BXBX NOVEL Chapter 425 - Conflict
With a deep, nervous stare, the Prince looked at Eisen and asked the only question that was on his mind at the moment. "And... And what if I don’t believe you?" The Prince asked, and Eisen just slightly smirked and stared back.
"You will gain an enemy you never wanted to make." Eisen said, and the Prince immediately took a step back nervously, before the old man started laughing loudly. "That’s what you thought I’d say, right? Don’t worry, if you don’t believe me, you can just leave the Dungeon and act like this conversation never happened. I don’t plan on starting any wars." With a soft smile, Eisen started to move his fingers through his beard.
"And sorry for insulting your father like that, I was just slightly overwhelmed there for a moment." Eisen pointed out, and the Prince slowly nodded his head.
"It... It’s fine... You’re not wrong." The Prince admitted with a wry chuckle, before the old man smirked in response. "Oh? Well, that’s quite interesting. Seems like you’re a bit more reasonable than I expected you to be. Is there a way for me to convince you that I am telling you the truth?" Eisen asked him, and the Prince thought about it for a moment, before he slowly nodded his head.
"Yeah... Actually, yeah, there is... There’s a secret ’Term’ that has been passed down the generations, and only the Royal Family and those that Peaked are allowed to know it... If I can actually tell you those two words, then you seem to be telling the truth. If I can’t... Then it’s probably a lie." The Prince pointed out, and then slowly approached Eisen, before placing his mouth toward the old man’s ear, placing his hands around it.
Slowly, Eisen’s eyes opened wide and he stared at the Prince surprised.
"Prime Industries, huh..?" Eisen muttered quietly, and the Prince slowly nodded his head, practically shocked.
"So that’s really it, huh..? You... You truly are Eisen? THE Eisen?" He asked, and Eisen nodded his head, while Komer looked at Eisen confused, and Kirisho was even more confused about it, considering that she was the only NPC here that wasn’t allowed to know about this being a ’game’.
"Wait, wait, wait, Eisen, what do you mean? How does he know that? ’Your Highness’..." Komer started, doing air-quotes as he was at it, "Are you secretly a-"
"He’s not." Eisen said quite clearly, interrupting Komer because he was already aware what he was about to say, "He really isn’t. He’s not an artificial, he was born in this world, that’s indisputable. There are a lot of things we might need to speak about at some point, Komer. Until then, just trust me with this one, alright?" Eisen asked with a wink, and the young Merchant slowly nodded his head in utter confusion.
"Now then, seeing how you trust that I’m telling the truth now, I need to speak about something else. Two people, one man and a woman, will try to infiltrate a certain group that is forming in the capital. They are backed by Antonio Hastings, and the two Leaders seem to be two Merchants by the names of Merc and Cial." Eisen explained, and the Prince slowly nodded his head.
"Yeah... I was sent information about them...We’re already investigating them, but there isn’t anything wrong with what they are currently doing. For what reason do you want them to be infiltrated?" The Prince explained, and Eisen swiftly crossed his arms.
"Because we’re not sure if Antonio can be trusted, and we want to know more about him. And of course to keep Merc and Cial in check." The old man explained, and the Prince slowly nodded.
"And... What sort of support do you want?"
"Quite simply, the best way would be to have you pretend to try and support their group by ’giving’ them two trusted people with great abilities. On top of that, I want you to set up a meeting between me and someone that has the ability to fake their status from appraisers." Eisen explained quite simply, and the Prince slowly nodded his head.
"That’s it? You don’t want me to break the group up forcefully? You don’t want me to question anyone?" Surprised, the Prince looked at Eisen, who simply shook his head in response.
"I don’t. It’s as simple as that. If you give me a way to contact you, I’m going to tell you when and where you could meet the two people that will infiltrate that group. But they will only go after I was able to meet that person that can fake their status." Eisen explained quite swiftly, and the Prince started to smile wrily.
"Alright... Sounds fair. Then... You will help our country during the way in a few months’ time?" The Prince asked nervously, and Eisen slowly sighed.
"Depends." He replied, "If you want our help, then you better have a good reason for fighting this war in the first place."
"We don’t." The Prince replied immediately, staring down at the ground, and the old man looked at him surprised, before that surprised expression turned rather annoyed. "What do you mean, exactly?"
"We don’t have a good reason. As you said, my father is a fool. And fools are easy to influence. He wants to start a war with the Country of Giants..."
"The Country of Giants? You’ve got to be kidding me." Eisen said, grinding his teeth onto each other annoyedly while rubbing the bridge of his nose.
"I know it’s insane! My Father was influenced by some extremists... Giants are technically Monsters, so they say that they shouldn’t be allowed to have their own Country in that way..."
Eisen sighed deeply and stared forward at the Prince. "Change of Plans. I’m going to see the King straight away." The Old man said angrily, but the Prince immediately shook his head fearfully.
"You can’t! You really, really can’t!" He exclaimed, but Eisen just stared at him coldly.
"And why can’t I?" The old man asked, and the Prince slowly gulped, loud enough for this sound to be heard from everyone, before replying, "His Guards are currently Level 500, the Castle has practically been taken over by the men of those that influenced my father, and they are also at a similar level. Considering how long Artificials have been appearing for, I don’t think you can be at a level higher than 100 after having lost your experience, am I wrong?"
"Yes, you’re wrong, I’m at Level 200. But it doesn’t matter, he won’t be able to just kill me anyway." Eisen replied, and the Prince stared at Eisen deeply.
"It doesn’t matter even if you can convince or force my father, we have already sent messengers to the Giants, and they don’t seem to have taken kindly to it either... They are now fully preparing for war as well... And I don’t think they will try and accept any form of apology on our side considering the conflict between our countries since generations ago..."
"What kind of conflict are you speaking about?" Eisen asked with a deep frown, and the Prince sighed deeply.
"There was a war before, and while we didn’t win... Our country managed to kill two Clan Leaders... The Leader of the Fire, and the Leader of the Mountain Clans... The war ended with a non-conflict treaty, but the tension between our countries never ceased..."
"Fine. I have to speak to the current Grardour anyway. I will gain strength and then meet with the King before heading to the country of Giants. I will try to solve this issue for you, understood? But for that, you need to do your utmost to hold off the actual war as long as you possibly can. If the war starts, I will not help you fight my own people." Eisen told the Prince, and then looked toward the building acting as an entrance to the Dungeon.
"Now, we’re leaving. There are other things I need to take care of with Komer in private. We will set the Dungeon up afterward, and leave again in a few days." The old man said in a clear tone, heading over toward the door, mad as he could be, followed by all the others.
Of course, the moment he stepped back out through the gate he was met with suspicious gazes from the Guards, but Eisen just glared at them and stood next to the Entrance to the Starlight Building, before the others came out as well, with the Prince coming out directly after Eisen himself.
"Come here or to the Dungeon Entrance the moment you find one of the people with my requirements, and then I will send those two over to the Lord’s castle to meet you." The old man said in a clear voice as he looked at the Prince, although the young royal simply nodded his head and looked at his Guards.
"Let’s go." The Prince commanded as he looked at his Guards, and they made their way along the road, and all the other Guards that barricaded the street followed behind. Once they were gone, Komer looked at Eisen intensely, obviously wanting to know what exactly just happened.
"Eisen, what was that just now?" The young Merchant asked, and the old man simply smiled at him.
"Don’t worry about it. For now, let’s just worry about Starlight-related things. First, where can we place the mass-production machinery right now?"
"Fine, but explain it to me at some point, got it?" Komer sighed, before Eisen chuckled and nodded his head. "Of course, of course. Let’s just go inside now. Fafnir, you come on too." Eisen said as he looked at the small Dragon sleeping on top of the gate, before he stood up and stretched, jumping off of the stone bricks before the gate crumbled into nothingness and disappeared.
"I’m going to get the bottle as well. It should fit inside here, right?"
"Mhm, it should. We can bring it to the right place later, for now this is fine, I guess."