Chapter 47 - 45: The World Has Changed
"Follow me upstairs," Victor said calmly, setting his glass on the table. "Aria."
He stood up and began walking toward the staircase. Lyra and the Vesper siblings immediately rose to follow, but Victor paused at the base of the stairs, turning back to look at them with a cold, unreadable expression.
"I need to discuss something privately with Aria," Victor stated evenly.
Lyra took a step forward anyway, her silver eyes narrowing slightly. "What? I can join this private conversation, right?"
Victor regarded her for a brief second. Denying her now would only waste time and cause unnecessary friction. Without a word of protest, he nodded once. "Come."
They filed into Victor’s room, the heavy oak door clicking shut behind them. Victor leaned against the wooden desk in the center of the room, folding his arms across his chest. "Speak."
Aria took a deep breath, stepping forward as her usual charming demeanor vanished entirely. "I went to the local adventurer and mercenary guilds first thing this morning. There is no mercenary registered under the name Garrick."
Victor didn’t move, but his gaze sharpened. "Continue."
"No guild records. No local contracts. No known mercenary leader named Garrick operating anywhere around Oakhaven or the surrounding territories," Aria revealed, her tone laced with frustration. "It’s as if they materialized out of thin air."
For the first time since they had entered the hidden dungeon, Victor’s composure cracked. A visible flicker of surprise crossed his face—his brows furrowing in genuine shock.
"Could they have been foreign mercenaries?" Victor asked, his voice dropping an octave. "A rogue unit operating without regional guild registration?"
"It’s possible," Aria admitted, shaking her head softly.
Victor turned away from them, staring quietly at the floorboards.
Nothing is happening the way it was supposed to, he thought, a cold chill running down his spine.
According to the original web novel, there was no mercenary named Garrick ever attacking Lucas or even finding the hidden dungeon near the mountain ranges by the Elaric Forest.
Victor began questioning his entire reality. Is this because of my butterfly effect? Because I brought the Vesper siblings into my faction instead of letting them fall? Because Lyra and Aria are standing beside me right now?
But as he processed the sheer impossibility of an entire high-tier mercenary group vanishing without a trace, a far worse realization struck him: the changes in this world were far grander than he had anticipated. Everything he understood was unravelling, rendering the road plan he had painstakingly designed using future events entirely useless.
"Aria," Victor commanded softly, his voice dead calm once more. "Did you hear about any mercenary groups conducting missions near the mountain range?"
"No," she replied.
"Anything around the Elaric Forest? Any reports of powerful mercenaries disappearing recently?"
"Nothing."
"Any suspicious expeditions reported by nearby lords?"
Aria remained silent, shaking her head again.
Victor felt an unfamiliar, unsettling sensation settling in his chest. A dozen people... powerful combatants with Core 6 capabilities... and not a single record of their existence anywhere in the region?
They didn’t merely disappear after we killed them, Victor concluded grimly. It’s as though they were never part of this world to begin with.
"Aria, I have a mission for you," Victor said, looking up. "Investigate the name Garrick. I want to know which country has the highest occurrence of that name. Search records from neighboring nations, but focus especially on the Kaelos Empire, since it’s geographically closest to Oakhaven."
He paused, a dark calculation lingering behind his eyes. If Garrick gave us his real name, then at least we have some luck here. It seems Garrick thought he would die in those hidden ruins and wanted us to know his name, so he wouldn’t die a nameless death with no one even knowing of his existence.
Victor stepped closer, his pitch-black eyes fixed on Aria. "Search mercenary registries, guild archives, military rosters, bounty records. Look for anyone named Garrick with at least Core 6 strength."
Aria nodded slowly. "I can do that, but my reach here in Oakhaven is limited. I won’t be able to run a proper cross-border investigation until we’re back in the capital. I’ll need to contact my former guild colleagues and tap into my old intelligence networks."
"Do it as soon as we return," Victor replied smoothly.
The oppressive tension in the room hung heavy until Victor broke it with a quiet sigh, looking at Aria. "Aria... did you actually eat anything this morning before running around the city?"
Aria paused, her solemn expression faltering for a second. "...No."
Victor rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Then we’re eating first."
They returned to the ground-floor dining hall, the heavy atmosphere from upstairs gradually dissolving under the rich scent of roasted meat and fresh bread.
"I feel like I could eat an entire monster boar right now," Kael grunted, piling his plate ridiculously high with sausages, eggs, and toasted bread.
Elena nudged him with her elbow, rolling her eyes. "Try not to embarrass us in public, Kael. You’re eating like you’ve been starved in a dungeon for a month."
"We were on a dungeon mission for days!" Kael countered through a mouthful of food, laughing heartily.
Beside Victor, Lyra sat close—her shoulder almost touching his, quietly cutting his bread into small, neat pieces before placing it onto his plate. Aria sat directly across from them, her eyes narrowing in amused observation at Lyra’s blatantly territorial behavior. Victor, completely unbothered, ignored the subtle silent war between the two women and finished his tea.
He set the cup down with a crisp click. "Once we’re done, we’re leaving."
An hour later, the group boarded a luxurious private carriage headed south.
The journey back to the capital was considerably calmer than their chaotic trek toward the Hidden Ruins. Inside the spacious cabin, Kael spent hours carefully cleaning and examining the wrapped Dragon Slayer Axe resting across his knees, admiring the dull red glow of its dormant runes.
Elena sat beside him, watching her brother with a quiet smile. He looked completely different—the dark circles under his eyes were gone, replaced by a calm, steady focus.
Lyra maintained her post beside Victor, her silver rapier resting against her leg, while Aria leaned against the window, her mind lost somewhere deep in thought.
Victor spent most of the journey staring out the moving window, watching the passing countryside as he mentally reconstructed the plot of the original novel, gathering his scattered thoughts.
I can no longer use the novel as a reliable map of the future.
He still possessed invaluable knowledge of hidden relics, secret techniques, and character flaws. But the timeline itself had fractured. Trusting his foresight blindly would get him killed.
As the grand, looming white towers of Thaloris appeared on the horizon, excitement pulsed through the Vesper siblings. For the first time in years, they were returning home not with dread, but with genuine, unshakeable hope.
Elena looked at the city gates with bright eyes. Her family had suffered under a dark cloud for so long, watching Kael slowly destroy his mind with black-market Moon Petal drugs just to keep his rage contained. Now, that nightmare was over. He no longer needed those poisonous narcotics. His Berserker trait was controllable, he had survived the Blood Trial, and he wielded a legendary relic.
"I can’t wait to see everyone’s faces," Kael said softly, a broad smile spreading across his face.
Elena laughed softly. "Mother probably won’t believe us."
"Then we’ll show her," Kael declared, gripping the handle of his axe with newfound confidence.
The carriage pulled to a stop at the central plaza of the capital, where their paths naturally divided. Before they separated, Victor turned to the siblings, his tone dropping into a stark, serious warning.
"Just tell them you found some sort of medicine or whatever," Victor instructed coldly. "Don’t tell them any details, or they will get killed along with all of you."
The Vesper siblings gulped in sudden panic, nodding frantically. "Yes... we won’t. But can we at least tell them Kael is cured now, and that he just needs mana potions?"
Victor gave a simple, approving nod. "That is fine."
With their cover story established, the group prepared to split up. Victor and Lyra readied themselves to return to the Nine Residence at the Imperial Academy, Aria departed toward the bustling Commercial District to gather her networks, and Kael and Elena gathered their belongings to head toward the Outer District where the Vesper family home resided.
Before stepping away, Kael turned to Victor, offering a deep, sincere nod of respect. "We’ll see you at the academy, Victor."
Victor gave a brief, subtle nod in return. "Take care of Elena."
Kael’s smile broadened. "Always."
As Victor and Lyra turned to walk away into the crowd, Elena suddenly stopped in her tracks. She stood still for a moment, bowing her head deeply toward Victor’s departing figure.
Kael stopped a few paces ahead and looked back at her, confused. "What are you doing?"
"Saying thank you," Elena answered quietly, straightening up as she watched Victor’s dark coat disappear into the bustling street.
"Thank you?" Kael blinked. "You already thanked him in the dungeon."
"You don’t understand, Kael," Elena said softly, her voice filled with deep emotion. "Our family spent years and spent small fortunes believing your Berserker Trait was a curse we could never overcome. We researched ancient texts, consulted high-tier healers... Nothing worked. And Victor changed all of that in a matter of days."
She paused, watching the crowd where Victor had been moments ago. "I can’t exactly tell him how grateful we truly are, though."
Kael raised an eyebrow. "Why not?"
Elena offered a small, knowing smile, her eyes glinting with understated sharpness. "Because if I do... he might use it against us." She turned back toward her brother, her tone light. "After all... he’s still the academy’s infamous villain."
Victor walked silently through the grand streets of the capital, Lyra keeping stride directly at his side.
His mind had already moved past the Hidden Ruins. Garrick’s anomaly, the altered Elixir, Kael’s awakened bloodline, and the Dragon Slayer Axe were all pieces placed on a board that was shifting beneath his feet.
Then, a specific face flashed across his mind.
Silos.
Victor’s expression hardened, his eyes narrowing into cold slits.
Before I make my next move... I need to meet Silas.
Lyra noticed the subtle shift in his aura and glanced up at him. "What are you thinking?"
Victor didn’t slow his pace for a second, his voice cold and resolute. "I need to see an acquaintance tonight. Without delay, I need to get that land and the mine into my hands."