"I'm glad that we finally found some time to talk," Julian said as he led Markus up the staircase.
"Agreed," the governor said. "Your absence during the big meetings might not raise many eyebrows, but people might start to suspect things if you keep being absent."
Julian laughed in discomfort. "Yes, I know. Sorry. It's just very difficult right now due to Dark Dream's status."
"If I leave, any random Expert from a certain Manufacturer might come and free our Specters. I don't think either of us wants that."
Markus didn't seem surprised by what Julian said.
Naturally, he knew exactly what was going on.
He knew that all the Manufacturers were essentially warring with each other in secret.
Sadly, there was not much he could do about it.
The only thing he could do was to make it illegal and punish whoever was caught, which increased the risk associated with starting an attack.
But that couldn't stop them.
The only way to stop these attacks was to increase the level of surveillance.
However, that would anger the Manufacturers since that would make it extremely difficult to break the law.
Naturally, every Manufacturer was breaking the law in some way, and the governor knew that.
Sadly, if he tried too hard to catch every illegal thing going on, the Manufacturers might work together to dethrone him.
Markus was most likely the strongest Extractor in the city with Aria Light being his only competitor, but not even he could resist four different Heroes attacking him at the same time.
Because of that, it was important to give the Manufacturers a bit of freedom.
As long as they had some freedom to do what they wanted and compete, they wouldn't take the significant risk of attacking the city's government.
Markus knew very well that Anatomy was looking at Dark Dream very closely right now.
However, he also couldn't publicly acknowledge that he knew.
After all, he was supposed to uphold the law, and if people realized that he was secretly letting some crimes go, they would become furious and call corruption.
The two of them reached Dark Dream's seventh floor, and they saw Nick waiting in front of Julian's office.
Markus nodded to Nick in greeting, and Nick politely nodded back.
Julian opened the door and walked inside.
Markus followed after him, and Nick entered last.
Nick closed the door while Markus and Julian sat down in their chairs.
After that, he grabbed a chair and moved it to behind Julian's desk.
Usually, Nick would sit face-to-face with Julian, but this time, he would sit side-by-side with him.
"Coffee?" Julian asked with a bright smile.
"No, I don't have the time. Please, tell me the reason for the meeting," Markus said neutrally.
Julian just smiled more.
"Nick has stumbled upon a ruin from the Old World," Julian said directly.
Markus' eyes shone when he heard that, and he immediately looked at Nick.
"Is that true?" he asked, his voice serious.
"I do not know if it is from the Old World," Nick said. "However, I told Julian, and Julian thinks it is from the Old World."
"What have you seen in there?" the governor asked.
"Everything was made of normal steel," Nick said. "There were guns that made no sound but burned holes into a steel wall. There were many piles of dust. There were very advanced displays everywhere."
The governor narrowed his eyes as he looked at Nick.
"And…?" he asked expectantly.
"And a machine that produces Zephyx," Nick said.
The governor's eyes narrowed even further.
"How many people know of this?" he asked.
Nick became nervous, but Julian's confident demeanor reassured him.
"Only the people in this room," he said.
"Is that true?" Markus asked again.
Nick nodded.
Markus kept looking at Nick for a couple of seconds.
Nick didn't falter.
Then, Markus took a deep breath…
And sighed.
"That's good," he said. "It's important that very few people know of these things."
"How come?" Julian asked with a casual smile.
The governor glanced at Julian, not having expected that question.
"Why all this secrecy?" Julian asked. "People can't make sense of the technology from the Old World anyway. Additionally, the more the people know, the better. From the couple of times we talked, I felt like you had some altruistic characteristics. Wouldn't you want the people to know?"
The governor tried to find out what Julian's goal was with this question.
Was he calling out some hypocrisy?
Was this a veiled threat?
Was it some kind of scheme?
Yet, when the governor looked at Julian, he only saw casual curiosity.
It just seemed like Julian genuinely wanted to know.
Even though the governor talked regularly with many Specialists, they were still all very respectful in front of him.
Of course, Julian was just as respectful, but compared to the others, he also seemed a bit more personal and forward.
In a way, Julian was talking to the governor like they were old friends, but there was still deep respect audible in his words.
It was like they had been colleagues working together in the same company for years, even though they had talked for fewer than five minutes in total.
Julian was not breaking protocol, but his manner of speech was only something the governor experienced while talking to the four other Heroes of Crimson City.
Markus didn't dislike talking to Julian.
It was a bit refreshing.
The governor had been talking to people for over 200 years by now, and he was confident in his ability to unveil hidden intentions.
He was quite sure that Julian was just curious.
'Either that or he is the best manipulator I ever came into contact with,' the governor thought.
'There's no damage in telling them anyway.'
The governor looked at Nick, who looked back respectfully.
"You're right," the governor said. "It's better if the people knew about the Old World. Maybe a genius among the common people can even decipher some things and advance humanity."
"But it's impossible."
