"lord spirit king".
"ye-yes".
"is there anything I can help you with".
"no, nothing, nothing at all".
Ignatius was deep in thought concerning what to say to Elsa to get her to open up a little to Caius.
Here it came, wanting to use its authority as an Elemental king to help its contractor score a point with a girl he is infatuated with. The girl addressing Ignatius with respect that even Caius does not give it, makes it think twice on if it should help Caius ask the girl out, only for him to leave her when he is done with her, or if it should do what is considered the right thing and help prevent Elsa from falling prey to Caius?.
"lord spirit king".
Elsa called out to Ignatius's attention, bringing it out of its deep thought.
"i am curious lord spirit king, why did you choose that person as your contractor? He is rude, unruly and too pompous for any spirit to want to take a liking to him".
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇt"don't forget annoying".
Ignatius added, sitting itself down on Elsa's right shoulder.
"exactly my point. If you know that he is that kind of person, why do you still bother staying with him. He sully your name with his unruliness, he is not a good image for you to keep around".
"you are right. When I think about how mean and disrespectful he always is to me, too boisterous, always acting all high and mighty like the world belongs to him. He also has a really nasty temper, once he shows it, you won't ever want to be anywhere near him".
"with all this bad qualities in one man, it is enough for me to want to leave him to cater for himself, and i would have done exactly that, if I did not know the real Caius that is".
"the real Caius? What other him is there apart from the one he is displaying".
"i am talking about the him before he became a Cardinal".
"It was about six hundred and sixty eight years ago when he first summoned me, of rather a forced summoning".
"wait. That long ago? I have heard rumors that the Cardinal's are long lived unlike we normal humans. I thought there were just that, rumors and nothing more".
Caius's childish attitude did not exactly do the rumors enough justice for Elsa to want to believe it is true.
"trust me darling, It's not just empty rumors. Amongst the four Cardinals, there is one who had even existed before I and the other spirit king were born".
Elsa found Ignatius words to be unbelievable in her ears. No one knows for sure how old spirits are, or for how long spirits have been in existence. To say that a man is older than the spirit kings who are the progenitor of all spirits, is the same as saying the man is far stronger than the spirit kings.
"what is he, a dragon".
She thought the only way for there to have been a being who has lived longer than a spirit king, it had to be a dragon who are hailed as the strongest race in existence.
Elemental Spirits are not the strongest being in the world, that title belongs to the dragons who still reign dominant. Despite the fact that dragons beyond lesser and greater have not once being spotted in centuries, their legends is already enough to qualify them for the position of strongest.
Going by passed down myths, if a dragon of the highest rank is pitted against an Elemental Spirit King, it is not too far fetched to hand over the titles to the dragon. That is how exaggerated their stories are.
"he is one of the four Cardinals, what do you think?".
Ignatius question was trying to insinuate if Elsa had forgotten what the Cardinal's stands for.
They are called humanitys strongest, meaning only humans can be allowed to become Cardinals. Elsa asking if the man Ignatius was talking about is a dragon, is as if she does not know what the Cardinals represents.
"but, how can a human have lived longer than you a spirit king".
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏm"i keep asking myself the same question you just did. At first, I also thought he wasn't human, not until I got close enough to him to know that he is indeed a human".
"out of curiosity, I once went to him and asked him for his age, but he replied me with, I have lived long enough to stop counting how many years have gone by. Do you have any idea what it means for someone to say such a thing".
Not just for humans, but for any other race, age is a paramount guide to determining how strong a person is.
The more long lived one is, the stronger one gets over time. The humans have an exception to that rule, in that, as they age, the more they decline in strength.
But, there are ways for humans to overcome the age limitations, it is near the realm of impossible, but it does happen.
If a human can overcome the age limitations, that human is sure to have gone past the realm of ordinary humans, and stepping into the domain of human monster kind.
For such humans who managed to breach through the age gap, knowing what age they are, is essential as they will be able to easily classify what their strength is, and know which opponents they should and shouldn't go up against.
An human saying he/she had lived far too long to remember what their age is, is the same thing as them declaring that their strength had grown far too much to start placing limitations on it.
Such being, can no longer be considered as an human-monster kind entity. They can only be placed in a position of Demi-Gods, beings surpassing the realm of transcendents to becoming a God with a physical body.
Ignatius did not want to believe that the human has managed to step into the realm of a Demi-God.
It might also be that it is just over thinking what the human had said when in actuality, he is the forgetful type who actually forgot his age, and so hid it under the words of living far too long to remember what age he is.
If he was a Demi-God like Ignatius had thought, then the human has no reason to still keep living as one when he could actually ascend to becoming a true God whenever he so desires.
Ignatius did not know what the man really is, nor is he able to comprehend the realm of his might, but one thing it knows for certain, is that as a Demi-God, he would not appreciate the thought of being bossed around, much less by the Emissary who is weaker than him.
The Gods also would not allow for a God like creature to continue residing in the physical world despite having powers putting him in the same category as them.