Chapter 919: Conference.
The ringing from the communicator came from Richard; it was a call informing him of a conference being held in the Capitol in three hours. The host was Harrison Soubuelle, and all the members would be the bigshots of the world and the current S-ranks and above.
It was also an event to announce new S-rank individuals. Strictly speaking, Alan didn’t want to go; he found it a bother. While he didn’t hate parties or meetings like this, he wasn’t fond of them either. Unfortunately, if he didn’t go, Master Arken, Sir Oliver, and Richard would yell at him. Furthermore, Sabrina also had to attend, beside her Grandfather.
Everyone he knew would be there. Even Kazikato... who was being dragged there by Richard at this very moment, if Alan missed it, Richard would probably throw him in a few fire-themed dungeons...
"Damn it..."
The call ended with a stern warning from his guild leader that ’dire’ and ’fiery’ consequences would follow for both Twilight and Alan if he missed the conference. He sighed as Sabrina chuckled.
"Harrison is really special in this regard; almost nobody wants to piss him off."
Alan rolled his eyes, complaining.
"He isn’t even the strongest on this planet. Why does everybody listen to him?"
"Pure strength isn’t what leads; a lot of other things matter too. Harrison has no match in the other categories. Besides, everybody agrees he is the one best suited for it. He’s also the most diligent out of all of us."
Alan didn’t question it any longer; if possible, he wanted to hide the fact that he was SSS-rank, on the border of being Epic rank. He wanted to enjoy the silence that accompanied a lower rank. If it were known that he was SSS-rank, what would happen?
The conference would burst into flames, figuratively. The attention from everybody would reach the boiling point, and everyone would bombard him with questions. Furthermore, even if Richard wasn’t interested in marketing, the PR team of Twilight was... They couldn’t force him into interviews or shows, but they could annoy him into them. It was a tactic that worked once before.
He’d be bombarded from all sides, turning his life into hell. The press would annoy him so much that he’d have to leave the planet. While he wasn’t opposed to spending a few months on Lanekia, he knew his grandparents and little sister would have to deal with the rest.
His power as an S-rank was already going to be revealed in the conference, courtesy of Richard; he just hoped it would stay at that. Alan sighed and asked.
"So, where do you wanna go?"
Sabrina thought for a moment and answered.
"Honestly, I have no idea. I’ve lost my appetite for human food. We could just tour the Capitol."
’Tour the Capitol...’
It was a good idea, considering Alan hadn’t really explored the heart of human civilization much. His only experience in the Capitol was the Tower of Trials, the Academic Convergence, and his grandparents’ Café. The Capitol was the biggest city to ever exist on Planet Earth, and Alan had barely visited it.
He wasn’t interested in it, really. But could he refuse this time? He’d been aching to go out anywhere with Sabrina, and he wasn’t going to miss this chance.
They both left the Café, with Alan having to cast Illusion magic on himself to make him look... completely different. In three hours, they couldn’t possibly visit the entire Capitol, but they could cover one or two major tourist attractions.
The Capitol was located in the center of the world. It had a few prominent names in the past, mainly being Istanbul and Constantinople, but the city had been destroyed during the invasions, turning into a low-tier colony. After the arrival of the Tower of Trials and the rise of the Drakmor family, it was slowly restored to its former glory; no, it even surpassed that.
The Capitol, in the current year, was five times its original size before the invasions. Many of its former tourist attractions and novelties had been restored, and some new ones had been added. The city had a population of about eighty million residents from all around the World.
It was also where the Headquarters of Titan, the rank one guild, and Behemoth, which had fallen into rank three, as well as the other guilds in the top ten. Twilight was the only exception, choosing Askolt, the second greatest city, as its capital. Although it still had a massive office in the Capitol.
The Capitol was home to the World Government, which consisted mainly of normal human beings who were not awakened. They were responsible for handling the normal human beings, while the Association, an extension of the World Government, was responsible for the Awakened. The Head of the World Government was Ragnar Drakmor, who honestly did nothing but laze around.
The Association, strangely enough, also chose to have its headquarters in Askolt, along with Shield. Many believed it was because Harrison wanted to have a good relationship with the Sage and the Sword Saint, who resided there.
The Capitol was the heart of human society, with Askolt being a close second. The old name of Askolt was New York.
Fun fact: when the Capitol lost the Tower of Trials after Alan managed to clear it, many people in high society had wanted to sue Alan and Twilight, arguing that he should share the spoils since he ruined their greatest tourist attraction. Thankfully, this attempt was stopped by the Association, mainly Harrison, and the Drakmor family before it went public.
If it actually went through during that time, when Alan was in a questionable mental state, he probably would have visited them all to rip their heads off. He really would have killed them all just to make a statement. Alan didn’t know how he managed to hold himself back when one of them actually approached him.
Now that he was in a more stable mental state, he probably wouldn’t do that. But if they did threaten his family, then he had no qualms ending their entire family. His ’concern’ and ’care’ for the Human race were ambiguous.
He was human previously, so there was some ’understanding’, but this waned as he progressed as a Dragon. While Alan wasn’t a monster who liked killing humans like the Demons and Demonic Humans, he also wasn’t a saint.
He was someone who abided by the law of equivalent exchange. If they didn’t bother him or were friendly, he was the same. He would either chase away or avoid anyone who annoyed him or angered him, and anyone bold enough to piss him off was dealt with.
Being A Dragon, God Beast, and Void Spawn seriously messed with his ’morality’, Alan didn’t feel the need to care for the common man. There was a certain sense of Pride in his blood, one that every member of the Prime species possessed, especially the young ones. This feeling of ’superiority’ was three times more in Alan.
Celestial Providence and Demonic Decadence prevented this pride from flourishing to a certain extent, and the remaining influence of Alearia within his soul also helped to keep him ’human’, or for lack of a better word, ’Normal’. It was a delicate balance, which could easily be ruined by some fool thinking too much of himself.
Alan and Sabrina explored the Capitol for the three hours they had, although they could only cover one tourist site. The traffic was simply... unbearable. Alan also had to satisfy Sabrina’s photo addiction, which he did a good job at, surprisingly. His Photography skills were actually good, something new he discovered about himself.
The tourist attraction they witnessed was a statue of an awakened of the First Generation located within a ’flamboyant’ fort. He was a General who had defended Istanbul to his last breath during the invasions, and unfortunately fell in battle against a Demon Marquis. However, he had successfully bought enough time for people to evacuate safely.
Alan didn’t find the ’fort’ to be impressive. Granted, it had been redeveloped to fit aesthetics more, but then again, to a person who could simply spam meteors, no fort was impressive.
"Not everybody can use Meteors and other high-level spells so easily, you know?"
Sabrina commented. Even she, with all her artifacts and mana boosting runes, would struggle to cast Meteor. While the spell itself was incredibly simple, as in, Big Rock falling to the ground, creating it was a massive chore.
There were three ways to cast Meteor: either make the entire material with your own mana, or drag one quite literally from space, or use surrounding material to make a meteor, and then hurl it up a few thousand meters and let it fall.
Out of them all, the third was the most viable. Alan could brute force casting it due to his mana; others could not.
Alan shrugged his shoulders, and Sabrina dragged him to a nearby tailor, complaining that he couldn’t attend the conference in sweatpants and a t-shirt.
Regrettably, nothing there fit him.
