"He's only a few feet away from us, if Lobo isn't wrong. How should I enter the room."
"In a silent way, but without looking like we're ambushing him."
"For real? How do I do this? Tunnel silently into my room while he is training in it."
"Relax, he's on the other side of the room, so he'll have a good amount of time to notice the tunnel opening. Just take it easy."
"Okay, if it goes wrong, we blame it on Wolf."
The earth began to open up in front of us revealing a brightly lit room, when the light illuminated the tunnel, we were all in we all noticed her fountain and the seated swordsman with an unsheathed white blade resting on his lap.
He really is ready to shine a much more destructive light on us, I think Volkan managed to announce our entry well since we're not being attacked right away.
As we all walked out of the tunnel avoiding showing any sign of hostility the black-haired swordsman continued with his hand on his sword, he is very different from what I imagined.
It may be a bit cliche but the leader of a group of rebellious slaves should look closer to his followers, but the seated man has a noble and hostile air. Long black hair, short beard, skin paler than expected and red eyes, apart from the sword which is a powerful artifact, his equipment is pretty basic and nothing special for a green core warrior in the final stage.
But he conveys much more of an image of a competent adventurer and perhaps even a low-level noble like me, than the image I have in my mind associated with the word slave. He doesn't even have a scar to show, of course maybe he was lucky and the scars he has are hidden by his armor, as is common for slaves who are subjected to punishment involving a whip or thorns to do.
"Good afternoon, I represent the interests of the kingdom of Vallinde. I am part of a unit that is observing and solving the problem involving cults worshiping unsavory gods, who seem to be very interested in using the war between realms as an opportunity to strengthen themselves and profit from the suffering of innocents."
"We would like to extend our friendship to your newly founded group who have nothing to do with that kind of garbage that is in the pine forest nearby, they have been taking advantage of the operations you have been doing to bring freedom to the poor slaves. Those cultists caught the attention of their enemies and by mistake, the temples might think their organization is sponsored by cultists which is something horrible and wrong."
I can't feel or see even a fluctuation in the swordsman, I don't think our presence here is a shock to him. Perhaps he had noticed our presence before?
The swordsman's silence disappeared as a low, shallow voice, filled with sadness and pain, was transmitted from his side of the room to ours.
"You took longer than I expected. You can address me as, Mathias, I no longer have the right to carry the surname I was named with at birth. I have no problem helping your kingdom, but I want you to understand that my demands are not open to negotiation, accept them and you will have my loyalty."
"Denying won't make me your enemy, but if you get in my way, I don't care who you are or what allies you have, I'll destroy everything in my path."
This guy is focused on revenge, I'm pretty sure. Sad attitude, but a cruel and aggressive speech, I'm absolutely sure his list of demands will be more of a list of people he wants to kill with his own hands.
And that's good as fuck, good luck! Raven will have to control herself not to jump for joy when Mia tells her about this meeting.
"I understand, Mr. Mathias, and it is very clear that you are a decisive and direct man so I will not try to wrap this conversation up with small details of our cooperation. What are your non-negotiable demands, if I have the authority to accept all of them today our alliance will be formed immediately."
"I know you may have your doubts, but I have great confidence in my leader's political abilities. His family is very close to the royal family."
Dead silence has taken over the room again, but I don't know if fallen noble Mathias is compiling their demands or deciding whether Mia has the authority to actually accept them. Depending on who he wants to kill, some political figures in our kingdom might try to stop that from happening.
"No need to be nervous, mage of the Vallinde realm, I have no hatred towards people of your realm. Apart from two slave companies that I want to destroy in this shit kingdom my targets are far away, the targets of my revenge are in the empire of the black sun."
"Were you a noble of the empire? Mr. Mathias, we may be willing to help you, but we will not go to war with any of the three great empires on the continent, our little kingdom is not suicidal."
"I would never ask for nonsense like that, mage of Vallinde, I was a low-ranking noble in the nobility of the empire, before I was a slave. My enemies are not that powerful, even as time goes on most of my targets would be red and orange core warriors and mages."
"With a group of well-trained and elite assassins from your realm, it would not be difficult to exact my revenge, but unfortunately I have to demand that this intrusion take place within the next thirty years."
"What is the reason for this time limit, Mr. Mathias?"
"Because the hardest target to eliminate and my biggest enemy is a blue core warrior. The family patriarch responsible for the entire calamity that destroyed my family and made me what I am today."
"It has been a few years since my fall, his combat power must have increased slightly but the idiot must be desperate to increase his power, but he must still be far from the limit of his core but as you may know, mage of Vallinde, the closer an aura warrior becomes to his ascension, the less deadly he is."
"This really is a very big demand, Mr. Mathias, a figure like this cannot be just any noble in the empire of the black sun. Any warrior close to igniting is a very important resource, and by trying to kill them our realm could be the target of retaliation."
A fireman's sneer broke the image of coldness on the emotionless face Mathias had worn since the beginning of the negotiations.
"This idiot is nothing but an old man at the end of his life desperate to try to reach the silver core, he is not really talented, he built his foundations on sand by using so many natural resources in his life to strengthen his body."
"That damn pig destroyed my family just to steal my family's most precious treasure, and the idiot didn't even know how to use it properly. The bastard swallowed it our sacred tree just to earn a few years of life, our precious tree was used by dozens of generations of my family was swallowed by a damn pig as if it was a simple medicine.
"Not the need for your realm to fear retaliation from the empire, I doubt anyone will act there who thinks this pig can really ignite without direct divine interference from a great god. I gave this time limit because I want to be the one responsible for killing that garbage, I can't bring peace to my family's dead by letting this pig kill itself while trying to advance its core, that would be a very peaceful death for him. "
"He deserves to suffer so much more; I want to see his life force destroyed or drained as he realizes he will never be able to try to ignite. His will be destroyed and only after he falls into despair will I destroy his body with my light, make him conscious until the final moment when my light destroys his soul!"
Okay, this guy is completely nuts. He's really trying to destroy someone's soul, even I know that's a horrible taboo, this guy just serves as a throwaway figure to push the rebellious slaves.
Our kingdom can't have this guy as our ally, it just takes a god to figure out what he wants to do for him to be labeled a heretic and our kingdom will be in the shit.
"Your demands are great, Mr. Mathias, but I believe they are reasonable but before we settle, I need you to understand that our kingdom will help you fulfill your revenge, but you have to be willing to do it in a way that we are comfortable with."
"You may be responsible for taking all your targets into your own hands, but that will be after you help us and our relationship is completely hidden. For the rest of the world, you will use us, the whole rebellion was your way of tricking us into getting the power to take revenge, but we don't help you after you abandon the slaves."
"Perfect, I accept your terms, mage representative of Vallinde."
"I will confirm with my leader, and after that I will come back with the plan to solve our cultists and priests' problem. Both sides are going to be in for a big surprise."
"Great, I was tired of having to put up with that bunch of lunatics."
I feel like this guy doesn't have much right to call cultists lunatics when he pretends to be as lunatic as they are.