Chapter 471: Grin
"Unacceptable."
Morgan's words caused the military tent to practically freeze over.
General Song frowned, looking toward the professor with a sharp gaze and an unhappy twist to his lip.
"Professor Hayes, this is-."
"Don't try to belittle me, General. I've allowed your rules and regulations to put up guardrails wherever you may please in the past. Have I ever resisted your orders before?
"But you seem to have forgotten that we are not in a subordinate-superior relationship. In fact, in the eyes of the Celestial Republic, I am no less important than you are.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om
"I might listen to your words when it's a matter of safety, but you know nothing about my field. So I would suggest that you show the same level of deference that I have given you in these last several months in matters such as these."
The atmosphere seemed to solidify as silence fell over them all. No one dared to speak or even breathe too loudly as the two men faced off.
The Summoning had changed a lot of things, but they were men of the government. Even if it was just on the surface, they had no choice but to do their best to follow the rule of law.
No matter how weak Morgan was, he was seen to be a valuable asset to the government, and he was one of the few experts that could decipher the secret of the Great Celestial Wall.
On top of that, after the matters of today, the wall had likely become an even more high- priority item.
If in the past it was just speculation, the fact those alien races had suddenly appeared on the wall today said everything that needed to be said.
If anything, after today, Morgan's standing among them all might even be higher than that of General Song.
Of course, this was a military tent of high officials, so there was no doubt that most of them were tacticians politically savvy enough to see through this.
As for what they were arguing about, it was unsurprising that it was related to the Basilisk King.
General Song wanted to try to torture the beast to see if there was any information they could get out of it.
After all, according to reports, Morgan had successfully communicated with it.
And in order to uphold appearances, Morgan had no choice but to pretend that this was the truth as well.
If torturing didn't work, General Song wanted to send the creature back to the government to be kept under secure lock and key.
Obviously, Morgan couldn't accept this, so he refuted, and he actually had strong reasons on his side.
After all, everyone had seen the Clypsians use some sort of beast-controlling art.
It was easy for him to divert attention from what potential connection the Basilisk King might have with Sylas and turn it to a connection it had with the alien races instead.
According to Morgan's woven tale, the Clypsians tried to establish contact, but General Song chose to capture the beast and shred apart their goodwill.
Morgan was arguing that they should treat the Basilisk King well and even send it back if possible.
But obviously, General Song wasn't a fan of this. The alien races had to be studied and understood, but they were not friends. Those high up in the government knew exactly how dangerous they could be in the right circumstances.
General Song bit back the actual words he wanted to say, but the gloominess between his brows painted its own story.
"You had better forget about sending this beast back anywhere."
Although his tone was tough, it was clear to them all that this was actually him taking a step back.
"Call Grin back."
Morgan's heart shook when he heard this.
Grin.
The military wasn't known for its anomalies. It was strict in hierarchy and order, and the only times clashes like the ones between General Song and Morgan might occur were when they came from vastly different fields.
Under normal circumstances, there would be an obvious hierarchy between them as well. But because Morgan was an academic and General Song was a military man, their relative positions were a bit more murky, leading to the current confrontation.
Grin, however... was an outright anomaly.
Morgan knew that his situation in this place wasn't the best, so he had only continued to follow orders and never fought back while gathering as much information as he could through silent observation.
But the one man he didn't actually understand was this "Grin" character.
He didn't seem to have an official military rank, but General Song had an odd deference to him that almost seemed to stem from.
fear.
But at the same time, General Song seemed to love the idea that Morgan was so in the dark about this man and often used it as a power play to suppress Morgan.
"You already sent him?! This-!"
"I called him back, didn't I?" General Song snarled. His patience was wearing thin.
Morgan's expression flickered with anger, but he calmed himself.
"Take me to the snake."
---
Morgan rushed into the dark tent only to be hit by a stench of blood.
He could see very clearly, and it took him a moment for his eyes to adjust, but even during that period, the first things he saw were a pair of bright yellow eyes staring with almost
vacantly.
No, it wasn't a real vacancy; it was almost a reminisce, an unwillingness, a detachment from
the current reality and the seeking out of another.
When his eyes finally did clear, Morgan saw the scene in full.
There was a man who stood before the Basilisk King with a curved blade in hand. Blood drizzled down the length of the dagger as another scale was almost carelessly flicked off of the Basilisk King's body.
By now, the Basilisk King had practically been skinned alive, his proud count clanging to the ground like loose change.
However, those eyes continued to stare, seemingly right through Morgan.
Chapter 472: Too Early
There was something particularly eerie about Grin's gaze.
His actual face was quite delicate, almost cut, in a way. It was hard to tell if he was a grown man or a 14-year-old youth, but he had a liveliness to him that couldn't be denied.
Large hazel eyes, an almost innocent school-boy cut for his brown hair, and a peculiar sort of curiosity for everything he looked at.
However, no matter how disarming his appearance, it couldn't be denied that he was still holding a bloody knife in his hand.
"You are?" Grin broke the silence.
Morgan took a breath and steadied himself.
"The snake will be under my protection from now on."n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om
He spoke strongly and assertively. Something about Grin made him feel as though he was having a staring contest with a wild beast. In such a situation, didn't they always say to make yourself look big?
Grin blinked and looked back at the Basilisk King as though he was feeling sad about something.
Then, he simply slipped away without a single word.
However, it was precisely because he didn't say anything that Morgan felt an eerie chill creep up his spine. This person was far too unpredictable.
He didn't know what compelled him, but he rushed to the tent flaps and peeked out, only to find that only the soldier that had escorted him here was present, while Grin was nowhere to be seen.
A deep frown marred Morgan's brows, an unsettling feeling welling up in his chest. However, he had no choice but to let it go. Even if he wanted to act... what could he do with his current strength?
...
General Song sat in silence after dismissing his tacticians. For now, Quicktime Event had become a battle of attrition, and with the other leader having vanished, there was nothing to worry about for the time being.
It should be an easy victory, and the only thing he had to guard against was a potential assassination plot. That man was too much of a variable, and it was hard to tell if he had such abilities or not.
"General Song, this situation..."
General Song waved a hand to stop the speaker.
The official was a woman, meticulously dressed in military garb that looked like thick cotton.
A pair of glasses adorned her face, and she pressed what looked like a clipboard to her chest, but this so-called "clipboard" radiated an odd, inexplicable air.
"No need to speak, Darla. Since he's chosen to act out, let him. If he's telling the truth, good. If not, we can't outsmart him anyway. It's best to let Grin handle it."
"You sent Grin ahead of time on purpose," Darla said more confirming than asking.
"I did no such thing," General Song replied indifferently.
Darla didn't reply either, but she had her answer.
General Song was a man who was well aware of his limits, and he was the scariest of the Celestial Republic's Generals for that very reason.
His strength wasn't his intelligence.
It was in knowing when and how to use the people around him.
**
Sylas' prestige was too much. The weight of not only the Hero Points but his Merit was too much to bear.
Sylas still didn't have a full understanding of what Merit was, but he realized that whatever category it fell into, it made his job far easier.
At least when it came to system-designed tasks, events, and locations like this one, his prestige couldn't be matched by quite literally anyone else.
He had been expecting at least some resistance, but the result went smoother than he could have ever expected. He barely had a verbal spar with the Dukes before they took a step back.
Nothing about his age, nothing about his unknown status, they didn't even ask if he knew how to govern at all.
Now he was facing just one problem: as the City Lord he couldn't leave the city. At least not outside of the context of Quicktime Event.
As for how he would handle that in the future, maybe only he was aware.
As for right now, his thoughts weren't focused on this at all.
Instead, the first thing he did other than leaving the defenses of the city to the Generals was head right into the City Lord's residence.
As for his target, it was none other than the Nexus.
Not having a Nexus was a huge problem for Sylas. He couldn't maximize his wealth or his resources. And unfortunately, for obvious but different reasons, he couldn't use Cassarae's or Lucius'.
But now... he had his own.
Any Sylphs had long since vanished, not being stupid enough to remain. They had either gone to the other two System Cities, or they chose to strike it out on their own, maybe even trying to target another System City.
Now that Sylas thought about it, he was making the assumption that most if not all System Cities were under their control. But in practice, that was maybe not the case.
After all, just because the two System Cities he had come across had them, didn't mean they were all issues. Maybe he was just particularly unlucky.
'Wow...'
It wasn't often that Sylas had such thoughts, but when he entered the core of the City Lord's residence, this was his true reaction.
It felt as though he had entered the reactor core of a nuclear power plant. The place was
enormous.
There was a railing that lined the curvature of the walls and slowly spiraled down to the bottom, but it was hard to tell just how deep it was.
Down below, there was a deep well of water so clear that Sylas didn't even know it was there at first glance, and maybe would have never been able to tell if not for the fact there was a slight blue glow coming from it.
Then hovering above the surface of the water was a cube. It was a City Stele, but far more elaborate than any Sylas had ever seen.
For some reason... he got the feeling that he was seeing something that he wasn't supposed to see much too early....
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