'Wait, then who is that bastard? Is he part of the Vermont Special Forces, just like I guessed?'
Jet was hastily running with his son peacefully sleeping in his arms. Luckily, the child remained sound asleep until they arrived at the dock.
'Dammit, my life is ruined. I was gonna land a position as an accountant in Akin.'
His big dreams, everything he worked hard for; he had to leave them all behind.
'I didn't think that I would be running away.'
Even until the moment he boarded the ship, he doubted his life decisions based on the words of a child he didn't even know.
Jet climbed into the starboard with a disappointed face and sifted through his pockets. He grabbed a heavy gold necklace, a ring, and a handful of tiny gold pieces.
Keep this while you run away. Feed your son well.
Those were the last words Jet heard from Jin. He couldn't understand the child's intent of helping after impersonating Beradin and manipulating Jet.
'Welp, I'll first get to Vermont and wait for the news.'
Jet was clearly depressed.
* * *
BANG!
The auction house's agents woke up to the sound of someone busting a door open. Alu furiously stomped in with heavy breaths.
"That scamming fucker—Where is he?!"
"Huh? Boss, who do you mean?"
"Beradin Zipfel! That bloody impersonator of Beradin Zipfel! Bring him to me right now. I will peel his skin and kill him…!"
"Wh-what do you mean by 'impersonator', boss? There's no way."
All of the agents exchanged glances of cluelessness, as if uttering 'Did you know?' 'The hell if I did.'
"Boss, th-they already left. About an hour ago."
Alu was going to go insane from their stupidity.
Slap! Slap!
He slapped each of his agents with his thick hand.
"You useless sons of bitches. You let that happen? You just let that happen?"
'But boss, you got tricked as well.'
No one had the courage to point it out. Whenever Alu's eyes were in the back of his head, it was smarter to just stay silent.
"Boss, those guys… They took all of the customer registry and transaction records. They didn't take anything valuable from the basement though…"
Alu was about to explode. As much as he wanted to slaughter all of his workers, catching the impersonator was more important.
"Get ready to chase them down. We're catching those rat bastards before sunrise."
Meanwhile, Jin had already sent the anonymous letter to three places using postal magic. He sent it to the Vermont Imperial Family, Zipfel House, and the Akin Kingdom Press.
If the anonymous note only said 'Tesing is bad', then the three organizations wouldn't bat an eye.
However, Jin sent different pieces of evidence for each recipient. He sent the slave records to the Imperial Family, the transaction history to the Zipfels, and the customer registry to the press.
'The Vermont Imperial Family would take action after seeing that the majority of the slaves in the Tesing underground were citizens of its empire. The Zipfels would get heated over all of the illegal transactions of valuable artifacts. Essentially, the Tesing Clan is doomed.'
And of course, the Akin Kingdom Press would speak out after receiving the customer registry. Even though the press was under the Tesings' control, there were those who silently despised the clan's business.
Now, the organizations just needed to read the information within two days. Then, the Tesing Clan would be obliterated and forgotten forever.
Despite the imminent downfall, Jin did not leave Akin. He and his companions were waiting for Alu at the outskirts of the kingdom.
Jin needed to check if he has a connection with a Runcandel in any way.
"Kiddo, aren't you being too wary of Jet's words? You really think any of your siblings could get along with those lowly scums?"
"I agree, Young Master. There's no way a Runcandel would meet such people."
"The Tesings themselves are not significant, but Alu is at least a 7-star. Thus, he is a man of significance."
Jin didn't know anything from Alu's past aside from the fact that, at some point, he took control of the clan and corrupted Akin.
"Hm… Well, we should at least thank him before we leave. Other than Tzenmi's magic tome, he also gave us a great masterpiece. I was pretty surprised when you came out of the basement with that ring."
According to Murakan, the ring artifact was not called the 'Helm of the Demon King', but instead was called 'Myulta's Rune'.
Thousands of years ago, the demons of Myulta created this artifact in order to protect one of their great leaders from the never-ending battles.
And that great leader was the first emperor of Vermont.
"I honestly can't believe we found this in some sketchy basement. After everything is over, let's decipher and read through Tzenmi's magic tome."
They waited for two hours.
Some time later, a group of Tesing agents found the three sitting around a small fire.
"It's him! Report to the boss!"
Boom!
An agent fired a signal firework. However, they couldn't blatantly attack the three targets. The impersonator was a child, but they remembered that he wielded at least 5-star magic.
It was a weird standoff.
Jin—who had no intention of running away—blankly stared at the agents, and the agents were waiting for reinforcements.
"Murakan."
"What?"
"I want to duel Alu."
"You've gotta be kidding me. So, you're telling me to deal with all of the peons?"
"Exactly."
"Man, what a hassle…"
While Murakan complained, Alu arrived. He was soaked with sweat from running hastily.
Behind him were about a hundred underlings who were also panting from exhaustion.
The agents who were cautious of Jin became confident after the reinforcements' arrival.
"Y-You… motherfucker. The hell are you guys doing? Get him!"
"Wait here and guard our Strawberry Pie."
Out of all the attacking agents, half of them were magicians, and the other half were mercenaries. The magicians started to cast their spells from afar, while the mercenaries charged at the enemy.
Unlike them, Murakan was basically naked. He only wore a thin shirt and had a small dagger in his hand.
Crack!
"Kurkk."
However, despite his lack of gear, Murakan cracked the first attacker's jaw with his elbow and dashed into the crowd of mercenaries.
They weren't well-trained, but they weren't unskilled either. In the middle of the crowd, every time Murakan threw a punch, someone either died or fainted.
In the eyes of Alu and his bodyguards, Murakan looked like an invincible fighter.
"You fucking idiots! Attack the kid in the back, not him!"
The magicians changed their target after hearing Alu's screech. Jin scoffed at the sight of ineptitude.
"Fire!"
The lead magician shouted, and the magicians simultaneously raised their staves.
"Gilly, get behind me."
Fwoooooosh.
They chose to fire the 3-star ice magic, Icicle Shot. Fifty icicles aimed for Jin and flew towards him.
However—
'I don't even need to block this.'
Thanks to Demonic Beast King Orgal's Pendant, Jin was immune to any spells that are 5-stars or lower.
Crackle… Crackle…!
The icicles disintegrated before they could reach Jin. The spells of Tesing's unregistered magicians were blocked with a blink of an eye.
"Wh-What are those guys…?"
"Ahhhhhhh!"
"Oof!
Murakan was already almost done with the peons. It didn't matter if there were fifty or a hundred—peons were peons. It was too easy for the Shadow Dragon.
Five minutes passed since the battle started.
The Tesing mercenaries were losing their will for battle. But their devastating defeat against the ones who tricked the clan was not only because Jin and his companions were strong.
After finding out that Jin was an impersonator, the agents of the Tesings' elite forces ran away.
They predicted that 'Alu was done for'. Until now, the Zipfels had overlooked the Tesings' illegal activities. But after being tricked by the impersonator, they knew that the Tesing Clan would inevitably fall.
After sunrise, it was certain that the Zipfels would take action, so their escape was a wise choice.
At this point, Alu knew that his underground empire would soon fall.
"Hehehehe."
Alu cracked a pained smile as his sword emitted a white aura.
"It seems that you guys aren't just any normal scammers."
SCHICK!
Alu began to slash at his own magicians. They could not escape their crazy boss, so most of them immediately died on the spot.
"B-Boss, why are you doing thi—AAACK!"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!"
Alu slaughtered every single one of his minions with a straight face, living up to his 'Spiderhand' name.
"Who sent you guys? Who hired you in the first place?"
He spoke with bloodshot eyes.
"You guys were gonna go to hell anyways. I'm just alleviating the pain you would have felt."
"That's true… but—"
SLASH!
'He's fast!'
Alu threw a dagger at Jin, barely missing his cheek. If Jin were a little slower, the dagger would have sliced his neck.
"But how unfortunate. I don't intend to go to hell alone. You guys are coming with me."
This was just the beginning.
There were 50 meters between Jin and Alu.
Jin felt the goosebumps traversing his body.
'As expected from a 7-star knight.'
He had met countless 7-star knights, but this was the first time one tried to kill him. His throat dried from the pressure of the standoff.
The moment he drew his sword…
"You finally met someone your size. I guess it is my turn to guard Strawberry Pie. Kuku, good luck!"
Murakan shouted at Jin as he ran away with Gilly on his back.
—————