The barista led us to a place deeper in the cafe, the accounting office turned private room, and stepped out. Almost as soon as the manager and I sat down, the door was knocked on again, and in came Maria and the receptionist.
"Young master!"
"You're here…"
I nodded and crossed my arms. At the same time, the spirits let me go and the horns on my head revealed themselves.
Maria and the receptionist gasped.
"Hoh…" the manager scoffed. "I see what happened to you now."
"Dusk… did you turn into a demon?"
"Young master! Are you alright? You did something risky, didn't you?"
I did do something risky, and she seemed fairly annoyed at that. I stuck out my tongue and flashed her my hand.
"My finger got fixed so alls well that ends well?"
"I don't know," The receptionist spoke as she pulled back a chair and plonked down on it. "I thought you found all your scars really cool."
"Let's just say I am preparing to get new ones."
The group sat. Maria wanted to try touching my horns and let go after a few pokes while the receptionist sighed.
"So," the manager, the one who taught me for two whole years spoke up. "What's this weak thing about? Is it related to that?"
He asked while pointing at my horns.
I nodded in response and placed my hand on the table as if inviting him for an arm wrestle."
"You already know about demons and authorities."
The manager met my hand without much of a word. He was jacked like a tank, just this made my hand feel like a toddler's against his. But we were not that far off in power.
I knew for a while that he was a coach he couldn't play the game anymore. Once a monster, an injury changed a lot for him and left him at just half his power.
The two of us clasped our hands together and got ready to wrestle.
"The power of my authority."
A small gust of wind spread as we began clashing.
"Is to seal things."
And then, like a paper being crushed, his hand fell on the table. It also refused to stand back up.
"What in the world…?" The manager spoke while pulling his right arm with his left.
"I just sealed your ability to move your hand."
The manager hummed while the receptionist chuckled.
"That's one more loss on your tab, manager."
"That was unfair."
"Nah, count it. Let's try that again."
I snapped my fingers and unsealed his arm. The manager was surprised, I could tell he was without looking at him.
Slowly, as if he was in a foreign skin, he placed his hand on the table once more and clasped it with mine.
The two of us started again.
Instead of a gust, a crack resounded as my hand fell back down and the table broke. Of course, I hadn't used my full power.
"When I unseal it, though. The power is amplified manifold. The more I seal and the longer I seal it for, the stronger it will be."
One more second later, his bulging veins relaxed. Half the time it had been sealed had passed.
"And the longer I can use it for. It was half now, but as the amplification increases the time will decrease. As to the extent it can go to, I have no clue."
The manager crossed his arms and hummed once more.
"That won't be on the guild, right?" The receptionist asked, annoyed at the sight of the broken table. I waved her concerns away and she sighed.
"This seems like a troublesome ability, young master. You must be careful when you use it on others."
As expected, Maria had a good battle sense. The sealing ability was essentially a buff, but it could be used as a debuff just as well.
"I tried and I can't seal a lot at once. The authority it consumes is also a one-time thing so I can recover it if I just be a bit debauch."
Indulging in oneself was the best way to renew the used authority for a demon. The amount was staggering for Balam and Dantalian, but for Bathym and I, it could be covered up for with some messing around.
"I see your problem," the manager said. It's a great trump card, but you can't use it and be defenseless, huh?"
I nodded.
"In that case," the receptionist intervened. She reached into her pockets and pulled out a cigarette. "You can divide your strength into different levels and then seal each of them separately. Like what Kaiser does."
I widened my eyes as she slowly leaned toward me, cigarette in her mouth. I lit it up for her and got some headpats as payment.
"I was thinking the same thing. Getting Kaiser involved would be the best… but he's currently far far away."
"No problem, I can call him up."
The receptionist took in a puff of her smoke and reached into her bag. Enchanted with spatial magic, it held quite a lot of her important stuff. She pulled out a small glass ball and placed it on the neatly broken table in front of us.
With a tap on the magic stone attached to it, the ball started glowing.
"The communication device from the academy."
"I was given one too. I didn't know it could connect to everyone."
"Yours can't. Mine can."
The glow faded and in the next moment, the image of a man appeared in the orb, followed by a gentle voice.
"Miss receptionist? Oh—! It's Eugy!"
Behind the man was the sight of a hundred mountains, and on all of them.
Were giant.
Enormous.
Dragons.
"KRAAAAA!"
"KIEEEEE!"
The dragons screeched and screamed and swung their hands.
A cataclysmic roar followed by the explosion of not one, not two, but ten peaks at once.
Like that, the dozens of dragons all raged at their distracted nemesis and tried to charge in.
He kept saying something, but all we could hear were the screams of the dragons.
The man clicked his tongue and turned around.
A static took over the orb for a second before it began again. A gust of power had spread out and all the dragons had cautiously stopped in their tracks, fear evident in their muscles.
"Stop. I am busy."
The dragons froze, unable to move at the glare of the man.
He slowly turned back to face us with a smile, as if what had happened was the same as a child crying for attention.
"Alright, now then. How are ya! What made you miss me enough?"
The living god of adventurers, Kaiser had spoken.
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