Negotiation

—-Raust—

Overwhelmed by the intimidating pressure from the branch chief, I took a step back unconsciously.
However, in contrast to me, Master was calm.
She scowled at the branch chief with an icy gaze and opened her mouth.

「You are going to act like my master now of all times?」

「-!」

I was shaken from what was basically a confirmation of what the Branch Chief said about Master being his disciple.
The best proof of this was Master’s attitude which didn’t deny any of it.
However, now that I knew Master was Branch Chief’s disciple, a question came to my mind.

If that’s the case, what on earth could have caused Master to be so hostile to the Branch Chief?

「It’s quite sad to hear your apprentice say that.」

I thought so while watching Master glaring at the Branch Chief who had a smile that showed no emotion.
If they were master and disciple, it was not normal for her to try to activate magic as soon as they met.
Especially considering that for Master, invoking magic was an action taken because she recognized the opponent as an enemy, it was safe to assume that Master’s resentment towards the Branch Chief was deep.
Now that she had invoked her magic, there was no doubt Master had decided to fight……

「……Huh?」

It was then I noticed something weird in the current situation.
Until now, when Master invoked her magic, that meant she was prepared to fight.
That was why I thought that this time too, she had given up on negotiating and switched to forcing him to listen to her after she invoked her magic.

However, contrary to my expectation, Master hadn’t activated the magic she invoked yet.

Up until she invoked her magic, she negotiated properly and moved cautiously.
As sort of recoil to that, she didn’t hesitate to attack after invoking her magic.
However, for some reason, this time, Master hadn’t yet launched any attack on the Branch Chief.
It was something I had never see before, her intention was lost on me, I couldn’t help but stare at Master in wonder.

It was then Master whispered something to me.

「…Assume everything that man is saying is true.」

While glaring at the Branch Chief with a tense look, she added more words with volume low enough to not reach the Branch Chief.

「Raust, don’t take the words of prejudiced humans that don’t know anything, like how elf is a race not favored by God, at face value. Even without skills, they don’t have any problem because they’re much better at handling magic than humans.」

The knowledge about the Elves Master said matter-of-factly was something that even I, who read quite a few books, didn’t know.
And from that, I drew the conclusion that the knowledge I read in the books was totally useless.

At the very least, the elf in front of me was dozens of times stronger than what I read from books.

As I naturally became more vigilant, Master reminded me.

「You should be vigilant, but don’t show too much hostility. The opponent is an elf with extraordinary magic power who has been alive for 600 years. Think of my magic as a way to escape in case of an emergency.」

「……-!」

It was then I understood why Master didn’t just attack after she left her magic on the verge of activation.
She didn’t activate the magic because she decided to fight the Branch Chief.

It was an action taken because she judged it would be impossible to deal with him unless it was in the current situation where her magic was about to activate.

When I understood that, I recalled the words Master said about the 30% winning chance.
Even now, I couldn’t tell if the Branch Chief really was beyond Master’s power.
However, according to Master, the Branch Chief was a monster that both of us had only a 30% chance to win against.
…… No, if I take her word as it is, then even 30% is still too high.
When I came to that conclusion, I reflexively suppressed my hostility.
After confirming my response, Master opened her mouth to the Branch Chief.

「Branch Chief Mist, I’ll say this once again, I didn’t come here to have unnecessary chatter.」

Hanzam sullenly glared at Master who spoke condescendingly, but the Branch Chief, and elf called Mist, interrupted him and opened his mouth.

「So what did you come to do? Do you mean, both of you are coming here to kill me?」

「At first I intended to do that. Can’t have the dangerous person who might have caused labyrinth runaway to run loose, right? That’s why I have Ronaldo coming with me.」

At first glance, Master’s words felt so high-handed that it felt like she had abandoned negotiating.
However, when I saw her tightly clenched fist, I realized that Master didn’t say that without a plan.
Even while pretending like she didn’t want to negotiate anymore, Master was desperately looking for something.

「…So, Ronaldo is also coming, huh?」

Mist narrowed his eyes slightly from Master’s words.
As if getting the reaction she wanted from Mist’s response, she clenched her fist tighter, but she pretended like it was nothing and started talking again.

「That’s not all we’ve got, okay? There are immature magic swordsmen, a martial artist with excellent skill, and also, my disciple beside me who is skilled enough to handle elves when they’re at their home base.」

Master, who had been speaking plainly until now, started talking with hostility in her voice.

「I’m not saying we can win. ——But now that we know your home base, with a force this strong, don’t you think we could take you down along with us?」

Hanzam’s face stiffen from the hostility Master radiated, the smile disappeared from the Branch Chief’s face, and the atmosphere in the room became tense.

「Be that as it may, if we fight now, it will only be to our mutual detriment.」

The moment he confirmed this, Master’s hostility immediately dissipated.
However, the atmosphere in the room remained tense.

When I felt the atmosphere, that was when I realized this situation was what Master aimed.

Until now, Master had always spoken with a high-handed manner where she didn’t hesitate to fight.
It was an attitude that could lead to the worst outcome if there was even a single misstep, fighting the Branch Chief Mist, but they were all also a stepping stone to make the other party thought that we could also take hard measures.

After convincing them that we were prepared to take them down with us, Master smiled at the Branch Chief.

「This is the situation. Cooperate with me, more specifically, if you provide us the means to escape from the Labyrinth City that you have, I’m sure we won’t have to fight each other. What do you think?」

Indirectly, she implied that if they didn’t provide the means to escape, we would use force.

Inwardly, I praised Master for her brilliant technique.
I thought everything would be fine from here on.

——It was the Branch Chief Mist’s embarrassed voice that brought me back to reality.

「Apparently, both of you misunderstand two things.」

Mist continued with a tone that didn’t fit the current tense situation, it was as if he was a grandfather who was at a loss from his grandson’s tantrum.

「To begin with, we didn’t cause the labyrinth runaway. This labyrinth runaway just happened the way it was supposed to happen.」

Then, Mist closed his mouth for a bit as if he was having trouble saying something and then smiled apologetically.

「—And one more thing, we have no way to deal with this situation, nor the means to escape the Labyrinth City.」

「…………Huh?」

His words caused the air in the room to freeze.