Chapter 64: Completely Immune to Persuasion
No matter what diplomatic maneuvers the Supreme Guardian attempted to deploy, Rekka countered with the exact same unyielding line.
"Let's go seal the Stellaron right now."
He was a brick wall. A cheerful, entirely unreasonable brick wall completely immune to the subtle art of political persuasion.
Cocolia shifted her tactics, attempting to steer the conversation toward logistical nightmares. "The path is treacherous. There are countless Fragmentum monsters swarming the routes..."
"Oh, that is perfectly fine. I brought professional escorts with me." Rekka leaned forward, resting his chin on his hands as he stared directly into her eyes. "But, Supreme Guardian, what exactly are you so worried about?"
Cocolia's jaw tightened. She pointedly ignored the question.
"Sealing the Stellaron is not a simple matter of walking up to it," she continued, her voice maintaining a forced, authoritative calm. "At the very least, we require the confidential documents passed down by generations of Architects to serve as our guide. We must be fully prepared. We cannot afford to act rashly..."
"No need for all that tedious trouble. I can seal the Stellaron on the spot. Let's go right now." Rekka spread his hands wide, a bright, utterly unbothered smile plastered across his face. He left her absolutely zero room to breathe. "Any other concerns? Feel free to speak up. We can find a solution together on the way there."
"...You have traveled from afar. Will you not rest first?" Cocolia tried a softer, more hospitable angle, though her knuckles were turning white where she gripped her desk. "Although Belobog is currently short on resources, we still possess the ability to host a few honored guests. We can discuss the finer details of sealing the Stellaron tomorrow morning."
"No need, no need at all! We are not tired in the slightest." Rekka waved a hand dismissively, his smile growing almost blindingly sincere. "We just woke up. We are absolutely brimming with energy. We even made sure to eat a hearty meal beforehand, packed all our equipment, and brought our own rations and first-aid kits... In short, we do not need a single thing from you."
'Tsk.'Cocolia's composure fractured just a fraction.'This guy is a damn tough customer!'
"Your preparations are... indeed thorough." Cocolia forced a stiff, brittle smile. The gentle, diplomatic warmth had completely vanished from her tone, replaced by a cold edge. "But as the Supreme Guardian, I must be responsible for all the citizens of Belobog. This matter concerns the survival of the entire city. I cannot simply gamble with it."
"Oh, I completely see what you mean." Rekka nodded in deep understanding. "So, for your city to survive, why do we not go seal the Stellaron right now?"
Cocolia had to physically restrain the urge to slap herself across the face.
'Why are you still talking about the Stellaron?!'
"The danger of the Stellaron is far beyond your mortal imagination." Cocolia took a slow, deep breath. She shifted her strategy again, letting a heavy, sorrowful gravity bleed into her voice. "The Architects of old tried to approach it, to study it, and to seal it. They all failed in the end. Some died on the frozen path. Some were consumed entirely by the Fragmentum. And some... when they finally returned, they were no longer themselves."
She leaned forward, locking her piercing gaze straight into Rekka's eyes, trying to project the sheer weight of her authority.
"Do you understand what I mean? It is not an ordinary threat. You should be acutely aware of that fact."
"I understand, I comprehend, and I am highly aware." Rekka nodded along, his expression remaining perfectly, infuriatingly gentle. "Of course I know exactly what you mean. Which is why we should go seal it right now."
You...
Cocolia almost let a foul Belobog street curse slip past her pristine lips.
"You are not listening to me at all!" she snapped, her voice rising in pitch.
"I am listening intently."
"I mean, do not seal the Stellaron yet!"
"But why not seal it yet?"
"Be—" Cocolia sucked in a sharp hiss of air through her teeth. "This... tsk!"
The Supreme Guardian was so blindingly furious that her brain momentarily short-circuited. She was entirely speechless.
Why not seal it yet?
Because I do not trust you!
"I do not trust you! Is that reason enough for you?!" she finally exploded, slamming a hand down on her desk.
"Oh..."
Rekka blinked, looking mildly surprised before nodding in perfect logic.
"Then will you not be able to trust me right after I help you seal the Stellaron?"
Cocolia's chest heaved violently. Her impeccably maintained, regal face was now visibly distorted with twitching rage. She stared murderously at the young man with black hair and blue highlights sitting casually before her. It felt as though she had thrown her hardest punch, only for it to land squarely in a pile of soft cotton.
He was completely airtight. There was zero logic that could penetrate his thick skull.
She was so angry she could feel the onset of a genuine heart attack.
"Fine." Cocolia spat the word through tightly gritted teeth. Her voice was cold enough to freeze the air into falling ice shards. "Since you are so incredibly confident, I will give you this chance."
Rekka's eyes lit up like a supernova. He immediately snapped his fingers with a sharp crack.
"Excellent! The Supreme Guardian indeed possesses phenomenal judgment. So, shall we set off now? Where is the Stellaron? Lead the way."
"Not right now." Cocolia raised a trembling hand to aggressively interrupt him. "Even if you do not require rest, we need to prepare. Before anyone attempts to seal the Stellaron, the Silvermane Guards must be fully mobilized, and the route needs to be cleared of hostiles. The absolute earliest we can depart will be tomorrow morning."
Rekka opened his mouth, clearly winding up to push for an immediate departure again.
"This is my absolute bottom line." Cocolia's voice brooked zero argument. She glared at Rekka with enough intensity to melt snow. "If you are not even willing to wait for a mere half-day, then we have absolutely nothing left to discuss."
"Alright then." Rekka spread his hands, his face falling into a mask of exaggerated regret. "Then can I at least go take a look at the area? Do not worry, I am just an ordinary academic. I am quite frail, really—I get out of breath just carrying a cardboard box up a flight of stairs."
"...Fine."
Cocolia squeezed the word out of her throat. She rubbed her temples hard with her fingertips, painfully aware that her blood pressure had spiked to lethal levels the moment this boy walked into her office.
"However, you must be accompanied by a full escort of Silvermane Guards," she added, her tone ironclad. "And you are only permitted to observe from the perimeter of the designated safe zone. Under no circumstances are you to approach the edge of the Fragmentum."
"No problem, no problem at all." Rekka nodded repeatedly, looking like the very picture of innocence. "I merely possess a scholar's natural curiosity, that is all. I certainly will not do anything excessive."
Long after Rekka had finally walked out of her office, his cheerful, grating voice continued to bounce around the inside of Cocolia's skull.
'When are we going to seal the Stellaron?''Let's go seal the Stellaron.'
Rekka's face, plastered with that utterly harmless smile, combined with those two sentences repeating over and over like a haunting ghost, felt like a broken audio track looping endlessly in her mind. It was a play button permanently jammed down, impossible to turn off.
In fact, Rekka had made Cocolia's head throb with such a violent, blinding migraine that even the insidious, ever-present whispers of the Stellaron could not pierce through the static in her brain right now.
It was that casual, matter-of-fact tone. The sheer audacity of telling her to just go out and seal the Stellaron right now, immediately, this very instant.
She really could not stand that damn voice for another second.
"That was practically a weaponized linguistic system of mental pollution," a voice remarked dryly as Rekka regrouped with the others outside.
"Classic you," another chimed in.
"And here I thought you were actually going to be a coward about it."
"As expected of our resident chaos."
"Listen, when dealing with seasoned politicians, there is absolutely no point in being indirect. They are always going to be better at playing the subtle game than you are," Rekka declared righteously, adjusting his collar with a proud smirk. "You have to be aggressively blunt. You take your core demand, and you nail it directly to their forehead like a steel spike."
"Only you could drive a planetary leader to a complete mental breakdown just by talking to them."
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