After sending Ruth home, Dustin returned to the Peaceful Medical Center.
However, he couldn't help but frown the moment he opened the doors to the
building. The place looked as if it had been ransacked. It was a mess.
Boxes of medicine were scattered all over the place, and Dahlia, who had
been rushing here and there the whole time, had on a face that was drench
ed in sweat.
"Diarhica, Where did he put the Diarhica? Dahlia mumbled to herself with
a prescription in hand.
After looking around for a while, she finally saw a box of Diarhica that
had been stored in a medicine cabinet high above the ground. Since it was
out of her reach, she could only retrieve it by stepping on a stool.
"What are you doing?" Dustin asked coldly.
Dahlia was startled by his question and lost her balance on the stool, Se
eing as she was about to fall to the ground, Dustin instinctively grabbed
hold of her before that could happen.
It felt as if he was carrying something precious in his arms, as a nice s
mell wafted into his nostrils.
After propping her up on her feet, he immediately without a moment of hes
itation and let go of her.
"You're back already?" Dahlia asked as her expression lit up for a brief
moment before she quickly snuffed it
out.
"Where did you go in the middle of the night? How come you didn't pick up
my calls?"
"I just went out for a bit and didn't bother checking my phone. What are
you doing here?" Dustin answered back with indifference. He assumed that
she wasn't the type to take the initiative to search for him, especially
with her arrogant attitude.
"I just so happened to pass by and saw Mr. Jones passed out at the entran
ce, so I helped him get inside."
Dahlia explained.
"He passed out? What happened?" Dustin asked with a frown.
"I heard that his house had been ransacked by thieves, and after fighting
them off, he got severely injured in the process. I think you should hea
d inside to take a look at him," Dahlia urged.
Dustin said nothing more as he immediately complied with her request.
Sure enough, he saw Gregory Jones lying on the bed with a pale complexion
. Inside the steel basin under his
bed was a pool of contaminated blood.
When he went up to him to check his pulse, he immediately frowned. Gregor
y's Celestial Decay seemed to be
getting worse.
It was also getting worse at a faster rate than he had expected.
"You're back already, kid?" Gregory asked as he slowly opened his eyes. H
e had a nonchalant expression on
his face.
"I guess this condition is back again, but since that Dahlia girl gave me
some medicine just now, I should be fine now." Gregory explained.
"What the hell happened here?" Dustin asked as his brows furrowed deeply.
To curb his Celestial Decay, he had specially placed several seals on Gre
gory's body. But now he could see that the
seals had been loosened. This indicated that Gregory had been forced to u
se his true energy.
"Not long ago, a few scums arrived at the medical center and started blab
bering about arresting you and talking about taking this Gozoraberry or s
omething from you. Naturally, I refused to tell them anything and even be
at their asses before they fled. However, I didn't know that by doing tha
t, I'd be using my true energy. which would cause all of my old wounds to
reopen. I really fucking don't know what to say!" Gregory huffed.
To think that ten years ago, he could've easily taken care of all of thos
e scum with a flick of a finger. It seemed that his age had finally caugh
t up to him!
"Oh right, before they fled, they left you a note. Take a look
at it yourself." Gregory added before pulling out a blood–
stained sheet of paper.
"What?" Dustin gasped after reading the paper over. Two lines of words we
re written on it.
"Meet me at the Horst Dojo at 10 pm! Remember to bring the Gozoraberry as
well. If you don't show up, we'll
get rid of your entire family!" were the words that were written on the p
aper.
After he finished reading it, Dustin crumpled the paper into dust with on
e hand.
It was fairly obvious that this was the work of the Horst family.
He didn't want to make a big deal out of it, but since they were the ones
looking for trouble in the first place.
they couldn't blame him if he decided to play along.
"Anyway, it was a good
thing that Dahlia girl came in clutch at the right time. Otherwise, I wou
ld've been in
serious danger by now!" Gregory let out a small sigh.
Although the scoundrels didn't manage to scratch him, his internal injuri
es were quite bad. So, if it weren't for
Dahlia's timely treatment, his life would've been in jeopardy.
"Thanks." Dustin muttered as he turned around to look at Dahlia with a co
mplex look on his face.
"You're welcome. Mr. Jones has always been good to me, so I felt that it
was only right that I returned the favor," Dahlia replied while wiping of
f her sweat.
"Regardless, I should still thank you for everything. Anyway, I have plac
es to be again, so I'll have to trouble you to take care of Gregory here,
" Dustin said.
"Where are you headed to this time?" Dahlia frowned.
"To get my revenge!" Dustin declared.
At night, in the commander's room at South City's military headquarters,
a handsome young general was analyzing his battle formations on a sand
table.
Standing behind him were
several female lieutenants, all of whom merely stood guard as they allowe
d him to
do his thing.
All of their gazes were filled with admiration and worship towards the ma
n.
One must know that the person in front of them was actually the youngest
commander of Dragonmarsh!
Paired with the Goddess of War, Scarlet Spanner, they were known as the r
ising stars of the Spanner family!
Not even thirty years old, he held power over hundreds of thousands of tr
oops, he'd won hundreds of battles, achieved countless merits, and was de
finitely worthy of the title God of War indeed!
No one was more capable in the entirety of Dragonmarsh than him!
He was known as the "National Warrior"!
At that moment, his phone started ringing. He'd received a call from an u
nfamiliar number.
Adam Spanner raised his eyebrows slightly at this, as he thought that it
was a bit strange.
"Hello, is this Adam Spanner?" A familiar voice asked him the moment he a
nswered the call.
"Who are you? How dare you call this commander by his name? The nerve-
"This is Dustin Rhys speaking" Adam instantly froze on the spot and didn'
t know how to respond. He immediately swallowed his words back down.
After staying silent for a while, he finally mustered the courage to repl
y in a stiff manner, "Well, well, well, if it isn't Mr. Troublemaker. I t
hought you
died in a ditch somewhere, I even brought flowers to visit your grave
every year."
"Stop talking shit. I need you to do something for me." Dustin snapped.
"Hey, watch your tone! I'm the commander of an army now, not some puny ma
fia character you can brutally beat up!" Adam whispered.
"Oh, so what do you want me to do?" Dustin taunted in reply.
"I want you to give me more respect. Like when you ask me to do something
for you, you need to word it in a way that sounds like you're pleading.
You could, like, butter them up a little first," Adam said while dusting
the
badges on his shoulder pad.
It seemed to Dustin that he was still as arrogant as ever.
"Forget I said anything:
I'll go find someone else," Dustin spat, as he wasn't in the mood to play
games with
him.
"D–
don't hang up on me yet!" Adam responded, all startled, before continuing
with a face that was all smiles," Look at you, can't you take a joke? Ho
nestly, you get mad at everything I say. You know how it is
between us: if you have anything on your mind, you know that you can just
tell me!
"What was I thinking? You're the commander and military god of the Dragon
marsh army now, after all. So, how could I possibly trouble you with this
? Perhaps it'd be better to just find someone else." Dustin trailed off.
"No need to bother with that, Dustin! It would be an honor for me to do s
omething for you. Just take it as your granting a favor for me, alright?
Please give me a chance: I promise to do a good job for you!" Adam begged
in a panicked tone.
After waiting for so fucking long, he finally obtained a chance to show h
is strength. How could he let go of this opportunity so easily?
"Ha! Since you're the one doing the begging now, I'll give you a chance,
as I can sense your sincerity through the phone," Dustin said.
"Thanks a lot, Dustin!" Adam thanked him with a huge grin on his face.
This display of his soft side caused a few female officers near him to st
are at him in disbelief. All of their eyes were
wide with shock, and they all looked as if they'd seen a ghost.
Was this really their usual death stare and stoic commander?
Who exactly was the person on the other side of the phone?
How did they manage to make an esteemed military officer act so meekly li
ke this?