Chapter 139: Great Witch Arachne
“Father, what kind of standard is that? He was unwilling, yet you said he was qualified. Does that mean if he had shown the intention, you would have eliminated him instead? That’s far too contradictory.” Ophelia did not quite understand the Earl’s evaluation.
“At that time, he had risked exposing himself just to save that Witch. Without an emotional foundation, that would have been impossible. Ophelia, you had only just met him for the first time. If he had abandoned that Witch at that moment and chosen to approach you instead, what motive do you think it would have been for?” the Earl asked with a faint smile.
“What else could it be? Power? Wealth and glory?” Ophelia raised an eyebrow. “If he were really that easy to buy off—able to drop that woman just like that—then I might consider him slightly.”
“To abandon those at one’s side in order to climb upward—that is not ordinary ambition, but genuine, unrestrained ambition. The one who remains by your side must never possess such ambition. Today he might discard his Witch to approach you, but tomorrow, once he finds an opportunity, he would replace you.” The Earl spoke slowly.
“That does sound somewhat troubling.” After some thought, Ophelia provisionally agreed with her father.
“If a person’s capability were likened to a number, then once ambition is added, it is like placing a minus sign in front of it. The greater the capability, the more dangerous it becomes.” The Earl looked at Ophelia earnestly. “I recommended him to you for many reasons, but the most important one is that he has no ambition. He is sufficiently safe. That is more important than anything else. Only then does he have enough qualification to be considered.”
“But Father, what about that woman? We can’t deal with her for now.” Ophelia crossed her arms and crossed her legs. “I am your daughter, after all. I can’t possibly eat someone else’s leftovers, can I?”
If she were to follow the Earl’s thinking and place Leon Set on the list of candidates, it was not entirely unacceptable to her.
It was only that Rena Lothark’s existence made it psychologically difficult for her to accept. Yet she also clearly understood the value that Witch held for their enterprise. Being able to stably extract Mana at eighty percent purity was not something an ordinary Witch could accomplish. At the very least, she herself could not do it.