Chương 181: Chapter 179 - With allies like these...

Ella Maizel, the Secretary of the Tyrants. Apparently that wasn't just a label either, Ella fully had the [Secretary] class. One of a handful of dragonslayers with a purely noncombat class. The most famous of them all. The one who often talked for the Tyrants. When she spoke, both worlds listened. Grevich didn't know what or why she was doing here. Only that adventurer Ryan started marching up to her like he knew her and that all of this was normal." What are you doing here, Ella?"

Both the receptionist's and assistant's eyes went wide at Ryan's aggressive tone. Gone was the casual friendly demeanor he had shown both Grevich and the receptionist. Now the adventurer was outright hostile. Ella smiled, as if expecting this.

"I simply wished to take some time to clear the air between us. Share my position and yours. See if we can come to a middle ground." What sort of sixth realm adventurer caught the eye of the Secretary? To the point where she would personally come here and ask him to meet her in the middle. Ryan was having none of it.

"Shouldn't you be busy helping out with the evacuation in The Realm?" That was an excellent point, though made with such rudeness Grevich wanted to faint.

"I am fully capable of overseeing events from here and organizing what needs to be done." Ella then turned to both the employees of Raidco's Mastery.

"I assume that both of you will know to be discreet about my visit?" Naturally, both of them nodded their heads, not trusting in their voices to speak.

"Good, then I will pay for the rest of Ryan's visit today."

"No thanks." Ryan declined.

"I've already paid."

"Understandable. Please come join me on a ride, we have much to discuss." She stood by the entrance patiently for him. Ryan took a moment, then looked back at Grevich, as if tempted to ignore her and go back to training. One look at the assistant's face was all it took to realize that Grevich was not taking him back to the training room while the Secretary was waiting for him. Ryan clicked his tongue and walked back to the reception.

Grevich hurried to join them, worried that the young adventurer was going to say something stupid.

"Sorry, Grevich said that the rest of my time will be credited to my account? Is that okay?"

"O-of course!" The receptionist said.

"We can even refund the full day to you!"

"Oh no, Grevich has been amazing. Absolute five stars. Thank you." Back was Ryan's friendly demeanor. As if he hadn't just emitted outright hostility to one of the most influential dragonslayers in the world. Then he hurried to follow, the Secretary opening the entrance for him. Grevich leaned over to look at the monitor. The Secretary herself was looking out for him, he had to have been some sort of special project or a hopeful kept watch by the Tyrants. He was also an American adventurer too which should mean…

Grevich stared at the zero on the balance.

"He didn't leave a tip."

"Nope." – Ryan had his hoodie back up but there was almost no point. The sleek car parked in the middle of the street, flaunting the rules was attracting tourists like flies. The only thing keeping them far away was the driver standing outside. Flaring his presence at anyone that dared to walk close. Ella entered the back of the vehicle and signalled him to get in. Ryan put his [Rebellious] title back on.

Then he wrapped himself in his own aura, hoping it would be enough to fight against whatever mind skills the Secretary had prepared. Priorities first. I know what I want and stick to it. The back of the Secretary's ride was spacious. A middle window down for them to interact with the driver. Ryan felt a presence tug towards the front. The driver met his eyes and nodded in acknowledgement. Strong. The driver was a goddamned evolved adventurer at minimum.

Now Ryan was judging the Secretary for having such a strong adventurer for a driver. Both of them should've been in The Realm, trying to escort as many people as possible to safety. Or maybe it was Pinkie in disguise. That would be more understandable. He wouldn't want her to be doing escort missions at all. Ella cleared her throat.

"Please drive around the block, take a scenic route for twenty minutes."

"Yes ma'am." Then the window went up as the enchantments flared. Locking them in. Then for good measure, the Secretary flickered her ring and a secondary bubble filled up their space. Then she took out her laptop and started typing away. Working on a document. Though it did not stop her from also holding a conversation.

"We can speak freely. Only the Witch Tyrant would be capable of eavesdropping through all of this. Though only when in The Realm." Ryan considered it for a moment.

"I was serious about before. Shouldn't you be out there organizing the Adventurer's Guild and the rest of The Realm?"

"I do not order the Adventurer's Guild, nor do I tell the city states what to do. I only represent the Tyrants." That was a dragonshit way of avoiding responsibility. Representing the Tyrants meant she represented the rulers of The Realm. She had more than enough influence to force everyone to listen.

"I know it's going badly over there. Just how bad is it?" Every adventurer was on edge along with the Raidco Mastery's receptionist that seemed to judge him for being up and about. Information blackout or not, they knew something was off.

"It is not as bad as you are thinking. It is simply the modern generation's first time being responsible for a long campaign. It's only starting to dawn on them that millions of lives are in their hands."

"Are dragonslayers not doing their part?" He couldn't imagine a world where the most powerful individuals couldn't help ferry everyone back and forth. The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Ella pursed her lips.

"It's a mixed package. There are quite a few city states that are founded by dragonslayers that are trying to declare their city as another bastion of safety. They're also attempting to recruit other dragonslayers themselves, reducing the pool of available dragonslayers. Further, even with mass migrating groups of Realmers, you need more than just one dragonslayer to protect it. Either to intercept these 'roaming spirits' ahead of time or have a barrier specialist protecting them while other dragonslayers fight.

Otherwise—""The backlash alone would kill anyone around."

"Indeed. The biggest problem are the groups of Realmers changing their minds to evacuate. Too many groups to cover with just dragonslayers alone." They sat in traffic for a bit. Just watching the people go by. Ella still typing away, creating a document at a speed that he was having a hard time reading.

"Are you trying to tell me you've done all you can?"

"I have done my part. I've released a covert edict declaring amnesty for all blacklisted dragonslayers that do their part in ensuring Realmers make it safely to Ulverra." Ryan blinked. That offer was like in the old days, when the scattered and hunted Trialists were offered not to get targeted as long as they worked for the safety of Realmers.

"And the Witch Tyrant is okay with that?" After all, sending Earth into unrest with blacklisted dragonslayers was part of the plan." She is currently busy with Sector Thirteen. Meanwhile the other Tyrants have approved. That is the board I am playing on, do you understand? We are both trying to maneuver around the Witch Tyrant to find peace. We are allies." That was what the conversation was for. She was trying to convince him that she belonged to the side of peace and sanity. Something still annoyed him.

Instead of staying back in The Realm and helping more she was coming back to talk to someone like him. As if reading his expression, her lips thinned.

"I believe we have gotten off on the wrong foot."

"I believe that's entirely on you." Ella had tried to ambush him and force him into a magical contract using a social skill. Remembering that feeling made his skin crawl. He had felt like he couldn't argue against her at all.

"I will accept that." Ella admitted.

"I was given misinformation from Gamielle about what you were like. She made me believe that you would be irresponsible with the information revealed to you. At the time I was trying to stem the tide that was the Witch Tyrant's chaos." Reasonable again. Though he wasn't going to believe her for her word.

"I'll verify that with Gamielle later." Ella scoffed.

"Remind her that she still owes me for assaulting all the major cities in The Realm and taking out the communication towers." Ryan stared at Ella, still trying to figure out if she was hitting him with a skill. He didn't feel the creeping sense of something wrong going down his spine but he wasn't going to pretend he understood how social skills worked. Very few had them, and none of them were that subtle. He remembered the one thing he did want though.

"I want you to stop using Milock to get to me."

"I am not."

"Dragonshit."

"You aren't completely wrong." The Secretary admitted.

"At first I was planning on using Milock to show you how much you needed someone like me. That you needed someone like me to be able to focus on your advancement. Though I never intended for Milock to keep our agreement a secret. You can check the message logs yourself, I was always encouraging him to tell you of our deal." That was actually true. Ryan checked both the message logs and the contract. It did actually let Milo tell him about the contract.

Ella had also constantly nudged Milo to come clean instead of waiting until it all blew up. It was one of the reasons why he was willing to even hear her out.

"However," Ella said.

"I have come to like Milo and his drive. I have never had a proper apprentice before and I am enjoying the experience."

"Don't act like you wouldn't throw him away the moment it becomes convenient." Ella laughed in his face, seemingly delighted by his words.

"Do you think he doesn't know that? This is how the rest of the world works. Of business and politics. Yes, I was using him to get to you, and Milock was using me to learn as much as he could. Trust me, considering the type of person you are, little Milo will have little chance of losing out in the end."

"How do you figure that out?"

"The moment I betray your friend, you will cut all ties with me or even become outright hostile. And that is a loss I would very much like to avoid." In a sense, Ella had truly read him like a book. She didn't come here needing to use her social skills because she could come at him with honesty instead. Ella took out a black wallet and opened it, her hand sinking into the opening, revealing that it was a storage artifact. She took her hand out of the wallet revealing an electronic band. A bracelet.

A walletband for adventurers.

"This is for you, along with the ten million dollars I promised you." She then flipped open her laptop.

"Now, do you have an adventurer's name you would prefer?"

"What?"

"An adventurer's account for the Realmnet and general ID purposes. I am simply giving you everything I offered you in our previous meeting. Free of charge. Consider this an olive branch to mend bridges."

"Just like that?"

"You cannot be going around in public and raising a fuss without an actual adventurer's account. People are already talking online." When it was clear that Ryan had no idea what she was talking about, she navigated to a video. On the screen was Clara getting her hair eaten by Chester the book. Milo trying to help. Then Ryan blurred forward and held Chester with one hand. In the comments, people were already trying to guess his realm grade.

There were deleted comments with internet sleuths having found out his actual identity. What really raised his neck hair was how high it was on trending. If Ryan had made a miscalculation, it was about how bored the realmnet was with the information blackout. News about a hidden evolved adventurer messing about in San Kingsgrove was climbing. Chester screaming like its mortal life was in danger definitely adding to the drama. Ella shut the screen.

"They haven't made the connection between the encounter with you and adventurer Vedslaw yet, but it's only a matter of time. You might as well come out publicly now, especially since there's rising controversy around anonymous Destineds due to a certain Artigan going wild." Ryan thought about it for a bit. Just watching the scenery go by. This was what he had wanted his whole life. Yet it didn't really call to him like it did back in the Secretary's first meeting. He already was an adventurer.

He already had his team. This was just an ID.

"What about Axiom?"

"Already taken. I would also suggest nothing beginning with an A." Of course it was already taken. He didn't want to ask for his unverified realmnet username either because there were a lot of comments he did not want associated with him whatsoever.

"You know what? Just use Ryan Robinson. I'm not trying to make waves with my actual identity anyway." The Secretary tapped away at her keyboard and then swiped the walletband to a scanner by her laptop.

"Done." She handed the walletband to him. Ryan took it and placed it around his wrist. The little band denoting him as an adventurer… or a poser. Along with ten million dollars. He raised his hand, staring at the band. He definitely wanted more money. Fifteen or so million dollars couldn't even buy him a decent silence box. Which just left the question.

"What do you want Ella?" She raised an eyebrow at him. Ryan clarified.

"Just in general."

"Peace and prosperity." He thought about it, taking his time to think.

"There's a lot of profit in war and uncertainty, isn't there?"

"Perhaps in a world without nukes and dragonslayers that may be true. Unfortunately, when millions can be wiped in one move, uncertainty and war can lead to a catastrophic loss that is impossible to come back from. Furthermore, once that line is crossed, my class will have little place here." That did make some sense. Negotiations and soft skills would no longer matter when everyone started to become ready to shoot at each other. Though he had a feeling this was something she just told everyone.

"Is that really all you want then? Peace and profit?" Ella stopped looking at him then stared out at the beautiful city that they were driving through.

"When the dust settles, and you rise as one of the Tyrants, I hope that you will be sensible enough to understand that you will have need of a [Secretary] like me. At the very least, I would prefer that you have someone competent by your side. Someone that is capable of carrying out your will without causing fear in the world. Does that satisfy your curiosity?"

"That's more believable." [Secretary] a class for sycophants. People that relied on someone else for power. The Secretary was hedging her bets and offer her services, ensuring her job security for– Both of them blinked as the car came to a stop. Ella stared at him weirdly and Ryan was trying to figure out—all of a sudden, Ella's head swiveled to stare out her window.

"Ah crap."

"What's going on?" Ryan turned to where the Secretary was looking. Right outside her window was a woman with pink hair and sharp teeth. She was grinning right at the Secretary. Ella took a deep breath and shifted the bubble so it encompassed the entirety of the car and not just the backseat. The driver's middle window rolled down, looking a little worried about the dragonslayer outside the car.

"Ma'am?"

"If something goes wrong, pull your necklace and focus on protecting Ryan, understood?" The driver nodded grimly. Needless to say, Ryan was no longer judging Ella for having an adventurer chauffeur. Now he was hoping the driver was strong enough. Then Ella turned off her silence bubble and lowered the side window. Pinkie put her head through the open window, her face up close and personal with the Secretary.

"Hey Ella~" Pinkie lifted an index finger to poke the Secretary in the lower lip, her pointy nail drawing blood.

"I need some help, aaand you've been ignoring all my messages!"

"Oh." Ryan realized.

"Maybe I should have mentioned Pinkie was in the area."