Chapter 75

Chapter 75 Jack Russell was the Chief Elder of the Atlantis Magic Tower and a Class 7 Archmage. He was rarely seen in public, and when he did make an appearance, his presence was akin to a storm. He was also known for his neutrality, not distinguishing between friend and foe, which made him particularly difficult to deal with.

One wrong move could turn him into a fearsome enemy, while appeasing him wouldn’t guarantee to turn him into an ally. As the second-in-command of the Atlantis Magic Tower with the prospect of becoming the first-in-command, Jack Russell was almost as influential as the Towermaster himself.

The executives of Bermuda quickly estimated the potential gains and losses.

“This is a misunderstanding, Chief Elder. We were just speechless at Carmen’s words.”

“Exactly. To declare the staked duel null and void in the presence of a Bermuda official? That is ridiculous. Carmen, stop that nonsense and return to your seat immediately!”

“With the Chief Elder as the witness, who dares to play tricks?”

The executive Carmen, already pale, turned completely ashen at the sudden shift in the other executives’ stance.

“A-ah... Ahhh...”

Carmen had pushed her way from the very bottom to become an executive at Bermuda, besting numerous competitors. As such, she knew better than anyone else that her position was about to crumble before her.

After all, Jack Russell had just called her a piece of trash to her face. The Chief Elder of the Magic Tower was both influential and powerful, so to be branded like that was essentially a death sentence.

Returning Aquamarine to Rank A might anger some members of the Council of Atlantis, but calling off the staked duel would mean making an enemy out of the entire Atlantis Magic Tower.

The Council of Atlantis cannot simply sever ties with Bermuda, but the Magic Tower is a different story. They can shake the very foundations of the city at will. We can’t confront them without just cause.

Satisfied with the executives’ quick explanations, Jack Russell smiled and gestured toward Carmen. “Good, I trust you will handle this person’s punishment appropriately. You will also carry out the conditions of the staked duel immediately, right?”

“Of course. As soon as this meeting ends, we will send the exploration permit for the Fifth Sea District and the elf spiritualist to Aquamarine. Oh, and we’ll also give her the compensation she is due. That bastard Conrad worked her for years without paying her. He deserved to die!”

“We’ve also approved the grace period you requested, Chief Elder. It’s set for six months for now, but you can apply for a six-month extension if needed.”

It was as good as confirming that the Aquamarine Expedition Team had been promoted back to Rank A. The conditions were vastly different from when they were stuck at Rank B.

Rank A, the highest rank within Bermuda, provided opportunities for an explorer’s status to skyrocket just by putting the explorer’s name on the Rank A team’s ship. People would instantly stop spreading rumors about the expedition team upsetting the Council of Atlantis or Bermuda once they learned that Aquamarine was promoted back to Rank A.

In addition, the news of promotion would also attract a flood of new recruits. In less than a year—no, perhaps less than six months—the expedition team would easily meet the combat criteria for Rank A.

Well, with this it seems I’ve done everything asked of me.

Feeling a bit frustrated that he couldn’t spit in the faces of the groveling executives, Jack Russell thought of the absent members of the expedition team Aquamarine.

Frances, bold and intelligent like her father, Njord; Marianne, who followed Frances even if it meant risking her life; Ninian, who had worked for five years to support her only sister; Vivian, a girl cherishing her half-elf sister despite her sister’s stigma of not being a pure elf; and Leonard, the boy who intrigued him more than the other four combined.

An expedition team that primarily explores the Rifts in the Fifth Sea District.

Those Rifts were the very reason Atlantis and the Magic Tower had been established on the mainland.

Until now, the mages of the Magic Tower had been content with contracting Rank A adventurers to bring back byproducts or creatures from the Rifts to research, but they had eventually realized that experiencing it firsthand could also prove valuable.

I should consider it.

The second-in-command of the Magic Tower was starting to move in earnest.

***

Having won the staked duel and reclaimed Vivian’s contract, the Aquamarine Expedition Team was reinstated to Rank A, and they were celebrating their success.

Though not a huge amount of money, the nearly hundredfold increase in their stake was more than enough to solve their financial problems. With this, they could restore Aquamarine to perfect condition and still have plenty left over.

Cheerful voices resounded in the dining room, which had been expanded with a spatial expansion spell and made larger than most halls.

“Yeaaah!”

“Cheers!”

With Frances leading the toast, the clinking of glasses echoed as the members of the team drank to their hearts’ content, unable to conceal their excitement. Ninian was the most visibly emotional of them all.

“Vivian... I’m so sorry I was late! It must have been so hard, right?”

Since reuniting with Vivian at Bermuda, Ninian had hardly left her side. She seemed to fear that if she put even a little distance between them, they could be separated again.

Vivian smiled casually, comforting the tearful Ninian. Just looking at them, it was hard to tell which one had been held captive for five years.

“It’s okay! They did make me work a lot, but the spirits protected me, so nothing too terrible happened. Five years isn’t that long, and I’ve learned how to distinguish bad people, so I won’t be fooled again!”

“Sob... Viviaaaaaan!”

“So don’t cry! Smile; it’s a happy day! Geez, you’ve become such a crybaby while I was away.”

As she hugged her sister tightly, Ninian burst into tears.

Watching Vivian, Frances whispered to Marianne, who was sipping her drink beside her, “She’s more positive than Ninian described her. She doesn’t seem to be faking it. In fact, she doesn’t seem traumatized at all.”

“It’s not that she’s insensitive to malice. It’s just that she’s the type of person who sees the good in everything. Unlike you, who knows everything yet feigns ignorance.”

“Is that a compliment?” Frances asked back, sensing a deeper meaning behind Marianne’s words.

“Yes, of course. In human society, being too ignorant of malice isn’t good, especially for a leader of a group.”

“Hmph, maybe I could have grown up like her.”

If Aquamarine hadn’t fallen into ruin and had remained strong until now, perhaps Frances wouldn’t have needed to mature so soon, nor would she have had to look beneath the goodwill of those who approached her for hidden motives.

Indeed, perhaps she wouldn’t have had to experience firsthand how cruel Atlantis could be to the weak.

I’m not the type to long for a past I can’t reclaim.

Instead of dwelling on the past, Frances looked ahead. The path before her was still dauntingly long. Still, the days when they couldn’t pull up the anchor, let alone raise the sail, were now behind them. From this point onward, it was her duty as the captain of the expedition team to guide her comrades in the right direction and ensure they didn’t miss this fortuitous wind.

Through the slight blur brought on by the booze, Frances saw Ninian and Vivian approach Leonard.

“Hey there!” Vivian greeted him with a cheerful smile.

Leonard swallowed the sip he had taken from his drink, then answered, “You look well.”

“Yes! Thanks to you, savior!”

Vivian was an elf. Although Leonard had interacted with the half-elf Ninian before, her human-like demeanor never really bothered him. However, Vivian was the first demi-human he’d met who looked almost like a normal human.

Nature has blessed her. For a mass of spiritual energy to follow her around, she must have the affinity of a high-rank spiritualist.

Ascetics who pursued a life that sought to be in harmony with nature itself likely envied Vivian to the point of shedding tears of blood. They could possibly mistake her for a kind of nature spirit if they laid eyes on her.

Through his upper dantian, which allowed him to see past the boundaries of the material world, Leonard noticed a high-ranking wind spirit looking back at him.

It seemed to have been guarding Vivian without manifesting itself fully. The wind spirit cautiously observed Leonard, and it sensed a formidable and majestic wind power within him.

“Huh?” Vivian’s eyes widened in surprise as she, too, sensed the spirit’s whisper. “Are you also a friend of the spirits, savior?”

“No.”

It seemed that the presence of White Tiger Qi had confused the spirit.

“I possess the power of the wind, but it’s a bit different from spiritual arts. Unlike your friends, I don’t let it roam freely.”

“Oh, I see! Then, are you interested in spiritual arts? If so, I can teach you!” Vivian nodded in understanding.

Leonard hesitated, taken aback by her overly excited attitude.

“You seem to trust people too easily. Unlike Ninian, aren’t you meeting me for the first time?”

“I’ve heard all about you from my sister! How you helped save me when no one else would and how you personally stepped forward to fight Conrad!”

“We simply had aligning interests.”

“Well, my friends also behave well around you! If they sense someone is rotten, they’ll pull out their hair in a fit!”

It seemed Vivian had developed the ability to detect malice and schemes through her spiritual arts, a skill honed by her past misfortune of being tricked into a deceptive contract.

Leonard noticed the spirits around him, flickering like mirages, cowering under his gaze.

Behave well, huh... She’s not wrong, but I don’t think it’s because they see me as particularly kind.

It was like herbivores staying silent before a predator. Whatever was inside Leonard had to have made the spirits wary, though Vivian approached without fear, believing it to be harmless.

“Viviaaaaan...! Where... are youuuu...?” Searᴄh the Nôvelƒire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

Drunk, Ninian cut short their conversation, calling Vivian back from the nearby table with slurred words.

“Oh dear, sister.”

Vivian turned back with a resigned expression and bowed to Leonard. “Thank you again, savior. My sister and I will repay the favor as part of this expedition team moving forward.”

Leonard only nodded once in response.

As Vivian left, Marianne came over.

“... H-how are you feeling?”

Despite her usual composed demeanor, Marianne’s face was flushed, her eyes hazy from the liquor.

“I’m fine,” Leonard replied with his usual calm demeanor. “I didn’t take any direct hits. I guess I got hit once if you take into account this scratch on my brow.”

“That’s amazing. To take down Conrad without sustaining any injuries...”

Marianne, sitting opposite Leonard, was hesitant and struggled to find the right words.

As if reading her thoughts, Leonard spoke first. “Do you want to learn the sword?”

“Huh?!”

“It’s written all over your face. You want me to teach you swordsmanship, but you’re too embarrassed to ask.”

Teaching someone how to use the sword wasn’t a difficult task, as long as it wasn’t a formal master-disciple relationship.

“I was already planning to teach Ninian, and if Galano comes along, I plan to take a look at him too. Adding one more person doesn’t make much difference.”

“I-I see.”

“But if I teach you, I’ll drop the formalities. Hope that’s not a problem,” Leonard said.

“Of course not!”

Marianne looked excited, and her drunkenness seemed to have disappeared instantly. She had lived her life looking up to Frances, the only one she followed in the Aquamarine Expedition Team. Though she had no regrets, her desire to improve as an explorer and swordswoman remained strong.

The teachings of a so-called genius of the Cardenas family, the most powerful family on the continent, would be invaluable. She brimmed with excitement, ready to wield her sword right then and there.

“Leonard!”

Frances approached Leonard with her glass in hand, her fair and beautiful skin flushed lightly. She nodded briefly to Marianne, then asked, “Want to get some fresh air? Let’s talk on the deck.”

“All right.” Accepting her offer, Leonard followed her out of the dining hall and up a few steps.

No other ships were docked where the Aquamarine was anchored. Perhaps that was why the night air brushed over the deck, gently ruffling Leonard’s hair.

Frances had arrived on the deck ahead of him.

“Thank you,” she began. Her voice was filled with genuine gratitude as she looked up at the starry sky. “Thank you for the indignation you showed at the insults to my father, for defeating Conrad and securing our exploration permit to the Fifth Sea District, and for saving two of our members. All of that was possible thanks to you.”

“That’s because you saved my life, Fran.”

“Yes. Thinking back, that day was the luckiest catch of my life.”

Smiling, Frances looked up again.

Unwittingly, Leonard also gazed up, his normally calm eyes glimmering as he reflected on the recent events. A thought crossed his mind—it was the final message Conrad had left behind, which he hadn’t disclosed for fear he would ruin the celebratory mood.

Conrad’s vitality had been astonishing, even after being directly hit with the Surge of the Dragon King. He clung to life, even after being reduced to a charred lump of coal, hovering on the brink of death. Those were his last moments.

“Conrad.”

In response to Leonard’s call, the charred figure groaned, “Kill... me...”

“Who gave you that drug?”

“Drug? Ah... yes, I... took the drug...!”

Conrad’s labored breaths grew harsher as he teetered between life and death, fury and hatred bubbling up instead of fear and pain. Even as his limbs disintegrated into ash, he didn’t stop speaking.

“Pa...blo...! Pablo...! I’ll ki-kill... kill him...! With my... own hands... I will...”

“That’s impossible. You’re going to die now.”

Leonard dismissed his curses, offering the charred figure some final words.

“And Pablo will die by my hand. After that, you can settle things between you two in the netherworld.”

“Ha...haha! That... I can... accept...”

With those words, Conrad took his last breath, marking the downfall of the Rank A expedition team, Santa Maria. Watching his opponent crumble to ash, Leonard turned his thoughts to Pablo, the mastermind behind the whole incident.

He understood why his intuition had warned him against killing Conrad too quickly.

If I had destroyed his brain while the secret drug was still in effect, his life force would have ruined his body, transforming him into a monster, much like those of the Blood Cult.

Although Leonard could have easily dealt with such a monstrosity, a transformed Conrad could have disrupted the staked duel, delaying matters with investigations or even canceling the bet that hinged on the duel.

If the exploration permit for the Fifth Sea District issued to the Santa Maria Expedition Team had been revoked, Aquamarine’s victory would have been meaningless.

If that had truly been Pablo’s plan, he was far more cunning than Leonard had thought.

It seems being an influential figure in the Council of Atlantis isn’t just for show.

It was only fair that he acknowledged his enemy’s excellence. However, what caused Leonard’s gaze to grow cold was the striking similarity between the effects of that secret drug and the Blood Cult’s concoctions.

The Blood Cult’s drugs were said to be made not only from the murim world’s ingredients but also from the flesh of monstrous beings or deities from another dimension. This implied that they had likely borrowed the power of otherworldly beings.

If Pablo had indeed colluded with otherworldly beings, that was enough of a reason to try to sink Aquamarine, which aimed to seal all the Rifts.

Interesting.

It seemed Conrad was just the prelude. The shadows of the enemies he would face loomed ever larger. If Pablo was the next adversary, who would come after him? Leonard grinned at the thought of all the formidable foes yet to reveal themselves.

Atlantis.

Leonard was starting to like this strange ocean more and more.