Chapter 105

Chapter 105The capital, Atlantis City, was the heart of the Alliance. The island was so diverse that it bordered on chaotic. It also had the greatest area out of the southern sea districts, and the sea currents surrounding it were gentle, making its shore the perfect place to build on the quayside. On top of that, there was rarely any change in the weather conditions.

Another advantage of the city was that it was somewhat close to the mainland but distant enough that citizens of the Alliance could trade without any outside pressure.

Most importantly, the three organizations that made up the Alliance all had their headquarters on the island.

Bermuda, which protected the rights and interests of explorers.

The Council of Atlantis, the Alliance’s legislative body that decided its policies.

Atlantis’s Magic Tower, which provided magical engineering for the manufacturing and maintenance of ships on the island.

If any of the three were absent, the Atlantis Maritime Alliance could not continue to function. One could say that their headquarters were the heart of the capital.

So, the citizens of the Alliance deemed the area where they were located as District 1, which was known to be the most luxurious sector, where successful people resided.

Still, the area around the Bermuda headquarters is quite crowded, considering how explorers are always coming and going.

There were merchants trying to sell wares to explorers. There were children who watched them with interest and yearning. And there were countless other related parties mixed among them. There was never a dull moment when one watched the comings and goings of people at Bermuda’s headquarters. On the other hand, there were barely any people around the Council building or the Magic Tower.

Every single councilor was a powerful yet idle person, and the mages of the Magic Tower always stayed locked up in their personal quarters, never venturing out. Of course, tidy, well-kept areas were appealing in their own right, but if they were always the same, people would naturally grow tired of them.

“Hm.” Leonard left District 1 with fast steps and made his way to District 2, the commercial district. It had everything from forges to general stores and was located right next to District 3, which was crowded with explorers’ guild houses and forms of entertainment. There were many people with unique appearances who milled about between citizens and merchants.

However, there was no one powerful enough to impress Leonard.

Looks like there are rats running around in broad daylight.

Leonard’s eyes narrowed as he entered the crowd. After reaching the Tenth Degree External Force Tier, his senses had heightened, and now he could even detect when he was being trailed with magic.

He didn’t mind being watched because he was used to having eyes on him. Even in his past life, from beggars to martial artists from the Lower Five Sect, thousands of people had watched his every move.

They’re not watching me for the purpose of observation. I sense that they want to predict my course and stay a step ahead of me. People who try to approach others like that never have good intentions.

The proverb “He who comes is surely ill-intentioned, as no one well-meaning will come” was left behind by a writer from the olden days and was also discussed in the Daodejing, so it was very applicable in murim.

Leonard had learned that lesson the hard way, through experience. His eyes darkened.

There’s only one group that would secretly go after Aquamarine like this. The Rift Preservation Factor, led by Pablo.

As soon as Aquamarine restored its Rank A status, the expedition team had successfully sealed two Rifts, and their achievements were so influential that even the atmosphere at Bermuda had shifted. If they continued to win victory after victory like this, the truth of the tragedy that was quietly buried eight years ago, or talk of the danger of Rifts, could resurface.

There was no possibility that the same people who had ambushed Aquamarine without hesitation during the expedition team’s prime would just sit idly by.

“So that means... they see me as the weakest member.”

It was an obvious conclusion. Leonard was already careful about keeping his true capabilities concealed, and who would ever believe that a boy of only sixteen years could defeat someone in the Transcendence Tier? Even the power he demonstrated during his duel with Conrad was mistakenly attributed to an artifact. Thanks to that, he’d avoided drawing any unnecessary attention, but as a powerful martial artist, he abhorred that he was being looked down upon as a weakling.

Leonard casually began to walk to a place with fewer people. The people tailing him followed him without a sound, oblivious to his intentions.

* * *

District 1 housed the three organizations’ headquarters while Districts 2 and 3 surrounded it in the shape of an arc. A little beyond them were Districts 4 and 5. Unlike District 4, which was directly connected to the docks, District 5 was an underdeveloped area on the island. Because the Alliance’s territories tended to have unstable environments, there weren’t many people who fully settled on the islands and considered them their home.

In other words, the Alliance’s infrastructure was insufficient for the amount of money and people that moved through it. Even when Gallano was living as a deadbeat, he and his followers lived in a slum of sorts, one of the many that dotted the undeveloped land.

“This is far enough.”

Leonard finally stopped when he reached the outskirts of District 5. He was in an area that only had scraggy skeletons of buildings, where it appeared that construction had halted for some reason or another.

He placed his hand on the hilt of his sword and turned around as he said, “You must have some important business with me if you followed me all the way out here. Show yourselves. Unless you’re too scared, that is.”

He had led them all the way to District 5, not just into some alleyway. That made his opponents realize that a mere child had sensed them and led them to a place without many people. If they were discovered by someone like Gallano or Lorelei, they would have retreated immediately. They wouldn’t dare assume they could win against someone that powerful.

However, even if Leonard was famous for being a genius swordsman, he was only sixteen years old, and the thought of running away from a child who relied on artifacts to display his power hurt their pride.

“You don’t seem to know the difference between confidence and conceit,” a dull voice said.

Ambushers wearing magic masks and robes stepped out of the shadows all around him.

There wasn’t just one or two. It appeared that they wouldn’t even allow the possibility of escape—there were more than twenty masks surrounding him on all sides.

“Do you have that much faith in your artifact?”

“Or perhaps you have a magic scroll used for escaping?”

“We should get rid of his nonchalant attitude first.”

The masks’ comments flowed into each other, almost as if they were rehearsed. One of them pulled out a scroll and ripped the page, releasing a light that covered the area. As soon as Leonard saw it shoot out, he immediately recognized the principle of the spell and its effects.

It freezes fully prepared spells! Is the scroll used to make magical tools that require activation ineffective? They must use it when they want to be thorough about defeating someone.

Under the scroll’s area of effect, artifacts, scrolls, and any other magic tools requiring activation were rendered useless. This was at least a Class 6 spell, perhaps even Class 7. Not even Mass Teleport, which Leonard had experienced on Galapagos Island, could be cast under this spell, though it couldn’t cancel spells that were cast before its activation.

“That doesn’t look cheap. This doesn’t seem like a waste to you?” Leonard asked.

“This is nothing for the one we serve.”

“Are you talking about Pablo?” the boy said, casually dropping his name.

For a moment, the masks seemed to forget they outnumbered him, and they gasped, confirming his suspicions.

A masked man who seemed to be their leader stepped forward, realizing it was too late to turn back. “If you already know that much, there’s nothing more to talk about.”

He snapped his fingers, producing a sharp sound. Each person raised their weapons.

They never had any intention of trying to settle things with words anyway. Even if Leonard accepted their proposal, they had to instill a deep sense of fear in his heart and body at least once. Terror was a much stronger shackle than trust.

At least, that was what their superiors thought.

“It’s okay if you cut off his limbs. Just keep him alive,” their leader ordered.

No matter how outstanding his talent was, their opponent was just a sixteen-year-old boy. Why would they ever run away?

The masks anticipated the moment when his face would go white.

But instead, they saw Leonard draw two swords.

“Heh.”

Though wielding dual swords created an extravagant display, the gracefulness was not worth the difficulty. And the difficulty was not worth it because duel wielding wasn’t significantly more effective than using one sword. So, most people who used dual swords were showy dimwits. There were only a few who could use them properly, and they were acclaimed for their elegance.

However, the masks never heard that the “genius swordsman” could use dual swords. Searᴄh the Nôvel(F)ire.nёt website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

“Are you looking down on us?!”

“You arrogant little bastard!”

“Our only order was not to kill him, so we can play around with him for a bit.”

Brimming with bloodlust, the masks rushed Leonard all at once.

They don’t fight very well as a group.

Though it didn’t seem as if there would be a path through their siege, Leonard narrowly slipped through, staying one step ahead of them.

Compared to avoiding a proper pincer attack, it was like trying to escape a ripped net.

A mask missed Leonard by a beat, and his head went flying. The spray of blood blinded a mask that had run in from the side.

“Guh?!” The mask reflexively shut his eyes before Leonard pierced through his heart and activated his sword energy to cut him in half.

In Leonard’s current situation, if he lowered his sword even for a moment, he could be stabbed at least three or four times. Having fought countless battles in which he was greatly outnumbered, Leonard didn’t make a single inefficient movement.

The soft overcoming the hard.

The principle of redirection.

Fakes and feints.

He used everything from the most basic martial arts techniques to the most advanced ones. Every time blade met blade, heads fell like petals from a flower.

Leonard cut off the heads of three masks who entered his attack range. He drew an arc with his sword as if he were dancing and not fighting, cutting in two a mask who had tried to aim at an opening. The lower half of the body collapsed, intestines spilling out, while the upper half writhed on the ground. The mask thrashed around for a bit, unable to comprehend what had happened, before their breath cut off.

It was a spine-chilling sight, even for the masks who had gone through all kinds of suffering.

“What are you doing?” Leonard taunted.

It had only been a few minutes, but nearly half of the masks were already dead. When the ones who remained realized this, they wavered for a moment. The boy shook the blood off his swords and sneered.

“I thought you said I didn’t know the difference between confidence and conceit? Do you have a scroll to escape with? Oh, right, you won’t be able to use it because of the spell you cast. How does it feel, digging your own grave?”

He was obviously trying to provoke them, but the masks realized the difference in their power and took a large step back, dripping with cold sweat. It was true that they’d let their guard down, but even if they hadn’t, it would not have made much of a difference. Though their hands were dirty, each of them was born with a gift for combat, which they had honed through the years.

They couldn’t win.

Unlike properly trained assassins, the masks weren’t prepared to die and began to freeze up.

“Tsk.” Their leader clicked his tongue. Unlike his brothers who were united through faith, these fools did not deserve to devote themselves to the Chosen One, nor did they have the conviction to do so. They were merely disposable scum, so it would only be right to treat them as such.

Just as the masks who were frozen with fear were about to lose their will to fight entirely, he gestured with his pinky finger and activated what was planted inside their bodies. At that moment, the eyes of the hesitating masks bulged, their gazes grew unfocused, and their pupils turned crimson.

“Grrrr! Grr!”

“Graaak! Gak!”

“Graaaaa!”

They gurgled and foamed at the mouth, eyes glinting red as they raised their weapons once more.

They’d lost their reason, which also meant they lost their fear.

This was something he’d occasionally seen in murim, and the excitement that had welled up in Leonard settled and grew cold. Their Baekhoe point had been disturbed with something like gu poison[1] or some kind of curse. Cutting down opponents who couldn’t fight out of their own will was no better than fighting beasts.

I will not let that man off with an easy death.

Leonard casually dealt with his opponents as the battle resumed, eyes fixed on the leader of the masks, who was observing the fight from afar. Leonard’s eyes were overflowing with vicious killing intent.

The masked man suddenly had a vision of his head being cut off. He stroked his neck as he dripped cold sweat.

“H-He’s a monster,” he whispered, unconsciously taking a step back. He gritted his teeth, then shouted, “But ultimately, you are a mere mortal who cannot escape the palm of the Chosen One’s hand. Behold, this is the price you will pay for running around as you please with no respect for the heavens!”

The masked man ordered his subordinates, “Bring the boy to me. We will carry out the secondary plan, as the Chosen One instructed.”

“As the Chosen One pleases.”

The masks swiftly lunged forward. Pablo had given them orders for a contingency plan in the case that they couldn’t overpower Leonard through fighting.

Their leader’s eyes filled with an almost sinister ecstasy.

This was a plan that would succeed no matter what, regardless of how powerful Leonard was.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gu_(poison) ☜