Interlude: The Imperium’s Preparations
A Certain Location in the Imperial Capital, Vandelheim
Three days remained until the peace talks, and it wasn’t just the kingdom of Altar that was busy with preparations for the momentous event.
By now it was well known in the imperium that the imperator’s little sister, Claudiah, would be representing him; just like Altar, Dryfe was gathering Masters to act as her retinue — and one Master was more enthusiastic about this particular quest than the others.
That day, Zeta was at the castle — specifically, in the room she was borrowing for the time being. Safely inside this personal space of hers, she was practicing how to prepare proper coffee. Zeta knew that Sechs, the leader of Illegal Frontier, was a coffee aficionado, so she’d begun learning how to make it herself. She’d found out about his taste for it when he wrote her an email saying that he’d become so good at preparing coffee that even Gerbera had found it delicious. Reading that had actually made Zeta somewhat jealous of the girl.
However, since Zeta wasn’t terribly good at picking up on nuances of taste, she couldn’t quite tell whether her coffee was up to standard or not. She finally decided she could judge it by smell, at least, but when she brought her nose close to the cup...
“Zeta! I’m going to the peace talks! The Unbreakable is gonna be there too!”
...A red-haired, fine-looking man threw open the door without so much as a knock.
The momentum of the opening door shook the entire room. The black coffee that Zeta held in front of her face splashed out of the cup, right on the bandages on her face.
There were now dark polka dots on the previously immaculate white fabric.
“Ah...” The man who’d entered the room — Logan Goddhart — realized what he’d done, but instead of apologizing, he just froze in place.
“Hhaah...” Zeta sighed, putting away the coffee cup and removing her bandages as if it was nothing.
Brown skin, red eyes, a young and pretty appearance... her face was fully exposed now, but Zeta didn’t seem to mind. She merely took some spare bandages out of her inventory and began to replace the ones she’d removed.
This was the first time Logan had ever seen her face. It left him speechless, but not because he was enchanted by it or anything. He was just wondering why she would expose it so casually after hiding it all this time, and he felt as though he’d seen that face somewhere. The recollection was rather vague, though. He certainly hadn’t seen it in person before, but he was sure he’d caught a glimpse of it in some photo or video.
However, before Logan could remember anything more about it, Zeta finished replacing her bandages and called out to him.
“Suggestion,” she said. “Should be a must from now on. Also, you should watch your strength when opening doors”
“O-Okay. Sure,” Logan could do nothing but nod.
“Matter at hand. What business do you have? You mentioned the peace talks and The Unbreakable.”
“Y-Yeah! Zeta! I’m going to the peace talks! I’m gonna beat The Unbreakable and clear my name!”
“Refusal.” Zeta shot down his idea with a single word. She didn’t even bother with an explanation this time.
“Wh-Why?!” Logan asked. “That build you suggested to me is super powerful! There’s no way I can lose against that newbie! Hell, I could take on all of Altar’s Superiors now!”
“Discrepancy,” Zeta answered. “There is a discrepancy in your stated goal. It is possible that the peace talks will lead to battle — but officially, it is not part of the premise.”
“But it’s obviously gonna happen, right?”
“Unclear. That depends on how the talks proceed. Also... should you not focus on raising your level and gathering sacrifices? You are not even level 500 any longer.”
“Ghh...” Zeta was right — at the moment, Logan’s level was in the 300s.
Part of the reason for this was Zeta, but ultimately, Logan only had himself to blame.
Zeta had presented him with a build that took full advantage of his Superior Embryo, Rumpelstiltskin. It was the best build she could devise for him, and Logan fully agreed with her assessment.
In fact, he agreed with it too much.
In his haste to finish Zeta’s suggested build as quickly as possible, Logan had reset all of his jobs aside from his main, Hell General, and replaced them with the low-tier jobs necessary for the build. That greatly reduced his level, and spring break was over for him by that point, so he hadn’t had the time to regain his lost levels yet after going back to school.
“Word of warning,” said Zeta. “It is dangerous for you to go as you are. You still are not prepared to use this new strategy, and with your level, Altar’s High Prieste—”
“Don’t worry! Your build is a seriously real masterpiece! Level doesn’t even matter! Though, just in case, I’ll only go after raising my level to 500!”
“Insufficient. That will not be eno—”
“I have been reborn! Watch and witness the power of Hell General, Logan Goddhart! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!” Laughing uproariously, Logan left the room.
“Uninformed... He does not listen to other people and is slow to process information. Based on his statements, he probably does not even know that Ray Starling created a clan full of Superiors.”
Zeta wondered if it would be good to teach him about the importance of gathering information, but she felt that he might become too concerned with the information he had and act on his own more than he ought to. So for now, she decided against it.
She then closed the still-open door and folded her arms before starting to ponder.
“...Curious.” Her current thoughts were somewhere along the lines of, Is that boy really that stupid?
She’d known he was overconfident and particularly demented for someone his age — but after she’d started teaching him, he seemed to have become downright reckless. However, that could very well have been because his pride had been shattered by Ray Starling, Franklin, then Zeta herself, all in a short period of time.
Or perhaps the new build and strategy she’d provided had gone to his head? Even Zeta herself would have described it as “extremely effective while still only requiring the level of thought that Logan was capable of before his losing streak.”
For a Superior, Logan was really lacking in adaptability and player skill, and her build had accounted for that while making him as powerful as possible.
Fortunately, Logan himself seemed to really like it.
He liked it a bit too much, in fact — seeing how quickly he accepted Zeta’s suggestion and how he’d rushed to make the switch.
Although warped and broken, Logan seemed to trust Zeta, at least. He might’ve come here to report his next endeavor to the person he could call a teacher.
He really ought to work on his listening skills, though, since he seemed determined to completely ignore her warning.
“...Unease.” That single word summed up her feelings about Logan’s attendance at the peace talks. If it was just a question of him losing another battle, it wouldn’t be that important — but it wasn’t out of the question that he’d launch a surprise attack on Altar’s forces, ruin the peace talks, get himself onto Dryfe’s wanted list, and end up in gaol.
That wasn’t the only thing she was uneasy about, though.
She was also worried about the fact that she definitely wouldn’t be there herself — meaning that she had no way to stop him. Though, depending on her actions, there may end up being no need to stop him in the first place.
“Time. I should go too,” she whispered as she gazed at the vista outside.
Her room was on the south side of the castle, so she had an excellent view in the direction of Altar. There, she saw the Border Mountain Belt, home of the skydragons. However, she seemed to be focused on something beyond it.
Vandelheim Outskirts, Triangle of Wisdom Headquarters
As an R&D group, the Triangle of Wisdom operated several testing areas. They used them to evaluate new Magingear models and add-ons, and the areas would be active day and night, as there were members of the clan online more or less all the time.
In one of their particularly large outdoor testing areas, they were trying out something rarely seen here — a bunch of tanks.
As the creators of humanoid Magingears, the Triangle of Wisdom rarely used the “old-fashioned” sort of tank. A few members customized them as a curiosity, but that was about it.
However, at the moment there were several tanks of the same model, all erratically moving around the test area and occasionally firing their guns.
This unusual sight was being observed by ToW members, as well as two men who were standing together some distance away.
One was a spectacled man in a lab coat — someone who looked like a classic mad scientist. The other was dressed in a worn military uniform. He had an unshaven face and a cigarette in his mouth, which gave him the air of a stereotypical delinquent soldier.
“The peace talks are in three days, huh?” said the man in the lab coat.
“Did ya hear? Logan’s gonna join as a bodyguard,” the soldier said.
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