Payment for Work

Alexios sat in a tavern, drinking helplessly. This was already his third month in this damned place.

Three months ago, he had been sunbathing on a beach in Greece, watching the rolling sea and recalling the days when he had sailed the Adrestia across the waters with his friends Barnabas and Herodotus.

He remembered his family, who had long since passed away, and Icarus, who had accompanied him for so many years.

The state of the world had become increasingly unfamiliar. Even someone like him, who had lived for who knew how many years, could no longer see through it.

More than a thousand years ago, he had used an Isu artifact to glimpse the future, but that future was different from the one he now understood!

The Secret Ones Church—a name he had never heard before—had suddenly appeared across the entire continent of Europe, sweeping through it like a raging hurricane!

Moreover, every person within that church was terrifying. Their very presence made Alexios feel as though he had returned to a thousand years ago!

A thousand years ago, people could still use all kinds of special abilities, but as time passed, such abilities had become increasingly rare.

By now, he was probably the only one who could still use techniques that had existed a thousand years ago. Yet the people of this church had mastered such techniques as well—techniques even more terrifying than anything he had known back then!

"Could those gods have returned? Did they succeed in their pursuit of eternity?"

Having entered Atlantis and even lived there for who knew how many years, Alexios naturally knew what kind of beings those gods truly were.

But they had all left. They might even all be dead by now. Those gods were not eternal beings either, no matter how powerful they had been.

With a faint sigh, Alexios continued gazing at the sea. The future had become a blur of chaos, and he had no idea what to do.

Suddenly, Alexios felt that something was wrong. This intense sense of warning had accompanied him throughout his life, even after he had lost the Spear of Leonidas.

Alexios quickly rose, intending to leave, but the moment he moved, he discovered that several figures in black robes and black hoods had appeared around him at some point. More importantly, they wore specially made masks over their faces!

Alexios had heard of these people. He was a top-tier assassin himself, and gathering information had always been an easy task for him.

Nor was he merely an assassin. He was more versatile than those assassins, yet he knew that he was no match for them!

The reason was simple: a terrifying giant dragon was circling above them!

Malaka! Alexios had encountered countless troubles in his life, as well as innumerable creatures that existed only in legends, but none of them had made him feel as invincible as this dragon!

What Alexios could not understand was that, judging from their appearance, they seemed to be here for him.

This shocked Alexios immensely. He had hidden in the shadows of the world, watching it constantly change as he waited for the prophesied person to appear. He believed he had been extremely careful, but he had never expected to be discovered anyway.

"Are you Kassandra? Or—ah, sorry, I forgot that name."

The giant dragon descended, its massive body kicking up clouds of dust across the beach.

Even so, Alexios did not dare try to escape, because he could feel a terrifying presence locking onto him. If he dared make an attempt, he would surely suffer a horrifying attack.

"Alexios. I am Alexios. Kassandra was my sister, and she has been dead for over a thousand years."

Since he could not escape, Alexios could only give up and answer the dragon’s question.

To be honest, he had never imagined that he would truly encounter a dragon. Weren’t these things supposed to be creatures invented in novels by his descendants?

"Oh, then we got the right person. Alexios, finding you took us quite a bit of time. Still, we finally found you. Someone wishes to see you, so please come with us."

"See me? You’re from the Secret Ones Church, aren’t you? Who wants to see me?"

"Josh. You’ll know once you meet him. Don’t worry, Josh can be quite nasty sometimes, but he’s still a decent person."

This dragon was Hosdena. After arriving in this world, he had sent out the mission, and it had taken them only three months to find Alexios’s trail.

At that moment, however, Alexios’s expression was not very pleasant. Josh? The Pope of the Secret Ones Church? The god said to walk among mortals? He wanted to see him?

"Why?"

"You’ll know when you meet."

"You want me to go to Rome with you?"

"Yes."

"Can I refuse?"

"What do you think?"

In the end, Alexios was unable to withstand Hosdena’s pressure and followed their group to Rome.

Although Alexios experienced what it felt like to fly, to be honest, he was not in a very good mood.

Even though Giovanni and Mario, the two major figures of the Secret Ones Church, had come to speak with him several times, his mood remained extremely heavy.

He wondered whether His Majesty Josh had taken a liking to something he possessed. For example, this staff that could freely change shape while continuously providing him with endless life force?

Alexios spent more than three months in such circumstances, but during those three months, he also discovered the differences brought by the Secret Ones Church.

For example, in the area around their headquarters, society had developed exceptionally well. Although this church greatly resembled the Order of the Ancients that he had personally destroyed in the past.

But now that Alexios understood the meanings of "order" and "chaos," he did not think that was necessarily a bad thing.

Without order, society would become pure chaos, and the people would suffer. With nothing but order, society would have no vitality and make no progress.

But that still did not make Alexios particularly happy. This half-imprisoned life continued to make him uncomfortable.

He had once been a mercenary, and he longed for a life of freedom. Although those church people in Rome did not restrict his movements, he was no fool. Even without Icarus, he could still sense that someone followed him wherever he went.

"When will these days end? Didn’t that His Majesty say he wanted to see me? Did he forget about me?"

Alexios weakly swirled the cup in his hand, bitterness filling his face. Suddenly, he felt a pang of alarm. Alexios quickly raised his head and looked around, only to discover that everyone in the tavern had vanished.

"Malaka! What is going on?"

"Nothing. I simply wanted to see you. Relax."

Just as Alexios prepared to get up and run outside, intense distortion suddenly appeared in an empty area not far ahead of him, as if even space itself were about to shatter!

And a voice came from that distorted place.

The voice sounded very young, and Alexios could hear a hint of amusement in it. As the distorted space before him continued to shift, he finally saw someone walk out of it!

Damn it! Someone could actually walk out from there?

The young man smiled faintly at Alexios’s stunned expression, then introduced himself. "Long time no see, Alexios. Hmm, perhaps Eagle Trainer or mercenary would suit you better? Oh, right. My name is Josh."

"Josh? That Pope Josh, His Majesty?"

"Yes."

Josh nodded slightly. Looking at Alexios before him, Josh suddenly felt like playing a little prank. Just as he had said "long time no see" rather than the more ordinary "hello," Josh had always had a mischievous side, just like now.

"Oh, Alexios, did you ever recover that eyeball you shoved into a sheep’s ass?"

"What? Oh! Malaka! How do you know about that?"

Seeing Josh’s wicked grin and thinking briefly about what Josh had said, Alexios immediately recalled that this was something he had done back then.

When Alexios had still been on Cephalonia, after defeating the Cyclops and saving Barnabas, he had shoved the Cyclops’s specially made obsidian eye into a sheep’s ass!

But how did this Josh know about it?

Alexios stared blankly at Josh. Suddenly, he thought of something truly terrifying: this man might have already existed in that era! Still, to be more certain, Alexios decided to test him.

"Uh, do you know how many legendary creatures there are in this world?"

"I do. But didn’t you kill them all? Oh, right. Did you persuade your biological father, or kill him? Otherwise, by all reason, he should be the one alive today, not you."

"I persuaded Pythagoras. He gave me the staff."

"So that was it."

Josh nodded. He suddenly wondered whether this world might be the same world as the game he had once played.

After all, Alexios had appeared rather than Kassandra, and the choice involving Pythagoras had unexpectedly matched his own as well. But Josh soon shook his head. Why care about all that? Thinking about such pointless things would only bring more trouble.

"Your Majesty Josh, did you also come from that era?"

"No. I was never from this world to begin with. I came to this world only for certain things that are very useful to me, nothing more. And you should already know what you and this world’s gods truly are, shouldn’t you?"

"Yes, I understand."

Alexios nodded. He was not particularly surprised by Josh’s origins. After all, gods like Josh were beings from other worlds, and judging by what Josh had done, he had likely come only to gather faith.

After all, Josh had neither ruled any government in this world nor interfered with its path of development. He had merely established a religion.

That was already quite courteous. Those gods from before had not regarded the people of this world as lives at all.

"Your Majesty Josh, may I ask why you sought me out?" Having sorted through those thoughts, Alexios spoke.

"Yes, there are indeed several reasons I sought you out." Josh nodded, then gave him a serious look before slowly speaking. "First, I need your staff."

"What! That’s impossible! You know that."

"Don’t rush. Hear me out before you question me."

"Fine."

Seeing Alexios gradually calm down, Josh nodded and continued, "Second, I hope you can join me. Of course, not here. I want you to go to my world and become a teacher for certain subjects. I need your extensive combat experience and fighting techniques. Naturally, to compensate for the life force you lose, I will find a way to replenish it. After all, dead people can’t be teachers."

"Leave this world?" Alexios froze. He had never considered such a thing.

Josh nodded, then suddenly said mysteriously, "You are a mercenary—a legendary mercenary. So according to mercenary rules, payment comes with work."

"What sort of payment do you intend to give me?"

"Well, how about I find a way to revive your friends and family? Including Icarus."

"What!"