After I walked out of that room, I immediately made my way towards the rooftop where I had drawn the circle. Earlier, I thought it would take more time to get to know everyone, but by fate and twists; I guess I ended up knowing about almost everyone within a single day.
Those I didn't get the chance to make acquaintances with, I think I should be able to see them in Arcadia City. As for the ones I have left here, if I remember correctly, they don't have a combat oriented system. Except Freya Leeway, about whom I already have enough intel to understand her best strategic position.
So that leaves me with about 6 people from the Leeway family, who would be participating in the battle.
Mark Leeway.
Elric Leeway.
Cedric Leeway.
Reeve Leeway.
Freya Leeway.
Rheo Delacruz.
I kind of wanted Irene to participate in the battle, but the current Irene is too weak, so I guess we can't have her putting her life in danger right now.
Outside of the Leeway Family we have…
Me, Zero
William
Cristine
Lucia
In total, we got 10 people participating in the battle along with my artefacts and magic circle that I drew.
"I hope this is enough," I thought as I reached the top before beginning to check the circle one last time. It wasn't that I wasn't confident in my skills, but taking extra precautions is never a wasted effort. Especially in cases like these.
It took about an hour this time to check through the entire circle and thankfully I did not find even a single error. I then nodded at myself before moving towards Mark's office.
…
-Knock Knock
"Come in," Mark spoke from the inside of the office.
-Click
Entering the room, I almost began speaking about the ritual that I was about to conduct this evening but before I could speak even a single word, I saw the face of another familiar man that I have only heard about or seen in reports, but never actually seen in person.
"Oliver Delacruz," those words automatically came out of my mouth as I saw that long black-haired azure-eyed man who looked like who was in his late 30s despite being over 70-year-old.
"..." That man, though, just stood there with a slightly blank expression as he saw me before turning to Mark, and Mark just smiled at Oliver with a slight chuckle.
"It is him, isn't he?" Oliver asked and Mark nodded before Oliver turned back at me and spoke,
"You must be Reaper, right? I have… well, I am here to see the person in charge of 'saving the world' by myself."
In his words, I simply sighed because I kind of knew this would happen sooner or later.
"Though, I would have liked it more if it happened after the ritual and not before it," I grumbled a little before speaking.
"Suit yourself, I suppose. Anyway, Mark. I have decided to proceed with the ritual this evening. I have done everything I needed to do. Is there anything you have today that requires your presence?"
My eyes turned at Oliver as I spoke the last line, who was… dumbfounded, to say the least.
Perhaps he was surprised by the way I was addressing Mark, or maybe how casually Mark was taking my approach to him. In any case, he was really analysing me right now, trying to understand what exactly is special about me.
"It might be a bit inappropriate but… I can't bring myself to believe all that bullsh*t that Mark has been telling me since last night. And watching him being so intense about it was a little nauseating, so I came here to check on my own. Mr Zero, is there anything you have that you would like to show me to make me believe that whatever you said is actually true and not just a made-up story?" He was polite, he was honest, and he was direct with his approach.
No sugar coating his statement and neither any sign of arrogance.
'Just like the reports said. A nice guy with a crazy personality,' I recalled before sighing and speaking,"well… it would be better if you stayed the night then. Since we are going along with my way of doing things, having another SS-Rank would really help us out. You might get a glimpse of our future enemy as well. How does that sound?"
Hearing my words, Oliver just looked at me before pondering a little and then nodding at it. He then looked at Mark and said,"Well, we will continue our talk later than. For now, it seems that you have something more urgent to deal with." Perhaps it was because of Oliver, Mark was really relaxed despite his daughter being about to go through the ritual. Though, honestly I too was thankful that Oliver was here, cause his system can be really useful in this situation.
Oliver shook hands with Mark and then bowed to me before leaving the office.
-Click! -Bam!
The door closed, and Mark and I were the ones left behind. I then turned to Mark and spoke,"is there anything you want to add with the ritual or something?"
Rather than answering my question, Mark threw a question at me,"You are not angry with me telling Oliver about your secret?" 'With the amount of secrets I have, getting one or two out shouldn't be a problem. At worse, I can just use everything in my arsenal to use against those who trouble me,' is what I was thinking but,
"If I really wanted to hide it, I wouldn't have told you anything, would I?" I spoke with a casual smile at which Mark first narrowed his eyes at me before chuckling a little as he spoke,"whatever you say." I then began discussing everything about the ritual and how I will proceed with it. He listened to every part carefully and since we have Oliver helping us too, I added him there as an extra line of defence. It was a long talk and took about another hour before we finally settled on everything.
All that was left now, was to tell everyone their respective roles and unveil the curtains to the upcoming battle tonight.
This 𝓬ontent is taken from fre𝒆webnove(l).𝐜𝐨𝗺