And Lars' mind raced to handle this unexpected circ.u.mstance - and what he was going to say and do...!

"This is Duke Silvan himself! One of the five pillars of the nation, a Legendary-realm monster genius who is still yet to cross the age of 50 years of age! Hahaha! You should be honoured to meet such a luminary in the flesh; even your Duke Leanne is three ranks below Duke Silvan in the ranking of the five pillars; this is the man second only to Grand Duke Sword, the third greatest man in the entire Kingdom of the Sands!"

Lars' mind was filled with the sound of cras.h.i.+ng thunder claps as he considered what he should do in the face of this (un)welcome visitor! And how he should respond...

Even if it were to risk his life and kill the b.a.s.t.a.r.d!

"Haha! Mr Laughing Man, you flatter me too much!" Duke Silvan replied jovially with a cheerful expression on his face, taking slow and confident steps towards Lars. While he walked, his eyes were fixed on the boy like those of a hawk, intently gazing at it's prey, staring deeply as if though unwilling for it's target to have the slightest chance to elude it's eyes!

Lars smiled vacuously, acting shocked and in awe of who he was meeting. He cursed slightly at his cool att.i.tude towards the Laughing Man - if he had known he would b.u.mp into another Legendary-realm opponent here, he would have acted duly impressed when meeting the crime master as well.

Now, he had no choice but to act shocked here despite acting overly calm with the Laughing Man - he could only pa.s.s it off by pretending that he hadn't know the Laughing Man's level of power...

Lars also considered what Duke Silvan's intentions could be as his mind continued to prepare countless moves and counter-moves, practising them in his mind and calculating every possible outcome.

On the surface, he looked exactly like how a youth would when encountering a grand figure such as the third mightiest man in the nation - in awe, eyes sparkling and mouth open wide. He reckoned that this would be a suitable reaction as this was the first time he was meeting Duke Silvan, though it was obvious that his grace already knew him - from how Moira had pleaded with him to give him supplies and his freedom from the Arena of Valour.

However, in contrast to his star-struck appearance, inside, he continued to be unperturbed and fearless as he was now fully confident in his abilities, equipment and capabilities. The worst case situation would be just escaping with some injuries, while he believed that in the best case he could defeat and perhaps even slay one of the two men before him!

The only fear he had... Were Charley and Seline's safety!

'...And Sharon's safety...' He grudgingly added.

"Please, please your grace, just call me Joker! That's not my real name of course, but it's what my friends call me..." Somehow, Lars could feel that the "Joker" was not smiling despite the sound of his voice. Perhaps it was because of the fact that there was still an icy cold atmosphere in the room, one which Duke Silvan ignored completely as he laughed as if though he was meeting an old friend.

"Ah, yes, yes! That would be an honour, Sir Joker--"

"No no, just call me Joker!"

"In that case... Joker... In return, just call me Silvan. That would be fair, no?"

"Haha! Yes, of course... Anything you wish, your grace!" The Laughing Man spoke, still maintaining the formal term of address. And seeing that Duke Silvan merely smiled and laughed warmly, Lars guessed that the middle-aged man really did prefer to be called with honorifics; and he had not been serious when he asked to be called Silvan directly.

"And now that my work is done..." Lars detected the slightest tremor of hostility in the Underworld master's voice and instinctively circulated his mana just in case an act of aggression occurred.

But it turned out that it was not needed as Joker continued, "I'll leave you to your conversation. Let me know once you are done and I'll release the three children I have in my care. For now... I have some... Other business to attend to."

Duke Silvan nodded firmly in response, merely throwing a glance at the man who should be more than worthy of his respect as an equal in battle. The Laughing Man seemed to tense up for a split second at the arrogant and disdainful treatment accorded to him, but apparently decided not to clash with the man. He quickly paced away with a brisk walk and left the room wordlessly, leaving Lars with Duke Silvan who turned to him with his confident smile painted on his face.

"Now, my dear friend... Who do we have here...? I don't believe I've had the opportunity to meet this young chap over here before. Young lad, it is my pleasure to meet you."

To Lars' surprise, Duke Silvan spoke to him warmly and even had a kind, gentle look in his eyes as he spoke and extended his hand to shake Lars' hand as if he were a benevolent and altruistic rich man reaching out to a young fan.

"Your grace... My name is Lars. I've heard of you in all our studies of the Kingdom! I can't b-believe I am actually able to meet you today!"

Lars resisted the urge to puke and tried to smile like a youth in wors.h.i.+p as he shook Duke Silvan's hand. Lars was then greatly surprised when the duke's vigorous shaking caught him off guard and nearly made him lose balance. He was glad that the handshake ended quickly as he frantically regained his footing with his mere peak-Expert capabilities.

Duke Silvan continued to beam warmly at Lars as he then spoke, "Yes, my dear young man! I have an urgent need of your services. I know that perhaps we might have some previous... Misunderstandings between us, or, more likely, due to the business I'm involved in that your master clearly disapproves of... But as you know, the main party behind that distasteful work has already pa.s.sed away, and we were merely... Facilitating that work. I have great need to speak to you and hope you'll lend me your ear for this."

Lars blinked in surprise, not expecting that the man would be so forthright with both the situation and his request. He paused and weighed how to respond before speaking.

"Your grace, I a.s.sume you wish to speak to my master, Lord Mikael...? My apologies as he is not able to be here today. However, he will be returning at the break of dawn tomorrow and I can quickly pa.s.s any message you have to--"

"No no no my lad, it is not Lord Mikael who I wish to speak to, though admittedly he is a great man of astounding capabilities who I'd love to meet. Why, I myself do not think I could have pulled off the feat he did, facing two Devil Lords of the Legendary-stage at the same time and killing them both! I'd probably have only been able to kill one and fatally wound the other before it escaped since they would flee the moment they saw me, hahaha!"

Lars nearly bit his tongue off at the obnoxious self-praise that Duke Silvan lavished onto himself and merely nodded with a mixed look of curiosity and amazement on his face. He nodded enthusiastically and waited to see what the man would say next.

"You see, my boy... I have a task I need *YOU* to do. I know you are in love with the Princess... Let's be frank, you know that I know about you, and I know that you know that too! It's just that we have not been formally introduced. Correct...?" There was no dangerous glint or sense of threat nor pressure in Duke Silvan's demeanour or his voice, yet Lars knew that if it were any other youth besides himself faced with the middle-aged suave man before him, perhaps they would already be p.i.s.sing their pants in fear and falling over themselves to agree and please him.

Unfortunately for Duke Silvan, he was Lars, no ordinary youth!

...But unfortunately for Lars, he was still in the guise of a 15 year old boy who had to fawn over his "idol" and wors.h.i.+p him!

'Dammit!!! The moment I find out what he wants and dig it out of him... I'll f***ing kick his a** all the way to the moon!!! To think that I have to act so obsequiously in front of this f*ggot!'

Belying his thoughts, Lars continued to keep an expression of awe and gasped slightly, then tightened his lips and slowly nodded a few times, looking down and away.

'I'd better win an Academy Award, dammit! So infuriating!!!' Lars vowed to make this man's death painful. VERY painful.

"My boy... I a.s.sume you've already heard that the upcoming Nationals for the Battle Through the Heavens is going to be a group battle. What I need you to do is simple and obvious." Duke Silvan smiled broadly, then, being nearly 5 inches taller than Lars, he walked over and placed a warm and firm hand on his shoulder in a mock show of affection.

"...Your grace...?" Lars looked up and asked questioningly, playing dumb even as the fires of ire burned in his heart. He endlessly repeated to himself, "For a gentlemen's revenge, even 10 years is not too long!" in order to rein in his fury. After all, despite how satisfying ripping out this old fop's throat would or how delightful it would be to rip off his genitals and stuff them down his open throat...

He didn't want the entire country, army, 4 Legendary-realm dukes and the Myth-level King to hunt him down - at least not until he himself breached the Myth-realm!

So he could only bear with it and wait for the unbearable man's answer.

"Lose." Duke Silvan spoke that one word as his eyes narrowed and he stood so near that Lars could smell his breath. He held his breath instantly - it was not that the man's breath was bad, on the contrary, it smelled good. Too good, such that Lars refused to a.s.sociate the good fragrance with the man who was rotten to the core on the inside and deserved death for his crimes to the children!

Lars stared back and tilted his head slightly in mock confusion as he waited. Duke Silvan merely smiled wider and explained.

"My boy... I want you to make the whole team of Duke Leanne's lose!" He released his grip on Lars shoulder and walked away, keeping his hands clasped behind his back, obviously trying to put on a "cool guy" image and impress the young lad he was with.

'Annoying poser! Go die, go die, go die!!! I'll be sure to accept your offer, whatever it is, and then backstab you at the worst moment! Go die!!!' But Lars kept his curses to himself even as Kizorik added countless other insults, joined by Velzash who was too mild-mannered and sleepy and merely added a few words like, "Dummy" and "Stupid".

"But your grace! That... That... That would be cheating! That would mean betraying their trust!" Lars continued to play dumb and tried to fish for more information, knowing that the self-absorbed man would surely not miss the chance of self-aggrandizement.

At those words, delighted that the boy was playing along, the middle-aged duke turned to look at Lars over his shoulder with a jolly expression and laughed, "Hahaha! My boy... Not in any way would that be cheating! Do you know why...?"

Lars blinked, then shook his head "cluelessly".

"Because... You wouldn't be betraying them if you're secretly on my team in the first place, right...?" Duke Silvan flashed him a conspiratorial glance.

Before Lars could respond again, he turned around full and walked over as he continued, "And... I a.s.sure you, the level of treasure for training, runes and equipment I can provide you are far, far, FAR greater than whatever Duke Leanne can give! And even more, far greater than what Lord Mikael can offer you! But I'm not saying you need to leave his tutelage, no!"

Silvan then lowered his voice to a whisper as he leaned in close and slung his arm around Lars' neck to add his final point.

"You just need to continue exactly as you are, and you'll get everything you could ever want, as long your team loses in the Nationals! That's all!"

Lars' mind flashed for a moment as he had a sneaky idea. He allowed his expression to flicker between conflicted, devastated, unwilling to betray his comrades - then change gradually to one of desire, greed then determination before he spoke.

"...Anything...?"

Duke Silvan nodded. "Anything."

Lars then looked down for a moment, making Duke Silvan wait expectantly for his answer. He then raised up his head to look the Duke square in the eye and said...

"Then I..."