Reborn As The Minor Villain In A Romance Fantasy Novel

Chapter 293: Threatening The World Council

[Author's Note: I have returned... I actually got stuck in the hospital for a long while afterward but I'm back in my apartment now, I'll post one chapter today and try to do two or three tomorrow. Thank you for the patience and comments.]

"Huh?!" Several members of the world council let out in surprise meanwhile the President practically buried his face with his hands.

The man already knew how this was going to end.

"What do you mean by that, Lucius von Hohenberg?" Regulus raised an eyebrow.

What did he mean by that? Didn't he know who he was talking to?

The Hohenbergs might have the first space awakened of the New Age but at the end of the day, he of the Licht clan was currently much more influential than that pitiful clan.

They had centuries of political capital, alliances spanning every major continent, and a dungeon network that most nations depended on. One young man with a dramatic flair did not change the equation.

Or so he kept telling himself.

"I mean exactly what I said." Lucius replied with a small smile on his handsome face. "Who is going to stop me?"

"It has been listed in the decre—"

"Excuse me, does it look like I'm dumb?" Lucius raised an eyebrow.

He knew this was a romance fantasy but these people couldn't be that dumb. "It's like this. I don't really care about what you wrote in that scroll or whatnot. You can't expect me to not use my own affinity just because all of you are scared of me. Besides, what stops me from killing all of us here right now?"

Everyone in the room including Regulus stopped. Lucius felt some murderous intent coming for him from different corners of the chamber but he ignored it the way one ignored a draft from a slightly open window. It was inconvenient and not threatening.

"While I may be B-rank or so within my own power scaling, don't forget that you can't match me." He continued like he was explaining directions to someone. "Sure, you can speed blitz me. But what if I already have my Infinity on? What if I decide to summon an asteroid here right now? What if I decide to just converge space in your chest?"

He pointed two fingers directly at Regulus's chest. "If I did that, boom, you wouldn't exist anymore. It's a lot of ifs, but it decides on my whims."

Sure, he could probably do it but the original Lucius who was currently out there doing whatever he was doing with Lily had given this clone a small share of their limited reserves, so maybe he could maintain Infinity for a few minutes or pull off a couple of teleports before running dry.

'Tch. I hate how lazy I am.' Lucius thought.

He had refused to give himself more Space Mana because he was simply too lazy to channel enough of it properly before sending the clone out. A personal failing he would take to his grave.

Regardless, he had demonstrated enough by now that every word out of his mouth in this room sounded completely real.

"If you kill us all, including your own President, you will become the enemy of the world." Regulus said, composing himself with visible effort. "Everyone will hate you, even the women that love you will grow to hate you. In fact, the daughter you announced to have will grow to hate you as well."

Lucius raised an eyebrow.

Was this man with the genuinely terrible name actually talking about his very beautiful, completely ride-or-die wives? Or his daughter, who genuinely would not shed a single tear over a room full of old politicians?

"Meh. You put yourselves too high." Lucius waved his hand. "Regardless, I really didn't want to deal with any of this. And if this rule is actually implemented, I will kill everybody in this room within two seconds, including you, Mr. President."

He patted the President on the shoulder, making the man go a shade paler that Lucius genuinely hadn't thought was physically possible.

If it was the exact same language as what that Clan Head had once said, then it tracked that Lucius knew about all of this in advance and wasn't bluffing.

Hell, had he ever joked about killing someone in power? Had he ever made a threat he didn't follow through on?

The President had not forgotten the base incident. He was fairly sure he would never forget that incident at all.

Regulus gritted his teeth and exhaled slowly through his nose.

'I can't do much like this.' He thought.

The plan to place restrictions on the first Space Awakened of the new age was completely off the table, and now he had openly threatened to kill the entire room including his own country's head of state without so much as raising his voice.

If this scenario truly played out, the world still wouldn't turn on him since they treated him like a savior. His approval rating was somehow higher than most elected officials in the room despite the fact that he had never run for anything in his life.

"I understand." Regulus threw the scroll aside with a sigh that came from somewhere deep and tired. "The rule preventing you from using Space as you wish has been completely nullified. Is there any objection?"

Nobody in the chamber spoke.

Several people found the ceiling very interesting.

One woman on the far end of the table had been writing something in her notepad throughout the entire exchange and had apparently decided that continuing to write was the safest available option.

A man two seats from Regulus had gone very still, like a prey animal operating on the instinct that if he did not move, he would not be noticed.

"Great. No objections." Regulus clapped both hands together. "The meeting has been dismis—"

"Hold on. You can't just dismiss an important meeting like that." Lucius appeared behind Regulus in an instant, a short-range teleport that barely cost him anything, though the collective flinch it produced from the assembled council members was deeply satisfying.

He swung Regulus aside, completely redirecting the man, and positioned a chair so he would land back in it properly and slide back toward his table. "Since you have nothing more to discuss, I'd like to bring my own business enterprise to the floor."

He straightened his collar and stepped forward.

"I had something in mind. My very own Lucius Hotels… Just like how Selene has her Moon Hotels in New Avalon, I want my own brand. Lucius Hotels." He said it with the confidence of someone announcing something that had already been decided. Because as far as he was concerned, it had been.

"I see." One woman pointed out from her seat, eyeing him carefully. "What does that have to do with us?"

"You invited me here. For no real reason either, and I could be spending this time actually running my Guild." He shrugged pleasantly. "So it's only natural that the World Council sponsors Lucius Hotels. Initially I wanted five locations across Aurelia, but I've had a better idea since then. How about one in every country? Major or minor, doesn't matter. Lucius Hotels will be a worldwide industry. A symbol of my undying love for my fans."

He said it like a suggestion but they knew it was not a suggestion.

"In order to accomplish something of that scale, we would need to seek permission from each and every individual nation's governing body, negotiate land rights, secure construction permits, arrange bilateral—" Regulus started, making what he clearly believed was a reasonable point about the logistical nightmare of building a high-end hotel in every country on earth.

"I believe the World Council, a group of esteemed people such as yourselves, should be able to make that happen." Lucius looked at his fingers thoughtfully. "It's the least you could do for interrupting my schedule to fly out here for no legitimate reason and this way, I won't take any personal offence about the earlier restriction attempt. It's a clean slate."

A very uncomfortable silence settled over the chamber.

"I understand." Regulus said through what appeared to be significant internal suffering.

Was this what the President of Aurelia dealt with on a daily basis? No wonder the man had aged ten years since Lucius awakend. "However, I—"

"Now, Mr. President." Lucius turned to the man who had been doing an excellent impression of someone who desperately wanted to leave the room. "My time wasn't the only thing wasted today. Yours was too. And you have a far busier schedule than most people here. So why don't you ask for something as well?"

He looked around the table. "No issue with that, right? You wouldn't want me leaving here unhappy after all."

He loved this. He could not overstate how much he loved putting people like this in their places. It didn't matter whether it was the original or the clone. It was simply one of life's great pleasures.

"Yes." Regulus's voice was very flat. "There is no issue at all."

"Wonderful. So what should we ask for?" Lucius began before the President could open his mouth. "Ah. Actually, I know."

He looked up at the vaulted ceiling for a moment as if the thought had only just occurred to him. "I'd like for Aurelia to have full access rights to the new Nameless World Dungeon that was recently discovered."

The gasps that went around the room were immediate. Regulus looked at him with an expression that went considerably beyond surprise.

"How did you… know about that?" His voice was not quite steady.

That information had not been shared with the President of Aurelia, That information had not been shared with most of the people sitting in this very room.

It was supposed to be contained, classified, known only to those within the Licht clan's inner circle and a handful of Council members who had been directly involved in the initial survey.

"I have my ways." Lucius said simply. "And to settle today's business completely, access rights should belong entirely to Aurelia. Mr. President, if you don't mind."

He glanced at the President.

It was a World Dungeon that these people had been sitting on quietly, planning to introduce through the Inter-Academy Exams at a time of their choosing, for maximum political leverage.

It would be very useful to claim it beforehand, even if he was suggesting the President take ownership, both of them understood the real shape of the arrangement.

"That Nameless World Dungeon was discovered and initially surveyed by my own Licht clan." Regulus said. "Naturally it cannot be transferred without full consultation between our members and—"

"I didn't realise the Licht clan wanted to disappear off the face of the world." Lucius looked at his hand with mild interest, as if examining a scratch. "Do we have a deal or not? The President and I are both very busy men. It really isn't easy managing a Guild, you know."

He was sounding like someone out of a cultivation novel and he was fully aware of it but if he could lock down this dungeon before Elliot got anywhere near it, the rewards would absolutely be worth sounding theatrical for five minutes.

Regulus gritted his teeth. He almost stood. He got perhaps a centimetre off his chair before a brown-haired woman beside him placed a quiet hand on his shoulder and he stopped, inhaling once through his nose.

"If it's possible." Regulus said. "I would like to propose that both parties, Aurelia and the Licht clan, hold ownership of the World Dungeon in divided percentages."

"Sure, sure." Lucius nodded agreeably. "Ninety-ten. Aurelia takes ninety percent including the higher floors, and your clan handles the starting floors. That's a fair arrangement."

'That is a complete robbery and you are fully aware of it.' Regulus nearly said out loud.

The early floors.

Everyone in the room who had ever run a dungeon knew that meaningful loot concentrated in the higher tiers.

If his clan owned only the entry floors, they would need Aurelia's formal permission to push further in and knowing exactly what kind of person he was dealing with right now, that permission would come at whatever price Lucius felt like naming on a given morning.

"Yes." Regulus said, giving up immediately. "I'm very pleased to be handing you the majority share of a dungeon that my Guild rightfully located."

"Thank you." Lucius gave him a warm, genuine smile. "I'm always moved by generosity. It's just the everyday reality of being someone like me, I'm afraid."

He clasped his hands together and looked around the table one last time.

"So. I've laid out two requests today. The Lucius Hotel initiative, and the Nameless World Dungeon access rights. I'd like official documents routed through the President's office on both matters, and if the World Council could place these on the priority list, that would be ideal."

He paused. "I'd appreciate speed on this. I don't like waiting."

Having sufficiently rearranged the afternoon of everyone in the room, he made a small hand sign.

"Well then. I'm off."

He disappeared.

It took a full three seconds before anyone spoke then someone on the left side of the table said, very quietly.

"He wasn't even here in person."

The real Lucius von Hohenberg had not come to the World Council session at all. He had sent a clone, gotten what he wanted, threatened their lives, secured a worldwide hotel sponsorship deal and a World Dungeon, and left.

Nobody moved for another moment.

Regulus looked at the discarded scroll on the floor beside his chair then he looked at the door Lucius had walked through at the start of the session, then he looked at nothing in particular for a while.

The President of Aurelia uncovered his face from his hands.

He looked, if anything, slightly relieved.

…

"Haah." Lucius sighed out, leaning back in his chair. "Being a Guild Leader is tiring work."

"Boss." Ayela's eye twitched. "We have barely even started today. You have been sitting in this office drinking ice cream and signing mission approval papers. That is all you have done. You are already tired from that."

"Well, Sister Ayela, signing papers is still an essential function of any organisation." Iris chimed in with the patient tone she used for these moments. "Without proper paperwork, we couldn't operate at all, let alone run this mission."

They were currently being driven to the job site in a Guild limousine, which Ayela had insisted on given the nature of the posting.

If Lucius was being fully honest, he did not know the specifics of this mission. Ayela had selected it and briefed the others. He had approved the paperwork so that felt like a reasonable division of labour.

"Oho." Lucius lifted his hand to pat Iris on the head, then withdrew it. "I almost did that but you're considerably older than me."

"Guild Leader, I genuinely don't mind." She said without missing a beat.

Nadia adjusted her glasses and gave Iris a flat look from across the seat.

"Pervert, can we focus on the mission?" She said. "Today is going to be busy."

The limousine slowed and came to a stop.

They climbed out to find themselves standing in front of the new Grimmaw Guild Headquarters, which was a considerable building with the Guild's insignia carved into the stone above the main entrance.

Standing outside wearing a crimson cape that matched her hair and eyes perfectly was Vanessa with her arms folded and watching them pull up a patient expression on her face.

"Welcome, Supreme Guild." She stepped forward as they approached, and before anyone could say anything she had closed the remaining distance to Lucius specifically, taking his hand and drawing him toward her. "I'm glad you answered the mission posting. I've hired your Guild today to assist with a large scale dungeon break that's expected in approximately one hour."

She looked past him at the four captains with an expression that was polite and also clearly non-negotiable. "I also notice your team is entirely women. Please don't let that inspire any ideas about using your charms on him. I haven't killed anyone in a while and I would prefer to keep that record."

Lucius processed this. His wife had, apparently, hired him through the official Guild mission system specifically in order to be near him for a dungeon break.

Next thing he knew it, Selene would come out of nowhere and join them?

"Sorry I'm late." A voice came from behind them, and Selene arrived with her silver hair catching the light, two of her Diamond Scorpion Guild captains touching down on either side of her with precise landings that only came from serious training.

They had been flying

"We're here for the briefing as well." Selene looked at Lucius and her expression lit up completely. "Oh, hello Esteemed Hubby."

Faced with both of them converging on him at once, the clone made a quiet internal decision and dispersed, sending all accumulated memories back to the original.

While these were their wives as well, Lucius didn't want the clones touching them so here it was.

Selene and the others blinked then Lucius had appeared again adjusting his Supreme Guild uniform with a smile.

"Hey babes, what's the situation?"