Rogue Villain-Chapter 369: Wrap

After a while and many explosions, Shanshi and Ackster’s party reentered the study with battered and bruised bodies. Even Makkel and Karges, who had initially planned to stay out of it, ended up fighting with their lives on the line. But no one died.

Karandiel and Shanshi glared at each other, but neither seemed intent on continuing the fight.

"I assumed it went well enough?"

"Yes, My Lord."

"Good. It’s about time we wrap up here. We’ve got things to do."

Ackster rose and entered the first door. He proceeded to stuff everything in the study in his Inventory, including the desk and the decorations.

Eventually, only Ackster, his party, and the innocent bystanders remained.

"Let’s see...It was something like this, right?"

Ackster thought aloud as he retrieved a paper slip and an unmarked wooden token from his inventory. He held the token in his hand as he infused it with mana while concentrating his senses on the ones who ended up dragged inside the Creator’s study. Unfortunately, he couldn’t kill them. So, instead, he returned to where they had been transported from, with the exception of one armor-clad knight and a seasoned martial artist.

Ackster’s party looked on curiously as they slowly realized Ackster was controlling the Alchemaze. Their eyes widened in surprise and awe. But they were also curious about the two people Ackster hadn’t sent away.

"Ah, I knew you would remember us!"

"Mhm."

"Willow, who’s he? I don’t think I’ve ever met him before."

Tenrick hid behind Willow. He couldn’t discern the accurate strengths of the eight people on the other side of the room. But he had heard and felt the booms when they fought on the other side of the door. They were so strong he couldn’t even feel how strong they were.

Tenrick couldn’t help but be wary of their current situation.

"He’s...—"

Willow turned to Ackster.

"I just realized I didn’t catch your name back then." 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

Willow glanced at Karandiel.

"Or yours. But that’s understandable since you were unconscious. I’m happy to see things have been going well for the two of you."

Karandiel didn’t know who Willow was. But the clues told her it was from her Fall. So she just nodded and let Ackster handle the conversation.

"I guess Ackster works for now."

Ackster glanced between Willow and Tenrick.

"I was hoping things had been going better for you, but by the looks of it, you haven’t made much progress."

"Progress?"

Willow tilted her helmeted head.

"With becoming the spokesperson for the Forest of Eternity."

"...you knew?"

Ackster nodded.

"From the beginning?"

Ackster nodded again.

"Is that why you didn’t want to help?"

"Eh. I didn’t want to help since it wouldn’t be worth it and because The Hero is going to interfere."

"He is?"

"Should be. There’s no reason for him not to unless we make one."

"...And why would we do that?"

"So that I can interfere without worry."

Willow nodded.

"I see. We best come up with a good reason, then."

Ackster nodded in agreement.

He then went a round of introductions. Unlike with Shanshi, he couldn’t just let his party members beat up Willow and Tenrick, after all. They hadn’t grown as much as he had since Karandiel’s fall.

But for people who weren’t Ackster, they had done significantly well, even if Willow had mostly given up on seizing the spokesperson position. When she met Ackster all those years ago, she had still maintained hope of recruiting a band of helpers that would make it possible for her to become the spokesperson of Eternity. But she gradually realized it wasn’t as easy as it first seemed.

Recruiting people required a lot of people skills, especially when it came to people strong enough to actually affect the succession battle. Besides, compared to the other elves, who had resources, time, experience, backing, and all kinds of support, Willow didn’t have much chance of success.

However, things were different if she had help from the person who cleared the Alchemaze. The Alchemaze had existed since time immemorial. Still, no one knew more than a fraction of its secrets.

But now, someone had reached the depths of it and inherited the Alchemist’s will. With that person supporting her, it was only a given for Willow to become the Spokesperson of Eternity.

The only hurdle was that Ackster wouldn’t help if The Hero took part in the succession battle.

After bringing his party up to speed about Willow’s and Tenrick’s identities, Ackster and the others started planning.

"The best method would be if we could remove any reason for The Hero to join the succession battle in the first place."

"Won’t work. The Hero knows too well how beneficial it is to have the Forest of Eternity’s support. And I doubt many of the elves fighting in the succession battle would refuse The Hero’s help."

"So, if we can’t remove his reason to participate, let’s give him a reason not to."

"Meaning?"

"The Hero is The Hero, regardless of what anyone here thinks of him, right? He can come up with a reason that his partaking in the succession battle is for the greater good all he wants, but what if doing that is so far from the truth that The Hero has no choice but to reconsider."

"You’re saying we do something that forces The Hero to do his duty instead of partaking in the succession battle? As expected of you, filth."

"It’s a valid idea. But it needs to be watertight to work. If something goes wrong, someone else will take care of it, the news will spread too fast or too slow, and The Hero will go to Arboria anyway, or The Hero can track it back to us. We shouldn’t let that happen."

"Has The Calamity started taking action?"

"Nothing catastrophic yet, but it’s started to spread its roots and prepare."

"Mmm. I met a dragon with a Seed of Calamity a couple of years ago. There was one north of Myrrhia, too."

"So, staging a Seed of Calamity. That’s going to be difficult."

"There’s no need to stage it. We just need to be the first to find one and then make sure it’s at a level where The Hero has to come."

"Shouldn’t be too difficult."

Ackster nodded.

’Surprisingly enough, it’s a lot easier to make plans with more people.’

"Let’s get to work then. We have a lot of information to gather."