At the same time in the free trading city Jokura.
Ace had been summoned to a conference between Pax and Vanguard regarding the recent activity of the demon side and the aftermath of the expedition to earth.
The operation to retrieve Memory of Athanasia on Earth was a joint project between the two sides. Originally, the other member designated for the mission was from Pax since Vanguard had sent Ace already.
It was the stipulation set by the Goddess that only legacy wielders could go that Jiushi and Ace, both from Vanguard, ended up going together.
Pax had to give in. Even if they had protested, the selection was ultimately in the hands of the gods and mortal beings had no say in this. But that didn’t mean they would get taken advantage off easily.
The power balance between the two leading forces of Pax and Vanguard was already out of order with both god-level legacy wielders being part of the latter. Despite Pax being several times larger than Vanguard, absolute power held the advantage over numbers as past battles showed. For this reason, both had agreed that the last legacy would go over to Pax in exchange for investing in the operation.
Now that Vanguard came back empty-handed, the relationship between the two parties was strained more than ever. Other organizations were even waiting for an eventual war. In the ideal case, they could take over the resources and territory of the loser. However, both sides knew that they couldn’t afford to go at each other's throats.
Thus, they were currently negotiating the remuneration for Pax. However, both sides were making ridiculous demands so that they were already stuck for a whole day with no results to show. Instead of coming up with innovative countermeasures against the enemy, they were squandering time by playing politics.
Both sides had sent in three people for the negotiations, but in the end, only the two leaders were arguing back and forth.
“Pax funded seventy percent of the whole operation, but the result was a complete loss of all resources that went in,” the spokesperson of Pax said.
The speaker was the leader of the delegation from Pax. It was a young lad in his later twenties who was rather blunt with his speech. There wasn’t an ounce of courtesy or nice guy filter as he bashed out his ridiculous demands.
“Vanguard should pay back half of the funds Pax put in and dispatch five high tier mages as temporary mercenaries until our mages regain their peak state.”
Hearing his arrogance and matter-of-fact tone, Alver, who was leading the negotiations for Vanguard nearly snapped at him. “That’s ridiculous. You know more than anyone else that Vanguard doesn’t have that many members to spare. Especially not high-level mages.”
The young man had already expected this answer, “Of course you don’t. Vanguard never has resources. But you're always the fastest to snatch new sources.”
Alver constricted his pupils.
However, before he could raise his voice, Ace who took the role of a shadow finally spoke up.
“Jerry, just say it out loud.” His voice was rather calm for the jab they just received. The other party was implying that they were hiding the legacy. But being indeed the offender of this crime, he had to at least fend off some bullets for Vanguard.
“What you want aren’t really resources, but the manpower to search for the last legacy. The risk of losing everything and getting nothing was clear from the beginning.”
Jerry gritted his teeth. That was the truth. Athanasia was vague with her revelation to Ace. What they would find on Earth was never clearly stated.
“But we can’t hand over Tommy to Pax that easily. You know better than everyone else as his former partner,” Ace looked at Jerry, “His growth would only stagnate in Pax’s environment.”
There was a chilling aura and Alver, who was angered calmed down thanks to Ace’s intervention. If he let them continue, then they would end up fighting each other
“This is going to lead us nowhere if we continue. Let’s take a short break and cool down,” Alver suggested.
The idea was met with unanimous approval. Each of them shattered. It was obvious that Jerry was a loner despite being the delegation leader. His two team members went to grab lunch together while he went out alone.
Ace didn’t join his team members either. He wanted to have a private chat with Jerry, who he hadn’t heard news about for months.
“Jerry!”
The person in question turned around with a displeased expression. “What do you want, Ace?”
“Come on, we aren’t strangers. I was just talking about you with Tommy shortly before I set off and now we meet like this!” Ace said with a natural smile.
Seeing him so friendly really pissed Jerry off! Knowing Ace for a few years already, what he said was half his sincere feelings and half a sarcastic remark.
But he couldn’t hold it against him. After all, the one who left without a word was him. Even if he had his reasons, the other guys were his comrades that fought with him side by side.
“Haaah, what do you want?” Jerry gave up.
“Actually nothing. The one who you should contact is Tommy,” Ace casually responded.
Jerry felt a knot in his throat clogging up his breathing, “I will talk to him when he’s coming over to Pax as a mercenary.”
“Cheapskate.”
Jerry looked at him with a blank face, “I switched sides. Acting friendly won’t do you good.”
Ace was quiet for a moment.
He asked, “Is there really no way for you to come back? You can search for them while being in Vanguard too.”
Jerry shook his head, “Vanguard and Pax are vastly different. What I need are numbers and a wide network.
“Vanguard has power, but that’s it. Pax has the means to find my family.”
Ace couldn’t argue with his reasoning.
Vanguard was more an assemble of single mercenaries or elite groups that would rush to the frontline whenever needed. They were originally no organization per se.
When humanity was just transferred over, half of the population fell victim to the demons, diseases, and hunger in the first three months.
It was the cruel selection stage when humans just awakened and had to participate in the war of another world as their “saviors” or “heroes”. Naturally, people protested, but there were a few individuals that quickly adapted to the situation and volunteered to fight with the blessings bestowed by the goddess Athanasia.
The first batch of awakened ability users was born and sent out as vanguards to fight against the demon’s advance with the support of the native inhabitants of Agnostos.
Many fell, but a lot also emerged as heroes. With more batches of ability users following, the demons were pushed back temporarily.
The one leading the vanguards was none other than Ace and the people around him.
They were literally the vanguard and people kept on referring to them as ‘Vanguard’ that they decided to band together as an organization.
Pax, on the contrary, was fundamentally different. Their dogma was to protect the people who couldn’t awaken and prevent the split of society into two classes. Without them, ability users with immoral motives would have terrorized not only normal fellow Earthlings, but also the natives of Agnostos.
Vanguard was the new defense force, while Pax took on the task of a temporary government. In fact, many administrators were former state heads or politicians. To refer to them as world government wasn’t wrong.
They kept the order of the new society consisting of ability users and normal civilians, negotiated prices with guilds, and kept diplomacy between Agnostos and Earth.
But more importantly, they were keeping records of all Earthlings that went in or out in the human territory.
To search for missing people… there was probably no better place than Pax.
(That's also me realizing that the novel I'm reading only has 180 chapters from 700+ translated)
Also plugging again, cause it's fun to see my friends sweat.
[BL] A Pirate’s Creed by OkuraTsukiko
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Is jerry... harem god's brother..
…
who knows?