Oliver Skylark hesitantly sat down while throwing Silas a deadly glare. He knew that he was in the wrong. Doing anything more would be the equivalent of angering the entire Darkless organization, and no matter how strong their family was, he doubted that they would protect him for a mistake of his own making.

Sure, he didn’t know who the kid was, but everyone in the Darkless organization seemed to be weird in their own ways. Some were degenerates, others were far too smart, and some were simply outright crazy. 

It would have been weird if they didn’t already have a kid capable of producing killing intent at such a level.

“Thank you, Game. I can handle it from here.” Archie smiled warmly before returning to a stoic expression when he turned to the men.

“While I handled the chief, his adopted daughter, and the pink-haired genius, Death and the commander chose to take care of Silas and Syra.”

“So you’ve retrieved the pink-haired girl?” The red-robed man asked while scratching his grey beard.

“Yes.” 

“Then…” The man reached into his carrier bag and pulled out a leather pouch the size of Silas’ head filled to the brim with gold.

“Here.”

*Thud*

“Keep her with you for 6 years. Train her to become a deadly warrior and in the arts of etiquette. We’re leaving her in your care.” The man crossed his arms and nodded at Archie.

“Of course, sir.” Archie grabbed the pouch and set it on the floor beside him before Glancing at Death.

“Ah, yes.” Death stood up and set a bag in front of the white-robed man, who looked into it for a moment before nodding and taking out his own pouch of gold that was half the size of the red-robed man.

Archie quickly set it aside before looking at Oliver.

“What? You expect me to pay you for a job you haven’t done?” He sneered.

Everyone in the room froze except Silas and the red-robed man. They both seemed to be too experienced to be affected by something as feeble as killing intent. Or at least Archie’s killing intent.

“Your outdated brain-dead information lost us our commander.” Archie spat.

“What nonsense are you spouting.”

“That kid you were after? He’s dead.” All of them widened their eyes at Archie’s statement, except Death and Silas, of course.

“Death almost died defending against that knight, Lochras. That woman, too; what was her name again? Keira? 

She and a nun from the church, alongside Silas Skylark, singlehandedly killed our commander. The kid sacrificed himself by creating a new spell variation that blew up in both their faces and wiped out most of Uladia.” Archie explained.

“That’s unfortunate. It may take longer to recreate Uladia, though I do have to say, building it back from the ground in the church’s ideal way seemed to be a win-win situation.” The white-robed man stroked his chin, while Oliver had a vein bulging on his forehead as he tried his best to suppress his rage.

“What about the girl?”

“Traumatized and might never touch magic again after seeing what happened to her brother. They will most likely move to one of the cities where there is more protection from kidnappings and raids like this.” He replied without any emotion, yet Silas could see Archie looking at him from the corner of his eyes.

The rest of the conversations went smoothly. Oliver eventually left after complaining for a little too long, while the others thanked Archie for his services and galloped toward their next location.

“They didn’t seem to angry about the fact that all their men died.” Silas commented from behind them, being the last one to leave the tent since he didn’t want to have to see Oliver out.

He didn’t know whether or not he would be able to control himself from killing Oliver on the spot. Sure, Oliver was essentially a messenger, but Silas doubted that his bottomless rage would be snuffed out by anything other than the death of a Skylark.

‘There are bigger fish to fry. Though…’

‘I wouldn’t mind burning all of you alive.’ Silas’s eyes became cloudy momentarily, but he didn’t let killing intent leave his body this time.

“Game. To my office, please.” Archie ordered before they both walked toward a small tent, and entered.

The room was quite barren. It had a big table and two chairs. That was all.

“So, Silas.” he sighed while tapping a rune on his desk that caused all the runes in the room to shine brightly before dimming.

“That was a silencing array. Nothing in here can be heard from the outside. It also locks the tent from intruders.” He explained as Silas sat down as well.

“Did you have to choose the name ‘Game’? It sounds so stupid.” Silas asked with a tiny bit of resentment.

“It’s the only name I had. This situation was out of my hand. Nice choice with the last name though. Evergreen. Quite fancy.” He shrugged nonchalantly, waving the matter off with a couple of words before descending into silence.

They sat in silence for a few seconds before Archie spoke again.

“You’re good at hiding your anger… Sometimes your actions and self-control make me think that you might not be a child at all.” The Architect narrowed his eyes, but Silas didn’t react.

He saw how Silas controlled his anger before. He also knew that the killing intent was most likely a slip-up made by the fact that Silas had reached the Topaz core.

“Others don’t see it, but I do. That bottomless pit rage boiling inside you. You want to do nothing more than kill the man who put your family in danger, but you’re mature enough to understand that killing Oliver was not a solution. 

Wasting your anger on him would be like taking your anger out on a pillow. It would be a waste of time, and most of all, it would be worthless.”

“Let’s be honest. You want the Skylark family out of the picture. They’re somehow a pain in your ass and the organization’s ass, and you want to eliminate them. 

Though, you, for some reason, don’t or can’t do it under your name or the organization’s name, so you are choosing to get rid of them through me. Am I correct in my assumption?” Silas tilted his head to the right by a few angles.

“You see… This is why I like you. We don’t bullshit around. We get straight to the point.” He smiled.

“Then please, get to the point.” Silas narrowed his eyes before resting his back on the chair.

“I will support you from the sidelines in everything you do, and everything you need.

Once I become commander, I want you to become my right-hand man, and the 7th General of the Darkless Organization.” The Architect smiled almost maniacally as those words left his lips.

“And in return, you will bring an end to the Skylark family household.” His lips stretched from one ear to the other.

“You want me to take your position as the Architect?” Silas raised a brow. It made sense. Silas was intelligent, and for all Archie knew, Silas might have been just as intelligent as him despite their age gap.

“No…” Archie chuckled while leaning back into his chair as well.

“I want you to be Judgement.”

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