Chapter 1237: What Are Your Plans?

I scowled at the black aired girl in front of me that was still showing me a smug smile despite the fact that she was outnumbered completely with people who would not hesitate to cut her down.

"What are you doing here?" I asked.

She retracted her umbrella back, still smiling at me, "It seems like we have some fate between us, don’t you think?"

"Why would you say that?"

"Hmm... How many times have we met?"

"Not enough to think that we’re fated. More like a coincidence if anything."

"Hmm... I can’t think of anyone else that I’ve met three times when I am completely unrelated to them in this World though."

"I’m pretty sure the reason for that is that you don’t go out often to begin with."

She twirled the umbrella around her and snapped it open to rest on her shoulder, "I suppose that is true. But to think that it is still you who I would meet. That’s certainly interesting."

"Let’s cut to the chase then. What are you doing here and why did you stop me?"

"Hmm? Oh yes, I completely forgot about that. This place here is an experiment of mine so I would like for it to remain operational instead of being destroyed."

I frowned at her, "You’re telling me that this Dungeon is an experiment of yours?"

"Is that what it looks like? It’s not a Dungeon though."

"Whatever it is, I don’t care. What I want to know is what experiment is this?"

She ignored my question and tilted her head at me, "Hmm... This is interesting... It doesn’t seem like you have received any sort of mental trauma at all... Was it not enough? Or did I make a mistake somewhere?"

"Hey, I’m asking you a question here."

"Hmm? Have you not figured it out yet? I thought that you might have figured it out by now."

"I want to hear it from you."

She swung her umbrella back around to point the tip at the Lich, a beam of light shooting from the umbrella to hit the monster and causing it to turn into a ball of light itself before the ball flew into the umbrella.

I narrowed my eyes at her, "What did you do?"

She rested her umbrella on her shoulder again, "Now... Wasn’t it you who taught me about the rules of trading? If you want something from me, you should offer something in return, right?"

I gestured at the place where the Lich had been, "We didn’t kill that Lich, that’s a favour for you, right? So you already owe us one for this. In fact, the Lich was our spoils of war and you took it without permission."

She tilted her head, "Hmm... I suppose that is true. Fine then. If I were to tell you what this is about, we’re even?"

I crossed my arms, "That’s too cheap, don’t you think? We would have gotten more rewards if we killed the Lich won’t we? And we beat it fair and square. Yet now you want us to forget about it. You made us suffer through all of that and just when we were about to get some kind of satisfaction out of it, you showed up and took that away from us. I would say you owe us way more than that."

The girl looked up as though she was considering my words for a moment before she nodded, "Fair enough. In that case, what would you like in return for this?"

I gestured at her, "I want to know everything about you. Especially what you are doing and what you are planning to do."

Her eyes narrowed slightly, "What are you going to do with that information?"

"The reason why we got into this so-called ’experiment’ of yours is because I don’t know what plans you have. If we had known ahead of time that you had something here, we wouldn’t be here and gotten involved in whatever this is and gotten in your way. And we wouldn’t have met here either."

She spun her umbrella idly, "Hmm... But I like the fact that we actually met here, though? So I don’t think I would want to do anything that would jeopardise that~"

Huh? Wait... She wants to meet me? Why?

Before I could even ask her what she meant, Odeta stepped in front of me to block me from her sight.

"Hey! I think we’ve been patient enough with you here! You think that acting like we don’t exist would help you or something?"

The atmosphere around the umbrella girl immediately changed as she scowled at Odeta like the sight of her was an affront to her or something.

"Who are you? I was not talking to you. Get lost."

Odeta cracked her knuckles, "Oh you won’t be getting rid of me that easily. You want to know who I am? I am Aster’s lover! Which means if you have any problems with her, you need to deal with me!"

The umbrella visibly frowned at my Amrap, "That still doesn’t change the fact that I wasn’t talking to you. Step aside."

"Or what?"

"Or I’ll make you."

Odeta looked like she was going to dare the girl to try it but I quickly interjected, "It’s fine, Odeta. Actually... All of you can stand down, there’s no need for all this, I doubt we would be fighting each other."

The girls looked at each other before they reluctantly lowered their weapons as well.

Odeta also stepped aside and returned to the place behind me, allowing the umbrella girl to address me directly again.

Her face lit up once more like she just found an interesting toy and she chuckled, "Fufu~ Now where were we? Oh yes. I find that in this dull World, you are the most interesting thing that I have come across. Of course I would want to meet you more often."

I see that I’m an interesting ’thing’ to her... Not an interesting ’person’...

"If we knew your plans, we could also coordinate to meet each other when you aren’t planning to do something that would harm us."

She covered her mouth and let out a gasp, "Oh? You would actually agree to meet with me?"

I heard some grumbling from the other girls behind me and they were clearly not happy with that possibility.

Ok everyone, hear me out...

I cleared my throat, "Despite what your group has done... I would say that you had not personally tried to harm us so I don’t have anything against you personally... Although I would like that your group would also stop messing with us as well."

She twirled her umbrella idly, "That can be arranged. Should I assume that that is one of your requests for this trade?"

"On top of knowing who you are, what you are planning and what you are going to do."

She considered my offer for a moment before raising a single finger, "I would like to add something on top of that. I would like to have tea with you sometime so I would like you to accept my invitation if I were to invite you to have tea with me~"

I narrowed my eyes at her, "Would there be sweets as well?"

"Of course. What is tea without some sweets?"

"Then I see no reason to say no!" I grinned at her.

She clapped her hands together while still holding onto her umbrella, "Perfect! In that case we have a deal!"

Without any prompting, she stuck out one of her hands and I realised that she was asking for a handshake, just like how I had shown her that this was a sign to show that both parties are in agreement of something.

I stuck out my hand as well and she grasped it, shaking her hand firmly.

The odd thing was that she held it for longer than she needed to and she seemed to be staring at my hand for some reason.

Just as I was about to ask her if she was going to let go, she released my hand and smiled at me again.

"Now... Where shall I begin? Hmm... I suppose I should tell you my name then~ You can call me Ira~"

I blinked at her, "Eera?"

She shook her head, "Ira~ It’s spelt with an ’I’~ Nice to meet you~"

Well... At least we finally have a name to put on her...

I nodded at her, "I suppose you already heard but I am Aster."

I decided not to introduce my girls since I didn’t want to give her more information than I have to... And it doesn’t look like she’s interested in knowing anyway.

Her smile then turned a little mischievous, "As for what I’m planning... I believe you already know right? I wish to overthrow the current Gods of this World~ And my plan right now... Is to ascend myself into Godhood and challenge them myself!"

...

Why did I not see that coming?