Even though he practiced, Mr. Jones' rank was not as high as many others due to age factor. He couldn't train that hard either and only enough to prolong his life to a certain degree.

The door opened and Stephen walked inside. "I was thinking of waiting until you finish talking, Sam."

"I'm done."

Mr. Jones rolled his eyes and nodded at Stephen politely before walking out. The two of them were friends and Mr. Jones had known about this for a long time, so he didn't care that much.

Klep.

After the door was closed, Stephen looked at Samuel and asked, "Do you know what kind of agreement the Carson Family has with the Magic Association?"

"Hmm?" Samuel thought about the paper that he signed and sighed. "The Magic Association negotiate with City A Base so that they could still be stationed nearby and absorb people to follow them. The Carson Family heard about this and approached them to learn magic spells."

He didn't tell Stephen the details of the negotiation and Stephen also didn't want to know about it either. After all, it was not exactly his business.

"If City A Base were to fight the Magic Association, will the Carson Family be involved?"

Samuel arched his eyebrows. "That's a harsh accusation."

A base fighting against the entire association?

Unless there was a good reason and profit that could be obtained, it would be impossible for this kind of thing to happen. Samuel was not a person who was very keen on world dominance and sh*t like that.

Be realistic.

It was impossible to do such a thing even if many parts of the world has been destroyed because of the magic beasts. The remaining people would not back down so easily.

"I just mean if… Murin is not exactly likable," Stephen replied.

Well, Murin was definitely not likable.

And there were also many other people whom Samuel himself didn't particularly like among the returnees. After all, they have their own conflicts when they were in that world and after coming back to the Green Planet, some of them retained these conflicts and some others chose to put it down.

It would be useless for them to fight among themselves, so they chose not to bother with such a matter anymore.

"As long as Murin didn't do anything that endanger the Green Planet, I don't think any returnee is willing to fight him." Samuel tapped the table and then smiled faintly. "Besides, you don't know how many people are trying to curry favor with City A Base now."

The fact that Riya advanced to rank 7 couldn't be hidden.

This has long spread all over the world, allowing them to know that there was an extremely powerful rune master in City A Base in Continent Z. Because of this matter, there were many bases who wished to have contact, including bases on the other side of the planet.

Samuel didn't tell this thing to Riya but he guessed that she should know.

After all, her advancement ceremony was extremely high profile and people all over the world has been working hard so that they could advance not rank 7 for a long period of time.

Now that one of them had taken that step…

No one wanted to lag behind.

He himself was also making his final preparation for his advancement in his busy schedule and had selected a place to hold his advancement ceremony.

"I see…" Stephen rubbed his chin.

He had heard about Samuel's secret preparation to advance to rank 7. Moreover, he also checked the forum and knew that some people discussed about this matter.

They said that advancement to rank 7 is a big matter and the officials were paying close attention to this matter.

But it was only now that Stephen realized how big of a deal this is.

"Well, it's still far away from you," Samuel said lightly as he looked at Stephen in front of him. "I don't think that you're only here to discuss this, right?"

"I need a favor to figure out what the Carson Family has been doing in the past few months," Stephen replied.

After coming back to the Carson Family, those people were not willing to let him know what they have been dong in the past few months. The alienation was very strong and Stephen completely understood that they were trying to isolate him and his sister.

Was it because they were too strong?

What a ridiculous family.

But if he didn't know anything about their movements, Stephen felt that he wouldn't be able to be prepared in case they suddenly attacked him. After all, he didn't believe the Carson Family was willing to stay quiet for a long period of time.

"They divided their family into three parts, joining three different forces," Samuel replied. "The Martial Arts Association, the Magic Association, and the military. You have to figure out their identities yourself as I have no time to check them."

The Carson Family has expanded slightly in the past few months through marriage and so on. After all, their number had decreased sharply after the magic beasts' tide and many of them didn't survive.

So the remaining few people were used to expand their connections and so on.

"I understand." Stephen nodded with a frown.

Samuel looked at the tangled Stephen and asked the question he has been wondering about for a long time, "Why don't you ever think of leaving the Carson Family? The world is no longer the same as before."

If it was before, he understood why Stephen would rather stay and kept their strained relationship with the Carson Family. After all, there was nowhere they could go so easily without the Carson Family's influence.

Besides, who would like to live in hiding for the rest of their lives?

Stephen was clearly not someone who like such a thing.

So it would be better for him to live while accepting half control of the Carson Family.