532 Chapter 532 – Protagonist
Shang could only look at Rela Spirit Spring with raised eyebrows.
He hadn’t expected that reaction.
Some of the people that knew Rela only chuckled a bit, and Shang pulled his hand back.
Then, he walked back to Jerald without saying anything else.
It was a bit direct, but he could deal with people not liking him.
No reason to make a big deal out of it.
Then, the last two people stepped through the portal.
A young woman with short green hair and another young woman with long light-grey hair stepped through the portal.
Shang could tell that the first one was a Peak High Mage while the second one was a Late High Mage.
The two went and introduced themselves to all the present people until they eventually reached Jerald.
“Hello, I’m Fia Stormbright, and this is my plus one, Lira Stormbright, my sister,” the green-haired woman said.
“Hello, you two. I’m Jerald Whirlwind, and this is my plus one, Shang Sword. Nice to meet you,” he said.
Everyone shook hands and introduced themselves.
Now, only two people were missing.
Shang simply waited at the side while Jerald was talking with Fia Stormbright and her sister.
Shang knew what they were talking about. After all, Jerald had already told Shang about his future plans.
If Relon actually gave permission, the Skythunder Kingdom would finally have a chance to resist the Magic Purity Kingdom.
After a couple of minutes, one more portal opened, and Charles Pendragon stepped through.
“Hey, hey, people! Charles Pendragon here!” he shouted loudly. “I will be the new Assistant Supervisor for the central area, and I don’t have a plus one since the old man is taking all the good Mages with him.”
From the side, Koran only sighed. “Why do you have to call me old man in front of everyone?”
Charles only put his hands on his hip and puffed out his chest. “It’s not my fault that you’re old!”
Koran only rubbed his forehead in annoyance.
“You found a weird one,” Agon said from beside Koran.
“Yes, but he’s very talented and capable,” Koran said.
“Even if he doesn’t seem that way,” Koran grumbled.
All the current leaders were talking in a group. They had even pulled Wilbur in, forcing him to participate.
From what Shang could see, the five current leaders knew each other very well.
The plus ones also seemed to know each other.
At that moment, Shang noticed something.
“Where’s Miriam?” Shang asked Agon with a voice transmission.
“She’s preparing everything right now,” he answered.
“Oh, okay,” Shang answered.
Everyone continued talking, and they eventually split into groups.
Jerald was talking with the two sisters from the Spirit Spring Kingdom while Zara Cliffer tried to strike up a conversation with Yora Darksky, who didn’t seem interested at all.
Meanwhile, Shang only stood at the side, not talking with anyone.
“Sucks, doesn’t it?!” Charles suddenly said to Shang in a loud voice.
Shang only furrowed his brows and looked at him. “I’m not sure what you mean.”
“I mean being ignored,” Charles said with a snort.
Shang only raised an eyebrow. “I’m not being ignored. I simply don’t care about conversation very much.”
“Hmph, that’s what someone that’s being ignored would say,” Charles added with a snort.
Shang only rolled his right eye, but he didn’t answer.
A couple of seconds passed with Charles just standing beside him.
“You should’ve seen Queen Spirit Spring when she arrived,” Shang suddenly said.
Charles was surprised that Shang was talking to him. “Oh? Why?”
“She called me creepy,” Shang added.
Charles only snorted in laughter. “You kind of look creepy.”
Shang looked at Charles. “How am I creepy?”
“I mean, look at you,” Charles said. “You constantly have this look in your eyes, eh, eye that makes people think you have something devious planned. Additionally, this eyepatch of yours makes you seem shifty.”
“You look like a bandit or a pirate.”
Shang scratched his chin.
“That could be.”
“It is,” Charles added.
Shang only nodded.
Charles looked at Shang for a while, wondering why he didn’t feel any sort of rejection coming from him.
“Why are you suddenly so willing to talk?” Charles asked.
“Huh?” Shang asked, not understanding what Charles meant.
“When we met a couple of months ago, you basically told me to fuck off,” Charles said with furrowed brows.
“Yeah, because we were in the middle of being invaded by your future Kingdom,” Shang said. “Talking with you was not my priority.”
Charles raised an eyebrow in skepticism. “That’s all?”
“What else?” Shang asked. “It’s not like I have anything against you. I don’t even know you.”
For a while, Charles only looked at Shang, but his nervousness calmed down.
“Do you miss Earth?” he asked via voice transmission.
“No, why?” Shang asked.
Charles only sighed. “I miss Earth. There are no video games in this world. Like, I get that I am kind of living in a video game right now, but the video games always skip the boring part. No one wants to play a game where you literally sit in one place for years, just thinking about stuff.”
“It would be so great if I could just skip the entire process of training. It’s so tedious and boring.”
“So?” Shang asked. “Training isn’t always fun, but the results are worth it. Also, being able to skip the process might not even be a good thing. You need practice to train efficiently, and if you skip it, your willpower might reduce, making it harder to train in the future.”
Surprisingly, Charles managed to strike up a conversation with Shang, which wasn’t easy.
Even though Shang said that he didn’t care that Charles came from Earth, maybe, just maybe, he actually cared a bit.
BANG!
Some minutes later, a lightning bolt hit the middle of the plateau, and Relon stepped out of the small crater.
He looked around and nodded at the present people. “Has everyone gotten acquainted?” he asked.
Relon received a chorus of positive answers.
“Good, then the first goal of the meeting has been achieved.”
“Let’s start the meeting.”
The groups broke up and stopped in front of Relon.
“First, let me welcome you all to the Lightning Manor. You are now all officially employed by one of the most powerful organizations in the entire world. Not many people can achieve that.”
After that, Relon went into a speech in which he explained some additional details that weren’t inside the contract.
Those details were nothing crucial, just some specific stuff about how Relon was running the place.
He also talked a bit about what every Assistant Supervisor should look out for.
Relon talked for about two hours.
“Do any of you have any suggestions?” he asked after talking about how to manage everything.
At that moment, Fia Stormbright, Lira Stormbright, and Jerald threw a glance at each other.
Then, Jerald stepped forward.
Relon nodded towards Jerald.
“I have a suggestion.”
“Speak. We are all colleagues here,” Relon said.
The current leaders looked at Jerald with interest while Agon only smirked.
Agon had already told them that Jerald had something big planned.
“Even with the weakening of the Magic Purity Kingdom in a month, it will still be difficult to further diversity in our Kingdoms,” Jerald said. “While war is a great aggregator for growth, if too many people die, it will hinder growth. People in the Fourth Realm count amongst the powerful in Area 23, but they have not yet reached the level that we need them to be.”
“Yet, how are these people supposed to reach that level when they are getting incinerated on the frontlines?”
Relon nodded. “I can see where you are coming from. I presume you have a proposal regarding that?”
Jerald glanced at Fia Stormbright, who nodded back.
Then, Jerald turned to Relon.
“The role of the Magic Purity Kingdom is to be the antagonist. In many popular stories, the antagonist can only be defeated when many smaller camps of the protagonists band together.”
Relon raised an eyebrow as Jerald continued talking.
“I propose to include the Spirit Spring Kingdom in the Skythunder Kingdom, and if they so choose to and accept, to fuse the Grandmountain Kingdom and Blackshadow Kingdom.”
“With that, we will have three Kingdoms.”
“We have the antagonist.”
“We have the protagonist working together with all the other paths.”
“And we have the neutral camp that lives with the other paths but uses them like tools.”
Jerald looked back at Fia Stormbright.
“We already came to an agreement.”