After capturing Glen, Ultel dragged him to an unknown place. The place smelled stale, and the nauseating smell of blood oozed all over the room; the torture tools placed all over the room reflected the eerie display of candlelights. Ultel ordered for Glen’s torture immediately, and his subordinates skillfully began to inflict optimal pain onto his body. Without patience nor faith to endure the torture, Glen screamed and cried for his life. Yet, those in the room watched Glen cry his heart out without a shred of mercy, and especially Ultel. He smiled as he watched.
Glen was someone who dared to treat him like a lowly slave. Thus, Glen’s desperate pleas for help sounded sweeter than any poet’s music. Ultel was sure that in the past timelines that they didn’t remember, they all endured any sort of humiliation just for this moment. Considering this, there was no way he would get sick of this joyful tune of Glen’s cries.
Yet, even this joyful time couldn’t last forever and Ultel knew that he needed to focus on the task at hand. His ambition wasn’t so small that it could be fulfilled by a bug like Glen Zenard. To fulfill his true goal, he needed to extort information out of Glen, and Glen provided the information very easily.
The situation was more severe than he had thought.
“...Did you say Zich Moore regressed?”
“Y-Yes, sir!” Unlike his previous self that overflowed with confidence, Glen answered tearfully like he couldn’t dare to raise his head. There was no part—besides his ears for hearing and mouth for answering—that was fine. Not many could stand against such intense torture, and Glen was far from descriptions like ‘firm’ or ‘resolute.’ Yet, Ultel didn’t even have the luxury to laugh at Glen’s pathetic display right now. Ultel felt his legs give out after hearing that the monster named Zich had regressed.
“For how long? How many times did he say he regressed?!”
“I don’t know, sir.”
Slump!
“Ah!” Ultel slapped Glen’s cheek. He was unreasonably lashing out his anger at Glen, but Glen couldn’t dare to protest the injustice of it all. Ultel looked like he was about to kill Glen this instant before his subordinates stopped him.
“Hold back, sir! We won’t be able to gain more information if we kill him right now!” At his subordinates’ dissuasion, Ultel lowered his hand back down. Yet, Ultel’s anger was still not quelled, and he tortured Glen even more harshly. Thus, Glen frantically spewed out more information he knew, and everything he said astonished Ultel even further.
‘He can’t regress anymore?’ Glen wasn’t certain whether this was true or not, but knowing the abnormality within the World Tree’s system, Ultel thought that there was a very high possibility for it to be true.
‘Was everything beyond that done by Zich Moore?!’ Although Ultel finally found out the cause of all the changes, he wasn’t happy at all. He only got a headache at the news of such a difficult opponent, and what Zich said hung on his mind.
‘The fact that he talked about the empire and system makes me think that there’s a high possibility that he knows everything!’
Glen didn’t know about the Clowon Empire or Brushel System’s official names and only remembered Zich mentioning them. Hearing this, Ultel realized that Zich’s understanding and knowledge of the regression ability were frighteningly deep.
‘Damn it!’ Zich Moore was definitely not an idiot like Glen. If he regressed and knew information about regressions, there was a high possibility that he would be a great obstacle to his ambition. Ultel turned around. He needed to prepare some sort of countermeasure.
“Let’s go,” Ultel said.
“What should we do with him, sir?” Ultel turned to Glen. Although Glen made the most pitiful expression he could, Ultel felt nothing but disgust toward him.
“Just heal him somewhat and shove him in a prison. Monitor him there since we might have use for him again later.”
“Yes, sir!”
Then, Ultel got out of the space that reeked of blood with Tornium gently hanging from his waist.
* * *
Zich organized the information that Lyla transferred to him from Tornium. Thanks to her, Zich knew what was happening to Glen and his surroundings.
‘Ultel stole Tornium from him,’ Zich thought. After Ultel left the torture room, all information about Glen disappeared and was replaced by information regarding Ultel and his surroundings.
‘This is good. Information about Glen Zenard now won’t be that useful. Information about Ultel is much more valuable.’ Of course, the previous scene of Glen getting tortured was a very fun one to see, but that was that. As expected of the mastermind behind everything, Ultel racked his head to try to find a way out of this gigantic chaos. He was incomparably more capable than someone like Glen, but even he didn’t imagine that his information was getting transferred to Zich through the Tornium he was now carrying around.
‘It’s probably cause that guy also doesn’t have exact knowledge about the Brushel System.’ Even Zich hadn’t imagined that Lyla would become the Core again. Overall, it was very fortunate for Zich that Ultel didn’t notice what was happening. Thus, Zich began making plans with the information he was receiving.
* * *
Zich met up with Hans, who was working for the Steelwalls today too. Although the clean-up after the war was gradually reaching an end, the aftermath caused by such a big incident couldn’t be resolved in a short amount of time. They still had labor shortages and Hans was continuing to help the Steelwalls upon the Count’s request. And Lara accompanied him most of the time, and she also helped with the work.
“Hello, Sir Zich!”
“Hello, Mr. Zich.”
Hans and Lara greeted Zich.
“Yeah. Is everything all right?”
“Yes. Nothing much happened except we received information that some bandits appeared in the estate’s boundaries, aiming for gaps in the estate’s defense.”
“Really, they’re throwing their lives in the gutter.”
The Steelwalls might seem a little incompetent because Zich constantly belittled them and was on the verge of collapse after falling for Glen’s plan, but it was only because Zich and Glen were a very special case. The Steelwalls were not a family to be easily trifled with; they were fully capable of sweeping away an entire bandit organization. However, the fact that several bandit groups appeared around the Steelwall border was proof that their powers had considerably fallen.
“It won’t be long before they get crushed. Regardless of their size, it won’t be easy for a bandit group to face the Steelwalls no matter how weak they’ve gotten.”
“The Count has asked me to be part of the army sent out to crush the bandits.”
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“He’s really a frugal guy, employing all the people he can possibly use.” Of course, as the Count, it was natural for him to use all the available cards he had for the safety of his estate.
Zich stared at Hans, and Hans flinched. “You want to go?”
“...Yes, sir.” Hans felt uncomfortable with Zich’s gaze but still nodded.
“Even if I’m planning to move out soon?”
“...Then I’ll follow you, sir.” There was slight hesitation in Hans' voice; he felt a strong desire to help people more, especially the Steelwalls whom he’d received a lot of generous support from. However, his hesitation lasted only for a brief moment, and Hans immediately shook off this feeling. Zich looked quietly at Hans as he sorted his feelings.
“...? Sir, why are you looking at me like that?” Hans asked.
“Sir Zich! Hello!”
Koo! Hans was about to carefully ask Zich’s thoughts, but Snoc and Nowem’s voices cut him off. Snoc approached the party; he was with Elena. She bowed her head while looking at Zich. Snoc had approached them with a cheerful demeanor, but his expression slightly hardened after seeing the strange atmosphere between Zich and Hans.
“Did I come at a bad time?” Snoc asked.
Koo?
“No, it’s not such a serious reason. It’s actually better this way. I had something in mind, anyway.”
No matter how much he admired Zich, Snoc still had a difficult time around Zich and wanted to quickly escape as the atmosphere felt strangely tense. However, he couldn’t dare to escape without Zich’s permission. Zich looked at Lara, Snoc, and Elena after starting with Hans. Everyone gulped with nervousness in response to Zich’s gaze.
“Hans.”
“Yes, sir!”
“You want to keep helping the Steelwalls, right?”
“But Sir Zich, if you want to...”
“Don’t mind me, punk. I’m not a child who needs to be taken care of.” Zich waved his hand as if the very thought disgusted him. Then he announced to the four people in front of him, “I’ll disband this party. You guys decide your future from now on.”
They were all baffled by Zich’s sudden announcement. Hans and Snoc had been in the party for a long time, and they were especially shell-shocked to the extent that their minds blanked out.
“W-what do you mean, Sir Zich?! Perhaps, is it because I still have lingering feelings about the Steelwall Estate? Then I’ll immediately cut off my ties to the estate...!”
“Don’t even bother. It’s not like that, so don’t worry about it. In the first place, I don’t care if you cut ties with the Steelwalls or continue it or become a new Steelwall.”
“Then what is the reason, sir?” Snoc asked too.
Koo! Nowem cried out in agreement.
“How long did you guys plan to follow me? Forever?”
Both of them were unable to reply. They had been shocked by Zich’s sudden announcement, but they had no intentions of following Zich forever.
“Whether they’re people or animals, a child has to become independent from their parents someday. It’s no different for disciples. I already taught you guys everything you need to know, so there’s no reason for me to keep bringing all of you around.”
Hans, Snoc, Elena, and Lara all focused on Zich’s words.
“All of you greatly respect me and follow my words with absolute obedience. It can’t be helped since I’m great.” Zich’s narcissism was still ongoing as he continued, “However, that won’t help you in the future. I was going to leave you guys to become independent at a suitable time, and I think the current environment is appropriate for us to separate.”
“Did you say environment, sir?”
“It would be foolish to push you guys into society to become independent without any safety measures. Well, if there wasn’t an alternative, I would still do it but...”
Knowing that Zich meant every word, they all smiled bitterly.
Zich continued, “Just in time, there is a good base here at Steelwall. Even though I really despise the people here, I have to admit that they’re definitely nobles with a sense of integrity and morals. Moreover, they need a lot of help right now.”
“...Sir, are you telling us to get to know and experience the world by helping Steelwall?”
“What do you think? I just showed you one way, and I’m merely saying that this is one possibility. As I said, I’m literally pushing you guys into the world. All of you guys need to make decisions for yourselves and take responsibility for them from now on.”
Decision and responsibility. These simple words seemed to steal their breaths away and made it hard to breathe. The four of them looked slightly terrified, which did not suit the physical strength and power they possessed.
“I don’t know what kind of path all of you will take, but I’ll cheer for you as a former master. Ah, I’m also not going to object if any of you decide to go down a bad path. I can’t recommend it though. You might meet me again in the future—as an enemy.”
“I’ll never go down a bad path,” Hans said, and the other three firmly nodded.
Zich smirked. Then he clapped his hands and said to the four in front of him, “Congratulations on graduating, you fledglings. From now on, fly on and live as you please.”
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