871 Arrangemen
“That’s not a problem. You are free to do what you want.” Arnold observed Douglas up and down again, not covering his surprise. He seemed to have never known the archmage who was hundreds of years younger than him until now.
At this moment, Priscilla walked over as attractively as a blooming tulip. She said to Douglas with a smile, “You… How should I put it? You have an amazing perspective in the way you think. It’s true that we are as used to certain phenomena in our life as we are to our hands and eyes, to the extent that we forget to ask why.
“After five hundred years, I’ve sensed the shock when I first touched magic again.”
Douglas could not nod at the warm lady’s praise. “One can never cease to explore magic or the world.”
“Alright, let’s not delay.” Without further ado, Priscilla looked at everybody else with a smile. “The most important thing right now is to kill Alfonsol. Let’s stick to our plan after we are back.”
Plan? Fernando’s lips twitched. Those old guys already made a plan when they talked in private?
Nielson, who was morbidly fat, looked at Douglas with his ruby eyes and sniffed. “Are those the questions that the sorcerers of Antiffler have been working on? No wonder the Church vanquished you…”
Douglas did not argue with him. He remembered clearly that the remnant of the Asso Empire was best at bloodline melting and body modification.
“Sometimes, I wonder what the power of shadows is, and where it is from…” Amanata said in an unpredictable voice, before he vanished in the shadow of the room.
Congus, on the other hand, stared at Arnold and spoke in his usual creepy and coarse tone. “Old fox, I’ll do what you asked, but if anything goes wrong with your plan, hehe…”
After seeing the leaders of the organizations off, Arnold picked his nose, not caring about his image. “It’s much more exhausting to communicate with those guys than to fight them.”
“There isn’t any foundation of trust. We can only go one step at a time.” Douglas smiled.
“This operation will be the first step to build trust. We must thank the Blue Demon. Regardless of whether or not he really wants Alfonsol dead, he’s giving us a chance for a joint operation. It will be much easier to plan more operations if there’s a first one.” Arnold resumed his look of a kind old man.
Fernando said, not in a good mood, “But we have to succeed! If we fail, there won’t be a second operation, unless one party is close to doom! Old man, what exactly is your plan?”
Only Arnold and Douglas were here, so he simply called the president old man.
Arnold did not criticize Fernando’s lack of respect. He replied with a smile, “It’s simple. As I said before, Tower of Destroyers will attract Alfonsol, and the other organizations will cover and cooperate with us in the attack. The Church does not know that we have reached an agreement.”
“How is he going to be attracted? Are you not scared that the Church would see through it and send out ‘Heart of Time’? He has been capturing sorcerers of late.” Fernando was not satisfied with the plan. Even if the Church did not know that so many magic organizations had secretly forged an alliance, the decoy might be easily seen through.
Arnold looked at Fernando with a smile. “You are only a seventh-circle sorcerer, and you are of little value in such a battle. Why do you care about the plan?”
As Arnold expected, Fernando, who had been overlooked, said angrily, “I… I will become an archmage very soon!”
“Haha.” Arnold chuckled. “It’s good to be young. However, this operation does need you. Nobody controls storms better than you do. Rest assured. Alfonsol will see nothing wrong.”
Fernando glared at the president, feeling that he had been teased. “How exactly are we going to allure Alfonsol to leave Rentato? I won’t take part in the operation if I’m not certain about it!”
“Hehe. That’s what I’ve been expecting you to say. Then, you’d better not take part in it. I was scared that you would want to join in your rashness,” Arnold said with a cunning smile. He then went on before Fernando roared, “Alright, it’s just a joke. The specific way of allurement can only be decided after we figure out Alfonsol’s personality, hobbies, styles, and habits, but the core will be the same. The traitor within the Tower of Destroyers will tell the secret to the Inquisition.”
“Traitor within? They are aware of the traitor?” Fernando asked in shock. In the meantime, he thought to himself that the old man was truly a natural-born old fox!
Arnold shook his head. “Fernando, you are too young and too naive. We dare not say that we know all the hiding traitors, but we do know some of them, and we have put them in positions that will not cause great losses. Now, it’s time for them to make contributions.”
He then added, “Sometimes, the traitors are more valuable to us than they are to our enemy.”
Douglas listened with a smile, finding it odd that the president explained it in such great detail. Had he always communicated with Fernando in such a way?
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Fernando thought for a moment and basically understood what Arnold meant. He cursed again, old fox!
“As a matter of fact, after Sharp proposed the ‘contract’, you were automatically involved in the operation, and there’s no need to sign up for it.” Arnold chuckled. “Right, Douglas, I’m very curious about the questions you talked about. Are you interested in a discussion?”
“With pleasure,” Douglas replied without any hesitation.
The three of them returned to the Land of Thousand Lakes and communicated on the questions that Douglas raised, expressing their unconfirmed ideas.
After they entered the underwater relic and revealed their real bodies, Arnold’s smile was already gone. He frowned while being deep in thought. “Odd. Your opinions are very odd. It’s not right… It’s not right…”
While he mumbled, he did not forget to ask Lauren, who came to greet them, to gather the deputy presidents for a meeting.
By the time League, Ramon, and Veronica came in, Arnold had become normal again. He informed them of the discussion during the meeting and concluded, “We are responsible for the two most important procedures in the operation. If we succeed, we will be leading the future cooperation. Between the two procedures, the second procedure is the actual attack. Douglas and I will be in charge of it, and Fernando, Congus, Nielson, Amanata, and other people will cover us. It’s already decided.”
He spoke of the second procedure and then looked at League. “The first procedure is to distract Kritonia, so that he won’t be following us in secret.”
Fernando was greatly enlightened. He was worried that the Heart of Time would also come out when Alfonsol was allured. After all, nobody was certain that the guy was only interested in the sorcerers of the Union. The old fox was truly considerate!
“If we take action alone, two consecutive allurements will definitely be seen as part of a scheme. So, we must count on the help of other organizations. Also, if the gap between the two allurements is too short, it will be seen through too. League, I need you to go south and keep Kritonia occupied for a week. As a deputy president, you deserve his attention.”
Arnold stared at League solemnly. “I know that it’s very dangerous. One may be killed by Kritonia after a moment of carelessness. Only an archmage who is good at escaping and hiding like you is qualified for the task. Also, you need to pay attention to the way you expose your traces so that Kritonia won’t be suspicious. You must mislead him into thinking that he is chasing after you.”
The task was so dangerous that even Fernando was more or less scared. He suspected that League would refuse it, but League simply said calmly, “That’s not a problem. It’s my responsibility.”
Douglas knew League too little to feel anything, but Fernando suddenly widened his eyes. This old guy had always been mean and obsessed with power, but he turned out to be reliable and trustworthy at such a critical moment!
For a moment, even League’s hawk nose was not as hideous as before.
Arnold sighed. “We can only march in danger. League, do you want to switch our roles so that I’ll distract Kritonia and you will work together with Douglas to kill Alfonsol? As the president, I should take the most dangerous task.”
League put on a smile. “I don’t think so. Your procedure is even more dangerous. If anything happens, it will be barely possible for you to escape. As for my task, at least everything will be under my control.”
“It’s decided then.” Arnold turned around and looked at Fernando. “Fernando, you have one other mission. You will return to Rentato and collect Alfonsol’s files, including but not limited to his hobbies, personalities, style, and relationships.”
They had never considered assassinating Alfonsol before. So, they only collected the files such as the divine powers that Alfonsol was good at and his previous battle cases. That was certainly not enough for an assassination mission.
“Will a few days be enough?” Fernando asked. League was about to go south and would take action in a couple of days, which gave him five days at most to gather the intelligence.
Arnold smiled. “All you need to do is to collect the side information to confirm the main intelligence that you obtain from the Blue Demon.”
“Huh?” Fernando was stunned again.
“He’s the one who gave the task. He must have a deep understanding of Alfonsol. Do you have a better source?” Arnold asked in a vague smile.
“B-But…” Fernando was full of concerns. At this moment, Douglas interjected, “Go now. There won’t be a problem.”
He seems to understand the president’s meaning between the lines? Fernando looked at Douglas and then at President Arnold. But why did he not understand?
Suddenly, he felt that he was somewhat silly before the two of them…
Before he left, Douglas went to Fernando with a few black books and notebooks. “A kid so interested in mathematics is hard to come by. Here are some files of mine from the past. Please give them to Sharp and ask him to forward them to Hathaway. There isn’t anything about magic in them.”
Fernando nodded. “Right, I need to offer her a few mathematical books too.”