43 Entering The New Age (1)

Yudonia's Parliament building. The Prime Minister's Office.

Two men sat silently, staring at one another. Both of them had grim expressions, their eyes lifeless and their frowns deep enough to create a crater on the wooden desk that separated them. The one in the visitor's chair didn't dare to breathe a single word. Seated formally, the Ranker Association's President lacked the confidence to continue his report. All of the details leading up to Number Six's death had been thoroughly recorded and were being processed by Yudonia's most influential man.

Yudonia's Prime Minister was a man reaching his early fifties. However, his ageing grey hair and formidable wrinkles begged to differ. Clean-shaven with crystal-clear chestnut eyes, the man oozed authority and wisdom, a trait that even the Association's President admired.

In terms of fighting powers, the Prime Minister had only reached the heights of a B-Ranked Wizard. But politics was blind to a man or woman's rank. The Prime Minister's mind was as sharp as any, able to absorb information as if he were a sponge. His insight was nothing to be scoffed at either. When he came into power twenty years ago, Yudonia was a country that no one could point out on the world map. At most, they would remember the state as a vassal country to Elfheim.

That all changed when the Prime Minister came into power. Leading technological and economic revolutions, Yudonia had taken massive strides towards a modern country, one that didn't have to rely on their elven backers. All of the new structures that have been built, the international businesses that were set-up on Yudonia's soil, it could all be attributed to the Prime Minister's forward-thinking.

Hence, even though the Prime Minister was overwhelmingly weaker than the Association President, the President never showed the slightest bit of disrespect. It was the contrary. At a loss of what to do, the Association President was hoping that the Prime Minister would help him out of the bind.

The Prime Minister finished the comprehensive report and heaved out a despondent sigh. "I didn't expect Raklius to move that quickly."

"Did you foresee this, Leo?"

"Yes," Prime Minister Leopold threw his head back onto the leather chair. "The Vampire Federation will never pass up the opportunity to get ahead. They'd probably thought that infiltrating us would gain them some valuable information to sell to our enemies. Or they would hope to blackmail us once they have evidence of our deceit. Either way, if they had succeeded, everything that we've been building for the past twenty years would have gone to waste."

"I guess we're lucky then..."

"Yes, incredibly so." Frowning, the Prime Minister picked up the report and reread one particular paragraph. "An S-Class Metamorph… I was wondering why Raklius was able to increase their influence over the last decade. It must have been because of him."

"The amount of dirty laundry he must've seen… That's why S-Class Metamorphs have historically been so dangerous." The Association President clicked his tongue. "Since they were so blatant in their attack, should we fight fire with fire?"

"Hmmm?"

"Use his corpse to blackmail them! Keeping an S-Class Metamorph under wraps is illegal in international law. If we divulge his existence, Raklius would be forced to lay low! Let's show them that Yudonia isn't one to be trifled with!"

"You're not thinking logically, Arnold." The Prime Minister thought about the President's words before shaking his head. "Raklius may be a small country, but they're not one to be provoked. Their allies are strong, and their espionage skills are even more fearsome. We don't know what kind of dirt they have on us and may even have guessed that we're hiding the ancient man."

"That..."

"Also, we didn't lose anything from their interference while they have lost an S-Class Metamorph in his prime. We came out of this situation as the winners. We're holding the upper hand, so we should use it to our advantage."

"How so?"

"..." The Prime Minister stroked his chin silently. Decades of experience created an unapproachable aura around the man as he meticulously calculated his next course of action. Scratching the back of his head, the Prime Minister's face turned sombre. "Make them owe us a favour."

"Huh?"

"We'll return the agent's corpse to Raklius under the table. Bury the whole incident and make it seem as if it never happened."

"Wait, Leo! Is that really the best idea?" Understandably, the Association President was shaken. Raklius was the one that pulled the first punch, shouldn't they be held accountable for their actions?

Expecting that response from his long-time subordinate, the Prime Minister sighed: "Arnold, what do you think would happen if we escalated this to the World Congress?"

"... Raklius would vehemently deny it."

"That's not all… All of the Vampire Federation's resources, their connections and ties to the greater nations. They would be weaponized against us. Although we have gained some power over the years, we're not ready to fight in an all-out war against a country like Raklius yet. Not to mention, the whole world has its eyes on Yudonia right now. Vishaal is itching to invade our land to secure the S-Class Dungeon and Gondor would jump on that bandwagon once the Giants lead the charge."

The Association President gulped, fear welling up in his eyes. Vishaal, the Empire of Giants, never had a good relationship with Yudonia or any of the human or elven countries. On the other hand, the dwarven Gondor would love to investigate the S-Class Dungeon to further their own research. Add Raklius into the mix, and there was a force capable of toppling any country in the world, including the dominant human nation, the United Houses of Egan.

"Exactly, we can't aggravate Raklius as of yet. So, we'll return the corpse back in one piece and make them owe us a favour. Furthermore, since the incident would be stricken off the record, they won't be able to protest to the World Congress."

The Prime Minister took out his fountain pen and grabbed onto a white stack of papers. His pen flew rapidly, jolting down dozens of words in mere seconds and eventually, the Prime Minister handed his hand-written order over to the Association President.

"You have two days. Try to dig up as much information as you can from the Metamorph's corpse and record them with the highest secrecy. Only your eyes and mine should be able to access that final report. In three days, we'll be shipping the corpse back to Raklius."

"Won't they be suspicious of us?" The Association President asked. "We could always use this to blackmail them in the future."

"They better be," the Prime Minister snorted. "At least that would keep them at arm's length. They would try to infiltrate us, but they won't be as daring as before." Tapping his fingers on the table, the fifty-year-old began to chuckle. "Viola that hag, she must be tripping on her laces right now. Her top operative had perished in our country, and she's probably at a loss of what to do. I wonder what the look on her face would be when we return that man back."

"HAHAHA!!! Probably her jaw would drop to the floor!" The Association President bellowed out in laughter. "Underestimate Yudonia, and this is what you'll get!"

The Prime Minister's laugh turned silent after the President's sudden outburst. He narrowed his eyes, and with a frown, he said: "But it wasn't Yudonia who caught the Metamorph, isn't it?"

"Leo..."

"No, I'm not blaming you. You were against an S-Class Metamorph. Even Elfheim and Vishaal would be at his mercy. I'm more marvelled by the power of the ancient man." The Prime Minister pushed the Metamorph's report away and grabbed ahold of the next binder. It was much thicker, about a thousand pages thick. However, no matter how much the Prime Minister flipped through it, he couldn't get a concrete answer to his question.

"Finding the S-Class Metamorph when none of us could. Taking him down in a single hit. Strength that exceeds any known human. Immune to physical or magical attacks. Used ancient magic that could interfere with the soul... What on earth is he?"

"We don't know..."

"It has been over a month since we've conquered the S-Class Dungeon, and we still don't have an answer?"

"It's my failure..." The Association President bowed his head in regret.

"Yeah, it's a failure..." Sighing, the Prime Minister dropped the report. "Yudonia had lost much of our reward from the S-Class Dungeon. I hoped that we could at least gather some valuable information from the ancient man but from the looks of it… Keeping him down there would only be useless, huh?"

"You've heard?"

"We don't have any justification for imprisoning a conscious being that exhibits the traits of a human. That's a quote from your lead scientist's protest." The Prime Minister titled his head towards the Association President. "I've received many strongly-worded letters from them. Threatening to abandon the project should we continue on with it. Some were even hinting that I'm a heartless tyrant that only cares about rewards."

"Don't take it to heart, Leo. They're young and liberal. They can't understand the sacrifices you had to make thus far."

"No, no. I get it." The Prime Minister grimly snickered. "I was the one who had sent half of our country's S-Rankers to the grave. I was the one that ordered the immediate dissection of the ancient man. I was the one that forced them to do something that they deemed immoral. And looking back… I was the one who was short-sighted."

"..."

The Association President sat silently, carefully examining the expression of his old friend. Prime Minister Leopold was only in his fifties, but at that moment, he seemed to have aged two decades. The man looked tired of life itself, and who could blame him? He was in charge of Yudonia's greatest ever disasters. And the feat was far from over.

"If I hadn't been that greedy… Perhaps we would have been in a whole different situation."

"Leo, don't be too hard on yourself!"

"Arnold, a leader should never be afraid to admit his mistakes." The Prime Minister sternly looked back at his friend. "I messed up, and I must take responsibility. So, I'm rescinding my decision to study the ancient man."

"What?!"

"Listen to me," Prime Minister Leopold stopped the President's outburst. "The ancient man's existence will remain a secret to the World Congress, that won't change. However, instead of treating him like an object, he'll be given a Yudonian Citizenship. A new name, a passport, an identification number. We'll fabricate anything required and enter him into our registry."

If Yudonia were to announce that the ancient man was pulled out from the S-Class Dungeon, the entire world would hunt him down to experiment on him like a guinea pig. Instead, the ancient man would be given a new identity in Yudonia. He would be treated like any other human being.

"He will be given the freedom of choice. Whether he wants to continue to cooperate with our studies or to integrate with our society and have a working-class job. Ah, but make sure to give him a lucrative offer to continue with our research." The Prime Minister couldn't hide his sly nature and slipped that statement in.

"That… Yes, it will be done." The Association President was a little bitter about the decision, but he did nothing to contest it.

"Wait, how are we going to let him integrate into society? He won't listen to any of our words!"

"He won't listen to any of YOU. However, there is one person that he's fond of, right?"

"You can't mean..."

A sinister grin climbed up the Prime Minister's face. He pictured the twenty-three-year-old troublemaker that he'd spent a fortune on just to train and keep in the country.

"Aria Saciustrum… It's about time you paid us dividends…"