[21st Round] Fair Negotiation
My demented senior appeared.
The last time we met, we ended up completely destroying his house, making me think we’d never contact each other again.
‘Senior, though you seem displeased, you like me, don’t you?’
▷ Irritation: I admire your imagination. I can’t believe you can still dare say something like that after you ripped out my once beloved wife’s vertebrae without anesthesia.
He really seemed to like me.
▷ Seriousness: Why did you call me? I advise you to stop doing stupid things like this hostage game. While I was conquering planets, I had many marriages of convenience. You are greatly mistaken if you think that I, the ruler of an entire galaxy, am still attached to a woman from my past.
I didn’t expect that from him, considering I realized that he lost his feelings of affection after he found the brooch he gave me in the garbage can.
‘Correct me if I’m wrong, but watching you procrastinate and threaten me made me think you still haven’t gotten over the past completely.’
▷ Calmness: Get to the point already. I advise you to be careful with your words, however. After all, I can easily take over Earth, your homeland, if I so wished.
‘Haha! Stop lying through your teeth, my resentful senior. You haven’t conquered Earth only because you can’t. If the First Hero, an ultimate living weapon, leaves his capital planet, neighboring powers would react to it.’
I was no ordinary Fantasy Hero that lacked attention.
And my wife was a graduate from an elite university, where Master Mollan was from.
“I am also his first wife! Hoho!”
“As she said.”
I didn’t see the connection between her being my first wife and the knowledge she possessed. Regardless, I still received superficial information about the situation in the universe from her.
Therefore, I couldn’t be deceived.
▷ Calm: I’m not lying. I haven’t forgotten that Ssosia, who always declared that she would live alone, married you, which means that her knowledge and skills naturally passed on to you. But it does seem to me that you can’t go beyond the solar system, while my army and children can. If even the smallest part of my troops located on the edge of the galaxy moves towards Earth, then they’ll easily… Hey! Why are you laughing? What’s so funny?
“I just find your honesty hilarious.”
He kept hinting that I shouldn’t touch Teacher Morals.
I hadn’t even gotten to my point yet, but he had already jumped to conclusions and began to intimidate me with his exaggerated abilities.
He said that his wife was only one of the many women from the past, but the reality was far from that.
Adolescence only came once in a lifetime, after all.
Even if they could experience it again, it wouldn’t be as huge of an impact anymore.
One could never go back to their horny days when just looking at a woman’s thighs would turn them on.
On the one hand, this meant that they had matured, but on the other hand, they were no longer so innocent.
▷ Confusion: Interesting speculation.
I experienced all this myself.
I had times when I couldn’t take my eyes off of Lanuvel’s thighs, who was always pretending to be cute.
This had remained a trauma and a dark spot in my biography.
That’s why I remembered the name Lanuvel even 200 years later.
And what about my senior?
▷ Surrender: Bianca Lanuberk. She was a very proud princess and was married off to me after I persuaded their family’s godfather, Elfheim, to share my influence and wealth with their family. Now, I will never again go so far as to share my wealth and influence for one girl. As you said, it was only possible because I was young. Even if we rank my wives now, Bianca will still be among the top ten. She is special to me…
‘Thank you for your honesty, which isn’t inherent to the owner of the MAX-Class harem.’
At that moment, the First Spirit hit me in the head.
“What is the pathetic Fugitive Hero saying, Drug Hero?”
“He admitted that he still loves Teacher Morals.”
“I don’t believe that. He immediately starts screaming about love whenever he sees a beautiful female and catches a whiff of her pheromones. I will not deny his love for her, but the problem is he loves all females in his life just the same.”
“Chances are high that you’re right.”
“I know.”
▷ Tremor: Since a long time ago, that spirit has been saying things that break my heart. Fugitive Hero? I indeed ran away, unable to bear the wives who bothered me, but all this is in the distant past. How long will she keep calling me that?
‘Even if you get rid of your personal file full of shameful stories, your past will never disappear, Fugitive Senior.’
▷ Warning: Don’t call me that. I don’t expect you to call me by my name, so call me the Dark Elder or resentful senior as you did before.
‘It depends on how you behave, Fugitive Senior. Anyway, enough about the past. Let’s get right down to business, shall we?’
▷ Laughter: What do you mean business? You’re trapped in this dimension. Is there even anything you can do in your current position? If the Fantasy Institution goes to Mollansoft, then you will forever live as auxiliary teaching material. And trust me, the Mollanians will take it seriously, unlike Parmael, that incompetent First Angel.
It seemed that rumors had already spread to the outside world that the largest investor, Mollansoft, was going to take over the Fantasy Institution.
I didn’t even know anything until Trainee Teacher told me!
But now, I was certain.
Fugitive Senior knew more about the universe than I did.
“You can just ignore the Fugitive Hero, cowardly hubby. The system contains all the information related to the school.”
“Well, sure, but we don’t even know the identity of the person who recently entered this place.”
“That’s true.”
Therefore, we needed his help. If he didn’t know anything, we could just pretend this conversation didn’t happen in the first place.
▷ Concord: The woman who recently invaded the Fantasy dimension is a mercenary. Murders, kidnappings, robberies, theft, debt collection, terrorist acts, and more. She might be a lifesaver for some, but for me, a galaxy ruler, she is just a saboteur that needs to be destroyed. There are many such terrorists in the universe.
Oh? Did he just tell me everything?
▷ Shrug: This is trivial information. The crucial part about this is that you don’t often see such capable mercenaries, which means she has a rich past. Perhaps just as much as mine.
‘You’re great, Fugitive Senior.’
But that girl didn’t look particularly capable.
Her stingray seemed much more powerful, considering it managed to dodge all my attacks.
“Se-e-e-ex!”
And it had a very unusual cry.
▷ Explanation: You’re used to acting alone, so you probably don’t understand this, but companions and weapons are also included in calculating one’s combat power. Now that you have almost the same power as I do, however, mercenaries naturally can no longer serve as our opponents—
‘Stop! Wait, Fugitive Senior!’
I kicked his ass, but he still had the audacity to say that?
‘I know how you feel, and I know you want to protect your pride, but there’s a huge difference between our combat power, just like Mollan and Mullan.’
▷ Irritation: Have you already forgotten what I told you? I can’t leave the planet because it might provoke neighboring states. Even if I just concentrate my power and fire beams from my galaxy to another, it will cause international discontent.
“Wow.”
That was such a cool power.
Could he really bombard another galaxy that was many light years away from his?
A bullet traveling at the speed of light would take a hundred years to do this, so I couldn’t even imagine it was possible.
But if one added fantasy elements into the mix, then it would become an entirely different matter.
An attack that defied all the laws of physics, like my divine power, which compressed space itself.
▷ Warning: Since you understand how powerful I am now, don’t you dare touch Bianca’s chest and buttocks. While you took off her clothes and tied her with a ribbon, you touched her with your right hand for 3.6 seconds and your left hand for 4.2 seconds. Not to mention you touched her vertebrae for 113.5 seconds, which even I, her husband, haven’t done yet!
‘… You memorized what happened down to the smallest details, Fugitive Senior.’
I once again felt respect for him.
“If you remember the incident with the Snow Woman, cowardly hubby, the Fugitive Hero is very attached to his women. I didn’t think his affection would last this long, though.”
“This is amazing.”
He was such a sentimental person.
▷ Sigh: After I became the ruler of an entire galaxy, you are the second after Boris to speak back to me. Oh! Boris is the real name of my son, whom you killed and turned into an android.
Boris. I knew this name. The memory of that junior of mine was incredible.
▷ Upfront: You keep wasting my time with your useless chatter, so I’ll open the negotiations first. Hand over all my women hiding in the Institution to me, and I’ll help you with Mollansoft.
Oh! Not a bad offer.
With his help, who had influence beyond this dimension, I would be able to put up a resistance worthy of Mollansoft.
Bugs, teachers, invading aliens.
Even without those, the inspectorate would still find faults in the littlest things, but unnecessary problems would only lower my chances of success.
There was only one way left.
I needed to borrow external power.
▷ Conclusion: It seems we’ve reached an accord. Including Bianca, there are nine of them across Fantasy. If my dead wives’ souls were still in the Fantasy system, there would’ve been more of them. But let’s stop at nine for now.
Nine? So many!
I wasn’t even sure if they were here, but I still had to track them down within a year and take care of their vertebrae.
▷ Suggestion: Every time you catch each of them as you did with Bianca, I will increase my support. But if even just one of them dies, then this temporary union will be terminated.
As befitted the ruler of the galaxy, he knew how to negotiate.
But, unfortunately, his junior, a married man, didn’t have enough free time to look for other people’s wives.
So I presented a suggestion.
“Find them yourself.”
If he didn’t, their vertebrae would be mine.
***
Fugitive Senior, who had been obsessed with seizing Earth for a long time now, quickly accepted my offer.
And not just because of his ex-wives’ vertebrae.
I, the MAX-Class Righteous Hero, didn’t make pitiful threats like third-rate villains.
I could do much better than that.
“The First Hero claims that he escaped because of your greed and fastidiousness, Teacher Morals.”
“That’s not true!”
“But he has solid evidence to back his claim. Why did you throw away the brooch that your husband gave you?”
“Why are you asking me that?”
“Because you will need to give a speech to the people of Fantasy to prove your innocence.”
“A speech?!”
“Exactly, but you have to calm down. You’re not even in front of your runaway husband and his lawyer yet, but you’re already nervous. What do you think will happen to you once you are, Teacher Morals? Do you think if you cry for believability, no one will notice your manipulative lies?”
▷ Shock: Even Demon Lord Pedonar wasn’t as vicious as you. You were born human, so how can you be so cruel?
‘This is all a misunderstanding, Fugitive Senior.’
The inhabitants of Fantasy simply had to know the truth.
Hence, the Righteous Hero would bring that information to them!
I didn’t see any problems with that.
▷ Fury: Just you wait! I’ll send an army there soon!
‘Then you’d better hurry. She won’t last long.’
The sense of justice sealed in my right hand ceaselessly urged me to reveal the truth to the public.
‘Hurry!’
▷ Anxiety: Don’t! You’re an actual demon!
‘May forgiveness descend upon the stupid Hero who turned his back on justice. Mollan.’
