"I did not know you throw insults now, Verde. This is unlike you."
"Never in my life have I insulted someone. I only speak the truth, and truth right now speaks that you are beating around the bush."
The vines around the bud trembled lightly, reacting to her mood even though she wasn't fully materialized. Her authority always leaked out, shaping anything organic without her even trying.
I stood still, keeping my posture as close as possible to novel's Swartz's stoic demeanor, straight spine, steady gaze, and an expression that revealed nothing.
I forced my tone to be calm and flat.
"I cannot contact you the normal way soon. However, I need your attention now."
The air tightened slightly. Verde's silhouette didn't move, at least not in a normal sense. It simply shifted like frames skipping in a glitchy animation.
I continued my impersonation of Swartz, keeping every detail consistent. I knew Verde had seen Schwarz countless times.
One wrong change in tone, posture, or emotional rhythm could give me away. Swartz was famous among the primordials for being painfully unemotional, brutally rational, and closed off. Verde, despite her current instability, would immediately notice any inconsistencies.
I explained calmly that I had found a boy, a boy who could serve as a vessel for all of the primordials.
Then the fabricated story: the boy had saved him at a moment when my existence was in danger in human form. Because of that, I owed the boy a favor. However, as a human, I could not repay it immediately.
I also told her I reached out to her first because, despite Verde's kindness pushed into madness and her strictness sharpened into extremity, she was still the fairest primordial.
Verde's blurred outline lowered her head slightly. She didn't respond yet. Her silence was heavy, and pressure spiked whenever she focused.
She waited for specifics.
I prepared to continue, but the system broke through my thoughts.
[Universal World Line System Notification]
[Awakening Progress has Reached 99%]
[Halting Further Awakening Until Further Notice.]
A faint ring vibrated in my skull as the message faded out. The timing was perfect, almost too perfect. Everything I planned hinged on keeping my awakening suspended at that exact moment. Now for the next step...
I strengthened my composure and began outlining my demands.
"First. When you eventually bless the boy, give him only your blessing. I'll take the condition in his place."
Verde, upon hearing this, nodded and said, "So this is your way of repaying him.."
"Second. Convince Ao, Primordial of Blue, to pause her plans toward the princess of Salem."
Verde's silhouette twitched at the name Aoi, but she didn't comment. Their relationship was complicated, but I didn't dare speculate aloud. Swartz wouldn't.
"Third. Give me a growth factor. Not a blessing, just the factor in this body."
Asking for a growth factor from Verde was essentially requesting a controlled fragment of her authority, just enough to accelerate my development but not enough to be considered an outright blessing. Verde could grant such a thing, but she didn't do it lightly because of her obsession with development.
"If something can grow, then it must grow without limits." That was her motto. Honestly I kinda pity her. She never gave her blessings to others out of ill will but out of desire to help them. That feels. oddly familiar...
"And lastly… ignore the transgression of me using your access to the world line system."
This time, Verde reacted instantly.
Her silhouette jerked sharply, as if she snapped her head toward him even though the visual was still too blurry to show details. Vines in the room coiled and wrapped around each other, shaking slightly. The bud she stood on trembled from the force of her emotion bleeding into the environment.
She refused immediately.
"That is too much." Her tone cracked. "Do you even understand what you are asking-"
I cut her off exactly as Swartz would. Cleanly, unemotionally, and direct.
"I'm not asking for free."
The vines froze mid-motion. The tension in the air paused. Verde didn't speak, which was her signal for me to continue.
"In exchange, I will give you information about the boy."
"A promise that I will side with Weiss, the Primordial of White, when the inevitable coup happens."
"And lastly…"
I paused just long enough for her to lean forward slightly.
"The weakness of Rouge, your arch rival."
Everything froze.
The vines stopped swaying. The rumbling halted. Even Verde's flickering form paused its glitching for a full second. That alone showed how deeply that hit her. Verde and Rouge had a rivalry that lasted since the genesis era. They hold grudges layered with newer conflicts.
Verde's silhouette opened her mouth slightly, but before words formed, I continued trying to sweeten the deal that was totally rigged.
"And since I am the one at fault this time and need your help, I will even give you the chance to claim my authority."
That statement hit her harder than anything so far.
"You… are offering .... your whole existence's reason? Are you mad?"
"Yeah, we both know that it did me more harm than benefit. Try to dig within me and search for the authority 'Destroy.' I won't use it against you. I'll allow you a chance to find it. Once you locate it, I won't hide it anymore. You can claim it as your own. Is that fine with you?"
Inwardly smug, thought, This is an unwinnable game for her, as I never had the authority to begin with.
Verde processed it, then answered quietly
"This is too unfair on your part. We need to balance the scales."
Verde pondered for a bit and then suggested a bit of alteration to my suggestion.
" What about this? If I fail to find your authority… I will give you a minuscule part of mine in return."
I almost broke my stoic act. The check wrote itself more zeros than I would have ever attempted.
"I take it we have a deal?"
She got out of her flower bud and approached me. The vines opened a path for her and then closed behind, reacting instinctively to her presence. When she reached me, she extended her hand, and I extended mine.
Her hand was colder than I expected. Cold, yet strangely soft.
We shook hands.
"This will be uncomfortable," Verde warned.
"I know."
We let go at the same time. For a moment, Verde analyzed me again, the flickering outline leaning forward as if to memorize the exact position of my body.
Then she straightened.
"Very well. Let's begin."
A green sword formed in her hand. It was neither metal nor wood. It was an extension of her conceptual authority flourish. What will she flourish, however, I already knew.
She stepped forward.
I didn't flinch. I should't.
With one smooth motion, Verde drove the sword into my chest.
Instantly, my mind felt like it was no longer my own. I was happy—no, I was exhilarated—and anything connected to that exhilaration was heightened. In other words, she flourished my very emotions.
Why flourish, you ask? It's because that's all they can do. Primordials in this world are described as gods by the residents of this world, but the reality is that they resemble concepts more than anything else.
Now, how would a lady whose concept is "flourish" interact with someone whose concept is "destroy"? Naturally, she would use her authority and dig what is normally hidden, and in Schwarz's case, that's emotions. This is actually a big benefit in disguise, once again.
"This girl just never stops giving..."
But the main dish is yet to be served.
It should be any minute now...
[Universal World Line Factor Detected Within the Host]
[Ajusting Awakening]
[Awakening Progress has Reached 99%]
[Halting Further Awakening Until Further Notice.]
[ERROR]
[Universal World Line System Detected Another Contradicting User Input]
[User code 0010 is Contradicting User code 0003]
[Ajusting Awakening]
[Awakening .....
I wish I could use another call to mute it right now, but as expected, everything is going exactly according to plan.
Schwarz's system and Verde's system are contradicting each other. Schwarz's system is aiding my overall awakening, and Verde's system is halting its completion. It's like hammering hot iron again and again until it's perfect,but in this case, even perfect isn't enough. I need to be different from the other weavers in this world.
And to do that..I need to die temporarily.
"Keke,....haha....." I chuckled at my insanity. I must be truly insane to consider this as the only way in the first place.