Author's Reincarnation in a Fantasy Setting

"You don't have much of a choice anyway, Ellyn. You'll have to follow my orders whether you want or not, otherwise, I'll work with your father, and then your doom will be set in stone. However, right now I am giving you an offer; our relationship will be of mutual interest. You will work for me and follow my orders, and I'll protect you from your father."

She looked at me with her eyes, which were now shining as the sunlight fell on her tears. "Why should I work with you? You…just proved that I shouldn't trust anybody, right? Not even Leon, then why you?"

"Is that what is troubling you? Well, okay then. But I never said that you should trust me in the first place, so why did you assume this?"

"Let's say I will cooperate with you in the future, then, don't you think we start by trusting each other?" she determined.

'See? This is your problem, Ellyn. You judge people too quickly and take everything they show or do for you at face value. This is a major flaw in your character, but it's not like I'm complaining. I'm grateful enough that you are not a personality-less doll.'

"This is where you are wrong; we do not need to trust each other or anything. I'm saying this once again so listen carefully. The relationship we'll form we be of mutual interest; simple given and take type. You will have to follow my orders and in return, I will protect you, whether it is from your father, those girls in the academy, or Leon," I declared.

I want her to understand everything and make a decision by herself. I can force her to obey me by threatening her but that won't give me the level of control I'll gain if she makes the choice herself. By letting her do this, if she decides to take my offer then she'll feel secure that in the end, she was the one who made the final choice.

Of course, if she rejected my offer then the gates of threatening her into obeying me are always open.

Right now, she was thinking about it. Whether to work with me or not; I'm sure that's what's going on in her mind.

Then after a long break, she slowly stood on her feet. "You said that you will protect me even if it is Leon. Are you aware of what you are saying? He is the strongest in all of the first year and defeating him is not an easy task. I'm with him hence I've noticed; that he excels in both magic and sword arts. And right now, that guy is the one protecting me. Even if there's a chance that he might be sent by my father, being with him is safer than being with you."

Finally trying to fight back, huh? Well, this was only to be expected. When the talk is about her life or death then it's obvious she'll prefer to stay with the stronger one. This was the nature of human physiology; the weak allies with the strong.

This may prove as a disadvantage to some people, but to me, this very nature of humans was going to be the final move.

"Well, I don't quite understand your twisted reasoning on why you'd stay with Leon even if he can be your assassinator, but that doesn't matter now. The main reason you are not coming with me is that you think I'm not as strong as Leon, is that right?"

She nodded and watched in anticipation.

"Then let me erase that misconception of yours," I said and with that, I took a couple of steps backward.

I stretched out my right hand toward Ellyn and opened my palm. Then, just like usual I used elemental magic.

In a matter of seconds, a shard of ice crystallized over my palm and started floating in the air.

"Y-You! How can you do this?!" she asked in disbelief.

Of course, this wouldn't have made much sense to her since I didn't use any incantation, also, no magic circle appeared when I cast a spell hence it was not the magic circle technique either.

Yeah, this was my elemental magic that I revealed to her. When I said that I will play all the cards in my deck to get Ellyn under control, I really meant all cards.

The shard then disappeared as I broke the spell. Then as I sitting on a chair, I bent backward.

"Hey watch out!" One would've thought I will fall down since there was no chair behind me but.

Instead of falling down, I sat on something; it was a throne made out of freezing cold, blue ice, the white fumes it was emitting were the proof of that. The throne was not detailed and looked like just another big chair, but that can't be helped. Creating a thing this big exhausted me to an extent.

I sat comfortably on the throne; the seat was made of stone instead of ice hence I didn't get freeze burn.

I leaned back and put my right leg on the left one, and then I looked at Ellyn was staring at me in awe and surprise. "What'd you say now? Think I'm enough to protect you?"

"Well...even, Leon can't cast spells without either an incantation or a magic circle! Where did you even learn that?" she appealed.

"That isn't important. What's important, is will you join me or not?"

Ellyn's probably thinking that if not more than him, I'm as powerful as Leon. The main reason behind her reasoning was the way I use magic; the way I cast the spells.

The elemental magic I use allows me to cast spells without the help of any incantation or magic circle, after a bit of research I've found out that this was a unique thing.

Even Leon is not capable of casting magic in such a way but that's just about it. I'm not more powerful than Leon, I'm not anywhere near him at my current level. I mean, I can't really help it; the guy is S class plus he has a system guiding him.

But Ellyn doesn't need to know all that. I want her to believe I'm on Leon's level, that's the deal.

"Okay…"

"Huh?"

"I said fine, I'll join you. I mean, I don't have a choice, to begin with just like you mentioned before...But remember this! The only reason I'm doing this is because working with you is better than you joining my father to kill me off," she declared, averting her eyes a little.

'Tsundere, huh? Well, how did I forget that? It is one of the rare character traits that loli_pop added in her.'

"Yeah, yeah, I know. I look forward to working with you then," I said as I hopped out of the throne and then broke the spell, causing the ice throne to disintegrate into nothing.