Chapter 234: Zelretch: As Long As We Aren't Completely Wiped Out By The Other Party, It's Considered A Win
Until the moment Zelretch left the palace, returned to the Magical Workshop that had been barely restored to usability by those Magi, and sat down in his chair, he finally deflated like a punctured balloon, slumping into his seat. Cold sweat poured out uncontrollably as he gasped for breath like someone who had narrowly escaped death.
The oppressive presence of that King of the World was simply too overwhelming!
Although on the way back, after calming down, Zelretch had realized that since the other party had summoned him, it meant they had never intended to kill him from the start. The other party had used the apology gift he offered as a step to ease the tension—perhaps they still had some purpose in mind for him and his companions.
And before he left, the other party had mentioned that a Magecraft Symposium would soon be convened, along with some announcements to be made to the Magi—there must be some purpose behind that as well.
But at this moment of complete relaxation, Zelretch pushed all these thoughts to the back of his mind.
Not only did he not intend to dwell on those messy matters, he even felt like sleeping!
Yet he was afraid that if he fell asleep now, he might have nightmares about being summoned by the King of the World a second time!
Nevertheless, Zelretch lay down.
He rested in his chair, gradually recovering his rationality and stamina.
Once he had regained a bit of strength, Zelretch still didn't dare to dwell too deeply on specific matters. Instead, he simply planned to inspect the extent of the damage to his temporary Magical Workshop.
But when he saw the report—that at the moment the other party's will descended, all the Spell Formulas and Mystic Codes in the workshop had instantly been rendered useless—he once again recalled the oppressive feeling he had experienced in the other's presence!
"...I really should have just gone to sleep."
Even now, Zelretch felt his mind was somewhat foggy, but he didn't actually go to sleep.
Because, judging by the time, his fellow disciples would be arriving soon.
Regarding the matter of that King of the World, he absolutely had to prioritize warning his fellow disciples. Moreover—since the other party was convening a Magecraft Symposium, they needed to prepare the apology gift and the arrangements for Modern Magecraft, then participate with the utmost solemnity.
As for the original idea of collaborating with the other party...
All those bold declarations like "because we are the strongest group of Magi of this era," "I will prove here that Modern Magecraft is the strongest Magecraft of the present," and "because our teacher is the King of Magecraft"—were all selectively forgotten by Zelretch at this moment.
Now he had only one thought.
That was... as long as they weren't exterminated to the last man by the other party, it would count as a victory!
Naturally, Zelretch's seemingly fear-stricken demands did not gain the approval of his fellow disciples.
After his fellow disciples had all gathered, they discussed the matter and ultimately had no objections to Noah's invitation to attend the Magecraft Symposium. As for what Zelretch had said when meeting Noah—that if the apology gift failed to satisfy him, they would submit to his judgment—they also had no major objections.
Although some among them expressed verbal dissatisfaction with Zelretch using their teacher's name to swear an oath, they didn't say anything particularly harsh about it.
Since Zelretch had said so, what else could they do?
They had no intention of tarnishing their teacher's name, and their thoughts aligned with Zelretch's—that Modern Magecraft would undoubtedly serve as an excellent bargaining chip.
In that case, there was nothing more to discuss.
Thus, when the time came for the magecraft symposium that Noah had mentioned, Zelretch and his fellow disciples, led by Tamamo-no-Mae who had been sent by Noah, made their way to the venue.
Having already met Vivian and then Noah himself, Zelretch was somewhat surprised upon encountering Tamamo-no-Mae, but ultimately showed no particularly strong reaction.
However, Zelretch's fellow disciples were different.
They had only heard about Vivian and Noah from Zelretch. While they might have been able to imagine Vivian, they felt Zelretch's descriptions of Noah were somewhat exaggerated.
This led them to feel an intangible pressure from all directions when they saw Tamamo-no-Mae, the eight-tailed fox.
Tamamo-no-Mae certainly had no intention of deliberately suppressing them, but their Spell Formulas warned them that she was an extremely dangerous individual, with an unknown level of threat!
In their judgment, the impression Tamamo-no-Mae gave them was no less formidable than Zelretch's description of Vivian.
Thus, regardless of whether Zelretch's accounts of the King of the World were exaggerated, they had now encountered at least two incredibly powerful maids in his service!
Moreover, they had heard that maids were merely Noah's attendants. In Noah's kingdom, the true high-ranking officials were the Adjutant Officers and the Knights of the Round Table.
Among the Adjutant Officers, one figure particularly caught their attention: Merlin, who still held the title of Britain's greatest Magus. However, after Noah became the King of the World, perhaps he should now be called the world's greatest Magus.
As for the Knights of the Round Table...
They could only speculate, unable to confirm and not daring to confirm.
The information might also be false.
But... they seemed to have seen a knight named Scáthach on the list of Knights of the Round Table.
Previously, they had doubted this was fabricated.
They couldn't believe that the Queen of the Land of Shadows, the renowned 'Teacher of Heroes' celebrated worldwide, would become one of Noah's knights.
Yet now, after witnessing maids like Vivian and Tamamo-no-Mae, even they had to acknowledge that such a thing might indeed be true...
The more they learned, the more they realized that Noah, the King of the World, might not only be formidable himself—the individuals around him were also monsters in their own right!
This left Zelretch's fellow disciples silent throughout the journey to the venue, each quietly organizing in their minds what they would present that day.
Seeing his fellow disciples finally approach the matter of the apology and the magecraft symposium with two hundred percent seriousness, Zelretch secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
After all, although his fellow disciples felt that his description of Noah, the King of the World, was somewhat exaggerated, only he knew the truth—he was not adept at expressing certain things in words, and he would never exaggerate. In fact, he had even failed to convey some of it fully!
Thus, he did not want to see his fellow disciples courting disaster at today's seminar because of this.
As long as they could prepare seriously now, there would be no problem.
After all, Modern Magecraft held sufficient value.
So today, as long as they could fully demonstrate everything about Modern Magecraft, collaboration might not be something to hope for, but after proving their own worth, at least there would be no danger, right?
With such thoughts, Zelretch remained deeply uneasy.
At this moment, Zelretch could not help but think this way.
Ah, if only he could see the outcome of doing this in advance—but that was something only the teacher could accomplish. It was not something they could overly wish for.
But if he could simultaneously execute all the plans in his mind, then observe which outcome was the best and choose accordingly... if only such a thing were possible.