Chapter 175: Big Crater

He let out a shaky breath. There was no way to confirm whether or not, these men were working for Duke Greyson. For all he knew, these were just random coincidences.

However, he had the perfect person to ask right in front of him.

He tucked away the papers into his own ring and looked down at the two people, one of whom was still unconscious.

“What’s your name?” He asked him. This time his voice had much more steel in it.

The man unsurprisingly stayed silent. Julius sighed and turned his attention toward the other man. He created a sharp sword of mana and had it hover on the unconscious man’s leg. Only then did he look back at the other guy with an expectant look.

However, he didn’t seem to be taking Julius’s threat seriously at all. He mostly likely saw Julius’s young age and assumed that it was an empty threat. A bluff.

Julius had to show this man that he wasn’t bluffing and that he was to be taken seriously. “Still not willing to answer?” He asked the man again.

The man just gave him a rebellious glare. It was expected but he really underestimated Julius’s desperation to find answers. The moment he saw that crest within their belongings, he had moved these men to a different category of people.

Without giving any warning he stabbed down the sword of mana through the unconscious man’s leg. Stabbing through his thigh and out the back.

“Joel,” the man said quickly.

See, it wasn’t that hard.

“And his?” Julius pointed at the man with a sword in his leg.

“Ruban,” the man said with gritted teeth.

“Okay, Joel. I want to know how you and Ruban managed to find and then track me throughout the city,” Julius demanded.

“It was just a coincidence,” Joel answered begrudgingly.

“Elaborate.”

Joel pressed his lips together and hesitated. But Julius’s creation of another sword dissipated those feelings pretty quickly.

“Ruban remembered hearing about a young boy with a black cloth covering his face beating up some of the people we had working for us. It was only by coincidence that we saw you while walking around,” Joel said.

Julius had his aura sense on full blast trying to sense if he was lying to Julius. But everything he said was seemingly true, there weren’t any noticeable deviations within his aura. He could be still lying but Julius was positioned to believe him for now.

“That’s it? So how did you track me so well?” He asked.

“Ruban has a tracking skill,” Joel said like that explained everything.

It did, in a way. He also didn’t really care about the particulars of the skill, that wasn’t important.

Finally, he asked the only question he really cared about. “What is your connection with House Greyson?”

This question seemed to catch the man off guard. Julius felt the man’s aura constrict and the man swallowed his saliva nervously.

“I don’t have any affiliation with them,” the guy shook his head earnestly, but Julius knew he was lying.

Honestly, that was the only reaction he needed. This man was most likely working for or had some kind of affiliation with House Greyson. And that pretty much decided the man’s fate.

However, he still had his morals and didn’t just execute the man immediately because he learned that he was involved with House Greyson. No, he would give him a chance to prove himself worthy to live.

Julius gave the man, Joel a chillingly cold look. “If I let you go, will you try to come after me again?”

The man looked at Julius with steady eyes. “No, I promise we will not come after you again.”

That was a lie.

He sensed the man’s aura jump up for the second time since he started questioning them. He had no plan of letting Julius go after this. If Julius let this man and his friend go, he would most likely have to keep an eye over his shoulder the rest of the time he was in Heston.

Still, he would give the man a chance. He prepared himself to give the best performance of his life, one worthy of an Oscar.

He turned to look at Joel with a nod and a grimace. Then with a jerk of his shoulders, he released the shackles, and his armor that was covering him dissipated into motes of mana. He took in large deep gasping breaths and his hands shook slightly. He slumped to his knees with his head down toward the ground.

He pretended that he was out of mana and was tired. He wanted to see what this man would do. He knew that this Joel person was lying about leaving him alone, but he wanted to see if you would attempt to kill him at the first opportunity. That would determine Joel and his friend’s fate.

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Julius was hoping that he was wrong, he really was.

Unfortunately, he was swiftly disappointed when Joel immediately attacked him. There was no hesitation and he moved to kill Julius. The idiot didn’t even suspect that it was a ploy for single second. A large orb of condensed fire mana and a wave of fire was launched at Julius’s face.

The armor that he had just removed was quickly put back into place and he activated [Barrier of Severance] to cut through most of the attack. The rest was taken care of by his armor. He saw the realization light up in Joel’s eyes. The realization that he had been played.