232 I’ll find whoever did this

Tap

Kairen walked into the familiar training ground.

‘No one is here...’

Did he arrive too early? He rushed here so that he could finish things soon and go home but it seemed that he came too early.

Plop

Kairen plopped down on the ground, waiting for captain Neal to arrive.

‘Should I rent a place now, or wait until I get my next payment?’

He thought about the money he had. His salary was indeed higher than any normal person’s, but it still wasn’t enough for him to rent a place and pay for food and clothing and anything else for himself and Ariyan at the same time. He had been working at SMF for only a few months so he didn’t have much savings either.

If he waited one more month, he would get additional money for working in the Secret Operations Unit on top of his usual salary. That way, he might be able to rent a better place.

.....

But he didn’t want to wait for that long.

‘Maybe I’ll get a loan?’

He heard that SMF gave loans to its workers, but one required to work in SMF for at least 6 months to get a loan. Kairen had just finished his 3 months of temporary work and had become a member of SMF just recently.

‘Should I stay a little bit longer?’

He shook his head to his own words.

‘No.’

He didn’t want to. He had to move out. He couldn’t keep living there all alone with Ariyan.

The huge house was too suffocating without its two owners in it.

‘What should I do...’

CREAK

“Oh, you were here already?”

Captain Neal was taken back upon seeing Kairen as soon as she entered the training ground.

“Ah, hi!”

Kairen waved his hand to the woman as he stood up and dusted his butt.

“Hi!”

The captain also nodded her head and walked in. She placed her stuff on the ground and turned to Kairen again.

“There are actually a lot of things that I want to teach you, but as it’s been a long time since I have last seen you, let’s spar first.”

“Actually, captain Neal...”

Kairen hurriedly raised his hands to the air to stop his master from shooting him with fireballs.

“Yes?”

Captain Neal lowered the fireballs that she had cast in just a second.

“Um... Look at this first.”

Kairen raised his hand after making sure that the captain was looking at him.

ONGGGGG

He opened his palm towards the ceiling.

CRACKLE

CRAKCLE

A familiar power appeared on his palm and the cracks also popped up in the air.

Captain Neal tilted her head, asking why Kairen was showing this thing again to her with her gaze.

“Isn’t this what you could already do before?”

“Yes.”

Kairen nodded his head.

“But now, I can do this.”

Kairen raised his other hand to the air.

Crack

Crack

Onngggg

A huge amount of energy appeared on his other palm, and the energy in his right hand that was already in the air also increased. As this happened, a massive amount of cracks appeared all around him. The cracks were so much that they covered almost the whole training ground.

“Whoah! What?”

Captain Neal’s jaw was on the ground.

“How can you do this? You didn’t have this much power before!”

CRACKLE

OOONGG

CRACKLE

The noises that the cracks and the energy were making were so loud that she had to shout for Kairen to hear her words.

“I don’t know either!”

Kairen also shouted back at captain Neal.

“I just felt like I were more powerful one day!”

That day was, of course, the day of the attack on the capital.

Kairen didn’t know how it happened. He was so overwhelmed with Kain’s condition, news about Alessia, the memories that he kept remembering, and everything else that he didn’t even realize this dramatic change in his power.

It was only the next day that he realized that something was strange with him. He had gone to check on Kain, still hoping that he would open his eyes at any time when he started to play with his power out of boredom and found out that he was now loaded with energy.

“BUUUTTTT—”

Kairen shouted at the top of his lungs.

CRACKLE

CRAKCLE

ONNNNGGG

CRACKLEEE

“I CAN’T CONTROL ITTTT!!!”

CRACKLE

CRACKLE

“WHAT?”

“HELPPPPP!!”

Kairen’s hands were shaking.

He didn’t know how to cancel the power.

“JUST DO WHAT YOU ALWAYS DID TO CANCEL IT!”

“I DO, BUT THE CANCELING SPEED IS TOO SLOW!!!”

“WHY DID YOU BRING OUT SO MUCH POWER???”

“I-”

It was then-

BOMMMM

A loud sound was heard from one side of the ceiling.

BOMM

.....

SLAM

BANG

Accompanied by some other noises. Then, some dust rose into the air.

“KAIREN!!!”

Captain Neal almost screamed as she moved her mana.

“YOU ARE DESTROYING THE TRAINING GROUND!”

. . . . .

The man picked up the paper and read its contents.

“This is my next mission?”

“You’ve recovered so you must start working again.”

“Isn’t it a bit too much for me alone?”

“I think you’ll carry things out just fine.”

The white-haired man standing behind the hoodied one nodded his head.

“Why should I do such a thing?”

Tap

The white-haired master put his hand on Mr. Hey’s shoulder.

“There is no need for you to know.”

He then leaned closer to the man’s ear.

“And I’d be glad if you would fulfill this one mission properly.”

Pat Pat

He patted the man’s shoulder.

“I won’t spare a traitor for a second time.”

His voice was cold and the aura he was giving off was ominous.

“What makes you think that I’m a traitor?”

The master let go of his shoulder and plopped down on a chair beside him. Leaning his chin on his palm, and stared at the man’s face though his face was hidden.

“Who else would it be, hmm? Tell me.”

“On what bases do you believe it was me?”

“You are the only one who had the motivation to reveal the location of the bombs.”

“What motivation are you talking about?”

The master smiled.

“Both of us know what we are talking about. That boy you look after so much, you didn’t kill the prince because of him.”

Crumple

The man crumpled the paper in his hand.

“I’ve told you before that if you try to harm him, I won’t stay quiet. Not only you didn’t listen, but you send me there to kill him myself? Did you expect me to just follow your orders? You had to expect the outcome to be that way the moment you assigned me to that mission.”

“Hah!”

The master scoffed.

“Look at you, talking like that to your boss.”

“You are not my boss.”

“Yeah, you are just doing me some favors!”

The master crossed his arms.

“I must admit, I knew you wouldn’t kill the prince. I intended to kill him first, but he might be useful later so I changed my mind. But I couldn’t tell this to those kids, could I? They never listen to me! Sigh!”

The young-haired man shook his head as if greatly disappointed.

“Still, the fact that you are not my subordinate doesn’t mean you are allowed to do anything you want and ruin my plans.”

He raised one eyebrow.

“I won’t overlook something like this again. I’m doing more than enough for you.”

“I wasn’t the one who ruined your plan.”

“The people you attacked teleported to the capital right after the bomb you were holding exploded and one of those people was the one who stopped the other four bombs in the capital. Is there even a need to question the identity of the one who revealed the locations?”

Tap

Mr. Hey threw the crumpled paper to the table.

“Yes. I didn’t kill the prince, but I have nothing to do with the things that happened in the capital.”

Roll Roll Roll

The master looked at the paper that was rolling on the table.

“Do you think I am so stupid to do such a thing? Do you think I would reveal the locations of the bombs to someone I’ve gone out of my way to protect? Why would I send him to the capital on purpose, knowing that the place would blow up soon? Do you take me as a fool?”

“....”

“He nearly died there, and you still think it was my doing? Do I look that stupid to you? I would’ve done anything but send that person to the capital.”

The atmosphere in the room was colder than before. Mr. Hey clenched his firsts, the vines on the back of his hands had bulged up due to anger.

“But I’ll find whoever did it!”

He lowered his head.

“Their actions led to that person nearly getting killed. Revealing the locations to him? Do you think it was a coincidence? Sorry but I don’t! I don’t know if one of your kids wanted to do a prank on me by luring him to the capital or something else but I’ll find them and show them the consequence of their actions.”

The master just silently listened to the man’s words.

“So Mr. Master, please let me do the punishing once you find who the traitor was, okay?”

As he said that, he raised his head and stared at the white-haired eyes.

“...I guess you are right...”

The master tilted his head.

“Alright. I’ll let you punish the person who revealed the locations of the bombs once I find them.”

“Thank you.”

Creak

Mr. Hey stood up from his seat.

“Then I’ll take my leave. I’ve got to get prepared for the mission.”

“Yes.”

The master nodded his head, still deep in thought. The man glanced at the master one more time before leaving the room.