55 Give me 1 year and 50 men

After a while of waiting in a slightly better room that the one he had first come into, the door to the white room opened.

A middle-aged man walked in, with a frown on his face. Luke knew this man.

"Barton!"

Barton, the executive director of MI9 gave a deep look towards Luke as though he was trying to look through his mask. He had been able to achieve this task before when Luke was wearing the normal white mask with The Sage written on it. He had completely seen through the mask and seen Luke's real face.

However, this time his vision was stopped at the black mask. Something was blocking it completely. Instead, Luke's eyes shone slightly and the liver black eyes with slits for pupils stared back at Barton. Barton felt as though he was being seen through and instinctively moved back a step, at which point Luke blinked, and the sensation disappeared.

Barton was shocked. For a moment there, he had a feeling of seeing a black dragon behind Luke, and what was even more terrifying was that he had noticed something behind the dragon. It did not seem to exist; however, it was watching him with eyes of a being which transcended reality! It was the eyes of god he had heard about in myth.

But this memory was instantly removed from Barton's mind and he was only shocked about seeing the black dragon behind Luke.

"Barton."

Luke stood up and moved a step toward Barton and raised his and as through waiting for a handshake.

Barton stood there in a daze for a moment or two before belatedly realising the situation and shaking the extended hand.

"Welcome back, Sage."

"It is good to finally see you too, Phoenix." Luke replied as pulled Barton to sit on the seat opposite him. Naturally, this wouldn't be possible if Barton did not allow it.

The two chatted for a while, and the originally frigid atmosphere transformed into one of comradeship in from of Lucy's confused eyes.

She thought to herself, "Is this what you call friendship?"

While living in the village, she had made many friends, however, in front of this comradeship between Barton and The Sage, that friendship seemed like a relation as fragile as paper.

Meeting after many months, Barton and Luke had a lot to share, not only business wise. They also explained their personal stories, and grew even closer together.

"And that is how I came across Lucy."

Hearing her name, Lucy was jolted out of her daze as the gazes of both Luke and Barton fell on her, making her incredibly nervous. As though she was being judged by her mother for doing something wrong.

"Anyway, is the kingdom prepared for the war?" Luke continued the conversation to another route.

"War…" Barton took some time to reply. "No, the resistance still has a lot of bases left, and there is that Rachel as well. She will be extremely difficult to deal with."

Luke looked at Barton as though he was a fool. A moment later he said.

"Barton. You fool. Sometimes I feel like you put all your stats into strength."

"Sta***?"

'Sigh. I should have known. NPCs can't understand Earth terms. It is always censored.'

"Never mind. What I wanted to say was that don't worry about Rachel. A friend has taken care of her. She should be missing by now, and will be dead soon. And leave the rest of The Resistance to me. Just give me a large team. Say 50 people at the beginner Novice and Intermediate stage. Also, give me 1 year. I will manage 'The Resistance'."

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