Chapter 455 - 339: The Underwhelming Solomon

Chapter 455: Chapter 339: The Underwhelming Solomon

Soon, Isaac followed Arthur to a side hall in the Royal Palace. By then, his father Gaia, older brother Solomon, older sister Cheryl, and sister-in-law Sally were already seated at a round table within.

Upon entering the side hall, Arthur dutifully went to stand behind Caesar. Isaac waved to the group, casually pulled up a chair next to his sister, and sat down. Smith and his two companions stood behind him.

His father and the others stared, dumbfounded.

They couldn’t help it.

There were only four Tier Four individuals in the room, and three of them had come with Isaac...

Isaac might be a little crazy, but there was no denying it: ’The man is terrifying!’

Gaia watched Isaac in silence for a moment before speaking. "I’m sorry," he said. "We’ve caused you trouble."

Isaac waved a dismissive hand. He knew what his father meant. Gaia felt that Solomon’s independence from the Terra Kingdom would drag Isaac down. After all, Isaac had advanced to Tier Four at such a young age. Had he not been born a Solomon, he would have very likely been groomed by the Terra Kingdom to inherit the Empire’s legacy.

But now, because of the Solomon name, all of that was just a pipe dream. It was only natural for his father to feel guilty.

Isaac, however, wasn’t bothered. After all, even now, he could still inherit the Empire’s legacy if he wanted to.

Too bad he didn’t want to.

So naturally, he didn’t care.

So with another wave of his hand, he turned his gaze to his sister-in-law, a faint light swirling in his eyes.

His sister-in-law was a very powerful High-level Witch. However, to ensure a safe childbirth, she had voluntarily sealed her Witch’s Power. Such a seal was not easily broken. A single misstep could, at best, lead to lasting complications or, at worst, cause death!

Unsealing his sister-in-law’s Witch’s Power had been on Isaac’s list of research projects, but for various reasons, he had never been able to move forward with it...

It was possible to indirectly release this immense power using his Virtual Divinity technology, but it seemed he was a step too late.

"Did someone from the Witch Country intervene?" After a moment of Observation, a flash of surprise crossed Isaac’s eyes. The unsealing was perfect, with no side effects whatsoever.

At least, as far as Isaac could tell, there were no issues.

’Too natural, too perfect. It doesn’t seem like the work of a Wizard.’

Sally nodded. "Irina, the Blood Witch. An old friend."

As she spoke, Sally glanced at a somewhat awkward-looking Caesar.

Seeing this, Isaac instantly understood. ’Ah, so that’s how it is.’

’As expected of a prodigy with the "Venerable Bone." The man’s charisma is off the charts. If I recall correctly, there were also a few Witches in the Flesh Sect who had a... special relationship with Caesar.’

"Ahem." Caesar cleared his throat, looking embarrassed, and changed the subject. "What are your plans now? Will you be coming back?"

"Tsk. I’ve been pondering that myself," Isaac said, propping his elbow on the table and resting his chin on the back of his hand with a helpless air. "I suspect the Emperor isn’t truly dead."

"!!!"

But as soon as he said it, the others lost their composure. They all stared at Isaac in utter shock, mouths agape, but ultimately, no one could utter a word.

"Don’t be so tense, it’s just a guess," Isaac said with a wave, explaining, "He’s definitely dead for now. But for an Existence of his caliber, who knows what means he might have to return in the future. So for now, I’ll just maintain the status quo. It’s only a title, anyway."

After a moment of silence, Gaia and Caesar exchanged a look and both nodded. "Your decision is the right one. Regarding your relationship with both Terra and us, it’s best to maintain the status quo."

"Mm." Isaac nodded. ’To be honest, this isn’t a great decision. People who try to play both sides usually end up angering everyone, making it hard to even remain neutral. But there’s nothing to be done. The gap between us is just too vast.’

"Take a look at this. The general outcome is more or less decided; this is the result of our negotiations," Gaia said, tossing a small booklet in front of Isaac.

Isaac raised an eyebrow. He picked up the booklet, glanced through a couple of pages, and saw that it detailed a simple division of the territories, both within the Empire and beyond. ’Tsk, tsk. Someone’s been busy,’ he thought.

While flipping through the booklet, Isaac tossed a Longsword onto the table. "Name a price for this," he said casually. "It’s the legacy item for a new Path of the Extraordinary, that of the Law-Breaking Swordsman. A Law-Breaking Swordsman has respectable Breaking Law Ability and Swordsmanship. Their advancement speed is decent—quite a bit faster than a Knight’s—but their path caps out at Tier Four. It should still be useful to you."

With that, Isaac turned his full attention back to the booklet. The information inside was genuinely useful. He had no ambitions of world domination, but a stable environment would make it much easier for him to conduct his research.

This information helped settle his mind. Although the world was still in chaos, he now had a fundamental understanding of how things were likely to develop, which gave him some footing.

After a long moment, Isaac set the booklet down. He now had a general understanding of the "Empire’s" current state. He wouldn’t have to wait for the other powers to make their moves; he could begin some of his own actions ahead of schedule.

All in all, this had been a pretty good... haul...

"Hm?" Isaac closed the booklet. Seeing the Breaking Law Longsword still on the table and the worried looks on his family’s faces, he couldn’t help but frown. "This seems unlikely, but... don’t tell me you’re looking down on this thing?"

Isaac sucked in a breath through his teeth, confused. "To be fair, the Path of the Law-Breaking Swordsman isn’t the most powerful Path of the Extraordinary. Its potential is limited, and its offensive methods are relatively one-dimensional—it can’t compare to the Path of the Knight. But... it still provides a smooth path to Tier Four, and a fast one at that. There’s no way you’d turn it down, right?"

Isaac stared at them, bewildered. There was one other thing he left unsaid, partly because he feared he had misjudged the situation, and partly because it wouldn’t be very pleasant to hear. Namely—

’The house of Solomon doesn’t even possess a proper Knight Furnace Technique. They can’t break through to Tier Four. They’re hardly in a position to look down on something like this. Otherwise, Arthur wouldn’t have reacted the way he did when I made my offer just now.’

"No!" Caesar shook his head, his expression grim. "It’s the exact opposite! This is incredibly important to us! But that’s the problem—it’s so important that we can’t easily put a price on it!"

It was no exaggeration to say that for any domain, this was an absolute treasure. Tier Four! For ninety percent of the people in the Real World, even Tier Three was an unreachable height of power, to say nothing of Tier Four.

And that wasn’t even mentioning the rapid Cultivation speed of a Law-Breaking Swordsman. An item like this would be considered priceless even by the Empire!

But for that very reason...

"To be perfectly honest, we can’t afford it!"