Chapter 581: One Wish
"Of course, I didn't actually expect that you told me all of that for free. You had to be laying groundwork of some sort."
Northern fixed the man with a glare.
"What do you want?"
Lieutenant Dante studied his eyes for a moment and smiled faintly, his eyes half-closing.
"Please do not look so wary. I am not going to ask you to join my soldiers."
Northern furrowed his brows, his pupils focusing heavily on the Lieutenant. "You were going to ask that?"
"Ask what? What? I'm not asking anything..."
"Then what do you want?" Northern inquired seriously.
The Lieutenant took a breath and observed everyone doing their thing down there. He narrowed his eyes for a bit, then spoke.
"It looks like your father is close to breaking into maverick rank..."
Northern narrowed his eyes toward his father. It was easy for him to see the content of his father's and everyone else's souls, which was somehow even better than when he could see them in letters.
Of course, he could still do that if he wanted. It was just that now, he could see the soul cores and see the saturation of soul essence in them.
Shin's soul core had an almost dark color and was shaped like a pyramid; Ryan's soul core seemed like a flame sculpted from the fragment of a clear blue sky. It had a strange beauty.
Northern didn't quite expect his soul core to look like a flame. He was even a bit surprised that everyone's soul core was starkly different from the others.
It was understandable-with such great detail to every soul core, it was impossible for two same talents to exist in different people.
And then, there's him.
He looked at Shin one more time, smiled, and muttered, "It's about time."
Shin had probably been stuck as a Master for close to or perhaps over twenty years. Northern was sincerely happy he was progressing.
He brought his eyes back to focus on the Lieutenant.
"So...?"
"Ah, right, look at me spacing out." His voice died down for a moment. His gaze carried a solemn seriousness; there was this intangible authority that lingered on his entire face. He resumed.
"What I want is a wish."
"A wish?" Northern raised a brow, confused.
"Yes, a wish. Don't worry, it's nothing like me trying to defraud you. You would have three equal wishes. Anything you want right now, I would do it, no matter what it is. And I want you to do the same."
Northern narrowed his eyes.
"Anything at all? You will do?"
The Lieutenant nodded with a small smile.
"Yes, anything at all."
A broad grin appeared on Northern's lips. Then he belatedly took reins of his emotion, erasing the smile from his face.
"What are you onto? You say you are not trying to defraud me, but you are saying I should give you the one-moment ticket of me being totally vulnerable to you."
The Lieutenant's face was focused down.
"Well, it depends on how you look at it. I am also giving you that opportunity to do the same to me. Isn't there something you want from me? A paragon?"
"So is that to say there's something you want from me?"
"No, but I am not ruling out the fact that I will want something from you in the future."
Northern scrunched up his face, still suspicious of Lieutenant Dante's actions, but the Lieutenant was right.
There was something he wanted from the Lieutenant so badly. In fact, it was not just one thing.
"I will comply on one condition."
The Lieutenant's face finally turned to Northern.
"Not two, but three? That's quite a lot."
"It's fine if you don't want to do it; I'm not insisting. You are the one that came to me with this..."
The Lieutenant smiled and turned away from Northern.
"It's fine. We can do three, however on the condition that they have to be doable within this rift."
Northern tilted his head to take a peek at the Lieutenant's face.
"Is yours going to be doable within this rift?"
The Lieutenant was silent for a few seconds, then he shook his head.
"I don't think there's anything I want from you right now."
His response immediately put a dark frown on Northern's face.
"That's crap you are giving me. Total crap. You are telling me you don't want anything from me but you are going to give me the opportunity to ask three things, anything at all from you? I might be sixteen, but I am actually older than I look in my brain." Lieutenant Dante glanced at him and smiled again. His smile was short but honest.
"I want to lay groundwork for us to be friends. You are sixteen years old, a Sage. I think you are the first to appear of your kind. In the next ten years, I won't be surprised if you are a
Luminary."
"I'd be a Zenith in ten years' time."
Lieutenant Dante chuckled; he clearly didn't believe it.
"Let's be humble now, alright." He paused for a second and continued, "What I'm just saying
is I want to be in a position where I can benefit from your position and influence in the future. Don't worry, I am not being shady."
Northern was silent for a while, thinking. Afterward, he opened his mouth and spoke.
"Alright then, no problem. If that is how you feel for real, then I will take your offer." Lieutenant Dante smiled again. "Thank you. So what are the three things you want?" "I'll tell you one at a time, after each one is done. First, I want you to teach me how to fight."
"You want me to teach you how to fight?" The Lieutenant turned to him again, his brows
raised.
"Yes." Northern nodded in consent. "To be exact, I want you to teach me your combat style."
He stared into the Lieutenant's eyes.
"I know I said anything... but that's quite..."
"You can't do it?"
Lieutenant Dante looked down for a moment. "Oh? Looks like your father just became a
Savant. Others seem to be rounding up later too. Should we carry on later?"
Northern turned to Shin who was slowly getting up.
"Alright then."
Both of them jumped down from the ice wall.