in Warehouse 27 by this night, and I will be visiting in there later to take it.”
Draco felt insulted being commanded this way by an outsider Knight but what else could he do?
The reason why he was able to rush here this fast is because of a distress call from Zelga. And with it, he had heard that the one Zelga offended is an Archmage… his race’s only living cultural heritage.
As much as he wanted to be courteous to Zelga in regards to their deal, he cannot let this slide since Zelga had just insulted his race as a whole.
But he was also his superior and it was also true that he still needed Zelga’s [ability] to build his own forces.
Thus, he was left with no choice but to bear the burden of this situation and tolerate this injustice of the outsider who didn’t even look at him and his status as his equal.
“I will.” Draco gritted his teeth and suppressed his anger on being looked down upon.
He is a Grand Knight for fuck’s sake!
Even if it’s not in the Kingdom, his status alone still demanded equal respect anywhere else in the planet. And yet now, this nobody is even ordering him around like a servant!
There are very few existences in the planet that can treat his status as if it was nothing like this.
—ah!
And then, just as he saw Siva turns around to lead the High Magistrate and Lady Brea out of the office, he called out to him in hopes of planning a revenge ploy in the future. It was his nature, after all.
“May I ask for Sir Knight’s name so I can invite you for drinks in the future?”
Siva only gave him a fleeting glance, or if it was even a fleeting glance as he just slightly turned his head at him and then spoke a short, “I do not plan to get along with anyone in this city” reply before he turned to leave with Scion and his two towering bodyguards.
Because he doesn’t have a face… this sentence felt more insulting that anything else Draco had ever heard.
.
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Dominating arrogance befitting a God!!!
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