Chereads / Shell Energy Optimization System / Chapter 18 - Anton and Arnold

Chapter 18 - Anton and Arnold

Anton Oliver is a man of humble beginnings.

He was born out of wedlock and was considered as an illegitimate son of the Oliver family.

He was born from a maid named Joyce and the younger Lord Bates Oliver, the previous Lord Oliver.

The Oliver family thought that as he was an illegitimate child, he was not entitled towards the tribe head's succession title.

Lord Bates however, strongly disagreed. He acknowledged Anton as his firstborn child and that he was a member of the Oliver main branch family.

This fact eventually fueled Anton's ambition.

His mother was sickly as a result of her early pregnancy so she could only rely on the care that Lord Bates has reserved for her.

Anton loved his mother dearly. She was a gentle mother.

Lord Bates decided to take the baby Anton in, bringing Joyce in the process.

But shortly after, Bates Oliver was married to his true fiancée, neglecting Joyce in the process.

Joyce understood it well. She was a commoner and they were young when everything happened.

It is not to say that she did not feel bitter about it, but she was not jealous of Lord Bates's decision.

The wife of Bates Oliver is a highly distinguished woman of the North. They were a well matched pair.

It was perfectly normal that Joyce was not who Bates chose to be with.

But Anton thought otherwise.

Despite being acknowledged as the son of the Lord, he was still being looked down on, being discriminated against, and nobody expected anything out of him.

His mother was being neglected, left alone, her health getting worse as the days go by.

The young Anton trained hard to become stronger. As he turns 16 years old, it was finally his time to partake on the Shell Aptitude Ceremony.

The results were quite disappointing to say the least for him. It was what people had expected out of him.

A 10 in Outer Shell and 12 in Inner Shell aptitude. Completely average aptitude.

This fact was quite harrowing to the young Anton. It was also during this time that the 2nd son of Lord Bates, his brother Gregory Oliver, showed exceptional talent in Shell Energy.

Gregory even gained a special constitution that allows for Shell Energy to be freely manipulated within his body. It was called "Shell Body Discharge."

It was marvelous to look at.

Anton realized at that moment that he was still a far cry in terms of talent when against a true noble son. His jealousy festered as he saw the Oliver family of four having fun by themselves while he was being left out of everything.

'Just wait. I will come for you all. I will prove that I have what it takes to be a leader.' Anton thought to himself.

Anton began his plans soon after. He trained together with the Oliver warriors as he was recognized to be part of the family and he bulldozed over all of them. He was getting ruthless in his ways.

He wanted to become stronger than Gregory before their father decided to name the next Lord Oliver.

He also began gathering people to join his cause. He enticed them with the possibility of having a new lease in life. The riches and the glory.

Anton Oliver may be a weak Shell expert, but he was very good in diplomacy. He can easily connect with people because of his humble background and his troublesome identity.

Unfortunately, his efforts were not enough.

Gregory proved to be having the same qualities as Anton. He was able to befriend multiple sons and daughters of noble families and even gain the friendship of some merchant bigwigs.

Anton felt extremely threatened when he saw that.

'Argh, how is this possible? Why would these nobles suddenly appear here in the North?! There is nothing noteworthy here! I better deal with this quickly.' Anton's jealousy festered even more.

Anton and Gregory were not friendly with each other, but neither do they hate each other. However, Anton was the first one to tip off the balance. He wanted to become the new Lord Oliver.

To achieve that, he needs to take down Gregory Oliver.

He took his first action by adding in a certain toxin to Gregory's food. It was called the Shearing fluid.

It is a substance said to cause a sudden discordant effect between the body and Shell energy.

There was no real harm to be noted when this substance is taken in. It has no definite side effects.

It is stealthy, very difficult to recognize, and no actual cure.

It would only appear as though the person will not be able to utilize Shell energy properly.

This works extremely well against Inner Shell experts. The Shearing fluid is one of their banes in existence. And so, it was categorized as a toxic substance.

Gregory unknowingly consumes the substance and began to have difficulty utilizing his special constitution. It gets painful every time he wants to use it.

'Kuhaha! I just have to wait until you get desperate. You are only hurting yourself Gregory.' Anton is secretly pleased that his plan was working.

It got to the point that Gregory got so desperate that he ultimately injured himself. Lord Bates was extremely distressed as to what happened to the young Gregory.

On the other hand, Anton was calmly moving forward. He had just successfully poisoned his brother without anyone knowing.

Anton's plans had come to fruition. All that was left was to take the Lord's position during the family meeting.

'Hmm. The family meeting next month will be my time to shine.' Anton was looking forward towards his road to glory.

Unfortunately, it would actually be the road towards his doom in the future.

-

Currently, Anton Oliver is facing his loyal follower, Arnold Bell.

Arnold as well, was observing Anton Oliver. A character he has not seen for quite some time. He began to think about their history together.

...

They met 25 years ago when Anton accepted a job to patrol the lands of West Florentia.

West Florentia was hailed as a seafaring cultural hub found on the Western Region of the Preston Kingdom.

There was a huge festival there that attracted many guests and there was a need for more security personnel. Anton's group accepted the job request.

Arnold was of a younger generation than Anton. It was Anton's son, Clive, who introduced them to each other.

They were initially ignorant of each other but they immediately hit it off when Arnold learned that Anton and Clive were of Northern descent.

Arnold was travelling with a caravan as a trainee chef. He had just left the North then, in search of a brighter future.

Anton and Clive were roaming about through places as their job did not allow them to settle in one place.

There came a time that Arnold and his caravan were set to leave the town they were in. Anton and Clive wished Arnold good luck and even treated him to a drink to set him off well.

However, the caravan that Arnold was in was suddenly attacked by a huge bandit group shortly after their journey and they were getting massacred.

Suddenly, a muffled sound of a horse charge was heard in the distance. It was a small cavalry platoon to the rescue. It was led by the heroic Anton Oliver.

Arnold was overjoyed to see a familiar face in the crowd of soldiers.

Arnold approached Anton as he asked. "How were you able to know of the attack?"

Anton replied to Arnold. "We were patrolling the area when our scout happened to see your caravan pass by. He observed a large group of people lying in ambush further in the forest. We decided to move out to check. I can't believe our suspicions were real. You got extremely lucky young man."

Arnold looks back to see that the caravan's survivors were a measly few. It seems that he would have to go back to the North just as soon as he left it.

Anton saw through Arnold's thoughts and spoke to him. "Hey, you should be travelling around for a while right? Why don't you join us on our tour? I run a mercenary group. We go around places looking for some jobs. How about it, are you in?"

Arnold thought that Anton was a great guy to be with. Clive was also an easy going guy to be with. He thought that there will be no harm if he could become the chef of a mercenary group.

Arnold decided to take Anton in on his offer. "Alright, I will join you guys for a while. Hey, what is the name of our group?"

Anton smiles widely as he offers Arnold a handshake. "Welcome to the North Wing Mercenary Group!"

...

Anton brought in Arnold to become a part of their group and he fit in well.

His food was a very popular commodity so the mercenary group were able to extend their business towards the food business. He spent a few years in the mercenary group and then decided to launch his own restaurant.

It was in the mercenary group that Arnold first met the love his life, Twirling Blade Cynthia.

Cynthia was a very elegant woman. She was originally an orphan in the North but she came along with the mercenary group initially as a servant.

When her aptitude was discovered to be 24 in Inner Shell, she was drafted as a member of the combat group.

Cynthia was very beautiful as well. She had many suitors within the group. There were even some nobles who would ask her hand for marriage. But she denied all requests for she had someone in mind.

Cynthia was an avid foodie and she loved Arnold's food very much. Enough that she would marry him in the future and even have a cute baby, the cute little Issa.

Arnold was very contented with his life at his peak. He had a successful job, a flourishing business, a beautiful wife, a cute daughter. He had everything he could ever get.

However, good things must come to an end.

The mercenary group, North Wings Mercenary Group, held a dark secret. The group was secretly accepting assassination requests to bolster their reputation in the underground scene of the Preston Kingdom.

Cynthia never really thought of accepting an assassination job as she had no need to worry of having enough money. She had a family to take care of. But her best friend Carol was currently in a huge gambling debt caused by her irresponsible husband.

She could not possibly leave a girl alone to deal with a dangerous assassination job. Cynthia was confident with her strength and she thought that if they could not finish the job, they can just retreat to safety.

Misfortune unfolded then. The assassination target of that job was Alicia Grace Oliver Preston. Her file designated that she was a Class-B target. Although she is a member of the Royal family, she hails from the poor Northern Frontier Territory. A daughter of the olden Oliver Clan of the North.

...

Anton was overjoyed to see the request land on their table.

Prior to Anton founding the mercenary group, he was heralded as the most likely person to succeed the Oliver house as Gregory was becoming weaker by the day.

Unfortunately for him, his movements were eventually discovered and the family's warriors found out the truth about Gregory's condition.

Lord Bates was extremely infuriated when he found out that Anton actually destroyed his brother's bright future by means of poisoning.

Anton was initially condemned to a jail time for his whole life but he was able to escape from captivity with the help of his loyal followers. They then fled the North to search for their own destinies.

Anton decided to keep his loyal followers in the loop and so he founded the group and named it "North Wings Liberation Front". The group's final goal is to reclaim Anton Oliver's birthright, the Oliver House's ownership.

The members of the group then scattered throughout the lands, occasionally contacting each other through various means.

...

Anton ordered the people who accepted the assassination request to do well in the job and make sure the target is killed. It was his way of getting revenge to the people who admonished him in the past.

"Make sure to do this job well, I will reward everyone once this job is successfully completed." Anton viciously ordered.

Cynthia, together with her friend, got ready to strike. They were joined in with a few others who are there to provide backup.

"Attack!"

The fight immediately got chaotic as the assassins made the first move.

"Enemy attack! Defend Her Majesty!"

Unfortunately for the assassins, they were up against a mix group of Royal Knights and Northern Warriors so the battle was hard fought. The information on the file was incorrect.

Assassins were falling left and right as the Royal knights began to overpower them.

Eventually, Cynthia, in tandem with her friend, was able to sneak a dagger strike towards Alicia.

"Haah!"

"Hyaah!"

Alicia was aware of the strike and created a Shell Barrier to defend it. But Cynthia burst forth with her full force and destroyed Alicia's Shell Barrier.

Alicia was able to evade the fatal strike and instead got a little scratch on her shoulder.

Cynthia immediately thought of retreating when her attack failed but she caught a glimpse of her friend getting targeted by an Outer Shell expert. She immediately came to her rescue.

Cynthia defended the attack by utilizing her Inner Shell force technique. But she could not hold on long and eventually succumbed to the attacks of the knights and warriors combined.

It was a disastrous job for the group. They lost a lot of good people among those who died.

It was even more disastrous for Arnold and the little Issa.

...

Arnold was devastated when he heard of his wife's death. He immediately found out of the reason why everything happened.

He thought it was too reckless not to consult him about it. The target was even a good friend of his. He would have decided against it if he knew the target was the Oliver's lady Alice. He would have told Cynthia about it and they wouldn't have taken that job.

Arnold was truly helpless against it. He agonized over this event for a fortnight. He was even more saddened when he decided to lie to Issa about the real cause of death of her dear mother.

Issa is a pure and kind little girl. She could still grow up to a better future.

Arnold decided that he should take Issa away from mercenary group's influence. He left his restaurant and the mercenary group then and decided to wander about in different places with young Issa, to search for his reason and possibly get over everything.

The originally happy family was torn apart by their circumstances.