Chapter 276 : Chapter 276
Chapter 276: Recruitment (5)
Splendid acting.
Ellen thought so, and Harad himself agreed.
"Anyone listening would think you were forced in."
But to Albi's eyes, it seemed to have been a farce.
"Wasn't I?"
"Mage Harad. We are equals. This is the minimum safety net."
Albi and the man. Harad and Ellen.
Albi pointed to four hearts as she spoke.
Promise. That magic had bound them all.
"The tunnel and the Capsule are secrets more important than life. The same goes for us."
Just as Harad and Ellen would die if they broke the promise, so too would Albi and the man.
Albi was a fair mage.
Of course, it was the Origin called Promise that was fair, not her.
"Trust takes time. We've bought that time by force. With our lives as collateral."
"Same boat, so don't feel slighted."
"Same Liberation Tower."
Albi welcomed them.
'Easy. Ah, maybe not easy.'
He'd joined at the cost of his life, in effect.
"Is this how the Liberation Tower grows its ranks?"
"This is a special case."
"Because of a special tunnel and a special Capsule?"
"I think you're special too, Mage Harad."
Albi smiled as though flirting.
To Harad's eye, she was not particularly attractive. The proprietor of the Flower District's Bare Flesh was prettier.
Ellen's eyes apparently disagreed. Her hand struck the table. Crack-crack. Hairline fractures spread across its surface. Astounding force control.
"Keep it to business."
Matched by an astounding straight face.
Harad was inwardly impressed.
At this table, Ellen Serzila was a woman head over heels for Harad. She was performing that woman flawlessly.
"Apologies, she loves me too much."
Harad wrapped an arm around Ellen and scratched the back of her neck.
At that, her stern expression slowly softened.
"...... So it seems."
Albi stuck her tongue out at the sight.
She looked thoroughly duped.
"Sorry, my lady. I didn't mean it that way. Just glad to have a comrade. We're mages, after all."
"Fine."
Ellen answered primly, as though she'd never been ruffled.
A Serzila smitten only with Harad.
Ellen was fulfilling her role splendidly. This was how Harad's weight grew.
"You two really get along."
"We put each other's words first."
"Reassuring."
"That's the kind of woman she is."
Harad smiled through the barbs.
"Welcome to the Liberation Tower, Mage Harad."
"Can I not join?"
"After coming this far?"
Meaning they'd fight if he didn't.
That had been the hope, but not anymore. He needed to learn more about the Capsule. Something absent or unknown in the past life.
"I'll accept the welcome."
"What's your Origin?"
"I'll introduce it later. I'm shy."
"You must not know, but in Paradise, stating your Rank and Origin is courtesy."
"Discourteous of me. Never learned."
"......"
Albi's eyes narrowed.
That was it. She couldn't press further.
The tunnel and Capsule are secret. The promise covered only that.
The deal wasn't sealed yet.
To seal it, she had to read Harad.
Because while Serzila decided, the Serzila present here followed Harad's lead.
The tunnel's existence and Ellen's reaction moments ago were proof.
"Why stand on courtesy? We've earned trust. With our lives as collateral."
"I'll let it go. This is the continent."
Albi was cooler than expected.
Because she trusted her own magic, Promise.
'No interest in fire.'
Basele Tuas had guessed Harad's Origin was fire.
But Albi's face showed no interest.
Meaning fire or prophecy were not priorities for the Liberation Tower.
"You said you wanted a stake in the tunnel. The payment being Capsules."
Capsules in exchange for ceding the tunnel.
That was how Albi had carried herself.
"But it's a prototype. Not a finished product."
"A tremendous prototype. Enough for the Otherworld to take note."
Albi repeated herself.
Not for lack of words, but because the Otherworld's interest delighted her that much.
The Liberation Tower Rebellion Faction went wild for the Otherworld.
'Capsule.'
It might replace the tunnel of the past life.
Left as-is, it would surpass it.
Albi had come seeking the tunnel on top of that.
"A prototype is still a prototype. And one whose difficulties you're trying to dump on us."
"Share the burden. We're the same Liberation Tower."
Albi came on brazen.
Continental-mage-level shamelessness indeed.
"I'd love to, but in the end Serzila decides."
"Didn't you say you put each other's words first?"
Harad turned to Ellen.
She opened her mouth.
"Shameless, asking to share the burden. We just met."
"So she says."
"......"
Albi's brazenness cracked.
Just for an instant. She smoothed it over as though nothing had happened.
"Hear us out, at least."
"You'll like it."
Albi oozed confidence.
***
"Capsule. It's a person. Was a person. Which phrasing do you prefer? Mage? Demon?"
"Mage."
"Let's say demon. Mage overlaps with Paradise."
Equal footing.
Albi seemed to have focused on that premise.
Just as her side knew the tunnel, she intended to inject Harad with knowledge of the Capsule.
'Equally.'
A necessary step before shaking hands.
No one invests knowing nothing.
"To make a Capsule, you need a demon. And a mage who possesses the Capsule-making magic, plus the magical power. That's all. But the result is more than the sum."
Perhaps it was because Albi was an exceptional mage.
Exceptional mages loved to flaunt knowledge.
Especially knowledge others didn't have.
"Is this little demon alive? Or dead?"
Harad folded his arms instead of answering.
"Nobody knows. Call it dead and eating it becomes Predation; call it alive and...... shall we open the Capsule? Then death is observed."
Albi flicked the Capsule on the table and smiled mischievously.
"Shelf life. How long?"
"That Capsule was completed three months ago."
Albi stroked her own throat as she spoke.
Referring to the Capsule she'd just consumed.
"Long."
"Could be longer. A different trajectory from ordinary Predation. The Otherworld's interest isn't for nothing."
Let's say demon.
Harad realized anew why Albi had said that.
Not because it overlapped with Paradise.
Because the mages made into Capsules weren't Liberation Tower members.
When Kubel's recruitment had failed, they'd tried to kill Kubel and Shura. That was the Rebellion Faction. Plainly different from the Liberation Faction.
What the Liberation Tower Rebellion Faction wanted was not just mages. Capable mages. And mages with the will to rebel.
"We say this little demon is suspended. A state where attempting to determine its condition kills it."
"You can't restore a Capsule to a person."
"Someday it might be possible. Maybe. Though possible doesn't mean it would be done."
Even if reversible, it wouldn't happen.
Albi spoke with that nuance. Harad noted instead that she'd mentioned the possibility at all.
"The Rank must be quite low."
"One of those things time will fix."
Albi said it as though it were nothing.
"When bringing a prototype, one usually brings the best. Even more so when the goal is a deal."
Meaning the Capsule on the table was the finest.
That feeble thing.
Albi smiled wryly, as though outmatched.
Though expressions were not to be trusted.
'5th Rank on the continent.'
Beneath that gaunt face lay an iron mask of formidable thickness. She'd command the respect of many continental mages.
"Low Rank. Therefore weak magic. Stating the obvious."
The Capsule maker's Rank was low.
Therefore the finished Capsule's efficacy was weak.
"Is the Capsule weak? Or can it only process weak material?"
Albi answered with her expression.
He guessed the iron mask had cracked for a moment. She seemed genuinely surprised.
'Can only turn weak mages into Capsules.'
The Capsule maker was that insignificant a mage.
"Not a little demon but a young one. Or an incompetent one."
Harad pointed to the Capsule on the table.
"Unlike them, you're quite exceptional."
Albi clicked her tongue. She meant it this time too.
She seemed dissatisfied with the Capsule maker's level. No, more precisely, the Capsule's efficacy bothered her.
"Correct. At best, this yields a 1st Rank effect. The finest material it can process is a 1st Rank."
Albi had brought the best of the prototypes.
That was a Capsule made from a 1st Rank mage.
"Who'd want that."
Harad scoffed.
Under the table, he nudged Ellen's thigh. Young demon. That was the phrase Ellen hated most.
But contrary to expectation, her reaction was muted.
A lifetime of acting had laid an iron mask on Ellen's face that surpassed Albi's.
Thus Ellen was a woman who, once committed, followed through.
She had left this situation entirely in Harad's hands. Patience for his sake, and acting.
Perhaps trust.
Trust that Harad felt the same.
"Not useful now. But as I said, time will fix it."
"The production environment doesn't seem favorable."
The Capsule had further difficulties.
Harad had already guessed. It was natural for the continent.
"...... An environment without focus. Scarce materials. What else remains?"
"Besides the Capsule's level and material supply, there are no other problems."
The Liberation Tower's base was unknown.
"But hauling materials indefinitely risks exposing the base. You'd have to bring young or incompetent demons alive."
"......"
Albi couldn't deny it.
The base hadn't been built for making Capsules.
Material supply was a major issue too.
Most mages were claimed by the Church and its aligned nations. The fraction the Liberation Tower could salvage was minuscule.
"Quite the bind. You'd need a lot of material for the Capsule maker to improve."
Improvement wasn't all; the maker also needed to raise their own Rank. Predation would be the method of choice.
'For the Capsule, and for the maker.'
Already-scarce materials effectively doubled in demand.
"The more we talk, the further apart we get. I clearly understood this as receiving Capsules in exchange for ceding the tunnel."
Albi was indirectly asking for help supplying materials.
"Cede the tunnel and supply materials too. And you want land to focus on production. Turns out you didn't come for a deal but to make a fool of me."
"I don't ask for full cession. Letting our guests use the tunnel freely is enough."
Guests.
As in the past life, she meant granting the Otherworld tunnel access.
"I hear the North doesn't kill young demons but exiles them. A good arrangement for both sides. We'll handle the unpleasant work the North turns its back on."
Albi answered Harad's list in order.
"I'm not asking for grand land. Any scrap of worthless land will do. As long as it's in the North."
A chance for a few Otherworld mages to use the tunnel, young mages who'd be exiled anyway, and a sliver of snow-covered space no one used.
Albi's request was burdensome if one called it burdensome, modest if one called it modest.
"And what do I get?"
But this was a negotiation.
Harad pressed his middle finger and thumb into a circle.
"You're Liberation Tower now."
"Sharing an affiliation doesn't mean sharing a purpose. Like the Rebellion Faction and Liberation Faction."
"......"
"What I want is my money. And my power, and what my woman likes. The North falls under the last."
Harad pulled Ellen's shoulder close.
"I can't carelessly touch what my woman likes. Not without an enormous return."
Ellen's face went crimson.
Quite hot, too. This time it didn't seem like acting.
'Weak to "my woman."'
Should I say it more.
As Harad thought that, he clicked his tongue softly. Albi was glaring.
"Mage Harad. I'm extending my hand as an equal. From a position where killing you would surprise no one."
"Kill me. Then the tunnel dies too. If I die, Serzila closes it."
"......"
"The Capsule will slowly rot. No land, no materials, no way forward."
If Harad died, there was nothing.
Meaning this side held the leverage. Thanks to Ellen's splendid acting.
Albi bit her lip.
The iron mask cracked. She was regretting now. Regretting having shared information so freely, focused as she'd been on "equals."
"What do you want?"
"The Capsule."
"If it's Capsules, once mass production is possible, as many as......"
"Not that."
Harad cut her off.
"That's not enormous. The whole thing, maybe."
"Pardon?"
"It would sell, especially to asylum seekers. Magical power is essential in the Boundary."
"......"
"I'll take it. That business."
Albi's face trembled.
It seemed the Capsule was Albi's project.
"What's there to hesitate over? Same Liberation Tower."
Harad stuck his tongue out long and licked his lips.
As crassly as possible.