Agatha The Legendary Guild Master

"I can move, talk, and fight as well. I know you, you are my master," she said in a calm tone that made me feel more comfortable, "you are that girl that made me lose all my qualifications at the mystic art society and got me punished to be your butler for a hundred years."

Her last added words caused my soul to stir up, I didn't expect her to remember that conflict between us. That seemed pretty risky to have here with me, she might seek revenge when I was vulnerable.

"Don't worry, I'm restricted to even think about harming you, or I would be severely punished. I don't want any more pain, and I hope you can use me all the time. the more I help you, the more comfortable and better my life would be after my punishment ends."

I looked straight into her eyes. This girl was now stronger than me, as I didn't yet forget how she saved my life.

If she had any ill intentions, then she should have let me fall under Terry's broadsword. She could have faked weakness and no one would have noticed anything.

"Don't doubt her, her life is attached to you. If the two of you were in the same place, then one death for you meant losing one level, however that meant she would be tortured for one month at our hell."

I looked towards Rody who just said that. It seemed I missed another important yet basic info here.

"Is this a known fact?" I asked.

"Yes," Elyo replied.

"What is this hell?" I asked with some curiosity.

"Hell is the real embodiment of anything torturing and bad that might come to your mind. It's a place where the empire holds its biggest villains inside. It's a place no one would ever dream of going there," Gabri tried to explain what I missed here.

It seemed this was a known fact, and that place looked scary enough to scare Diana from doing anything stupid. All this made me start to feel somewhat secure with her, however I wasn't totally sure about that.

After all, I didn't know when she might turn her blade towards me, or where.

So, as I figured out where this butler was standing exactly in my circle of friends, allies, and enemies then I had begun to focus again over the main purpose of coming here.

I needed to obtain money, enough coins to be able to achieve good results at the battlefield I was heading to next.

"You will always stand by my side," I ordered while turning my back to Diana.

"Sure, anything you order I will execute," she replied as she moved to stand behind me like a shadow.

I didn't fully trust her, however she was a powerful weapon that I needed. In fact I believed her presence in this upcoming battlefield would be a great boost to our strength.

Now all I needed to do was to wait for that hall master to come back with his compensation. I felt eager to know what treasures he would bring to here, however my main concern was related to the money compensation.

The more gold coins I got, the bigger the army I could bring. And that possibility gave me another problem I needed to solve.

My group was still young. Despite having the number of my group to exceed ten thousand by far, not many of them could be depended upon in hard fights.

That meant the number of my elite and top players couldn't be satisfactory to me. I expected to gain gold coins enough to bring two hundred players with me. I doubted I could find that number right now in my group.

That meant I needed to seek help from my allies. That would be good, and also bad. Those who would come from them should strictly follow my orders, which would be something unrealistic. As long as they didn't answer me at the end of the day, they wouldn't follow my rules to the letter.

And that was something uncomfortable indeed. I also didn't want my secrets, and secrets of any achievements I would accomplish there to be revealed to anyone outside my team.

So, asking friends for help wouldn't be a great idea after all, however it was the only idea I had in mind.

"Why are you like this?"

Suddenly Diana asked me. It was weird to be asked with such concern with someone who was an enemy of yours not long ago.

"It's nothing," I briefly replied without even looking at her.

"Princess, if you want to be far stronger and rise up way faster than before, I suggest you share your own thoughts with her," Rody said pointing out towards Diana.

I looked at him with doubt, however he was speaking seriously. It seemed that Diana would be my right hand, a real butler, or that what I felt from everyone's eyes.

"Fine, just gather around me as I also want your opinions about this."

The three in front of me exchanged silent glances before moving to stand before me. I turned to look at Diana as I said:

"Come here too, I need everyone's mind on this problem."

She looked silently at me as she moved to stand beside the three. The five of us stood there when I started to explain everything to them. I explained the problem of numbers, and expressed my fears and doubts regarding asking for external help.

"First of all you can't ask for any external help, whoever comes with you must be loyal and work under your banner," Rody said this first to blow up the whole problem from the ground.

"As for the numbers, we can fill it up with our players. We had some good seedlings in the group. Given time and support, they would grow up eventually and become elites," Gabri said.

"We can also use this as an opportunity to make some propaganda for the group. Many solo players out there might be tempted with the chance of going to the battlefield," Elyo suggested.

Her idea was good, but also risky. Attracting players just for mere benefits wasn't something good, but it could work to fill the gap I had right now.

"Gaining these players would help for now, but in the future they might cause more harm," I replied expressing my fears without saying any decision.

"They don't believe in the cause, I know that, but they might work like mercenaries," Elyo said with strange determination.

For me I wasn't afraid of them, however if there was a safer route then I would take it no doubt.

"You are still thinking of him," Gabri suddenly murmured.

"No, not at all, I just wanted to help."

Her tone was so defensive, however this wasn't the time to discuss something like that, especially when I guessed what went wrong here.

"If you want a perfect solution for that, then I have one for you."

Suddenly she spoke again expressing her thoughts. I looked towards Diana as the idea of trusting her wasn't fully approved by my mind. I had many doubts regarding her.

And yet, if she had a perfect solution for my problem, then it would be great to listen to her.

"What is this solution of yours?" I asked with a neutral tone.

"We can buy our own army."

Her words were somehow strange for me, and also for the three of my top players. I asked again with some doubts:

"What do you mean by that? Is there a mercenary group that we can hire?"

"No, I didn't mean those lowly souls that hire themselves for the highest bidder, I meant real players."

Her words seemed simple, however I couldn't understand what she was saying. My looks were evident of my confusion, so she started to explain:

"The sacred grounds of the mystic art society aren't simple test grounds or battlefields. There you can do anything, literally anything you want. So, buying yourself a slave army isn't hard, but costly."

Her expression of this army piqued my interest and aroused my anger. I always hated slavery, but before I could say anything Rody said first:

"Buying this army would cost us a lot, and in return we can't guarantee their loyalty and the most important of all we can't bring them back."

"It's like wasting our money on them. it would be better to get players from here, at least we could use their help in the future," Gabri added.

"You don't understand, the battlefield isn't that simple as you think," Diana argued back with a spirit that made me feel she hid something, or many things from us.

"Have you gone there before?" I asked.

"Of course I did. my rank there was very high, and to rise from a rank to a higher one you must go and serve in that bloody battlefield," she replied with some anger and pain in her voice.

This was the same old Diana that I met before at the meeting, not the docile acting loyal one here.

"I-I have my own reasons to hate that place," she muttered when she noticed my look. I was doubting her as I felt she was acting, a perfect actor she was.

"I don't want to hear your reasons for now, but I want your intel regarding that place. You spoke of a slave army that we can buy, where are they from? To whom their loyalty belongs? From where we can buy them and roughly how much they will cost is? And what will be their fate after we return?"

I said my own terms, as her own reasons would be for another time. All I wanted to know were the answers to these questions, as based on what she was going to say I might or might not agree on any idea proposed here right now.

A decision had to be made, and I intended to make it after gathering enough info.