The sage words is an admittance of baiting him and also a warning to him. The sage said it with a jovial attitude but he couldn't be jovial about it. Instead, he became alert and cautious immediately.
"What do you want from me then?" He asked the sage.
He thought his reason for attending the competition is hidden. He didn't think that the sage will set what he thought was his original and secret intentions to be bait.
The sage replied. "I want a lot of things from you but you don't need to worry about what I want. You will do them anyway."
Soverick rubbed his hands over his face and shook his head. Finding out that his recent endeavors are not as covert as he thought but were anticipated made him start to question himself. The Sage's statement that he will do what he wants anyway certainly didn't help his self-doubt. He doesn't know what's going on but he knows that he is being played and it definitely has something to do with this competition.
Unfortunately for him, that knowledge has not given him an inkling of how to stop being a pawn. Apparently, he will do what the sage wants either way because of his interest. After all, he thought he was attending this competition to steal the law of order of the world god that forged this world fragment. It turned outs that he attended the competition because the sage knew he will be tempted by the law of order.
'I should never have met Salvini at all.' He grumbled in regret.
He got interested in the competition when he heard Salvini said that the competition will be heard within an artifact outside of the plane. It turns out that everything she did and said we're part of the ploy to bait him. He can't do anything about that now. He can only look forward and act better.
So he asked, "Let me rephrase my question then. Why are you meeting me now?"
The sage chuckled. "You sure do move on fast. That is good. It will allow what is going to happen to proceed without problems."
Soverick frowned at what the sage said but the sage ignored him and continued.
"I know that you have completed the analysis of the derivatives of my law of order within the law matrix of this arena. I also know your effort to complete this analysis is why you took so long to heal from the injuries incurred from fighting the dragon. I want you to know that I don't mind you using it and that you can even learn more about my law or any law you come across within this competition. I don't mind at all."
His frown didn't ease up. What he just heard didn't fill him with joy or happiness. It is true that his healing was delayed because he was using the cover of his injury to dig into the law matrix of the arena. He was then pulled into this white space as soon as he finished cracking it. It is clear proof that his progress in his endeavor is being monitored somehow and very accurately too. It is disconcerting to know that the sage has all the information while he is in the blind. He is like a fumbling idiot and he doesn't like it one bit.
"And if I refuse?" He asked.
The eye sighed, "I won't punish you if that's what you're asking about. I already promised you safety and hospitality during the duration of this competition so no, I will not lash out at you for refusing. But am confident you will do what I want because there will be good pay for it. Knowledge is power. I am sure you want more power. If you don't, then I was wrong about you."
He asked suspiciously, "So it is my choice and you are not coercing me?"
"Coercing you? No, I am not doing that. Our deal is for you to attend the competition and for you to win it. Then I'll give you the support of the racial council and I'll fulfill a wish of yours. You have participated and you are doing well. Your performance is so good that you might be named a sage after this competition. You will get access to the racial council as a sage and my support will go a long way in helping you."
"This meeting is happening by chance. I laid a thread and you picked it up. You followed it to the end and found this. This is the end. It is a message that you are doing well and that you are free to pick up other threads in this competition. That is all. Can't an ancient senior give an impressive junior a pat on his back for his wonderful performance? Why are you so suspicious?"
The sage spoke without the air of severity of their last meeting but Soverick didn't feel relaxed. He knows that he is not the Sage's match when it comes to tricks and schemes but that doesn't mean he has to like it. He considered what to do and one thing came to mind.
"I have one more question to ask. How did you know I was deciphering your law of order? Did you simply anticipate it or do you have a way of knowing?"
He has to accept that he was baited and he didn't know it. Now that he knows that he was being baited, he has to accept it and move on because it wouldn't have mattered if he knew he was being baited. He would have attended the competition after getting that small exposure to the law of order from their previous meeting. So he wants to know how to avoid being caught in the future. There's nothing he can do if the sage anticipated what he was doing but there's something he can do if there's a method that the sage used to determine what he was doing.
