"Me?" William pointed to himself without knowing what was going on here.
"You look like a magnet to trouble," the old patriarch started walking towards the direction of the closed door, "anyway, you are going to remain here a little longer. My clan is under attack by a swarm of monsters for the first time in a few hundred years!"
"..."
William didn't think the reason he came up with to clear up his name would backfire and bring such a disaster on this clan, on him!
And as the old man vanished from William's sight, William kept standing in his place while only one explanation rose up in his mind.
This attack… It was indeed coming here for him.
"Do you think it's that easy to get rid of me?" he clenched both fists, looking like a wounded veteran spirit master at this moment.
Just as William went outside the mansion, he found a large commotion waiting for him.
Everyone was running in such a scary way. And William didn't find this weird.
He knew that in his past life, when a wide monster outbreak and swarm arrived at any place, all the humans would lose their homes and their lives.
It wasn't a light matter at all!
He was one of those few, lucky enough to run away with his life intact from a similar disaster.
He didn't ever hear about such a monster outbreak to happen before in his past life at the Long clan.
'But that doesn't mean this swarm is like that one… At least there are lots of years left from that doomsday,' he thought to himself while watching such a familiar scene playing again in front of him.
"Uncle…" as he saw Gran, he didn't stop himself by courtesy and almost jumped in his way to block his path.
"What? It's not the time to chit chat!" Gran gave him a deep look, one that held more of a threat than a warning.
"What's the grade of this outbreak? What kind of monsters are we going to face?" William's next words left that elder and uncle hesitant.
He said it in such a serious way, making Gran unable to decide if this little boy was just acting tough or what.
"It's still too early to decide, but at least it's a grade three monster outbreak," Gran paused for a long moment, out of hesitation before watching his beloved niece running to stand beside William with the other three who came with the latter.
"The early reports say they are scarlet type monsters, one that we are well experienced to deal with."
Gran then heard his name being shouted from one direction before he started to move away, "don't risk your lives. It's not worth it. Trust us, the old men, to do our job and protect you, kids," he said these caring words not just for anyone around except for his beloved Berry.
Yet Berry once turned her eyes away from the far departing uncle's back, she got a bad feeling from that dark look over the face of William.
She started to look up at William as someone who never felt any danger or fear, someone who knew everything and could solve any situation. She learnt about what part of what he did in the forest from her father when William went inside the mansion to meet with her grandpa.
She heard before about his amazing deeds at the Forging department. She also learnt about his fantastic meeting with the academy headmaster, making his image in her mind grow much bigger and grander.
Not to mention what she personally experienced with him.
All this made her take that grave look on his face to be bad news, very bad news.
What a f*cking bad luck is this?' and just as Berry was looking at him in fear, William was having the shock of his life.
He wasn't that a big shot or someone that mattered before in his life, at least that was the case in this world.
But news and events related to monster outbreaks never failed to reach his ears back then. And even if he took this matter quite lightly first, he was now treating such news with all his attention and focus.
The red alarm in his mind kept ringing until it was about to explode his head to shreds!
"This is weird… This is… Bad…" and as he stood in the middle of his little group, he couldn't help but shiver.
The events from his past life played themselves again in his mind. During the time of his stay in the academy, only two monster outbreaks occurred before that deadly doomsday happened.
The two belonged to the lightning and wind monsters, bringing no small harm to the academy and its people.
Yet not a single monster swarm ever targeted a single clan before, not to mention such a huge scale monster outbreak.
"What's wrong?" Berry was quite sure that something terrible was going to happen.
"Tell me… How much leverage do you have in the clan?" And without explaining any of what he felt or thought about, William couldn't help but turn to her and ask in such a serious tone.
"Leverage… What do you mean by that?" Berry was puzzled. What her status in the clan and her connections had to do with what was going to happen here?
"I want help, lots of help…" William paused when he noticed her looking around as if she was looking for her family members, "not the kind that will need the intervention of them."
"This…" Berry felt much weirder when she heard that. In her eyes, the best leverage she got was the one provided by her grandfather, then her father and uncles.
"We can't distract them from preparing the clan from taking proper measures against that monster invasion," William had to work his mind fast. And at this moment his vast life experience showed its worth.
"Uhm, I understand," and at this moment, Berry was just outplayed with William. The latter felt sorry about that for a brief moment before discarding such feelings aside.