Chapter 88 (2/2)

“They really are mad as you say. To think they’d be so desperate to resort to wors.h.i.+pping me.”

“It seems these ‘angelic turncoats’ realised their mistake too. After Central’s investigation, we determined that all of the turncoats have withdrawn.”

Even these mad fools would avoid him… was he supposed to feel happy about this?

Isaac narrowed his eyes as a complicated feeling welled up inside him, unsure how he was to receive this news. Mazelan, on the other hand, burst out in laughter. Realising that the explanation was mostly over, Isaac took one sip from his wine and stared right at the Emperor as he spoke.

“So what do you want from me?”

The Emperor spoke back with calm demeanour despite Isaac’s glare.

“I will be honest. Central suffered significantly in the last battle to defend the gate. We have reorganised and resupplied our troops to the best of our abilities, but it is still lacking. There is little time until the next opening of the gate comes. With the battle against Expeditionary Force so near, we have little room or power to send our forces to deal with these angels and demons, who invade us from elsewhere.”

“And you want me to take care of these turncoats?”

“I’ve heard of your feats from the Queen. We’ve confirmed it from the information we’d gathered too. You have quite the talent in leading battles. If you cooperate with us, I guarantee your life in retirement will be peaceful.”

Isaac snorted and declined the Emperor.

“Don’t want to.”

“… What?”

It seemed that the Emperor didn’t expect Isaac would refuse him and asked. Even Yoo-rah looked at Isaac, stumped. With the centre of attention on him, Isaac drank the rest of his wine and spoke as he poured himself another gla.s.s.

“I want to settle my vengeance first. Isn’t it obvious I won’t be able to work with those who kidnapped me, no matter how nice of a man I am?”

Everyone seemed relieved after hearing Isaac’s words, and the Emperor spoke as if this wasn’t a problem.

“I was wondering why you refused me. Was that what bothered you? I guess it is our fault for not explaining properly. To set things straight, it wasn’t Central who kidnapped you. We found out recently that it was a scheme by the warlocks who disguised themselves as Central to kidnap you.”

“A scheme you say… didn’t I hear the organisation that kidnapped me was a secret Central black op called Dark Royale?”

Mazelan spoke with frustration in response.

“I hate to admit it, but part of it is our fault too. We never thought a turncoat had infiltrated so deep into Central. It was the price for letting our guard down. That is why there was confusion in our chain of command. These demonic turncoats really handed it to us. Thanks to that, Central’s in complete chaos. They probably wished that you would grow to distrust Central even if they failed. What these turncoats hate more than Central is the Dark Royale, as it was founded to hunt down turncoats..”

“Then can’t you just leave everything to Dark Royale instead?”

“As much as we’d like to, we found a turncoat within the ranks of Dark Royale. It is a dire piece of news difficult to swallow for all agents of Central. That is why we decided to found a new organization we can trust.”

Isaac tried his hardest to keep his poker face up, holding down the laughter as he listened to the emperor. If you only consider their argument, it really seemed like this was a conspiracy created by some hidden organisation.”

‘Ah. This is really funny.’

Isaac thought to himself, chuckling in his mind. It must have taken them so much time and effort to infiltrate so deep into Central. Was he really worth throwing it all away? To craft such a convoluted plot that even if Isaac escaped, it’d mislead Isaac into harboring negative feelings for Central? When such feelings from a single individual have little power to do anything against Central? And he’s supposed to believe these warlocks, who have a screw loose in their heads, managed to stay quiet and polite inside Central?

Basically, they want to cover it all up by claiming that he was kidnapped by warlocks and Central rescued him. Whether this is what’s intended or is actually the truth is known. But how could he possibly believe it when it’s so obvious that they all have their own hidden little agenda?

Not one of them spoke a single word asking if Isaac was okay after what had happened, even as courtesy. Whether it was the Emperor, Mazelan or even Yoo-rah. Only a fool would fail to see he was being treated as disposable p.a.w.n at this point. This is probably why he should act as they want him to for now.

“Well. That is an offer I can’t refuse. I need to pay back what they deserve. Now! Shall we begin the negotiation?”

“… Negotiation?”

Unable to hide his laughter, Isaac naturally morphed it into a smile. The Emperor rubbed his chin in the face of a sudden turn of events. Mazelan gulped his mouth in shock and even Yoo-rah looked at Isaac with a blank look, never thinking he’d go this far.

“A negotiation. I do want to settle the deal with my kidnappers, but truth be told, that’s just annoying. I have a deep unending urge to give it all up and live a peaceful life back home. Did you really think I’d act without anything in return for myself? I guess I’ll have to act upon your order if you say it’s the Emperor’s decree, but we’ve all seen how low all of us can go at this point. Trying to make me submit with the Emperor’s decree is rather laughable, when you know who I am. As you know, the world I lived in was a place where everyone was equal, at least on the surface.”

Basically Isaac was implying he had no reason to follow the emperor’s order since he wasn’t from this world and wanted to trade instead.

“Don’t you know negotiations only occur between parties of equal power?”

“What? You want to blackmail me?”

“… It isn’t impossible.”

“Kill me then. Seems like you already have volunteers lined up behind you.”

The Ark Royales’ intense gazes focused on the Emperor, begging him to give them the order. The emperor looked with keen interest at Isaac.

“This is the first time I faced an opponent I can’t threaten. Don’t you feel some attachment to New Port City?”

“I was ready to burn it all down because of that whole provincial war debacle.”

“… I can turn you neither living nor dead, being tortured for eternity.”

“I find that unlikely, seeing I have at least one person on my side here.”

“… You are right.”

The emperor smiled bitterly, feeling Yoo-rah’s cold and murderous glare stabbing at his face. The Queen’s influence was strong. Perhaps even more so than the Emperor’s. Most of the other races who were friendly with her were elders or chiefs of their races, and even the younger generations were friendly to her. Central t.i.tled Yoo-rah as the Queen and wors.h.i.+ped her, but a minority called her a witch. The immortal witch who lived for more than 300 years. That is why only humans had ill feelings for Yoo-rah. And even if it wasn’t for Yoo-rah, the Empire wasn’t going to torture Isaac. It was their loss if they did so.

The Emperor declared surrender and raised his hands.

“Fine. We will negotiate. What is it you want?”

“I need some grunts I can bring along.”

“You speak of subordinates? We will provide you with Central’s elite agents, veterans.”

“No. How can I trust agents you are providing me when the entire reason you are creating a new organisation is because you can’t trust your agents?”

“… then?”

“I want volunteers.”

“… I’m sorry to say this, but do you really think there will be volunteers, Sir Isaac?”

Everyone looked at Isaac in confusion.

“I figured there won’t be any volunteers if I presented them with typical benefits. That’s why I want to give them incentives.”

“Incentive?”

“1 million Giga invested in their retirement pension. Even if they die in duty, their families will receive 1 million Giga. Tax exemption for 3 generations, regardless of whether they retire or are killed on duty. And reward them with the t.i.tle of Count and grant them a fiefdom.”

Everyone dropped their jaw in astonishment at Isaac’s demand. 1 million Giga alone was an incredible offer, but the reward of Count and fiefdom was sure to bring in many volunteers.

“… That is too great of a demand.”

The Emperor frowned at such baffling demand, and Isaac spoke as he poured himself another gla.s.s of wine.

“But, I have complete owners.h.i.+p of their life and death as their commander.”

“Isn’t that a given?”

“I see you don’t understand what I mean. I mean complete obedience. I don’t know if it’ll happen, but a female agent under my command have to accept it if I rape her or if I tell others to do so. They must follow if I order 2 guys to f.u.c.k each other. To murder or steal, even kill an infant. To become my toy when I’m bored. I want to only accept those who understand that they’ll die if they refuse or go against my order, no matter how unacceptable or unfair it is. I think that reward is suitable for what they must face.”

Everyone’s face grew pale after hearing Isaac’s sinister explanation. Isaac smirked and poured himself a great deal of wine and rose up from his seat.

“That is my demand. I don’t want to move if that isn’t met. You can decide on your own.”

“… This isn’t a negotiation.”

“Then let’s call it an offer.”

Isaac nonchalantly joked with the Emperor and moved to leave the Banquet Hall.

“… You will die.”

Seeing Isaac turn his back on the Emperor and talk to him without even looking face to face, one of the Ark Royale approached Isaac with fuming rage. Although he was no larger than Isaac, the pressure he brought with him was at a different scale.

“Are you going to kill me? I’d prefer to go back and have some rest.”

Isaac turned and asked the Emperor, who shook his head, exhausted, as he spoke.

“The Ark Royale is not to act.”

“You heard that?”

Isaac smirked mischievously at the Ark Royale who blocked his path, who glared menacingly at Isaac.

“I will kill you soon.”

Isaac immediately cowered as if he was scared of Ark Royale’s words, pretending to grovel at him.

“Hey, don’t be like that. I’m sure we can be good friends if we work it out.”

Seeing Isaac change so suddenly, the Ark Royale remained stunned even as Isaac wrapped his arms around his shoulder as if they were good friends. Isaac then whispered into the Ark Royale’s ears.

“But I really doubt it.”

Crack!

“Kuuk!”

“What are you doing!”

“Isaac!”

Isaac thrust the wine gla.s.s in his hand into the Ark Royale’s neck. The gla.s.s shattered, and the shaft of the gla.s.s stabbed into the Ark Royale’s neck. The Ark Royale pushed Isaac away in panic at the sudden ambush, and the shaft came out with it. Blood began to pour out from the Ark Royale’s neck as he frantically tried to stem the blood with both of his hands.

“You!”

Enraged seeing their comrade ambushed so suddenly, all of the Ark Royale jumped at Isaac, who was pushed onto the ground. Countless blue barriers came up in the face of Ark Royale’s sword. The Queen and Emperor desperately shouted out.

“Stop!”

“Halt!”

“But Emperor!”

“Stop! Tend to the wounded first! Hurry and take him to the healer!”

One of the Ark Royales a.s.sisted their bleeding ally out the room. A new group of Ark Royales rushed into the banquet hall and surrounded the Emperor to protect him.

“What are you doing!”

Yoo-rah shouted at Isaac, whose face went pale after suddenly seeing blood. Isaac patted the dust off his a.s.s nonchalantly and spoke.

“This is just an example.”

“An example?”

“They call it ‘high risk, high reward.’ This is just an example of what’s to come if you are prepared to handle the risk of using me.”

“…”

Everyone remained motionless as Isaac left the room smirking. Isaac began making his way to his room after pa.s.sing the banquet hall door, lighting his choyu leaf as he heard the emperor telling the Ark Royale to stand down.

The bait was thrown. He made unacceptable demands and even attacked the Ark Royale. How would they respond? Although he wasn’t sure why, the Empire would accept all of his demands and even overlook the offense against Ark Royale if he really was important to the Empire. What if he’s only important to Yoo-rah but not the Empire? Yoo-rah would come with a middle ground offer. If he’s of no use to both of them? The Ark Royale would come at him for vengeance. How it all worked out was of no concern to Isaac.

‘Now, how will they act?’

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