Chapter 58 The Chess Club
Zivile sighed, believing Radmilo would fail to complete her mission. They promised to meet in her dungeon today. However, the man had yet to appear.
There were only five minutes until the scheduled meeting time. As a result, Zivile assumed Radmilo had failed and would not come. She had to dispel that assumption when she heard footsteps.
"Was it that guy who came here?" Zivile inquired, somewhat skeptically. She rose from her seat to see who it was. Her expression immediately changed to shock when she saw Radmilo arrive. "There's no way...!"
Radmilo, on the other hand, raised an eyebrow because Zivile reacted like a human who had seen a ghost. "What's the matter?" he asked while taking out cores from his inventory.
"D-did you really beat the monsters on the list? You didn't deceive me by purchasing cores on the black market?" Zivile refused to believe Radmilo had completed the mission.
She learned about the black market from the humans affected by her magic. They said the black market sells goods smuggled from brokers. Everyone could get anything they wanted on the black market.
Therefore, Zivile suspected Radmilo was purchasing monster cores on the black market. She found it impossible to accept the man had managed to kill the top ten strong monsters on the list.
Even if Radmilo could kill them, it would at least take the man a long time to finish. Zivile thought Radmilo could complete the mission if he had the power to stop time.
She laughed because she thought it was even more impossible. However, laughter no longer came out of her mouth because she remembered there was a Prime Mover with the power of time. That Prime Mover was powerful, but he could not do what he wanted to keep their world stable.
Zivile believed he would sign up as a sponsor because he wanted to see a human use his power freely. The Prime Movers did not care what happened to the earth if the human abused his power to control time.
"I'm not lying," Radmilo said, jolting Zivile out of her reverie. He then handed her the ten cores in a pouch. "If you don't believe me, then you can ask the ten monsters. You can communicate with them through the system, right?"
Zivile refused to accept the cores. Instead, she said, "I think my mission was too easy. Let me give you another mission. That way, I can believe that you are strong."
Unfortunately, Radmilo did not appreciate those words. The man showed no calmness in his face anymore. He grabbed Zivile's wrist and put the pouch in her palm.
"Do you think you can command me because I once obeyed you? Know your place, lowly monster. You better watch your mouth before I do something," Radmilo muttered, then released his grip from Zivile's wrist.
Even though he only held her hand for a few seconds, it had the intended result. Zivile did not seem to have the courage to propose another mission. She had felt his strength through the grip.
"F-fine. I'm sorry about that. Shall we discuss the contract now?" Zivile spoke, secretly grateful that Radmilo had not asked her to fight. Her main power was seduction magic, and she had a bigger chance of losing because the man was not affected by her magic.
Meanwhile, Radmilo took the contract he had drafted from his inventory. "I heard from Clem that you can shapeshift into a perfect human."
A confused frown appeared on Zivile's forehead because Radmilo suddenly talked about it. However, she immediately understood after reading all the clauses in the contract.
There was a clause that required Zivile to transform into a human and get out of the dungeon. Radmilo wanted her to become a spy because she had seduction magic. In exchange, the man promised to help her kill many people with no problems.
"Can you help me kill three hundred people in three months?"
Radmilo frowned in confusion. He knew Zivile would not ask such a question without reason. "I can make you kill three hundred people in a few weeks. However, I'm not going to use my power for nothing."
"What should I do to make you agree to my request?"
"I will agree if you can get the important information I want."
Zivile thought for a moment before responding, "Fine. Let's do it that way. You can revise the contract now."
There was no further conversation after that. Radmilo focused on revising the contract to avoid mistakes. If he wrote one wrong word and changed the contents of the clause, then it would be detrimental to him. As soon as he finished, he handed Zivile the revised contract.
"I'm not putting our lives in danger because our contract is only for three months. The penalty for violating the contract is the loss of our right hand. I think that's enough. But let me know if you have a different opinion."
Zivile listened to Radmilo's words while reading the contract. She then asked, "Are you not curious why I want to kill three hundred people in three months?"
"Well, I don't care about that," Radmilo said with a shrug. "There's a clause that says we can't harm each other. That way, I don't have to worry about you having bad intentions toward me. After all, you're weaker than me. I can finish you right away if you do something."
"I couldn't even protest when you mocked me for being weak."
"Stop that. When are you going to sign the contract?"
The question made Zivile realize she had wasted her time conversing. After making sure no clause harmed her, she signed the contract.
Her reason for wanting to kill three hundred humans was to return to her world. The main condition for returning there was to kill half of the human population. However, Zivile had another condition from her Prime Mover.
Every Prime Movers were free to set other terms for the Instruments under them. Zivile was sure Radmilo did not know about that because Clem was under the supervision of a Prime Mover who was known to be stingy and cruel.
Because of that, she decided to discuss that matter with Radmilo. She had to gain the man's trust so their relationship in the future would not be constrained by anything. Zivile wanted to end the contract without conflict with Radmilo.
***
In a chess club.
Chester was playing chess with Svein in a private room. His face looked serious as he thought about what steps he should take. No one would expect the two of them could be in one room.
In the organization, Chester was the one who was shunned by the main members because he was annoying and often seek attention in extreme ways. They thought Chester was not close to anyone, especially Svein who often showed dislike whenever Chester became annoying.
Nonetheless, Chester and Svein became quite close as they joined the organization at the same time. They sometimes met outside the organization's headquarters to discuss something, like today.
"Are you going to sign the contract?" Svein asked while moving his pawn.
Chester used his knight to block the pawn. "You ask as if I had another choice. The new leader knows my secret. I'm sure he will come after me if I don't sign the contract."
"We have the same thoughts. The new leader leaves me no choice but to sign it."
"Are you not going to show me the contents of your contract?"
Svein fell silent. He stared at the chessboard before moving his bishop to threaten Chester's knight. "How about you show me your contract first? I don't believe you."
"So am I."
Neither of them said anything for some time. Chester took Svein to meet at the chess club to find out what contract Radmilo gave the other main members. However, he could not get what he wanted.
"Actually, the new leader made me a good offer. I think other people got that too. It's possible they don't want to show the contract because they received a better offer. You can bet the main members will argue if they find out," Chester finally spoke up.
Meanwhile, Svein chose not to answer and focused on his play. Nonetheless, he actually thought about those words. The new leader did make him such a good offer that he would tell no one to avoid conflict.
There were some greedy people among the main members. They could do anything to take someone else's. Flint was a greedy fellow. That was what triggered him to make a commotion at that time, because the offer from the new leader could not satisfy him.
Flint did not dare to protest because he had no more power. He preferred to fuss over other people's contracts. Unfortunately, the main members disagreed because they did not trust each other.
"What will you do if I turn out to be a spy?" Chester suddenly asked, causing Svein to stop looking at the chessboard only to stare at him.