Kneeling on the ground, Goblin suddenly stiffened up by his words but didn't muster a response.
After coming into terms with a deal, Elias was internally overjoyed and decided to end things right here.
However, he kept calm as he called his subordinates.
"Let's go, you five. It's going to be bad if we get caught on what happens next."
Donato, Galilei and the rest looked at each other with questioning expressions, but they eventually nodded and followed Elias.
Although, they didn't know what happened, since their young master was safe, that was all that mattered.
Around them, they weren't the only ones
baffled and bewildered by what just happened.
Everyone in the cafeteria that witnessed everything was also wearing strange, confused and half-terrified expressions by the end of it.
It was bizzare, especially for the old prisoners. In their time, they never saw Goblin act like that.
For Elias to make the man act like a beggar in mere words, it was incomprehensible.
Before Elias left, he waved his hands and directly told Goblin.
"You should start preparing yourself. As soon as you're done, meet me in my cell. As for your first task, I'll leave this situation to you."
"...Understood."
Hearing that, Goblin slowly nodded and stood up. He indifferently glanced at the other prisoners in the cafeteria who were wearing baffled expressions.
At that moment, the prisoners felt an unexplainable chill run down their spine.
Swoosh!
Without slowing down, Goblin turned around and opened his large mountain bag, taking out a strange white wand.
Wielding the white wand, he sighed.
"I didn't expect I would have to use this baby of mine so soon… damn it!"
With his crafty mind, he naturally understood what his boss meant at the last part in his sentence—it was to deal with the other prisoners that witnessed the entire agreement.
To both of them, Goblin and Elias, it was dangerous if their agreement were to be spread around, so they had to hide or cover it up.
His first task as his boss subordinate was to ensure that nothing about the deal between them gets leaked.
'There's no need to worry about the security team. I've already made arrangements to not get caught before I came here. I've already tampered with the space around this place.'
Goblin thought silently while looking at the retreating prisoners near him.
'These people are the problem.'
These prisoners within the cafeteria that witnessed everything.
In truth, with his methods, it wasn't really a problem to straight up erase these prisoners' memories. It was just that he had to sacrifice a little to use that method.
But what could he do about it?
Thinking about it, Goblin couldn't help but complain in his mind.
If his boss knew it was going to be a problem, then why in god's name did the boss talk about it in the open…
Whether it was his boss's recklessness or astounding confidence, Goblin couldn't figure it out and just sighed in resignation.
"A small price to pay for salvation. You damn bastards are lucky to witness my creation!"
Goblin muttered to himself as he shook the white wand in his hand.
'Erasure.'
Wooooosh—!
At that moment, the white wand bursted into an all-encompassing bright light. It was like heaven's shining light, covering every corner of the cafeteria.
The prisoners in the cafeteria were unable to respond in time to close their eyes and were similarly exposed by blinding light.
During this process, Goblin carefully controlled the light to not extend to his boss who was on the furthest end of the cafeteria with a fascinated smile.
However, he was also thinking whether to erase the memories of the five subordinates near his boss.
He thought for a moment before removing that thought. Since it was his boss' subordinates, then they could be trusted.
This special white wand was a recent creation of his. It could help make people affected lose their memories fifteen minutes earlier.
Woosh—!
After a while, the blinding light finally extinguished and the white wand in his hand turned to dust.
Goblin glanced at the wand that turned into speckles of dust in his hands with a sigh before throwing it away.
The dust spread in the air, vanishing along the wind.
Behind him, the space slowly fractured and opened up a hole where he slowly entered.
Before he left, he gave one last glance at his boss in the cafeteria and nodded gravely.
His boss predictably nodded back and waved his hand in goodbye.
***
In the entrance of the cafeteria, Elias was standing still, watching everything unfold.
'So he used that after all…'
Elias thought as he looked at where Goblin disappeared. Beside him, Donato and the rest were still in daze, unable to comprehend what they saw.
However, Elias quickly turned his gaze to the prisoners in the cafeteria.
The prisoners blinded by light were gradually recovering, slowly snapping out of their dazed state.
After a while, most of the prisoners finally came to their senses.
"Huh..? What happened?"
"Hm…? Did something happen just now? I feel like… urgh!"
"...I feel like I forgot something…"
"...Wait, what about Goblin? Didn't he appear? I was about to buy cigarettes!"
At that moment, aloud commotion occured among the prisoners, with all of them wearing estranged and difficult expressions.
'As expected of Goblin. But most importantly, that was magic huh?'
Elias smiled as he watched everyone in the room forget about what happened.
Different from mere writing and vivid imagery, the actual experience of magic was an eye opener.
It was truly magic in its truest form—mystical, bizzare, illogical, unexplainable and mysterious.
From a blinding light, everyone's memories were erased thoroughly as though nothing really happened.
And more amazingly, it was just one of the limitless and infinite uses of magic in this world.
'With countless possibilities, maybe one of them could help me return to earth.'
Thinking about it, Elias couldn't help but be excited. Unfortunately, his mana was still locked, so he was unable to use magic.
Mana was the essence of magic, without it, magic is impossible to bring forth. It could be said mana is the foundation of infinite imagination.
After everything finally calmed down, Elias nodded and patted his subordinates shoulders, waking them up from their daze.
Pat!
"Let's go and take a seat. I'm hungry. I'm sure you guys have questions, I'll explain as we eat."