Eighty-Fourth Chapter

A Chance Encounter between the Shrewd

Felinella Socalent stood near the border between Alpha and Clevideet, wearing a blatantly bright smile. If one tried to interpret it, they would believe she was either in a great mood...or was incredibly angry. Regardless of which it was, her smile was too flawless to read. It was the mask of a perfect lady.

At any rate, she had managed to avoid a major conflict between Alpha and Clevideet by a hair’s breadth. Alpha’s rank 1, Alus Reigin, and neighboring country’s rank 4, Fanon Trooper, had encountered each other by chance, causing a political incident of great sensitivity.

If she’d been a few fractions of a second later, Alus would have cast his spell, making that potential nightmare a reality. It wasn’t a matter of who was right or wrong—two Singles had met and clashed. Felinella’s arrival had prevented the greatest incident of the century from happening.

Felinella was the only person present who was acquainted with both Alus and Fanon, so she had to act as an intermediary between them. Her strong presence was a blessing—she was the only one who could handle the two twisted Singles before her.

The sight of Felinella guiding the groups to an old private house was bizarre. It looked strange even to Loki, who was quietly following behind Alus. After all, a bunch of hooded figures were walking into a house that looked abandoned.

Anyone unaware of the situation would assume that some heretical ritual would be taking place. And in a sense, that wasn’t entirely wrong. The meeting that was about to take place would be chaotic.

The inside of the old building was as dusty as expected, but there were signs that it had seen use by several people not too long ago.

“Let me start up the fireplace,” said Felinella, taking initiative to put firewood in the fireplace.

The female members of Fanon’s squad tried to help by grabbing used paper and dry straw from the dirt floor. Finally, Felinella flicked her finger, creating a small spark that fell into the fireplace. It was a form of everyday magic that even non-Magicmasters could use.

The paper and straw burned, engulfing the firewood in flames, and before long there was a relaxing, natural warmth in the room.

Alus and Fanon took their seats around a bare table. Loki remained standing behind Alus, and Fanon’s subordinates lined up beside their captain with blank expressions. Both sides ended up just staring awkwardly at each other.

Of course, that was only natural, since they’d been trying to kill each other just a short while ago. It wouldn’t have been strange for anyone to have been seriously hurt or killed.

But before long, the woman who had brought them there broke the heavy silence. “Why don’t we have a liiiittle talk while the water is boiling? First up are our visitors from Clevideet.”

Felinella was seated on the side of the table between the two, but her choice of words made it sound like she was blaming Fanon and her squad for violating their territory. Felinella’s face was obscured by the shadows cast by the fireplace, but it was clear that she was forcing a smile.

Fanon, Exceles, and the rest from Clevideet quietly turned their faces away when exposed to Felinella’s silent anger.

“Ms. Exceles? Aren’t you happy that it didn’t turn out to be a big deal?” Felinella asked.

“Y-Yes...” In response to the strangely overpowering presence, Exceles shrank back and replied with a raised voice.

Despite being a student in Alpha, Felinella appeared to have a higher standing than anyone in the Fanon squad. Meanwhile, Alus looked at Felinella with a blank expression as he crossed his legs.

Felinella continued by speaking to him. “Sir Alus, I have been ordered by my father to mediate between Alpha and Lady Fanon’s squad from Clevideet, who are here unofficially.”

Felinella smiled softly at Alus. After that brief explanation, she paused before continuing.

“Or rather...I was supposed to. Even though I was supposed to attend to them, they gave me the slip without saying anything,” Felinella said, feigning calm.

“That is just a misunderstanding, Ms. Felinella!” one of Fanon’s subordinates objected. It was the one who had aimed for Loki only to get beaten back.

“A misunderstanding?” Felinella replied sharply. “Not only did you disrespect the kind proposal of my father, Lord Vizaist Socalent, your actions put the relations between our nations at risk! What is there to misunderstand?”

Not even Loki had seen so much of Felinella’s quiet anger before. The anger wasn’t showing outright, but being able to sense her hidden fury made it more frightening.

In this atmosphere, it was hard to get a word in. Fanon was paying no attention to what Felinella was saying anyways, as if it had nothing to do with her. Her eyes were turned towards Alus. But she wasn’t looking directly into his eyes but rather at his entire upper body... She didn’t seem to be appraising him, but it wasn’t exactly very friendly.

Suddenly, Fanon’s lips moved as she spoke. “Could you shut up for a moment?”

The sudden rude remark made Felinella’s eyes open wide. But Fanon didn’t so much as look over; her eyes remained on Alus. While not quite friendly, she was showing interest.

“You. You can use some interesting magic that not even I can expect or analyze. When did Alpha’s Magicmasters and the magic they use start to defy common sense?” Fanon asked in a challenging tone.

Before Alus could answer, Felinella interjected. “Lady Fanon, I cannot overlook that attitude! If you have no intention of changing your mind, then we may have to reconsider our stance of cooperating with you.”

However, Fanon completely ignored Felinella. It was a rather fitting attitude as a Single Digit Magicmaster. If even Alus were to raise an eyebrow at her arrogant attitude, the old house would soon contain an atmosphere no different from the front lines of a battlefield.

“You heard what Felinella said. If you’re not going to answer her, I have no obligation to answer your question either,” said Alus. As long as Fanon and her squad’s true intentions were unclear, Alus wasn’t going to act rash, but he decided to press the point.

Unexpectedly, Fanon cut out her unsociable attitude and directed a smile towards Felinella. “Fine. So you were talking about us leaving you behind, Ms. Felinella?”

“Y-Yes.” The suddenness of the bright smile took Felinella off guard, and she gave a quick reply and smile.

“Well, we were rather careless about that... In the middle of our pursuit, they used magic to jam us. In the midst of the chaos, we had no choice but to make the fastest and best choice we could to pursue our targets. In the process, you lost sight of us,” said Fanon.

“That’s sophistry! Are you sure you don’t mean to say that you shook me off?! You are already ignorant of Alpha as is, so if you were to make a mistake, this time it could...” Felinella said emotionally, a rare blunder for her. But since it concerned Alus, she was unable to stay calm.

Exceles answered in a dispirited voice. “Y-Yes...so we are truly grateful to you, Ms. Felinella. The incident could have led to an irreparable rift between our nations.”

Even so, Fanon seemed determined to treat the brief fight with Alus as a freak accident. While Exceles was acting meek, it wasn’t hard to imagine that she had the same goal.

Alus was aware of their intentions. These were certainly the collaborators from Clevideet that Berwick had mentioned, but it still left things unanswered...

Alus had met Fanon once before at the ruler’s conference, so he knew her face. The question was why she was chasing criminals instead of Fiends, and into Alpha at that. While Alus may have taken part in assassinations before, he’d never heard rumors of other Singles doing the same.

Besides...her fighting style is meant to be used against Fiends. A proper Magicmaster through and through. I can only see her as someone who isn’t used to fighting against people, he thought.

Fanon’s Juggernaut spell had been powerful, yes, but it was inefficient to use something like that against a mere human. It wasn’t like Fanon had expected to run into Alpha’s rank 1 so quickly, but Alus wanted more information so he could see the whole picture.

With that in mind, he signaled the troubled Felinella with his eyes, and when she came up to him, he whispered so only she could hear. “Feli, emergency situation or not, would another nation’s Magicmasters offer to help for free? And a Single at that?”

Felinella whispered back, “Yes, it is probably related to the two believed to be involved in the escape from the Trojan Prison who came here from Clevideet. I heard they attacked Lady Fanon and her squad in a city. It’s not something to speak openly about, but I heard about it when my father negotiated with them...”

“I see,” Alus answered.

That made sense, and he finally started to get a grasp of Vizaist’s goal. He only needed a few more tidbits from Felinella, and he was finally able to understand the situation. Berwick didn’t think Alus would meet up with the cooperators from Clevideet—he’d been proven wrong right off the bat.

But perhaps...