708 Hunting List
"Little fella, you should eat more! The roasted flood dragon leg is just—"",
Shake. Shake.",
"Come on! Don't be so shy! Think of me as your grandfather."",
"…."",
"Aw, you poor thing. You lost your parents and grandparents to those scum humans. Even your brain took a big hit from the attack, right? Must be hard, unable to speak and all."",
Stare. Stare.",
"I get it. I get it. I won't remind you of those days…."",
Nod. Nod.",
"But eat just a bit mor—"",
Fierce shake.",
"Sigh…" Mendis' shoulders drooped as he glanced at the stubborn Varian.",
Varian glanced back with a neutral expression. But inside his mind, he was cursing this abyssal without stopping.",
'Even if I'm a level 7 body awakener, my stomach is about to burst! Did you find out my identity and try to kill me with excess eating?'",
If Mendis insisted, Varian would've really thought so.",
Thankfully, the archduke waved to the maids who cleared up the dining table and cleaned them up.",
"So, what do you want to do now? I'll support you as much as possible." Mendis patted his chest and gave a reassuring smile.",
Varian interlocked his fingers and put on a contemplative expression.",
Thankfully, he stopped himself from speaking or he'd have fucked up.",
Right.",
He learned something when Mendis dug through his 'files' in the demon abyss database.",
Apparently, the reason abyssal Var couldn't speak as he was attacked by a human mind awakener a few years ago.",
The damage remained and he had difficulty speaking, forming normal facial expressions, and connecting with others in general.",
Of course, Var himself didn't know much about this nor did many people around him in the Teran city.",
So, Mendis didn't suspect when the silent abyssal turned out to be a genius with so much power.",
With his mental condition, Var avoided interacting with others and thus, didn't get a chance to show his powers.",
Mendis thought that the boy who lost his family trained hard for revenge.",
That's why he was willing to support anything Var wanted to do.",
As if deciding his choice, Varian tapped his bracelet.",
[Hunting Xanders]",
"Xanders, no wonder." Mendis' eyes narrowed slightly and he chuckled. "They're the ones who made you orphans."",
"!"",
Was it a coincidence? Yes.",
Was it too good to be true? No.",
Since Var's parents were highly accomplished warriors, it was only natural that they fought the best warriors of the earth—Xanders.",
So, them dying to Xanders was a likely scenario.",
"Even though Xanders as a whole degraded, their geniuses are still one of the very best in the humans. It's going to be risky." Mendis tapped his chair like he was considering the decision.",
After a few seconds, he gave a slight but strong nod. "Blood for blood. Life for life."",
Varian sighed in relief.",
Mendis tapped his bracelet and instructed someone. "You can join the teams hunting Xanders. They'll be meeting up at the demon king's castle this evening. Good luck."",
Varian nodded and stood up to take leave.",
As he reached the door, Mendis' hesitant voice sounded.",
"There's a herb that can cure your condition, Galini, it works for even the worst of mental damages, but we only have one stalk per year. That kid, Ron will get it tonight."",
Varian's body stiffened.",
Galini…",
Come to think of it, that herb was also the cure for the condition of Kreo's daughter.",
Seeing Prince Var stopping in his tracks, Mendis thought he wanted the herb.",
"Demon king assigned it to him already. I'll get one for you next year. Maybe you'll have enough credit yourself already, haha." He said like it couldn't be helped.",
'…I need it.' Varian's eyes flashed and he nodded lightly before taking leave.",
Seeing Prince Var leave, Mendis sighed. "If only you were born on that side, you would've had the best training resource and had a hope to reach the Celestial Rank…poor thing."",
*** *** ***",
The gathering of the hunting teams was in one of the many meeting rooms of the demon king castle.",
Reaching the avenue early, Varian had been waiting for the teams to gather.",
The door creaked and Varian swiftly looked up. ",
It was an unexpected abyssal entered.",
"Var?" Ron smiled and sat beside him. "So, you're going to join the S-grade teams right away, eh."",
Varian gave a slight nod.",
S-grade were the top hunting teams.
The rest of the new princes were going to start from D. At best, it'd be C.
"Do you have any targets in your mind?" Ron tapped his bracelet.",
The infamous hunting list appeared.",
[100. Luke Flyer",
99. Johny Virtues",
98. Cutiepie",
97. …",
…]",
'These aliases are too much…'",
Varian's lips twitched and he filtered the list for Xanders.",
Fortunately, Xanders had too much pride to use aliases. Since he was going to hunt the elite, Varian also only picked the top 25.",
[24. Caleb Xander",
19. Nolan Xander",
16. Easton Xander",
13. Austin Xander",
9. Declan Xander",
6. Kai Xander",
4. Axel Xander",
1. Joshua Xander]",
"Eight out of twenty five. 32%."",
Varian's chest heaved up and down.",
Out of the whole earth, a single family, just one family had almost one-third weightage in the top 25 of level 7 princes!",
"They are really declining, eh…" Ron made an unexpected remark.",
"?"",
Seeing Var's surprise, Ron chuckled. "Under the last sovereign, Xanders never went below 40%."",
"…."",
'Ridiculous!'",
"The ones in top 10 have broken most bottlenecks and are on verge of reaching level 8. I believe you'll be fine as long you don't go after them."",
Varian gave a nod in agreement, even though he was damn sure he'd be killing every last one of them.",
"Especially Joshua Xander, he might advance at any moment and go into seclusion. As long as you don't touch him, you'll be safe."",
Varian lowered his head and a complicated gaze flashed in his eyes.",
Joshua…",
Out of all the Xanders he encountered, no, even among normal people he saw, he was a good person.",
He was ruthless, sure. But he was still a good person.",
'But should I spare him?'",
Varian didn't know.",
"Var?"",
Varian raised his head and gazed at Prince Ron.",
This abyssal…",
Even Mendis praised him.",
From what he heard, Ron's sister was hit by a human psychic and was suffering from a severe mental condition.",
Ron was working hard to save merit points to cure her and just got the Galini herb.",
The same herb that Varian needed to carry out revenge against Kreo.",
'And should I spare him?'",
As Varian was about think, the door creaked and thirty abyssals entered the room.",
"Yo, Ron!"",
"Y'all are finally here. Let's begin the meeting."",
Varian didn't exactly remember how things went.",
Ron was apparently the supervisor for the hunts. But he also did all the talking for him and assigned him to a team.",
Then, in the same big spaceship, just like before, Ron took them to the hunting locations.",
Just this time, the ones travelling weren't aspiring princes, they were the real princes and the cream of the crop.",
"According to the intel, 24 is likely in this region, sniping our patrol ships."",
24. Caleb Xander.",
The eighth on Varian's hunting list and the first one he'd hunt.",
Varian, along with two more abyssals entered their mini-ships and took off.",
As his team was about to search the region, Ron's message sounded in Varian's ship.",
"If there's any problem, inform me. And good luck to you, may you find your revenge."",
Revenge…",
Varian's eyes turned cold and he nodded.",
Revenge he would get.",
