Suddenly, Ren spoke up directly and said, "I have to say it. Your story was so boring I almost fell asleep. But I still remembered one thing. I remembered that your mother is a whore. So, I'm willing to help you, inferior being. Be honored."
I looked at Ren and cracked a slight smile.
Me, in my head: I knew you were actually nice deep down, Ren, despite your tough-guy act.
Suddenly, Ren added, "But, because there is always a 'but.' After the mission, I demand 100 gold pieces."
My thoughts: I take back what I said. All he cares about is cash.
Just as Nox was about to refuse the demands, Mélanie stopped him and said, "Okay, it's a deal."
After that, she turned her gaze toward me and Ragnor and asked, "And you two?"
I replied, "I agree to help too."
(My thoughts: Anyway, it's not like I have a choice.)
As for Ragnor, he didn't answer. After a few seconds of silence, Ragnor exclaimed in a trembling but firm voice, "I want to speak with Mélanie alone, one-on-one."
Nox: "I refuse. You might attack."
Ragnor replied, "How am I supposed to do that when I'm chained up and have an anti-magic collar around my neck?"
Mélanie: "Let it go, Nox. He's right, he can't do anything. Everyone out."
Ren, Nox, and I left the hall.
Outside the Hall
Ren pressed his ear against the door to try and eavesdrop on the conversation.
Me: "Stop it, Ren, that's rude!"
Ren replied, "Shut up, slave, you're doing the exact same thing."
Suddenly, I noticed that Ren was right. I had also pressed my ear against the door to listen without even realizing it.
Nox: "You two are really acting like children."
Ren replied, "Thanks for the compliment. Fun fact: according to a study, children are smarter than adults."
Me: "Please, don't fight, I don't want to see two companions kill each other."
Ren replied, "Don't worry, slave, I don't want to waste my time killing an insect."
Nox countered, "And I don't want to waste my time with a cat that has zero IQ."
Suddenly, Nox quickly became serious again and said, "I want to speak with you in private, Ren."
After they left for another room, I felt a bit left out.
Nox (POV)
I spoke up directly and said, "Why didn't you remove your anti-magic collar when you are fully capable of doing so?"
Ren was taken aback and said, "What are you talking about, stupid wolf?"
Me: "Stop pretending. The collar is made to resist beings who have between 1 and 1,000 mana. But you, you have more. So why didn't the collar explode, and why are you keeping it on?"
Ren burst out laughing and said, "Okay, okay, I must admit you aren't as stupid as you look. But before answering your two questions, I have a question too. How do you know how much mana I have?"
Meanwhile in the Hall — Ragnor (POV)
Mélanie said, "So, Ragnor, do you agree to help me, yes or no?"
I replied, "Before I answer, I have a few questions. Why do you want to unify two different peoples at all costs, and what exactly do you mean by the word 'dethrone'? Are you going to kill her, exile her, or imprison her?"
Mélanie answered in a pragmatic voice, "I am not a murderer, and despite the harm she did to me, she is still my mother. So, I plan to imprison her."
I let out a sigh of relief, but my shoulders remained tense as I said, "Imprison her...? But my goodness, Mélanie, you are talking about the Queen! She masters Dimensional Prison and self-healing. No dungeon in this world will be able to hold her for very long."
Mélanie replied, "That's where you're wrong, Ragnor. With Nox's help and his alchemy, we have what it takes to neutralize any mage, no matter how powerful they are. So, I am asking you one last time: are you going to help me, yes or no?"
I reflected for a moment before remembering she hadn't answered my first question yet.
Me: "Why do you want to unify two different peoples at all costs? What is your real goal?"
Mélanie answered, "Because unification is beneficial for everyone. Hybrids resist diseases better than purebloods. If we combine the resources of the elves and the beastmen, we will become the richest nation in the world. And diversity helps: different brains equal different strategies."
She added, "And it will soothe the tensions between the two peoples, so that means fewer stupid conflicts between beastmen and elves!"
Ragnor: "Tsk. You certainly know how to convince someone. I accept, but I hope everything you just said isn't a lie to get me to join you."
Mélanie smiled and replied in a sincere voice, "I promise you it isn't!"
Meanwhile with Nox and Ren — Nox (POV)
Me: "I don't know exactly how much mana you have, but I have an estimate. You have between 5,000 and 10,000 mana."
Ren raised an eyebrow: "Why that estimate?"
I explained, "When I kidnapped you and put you to sleep, I placed a device on you to find out your mana. That device is called the Calculleta. It's a device that I created and invented. It shows the amount of mana an opponent has. The Calculleta looks like a small insect. So I put it on everyone's neck. Yuta's mana: 10. Ragnor's mana: 50. But when I put the Calculleta on your neck, it exploded in 0.5 seconds. Whereas when I put it on Mélanie, who nevertheless has a lot of mana (100), it didn't explode. So I formed a theory. For the Calculleta to explode in such a short amount of time, it means you have 100 times more mana than Mélanie. That's why I gave the 5,000 to 10,000 range."
Ren (POV)
Wow, wow, wow. I must admit this wolf is smart. He is the first one who has managed to completely earn my respect. Not because he is the strongest (I am the strongest) or because he is handsome (I am beauty incarnate), but because he is intelligent. He might be one of the few who can rival me in terms of intelligence.
Ragnor doesn't have my respect because, sure, he is strong, but he is way too emotional, impulsive, and loud.
As for Yuta, he is weak, naive, and passive, but he has potential. Too bad he uses it poorly.
Mélanie, I can't judge her yet, we barely just met and she hasn't shown anything concrete.
Elena, on the other hand, is a female Temo version of me.
Nox is the only one with almost no weaknesses. I say almost because everyone has a weakness, even me. But me, I just have a very tiny weakness. A minuscule weakness. Aside from that minuscule weakness, I am 99.99% perfect.
Me: "Well, I must admit you impressed me, and since you answered my questions, it's my turn to answer yours. I am curious by nature. So after the clash against the spiders, I decided to do a bit of roleplay. What does it feel like to be weak? So, I used sealing magic to seal my powers. That's why the collar wasn't destroyed and why I didn't remove it."
Nox was startled and shouted, "But sealing magic is a forbidden magic! Even elven archmages have trouble mastering it. Who are you really?"
I replied, "I am Ren. The Feline Emperor."
Nox got angry and said, "Be serious."
Me: "The discussion ends here, we've talked enough already."
Yuta (POV)
I paced around in circles in the hallway for several minutes. What were they plotting without me?
Suddenly, Nox and Ren appeared. Nox looked a bit irritated but tried to maintain a stoic face. Ren, meanwhile, had a smirk on his face.
Me: "What have you guys been doing this whole time?"
Ren answered, "We talked about feline perfection and why canines are inferior."
Nox, however, said nothing.
Suddenly, the door to the hall opened.
Mélanie said, "Ragnor has agreed to join us."
Ragnor approached Ren and said, "I apologize for hitting you."
Ren replied in a theatrical tone, "Don't worry, slave, your emperor forgives you."
Ragnor quickly became angry again and clenched his fists.
Seeing the sparks about to fly, I said, "Don't start fighting again!"
Ragnor let out a "tsk" and turned his head away. Ren gave me a strange look. I don't know how to describe it. But right after, he looked away.
Mélanie spoke up and said, "Before we go to dethrone Elena, there is another problem to solve. The reptile faction. They are beastmen who do not recognize my authority because I am an elf. They own 20% of the Black Forest (the entire Black Forest spans 35,000 km²)."
Nox added, "And they think Mélanie killed the lion king, King. And the leader of the reptiles, Torak, was King's best friend."
Ren said, "We should just ignore them."
Mélanie: "Yes, we can ignore them, but they aren't going to ignore us, and I don't want to fight on two fronts. So, we must make an alliance with the reptiles, and let me remind you that my objective is unification."
Me: "What do we do then?"
Mélanie replied, "First, we go gather information about the real culprit, and after that, we go explain to the reptile faction that I didn't do anything."
Ragnor asked, "When do we start?"
Mélanie answered, "Tomorrow. Today was an eventful day, so we deserve some rest."
Author's Note
"Hey guys. While reading through my story, I noticed two inconsistencies. I'm sorry about that, and I'm here to fix them.
You might remember that I said Ren sealed his powers away because he was disappointed by the spiders (those frauds), so you might wonder: why did the calculleta explode? It didn't make any sense since that happened after the seal was placed. But don't forget that Ren's power is immense (∞), so it took a bit of time to be completely sealed away. When Nox placed the calculleta on Ren, Ren's powers were only sealed at 99%. That remaining 1% was more than enough to completely destroy the calculleta.
The second inconsistency involves Kuma's cloning pill. You are probably wondering what its limitations are. In reality, it has almost no limits. The clones are immortal as long as the original body doesn't die and the original body hasn't drunk any water (water washes away the magical effect of the pill by diluting it). Therefore, you can kill a clone multiple times, and it will instantly come back to life. Furthermore, the clones have no consciousness of their own; they are essentially bots that obey the original body 100% of the time. However, the more clones you have, the more your magic gets divided. For example: if you have 1 clone, your clone gets 50% of your power (leaving you with only 50%). If you have 3 clones, each clone gets 25% of your power (leaving you with only 25%), and so on.
I hope I managed to fix these inconsistencies."