"Negotiation"

"What is it?" Alzer asked.

Kuro didn't reply as he took out a portrait from his robe. It was an image of a young woman in blue robe. She has a fiery red hair which made her look incredibly aggressive. And, hot as well.

"This is Riya Riverbright," Kuro introduced. "The daughter of Duke Riverbright. I want you to get close to her and bring her head to me. As long as you can do that then I don't mind keeping this a secret forever since I'm alsodoing this as a good deed."

Alzer sneered when he heard this. This is what you call negotiation? What a fucking bullshit! This is basically a threat.

On the other hand he also thought about the task that the old man gave him. He suddenly deduced something from his sentence. "Ah I see, so that's how it is. The Church actually gave you a mission to assassinate her because she's also a Dark Mage, am I right? Looks there's quite a bountiful reward for you to be tempted of killing a duke's daughter."

"Hmph! Indeed, you're not ordinary. Based on your behavior earlier I deduced that your teacher predicted that you have dark and lightning ellement that will be awakened. If that's not so, then how will you know about using lightning power to suppress dark power. It seems he's more mysterious than I thought." Kuro snickered.

Alzer inwardly frowned when he heard this. While the old man's guess was far from truth, he was also correct about him knowing his affinity beforehand. While he only had only known about his lightning element when he picked it among the Nine Supreme Affinity Crystals. There is a reason why he chose lightning element than holy element. Firstly, he chose it among the nine because it could conceal the dark Element. Secondly, even if he successfully concealed his dark element using holy element, Kuro will naturally become more enthusiastic about recruiting him. Alzer knew just how stubborn the Holy Servants is. As long as they set their mind to something, they will not hesitate to do so just to accomplish their goals.

Among the Four Supreme Elements, lightning and holy elements were rarer ones than ice and dark elements. While their levels were more or less the same, the former two were truly more rare for some unknown and baffling reason. This is why Kuro will probably act crazily once he found out about awakening a holy element. As far as he knew, within the Holy Church, there are more or less a hundred people with holy element. That's why recruiting a Holy Mage have more glory than killing a Dark Mage. Eliminating a Dark Mage is only temporary, but recruiting a Holy Mage is like adding a potential Holy Apostle.

Since that old man Kuro thinks that he have a mysterious teacher, then he'll let him be. This is probably another reason why that old man was quite cautious of him. This is quite interesting, he just created another layer of protection unknowingly. With this, he didn't need to worry about Kuro's threat in a short term.

As for how he'll assassinate Riya Riverbright? Alzer has no interest in such thing. Getting close to her will waste a lot of time. He couldn't bear to do that. He has a gut feeling that something will happen soon even if he didn't influence the future. He needed to get stronger if he wanted to remove this feeling.

After pondering, Alzer said with cautiousness, "I'll do it but you can't expect me to really kill her right?"

"Keke, I know you'll say that. But since it would be last year of her studies at the academy, I'll be giving you a year before she graduate."

"Reasonable, I'll do it." Alzer finally agreed after seeing the old man's threatening eyes. He understood that even if Kuro's appearance was like an ordinary old man, he was in truth a scheming old monster who'll not hesitate to do something. If he really refused then he was so sure the old man will really capture. Worse, he'll lose his life here before his journey even starts.

"Good," said Kuro, satisfied. "But I think we need some assurance here in case you betrayed me."

"What?"

Kuro snapped his fingers when a small magic circle appeared floating in the air. It turned into a piece of paper filled with words and clauses.

"Soul Contract?" Alzer became surprised when he saw this. He didn't expect a mere old priest like him to know about such thing.

"You know about this thing? It seems your teacher taught you more than I expected." Kuro was surprised when heard that but then he just shrugged it off. He knew that there's some mysterious teacher behind the young man who knows many thing so he thought it was only normal to know about a thing or two.

Alzer naturally know about this. This item was called Soul Contract which could be created instantly by every Mage even if they're weak as long as they have mana and if they know the formula. It was created using the world law guided by a Mage's mana power. As long as the contracted violated it, they will be punished according to the agreed punishment.

However, there's no perfect thing in life. As long as there's a rule, there's a loophole. Alzer, as a member of Royal Court, knows about its loophole and could exploit it easily as long as he have time so he's not really worried.

He took the contract from the old man's hand and read the clauses carefully. Who knows if that old thing laid down a trap. He needed to careful. After reading that a few times after, he bit finger and let the blood drip on the paper.

"Good, that settles it." Kuro held the paper and dripped his blood onto it. Suddenly, the paper incinerated and turned into ashes. It was so magical that a mere ordinary person will probably find it unbelievable.

Of course Alzer was not an ordinary person. He's a powerful Mage in his past life and now a first level Mortal Stage Mage. He might even turn into something greater in the future.

"Well, I wish you have a good day, young man." Kuro bowed before leaving the room.

When Kuro departed, Alzer returned to his room and laid down the bed. His mind was too exhausted after all those thinking. He stared at the ceiling and decided to stay here for three days before departing for the academy.