Meeting - Third day.

After the second day of the meeting ended, late in the evening, inside Theodor’s room, Seth appeared just as he was getting ready to go to bed.

Theodor sighed and sat down on the side of his bed, rubbing his face in frustration, before asking: “Can’t you just use the door like a normal person would?”

Seth chuckled and dropped over ten thick books by the side of the bed.

“Why would I do that? It’s a lot more fun just teleporting around.” He pointed towards the books and continued: “I noticed that everyone came to the natural decision to deal with the blood race, so here is my part in helping. Inside is complete information about the blood race’s abilities, weaknesses, the location of the most important members, and so on.”

“Remember everyone that swift attacks would work best since their information-sharing methods are miles ahead of everyone else.”

Theodor looked wryly at the pile of books before turning towards Seth. “Does this mean you’re not going to help with their elimination?”

“Why should I? As long as you know their weakness and the location of their cores, ending the blood race is just a matter of time and manpower.”

Theodor sighed and nodded before hesitating for a moment and asking: “What is your plan? Do you intend to move against the kingdoms after they waste their armies dealing with the blood race?”

Seth laughed and shook his head: “Why would I need to weaken them even further? They are already weak. I only intend to use their hand to remove the blood race from the continent.”

After Theodor nodded once more with a resigned expression, Seth chuckled and disappeared from the room.

He next appeared in a small office, where Alice was reading through the book he had given her the last time. She lifted her head from the book she was reading and sent a wave of destruction straight toward Seth as soon as he appeared.

Seth blocked it with ease and sat on a chair in front of her office like nothing had happened before asking: “Why are you mad?”

“Not mad, just annoyed. How are you doing that?” asked Alice.

Seth teleported quickly behind her chair and whispered in her ear: “Do you mean this?”

Startled, Alice sent another wave of destruction towards Seth, an attack Seth easily dodged by teleporting back into his chair.

Ignoring her red face, Seth laughed loudly and explained: “It’s space energy. Once I cover my body with it, it allows me to swiftly move from one place to the other.”

Noticing that her annoyance didn’t seem to die down, Seth stopped laughing and said: “I came to thank you for your help today and let you know that I’ll be leaving New Hope.”

Alice frowned and asked: “What about your grand speech about dealing with the blood race?”

“I’ve already made preparations, but I need to return to my kingdom. There are still many things I had to take care of. The Alliance will be fine on its own, so my personal help is not necessarily needed.”

“Ronald is not going to like that. He might even suspect your motives or identity.” Said Alice.

Seth shrugged and said: “And what will he do? Stop trying to deal with the blood race? He won’t do that, even more so after seeing the gift I left for him and the Alliance.”

Alice sighed and nodded: “I guess you might be right, but don’t underestimate him. He’s a lot more crafty than he looks.”

Seth smiled and said suggestively: “Are you worried about me?”

Alice snorted immediately and didn’t give any reply to Seth’s quarry. Seth smiled wryly and threw a small token with the symbol of Asteria academy on one side and the sign for destruction energy on the other on her desk.

“I don’t know how long it will be until we meet again, so I’m leaving you this in case you reach the end of the fourth shell and have no way of progressing. Visit my kingdom with that token, and you’ll easily find the knowledge you need.”

After Alice took the token and looked it over with intrigue, Seth didn’t give her a chance to ask any question as he teleported back into his inn room.

Changing his looks back to Otis, Seth laid down in his bed and continued cultivating while absorbing the vials of destruction he bought from the black market.

<Why has host deceived Alice?>

Raising his eyebrows, Seth asked: ‘Why do you want to know?’

<Because it was outside my simulations of host’s predicted moves, I need further data to improve future simulations.>

Seth sighed and said: ‘Because I need Alice to convince Ronald that I have indeed left the city. I’m sure he must already suspect my relationship with Alice, so as long as she thinks I really left, there will be no lie for Ronald to see through. As for Theodor, who knows the truth about Otis, Ronald won’t be able to so easily read through him.’

‘As Alice said, I don’t plan on underestimating the king of the richest kingdom in the Alliance, but I need Ronald to actually believe I’m gone. With Seth thought gone, we might see some interesting moves.’

‘With me here, in hiding, I can react swiftly to any unforeseen changes. As accurate as your simulations are, they will never be able to 100% account for people’s emotions and shrewdness.’

Seeing that the system didn’t reply, Seth resumed his cultivation in peace.

Soon, the third day of the meeting began, with only the kings being present in the meeting room, not even the usual servants being allowed.

While Seth was in his room, watching the meeting with the system’s help, the kings were all sitting with serious looks around the table. On the meeting table were the books Seth had left with Theodor.

“Are you sure he is gone, Theodor?” asked Roland, a deep frown on his face.

Theodor shook his head and said: “I can’t know for sure, but he seemed to be implying his departure when he left these books with me.”

Ronald sighed and said: “I see. Let’s see what this information he had left us is.”

“Why did he give all these books to you out of everyone? I also noticed that you didn’t look as surprised as everyone else when he appeared during yesterday’s meeting.”

Theodor sighed and said: “Because I have already met him before, during our journey here. As did Icas.”

As all the eyes turned towards Icas, the young king’s face turned red as he remembered the shameful meeting, and he nodded in agreement.

Theodor explained how Seth had warned him about the blood race before but didn’t say anything about being threatened into bending the knee.

Ronald looked suspiciously between the two and could see Icas was still hiding something but didn’t call them out as he said: “Well, what happened before doesn’t matter. Now, let’s see what information he left for us.”

With that, all the kings started taking a book from the pile and reading through it. The meeting room fell into a deep silence until noon, with each king invested in the books Seth had left them.

Eventually, Ronald placed down his book and said in a grave tone: “This is terrifying.”.

The other king seemed to feel the same way, all of them besides Adalwolf nodding simultaneously.

Adalwolf looked around with a confused face and asked: “What is so terrifying? The blood race is so weak. My men alone would be able to deal with them all if they were not so spread around.”

Ronald’s lip twitched, and he said: “We were not talking about the blood race.”

“Then who?” asked Adalwolf.

Ronald sighed, and Lorin replied: “The King of Endora, Seth, as well as the Council.”

Seeing that Adalwolf looked just as confused as before, Lorin continued with a sigh: “To get so much information about a race of billions of beings, down to each member’s location, weaknesses, and so much more… Even all our kingdoms combined won’t be able to do that.”

“We should find a way to deal with the Council as well. If they know so much about the blood race, we can only imagine the information they must have on us. If you ask me, they are even more of a threat than the blood race.” added Iwan, the king of Noth.

The meeting room fell into silence again, with even Adalwolf not saying anything else.

The one to break the silence was still Ronald, who suddenly stood up from his seat.

“Today’s meeting will end here. I must check a few things, but we’ll resume from where we left off tomorrow morning at first light. Everyone must take a look through the books about the blood race, and we’ll figure out our next move then..”

Everyone was confused about why the early end, but Ronald left the meeting room without giving the others any further explanations.

Once out of the meeting, Ronald went straight to one of the rooms inside the city hall. Alice was peacefully cultivating there since she was not allowed to attend today’s meeting.

“Have you heard? King Seth had already left the city.” Said Ronald, carefully looking at Alice’s face for any reaction.

Alice nodded indifferently and said: “I know. He already came to let me know yesterday. He also extended an invitation for me to visit his kingdom.” Once her words ended, she showed King Ronald the token Seth had given her.

Ronald looked over the token for a moment before nodding and giving it back to her. “Are you going to accept his offer? I know you must be tempted by the possibility of growing stronger, but I hope you will continue to stay here.”

Alice shook her head and said: “I don’t plan to. At least not for now, since my people still need me.”

“Still, I can’t promise Your Majesty anything about the future. While I am grateful to be allowed to live and hide here, I also have long paid the debt I owe your royal family.”

Ronald sighed and asked a few more things about Seth before taking his leave and returning to his chambers.

‘See?’ asked Seth, a small smile on his lips. ‘Now it’s time to see if that old snake has any fangs to show us. If he does, I’ll gladly pull them out one by one.’

With things falling in place just as Seth had expected them to, a sudden notification ruined his plans of continuing his cultivation.

<Host. Katy is currently in trouble.>