BXBX NOVEL Chapter 31: Proposal
Chapter 31: Proposal
In one of the rooms of the hunters\' association, were sitting: Erik, Violet, Leon, and some people standing behind Leon with serious expressions.
Erik frowned, he was clearly in a bad mood at the moment due to the scandal that had occurred moments before.
...
"We meet again."
All attention was focused on Erik upon hearing that brief sentence. Although he was trying to look calm, inside he was cursing Leon with all his might.
Noticing the small smile on Leon\'s face, Erik sighed before replying, "Yes, we meet again, though it hasn\'t even been two days."
Leon nodded with a smile, took off the glasses he wore, and looked around. Then, still smiling, he suggested, "Why don\'t we find a quieter place to talk? We seem to be drawing a lot of attention to ourselves here."
In Erik\'s forehead, several veins began to throb. He felt like shouting that all this hubbub was his fault, but decided to keep quiet, knowing it would only make things worse. Instead, he inhaled deeply in an attempt to regain his composure.
This simple action only caused Leon\'s smile to widen a little more. He had done all of this to see Erik\'s reaction, and he was not disappointed.
"Come with me."
Leon and the others began to ascend toward the second floor. Erik motioned to Violet, who was watching him from a distance, indicating for her to follow him, as all the people turned their attention to him.
...
Returning to the present moment, Erik let out a sigh, aware that this was not the right time to be in a bad mood. His priority was to find a way to get stronger quickly, given that the entire Luminis guild was looking for the guild president\'s son.
"Why did you call me here? I doubt it\'s because of yesterday," he said with more calmness evident in his tone of voice.
"Show a little respect! You have no idea who\'s in front of you," one of the people behind Leon warned.
Erik shifted his gaze to the people behind Leon, choosing to ignore their words. He turned his attention back to Leon, who was sporting a smile on his face, and repeated his question, "Why did you call me here?"
"Hey, don\'t you hear that you should treat Mr. Leon with respect?" insisted the person behind Leon, clearly annoyed at being ignored. After all, to him, as a follower, it was unacceptable for a D-ranked hunter to be talking so casually with Leon, considered the strongest hunter today.
Erik\'s expression turned completely grim as he saw the guy behind Leon interrupting again. Right now, he wasn\'t in the mood to put up with all this crap. He had too much on his mind to deal with this.
Just by observing his attitude, Erik labeled him as one of the most annoying guys there could be: someone who blindly admired another.
"Hey, you fucking pet! Shut up, I\'m not talking to you!" Erik spoke coldly, his eyes emanating an icy, dangerous glare, fixed on the person behind Leon, who shuddered under that gaze.
The man behind Leon recoiled unconsciously as they exchanged glances, but quickly realized what had happened.
\'I... a follower of the strongest hunter, being afraid of a D-ranked hunter.\'
Magical power began to emerge from his body as he realized that he was afraid of a mere D-ranked hunter. He couldn\'t believe he had taken a step back just hearing those words.
Erik turned his gaze back to Leon, who was watching all of this with an amused smile. However, he was a bit surprised to see how his subordinate backed up a bit, considering that his subordinate was a B-ranked hunter.
\'Interesting...\'
Violet, who was standing next to Erik, was quite surprised. It was the first time she had seen him act that way. In fact, she kind of liked that domineering attitude, since he usually seemed calm most of the time.
\'But why is he so upset, could it be that something happened and I didn\'t notice?\'
"Leon, why did you call me here?" Erik repeated again. His patience was reaching its limit. He needed to go to a dungeon to level up soon, as it wouldn\'t be long before the Luminis guild would start looking for him.
He didn\'t want to be caught off guard, especially after drawing so much attention today because of Leon, who had spoken to him in front of all the hunters present at the time. He could smell for miles how annoying he would be when he left this place.
Hearing the question again, Leon stared in silence, until he let out a sigh. He spoke calmly, "The reason I called you was to make you a proposal."
"What kind of proposal?" asked Erik, now a little calmer.
"Well, the idea I have is that you join my group. I will provide you with 20 A-rank mana stones so you can advance to that rank. This also applies to you, little mage. Also, the compensation will be quite generous. "
The people around Leon were completely shocked by what they had just heard. They hadn\'t expected him to make such an offer to simple hunters who were only D-ranked.
Erik kept silent as Violet\'s eyes widened like saucers. With those 10 A-rank mana stones, she could move up from B-rank, and she would no longer have to worry about the Luminis guild trying to kill her because she was in the group of the strongest hunters in the world.
But in Erik\'s case, those mana stones would be of no use to him. As is well known, he does not possess magical power, but End Energy. Moreover, his very existence rejects the idea of being subordinate to anyone.
"I\'m sorry, but I can\'t accept your proposal," Erik said after a moment\'s thought.
This caused everyone in the room to be completely shocked. They didn\'t expect a D-ranked hunter to reject the offer, from the strongest man in the world!
After an awkward silence filled the room, Leon spoke up.
"May I ask the reason you turned down my proposal?"
"Hmm, the reason I turned it down is because I don\'t like being subordinate to someone," Erik answered with complete honesty. As mentioned before, his entire being? No, his entire existence rejects the idea of being beneath someone.
"Really... you turned down my proposal just because of that?"
"Yes."
Nadia in the room couldn\'t believe that was the reason for turning down the proposal, especially Leon, who seemed the most shocked. She expected any excuse, but not this one, even though she knew he wasn\'t lying.
"Phew... I really didn\'t expect to be rejected like this."
"But instead of joining our group, why don\'t we consider a future alliance?" suggested Erik in all seriousness.
"Are you serious?"
Erik simply nodded.
"Puff-Hahahahahahahahahahahaha..."
Leon started laughing out loud, making the whole place vibrate with his laughter. After a while, he stopped laughing.
"It\'s been a while since I\'ve laughed like that. Tell me, how do you know that to form an alliance, both parties must be on equal footing? What can you offer me, the strongest hunter in the world?"
"Hmm, at the moment I can offer you nothing. As you see, I am much weaker than you and have nothing to offer..."
"But that\'s just for now. In the future, it will be completely different."
Leon snorted. "How can you be so sure of that?"
"You didn\'t see it with your own eyes. I\'ve been a hunter for less than a week and I\'m already upgrading my rank."
\'This is all down to the system, though,\' he thought to himself.
Leon kept silent because Erik was absolutely right. It hadn\'t even been a month since he woke up as a hunter and it was likely that he would be moving up in rank soon, given the rapid growth he was experiencing at the moment.
"Well, let\'s say we accept the alliance, what do you need from me?" asked Leon.
"Indeed, I want you to help me just once and provide me with ten A-rank mana stones," Erik replied.
"What kind of help do you need? Mana stones aren\'t hard to come by," Leon pointed out.
Violet, who was listening quietly, was already getting a rough idea of what Erik was planning.
"I can\'t tell you at this time. So what do you say, are you willing to invest in our future alliance?" suggested Erik.
Leon sank into silence again. With this alliance, he had nothing to lose, and considering the extraordinary talent Erik had demonstrated, it didn\'t seem like a bad idea to accept it. Given the current circumstances, an alliance with him was not a bad choice.
"Well, I accept the alliance, what do you need my help for?" concluded Leon.
Erik flashed a smile as he saw that everything had gone according to plan. "As you know, the president of the Luminis guild is looking for his son, right?"
"Yes, I know, and what does that have to do with you?" asked Leon.
"I was the one who killed his son," Erik stated bluntly, getting straight to the point.
"Ahh... Now I get it," Leon understood everything. That was why Erik had asked him for help earlier.
Since Erik currently lacked the strength to take on the Luminis guild, he took the opportunity to get some temporary support, something that would help him stand up to that guild. And what better help than that of the strongest hunter in the world? With him by his side, he would not die and he would also take off a great weight that was affecting him.
"All right, I\'ll help you. After all, we made an alliance. I hope to count on you in the future," Leon said with a smile, as he was feeling quite stressed about the whole situation in general.
What better way to release some tension than by defeating a guild, right?
"I\'ll call you when I need your help. They still don\'t know it was me who killed the guild president\'s son," Erik said as he stood up and wrote down Violet\'s hunting address for them to send the mana stones.
Besides, the reason why he killed the son of the president of the Luminis guild is quite simple, and it was because if he left him alive he was going to have problems with that guild anyway.
Because Alexander loves his son very much, and obviously he would believe his son that even unknown.
"See you later."
With that said, Erik and Violet left the room, leaving Leon and his company alone.
....