Chapter 385: Deal [9]

"I must say, your helper is quite the tenacious one."

The parasite stood before me, its form even blurrier than before.

"Are you having difficulty sustaining your clone... or whatever it is that you are using to talk to me?"

I asked with genuine curiosity.

Currently, I was in an area of Diana’s domain where I could no longer feel the fluctuations of mana which I had been able to as a result of Arthur and Diana’s fight.

Surely Arthur hadn’t been defeated, but this strange silence was starting to make me a little uneasy.

"You do know that it wouldn’t even take a second for me to erase your existence."

Diana didn’t answer my question, but followed with a threat of her own.

"Killing me won’t achieve a thing and would only make matters worse for you."

If the parasite was present here talking to me, even when it should have been fighting an intense battle against Arthur, then... it meant only one thing.

It wanted to negotiate... after all the arrogance that it had tried to project.

"You sure trust that brain of yours a lot, don’t you?"

Hm?

Diana moved closer to me, her movements at complete ease as opposed to the gravity of the situation.

Maybe, it wasn’t as much of a big deal for her as I had thought it to be.

Still, I had the belief that all of Diana’s actions so far were just an act.

The parasite was in no way at the ease that it was desperately trying to portray.

"I could just manipulate your memory and kill that helper of yours... all things solved."

I couldn’t see the parasite’s face but it was easy to visualise the smirk that might have been formed on it.

"You haven’t done any of that yet, and well... wouldn’t the headmaster notice irregularities in me, as you see... we are quite close."

I said with a straight face.

I was in no way close to the headmaster but him being my guardian could be considered as such... or at least I thought so.

The parasite didn’t say anything as it stood in silence, before turning its gaze in a different direction altogether.

When Diana and Arthur had clashed for the first time, I had been thrown away by the mere remnant of the impact of their fight.

Still, my body hadn’t been as damaged as I had expected it to be.

Arthur must have done something at the end to save me from being outright killed, without having to divert his attention from the fight.

"Just answer my question kid, and things won’t have to turn ugly."

Diana’s voice was soothing and it once again made me feel at complete ease.

It gave the feeling of certainty... like everything would be solved on its own once I listened to her—

Sigh.

It was just now that I could remember all the things that had happened before Arthur’s arrival.

The parasite had really got me there.

"I don’t know what answer you are expecting as I have already explained the situation. The headmaster has his suspicion on someone trying to harm me, and well... I already had my suspicions over you. Don’t ask how I knew about everything, because I ain’t telling you any of that."

I clarified myself before slightly stretching my back.

Flying in the air and then making a brutal landing really had its effect on my body, though most of it was healed by my regenerative abilities.

That had consumed quite a bit of mana... though I wasn’t one to complain about it.

"And let me say it again... you really are misunderstanding the situation here."

Raising both my hands in a gesture of being exasperated, I began a new part of my own act.

The parasite didn’t say anything to my words, but its silence was confirmation in itself that... it was listening or at least was willing to listen to me.

"I have no interest in making an enemy out of you. Heck, I don’t even care about what you do in the academy or what your plans are. You can destroy the world for all I care."

My words were sincere, but not completely.

I wasn’t a hero, but that didn’t mean I would allow a psychopath with a troubled past to destroy the world in order to seek some vengeance of hers.

I mean... I was not a fool to build a mighty criminal organization only for the place to commit the crimes being eliminated from existence itself.

But those were my inner thoughts and there was no need for the parasite to know about them.

"Speaking honestly, I don’t even know who you are, but—"

I took a small pause before closing my distance with Diana who stood a couple of metres away, her back turned towards me, with her face gazing into the distant expanse.

Was she observing Arthur from here?

Still, my pause seemed to have had some effect on her, as she slowly turned around before meeting my eyes.

"From all the events so far, I have deduced a simple analysis—"

I paused once again to let my words sink deeper into Diana’s mind.

"You have more enemies in this world than your allies, and that is... if you indeed have some allies."

My voice turned softer at the end, as I was in a completely diplomatic mode... with every word uttered in order to create a meaningful path for further discussions... or negotiations, to say the least.

There was a long silence, which soon began to feel a little awkward to me.

Maybe I should have—

"Hehehe... you don’t even know who I am, and yet here you are... trying to poach me into your camp."

"..."

"This is.... really making me curious. Which camp do you really belong to?"

Diana’s chuckle had resonated within the entire domain of hers, making it feel like there were several Dianas laughing at the same time.

If I had to say in polite terms, it was an eerie feeling to experience.

Which camp do I belong to?

The question wasn’t really difficult to answer, but it was a sort of deciding factor of what type of relation I wanted to have with the parasite going forward.

And... how much could I really trust or at least pretend to trust her?