Chapter 405: Another Favor

Julius and Edwin stopped all of their movements to stare at one another. Julius was tempted to run over and give his old trainer a hug. He knew that Edwin wasn’t the hugging type, but he doubted the cranky old man would reprimand him for doing that.

“What are you doing?” Julius heard the Tier 5 called out impatiently.

Both of them ignored this man. Instead, Julius turned to look at Doren. “Would you be willing to do me a favor?” He asked with a calm and steady gaze on Doren’s swirling blue eyes.

“Another one?” Doren sounded more amused than anything.

“Yes,” he answered firmly.

Doren must have heard the tone of his voice because he took Julius a bit more seriously. “What is the favor?”

Just before Julius was going to answer, he saw the Tier 5 stalk his way toward them. “I asked you what are you—”

The man gasped as his air was taken away from him. Doren stared impassively at the Tier 5. “Did I tell you that you could move?” An oppressive aura drowned the area and Doren teleported next to the Tier 5.

“The next time I have to remind you, it will be the final time. Understood?” Doren said, peering down his glasses to stare at the man with his power brimming over the surface.

The Tier 5 seemed to recognize the position he was in and suddenly became very docile. He looked down and nodded meekly in understanding.

“Good,” Doren said cheerily, and the aura that drowned the area vanished like it was never there. Then the man turned to Julius, curiosity evident on his face.

“So, what is the favor? I don’t want to remind you, but you already owe me,” Doren said simply to Julius.

Julius stared at the Tier 5, who was sweating nervously as he watched them. Doren spotted his gaze and waved him off.

“Don’t worry about him. He can’t hear anything. If you want, I can knock him out for a moment,” Doren offered.

Julius thought about that for a little bit, but he wasn’t the person to answer Doren.

“That would be wonderful, my lord,” Edwin stated respectfully.

However, Doren didn’t even give Edwin a single glance or hint that he acknowledged his words. Instead, he continued to stare at Julius, waiting for a response.

Julius trusted that Edwin had a reason for this and nodded. “Sure, knock him out. I just hope that this won’t get you too involved,” he said with an apologetic wince.

“It’s too late for that. I have already involved myself more than I should have. I might as well do what I want,” Doren said, sounding not as bothered as Julius expected. He had made it sound to Julius that getting too involved would be a big issue, so Julius thought that he would have been more upset about being wrapped in this even more.

The Tier 5, who was staring in their direction, suddenly collapsed to the ground like a marionette with its strings cut. There wasn’t a single hint of mana or aura from Doren as he casually knocked out someone much stronger than Julius.

“Okay, so what is it?” Doren asked.

Julius paused for a moment as he watched Edwin remove his face covering and gave him a bright smile. He didn’t even hesitate to [Void Step] over and wrap the stern butler in a tight hug. Edwin didn’t even complain either. He just wrapped his arms around Julius just as tightly.

Julius smiled, holding back the tears that were welling up in his eyes.

It was only after a minute or so that Edwin finally pushed him away and looked at Doren, who was looking at the two of them.

It didn’t take Julius long to tell Doren about Edwin and how he had trained Julius when he was younger. He also told him that they had been separated after being attacked by Clan Genshen and others.

Doren didn’t interrupt and listened patiently. Once he was done, he looked at Edwin with a slight grin as if something finally made sense.

“So you’re the reason why he’s like this, huh?”

Edwin shook his head empathically. “Nope, he was like this long before I started to teach him. I remember when he used to run around shoving anything he could find into his orifices.”

“Hey! Don’t make it sound like that,” Julius spoke up defensively.

All Edwin did was grin and shake his head with amused exasperation.

***

After their heartfelt reunion, Edwin immediately acted just like Julius remembered. “Why are you here?” Edwin asked him with a narrowing of his stern eyes.

“What do you mean? I am here for the rift expedition. You should know that since you and your buddy were attacking us,” Julius said accusingly.

“He’s not my buddy,” Edwin said, clearly offended by that.

“But you were still attacking us,” Julius pointed out.

“Yes, and I already told you why,” Edwin said, looking away, showing a hint of guilt.

Julius grumbled and looked at the still-ongoing battle around them. Apparently, Edwin had a good reason for being here, and despite his friends being attacked, Julius couldn’t find much fault in Edwin’s actions.

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Edwin was working for the Conclave to infiltrate their network. He had been making pretty good progress up their ranks as well; unfortunately, this little reunion had put a wrench in his plans.

“More importantly, why in the hell’s name are you already Tier 3?” Edwin asked, sounding like a disappointed father.

Julius tilted his head at Edwin. “What do you mean, how? I just advanced,” he answered casually, knowing that his tone would annoy Edwin, and he was absolutely correct. Edwin held back his annoyance with his typical pursing of his lips.

Oh, how Julius had missed this. He still savored the times when he would tease Edwin just like this in the past.

Edwin didn’t seem amused. “Did you forget about what I told you about advancing too early?”

Julius didn’t meet his gaze. “Of course not!” He said unconvincingly.

Edwin only needed to give him one look for Julius to crumble. “Okay, maybe a little, but my foundation is good, trust me,” he assured Edwin.

Edwin was clearly going to argue or say something but ultimately held back.