The Dilemma of Winning Them Over: Neither Side Can Be Neglected

In his conversation with Sealed Artifact 3-0771, what concerned Xie Yu most was not how terrible the artifact's personality was, but two crucial pieces of information about its strength.

First, as a Tier 3 sealed artifact, its theoretical power level should have been between that of a one-star and a Five-Star Mage, yet it could use its unique properties to affect Magister Yize on the levels of fate and spirit. Second, its disdain for Wig Brown made it clear, both in what it said and what it implied, that it did not regard him as a real threat.

This reminded Xie Yu of another detail he had heard earlier. After he woke up, [the book-loving cabin] had mentioned that Wig Brown called the sealed artifact "Lord Fate-Substitution Talisman Doll."

Xie Yu took no pleasure in the sealed artifact's power. He said coldly:

"You like big cities and crowds because you regard people as food."

When the fake Kaiming had just taken it off, it had assumed that Wig Brown would offer Xie Yu to it as food. Xie Yu remembered that clearly.

[Sealed Artifact 3-0771 (Affection 30) looked at you and felt guilty again:]

[N-no, is that not allowed?]

[I definitely won't eat you. And I only eat a tiny bit of other people, so no one will notice.]

From the standpoint of winning it over, Xie Yu felt he should act as though he did not care, or even approve.

It had already made it clear that it liked big cities. All he needed to do was hint to it that as long as it behaved, its future life would be as wonderful as it imagined. He did not even need to make a promise; just giving it something to dream about and a taste of the benefits should make its affection rise quite rapidly.

It would all be lies, and Xie Yu was good at lying. Telling a few little lies to farm affection was only natural.

But at that moment, he did not want to go against his own heart.

Not all lies were the same. Some could be told, while others came at a price.

Beside him, [the loyal solid-wood walking stick (Affection 80)] was still watching.

"Is this the price of relying on your power? Is this what you demand?"

Xie Yu watched it calmly, his feelings hidden.

[Sealed Artifact 3-0771 (Affection 30) noticed your disapproval and argued:]

[They all do it. Wig Brown does it. He eats, and I eat a little too. It's always been that way.]

[Not just them. All spirit-and-soul mages eat. The slightly stronger ones can even carve out their own "territories" to enjoy exclusively.]

[Other mages are the same. Diviners eat fate, fire mages eat fire, and knowledge mages eat memories and spirit. They don't just eat those things from ordinary people; they eat one another too. The strong eat the weak, and the stronger eat the strong. It's just that some things have less effect on people, or have additional natural sources, while others have a greater effect on people.]

[As long as no one is eaten to death and everyone can keep having something to eat, nobody cares.]

It emphasized:

[It's always been this way. You'll understand once you become a mage.]

What a phrase: "let" everyone "keep having something to eat."

And another: "no"body "cares."

At that moment, Xie Yu recalled a saying from his previous life.

Was it right simply because it had always been so?

He wanted to say outright that it was not, but suddenly felt how insignificant he was. To this vast world, that trace of revulsion in his heart seemed utterly meaningless.

Perhaps many mages had once felt the same revulsion he did, Kaiming among them.

But in the end, they had been unable to change anything.

Even... when a young Wig Brown first caught a glimpse of the magical world, had he really felt happy?

"If the only reasons you can give are that 'everyone does it' and 'it's always been this way,' that seems to suggest that deep down, you actually think it's wrong."

Xie Yu said.

[Sealed Artifact 3-0771 (Affection 30) found it somewhat hard to believe:]

[What's there to care about whether it's right or wrong? The whole world is like this. How could humans give up practicing magic just because they feel, deep down, that something is "wrong"?]

[Everyone is scrambling to become a mage.]

The sealed artifact's affection had not dropped during that exchange.

Xie Yu understood that, in the process of winning it over, he had just been hovering at the edge of a minefield. Raising affection naturally required him to present himself as someone the other party liked, rather than trying to make them into someone he liked.

Even if he did want to change someone, words alone were always powerless.

"But Wig Brown ate people to death, so he has to pay the price." Xie Yu stopped dwelling on the subject and moved straight to practical matters:

"So he has to die too."

[Sealed Artifact 3-0771 (Affection rose to 40):]

[If... you think it's wrong for mages to eat mages, does that mean you won't eat Wig Brown? In other words, if we kill the old thing, I get all of him?]

[If you don't want to be a spirit-and-soul mage who eats people, then the old thing's spirit-and-soul power won't be any use to you either. It all goes to me, right?]

[Sealed Artifact 3-0771 probed cautiously. It suddenly felt that someone like you wasn't bad either (Affection rose to 45). It felt that the logic of the world was simple: for every bite less you ate, it could eat one more.]

After several rounds of discussion, Xie Yu had not managed to max out the sealed artifact's affection, but he had reached an agreement with it on killing Wig Brown.

Meanwhile, the walking stick's affection had been rising slowly all along, even though Xie Yu had barely spoken to it.

[The loyal solid-wood walking stick (Affection steadily rose to 95):]

[I could tell from listening that you're actually a lot like Mr. Kaiming. I think that's probably also why you're willing to avenge him.]

Xie Yu turned his attention back to the walking stick. If he had gone along with what the Fate-Substitution Talisman Doll said and seriously tried to win it over, perhaps the walking stick's affection for him would have plummeted.

In terms of value, the reward for winning over the sealed artifact would certainly be greater than the reward for winning over the walking stick. Xie Yu had not questioned the Fate-Substitution Talisman Doll merely to please the stick, either. If he had actually made the doll a promise he should not have made, that would have been no good at all.

"Kaiming and I are different people. I think that if I were Kaiming, I wouldn't have stopped advancing at the level of a Two-Star Mage, and I wouldn't have kept hanging around in front of a more powerful spirit-and-soul mage." Xie Yu sighed.

"Mr. Kaiming actually knew all this. He was so kind that he let down his guard, thinking the bond between teacher and student alone could preserve Wig Brown's conscience."

From their earlier conversation, Kaiming had clearly known about some of his teacher's evil deeds. When he met Wig Brown at the forest ranger's cabin at Forest Magic Academy, Kaiming had made his position clear to Wig Brown to protect himself.

Kaiming had thought he had succeeded, that his teacher had at least become a little better because of him.

[The loyal solid-wood walking stick fell silent, lost in thought. It felt even angrier about everything Wig had done, agreed with everything you said, and missed Kaiming even more deeply. (Affection rose to 100)]

[Congratulations! You have won over the loyal solid-wood walking stick.]

[You may choose one of three rewards:]

[1. Lifelong Entrustment] [Its affection will never decrease.]

[2. Full Disclosure] [Some unknown magical knowledge, as well as Kaiming's life story and information on all of Kaiming's clients.]

[3. Friend of Walking Sticks] [The initial affection of all wooden objects encountered from now on will increase by 0.5. This can stack.]