Chapter 19 - Irene Belserion

"Oh? The fact that you know who I am yet you come here proves that you're either confident or stupid." Irene said, with the book still in her hands.

I chuckled that that. "Does it matter if I'm either? I've come here proposing a deal that I think you'll find most interesting."

"What might that be? Know this though, if I don't hold any interest in your so-called deal, you need not leave this place." She responded.

"My, no need for the threats. I'm just trying to help you out. Seeing that you're in a rather serious mood, I'll cut straight to the chase then. I want you to join me. Living here under the control of Emperor Spriggan, is it really a life worth living?" I asked.

She began to laugh before putting her book down.

"That's funny, I suppose you think you'd make a better emperor?" she responded.

"Oh no, far from it. I'd be a terrible emperor. Most people think that ruling a country is all fun and games, but it know it's a full-time job, no several full-time jobs. Heck, the only reason that this country isn't in complete discord is due to the might of the Spriggan Eleven, or honestly, mostly the work that Invel Yura puts in behind the scenes." I exclaimed.

"If you're not after the throne, and given that you already know that much, is it not the height of idiocy for you to seek me out and try to recruit me?" Irene asked with mirth in her eyes.

"For others perhaps, but I'm a bit different, you could say. Let me ask you my initial question again. Is your life here really one worth living? Sure, you might be amongst the most powerful here in this country. You might be able to have your every need taken care of, but don't you feel a bit empty?" I asked.

Irene raised an eyebrow and just looked at me.

I sighed before saying, "I suppose it would be easier for me if I just showed you."

Walking up to her, I activated the Seal of Orichalcos. From where I was standing, a seal deployed on the ground, covering the entirety of the massive library.

"Let us take a little journey, shall we? A journey back in time, to a simpler time, before all this." I said waving my hand while focusing on the seal to show us her past.

As the air rippled and began to change, we found ourselves outside an old castle.

"My powers give me mastery of time, the long-lost past, the present, and the ever changing future, I see it all." I said while still looking at the castle.

I willed us to go into the castle and the scene changed. Soon, we were looking at a young Irene.

"A much simpler time, eh?" I said, while glancing at Irene.

I had the scene fade away to her conversations with Belserion, then the war, and following that, her imprisonment and torture.

I let the scene fade away after that scene. Irene was still quiet.

"Our actions have consequences. They might not always be what we want, but then again, that is life. I am a firm believer that if the actions are truly of your own free will and disaster still follows, grieve if you must, but never regret it. Most importantly, don't run away from it. When there's a will there's a way." I said, and as I did, I had the scene change to her leaving Erza behind in Rosemary Village.

"If one thing holds true, it is that you really love your daughter. You wouldn't have persisted so long if you didn't. However, deep down, you want your old body back. While this form of yours might look human, there are side effects for having enchanted yourself into this form from being a dragon, isn't there?"

As I glanced at Irene next to me, she was furious. As she was about to say something, I held a hand up to stop her.

"Hence we reach the terms of my deal. With my control of time, I can rewind time on your body to the time before you created Dragon Slayer Magic, and as a result of that, you would get your old body back. In addition, you would get to see your little girl again, heck you could even be together again. After all, she and I are in the same magic guild now. In addition to that, my mastery over time allows me to show you her growing up, a time I know that no mother really wants to miss. Now, before you respond, I want you to think it over." I said seeing that she was going to say something.

"Before we go any further, let me show you something else." I said.

I willed the scene to change to that of Yuri and Rita in the graveyard earlier. It covered the entire scene as they transformed from mere ashes to living people before I willed the scene to fade away, and we were once more in the present.

I continued, "That was only yesterday. I rewinded time on them turning them from mere ashes to two perfectly regular people. Decades turned back in a blink of an eye. But enough of that, while I know you're quite loyal, quite frankly, Emperor Spriggan doesn't care about you. He only enchanted you back into this form out of mere interest at the time, and he will pay you no mind in the future even should you perish. Before you ask, I know all about your emperor, his past, present, and even his unrealized future. He sees you only a chess piece on a board. I'm offering the realization of your deepest wishes and all you have to do is agree. What do you say?"

After a long moment of silence, she said, "I agree."

I smiled, and replied with, "Perfect. Now…"

I was cut off as she continued, "However, I do have a few conditions. Firstly, I'll need a demonstration of that time rewinding power in person."

"That's not a problem." I said. "You'll need to find us a rather isolated place though, I don't want to alert anyone else of this."

"That's fine, there's a place I'm going to that's fairly remote in about a week for a mission to deal with some insurgents. You can show me there. Secondly, I want you to show my daughter's entire life up to this point." She responded.

"Both things aren't an issue. We can do it there, doing both at once would be fine with you right? I'd rather not overstay my welcome here in the palace, after all what I'm doing now is undoubtably high treason in Alverez, no?" I responded.

"Nobody would come in here without my permission aside from the emperor. This is my private library, but no matter, I can wait." She said.

"Very well, we'll meet up next week then to finalize our terms. There is one more thing though. I can't have any word of this getting back up to the emperor, and given that mind reading magic is a thing, I'll have to take those memories of today's meeting away. I'll return them when we meet next time. I am firm on this condition." I said while making a stern face.

She paused a moment before replying, "Very well then. We'll do it your way."

"In that case, until we meet again, goodbye." I said before dispelling the Seal of Orichalcos and then activating the Barian Crest, taking her memories of our encounter today away.

I then proceeded to create a portal out of there back to my apartment and disappeared.

As I appeared in my apartment, I breathed a sigh of relief. That was remarkably stressful despite how casual I sounded. After all, Irene was one of the most powerful mages alive.

Taking out my phone, I opened the notes app, made a new entry, after taking a moment to think about what to name it, I decided to call it Operation Delta, named after Antinomy's old dueling team in Yugioh 5Ds. After all, what I was planning to do was like what Zone did with Antinomy, by restoring his memories in the end at a critical time, and cause him to change sides. The question was, could I do that with the majority of the Spriggan Twelve?

Pushing those thoughts aside, in the app, I made an entry of I.B – Mostly there, before closing the app.

It was already evening at this point. However, there was one more thing I wanted to do today before the day was over. Activating the Seal of Orichalcos, I checked in on the actions of someone else in the past one minute before dispelling it.

As this one could get dangerous, I activated the Rune Eye's power to see the future before opening a portal to my location.

As I arrived, I found myself in a large office with literally a mountain of paperwork. A somewhat large desk was in front of me stacked high with papers.

There was a person who was filling something out at the desk as I appeared. He glanced up at me, dropped his pen, and proceed to raise his hand as if he was about to attack.

I quickly activated the Light of Destruction's aura just in case, but raised my hands and said, "Calm down, I just want to have a word with you."

The person in question frowned and waved his hand again. Nothing happened, but I realized a moment later that he must had tried to cast a spell on me directly and failed.

Pushing his glasses up with his face returning to one of calm, he said, "Dispelling magic is it? You must have trained it to an extremely high level if you could dispel my Ice as I cast it. Nonetheless, you are trespassing in the imperial palace, and that is a crime punishable by dea…"

"Invel Yura." I cut him off. "What makes a perfect emperor?"