"Come in, boy", a voice came from inside the tent with a tone that offered the boy no other option. As soon as he entered, he found himself in a room richly furnished with noblewood chairs and tables.
In the huge room, there were only a few people, among them was Lucian, but he wasn't the one who caught Kayden's attention, but rather the old man with white hair sitting in the center of a large rectangular table.
His face was marked by old wrinkles, but instead of making him look more delicate, it made him look like a person who had suffered a lot but was still standing and fighting fiercely.
"My regards to the elders," Kayden took the safer approach and was respectful.
"Relax, Kayden, we are here with an offer for you", Lucian responded to the boy, causing Kayden to turn his eyes to him.
"What would it be, Mr. Lucian?" This took the boy by surprise, as he thought he would be punished. This time, the one who answered was a blonde woman in her early twenties, sitting to the old man's right.
"We want you to join us," his tone was as if this was the most rewarding thing Kayden would receive in his life. Unfortunately for him, the boy was anything but normal.
"And what do I get out of this, exactly?", Kayden's direct question took everyone by surprise, firstly because they didn't expect him to have the courage to do it and secondly because their mere offer was already something very tempting.
Laughing loudly, it was the old man who responded this time.
"Do you know who we are, Kayden? Anyone would kill to be here," his tone was that of a person who was having fun with the situation.
"I... I honestly have no idea who you are, I'm sorry", the boy scratched his head, they were probably someone important since Leonardo had brought him here.
Again, the old man laughed and started throwing names at him.
"The lord of storms?", the boy shook his head. "The queen of the wind?", he shook his head again. "The water swordsman?" he shook his head again. "The wise man?" When Kayden shook his head again, no one in the room could believe it, it looked like the boy lived in a cave.
"You see, Kayden, we are the army of the kingdom, we are in control of millions of soldiers and wealth equivalent to 3 grand dukes. We want you to come to join us, Kayden, we will treat you like a VIP within the organization and all you need to do is train", the old man finally had enough and just threw the offer into Kayden's lap, taking him completely by surprise. He knew that the grand dukes were on the highest pedestal in the kingdom and that the army was practically a private organization in the service of the king.
Taking into account his performance in the test, Kayden already had an idea of why he was here, really what he organized was more than impressive, especially in commanding such a large number of people and still acting as a master to pull their emotional support to your side.
And how did he get all this knowledge? These are not good memories for Kayden, but he remembered perfectly every book he heard the artificial intelligence tell him in his first life.
And there were tens of thousands, maybe hundreds, and he went through many books on strategy and psychology, and finally, all this accumulated knowledge was not being useless.
"What are the conditions?", Kayden still stood firm in the face of the tempting offer, surprising all the generals in the room, normally anyone would be amazed by this offer and wouldn't even think twice before accepting.
The old man threw a contract to Kayden, this could be considered a unique occasion in the army, as normally no one dared to negotiate when facing one of the greatest mages in the kingdom.
"Sorry, but I'm going to have to decline that offer," Kayden refused under the stares of everyone in the room, his refusal taking most by surprise.
"May I know why?", the old man asked curiously, he couldn't see enough of a negative point in the contract.
"I found the offer to take me to the third realm and all the knowledge I could acquire there very attractive, but... freedom, I would be tied to the organization for the rest of my life and I can't accept that," Kayden was once someone who had been imprisoned more than long enough, he refused to be enslaved again, even in a gentle way.
His sentence made the old man look at him with different eyes.
"What if I increase the resources for the fourth kingdom?" His sentence made even the generals stand up energetically, this… had never been proposed to any person before.
"I would still have to refuse, sir," Kayden remained firm, even if he offered the kingdom on a platter, the boy's response would still be the same. "My problem is freedom and not the resources you offered me."
His answer caused an absolute silence to hover in the room, the generals were wondering if they had given a similar answer when they were low-ranking mages and came to the conclusion that they had not.
They would have accepted the terms of the contract even with resources reduced by half and that is what the majority there did.
"Kayden, look, I can change the rules of the contract a little, but how free do you want to be?" This time the uproar in the room was even greater, they couldn't believe that a mere wizard's apprentice was having so many privileges.
"Supreme Commander!!!", the same woman from the beginning raised her voice but was simply ignored by the man.
"I can sign a contract that prevents me from betraying the company while I'm in it, I can accept receiving commands as long as it doesn't put my life at risk for no reason, that's the most I can do," Kayden didn't even look like he was the one receiving the offer.
Well... he recognized his value and the old man must have researched him during that time and come to a similar conclusion and another thing, Kayden knew he couldn't join a corporation for the rest of his life on Earth.
One time or another, the aliens that came a long time ago would return and the boy was sure that he would need to leave Earth to continue his progress and that would be very difficult if he had a contract that obligated him to stay in the organization.
"I can accept that, but the resources we will give will only be for the second rank", the old man decided to reduce the offer since it did not go as he expected. And contrary to his expectations again, the boy came with another offer.
"Can I exchange all monetary resources and treasures for books and knowledge?" Even though what he asked for was still considered resources, it had a slightly different characteristic.
For example, noble families had compressed mana stones to aid in training, they were typically expensive and only found in forests outside of human civilization.
This was a monetary resource as it had a direct effect on the magician's development. The knowledge had to be applied and trained, and even if it gave better results in the long term, it was still unknown whether the boy would be able to use it perfectly.
"I can give you access to the army library with just a few restrictions, but we wouldn't give you any resources outside of that, are you satisfied?" The old man wanted to give them both to Kayden, but he still had to show some respect to other members of the army.
Author's note: before you crucify me, I fixed the spelling mistakes in the previous chapter, thank you, samurai, for letting me know.