Bro, I’m not an Undead!

Skullius sighed in relief as he realised that this ordeal was seemingly over with.

Finally.

Terian nodded lightly to him doing the best he could to hide that he wasn’t convinced.

The only reason he was letting this go was because there were times when Damilla would have an intense reaction from Divining other people though this case was rather different.

She had seemed like a different person altogether.

Then again, when he considered that when she was Divining Skullius was another one of the times when she was subjected to these strange reactions, he swallowed up the matter and decided to confer with Damilla afterwards to check if everything was alright.

“Very well. I shall take my leave,” Erkus said as he set to leave the room.

Skullius merely nodded as he then checked on Damilla who followed after Terian as the three headed for the doors.

The Diviner wore a strange expression as she trailed behind the Mage.

She looked uncertain.

“Don’t start doubting me, TOMATO FLINGER! I covered my tracks well!” Sila noisily attested within Skullius’ mind.

‘I sure hope so,’ the Discount Human thought. He had learned to not celebrate prematurely through quite the bit of experiences but he was more inclined to believe that this was a permanent fix.

Outside the door, Terian turned to Damilla who looked to be contemplating deeply.

“Anything wrong?” he asked.

Damilla raised her head.

“That’s… no, actually. I’m just surprised,” Damilla said with an unsure expression that expressed her internal turmoil.

“I saw a perfect picture of the battle between Festos and what looked like a wolf with… honestly an astounding clarity. It was as if I had suddenly replaced him in that particular scene. And that’s including everything else he did. That’s never happened before,” Damilla said.

Terian’s tense expression loosened.

He had wanted to question what the whole… self fondling was but decided against it.

It seemed his anxiety was unfounded as Damilla didn’t show any signs of having been manipulated in any way.

As she was the one most determined towards things like this, seeing her let this go made him loosen on the issue as well.

“Perhaps your constant search for inconsistencies in countless stories has finally been rewarded,” the old man said with a light laugh.

Damilla clicked her tongue and shook her head.

“I can’t tell if that’s sincere or not.”

The two briskly followed after Erkus as they went onwards.

Back in the room where the three men were settled, Skullius was enduring the gazes of both Silrat and Tulnas as they seemed to want to ask a hulking mass of questions.

“I just showed her what she needed to see,” was Skullius’ response before either of the two could inquire about every detail.

That was all he was willing to say.

He hadn’t forgotten that this wasn’t a friendly partnership that he was engaging in with these people.

He wouldn’t share excessively.

As for what had really happened to Damilla, Skullius had showed Sila everything that had happened during the excursion, barring a few moments that he wished to keep confidential.

This information was transferred to Damilla’s mind replacing it with what would have been the contents of her Divination by Sila, while the old soul also went on to ensure that Damilla’s mind which he had pushed back for him to take control perfectly remembered a fake scenario where nothing awkward happened.

Naturally, to fully understand the relationship between the soul and mind, an intricate exposition about the soul as a whole was needed.

“I’ll respect your desire to withhold information. I don’t much care for how you do your stuff since I can never replicate it anyway,” Tulnas said as he hung his legs on the table.

The Tamer was referring to how Skullius probably managed whatever the hell he did because of his Hidden Class which he assumed was heavily leaning towards Magecraft.

Silrat didn’t quite get what Tulnas meant but he ignored it and expressed his opposite intent to Skullius.

“If you have capabilities like these I’d have to know, Festos. This could help our case,” the Association branch head said with a concerned look on his face.

“Hmmm. I might consider it, I guess. But… first tell me. What did you two agree on? I know Tulnas is gaining something by helping you support me this much,” Skullius said.

Tulnas smirked.

“That much I can divulge,” Silrat said as he glanced at Tulnas with a sly smile.

“Our agreement was to use his little excursion to end the Clusters to help you get pardoned which would earn me the right to leave with you,” Silrat said.

“What do you mean ‘leave with me’?’ Skullius asked with furrowed brows.

“What I mean is, people like me, Branch managers earn merit by introducing extraordinary talents to the Guilds Association. Doing so allows me to get more benefits, one of which is being relocated to a better place. I informed the Guilds Association of your existence, specified your abilities and potential, and well, as a result they agreed for me to bring you to a Potential Aptitude Evaluation at a larger branch. All I needed was to get this stain off your record before we proceeded,” Silrat explained.

Skullius mind whirled.

So that was it.

This sounded like it had a ton more benefits to uncover.

Relocation really seemed attractive to Skullius.

And this Aptitude test. Skullius presumed that he would need to prove his worth heavily in order to gain the most out of it.

These benefits were getting better and better.

“So we’ll be leaving soon? Where will we be going?”

“Genhuis City.”

“Oh!” Skullius exclaimed.

This was the city that he had been heading for back then with the map Elita had given him!

Somewhere along the way, he had decided to make a stop in Inhone which prolonged to a full blown ‘vaccation’.

So essentially, he was back on track now!

Such…luc-, ahem…fortune!

Such great fortune.

The Discount Human then turned to Tulnas.

“What was he supposed to gain then?”

Silrat pressed his fingers against his temples.

“For him, I have to expand his Jurisdiction. Tsk,” Silrat said as he clicked his tongue in annoyance. “To do this, I’d have to infringe on common grounds for smaller Guilds which will bring no small amount of criticism to me. I’ll probably be accused of bias.”

Tulnas burst into laughter as he heard this.

“That’s right! Hahaha! I remember you openly asked me to go for a Potential Aptitude Evaluation with you back then!”

The Tamer cracked himself up as he remembered that day.

When Tulnas had first appeared, making waves with his talent and strength, Silrat who had been a greenhorn when it came to tact and principle that time had boldly made an offer to Tulnas in public, promising him riches and everything he could ever ask for in such a cringey speech in an effort to recruit him.

The Tamer had blatantly refused which utterly embarrassed the Branch manager who thought his boldness would be rewarded.

Silrat grimaced as he thought back to that scene.

Skullius merely shook his head at this.

“Sounds like Tulnas will gain more from figuring out the Cluster thing than this,” Skullius pointed out.

“If it’s confirmed that the information we dissemonated helped to stop the Clusters in another area other than this one, then yes. I’ll also be riding off of that,” Silrat said with a happy glint. “For now, Tulnas will have to make do with a 30% increase to his territory as we agreed on.”

Tulnas suddenly sat up straight as he lowered his legs from the table.

“About that…” he said with a sharp and cold glint in his eye.

“Hmm?” Silrat hummed in curiosity as he turned to the Tamer.

“I have some misgivings about our previous arrangement,” the man said as he finally decided that this small increase in his territory wasn’t worth more that Skullius.

Technically, Skullius was already part of the Harem Guild even if one were to consider the ToE which wasn’t exactly something that could be proven physically.

Of course a ToE couldn’t be broken that easily, which would be Tulnas’ biggest obstacle in his play but fortunately, his ‘friend’ had a way around it.

Apparently.

Tulnas asserted as his blue eyes glowed with a bright blaze of mana much to Skullius’ surprise.

“I will be keepi—”

“Oh right!” Silrat suddenly cut off Tulnas as he expelled something from his spatial storage ring.

“…?”

Tulnas was confused by Silrat’s sudden gesture.

The branch head held a sheet of paper in his hand which he then laid on the table and slid over to Tulnas.

“In light of my coming resignation, I sent the Association headquarters an application with the full list of your achievements and capabilities. After a full review, which took quite a bit of time, they decided that it was plausible and passed it as to come into effect the day I leave for Genhuis,” Silrat said with an even more sly smile as well as a solemn optical glint full of pure unadulterated cunning.

“A few days from now, when the new Branch Head selected by headquarters comes to replace me comes, you will be the first ever Vice Head of the Association. Should you agree to our pre-established terms, of course.”

…!