"Ouch!"

Fei stumbled backwards while covering her eyes as blood trickled down from the gaps of her palm and fingers.

"Fei!"

Lith caught her from falling and held her.

"I'm sorry"

Fei said apologetically while composing her bearings.

"What happened?"

Just a look at the Druid girl caused such a strong reaction in Fei. To hurt a Supreme Rank like that, what must've taken place?

Fei rubbed her eyes and blinked repeatedly to clear off the blurry red vision she was looking at. Her eyes healed in a few seconds and she turned to look at Lith.

"My abilities were running. I pried into her destiny and suffered a backlash."

"Why would you do that?"

Lith sighed and shook his head. This was probably one of the dumbest things Fei had done ever since she became his maid.

"I was careless."

Fei looked down. She should've first checked what the level of the person in front was and not simply charged ahead to pry into things like a wild boar.

In the back of her mind, she thought there were only a handful of people in this world whose destiny she couldn't pry into. This world had Supreme Ranks at the highest stage, so she naturally had an opinion like that.

Who would've thought that out of the handful, she was going to meet one here.

It was really an unfortunate accident.

Looking at Fei, who seemed apologetic and also knew the thing she had done, Lith let the matter go. He patted her shoulder and said, "Be more careful from here onwards. Anyway, we'll leave you to the girl, please have a chat with her and get to know who she is. Don't use any force, be gentle."

With that, Lith left the room with Sylvia and Mayzin.

He had faith in Fei's abilities and wasn't worried that the Druid might escape. Even if she tried to, there was nowhere to hide in this world. It was his turf.

He made his way towards Gunther's cave while leaving Mayzin in Sylvia's care. She wanted to drink, and was in an Inn that sold good liquor. With Sylvia around, she wouldn't need to worry about anything and could drink to heart's content.

With teleportation, it took a few minutes to reach Gunther's cave.

In the same training hall he visited on the first day, Lith saw Ojas sitting around a round table with a demon teen and a werewolf teen. Gunther was nowhere to be seen.

Walking close to them, Lith saw Sheng turn to look at him.

Like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, he jumped in his seat and had all his hair stood out on their ends.

Such a strong reaction alerted Ojas and Ji, but noticing the intruder, they relaxed their guard.

"Sheng, stop showing such unsightly behavior."

"It's disrespectful and also not nice."

The two reprimanded Sheng.

"Ahem. Sorry."

Sheng forced himself to calm down and sat on the chair. He was lectured quite a lot by Ojas and Ji after the last interaction he had with Lith.

Lith ignored Sheng's outburst and took a seat around the three. His disposition was calm.

"What's the situation?"

Ojas handed a tablet to Lith. He then pinched his brows and replied, "It's not going good. Hardly three days are left, and we are in a really difficult spot."

"Hm...!?" Lith frowned as he went through the tablet. "Someone tried to assassinate Gunther?"

"Yes. We already had an idea that they would do such a thing after the banishment, but didn't think they would get impatient and do such a reckless thing. Cimir's faction is truly wicked."

"I can vouch for that."

Ji leaned forwards and placed a crest on the table.

"The assassins fled after the failed attempt, but during the fight, someone's shirt was torn apart and this thing was present with it."

"N-not only that there has been a lot of trouble popping up left and right." Sheng stuttered initially, but tried his best to remain composed and confident.

"Two days ago, a conflict broke out in a small town at the outskirts of Semohr. The church officials labeled a group of farmers as heretics because that group questioned Mother Helvia."

"The said group were devout believers of her, but for the past few years, there had not been a single good harvest and they didn't understand why the Goddess was not giving them their blessing. They questioned the church whether Mother Helvia had abandoned them. If such was the case, they would go worship Mother Seia."

"Hm." Lith listened keenly. "That's a harsh reaction from the church."

"Yes. But the people's shaking faith is also a point of concern."

The higher one's rank was, the stronger their faith would be to the higher deity.

If the farmers were of a low rank, it would be easy to shake them. They were easy targets. However, for such a thing to not happen, churches were there to keep the people on the right path.

For the church to go out of their way and call the already wavering believers as heretics it was quite fishy.

"There's also"

Few minutes passed as the group began their discussion.

It was stopped when Lith raised his hand after feeling spatial fluctuations near him.

Thud!

Like a boulder crashing down, a blonde Giant fell in the training hall from mid air.

"Gunther!"

Ojas yelled when he noticed Gunther's bloodied face and twisted limbs.

Lith's brows tightened up when he noticed that.

Something was wrong.

This was a secret base. Teleportation was forbidden. Even Gunther followed that rule and had requested Lith to do the same.

"Guntherrrr!" Sheng yelled and dashed towards him.

"Be careful!"

Lith dashed with them and tried to warn them, but it was a second too late as spatial fluctuations occurred in quick succession everywhere around them.

It only took the blink of an eye to have ten portals spread out around them.

Swish! Swish! Swish!

Sharp metallic ropes shot from the portals and moved into other ones, making a net.

Lith felt the elemental energy within the net's space to gradually lower and diminish.

'Not good!'

He didn't wait and took out his sword, casting it with Space and Dark elemental energy. A black sheen shimmered on the sword's blade and taking a single step ahead which was equivalent to ten steps, Lith appeared right before a metallic rope.

CLANG!

A strong current waved through Lith's body and spread outwards. His clothes fluttered wildly, his hands turned numb, and the after-effect of the attack even made Ojas, Sheng, and Ji stumble a few steps back and groan.

CLANG!

Lith hit the rope again. His hands going numb were the least of his concerns. As long as he could move his body, he would do it!

CLANG!

"Don't bother, boy. It's made of the toughest King grade Vinalium. It adjusts its flexural strength and resistance as per the applied force, hohoho!"

Lith stopped uselessly hitting the rope and took a step back. He wasn't a stubborn meathead who only knew to strike. Knowing when to retreat was a big sign of intelligence.

Those who thought of it as being cowardly and didn't retreat

Heaven and hell warmly welcomed them with open arms.

"Smart. Hohoho!" The Giant stroked his rough beard and laughed out loud.

Having a proper look at him, Lith raised his eyebrow in surprise.

"Baldur?"

"Hoh? You know of me?" The Giant was with a somewhat protruding belly asked with interest.

Lith didn't know this guy, but he had seen him once. Back in the tavern when his aunt was drinking for the first time.

There were a lot of noisy and loud people there. Lith didn't bother to glance at them, but with his exceptional observational skills, he was aware of his surroundings.

"No." Lith replied flatly. "But I do know you were having quite fun in the tavern a few days back, chatting with your friends, drinking, and cracking jokes."

"Hohohoho! What an amusing comment!"

Baldur felt it was the funniest joke he had ever heard and clutched his belly while laughing.

"Never knew I had fans watching me!"

"Fans? Ptui!"

Lith spat, something which he had never done before. It was too disgusting to hear an alcoholic, pot-bellied, old man say such a thing.

"You should take a look in the mirror before speaking."

Baldur only laughed again.

Ojas, Sheng, and Ji wondered what the Prince wanted to achieve by having such a conversation.

"Intresting young man you are. But don't know, stalling for time doesn't work?"

Baldur misunderstood and thought Lith was stalling for time. When in reality, he was really just disgusted.

"Do you want to know why? It's because"

Baldur shoved his middle and ring finger in his mouth, rolling his tongue, and whistled loudly.

Along with the thunder, even rain poured down, which Lith swiftly avoided by taking ten steps back.

'"Can you stop being disgusting!?" Lith yelled. "Your spit almost landed on my pristine face."

""

""

""

Only the sound of passing wind was heard as everyone stared at Lith.

The narcissism was on next level!

"quite fascinating. Let's see if you can keep making such comments, hoho."

Baldur still let out a chuckle, but this time, he wasn't really laughing.