"You can stop now, I get it, I get it!" Master Giovanni grunted both dejectedly and with great sorrow.

He was so depressed.

​​

Before today, he didn't know the true meaning of being cornered.

He was too tired to even try and get out of this unscathed.

-Mommy, the opponent is too strong! Too prepared! I left my back open to be stabbed in the heart! What should I do?

-Run baby, run!

-But Mommy, I'm at his office with his people guarding outside! I don't want to die young TT_TT

-Your not young anymore... take care of yourself... sorry baby... the connection doesn't seem to be gooooood *voice fades away*

- TT__TT

"I give in," Master Giovanni relented in a tired voice.

He did not feel like the experienced adult in this conversation.

Master Giovanni's energetic body was now slouching all over as if he had aged 5 years in the time that Elijah had listed everything, he 'owed' him.

He was the one being cheated here...

Master Giovanni always understood the idea of giving and taking, always careful of accepting favors because he knew that they had to be paid back, yet somehow, there were near a dozen things that he had to compensate for.

Things that he had somehow never even taken note of.

Mind-boggling.

"Well I'm not holding you back," Elijah had spoken for such a long time, yet he wasn't out of breath nor was he nearly as tired as Master Giovanni, who had simply been listening.

This is because there is something called, mental exhaustion.

It saps away all your energy all will to live.

"I know that fellow, TWO, he's my disciple!"

Master Giovanni seemed to have regained his energy in an instance, pride seeping out.

It was almost as if he was declaring that he had raised the kid singlehandedly.

Master Giovanni nearly forgot that he had only accepted TWO as his disciple today and none of the formalities had even been done as of yet.

"Do tell."

There was clearly a story here.

Master Giovanni started talking, but then the more he spoke, the more he found himself sounding strange.

Not even midway, just two sentences in, he seemed to have realized that there was nothing good about recounting this story, it surely didn't put him in a good light.

Not to mention there was barely a point.

He couldn't forget that he wasn't Elijah's subordinate!

He didn't have to report to him!

Master Giovanni pursed his lips before taking a few mental steps back.

"Kid, you almost got me again. How can you always plot against your elders? This information shouldn't come for free!"

Master Giovanni's eyebrows knitted in annoyance.

"Then how about I exchange it for the things on the list?"

Elijah asked without even blinking.

Admitting to having realized that Master Giovanni was talking more than he should have, yet still ignoring that fact as if it was completely okay.

How is one to talk to such a shameless fellow?

The answer is you try your best to not do so at all.

As mommy always said, when you meet a formidable opponent that you simply can't defeat right now, you should run away!

And if you can't run away because you have trapped yourself in the other's base, then you only have yourself to blame.

"All you need to know is that TWO was amazed at my skills and decided that he couldn't go without having me as his master!" Master Giovanni proclaimed without blushing.

And he was complaining about the other person being shameless...

[Master Giovanni: Old people get to be shameless!]

Even Elijah's eye twitched.

For some reason that he couldn't pinpoint, perhaps it was his gut feeling that told him, that he simply wouldn't be able to force himself to believe such a blatant lie.

But then again, why would TWO take him as his Master?

"But from what I can tell... at least from the direction that your story was going, it doesn't seem that you won against TWO."

Of course, he couldn't tell from just two sentences, but just from Master Giovanni's facial expression, Elijah could tell that he didn't win.

Not to mention Master Giovanni had only said that he made progress on the mission, not that he had accomplished it for his disciples.

Elijah had contacted other hackers in the past, and while some of them had proclaimed that TWO was a single entity, mainly the weaker hackers.

Others proclaimed that TWO was multiple entities working together.

Elijah was more inclined to believe this claim seeing as they were coming from the better-known hackers with more achievements under their belts.

Still, he didn't want to assume anything and then miss out on key information.

That was what Elijah currently wanted to probe about, though of course from his question, it didn't seem like it.

Master Giovanni didn't flinch even after hearing the question.

He had clearly composed himself after those previous attacks on his character. Now looking back, he realized how riled he had been, completely unlike his usual self.

"Start paying up!"

Master Giovanni demanded as if it weren't himself who was indebted to the other but rather the other way around.

Elijah lifted an eyebrow and took out a sheet of paper that had already been preprepared.

On it, there was a list of everything Master Giovanni 'owed' him.

There were more things than what Elijah had listed before.

It took a minute for Master Giovanni to make sure that they were all correct and that those were all events that had occurred.

From big to small, Giovanni had to rack his brain to recall some things that he had long forgotten.

Looking at this list, he was once again depressed.

In his heart, he promised himself that he would never be indebted to anyone ever again!

"Fine!"

He mumbled underneath his breath.

'Let's do this!'

The battle ended rather quickly.

Master Giovanni did his best to release as little information as possible, as slowly as possible while having Elijah cross out as many debts as possible.

Whenever Master Giovanni said something Elijah thought was worth something, he would cross off the corresponding debt.

Elijah had enough integrity to be straightforward and honest about this part.

There was no point in doing business anymore if he didn't have this level of sincerity. Or no trust would be built and no business would be done.

Master Giovanni had revealed pretty much everything by the end.

The situation with TWO.

Them being two people in total.

One who went by the name of TWO, that was the one whom he accepted as a disciple.

And another whose name was not given to him.

One of a much higher caliber than himself.

Master Giovanni didn't find it shameful to admit that he had lost.

Not only that, but he also admitted that his system had been hacked into, but Elijah didn't mind too much.

Master Giovanni had told Elijah that the other party was trying to get his niece's information at that time.

And at the end, because there were still a few things left on the list, Master Giovanni even had to elaborate on just how exactly that talk with that person who was stronger than himself went about.

Even after all that, there were still two more things on the list, those being the two biggest debts that Master Giovanni owed the other party.

He still couldn't get away from this kid Elijah because of them, and thus his previous dreams were crushed.

"Do you want me to connect my disciple with you? Surely you can cross off those two matters with this favor, no?"

Master Giovanni asked without much hope in his eyes.

"Do you mean to say that your brother's reputation and safety are only as important as your connection to your disciple?"

Elijah's brow lifted a bit, but he quickly moved on so as to not really offend the elder.

"I don't need it."

"?"

"I mean to say that there will be no need for you to connect me to your disciple, I have no interest in contacting TWO as of right now."

Elijah pondered for a bit.

It seemed like he didn't put the matter about M and TWO at a very high level of importance, but he still cared enough about it to chat with him for over an hour, nearing two.

Only people close enough to him and with enough updates on his matter would know how desperately Elijah had been looking for this character.

Then he stood up while Master Giovanni followed suit near instinctively.

"Our chat has already extended way past the time initially allocated for this matter, but I do have to admit that this information was quite useful."

"How about we make another appointment when we both have time? I'll lead you to the door." Elijah smiled amicably.

He had clearly left the old man with no other choice, yet he still spoke so politely as if he were respecting the elder... not wanting to waste the old man's precious time.

Master Giovanni huffed, knowing exactly what Elijah was thinking.

He left without waiting for Elijah to take him to the door and right before he closed the door behind himself, he waved the paper with a bunch of crosses and two lines of text that could still be read, saying, "even if you come to me later saying that I have more debts on events before today's date, as long as they are not written on this paper right now, I won't admit it!"

*Slam*

Elijah smiled wryly, but he let the matter go in the end.

He did indeed have more things to add, but there was no point hanging on the matter, he had gotten what he wanted and this information was more than enough to satisfy his appetite for the following days.

Elijah sat back down, now in an even more relaxed, yet contemplative manner.

He moved his head so it leaned on the top of the couch's headrest before sighing.

"M, I've finally gotten one step closer to you."

His hand reaching out to grab the thin air above him.