"Can we agree that Eik's Legendary Mystery Medicine is a pretty big deal around here?" Eik asked Andihar as they walked to the headquarters.

"Of course," the S-ranker agreed. "Eik, do you remember when I told you not to be reckless. Are you about to do something reckless?"

"You tell me. I'm going to browbeat those damn council members into releasing Vendekaabe."

"Yes, that is definitely reckless!"

"Good!" Eik hissed. "You can come if you want or stay behind, but I'm certainly going," he said and sped up. Andihar followed, saying nothing more.

They reached the elevators to headquarters in less than a minute. Once inside, they took a fracture to the hall nearest to the administrative building where those same council members worked. It wasn't the same as the one where they had held the meeting, but it was in the same area of the headquarters.

He pushed open a set of double doors and marched up to a large reception desk. "My name is Eik Magnasen and I'm here to speak with the council members."

"All right," the man behind the desk said with a nod. His hair was combed flat against his head. "May I ask what council member you have an appointment with?"

Realizing he didn't actually remember any of the names, Eik hesitated. Had they even told him their names back then? "Any of them will do. Or all of them. I don't care. They will want to hear what I have to say."

"Pardon me for asking, sir, but… Do you have an appointment at all?"

"No, but when you tell them why I'm here, I won't need one. They imprisoned my guest, who had agreed to willingly assist with a major operation against a hostile power, and I demand to have him released into my custody. And I demand it be done right now," Eik said.

"Sir, please…" the receptionist tried, clearly growing nervous at Eik's demeanor. "Please come back once you have an appointment or I am afraid I will be forced to call security."

Eik immediately realized how uneasy he had made this man who had nothing to do with the matter at hand. You don't yell at the staff, you yell at the people in charge, so Eik did his best to suppress his annoyance until the actual targets of his ire showed up.

"I apologize," Eik said with a sigh. "I let my emotions get the better of me. But I must still insist on speaking with them right now. Again, my name is Eik Magnasen. I am the inventor of the Legendary Mystery Medicine that permanently enhances your stats. I am also the only person in the Unified Mass capable of creating it and any procurement of the Legendary Mystery Medicine goes exclusively through me."

"I see. I have heard of you, of course," the man said tentatively, waiting for Eik to continue.

"As I said, when last I consulted with them, instead of helping, they imprisoned a person who was going to help me with a very important task that has implications for all of us in the Alliance and beyond. I would be very grateful to speak to them about it again right now. And when you inform them of this request, I would ask that you also remind them, again, of who I am, that only I can create the Legendary Mystery Medicine, and that any sales, even to a large organization such as the Nidafjeld Alliance, can be authorized only by me. And that I have a pretty good memory."

The receptionist's jaw worked as he considered the gravity of the threat and whether he was going to go against protocol. "Please give the council some time to consider your propos—"

"Are they present in the building right now?" Eik broke in.

"I— uuh, y-yes. Four of them are."

"Great. I would ask that they meet me here in two minutes."

"Please, I am only at F-rank. I don't think I can do it in two minutes," the young man pleaded.

Eik gave him a look. "What do you reckon?"

The receptionist shrugged nervously. "I don't know… five minutes?"

"All right, five minutes it is. I'll give them five minutes to get here. And don't worry. No matter what happens, I won't involve you any more than this. Sorry that you ended up in the middle of this."

With a shallow nod, the receptionist turned around and took a flight of stairs five steps at a time.

Andihar spoke for the first time since they had arrived. "You do know this could backfire quite spectacularly, right?" the S-ranker noted.

"What's different from my life the last three years then?" Eik shot back.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Good point."

"You say it could backfire. Do you not think it could work?"

Andihar thought it over for a few seconds. "No, it could definitely work. A permanent cutoff from the acquisition of your pills could potentially affect the power balance within the Alliance significantly, especially over time. And nobody, maybe except you, really knows how scarce the medicine will be as time goes on either. It's totally new and has unimaginable potential, so anybody who locks themselves off from ever getting their hands on it would put themselves at a major disadvantage…"

"Buuuut?" Eik fished.

"It's still reckless."

"See, I knew you would say that! I bet you realized I could have done this from the moment they took Vendekaabe."

"… Maybe."

"You— Oh, my god! And Clan Leader Gul?"

"I made him promise to not give you any bold ideas!"

Eik rolled his eyes in exasperation. "Well, I'd bet he's enjoying himself right now then, wherever he went."

Andihar nodded. "Without a doubt, yes. Are you going to pressure them to assign troops to the operation, Eik? I'm not sure—"

"No, no, I'm not. I know I'm not the crunchiest nut in the bag, but even I realize that it would be unwise to trust your back in battle to someone you've forced to be there. All I want for now is Vendekaabe."

"From a strategic standpoint, we would indeed be much better off if we could get him to tell us the information about what the oracle's next move would have been. We might even be able to infer further action from it," Andihar agreed.

"Yeah," Eik said with a nod and folded his arms across his chest, waiting for the four bastards to show themselves. "He's coming back with us no matter what."

With about thirty seconds to spare, the four members of the council with whom Eik had met arrived in the reception wearing expressions of indignation, anger. "What in the world do you think you are doing, Eik Magnasen?" the rotund council member with the impressive mustache growled. A squad of guards followed closely behind them but did not appear to be anticipating violence quite yet. "It is entirely inappropriate to show up here like this and harassing our staff!"

"Put Vendekaabe back into my custody and I'll leave again without a fuss."

"Our decision is official and final, and the accompanying report has already been written and submitted. Why would we change anything simply because you demand it? If there was nothing else, I will have you removed. Guards." he began to turn around as the squad of armored individuals moved forth but Eik held up a hand for attention.

"I think you have misunderstood something," he said and glanced at the receptionist. "Did you not tell them?"

The young man pulled a face. "There was no time…"

"All right, no problem. I will reiterate just for you," Eik said seriously. "I am the creator and sole manufacturer Eik's Legendary Mystery Medicine."

"We are obviously already aware of that. How lackluster do you think our information network is? We are officials of the Alliance," the mustache huffed.

Eik ignored the jab and continued. "And that means that I am the only source through which the pills can be obtained. By withholding my exclusive approval, I can essentially deny access to… oh, anybody I so choose, and for whatever reason. It's a free world after all, as I and my fellow Earthlings have come to understand these past twelve years."

His eyebrows shot up like inch worms as the gravity of Eik's words struck home. The expressions on the faces of the blue woman as well as the two others instantly warp from indignation to deep worry as she shifted nervously, eyes seeking the others for comfort.

"Eik Magnasen, have you come to threaten us?" the mustache spluttered incredulously. The color on his face, which had already been like that of a ripe apple, now morphed into that of an overripe tomato. "We will not stand for this manner of nonsense!"

"A threat?" Eik exclaimed, shocked through and through. "I would never—! All I'm saying is that the business world is a cunning, cunning place and you can never really know what's going to happen. Even the largest of organizations might find themselves in a bit of a pinch if they step on the wrong feet, wouldn't you say?" Andihar winced at the direct attack.

The guards were hesitant to act amid the confusion. "You can't just do something like this!" the mustache yelled.

"No, I can just do something like this. Give me back Vendekaabe or we will have to wait and see what happens, not to mention who is going to be blamed if things turn out badly," Eik responded calmly. Keeping your cool in an encounter like this was paramount.

"Go home now, or we will have you arrested as well! Do you want to sleep in a cell, huh?"

Eik bared his teeth in a grimace. "Yeah, why don't you give that a try, smart guy?" he said. "I wonder how happy every single influential person and organization in Gimleh and the Alliance at large will be when the only person capable of supplying a pill that has the potential to launch them to new heights of power and put them ahead of rivals and enemies is thrown into prison where he can't make any pills. What do you think? Very happy? Or perhaps… very furious? I wonder," he said, tapping the stubble on his chin as he thought. Andihar actually appeared to approve of that line of thought.

"I— Wh—" the mustache stammered, searching for words. It seemed to be the first time he actually realized that he might not be able to throw Eik in jail even if he stepped over the line. Suddenly, all of the indignation and anger had evaporated and been replaced with quiet fear, which didn't seem to be an emotion he was used to feeling. His jaw bobbed open and closed repeatedly despite no words coming out.

"Yeah, give that a good think and get back to me. This can all go away if you just decide to do the right thing," Eik promised nonchalantly.

The blue woman looked ready to collapse to her knees. The prospect and losing her career and social dignity after building it steadily through many years must be a frightening thought. Sucks to be her.

"Well… We-We must delibera—" the mustache began tentatively, but Eik cut him off.

"I will be generous and give you one minute to decide before I walk out of here."

"Alright, alright!" the blue woman gasped, pushing the mustached man out of the way as he grunted with dissatisfaction. "We'll release your guest, okay? Is that good enough?"

"Yeah, it's perfect. Thank you. Did you even interrogate him yet?"

"We haven't gotten around to that yet," the mustache grumbled.

"Uh huh, figures," Eik deadpanned. "You have thirty minutes to bring him here. I have stuff to do."

Eik hadn't seen that much serious action these past two years and, almost surprisingly, the thought of getting back into a proper fight with his life on the line filled him with excitement.

Next stop—Raid on Luna.

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