Chapter 225: Negotiation (4)

“……”

“Your emergence from seclusion means that the one to handle this matter has been decided, doesn’t it?”

Girard remained calm, unfazed by Virgil’s presence.

He already fully understood his predicament.

Even what was to come.

“Good heavens… isn’t that wizard’s mind a bit too sharp? I was just planning to string him along by casually leaking information, but he even realized there was a traitor within the organization and used that to leverage the deal… If I had known this, I would have said nothing from the start.”

“Stop the petty act. I know everything, so there’s no need for such theatrics.”

Virgil let out a small laugh.

Red eyes gleamed behind his sunglasses.

“You only realized you backed the wrong horse after dealing with Van, and immediately switched sides. You must have predicted that the damage would be far greater than your superior anticipated, and that responsibility would spread downwards, didn’t you?”

“……”

“Your prediction wasn’t wrong. Executive Director Avid Lowell’s special forces unit was annihilated by a single person… That man isn’t just good at fighting. He understands better than anyone what it means to kill people as a wizard.”

“……Hahahahahaha!!”

Girard, who had been staring intently at Virgil’s face, suddenly burst into laughter.

His vacant expression instantly brightened, and his eyes filled with euphoria.

Shaking off his previous demeanor, Girard, who had regained his original madness, laughed heartily, revealing his Adam’s apple.

Girard looked up at Virgil with glistening eyes, a slow smile spreading across his lips.

“Everyone’s just too smart. Well, it’s convenient for me since we communicate so well… but it’s frightening, makes me wonder if I can even speak freely anywhere.”

“……”

“Well, if you know that much, there’s only one thing to say.”

Girard asked.

“Will you spare me?”

Strictly speaking, Girard’s life ceased to exist the moment Van captured him alive.

However, the fact that he managed to survive and return to the Cartel amidst the rapidly changing circumstances,

was precisely because Girard was observant and acted quickly.

“An interesting fellow. One needs a well-mannered madman like you, after all…”

Virgil smiled.

“You pass my criteria, but… I need a definite answer first.”

“A definite answer about what?”

“That you will fully cooperate in apprehending the traitor who betrayed the Chairman.”

With those words, his red eyes turned cold, and sharp killing intent mercilessly pressed down on Girard’s very essence.

“Crucial evidence that your direct superior, Executive Parden McQueen, betrayed the Cartel and colluded with the Ten Counts… As someone who managed the cooperative businesses in the 40s district, you remember everything, don’t you?”

Even if one didn’t want to believe it, all circumstantial evidence pointed to a single person.

A founding contributor who had been with the Cartel since its inception, and the eldest among the four executives.

He held the position of Vice Chairman, exercising full authority in the Chairman’s absence, and simultaneously commanded the Cartel’s elite armed forces—an elder among elders.

The man who had served the Chairman longest and most faithfully had betrayed the organization and turned his back.

He deliberately provoked the wizard Van, causing chaos, siphoned off internal slush funds while attention was drawn to the long-awaited adversary, moved his subordinate directors, including Girard, to actively try and rectify the situation, and ultimately tried to erase all traces and cover up his mistakes—a single person.

“So that’s what he meant by stepping up to ‘handle things’… McQueen, I won’t let this go.”

Virgil’s eyes glowed ominously behind his sunglasses.

Girard silently shrugged his shoulders at the sight.

“That’s not difficult. So, could you loosen these restraints now? I’ve been tied up everywhere for over a week; my joints feel like they’re rotting.”

“……”

“……Mr. Virgil?”

“For now, that’s as far as my proposed terms of acceptance go.”

Virgil said that, took hold of Girard’s handcuffs, and began walking down the long corridor.

“We’ll also have to hear what the Chairman thinks.”

At those words, Girard’s indifferent expression completely changed.

His compliant steps, following Virgil, abruptly halted.

“Th-th-the Chairman, you mean?”

“Yes. The Chairman wishes to see you personally.”

“W-wait a minute… There was no mention of that. Why would I suddenly see the Chairman…?”

“It’s about deciding the fate of a traitor within the organization. And the ringleader, at that.”

Virgil replied, dragging Girard along without looking back.

“Furthermore, if McQueen is the ringleader, it wouldn’t be strange for the Chairman to return after such a long absence, would it?”

“Perhaps later, later… She wouldn’t even remember my face, so why specifically see me…?”

Virgil scoffed at Girard’s pale, fear-stricken face, all the spirit he had shown in returning alive, having gambled his life, completely vanished.

“Enough with the useless talk. Let’s go in and discuss this. The Chairman is waiting.”

Only then did Girard realize what lay at the end of this wide, long corridor and struggled, but it was too late.

A majestic, arched gate, like that of a fortress, appeared before them.

The thick stone door was carved with all sorts of metaphysical designs.

The aesthetic sense that chose each of those carvings was surely beyond the comprehension of an ordinary person.

A monster who had lived for hundreds of years, seated there.

An old titan who had reigned over Vulcan’s shadows for decades in this massive city.

The office of Cartel’s Chairman, Olivera Ron Maize, was before Girard’s eyes.

There was no need to knock.

The moment she perceived their presence, Virgil and Girard were already within her inner sanctum.

A tomb of books, covered in decades of dust, left untouched, and above it, a golden staircase rising majestically.

Girard met the gaze of the woman seated on the splendid throne atop it, and immediately slammed his head to the ground.

Boom!

“Girard Ozette greets the Chairman!!!”

Olivera ignored his words and turned her gaze towards Virgil, who stood beside her.

[What was his name?]

She didn’t open her mouth. Only the mana, resonating with her will, conveyed her thoughts.

Virgil answered.

“Girard. Girard Ozette. He’s one of the management representatives for our cooperative businesses, and Human Resources is considering recontracting him, integrating him into the board of directors, given his past contributions. His skill was proven long ago, but his personality, which doesn’t blend well with the organization, has delayed his promotion.”

“……”

Could there be anything more nerve-wracking than hearing your own performance review directly from an executive?

But Girard’s rationality was so paralyzed that he couldn’t even think of such things.

As someone who had twisted his innate psyche, struggling desperately to barely achieve mana property alteration and reach level 6, he knew.

What he was facing now was no mere human.

A superhuman who had shed the shackles of life as a species and truly achieved harmony between his inner and outer self.

A giant of an era, who had stepped onto a completely different timeline from others, gazing at impossibly distant landscapes, was before his eyes.

Olivera’s eyes slowly moved towards Girard.

A brilliant, rainbow-colored radiance beautifully overflowed within her two eyes.

Girard could do nothing but stare blankly, his gaze captured by that radiance.

[……]

She asked nothing. She heard nothing.

She merely ‘looked into’ everything Girard had experienced with her own eyes.

Virgil, observing from the side, subtly turned his head.

‘The Seven Debts Jewels Mystic Eye… It’s always chilling to behold.’

The seven hues of light contained within her gaze. They were virtually the culmination of all the spellcraft Olivera Ron Maize had accumulated throughout her life.

For those without a similar level of spellcraft resistance, it wouldn’t be strange if their heads exploded from the overwhelming amount of information the moment they met her gaze.

On the contrary, the fact that Girard hadn’t lost consciousness despite meeting her gaze was proof of his own level.

Yet, even Girard, whose inner self was twisted by killing intent, couldn’t gaze into those eyes for long.

“Aghhhh…!!”

Boom!

Seeing Girard collapse, foaming at the mouth and trembling, Olivera finally let out a small laugh and slowly turned her gaze away.

[I remember now. That child, he was one of the specimens I personally experimented on.]

“……”

[I believe decades ago, I captured an interesting test subject and imposed similar adjustments on other children… Was it a method of forcibly granting a geas to awaken property alteration?]

Virgil did not reply.

There was no need to deliberately make her recall Eolara, another specimen, from her fading memories.

[Well, it doesn’t matter. If I can’t recall it clearly, it probably wasn’t that important… Stand up.]

“H-huh…!!”

Girard, clutching his trembling legs, stood up, his face drenched in sweat.

He could no longer even properly look up at her.

[As I looked into your memories, I saw a rather peculiar wizard amidst that worm-like life of yours.]

Virgil wasn’t particularly surprised by the sudden declaration.

Indeed, it would be strange for a sorcerer of Olivera’s caliber not to recognize that talent.

From the very beginning, the reason for summoning Girard here must have been to hear something directly from him.

[The wizard from the 49th district. Tell me everything you’ve seen and felt about the man named Van. Instead of looking into your memories, I want to hear it directly from your mouth.]

-I’ve secured the personal information you requested for Executive Parden McQueen.

Evelyn’s indifferent voice announced through the phone.

-Providing personal information for all executive-level officers is too risky due to classified data. If it weren’t for Hina’s help, even acquiring the information on the first executive would have been difficult.

Lennok, who had been working with his hands while cradling his phone between his ear and shoulder, nodded.

“Thanks for your hard work. This will probably be a great help in resolving this matter.”

The City Central Library, located in Vulcan’s downtown area.

In the hallway of the library, now entirely used by Lennok and Aris for university work, Lennok quickly scanned the answer sheets in his hand.

It was the midterm exam for the Department of Elemental Studies this semester. It was impossible for associate professors like Lennok to be absent from such a large event where all university students participated without exception.

Thanks to this, Lennok was spending time grading hundreds of exam papers with Aris.

Although the discussion about domains was unintentionally paused, it wasn’t entirely bad for Lennok.

Setting aside what achievements Lennok himself had made, Aris seemed to need time to think for herself, rather than just advice.

Ultimately, no matter how much help or guidance one receives, taking that decisive step forward must be done alone.

As a fellow wizard, and having passed through similar landscapes, Lennok understood this all the more deeply.

He couldn’t be grateful enough to Yakson.

The serendipitous opportunity Lennok gained by utilizing the pill’s side effects had completely reshaped the very possibilities he could choose from.

-It’ll probably be difficult to contact me for a while after today.

“Looks like the Agents are quite busy too.”

-Recently, the scope of tasks assigned to us has been rapidly expanding. I’m cutting off anything that crosses the line on my end, but it’s also true that the situation outside the megacity is becoming increasingly unusual.

“……”

-I don’t know if you’re interested in what’s happening outside the city, Van, but it would be best to wrap things up with the Cartel as quickly as possible. If the Vulcan City Council wants to shift its attention outwards, they’ll first want to completely resolve any internal issues.

“Well… it’s not as easy as it sounds. What needs to be done is clear, but…”

Lennok sighed and began annotating the exam paper with the red pen in his hand.

The answer sheet Aris had handed him to look over was already forgotten.

While he was writing more than five lines of grading rationale and explanations at the bottom of the exam paper, Evelyn continued speaking in an exasperated voice.

-Rumors of you single-handedly wiping out the Cartel’s execution squad have reached me, and you seem to be putting on strange airs of humility.

“I was lucky.”

-…Avid Yonsen, the leader of the Execution Squad and an Executive Director, is a well-known wizard among the underworld’s pleasure-killers. To call a sorcerer of that caliber to the battlefield, engage him one-on-one, kill him on the spot, and then just say that… I wonder what expression the sorcerers I know would make if they heard that.

“……”

-Alright, fine. The fact that the rookie wizard I saved that day was actually a hidden successor of esoteric magic probably isn’t that important. What is important is finishing things with the Cartel properly, don’t forget that.

“I’ve sent a few boxes of vegetables to the bar, so don’t forget to receive them properly,” Evelyn said before hanging up. Lennok looked down at the disconnected phone and let out a dry laugh.

He had wondered why he hadn’t heard about the dreadful vegetables for once, but it seemed she had saved it for the very end.

Still, the implications of the conversation he just had with Evelyn were worth remembering.

Evelyn was one of the few individuals who remembered Lennok’s near-death experience at the factory with Kroken, as well as his current standing.

For a noble archer of her caliber, it wasn’t strange at all for her to have a rough idea of Lennok’s current level.

Yet, instead of specifically bringing up Lennok’s skill, her behavior of ending the call with talk of vegetables…

‘I’ll need to have a separate conversation with Evelyn someday.’

Even trivial remarks he had casually dismissed were not easily forgotten in Lennok’s mind.

He remembered a particularly memorable title among the few individuals Grisha had cited as examples when she discussed her decision to join Lighthouse, during their conversation about future plans in the Autonomous Region.

The Emerald Archer.

If the helper Grisha spoke of referred to the person Lennok was thinking of…

In the worst-case scenario, he might have to share his Evan and Van identities with a single person.

Before that situation arrived unexpectedly, Lennok also needed to prepare.