Before leaving, his eyes met with William's, and the latter nodded to him, to reassure that Leo was going to get saved.
William didn't have a good impression of the Cardinals or the leaders of this Cult. He could tell they had immense power and numbers, branches scattered all over the world, and yet they never helped in stopping the crisis that befell this world in his past life.
He didn't know why, and if the reason was some sort of bullshit like the Cult laws and such, he'd despise them even more.
Once the entire place got emptied from everyone except for William and the unconscious Leo, the Cardinals stood in their places around the table, looking in silence towards William.
The latter could feel the pressure. A group of hundreds of dark gold grade masters, at the high grade at least, and most were at the pinnacle, wasn't something easy for a recent gold grade master like him to handle.
Yet William wasn't a normal master, not someone who could get affected by any of this. So he calmly stood in his place, meeting their eyes with his.
"Sit down if you want," the Cardinal who led him here spoke, and it seemed like he was the leader of the entire Cardinal Council.
"I'm fine standing like this," but William refused the invitation, "you called for me to come, and here I'm. what do you want?"
"We want to save our brave legion leader."
"As if I'm buying that," William laughed, before adding, "I saw how you truly treasure your legion. So why don't we save time and speak about what you want?"
The Cardinals looked at each other in doubt. They thought by bringing William over, he'd be scared to meet them. And yet, the interrogation they envisioned turned upside down, and William was taking the wheel and leading the entire meeting.
"You know nothing about our ways, and you want to learn all this knowledge. In return for that, we got the result of your continent's branch leader's investigation. So, why won't we make a deal here? You tell us everything you know about the two enemies, the one who caused all this and the one who gave birth to it, and then we can share with you part of our ways."
"Won't do," William shook his head, "don't try to ask about something you can't even handle."
"Kiddo, don't take us lightly," another Cardinal spoke up, seemingly a little amused by William's attitude, "we aren't weak, not that powerless."
"I do know that," William was sure of this, "but let me ask you first, what's your agenda?"
"Agenda?"
"Your main goal, the one you want to achieve no matter what," William wanted to know the answer to this troubling question.
He knew these folks were strong, and they got connections with the outer world. People like them should be at the core of the main events in the world. So how come this world perished in his past life without them trying to save it?
William couldn't even guess any answer without understanding their mindset. "We are here to maintain the balance of the world," the Great Cardinal didn't see anything wrong in sharing such intel with him, "we are here to make sure no one is tempering with the fate and destiny wheels."
"How about the world then?"
"We are protecting it, aren't my words clear?"
William looked directly into the eyes of that Cardinal, and he got that he wasn't lying. He didn't need to, if they didn't care at all about this world, then they would easily say it.
"That means you are willing to do anything to save and protect this world, right? Protect it from destruction and ruin, correct?" William wanted to triple check over their stance.
"I don't know why you are speaking about the same topic again and again, but if this world perishes, we'll die with it," another Cardinal said, seemingly taking what William said as a usual talk of the youngsters, fitting his young age.
"I see," William's thoughts spinned fast. If what they said was true, then that meant the fall of this world in his past life wasn't just as simple as the release of swarms of monsters.
Many schemes were in play, and he now realised he got to know something grand without intending to.
It seemed that before the fall of the world, the ones standing behind it took this Cult down first. William couldn't believe such a grand force, with such immensely powerful and numerous masters would fall without causing a storm in the world.
Just the Cardinal force in front of him would take a huge army to take them down. And such a battle would have left a great impact on the entire world.
Yet he never heard of such a thing before. "Now, can you tell us all the news about these two enemies? We need to preserve the world and protect it from any harm."
"But you'll fail," William sighed, sighed as if what he said was something already set in stone, "and from the look on your faces, I believe you already are aware of this."
When he said his comment casually, he noticed the slight change in their faces. It felt like his words hit the right notes, as if they knew exactly what he was speaking about.
He was first startled by such an unexpected reaction. Yet when he recalled the nature of this place, of these people, he knew this made sense. They were able to spy over others' fates and destiny, see the past, present, and future. And that meant they must have spotted something grand about this world.
Even if they couldn't tell what was exactly going to happen, they knew this world was going to experience a great crisis. And it seemed they were trying all their best to change such fate or stop this disaster before it'd happen.
"Who told you about this?!"
New n𝙤vel chapters are published on f(r)e𝒆webn(o)vel.com