Chapter 152: You Had Your Chance—Now Fight!

Kent answered with equal sarcasm.

“Whether I’m qualified or not, why don’t you come down here and find out for yourself? Let’s see whether my magical pet can flatten an old bastard like you with one slap.”

“You... you... you...!”

The human Grand Elder’s face alternated between livid green and deathly pale.

He was furious enough to accept the challenge on the spot, yet reason stopped him.

The Dragon Turtle was already far above him in rank.

Going down to fight Kent while that monster stood beside him would be no different from throwing his life away.

The dark elf Grand Elder watched Kent with growing astonishment.

He had received word several days earlier that Kent might have reached Salt City, and had immediately rushed over.

The reason was simple.

The Dragon Turtle was simply too conspicuous.

On top of that, the combination of Kent and Daphne was highly unusual. A human mage and a dark elf girl traveling together already drew attention, and from the reports, the two behaved very much like a young couple.

The dark elf Grand Elder had already been worried by Kent and Daphne’s disappearance, so the moment he heard the news, he brought his guards and hurried toward Salt City.

He had never expected that the first thing he would see upon arriving would be the Dragon Turtle’s enormous form towering over the city.

The dark elf Grand Elder had lived for many years. Naturally, he recognized what sort of magical beast stood before him.

What puzzled him was something else.

The Dragon Turtle had clearly reached the Legendary realm.

So why had it not transformed into human form?

Still, that mystery did nothing to lessen his admiration for Kent.

A Legendary-class magical pet.

As far as he knew, something like this might never have happened before in the history of the world.

“Grand Elder.”

The captain of the dark elf guards stepped forward and whispered something into his ear.

The longer the Grand Elder listened, the darker his expression became.

By the end, veins were bulging visibly across his forehead.

“You wanted evidence, didn’t you?”

The dark elf Grand Elder abruptly shattered the silence between Kent and the human Grand Elder.

“Bring him forward!”

At his command, several dark elf guards dragged a man into view.

The prisoner was dressed as a human warrior.

Judging from his clothing and equipment, he was clearly one of the guards belonging to the City Lord’s estate.

The man trembled violently as he was brought before the dark elf Grand Elder.

Faced with the killing intent in the elder’s eyes, he could barely remain standing.

“We... we were acting under orders...”

His teeth chattered.

“Under orders from the City Lord’s eldest son.”

He swallowed hard.

“We were told to capture them. The... the mage was to be killed on the spot, and the dark elf... the dark elf girl was to be brought back alive.”

His voice grew weaker.

“And the information about them came from the First Auction House of Salt City.”

The moment he finished speaking, his legs gave way.

He collapsed limply onto the ground.

“Heh.”

Kent laughed softly.

This time, however, even he had to admit that the dark elf Grand Elder knew exactly how to handle matters.

The human Grand Elder, Wood, and the others were left red-faced.

The guard’s confession was like a public slap across every one of their faces.

They had spent all this time denying everything, making excuse after excuse.

And the dark elves had simply produced a witness.

By comparison, the human leaders now looked like clowns performing in some ridiculous traveling circus.

Wood glanced at the City Lord, then at the Grand Elder.

After a long moment, he let out a deep sigh.

Without another word, he turned and left.

The other ninth-rank experts nearby looked at the human Grand Elder and Gohanni with open disdain before leaving as well.

At their level, none of them were fools.

They understood perfectly well how serious the situation had become.

The dark elves had already been overbearing enough without evidence.

Now that they possessed direct proof—

things were going to become far worse.

“Bring the eldest son here.”

The human Grand Elder’s expression had turned terrifyingly dark.

“Immediately.”

He knew perfectly well that certain people had captured dark elves before.

As long as the dark elves never found solid evidence, however, the Grand Elder had always chosen not to investigate too deeply.

There was simply too much profit involved.

But this time, he was genuinely furious.

Not because a dark elf had nearly been abducted.

What truly enraged him was that the young man he had personally valued so highly had turned out to be this sort of person.

For swordsmen, discipline was essential.

Their cultivation demanded tremendous concentration, endurance, and control.

A person’s energy was limited.

Anyone who became excessively obsessed with women would inevitably waste the strength and focus that should have been devoted to the path of the sword.

“There’s no need to summon me. I’m already here. Besides, they never actually caught anyone, did they?”

The City Lord’s eldest son had regretted everything the moment he saw the Dragon Turtle crush Martin to death.

But he also knew there was no point trying to flee.

If escape was impossible, then the only thing left to do was argue over the nature of the incident itself.

So when he heard the human Grand Elder order that he be brought forward, he stepped out on his own.

His meaning was obvious.

Nothing had actually happened.

Kent was still alive, and Daphne had never been taken away.

If the crime had never been successfully carried out, then surely there was no real responsibility to bear.

“You disgraceful beast!”

The human Grand Elder’s eyes immediately brightened when he heard those words.

“Go and apologize at once! If you mistook them for someone else, you should have stopped the moment you realized your mistake.”

He glared fiercely at the young man.

“After this, return home and stay there. You are not to leave without permission.”

The Grand Elder simply could not afford to lose any more face.

More importantly, the key to the entire matter was Kent, not the dark elves.

If Kent could be persuaded to let the matter go, then there was still a chance to bury the whole incident.

The eldest son immediately understood.

Joy flashed through his eyes.

“Yes, Grand Elder. I’ll apologize to him right away.”

The Grand Elder’s gaze toward Kent, however, remained cold.

He was the strongest human expert in the Underdark.

Yet today, Kent had humiliated him again and again in front of countless people.

How could he possibly swallow such an insult?

He had already begun thinking about how to deal with Kent afterward.

If the dark elf Grand Elder had not been standing nearby, he might have tried to kill Kent here and now.

The dark elf Grand Elder, meanwhile, watched Kent with a strange smile.

He had originally intended to say something, but after a moment’s thought, he held his tongue.

From what he knew of Kent, this young man was not someone who forgave easily.

What happened next, however, left even him puzzled.

Kent watched the eldest son approach.

Then he patted the Dragon Turtle on the head.

The enormous beast lowered him gently to the ground.

Kent glanced once at the human Grand Elder’s icy expression, then at the smiling eldest son approaching him.

A smile appeared on his own face.

“If you’re here to apologize, then surely you should offer some compensation to prove your sincerity, right?”

“Of course.”

The eldest son visibly relaxed.

“Gold coins, magical beast eggs, magical metals—whatever you want, just name it.”

His tone became almost boastful.

The dark elf Grand Elder grew even more surprised.

Could it be that Kent really cared only about wealth?

Daphne stared at him in disbelief as well.

Gohanni and the human Grand Elder, on the other hand, looked at Kent with open contempt.

Mocking smiles appeared on their faces.

As humans themselves, they believed they understood human weakness better than anyone.

Greed was hardly unusual.

At the same time, both men quietly breathed a sigh of relief.

After all, a war between races was the last thing humanity wanted at the moment.

“Well, if you’re making it that easy, then I won’t be polite.”

By now, Kent and the eldest son were only a short distance apart.

Kent looked at the young man’s smiling face.

And inwardly, he smiled as well.

“There’s no need to be so cour—”

The eldest son never finished the sentence.

Suddenly, the world spun around him.

His vision twisted violently.

And the last thing he saw was something strangely familiar—

the fine boots he had put on that morning, woven from expensive spider silk.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have killed you.”

Kent stood there holding a massive two-handed sword.

Blood dripped slowly from the blade.

“I wonder what kind of compensation you would like?”

He waited for a moment.

Naturally, there was no answer.

“Well, since you’re not saying anything, I suppose I’ll be going now.”

Kent smiled faintly.

“Terribly sorry. My apologies.”

Those words sent a chill through everyone who heard them.

A moment earlier, the two-handed greatsword had not even been in Kent’s hands.

He had drawn it directly from his spatial ring.

The movement had been so fast that almost no one had seen it clearly.

In the same instant, the blade had swept across the eldest son’s neck and severed his head cleanly.

The sword itself was extraordinarily sharp, capable of cutting through metal with ease.

Removing a human head was hardly difficult.

The eldest son might have possessed the strength of a sixth-rank warrior, but he had never expected Kent to attack.

Perhaps he had trusted too much in the power of money.

Or perhaps it had simply never occurred to him that a mage could suddenly pull out a two-handed greatsword weighing dozens of pounds—

and use it to cut someone down.