Chapter 64: Nothing will stop me
Leon slowly lifted his face back up, his lips curled slightly into a dark, mocking smile.
He stared at the spot where his father’s giant image had just been displayed, and he thought, ’Don’t worry father, I’m already on my way to you anyway...’
He knew that the old man believed he was successfully pulling the strings, but Leon had no intention of playing the role of a ’submissive’ son.
The public declaration hadn’t changed his plans in the slightest; it had only made him more eager to stand face-to-face with the head of the Allistar family and tear down their precious legacy from the very inside.
He had already moved out of the slums he lived in yesterday, completely cutting ties with the filthy, broken-down district.
Instead of staying in the shadows of the lower city, he had taken a massive step upward by moving straight into Ceens, one of the most affluent, well-secured, and prestigious residential sectors in the area.
As for how he got the money to afford such an expensive and sudden relocation, he had forced Teo to sell a few of the fangs he had harvested from the Sabertooth tigers inside the dungeon.
Those fangs were worth a small fortune on their own, making them the perfect source of quick funds.
Since he was basically a wanted man by the major guilds after the broad-daylight slaughter of those players, he knew he couldn’t show his face in public and sell the items himself.
He needed a middleman who already operated in the shadows, someone who had the necessary connections to move illicit goods through the dark underbelly of the city without leaving a paper trail.
Teo hadn’t wanted to do it at first, putting up a brief, stubborn resistance when Leon initially dropped the heavy monster parts in front of him.
His reluctance had grown even stronger, especially since Leon told him upfront that he wouldn’t be getting even a single dime from the final profits of the transaction.
Teo had whined and complained about the immense risk involved in moving stolen materials from a collapsed gate, arguing that it wasn’t fair for him to risk his life and his criminal contacts for zero rewards.
With a little ’persuasion’ from Leon though, Teo had quickly given in to the demands and abandoned all of his complaints.
Just like the strict, unforgiving deal they had made in the shadows, Leon got 100% of the money from the illegal sale.
The transaction had yielded a whopping thirty gold coins, a staggering fortune that was more than enough to fund a luxurious lifestyle in the upper sectors for weeks.
Leon had calmly taken the heavy, clinking pouch of gold, realizing just how easy it was to accumulate wealth when you possessed power.
He was sure that Teo hadn’t lied to him about the sale price or tried to steal a portion of the gold for himself during the transaction.
The man wouldn’t even dare to attempt such a foolish betrayal, simply out of fear for his own life.
Teo had seen firsthand what happened to the powerful B-rank players who crossed Leon’s path, and he knew with certainty that a single mistake or lie would result in his death.
With that money securely in his possession, he quickly travelled to Ceens, which was the exact place where the Roaring Lions headquarters was located!
The journey was swift, funded by the heavy gold coins that allowed him to bypass standard travel restrictions and secure transportation without drawing unwanted attention to himself.
His father and brother spent most of their time working and training in this massive headquarters, leaving the other smaller guild branches scattered across the country for other high-ranking players to manage.
’Today, I’ll get my revenge, nothing will stop me.’ he thought.
He was done with running and hiding in the slums; the time had finally come to make his family pay for every single ounce of humiliation they had ever inflicted on him.
*
Meanwhile...
Teo was on his knees in front of the counter at an empty bar, his body trembling violently as cold sweat poured down his neck.
The air in the room was thick, stale, and smelled heavily of old alcohol and decay.
The regular patrons had long been cleared out, leaving the spacious, dimly lit tavern completely quiet except for the heavy, panicked sound of the man’s ragged breathing against the dusty floorboards.
Sitting calmly on a high stool directly in front of him, looking down at his pathetic, shaking form, was a terrifying bald man with strange grey eyes.
The individual did not move a single muscle, yet his mere presence was enough to keep Teo pinned to the floor in horror.
He sat with an unnatural, stiff posture that made him look less like a living human being and more like a corpse that had been reanimated.
The mysterious man was putting on a loose, tattered jacket which was open, exposing his malnourished, almost skeleton-like chest and deadly pale skin.
His ribs protruded sharply against his flesh, giving him a ghoulish appearance that was deeply unsettling to look at.
His skin was so devoid of color that it looked like cold, weathered marble, casting a ghostly, monochromatic vibe over his entire upper body in the dim light of the bar.
There were strange, intricate black lines etched directly into the middle of his chest, moving vertically down his stomach in a precise pattern before finally forming a tight, swirling whirlpool on his unnaturally large navel.
The dark markings seemed to pulse with a faint, corrupted energy, twisting and turning against his pale flesh as if they were alive.
His grey eyes, which were purely and entirely grey with absolutely no pupils or iris to distinguish them, were locked intently on the television screen mounted above the counter.
The digital monitor had just finished showing the emergency broadcast of Teon delivering his announcement about Leon’s return to the family.
The completely blank, pale orbs of the bald man did not blink even once, making it difficult to guess what he was thinking.
The man finally exhaled, and a thin stream of grey smoke curled lazily out of his pale lips.
The vapor twisted and spiraled through the cold air of the empty bar, moving slowly upward toward the stained ceiling before vanishing.