GREED: ALL FOR WHAT?



He has a lot of questions that he has wanted to ask her ever since he saw her message. But this question is the most important one that he can get an answer to. 

"I don't like where this is going."

He continued with his inquiry despite her reluctance. "How long have you been pretending not to know about my divine ability?"

Her reply was laughter. She covered her mouth and laughed. He nodded to himself. Her reaction is answer enough for him. She is laughing because she found something funny. It is probably his ignorance that is making her laugh. 

He should have known that his divine ability is not secret anymore when she brought 6 sheets of paper at that meeting to invite him. She obviously prepared for his ability to see the past in mana. She just prepared badly so it looks like she didn't know.

He thought the 6 sheets were a coincidence since she had more sheets and other methods prepared. But now he knows that it was not a coincidence that he didn't see anything important about her when he inspected her past during that meeting.

All he saw was the hours that she spent working on a way to look mysterious. He saw thousands of sheets of paper and many more. They conveniently occluded every other thing about her recent past without rousing his suspicion.

He thought to himself, "She is a threat to be eliminated." 

Her incompetence fooled him. She made herself look foolish so that she will be underestimated. She is doing the same thing right now. One might call a lady in love pinning after someone that will never return her love to be foolish. But it might be concealing something else that she doesn't want him to see.

He said she was acting silly earlier. Maybe that's what she wants him to believe of her. He has seen how dangerous she is to others. The ending of the second challenge is more than enough proof of her cunning and ruthlessness. He saw it and even experienced it. But this is the first time that he fully realized how dangerous she is to him.

It is hilarious that he has been very suspicious about her right from the start. And yet, this still happened. The worst part is that it happened in the past which is supposed to be his forte. But he remained blind to it. 

He was undecided before about her. But now he is certain of what he wants to do to her as soon as he gets the chance.

"Don't be so gloomy. It was a harmless prank. Don't you find it funny?"

He agreed with her. "It is funny."

No matter his grievance about being fooled, it is true that it is funny. He would laugh were he not the butt of the joke. 

"You really think so?" She asked excitedly. "I knew you will see the fun side of it. That's why we are so perfect for each other."

"Hmmm." Is all he said.

They returned to silence again. Only the sounds of his army fighting the golems behind him could be heard. There's also the sound of the movement of feet as more people came to join the barricade. A small group of 100 suddenly appeared and blended stealthily into the barricade.

The 100 of them are too small to be noticeable. Their actions would have been ignored too because of their small number. Things didn't end there. The group began to change the barricade into a formation. They scattered amidst the people and directed them. The changes didn't escape his notice. He noticed the movement and the arrangement of the barricade into an army. It seems the fight will start soon.

He asked Salvini a question that has been bothering him. "Do you know what is going to happen in this competition?"

She tilted her head as she considered his question. "Sort of. I didn't know at first, but I have been getting glimpses of the future."

"What do you think this competition is for?"

She shook her head. "It has different and numerous purposes. This competition aims to achieve a lot of things. Which one do you mean?"

"You're not going to give me the answer I want will you?"

"No, I won't. I'll get into a lot of trouble if I do. That is unless you become my partner. Partners aren't supposed to keep secrets from each other so it is understandable that I tell you. So what do say, will you become my partner?"

"I'll pass." He replied without thinking about it.

"Think about all the good things we can do together. Think about our kids. They will be able to see the future and the past. They will be perfect."

He snorted in disdain. "Why will having perfect kids make me decide to be your partner?"

"For two reasons. One, the process of making the kids will be very pleasurable. Trust me on that. As for the second reason, our kids will create a wonderful legacy for us."

"I'll pass." He rejected her again. Her words didn't convince him.

At this point, nothing can convince him to be so foolish as to entertain any romantic thoughts with Salvini. He will have to be drugged and mentally rendered invalid before it will happen. Unfortunately, that wouldn't work either. Legion-7 won't allow it. And there are other clones of Legion that won't stand by and watch even if Legion-7 fails. 

He is more concerned about his own legacy and pursuing his own perfection, not the perfection of his children. He knows that the ability to see the past, present, and future will be a useful ability. He doesn't need her to tell him that. He knows it and he already has a plan to fix that issue in himself. That plan doesn't need her to become his partner.

In fact, he had several plans for it. One of those plans was to hunt her and use her eyes to build an artifact that will enable him to see the future. But he discarded that plan. He is not the first one to come up with a plan to hurt the lineage of sages and it has never worked.