Not long after Chloe returned, a reply arrived. Isaac had accepted Theus's proposal and was willing to swear the Moth-Chasing Flame Oath under his witness.
After some thought, Theus decided to have it conducted in the underground cavern and asked Ash to witness it in his stead—he needed to go to the Golden Throne and descend into Worker Theus's body in order to hear his followers' prayers.
Before that, he spoke with Isaac. The man was taciturn, and his bitterness was plainly visible.
Theus needed to know what conditions and demands Isaac had. After all, once he took on this job, it could easily require several years of work—building an intelligence network from scratch was no small burden.
The result was somewhat unexpected.
Isaac's condition was simple: as long as Theus did not side with the Candlelight Society, that was enough.
This puzzled Theus. Him not siding with the Candlelight Society did not mean he would help Isaac take revenge, so why was his demand so broad?
They had not interacted much before, and the part Theus was assigning him was extremely important. Naturally, he had to get such matters clarified.
And Isaac's reason was—
The man with cloth wrapped around his eyes fell silent for a moment before raising his head. Though Theus could not see his eyes, he could still sense that the man was watching him.
"Lord, I have dealt with many organizations—official ones, and plenty that could not see the light of day. None of them were as efficient or flexible as Castel."
"At the same time, I noticed that there are no shortage of rules here, and that they are enforced quite thoroughly."
"You are building an entire system from nothing, rather than making alterations and patchwork repairs to an existing foundation."
"Such a system