"They have accepted the channel for communication."
"Merging frequencies."
A soldier reported beside me.
Which soldier?
The people who work for me are bound to die for me and my cause.
So I don't see any reason not to call them soldiers.
Calling them members or guards would be disrespectful to their service.
At least, that is what I think.
"You sure were confident about this."
Arthur said, raising his brow with an impressed expression.
I had asked Arthur to send waves of mana from all sides, surrounding the entire mountain range.
I had to make Alfred tilt toward talking with us… peacefully.
I had to give him sufficient reason not to engage in combat.
And what better way than flexing our muscles?
Attacking Alfred's base wasn't a wise choice.
Alfred wasn't someone you could casually mess with.
He would have already devised a million ways to kill us with a slow, agonizing death.
In the game, even peak Diamond cores weren't safe from Alfred's madness.
Still, it wasn't like I was afraid of him. With Arthur by my side, it would at least take a couple of immortals and a sovereign to stop us.
And Alfred had neither of them.
As for the forces of Lonatu—
Wait…
Did I explain what Lonatu was?
I had, right?
Lonatu was the name of the organization that Alfred had created to unite like-minded individuals like him.
Mostly research scholars with a dozen loose screws.
So the highest power in their entire force could be an early Platinum core, or a Platinum 3 or 4 at best.
His forces, though huge in number, were mostly comprised of people of lower cores—mainly Gold and below.
As I was thinking about the plans going forward, my gaze moved toward Arthur's face, which was masked with a light frown.
"You don't have to worry about traps."
Arthur didn't seem convinced.
"I think you should stay here. I will go for the negotiations."
Huh.
Was he worried about me?
I mean, I know I'm weak. But saying such things about protecting me to my face…
Man! That does hurt my ego—
A bit.
"Trust me! I have studied that guy. I know more about him than even he might know."
"..."
"Okay, that was a lie."
"Haa."
Arthur gave a helpless sigh.
"Listen! I might not know everything about him, but I do know that Alfred isn't a coward. He wouldn't try to kill us in such petty ways if he's the one who has opened the doors for us to walk in."
I assured Arthur.
"So just relax and follow my lead."
I let the moment pass and then commented again. "And you know, you should trust your boss!"
"..."
What's with that expression?
The fifty men behind us listened to our exchange in silence.
At first, they were confused when they saw me influencing Arthur's decisions.
But Arthur had clearly informed everyone about him joining a bigger organization.
These individuals now knew who their boss worked for.
For them, not much had changed. Their roles stayed the same, as did their salaries and benefits.
As for my identity, Arthur introduced me as an important member of D.X., a high ranked one.
A sort of hidden agent in the Frost Dukedom.
You might think whether I had gone crazy.
I had previously executed Arthur's men for knowing my identity, and now here I was exposing myself to these people.
But the core part of my logic wasn't actually keeping myself hidden.
It was to keep the identity of the head of D.X. hidden, and make people assume him to be a powerful yet mysterious figure whose origins were unknown.
This was to create a deterrent against possible betrayals and aggressive actions the world might take against us in the future.
If everyone knew someone like me led this organization, then none would fear us.
I mean, how can anyone fear an organization led by a kid who hadn't even reached the Bronze core and was still a few years short of his twenties?
By world standards—and common sense—I was a kid.
Just a kid.
And people fear men…
Not kids!
Seeing these men, a thought crossed my mind.
I hadn't prepared uniforms for my members.
Well, it was something that could be done in the future.
I still had a long way to go before truly making D.X. a strong force in this world.
Speaking of which, why hadn't the communication been established yet?!
These guys… can't they be a bit faster?
"S-Sir, we have done everything on our part. It's just that the enemy is taking extra precautions so that we can't easily hack into their systems through this channel."
Under my questioning gaze, the soldier fumbled.
Am I that scary?
Hehe.
I knew who might be behind this.
No. 1—Alfred's assistant, and a fairly capable man.
He shared Alfred's madness, but was much more cautious than him.
No. 1 would never make a rookie mistake like letting us control their systems, even if he knew we were capable of charging at them in a full-scale frontal assault.
But his precautions were surely draining my time and patience.
Fuu.
Let's not get hasty. The guy would soon be working for me.
And as a responsible boss that I am, it's my obligation to respect the capabilities of my employees—
Soon-to-be employees.
Crrk… crrk…
The communicator buzzed as the channel was being connected.
"Good day… can they hear me now? Haa…
Hello—this is… umm, I am the representative of Lonatu. I don't know who you people are or what reasons you might have for attacking us—pretending to attack us—but we are open to any dialogue!"
"..."
Dialogue my foot!
This guy might have been the first one to protest against it.
"Why aren't they responding? You sure this thing works?"
The communicator echoed No. 1's voice again.
Isn't he a bigger embarrassment than—
I looked at Julien, who was silently observing me, waiting for my order to do his job.
I gave him a faint nod.
"We have no hostile intentions. We are here for a deal, which you might find favourable."
Julien said while giving me a side-eye.
What?!
Serving me has to be the best deal for them.
After a brief pause, No. 1 spoke again. "Only your representatives are allowed to ent—"
No. 1 stopped mid-sentence.
Then his voice echoed through the communicator again. "But boss, that would be dangerous! Huh… okay… My apologies."
I could hear a thud coming from the other side.
Did someone fall to their knees?
"Cough… The gates have been opened. You may enter with all your forces, but I must warn you against any other thoughts you may have brewed in your minds. It would be a shame to kill our guests. Over!"
Julien just stared at the communicator as it beeped once before shutting down.
He was dumbfounded by the other side's intellect.
No. 1 was threatening us, knowing very well that we were the ones holding the edge here.
"Boss, who were these guys again?"
"Researchers."
"..."
"..."