Chapter 219: All or Nothing

'Hmm...this is hard,' Desire thought as his face turned into a frown.

After all, this was indeed a hard decision to make. There was also the possibility of Lionel not liking it if Desire just decided to take the elves under the Lion Clan's wing.

No, Lionel was guaranteed to get angry as this move would just make more enemies for him when it could have been avoided.

It's not like the elves were his responsibility or something like that.

Lionel was definitely a good man, but not to strangers and definitely not to his enemies.

Desire is bound to get his ass whooped by Lionel if he made some reckless decisions such as taking the elves under the Lion Clan's wing.

What's more, Lionel wouldn't be able to chase the elves away once Desire agrees to take them in.

If Lionel did chase the elves away, that would make the public look at Desire as foolish since his own master does not look at his decisions kindly.

He would be taken lightly and it would be a smear on Desire's future reputation.

The Lion Clan's reputation would also be affected since their young master would be looked down on by the people, and Lionel would want to avoid a situation like that.

After all, he didn't want his student to be looked down on.

In fact, Lionel was currently working to make sure that Desire's introduction to the world would be as impressive as possible during the Pista that would happen a week from now.

Besides, even if Lionel did chase the elves away, the dark elves still wouldn't look kindly on the Lion Clan.

They wouldn't just say, 'Ah, okay, you're not friends with them,' and just go away.

Desire knew all of these points very well, which is why it was making it hard for him to decide.

And since it was hard for him to make a decision, there is only one way for it to become easier.

And that is...to weigh the advantages that he would get if he does agree to help the elves.

'This came to be because I wanted to know about the Monster's Way.'

Right, this is all because of that. 

Now that there's a price for the information on the Monster's Way, Desire wanted to make sure that the information that Aeri has on the Monster's Way is important or crucial so that this trade would be fair.

If it were just some saying or some shit like that, then taking the elves under the Lion Clan's protection would definitely not be worth it.

Desire was not stupid to accept a deal like that, and since there is only one way to find out about the kind of information that Aeri got on the Monster's Way, Desire...spoke.

"Sure, I'll lend you the Lion Clan's help and protect you..." Desire said.

And this made the two women look up with hopeful looks on their faces and eyes.

Even the slow Aeri was able to understand what Desire said, but...their hopeful looks were crushed when Desire spoke again with a hoarse voice.

"...but if your information on the Monster's Way is not worth it, you can bet it on the other dead Elves that the Lion Clan would be the ones to finish off the race called Elves."

Desire said, and right after saying those words, the atmosphere in the room became heavy and suffocating.

Well, Desire basically threatened the whole race of the Elves with the power of the Lion Clan.

However, there was an actual reason why Desire threatened them this time, and that is...

'I gave them a way out.'

Right, Desire gave them a way out. The race called Elf wouldn't be wiped out if the information that they have is good and worthwhile.

However, if they don't, they would be wiped out. It was a simple situation where Aerith and Aeri would have to go all-in or they would have to fold.

This would invite them to lie to make sure that they would be able to make their information 'worthy,' but Desire was confident in himself that he would be able to separate the truth from the lie.

Either way, this was the only way to know. After all, it's not like Desire can just ask them straightforwardly.

That would be just...naive and dumb.

And after a long amount of time thinking, Aerith finally spoke with a concerned look on her face.

"Do you mean to say that I should keep my end of the bargain first?"

"I cannot do that. If I tell you the secrets of the Monster's Way first, you can just pretend this never happened and chase us away, no?"

"I need the Lion Clan to make an official statement first so that I can rest easy before I can tell you about the Monster's Way."

Aerith said her concerns straightforwardly without holding anything back.

After all, her concerns were valid. There were many people who would not keep their end of the bargain after getting what they want, and since Aerith was the queen of the Elves, she knew about those people.

However...Desire didn't care about her concerns at all since he doesn't need to care about them.

And that was proven as he spoke.

"So? It's either you trust me or you don't. Although I definitely want the information about the Monster's Way that you guys have, I'm not so desperate for it."

"However, for you guys...the situation is different."

"Your only choice is to bet in me and hope that I will keep the end of the bargain."

Desire said. And what he said was the truth.

"You..." Aerith said as she squinted her eyes, "You're making it seem like we can't trust you by talking that way."

Desire then shrugged his shoulders, "Your choice, not mine."

"If you don't want to believe in me, we can just pretend like this never happened and have you get done with the healing and move on," Desire continued.

However, it seems that he didn't have to persuade her any longer as Aerith spoke.

"No. We don't have to do that. I'll tell you the information that I have on the Monster's Way."

Aerith declared with a determined look on her face, hoping that Desire...would keep the end of the bargain.