Polymath Redux

Chapter 18: The line between gaining everything or losing everything

"... Hah? Disciples? You almost kill us and now you want us to become your disciples? Don't screw with us, to hell with that!"

Wolf shouts out angrily, loud enough for Morialia to understand his displeasure about the situation. While not as verbose as Wolf was, the other members of the Hywel Knights were silently in agreement. After all, it was Morialia that tricked them into coming here and tried to have them fight against some insane monster. So in light of that, why should they just accept being her disciples?

"Well... it's fine if you don't accept it, but I think it would be a win-win for all of us if you did. I apologize for trying to kill you, I don't know what came over me back then but that was never my intentions. All I wished to do was simply test your strength to see if you were worthy enough to become my disciples.

A blatant lie, however relationships were a fickle thing. Often times truth can be much more detrimental than a lie. Caution was advised; Mordred knew almost nothing about this world but at the same time the reverse was also true; this world knew nothing of him. It was for this reason that he went with an alternate form to begin with, so that even if this form was compromised it was fine since it was a false one.

Even having tested the power of these people, it would be foolhardy to drop his guard now and say that this was the best this world had to offer, there was no way that was going to be true. However that too was fine, since for the moment this amount of information was adequate, this entire situation was a net gain for Mordred; he had not revealed anything about himself, not his face, not his identity, nothing.

One could say that Morialia revealed her power, but 'power' had three components, 'strength', 'wealth' and 'influence'. Even if these people had figured out her power they could not act without understanding how much influence she commanded or how much resources she had at her disposal. Still, she had to be careful with the amount of information that she leaked about herself.

It would be easy to tell them the truth. About her identity, about the real reason why she was testing their powers, that it was because she knew nothing of this world. However once she did that the next logical question would be 'why not?' The answer to that question was because she was a foreign element to this world, while that fact itself may not have been too groundbreaking it did drive a fundamental wedge between them a difference in class and of kind, once it was out that they were different it would be that much harder to form long lasting relationships and alliances.

The dragon king raised his hands to halt the conversation.

"Before we you get into this topic, why don't you explain who you really are. Human or not, it would be difficult to find any being with the amount of power you posses."

A sound and logical detour from the topic to find out more information on this mysterious little girl who possessed more power than the dragon king. Of course Morialia's one issue was with the presence of a mysterious stranger known as 'Casec'. He was not part of the deal to become her disciple and thus he did not need to know what was being said.

"I'm fine with revealing more about myself, but only if that man leaves."

Morialia pointed towards Casec.

"Casec? He's trust worthy, he's an OMEGA rank adventurer like us and has worked with a few times."

Leona vouched for him.

"Why is he here?"

Morialia asked, though in truth she was a little thankful that Casec came just in time to snap her back to reality. If not for his appearance then the Hywel Knights would've been crushed to oblivion. However that was then and this was now, if he had no further connections with the Hywel Knights then he wasn't necessary in this conversation.