Luckily it was early in the morning and the area near Erin's mansion was forbidden unless you have her permission, so no one besides the presents noticed the little clash between half emperors that just happened.
Before something else happened, Gabriel took the initiative to enter the mansion, as a sign of goodwill.
Leena followed not too long after and Daimon along with the girls also entered the mansion behind them, on the way to the main hall of the mansion, Daimon tried to discern what was the relation between Gabriel and Leena.
Previously with his truth seeker eyes, he noticed how careful was Gabriel when he touched the sleeve of Leena's dress.
"That guy was really careful when he tugged her sleeve, as if he was afraid to be too close with her, but at the same time he is trying to make it looks as if that wasn't the case".
Daimon still remembered more or less how strong was Arthur's mana pressure from the time Aura kicked his ass and Leena shouldn't be weaker than him, so he didn't understand why would she resort to an external force related to her rival, just to keep Alexander away.
Ultimately, he couldn't get an answer so he just shrugged.
"We'll see how it goes", he thought.
As the host Erin created a platform to take everyone upwards where her "throne" was, then she took seat, Aura sat at her left while Daimon took the right spot, with Elaine next to him.
Leena sat in front of them and Gabriel sat at her left but nearly one meter away and a few centimeters behind her.
Daimon relaxed on his chair before saying.
"Gabriel has already told miss Leena what are my conditions right?".
Leena stared at Daimon for a split of a second before she gazed at Erin.
"Erin, I recognize the braveness of this kid, but this is a negotiation between two half emperors, or are you scheming something to get more things from me?".
Erin smiled and then shrugged.
"Unfortunately for you, the merit of making you show your tail for the first time in hundreds of years doesn't belong to me, Daimon outwitted you, so the reward is for him, I'm only here as a spectator to enjoy the show".
Leena's eyes narrowed, she tried to discern if Erin was lying but seeing her relaxed expression, she reached the conclusion that Erin was telling the truth.
Although it was hard for her to believe a member of the young generation was the responsible of all this, she didn't let it show it on her face.
"Two can play like this Erin", she thought before focusing her attention on Daimon.
"Yes, he told me you wanted a to have the right to command me once am I right?".
Daimon nodded.
"Yes, is the base of the deal".
A dangerous glow flashed through Leena's eyes, a faint trace of her mana leaked out of her body, causing some yellow lightning sparks to explode in the air.
"The base you say?".
Daimon grinned, while other star ranked mages could have been intimidated by this little display of lightning, for him this was a paradise, in fact his magic core immediately absorbed all the lightning mana.
Leena saw her mana disappearing and she glared at Erin thinking it was done by her.
"Humph "spectator" my claws".
She then turned to see Daimon and asked.
"What do you want then?".
Daimon tapped his fingers on the table a couple of times before replying.
"You will have to sign a contract of amnesty with the Revy clan, also I want to know why are you going to accept my conditions without complaining, when they are so irrational".
A sepulchral silence fell in the room, even Erin was a bit surprised by Daimon's words, getting Leena to fulfill one petition was already a great achievement, but this was something that went beyond that.
"That's my Daimon, teach that tiger woman who's the boss!", she thought, of course she made sure to let others hear her thanks to the mental connection.
Gabriel on the other hand was sweating like crazy, his hands were firmly holding onto some kind of magic treasure, waiting for things to go to hell.
Surprisingly what he expected didn't happen, Leena instead remained quiet sitting there with a contemplative expression, but no matter how much thought she put onto it, she reached the same conclusion.
"I can accept it, but I will add another condition to the deal, if you don't agree then forget we had this conversation".
At this point Gabriel felt he was going to faint; all this situation has gone way different than what he expected.
Daimon looked at Erin and saw her nodding at him, she took out a black scroll and started redacting the soul contract, only a half emperor can make another half emperor comply after all.
"So, what is the condition you want to add", asked Daimon.
Leena rose two of her fingers and stated her terms.
"A spot in the exploration and you protecting the girl of the photo, the amnesty will last as much time as you keep her away from Arthur's family branch… of course this is a complete separate matter from the single wish you can ask me".
"For that you can't ask me to harm myself nor the members of my family branch… unless they try something against you, I leave the rest to Erin she knows about these kind of things".
Erin snorted, but she didn't say anything and just kept creating the contract.
Daimon extended his hand towards Leena and offered her a handshake.
"Deal".
Leena doubted for a second but she still accepted the gesture, what she didn't know was that Daimon confirmed his theory thanks to that single handshake.
"The contract is going to take some time to be finished, I want to hear why going to such length for… someone who isn't your direct relative".
Leena's gaze narrowed, but since she accepted to tell Daimon the truth then she had no option but to honestly answer him.
"How did you reach that conclusion?".
Daimon pointed at Gabriel while he chuckled.
"Normally a son wouldn't have been afraid of his own mother, and if you were that type of person then why would you want to protect the girl of the photo so much… also you didn't refuse the handshake so you can have direct contact with others".
There are cases of mages which develop a hyper sensibility towards other people's mana, so they can't have contact with others, that's why Daimon used the handshake just to make sure she didn't have that problem.
Leena angrily looked at Gabriel which made him scratch the back of his head.
"Sorry… aunt, I screwed up".
Leena sighed while waving her hand.
"I will deal with you later", she then looked at Daimon and nodded.
"You are something else kid… the answer to your question is that both Gabriel and Dana are the children of a good friend of mine which gave her life for me, so I don't care if have to join hands with the Revy or the Argent for that goal".
"But I'm not going to always be here for them and also half emperors might not be enough to survive the era which is coming, that's why they need to find their own fortunate encounters".
Aura was a good example of what Leena wanted to say, she was an Archmage which emerged as a half emperor after entering a secret realm, and the biggest chance to get a life changing encounter was the magic ruin.
Unfortunately for Leena, Arthur was the one in charge of practically everything in the Jolbaris clan, so while Gabriel's sister could have gotten a spot, there was no guarantee that Alexander and his lackeys wouldn't hurt her… or worse, because she was the equal of Alexander, the most talented female member of the Jolbaris in the last one thousand years.
Of course, she could have negotiated with Arthur but she knew what his terms would have been, in the best-case scenario she would have ended up being his subordinate, then Gabriel came up with an alternative.
Daimon already frustrated Arthur's plans once, he didn't care about the Jolbaris family nor was he intimidated by them and according to the rumors he was by all means superior to Alexander.
With one last movement of her hands, Erin finished the contract and threw it at Leena.
"Read it, if you are okay with it then sign it".
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