The Meeting (1)

Murmurs erupted from the crowd as the scene unfolded before them.

The old man raised an eyebrow when Touma interrupted Alice, but seeing her being comfortable, he decided not to react.

'They must be close, but I have never heard that the princess had a friend like him, nor the name of Honjou Masayuki.' The old man thought as he discreetly squinted his eyes at Touma. 'And despite his extremely average appearance, I have a bad feeling if I ever got into a fight with him...*sigh*, As expected from someone selected by the Princess.'

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Sir Honjou. Under normal circumstances, I would like to exchange a few words with you, but I am afraid it isn't possible." Said the old man as he extended his hand to Touma, who shook it.

"Don't worry, I know we are in a difficult time and everyone is tense." Touma said while ignoring the glare he was receiving from Alice. 

"It's nice to know there are still youngsters as thoughtful as you." The old man laughed as he gestured to a servant to come. "Now, please take a seat, we don't want others to wait."

The duo followed the servant, but then Alice moved closer to Touma and created an invisible barrier to have some privacy against prying eyes. 

"Honjou Masayuki, that isn't your name either, right?" Alice asked with raised eyebrows.

"That's right, it belonged to someone I knew."

'Well, sort of, since I've fully assimilated him I know what kind of person he was…'

"Is that so? Was he your friend?"

"No, we are just acquintances."

"Then the reason you changed at the last minute was just to annoy me, wasn't it?" 

They arrived at their seats and sat on the comfy chairs, but her eyes never left Touma while waiting for an answer.

"Hehe."

"Don't 'Hehe' me!" Alice said, annoyed by him, and sighed.

At the same time, the old man walked towards the middle of the room with a microphone in one hand and a small command in the other. Then a servant turned on the projector and displayed a map of Europe on the giant screen with a red dot near Oslo. 

"Attention please, members from Copper and Bronze members." The old man said to the microphone and brought silence to the room. "Since everyone is here, we shall officially start the meeting. My name is Luca Ricci and I will be your spokesperson for both organizations."

"As you already know, there was a descent of a Heretic God in the snowy mountains near Oslo. There were few casualties, but fortunately, there were no other activities from the god, which gave the stationed mages from Copper-Black Cross and Bronze-Black Cross an opportunity to evacuate Oslo."

"Do we have the identity of the Heretic God?" Someone in the crowd asked the question that was bothering everyone and in turn, they turned their heads towards the only person who could know it.

Being one of the strongest witches, Alice was already used to being under the gaze of many, so she wasn't bothered by it, but she wanted to see Touma's reaction. 

The princess in question took a quick side glance in Touma's direction, but having assimilated Julius' card, whose role was that of a ruler of the nation, controlling his facial expressions was a walk in the park, so in the end Alice didn't get the satisfaction from seeing Touma's surprise/panicked face. 

Alice cleared her throat to hide any strange face she might show.

"The Heretic God that descended isn't like the ones before, for the first time in history a God King descended and his identity is the All-Father Odin." Alice dropped the information like a bomb, leaving everyone stunned and unable to speak for a whole minute before everyone burst into panic.

"A God-King!?"

"Furthermore it's that Odin!? The God-King of Norse mythology!"

"Unbelievable!"

"Do we have any of the Kings willing to slay him?"

People started whispering to each other or letting out surprised and fearful comments to the air.

'So Odin huh? From the little recollection I have from this universe, there was a never mention of Odin descending and it was right when I was going to Norway. Is it the famous butterfly effect?' Thought Touma in his seat, as he leaned on the chair and various scenes started to play in his head.

"Princess Alice." Lucas, the old man from earlier, called her and at the same time, silenced everyone else. "Does your majesty know the reason for Odin to remain in the mountains? We could adjust our plans according to it."

"That I still don't know." Alice said and sighed tiredly. "I had tried to use my clairvoyance, but it was interfered with when I tried to pry further, possibly by Odin himself since there are myths about his clairvoyance as well."

The room became noisy again from the whispers as they started discussing within themselves. 

"What if he is waiting for someone?" Touma suddenly suggested, catching Lucas and Alice's attention.

"Excuse me?"

"What if the reason Odin remains in the mountains is the fact that he is waiting for someone, for example, one of the Kings arrive?"

'In reality, the one he is waiting for is me…for some reason.' Touma thought, but he wouldn't say it out loud for some apparent reason. 

"That might be…possible. There were cases of Gods of Steel that waited for the Campiones to challenge them in battle." Alice said after thinking a bit. "But regardless of his motive, Odin's hostility towards humanity itself is at its peak since he recently descended, so the best course of action is to avoid direct contact and maintain a certain level of distance to monitor until one of the Kings arrives."

Then Alice looked at the two individuals who were seated in the middle of each table. 

One was a blond middle-aged man with a stern look and the other was a woman with a baby face with a fluttery dress, they were Paolo Brandelli and Diana Milito, representing Copper-Black Cross and Bronze-Black Cross respectively. 

Under the gaze of the strongest witch, Paolo and Diana nodded in affirmation.

"That shall be done, your majesty." Paolo said and followed up with a question. "But which King is willing to subjugate the God-King?"

"Considering the current situation, the only ones who could be interested in fighting All-Father in a death duel are Marquis Voban and the King of Swords." Replied Alice. 

'Marquis Vorban is only interested in fighting for strong and worthy opponents, while Salvatore Doni might find battling Odin interesting.' Alice thought.

"In that case, I will immediately enter into contact with the two Kings for assistance, but I think they already felt his presence the moment he descended." Diana said while swiping her hair back.

"Then can I add a suggestion?" Touma suddenly asked, making everyone's attention shift to him.

"What it is, sir Honjou?" Lucas asked curiously, while the representatives had raised eyebrows. 

"Instead of having the Campione fight alone against the God-King, what if he had a helper to fight along?"

Alice didn't need clairvoyance to know what Touma was implying, so she looked at the young man beside her to see if he was serious. 

"Don't tell me, you…"

"It is what you are thinking, Princess Alice." Touma smirked and raised his right hand. "I volunteer myself to fight alongside the Campione in this battle against All-Father Odin."

To say they were surprised was an understatement, everyone gasped at his proclamation and looked at him as if he had gone crazy.

"Don't joke around!"

"Who do you think you are!?"

"And what can you even do!?"

Angry shouts and some insults were thrown at him, but it only made his smirk grow even further. 

"Young man." Diana called him. "Although rather barbaric, they have a point, what can you possibly do to help in this battle?"

"I can do a lot of things, such as…" 

At this moment, Touma's eyes shone as he made everyone feel the pressure of his mana.

The ground started trembling and the table started cracking, some members even started to faint or breathe with difficulty.

"I-I think that's enough for demonstration, young man." Paolo said while he tried to maintain his composure.

Touma gave a silent chuckle and immediately lifted the pressure from them.

"That's quite something…" Diana said with a sweatdrop. "And I apologize for underestimating you, but I wanted to know your capabilities."

'Apologizing my ass, where the hell did the princess find such a monster? If not for his lack of divinity, I might've thought he was a Campione in disguise!' Diana thought and cursed silently.

Paolo shared the same sentiments, but he would phrase them differently.

"No worries, I understand your perspectives." Touma nodded. "However, I am not done yet."

"What do you mean?" Paolo asked confused and felt the need to prepare himself for what came next, this action was shared by everyone else.

Then a familiar book appeared out of thin air and fell on Touma's hand.

"I have a grimoire with me."