285 Before the journey 1

"What the fuck are you guys even thinking!?" 

An enraged shout echoed inside of simple office space. Following this, pounding violently on a wooden desk, Monica glared towards the person sitting behind the desk. 

"Daphne, just what went through your heads when you decided to sacrifice the person thas singlehandedly saved me, Amon, and the others!" 

Monica once again shouted. She was beyond incensed. 

Upon being notified by Donna about the bounty on Ren's head, Monica flew into a fit of rage and immediately went towards Daphne's office to get an explanation from her. 

"Tell me so that I can understand!" 

"Calm down Monica." 

Daphne helplessly raised her hand to calm Monica down. 

"Calm down my ass. How can I be calm in this situation?" 

"Just listen to what I have to say." 

Daphne pleaded. 

"..." 

Without saying anything, Monica stared at Daphne's eyes for a couple of seconds. 

"Fine." Crossing her arms, Monica sat down on the seat opposite Daphne and gestured for her to explain. "I really want to know what crossed your minds when you made that decision." 

Finally managing to calm Monica down, Daphne breathed a sigh of relief, before leaning back on her chair. 

"Where should I begin." 

Pondering for a moment, Daphne decided to relay to Monica about everything that went through that meeting. From how they decided to sign a truce, to how they decided to sacrifice 876 for the truce in order to give her and Amon enough time to recuperate. 

The more Monica listened to Daphne, the tighter her brows knit. 

"This is bullshit!" Eventually, after a while, she stood up and once again smacked the table. "Do you guys not realize that you've wasted a golden opportunity?" 

"A golden opportunity?" 

"Yes!"  Monica cried out."Since they are the ones that proposed the truce, it obviously means that whatever the explosion did, they suffered major losses. If there is a perfect chance to fight back, it is now! Deal a devastating blow to both those demon bastards and the Monolith." 

Though Monica wasn't able to fully witness the core explode as she had already left by the time it exploded, what she did witness was the pure destructive power that emanated from the core itself. 

It was frightening. 

There was no way that they came unscathed from that attack. 

Listening to Monica's words, Daphne shook her head. 

"If only it was that easy Monica." 

"What do you mean?" 

"Do you think we don't know about what you've said? We've also thought about attacking them, but there are a couple of problems."

"What problems?" 

Monica's face showed obvious signs of distrust. 

Not minding this, Daphne explained. 

"For one, we don't actually know the extent of the injuries from the Monolith's side. For all we know, the truce could be a trap proposed by them to make us think that they are severely weakened. If it truly was that way and we attack, we'd suffer massive losses."  <br/><script>ChapterMid();</script>

For the Monolith to be the first one to step back, the Union heads were not naive enough to believe that the Monolith was just openly displaying their weakness. 

There was a high chance that they were trying to instigate the Union into attacking them. 

"If that is also not enough of a reason, Malik Alshayatin alone is enough..." 

Deep apprehension flashed across Daphne's eyes.

Recalling him back at the meeting, although she knew that it was just his clone there, his presence was no joke. He was in his own league. 

"Malik Alshayatin? The head of the Monolith." 

Listening to Daphne's words, Monica's brows knit. 

"Mhm, him." 

"What about him?" 

Shaking her head, Daphne sighed. 

"Haa, you weren't there Monica, but the moment he stepped into the room, all of us could tell one thing." Lifting her head and looking at Monica straight in the eyes, Daphne took a deep breath before continuing. "It was that he was on another level." 

"Hm? Another level?" 

With deep apprehension in her eyes, Daphne explained. 

"Yes. After the meeting ended, Octavious himself confirmed it. He was weaker than him." 

"Tsss..." 

Monica inhaled a breath of cold air. 

For someone as prideful as Octavios to say such a thing, it meant that it was true. 

"Are you serious?" 

"Yes. That is why we were hesitant on attacking them. Furthermore, with the demons behind them, the war would only end up being our loss." 

"But—"

Daphne cut Monica off. 

"Monica, what is done is done. Even though I have voted against the decision, the other heads all unanimously voted for 876 to be eliminated. In the end, he wasn't worth the sacrifice."

At the end of the day, 876 did not show them enough promise to make them go to war with the Monolith for his sake.

Had he been an unrivaled talent or a high ranker, they may have done something, but in the end, 876 was a measly <D> rank. 

Something that was not worth mentioning by the likes of them. <SS> ranked Heroes. 

'No, no, no, it's because I know who 876 is that I'm saying this!'

Listening to Daphne, Monica cried out inside of her heart. 

If Ren was truly 876, Monica knew that if he really held a grudge against them, things wouldn't really turn out as simple as they think. 

If Ren grew as she expected him to, then the Monolith would be the last thing the Union should worry about. 

'God, I hope things don't escalate to that extent.'

Biting her lips, Monica inwardly prayed inside of her heart. 

If things went that way, Monica wasn't sure whose side she would pick. 

***

Inside of a dark room, an old man with a long bray beard and turbid grey eyes sat crossed legs. The air around him distorted from time to time. 

—Shua! 

Disrupting the silence and appearing from out of thin air, was an elegant young man with long black hair and ruby red eyes. 

Standing up, the old man greeted. 

"Leader, you have returned." 

"Mhm."

Giving Mo Jinhao a casual nod, the man who just entered, Malik AlShayatin casually swept the room with his eyes before raising his hand and swiping right. 

At his casual gesture, a black void suddenly appeared out of thin air. Then, after a couple of seconds, a cold and indifferent voice that seemed to come from the deepest parts of hell rang out from the void. 

[Are you done? Have they fallen for it?]

"Unfortunately not." Curtly replied Malik AlShayatin. "The Union accepted our truce agreement."

[A pity.]

A trace of disappointment could be felt from the voice behind the void. 

Lowering his body slightly, Malik AlShayatin asked. 

"Your royal highness, is there anything you would like for me to do?" 

[No, that is it for now. Make sure you don't get into any conflicts for at least a couple of years. Your recent failure has caused quite a few problems for me.]

Thick killing intent could be felt from the words of the individual whom Malik AlShayatin referred to as your 'Royal Highness'. 

Mo Jinhao and Malik AlShayatin who were in the same room could feel this, as the void before them twisted strangely, and a tangible wave of bloodlust swept over them. 

Lowering his head slightly, Malik AlShayatin replied. 

"I apologize for the mishap." 

[...It's good that you understand. For now, do as I said and lay low.]

"Understood." 

[Good, I hope you don't disappoint me once again.]

The voice slowly drifted in the room before completely disappearing.

Once the voice completely disappeared and the void before them shrank, after a brief moment of silence, the first to speak was Mo Jinhao. 

"Leader, what do we do now?" 

Malik AlShayatin indifferently gazed at the place where the black void used to be and coldly replied. 

"We do as the demons have ordered, and lay low for now," 

At the moment, the demons were at war with the three races. The incident where multiple <S> ranks and below died, resulted in a lot of the demons getting injured. 

This in turn caused the demons to suffer a major loss, as one of their forces abruptly weakened out of nowhere. 

It was because of this that he was forced to propose a truce to the Union. 

Not because they were weak, but because the demons couldn't afford to have more of their members get injured. 

Malik AlShayatin had originally hoped that the Union would be hot-blooded and directly take their truce as a sign of weakness and have them attack the Monolith. This would've been the perfect chance to ambush them and get rid of them. 

Unfortunately, they did not bite the hook. 

"A pity." 

Malik AlShayatin shook his head in disappointment. Glancing towards Mo Jinhao next to him, Malik AlShayatin asked. 

"Mo Jinhao, how are your injuries?" 

"My injuries?" 

"Mhm." 

Pondering for a bit, Mo Jinhao replied. 

"I've already taken a couple of high-leveled potions, they are not that severe right now. If the Union had gone and attacked us, we could've done a quick work of them." 

The Union was truly lucky in deciding to agree to the truce. Had they not agreed, the only outcome for them was their imminent destruction. 

With both Mo Jinhao and Tasos's injuries not being that serious anymore, they could've easily have been able to overpower the five heads of the Union without suffering any major losses. 

It was truly a pity. 

"I see.." 

Malik AlShayatin's red eyes flashed before he turned around and left. Staring at his expressionless face from behind, Mo Jinhao had no idea about what he was thinking. 

***

2 P.M.

Caissa headquarters. 

Sitting on a large desk, I flipped through some files. After a while, I looked up towards Smallsnake who was sitting opposite me and asked. 

"Smallsnake, how much money do we have saved up?" 

Without taking his eyes off of the papers in front of him, Smallsnake replied. 

"Around 10 million, why?"

"10 million? Since when did we have so much money?" 

This amount honestly surprised me. 

I had originally thought that there would've been less. 

"You think we've been idle these eight months that you were gone?" Smallsnake rolled his eyes.  "Let's exclude Angelica who did pretty much all of the major tasks, but I've been using the information that you had given to me before to make quite a bit of money."

"Information?"

I tilted my head in confusion. 

"Yup, the one you told me regarding where to invest and stuff." 

"Ah, that."

Then it finally dawned on me. 

I had in fact given Smallsnake a list of companies that would rise in stock in the future, but I had long forgotten about that.

To be honest, this was mainly due to the fact that I no longer relied on the plotline like before. 

Realizing that too many things were changing, I stopped relying on those things. 

"Fair enough." Crossing my arms, I tapped on my bracelet and threw something in Smallsnake's direction. "Here." 

"Woah!" Catching the object I threw at him with both hands, Smallsnake looked at it and asked. "What is this?" 

"It's an advanced potion, sell it and give me the money. The 10 million you saved included."

Smallsnake's eyes widened in surprise. 

"Wait, hold on. Did you just say adva—" 

"That's not all, I want you to sell this stuff too." 

Cutting Smallsnake off, one by one, I threw item after item towards him, who carefully caught them as though they were precious treasures. 

"W-wait what is all of this stuff and what do you need that money for?"

Throwing a disgusted look on Smallsnake's face, I pointed at my face. 

"What do you think? Have you seen my face?" 

"...aren't those just regular scars? Can't you just take a normal potion?"

"Nope, that's why I'm telling you to go sell it. Only an extremely potent potion can cure my face."

Had Melissa's potion been enough, I would've used it as soon as I got out of the Monolith.

Unfortunately, it didn't work. 

Still, its value was well within 40 million U. Other than that, I had a lot of useless stuff that I had gotten from the guards I had killed from the Monolith. Especially, Luther, he had quite a lot of good things on him. Including a couple of advanced potions.

All in all, it was raining money, and my face was soon going to be fixed. 

Staring at Smallsnake, I reassured. 

"Don't worry Smallsnake, I'm not going to spend all of the money on fixing my face. I've got other things to buy." 

"Like?" 

"Like a lot of things." 

Potions, food supplies, water, clothes, and essentially everything one would need during a long excursion. 

I needed the money to buy a lot of stuff for the upcoming trip. It was going to be a long trip. 

Making ample preparations was a must, especially since I was running out of time. 

"Okay, but can you at least tell me what you are planning on—"

"Later. I'll explain it when the others are here as well."

"Others?"

"Yup, everyone is going!" 

"huh?"

"Yup. That's right, you too Smallsnake." 

"Me? What?!"  A startled look appeared on Smallsnake's face.  "Wait, wait, wait, why are you bringing me? You do know that I'm practically useless in combat or anything related to that right?"

"Yeah."

"Then why are you bringing me?" 

"Because it's never too late to start." 

Smallsnake was a genius.

Maybe it was because of his low self-esteem or something like that, but Smallsnake was not fully aware of his brilliance. 

The intention in bringing him to this trip was so that I could train him to fit with the squad. Once he truly realized how brilliant he was, the power of our mercenary group would drastically rise. 

"Ah, right, Smallsnake, I'm leaving you with the task of convincing Ryan's mom, and Ava to come with me on the trip." 

"What?" 

"I know what you're going to say, but just make it work." 

With the trip being a long one, though it was filled with danger, it was also filled with opportunities. 

This was why I wanted everyone to come with me.

There were a couple of obstacles though. One was Ryan whose mother I needed permission from, and Ava, who was still at the Lock. 

But to be honest, Ava was better off following me. 

At the Lock, she would've never been able to show the full potential of her power. She needed real experience, and the journey I was about to embark on was the perfect opportunity for her. 

In fact, not just for her, but everyone that was here, Smallsnake included. 

It wasn't just me that needed to get stronger, it was them as well. 

"Damn you, seriously. Deciding everything by yourself without caring about my input."

Smallsnake shot a glare in my direction. To that, I merely shrugged. 

"You're the one who decided to follow me." 

"Been regretting that decision for a while. Also, why are you making me work so much as soon as I come back?" 

"You're my right-hand man Smallsnake. I didn't choose you for nothing." 

Speechless, Smallsnake weakly waved his hand before turning around. 

"Haaa, fine, fine, I'll do it." 

"Ahah, knew I could count on you." 

"Haizzz..." 

Just as he was about to leave. Smallsnake's footsteps halted.

Turning around, he asked. 

"Hmm, By the way, Ren, meaning to ask, what are you planning on doing right after you fix your face? From the looks of it your planning on doing something." 

At Smallsnake's question, the smile on my face disappeared. 

Then, leaning back on my chair and staring at the ceiling of the room for a couple of seconds, I softly muttered. 

"...What else am I gonna do? I'm going to meet my family." 

---

End of volume [2]/Part -2