“Yes, I have been notified of you. Please sit.” I pointed to the seat across me in which he immediately sat professionally.

“Sir, I’d say that Sir has an interesting way to welcome a guest.” Hmm… it seems that when a Magus calls another Magus on a higher stage, they call them ‘Sir.’

“Mhm… David, before we proceed with the discussion, I want to ask, ‘How could you be so confident when you entered an enclosed building filled with a strong mana interference area?’” I smiled, trying to test him out.

Indeed, the main reason that I used this place as the meeting place was none other than so. There was a total of ten strong mana interference areas set up below the building, each able to render any Magus incapable to cast any spell. With ten of such, a speck of mana couldn't come inside the building and even the surrounding 10 meters from the building was devoid of mana.

“Haha… I had known such a thing would happen. Besides, how could I not prepare some countermeasures?" David playfully stroked his long mustache, slitting his eyes with a mysterious vibe.

How come? Does his magic able to penetrate this building? No! That shouldn’t be possible… I was confident that no magic could last more than a second in a place that was completely devoid of mana; thus, I immediately dismissed the idea.

Anyway, the real reason that I set this up was nothing more than to cover my own identity. I wasn't even an Acolyte, let alone a Great Magus. Though, I've got a few other cards in my sleeve in case that this method didn't work.

“Now then, let’s just get into the discussion, shall we?” David said with a smile, “I heard that you killed our honorary dean and occupied part of Razel Dukedom. I want to know; how would you explain this?”

“Hmm…? Since you are sent here as an emissary, the Magic Institute of Ralonia would want peace, right? All the actions that I took against the Dukedom of Razel beforehand were just an act of self-defense. They mobilized troops against me, how can I not retaliate?! Moreover, the pride of a Magus such as myself couldn’t be taken lightly!” Well, that was all the truth even though that wasn’t the whole thing.

“I understand. It seems that Sir still hides something, but I won't question further for now.”

What does he mean ‘for now’? Now that reminds me of what he said previously. I began to have a bad feeling about this conversation.

“Ahem! So, tell me! What’s the Magic Institute of Ralonia wanted? Are they want to take the land that I have liberated by threatening me? Surely, they won’t come to such underhanded tactics, no?”

“Of course, we wouldn’t!” David’s expression remained tranquil despite I was trying to jump down his throat. It seemed that no matter what I spoke, he wouldn’t be triggered whatsoever.

“What we want is to have Sir as our honorary dean.”

“Do you mean for me to swear allegiance to the Magus Institute of Ralonia?”

“Not exactly, more like employment. Naturally, there are regulations and rules to follow."

They must be after my technology — especially robots. The golems in this world worked very differently than a typical robot. They used a mana stone as a core, able to work ‘caused by a magic array set up on their bodies. If my robots were to fall on their hands, they would be suspicious.

“Sir doesn’t need to worry; we didn’t care about what origin Sir might have nor does we demand any golems from Sir. All we wanted is to have Sir join our rank.” David playfully tapped his cane to the floor, unperturbed by anything.

"Very well then. But what about the benefit that I gain if I join?"

“I heard that Sir had made an agreement with the Grand Duke of Razel about territory, so I will skip that. What we can over is ‘title.’”

Title? I thought only the Raivia Union of Nations could grant someone a title. So, the rumor about the Magic Institute of Ralonia being the controller is true, huh?

“What you mean by title must be a ‘pseudo royalty,’ right? Isn’t that the reason why that Dukedom of Razel is a ‘Dukedom’ instead of a ‘Duchy’?”

“Right of the mark! Then, there isn’t much for me to explain. But with how large Sir’s territory at the moment, we could only give an ‘earl’ title, making it an earldom. However, Sir’s ability is too high for such a low title, so we will give an exception and grant the highest title available — a ‘grand duke’ title — instead.”

“Surely my territory to be called a dukedom is too small, no?”

“What do you mean by that, Sir?” David said all of that slowly with a smile.

“Let’s just get to the point. The plain on the north of the Brightmoon territory is vast and full of dangerous beasts. I can handle them and reclaim the land. How about giving the land to me?” What I said is true, but not only it’s full of magical beasts, there are also numerous valuable resources.

“Haha! Sir must be joking! Although that land was dangerous, filled with numerous magical beasts, bandits and have no standing government, it still falls under the Raivia Union of Nations. I cannot give the land to Sir.”

The northern plain had a size several times bigger than the Razel Dukedom. The reason that it was unoccupied was that it housed numerous dangerous magic beasts and bandits. Also, it was a place for bad people to mingle and conduct a dark trade. Yet that wasn’t the real reason why the Magic Institute of Ralonia ignored the place.

Yup! Why would they even ignore such a gold mine? There must be a reason for that, right? This is suspicious but still, I’ll try to push my luck a bit here.

“Is that so? David, how about this group of golems?”

Various blue lights were shining around the room and the surrounding room suddenly changed into a field made from a hologram. I could see a twitch on David’s expression for a moment as he observed the surrounding.

Bang! Bang!

In the distance, a group of ten robots was exchanging fires with each other with their pulse rifles. Strangely, they looked different than typical robots, but they weren’t the Warrior Robots. They had a full-armored knight appearance, a height of 2.5 meters, and a reflective surface made of sophisticated alloy.

They then ran around the field with a speed comparable to an official Knight and maybe even exceeded them by a bit. One of the robots later fired their pulse rifles into another robot in which a transparent shield appeared and deflected the bullets. All these robots were the new type of robots — the Knight type robots or Knight Robots.

“A magic shield! A golem that can use a magic shield will worth many times that couldn’t! If Sir gives this to me, I can talk with my mentor to permit Sir to station forces in the northern plain."

Heh? What permission to station a force? There wasn’t even a restriction to do that in the first place. This is more like a polite way to give a notice for mobilizing an army there.

“Very well, I’ll give these ten golems for you. However, keep in mind that once you try to dismantle them… Boom! It will explode.” The moment I said that the robots on the hologram also exploded and the room turned back to normal.

“I understand. I shall keep away from studying it.” David smiled, unbothered to comment more.

Why am I feeling that he will dismantle it if I didn’t tell him? Wait, wouldn’t it be a good surprise if I refrain from telling.

Afterward, we continued to discuss the smaller details regarding the agreement. Although sometimes we went astray on our talking and started discussing other stuff such as the knowledge of magic. Once in a blue moon, he even tried to pry about the method of 'plane traveling.' So there really are other planes out there, huh? I wonder what they look like.

In the end, I managed to avoid revealing the existence of spaceship and answered him with expertise. With the knowledge that I had gained from the court magicians and ATHENA’s help, my magic knowledge could even be compared to that of a Great Magus.

“Alright. Here is the contract, Sir.” David waved his hand and a contract out from his interspatial ring and flew into me.

A magic contract, eh? I wonder what will happen if I sign the contract with this synthetic body.

After inspecting that there was nothing wrong with the contract, I signed my name on it. It wasn’t my real name though, but the “Cosmic Lord” instead. Nevertheless, it still worked and the magic contract turned into a spark of light.

[Master~! I detected that strange energy just entered the synthetic body. There seems to be a part of it transferred into Master’s real body.]

What?! Seriously? Guess, I couldn’t be completely immune to such a high-level magic contract, heh? Having a majority of it diverted into this synthetic body is already a good thing anyway.

Weird… This is going way too smoothly. Are they aiming for something? Now that I think about it, I should ask about something that has been bothering me.

“David, you said that you come here not only under the Magic Institute of Ralonia but also under your mentor, Prophet Michael. I wonder, what's your 'real objective'?”

Hearing that, David’s smile changed into something that was unlike before.