"M-master?! Where did you come from?!" Emilia screamed in confusion.
"Oops, my bad. Probably should have told mentioned it to you at some point, he was training too by the way," Vanessa said, avoiding eye contact.
"It seemed to be a major success, I might add, I can feel that your power is several times higher than before. Also you've changed in appearence, but I can't quite put my finger on it, hmm..." Vanessa pondered.
"Yeah, your eyes are this weird silver color now," Emilia added.
"Yeah! That's it!" Vanessa exclaimed.
Silver? Well that's interesting, probably a side-effect of ascension...
"This is thanks to you Vanessa, I wouldn't have achieved this level of strength without you," I said.
Vanessa puffed her chest out. "But of course, I am a genius afterall."
"Uh, right...however, there was a problem with the simulation. Lilith took control of it while you weren't managing it," I stated.
Vanessa crossed her arms. "That homewrecker..."
"What was that?" I asked.
"Nothing. I'll look into it, what else can you tell me?"
Oh, right, she's definitely an esper. "I have reason to believe she's an esper, based off my interaction with her. She also observed my battle via a proxy using clairvoyance."
"I see...anyway, here take some food for the road."
Vanessa handed me a bag that held to large boxes in it. Bento boxes?
"Thank you, we should get going now," I said.
We said our goodbyes and hit the road.
Out of my peripheral I could see Emilia acting sort of anxious.
She soon spoke up. "Master, how did you get so much stronger?"
Telling her the truth could be dangerous, but she hasn't done anything reckless before.
I thought for a moment. "..."
Emilia waited eagerly for a response.
"The belief that you will grow stronger helps, but situations that force you to improve are really the key," I said.
Emilia seemed to be deep in thought. "I see."
Wait, why are we walking, this is a waste of time? I imagined being back at my hideout along with Emilia, and managed to teleport us there.
"W-wha-" Emilia stuttered.
"Relax, I just teleported us," I said.
She felt for her body. "Teleported, yeah, okay."
When I looked around, the first thing I noticed were three figures at the hammock.
Two were standing around it, and one was was lying in the hammock.
One of the standing figures was a woman upon further inspection, she seemed to be a bearman like Juro. His mother maybe? She had attractive assets, but she looked like she had been crying a lot lately and was exhausted.
The other figure was a guy wearing bandages on his upper body, a black scarf, and black shorts. He jet black hair, red eyes, and, arm crossed stance gave him an air of mystique. From his aura alone, I could tell he was strong.
As for the person in the hammock...it's Juro. He's covered in blood and injuries!
I ran over as soon as I noticed. I wrapped his upper body and head in my arms before inspecting him.
Cuts, bruises, broken bones...who did this?
I checked Juro's stats.
Name: Juro
Race: Beastman (Bear) (15% Awakened)
Rank: N/A
(Status)
Lv.16-Exp(4,140/16,000)
HP: 34/2,300
MP: 234/1,200
Strength: 45
Agility: 48
Endurance: 39
Intelligence: 36
Sense: 42
Mana: 37
Spirit: 72
Attribute Points: 24
His level's gone up a lot, but that would mean...he's had to kill.
I started the healing and cleaning process on Juro as well as lend him some of my mana.
There, that should do it. I held placed him down and waited for him to regain consciousness.
Juro's eyes shot open in an instant, eyes lost in rage. It was the same look the minotaur had. Juro threw a punch at me which did nothing, but that didn't stop him. He kept attacking.
I grabbed his arms, worried for his well being. "Juro! Stop! What's gotten into you!?"
He reared his head back and sank his teeth into my right shoulder.
Tch, at this rate he'll end up hurting himself.
I used intimidation, but he wasn't fazed. So it was that berserker skill afterall.
I maneuvered one of my hands around Juro and struck him in the vagus nerve. He slumped over and I laid him back down.
I turned around to face the two who had been with him. Emilia was standing a bit further away in shock.
"What happened to him?" I asked.
"It's...it's my fault. I-I'm a terrible mother. He was trying to protect me, and...and" Juro's mother broke down.
Her fault? Protecting? "Calm down, I'm having a hard time following."
She sniffled for a bit and wiped her tears before starting from the beginning. "Life in the slums is hard. Money doesn't really get around, so not much honest work can be found. But I learned that men, poor or rich, have a hard time surpressing their urges, and are willing to pay good money to satiate those urges. That's how we've survived for this long."
I nodded to confirm that I was understanding.
Emilia looked down solemnly. Juro's mother continued.
"As one could imagine, that kind of business attracts some shady figures. About 3 years back, I was forced to join some prositution ring, they threatened me using Juro."
She paused for a little bit, continuing soon after. "One of the rules of the ring is that we're only allowed to make a certain amount of money from our customers per week,"
"I neglected to remember this rule, since I never hit the maximum limit. When Juro brought back some silver, I was just so happy to have so extra money. We barely made enough to get by afterall. But... then the debt collectors showed."
She then looked up at me for the first time. "When I gave them our week's worth of money, they accused me of going against the syndicate. I pleaded and bargained, but they weren't listening. They then tried to kidnap me and bring me to their boss,"
"I struggled as hard as I could, but they were too strong. Besides, even if I did escape, the collectors work in a pack. That's when Juro saw what was happening. He fought off as many as he could, but they eventually got the best of him, or so I thought,"
She grimaced. "Juro laid on the ground, bloody and beaten. My throat had gone sore from begging them to stop. That's when something felt wrong. Juro's body twitched, subtly at first, but he soon flew into a blind rage,"
Juro's mother started crying. "My baby slaughtered all of them and was going to do the same to me if Merlow hadn't stepped in. He knocked Juro out, and pulled us into the shadows. I led us here after all of that happened."
That's why Juro was in this condition, that's why his level has gone up. This...is all my fault. I gave him the silver without considering the possible ramifications of doing so.
I need to take resposibility for this. Because of me, Juro and his mother were put in harm's way.
"Thank you Merlow," I genuinely said to him.
He nodded silently.
I turned back to Juro's mother. "You can stay here as long as you'd like, for now can you tell me everything you know about the syndicate?"
"Um-okay, you must be the hero Milo, right?"
"Yes, I am. Your Juro's mother, right. I believe this is the first time we've met."
"It is, I'm Lyla by the way," she said, extending her right hand out.
I shook her hand. "Nice to meet you, now, back to the syndicate."
"Right, they call themselves the Wasps, their responsible for a lot of the terrible things that happen here. Murder, extortion, rape, and even human trafficking. So say that it actually has ties to nobles in the capital."
This was all terrible to hear. But the most peculiar thing wasn't what she was telling me, it was Merlow's reaction to hearing it. It seemed as if he tensed up.
"No one knows who the leader is, but I support the theory that it's tied to the capital. In my opinion, I believe a noble has to be the leader. Who else has the resources to control an entire crime oganization?"
I was going to ask a follow up question, but Merlow asked faster than me.
"Do you happen to have a guess of who that noble is?" He asked in a considerably anxious tone.
"Oh-um, I believe it was...Roland-"
Lyla said before Merlow finished the sentence.
"Roland Fraiser Alistair," Merlow muttered.
"Yeah that's the one," she exclaimed.
Just like that, Merlow vanished into the shadows.
Was that Umbra-Magic? Seems pretty useful, but I already have spatial magic, so it doesn't matter.
"I didn't even get to properly thank him," Lyla said solemnly.
I turned to look at Emilia. "Emilia watch after them, I need to handle something for the time being."
She nodded without saying a word.
I created a spatial distortion in the air around us, making our hideout invisible to the naked eye.
I then made my move and focused on teleporting into the capital.