334 Heracles warning
— Japan - Naha State - 2 Days After the Incident —
Two days after the incident, Daniel stayed at the Grand Privilege Hotel, awaiting reinforcements. He received communication from the Oceanos that they would arrive near here this morning.
During these two days, Daniel negotiated with the former Daimyo and did everything in his power to secure benefits for his company. The most profitable deal he struck was gaining the right to purchase magic tamahagane from the haunted mine on this island.
In this short stay, Daniel discovered that the magic tamahagane mine was plagued by various demons and evil spirits. He decided to aid the locals and the new Daimyo, whom he personally supported on the throne, in forcefully relocating these entities away from the mine.
In return, his workshop gained new magic materials, and to his surprise, these magic tamahagane worked exceptionally well to strengthen metals when mixed in the forging process of his artifacts.
Now, his blades were nearly indestructible, marking the first time he created something without the power of the cards and approaching the word 'indestructible.' Of course, if he used his card powers, such as those capable of destroying artifacts, they would still be immediately destroyed. He had already tested it.
But beyond this, even Pride's full power could not make a dent or scratch in the material that contained tamahagane during the forging process.
In addition to this, he inspected the Hightower magic circle in Okinawa. Nikkos brought it to Daniel's attention, so he, along with Pride and Nikkos, went to examine it.
The magic circle's power had already been depleted, much like a spent battery. The Hightower lacked the resources to recharge it at the moment. Nikkos then brought Daniel to the Hightower Golden Scale Enforcer secret base to investigate further.
This base, concealed deep in the Okinawan mountains, was discovered to be empty. All equipment, furniture, and magic resources had been destroyed and burned to the ground. This was a precaution taken by the Golden Scale Enforcer against Nikkos, anticipating betrayal, which ultimately occurred.
All traces and information about the group and their operation were obliterated and unrecoverable, including the stored magic resources.
Moreover, from Daniel's examination of the remains, it appeared that the Hightower had prepared two magic arrays. One was for partially stopping time, and the other was for use in case of a large-scale conflict among the Curtained World's inhabitants—specifically, a power of forgetfulness.
Upon investigation, Daniel found that the forgetfulness power had been activated. This resulted from Yarimasa persuading Cyrus to activate it, and as a mage, Cyrus couldn't refuse the favor. He helped Yarimasa activate the magic array, forcing the Enforcers to respond.
The reason for Cyrus's demise was that he shouldn't have had the right to activate this array, no longer being the Grand Councilor. However, he forcefully activated it, prompting the Enforcers to retaliate by activating their partial time stop and subsequently moving in to eliminate Cyrus, equipped and trained to deal with someone like Daniel.
Even if Daniel hadn't come to inspect the battle, the Enforcers would have sought him out and attempted to kill him. The partial time stop lasted about three hours, giving them ample time to deal with Cyrus before turning their attention to Daniel.
After Daniel had satisfied his curiosity and completed the deal with the Daimyo and other political and business negotiations, he was now enjoying sushi at the Gluttony restaurant with Pride and his new assistant, Kato, along with the new Director of the Tourism Development Department, Goro Kuroda.
To his surprise, Kato agreed that he and his family would move to Sector Alpha City to work at Astral Tech Corporation. He would be trained as the General Manager and the future Director of Astral Tech Corporation's Japan branch.
"The cut in this sashimi is very clean and beautiful. Who would have thought that even my former chef in the castle would be lower in standard when compared to your culinary skills, Gluttony-Sensei," Goro Kuroda, the former Daimyo of Naha state, said with a smile. In front of him were his family and several concubines who agreed to move along with him to Sector Alpha City.
"Ohhhh hohohoho–, even if you suck up to me like that, you wouldn't get any discount from me, you know," Gluttony said with a bright smile while sneaking some more free sashimi onto the former Daimyo's plate.
"Eh… stop being a hypocrite. You are clearly enjoying the flattery when it comes to your culinary skills," Pride said, interrupting Gluttony's good mood.
"Looks who's talking, hmm? Miss Tsundere?" Gluttony said with a teasing smile.
"I'm not a tsundere!" Pride said, blushing. She then forcefully calmed herself down, looking at Daniel who was chatting about miscellaneous things with Heracles and Momotaro.
Pride remembered that Daniel still hadn't given her an answer about joining her or not. In truth, she didn't count on him joining her that much, but at least, with the past few days, she hoped that she would give Daniel enough of a positive impression for him not to be so ruthless in the skirmish in Texas.
Or perhaps they could give Texas back and negotiate with Daniel for favorable terms. Pride had heard that Greed was one of his lovers, so maybe they could use this opportunity to win his favor. Returning Texas to the USA without bloodshed and then seeking a favorable deal from Daniel seemed like a strategic move.
For instance, Daniel had developed his space program to a point more advanced than most technological advancements in the world, including the USA, by several decades. In the near future, he would be the first to conquer the moon and exploit its resources. Gaining access to Helium-3 with a discount wouldn't be a bad choice. It would be better than keeping Texas for themselves. Everything was possible as long as they had enough energy to sustain their cities and industries in the country.
14:21
Feeling Pride's gaze, Daniel turned toward her with a smile and gently raised his tea cup.
"Would you like to join us, Pride? I have something to share with you regarding the goal your group has," Daniel invited.
Upon hearing this, Pride nodded and walked toward Daniel and his company, taking a seat opposite him at the same table.
"What do you want to tell me?" asked Pride.
Daniel sighed, glanced at Heracles, and then decided to share with her. "Regarding your goal of bringing the era of gods, are you sure that it's a wise move?" asked Daniel.
"Huh? Why not? The mana in the Era of God is denser, and the human body under that environment would be stronger too as mana will nurture their bodies," Pride asked, still not understanding what could be wrong with the Era of God.
Daniel began to explain, "That's the pros about the Era of God. Have you ever considered its cons?" Daniel left the question for Pride.
"Oh, I know what you are trying to convey. It's about the gods, right?" Pride smiled brightly, understanding that Daniel's question implied he might consider joining them.
Daniel nodded, eliciting a proud expression on Pride's face. She quickly presented her case.
"You don't need to worry about that, Lord Emberweave. We, the Path of Knowledge faction, have a plan to counter this problem. I assure you that we humans will not succumb to the gods' will like during the Era of God. We have discovered a secret! A secret from the ruins in…" said Pride.
"Are you talking about the ruins of Delphi?" The one who interrupted her presentation was not Daniel, but Heracles, who sat beside him.
"Huh!?" Pride was stunned. This information was highly classified, and only the research team and some higher-ups in the Path of Knowledge faction knew exactly where it was.
"And the thing that gives you confidence is some pillar that has a weakening effect against divine power, right? I don't know what it looks like now, but you probably found it in ruins with a lot of pillars that have this kind of effect, right?" Hercules pressed.
"What… How did you know!?" Pride was completely alarmed this time. Does this mean Daniel has a spy among their higher-ups?
"I know because I used one of those pillars to smash my father… I mean Zeus's head. I'll tell you, those pillars aren't enough. If it's just one puny god with not much power, then it is effective, but those gods need to stay still in the middle of the circle within those pillars.
And if it were to be used against major gods, such as Poseidon, Ares, Athena, Hermes, it can only restrain their power to a point that it's just a minor inconvenience. But if it was used against several gods at the same time, like in the war between humans and gods in the past, its effect will reduce to just some small minor inconvenience, like you feel like your feet just stepped on bubblegum. It may or may not slows you down. As I said a... very minor inconvenience." Explain, Heracles.
This content is taken from free web nov𝒆l.com