Chapter 186: I’ll crush the player guild association

"So that is why you do not tell them," Leon said. "If everyone knew there were ten people above S-rank, they would not be afraid of S-ranks anymore."

Milda said nothing, and that was answer enough.

Leon gave a small nod. This was what he had expected. He had known from the moment the man had torn the sky open above the Roaring Lions that there was something above S-rank, and that the Association was hiding it.

The world he lived in had a ceiling that most people could not see, and he had just walked through it.

He thought back to that night. He could still feel the weight of it if he tried. The air going silent, the Aegis shaking under a pressure it had never felt before, and the stars shining through the crack in the sky.

He had not run because he was afraid. He had run because he had been smart enough to know when he was outmatched.

"That man," he said slowly. "The one who showed up after I killed Teon. Who was he?"

Milda did not seem surprised by the question. She looked at him with something close to sympathy, and she answered without any hesitation.

"Thokas," she said. "He is one of the ten Heads."

"So he is SS-rank too."

"Yes."

Leon scoffed quietly.

It was a short sound, almost under his breath. But inside his head, a single thought turned over, and it was not a worried one.

’They really are strong,’ he thought. Strong enough that Thokas had been able to split the sky in two. And if he was only one of ten, and Milda was another, then there were eight more people like this scattered across the world.

He found that he did not mind.

There was another question sitting at the back of his mind, one that had been there since the council chamber.

He had a feeling he already knew some of the answer, and he did not want to ask it out loud in front of her.

It could wait though. If he asked too soon, she might lie, and he wanted to be the one who decided when the time was right.

So he kept it to himself.

"Anything else?" Milda asked, when the silence stretched on.

"No. That is all for now."

"Then let us talk about the rank." She cleared her throat, and her voice took on a more formal tone, the one she must have used in meetings.

"You are an SSS-rank, Mr. Allistar. As far as I am concerned, it is already settled. But it will still need to be made official, through the proper channels, so that the Association’s records are correct."

"Do whatever you want," Leon said.

"I will."

"As long as you stop hunting me."

Milda stilled.

"I mean it," Leon said. His voice was calm, but his eyes had grown colder.

"I have had enough of the Association putting a bounty on my head, and sending S-ranks after me, and coming up with new reasons why I should be arrested."

"It stops now. No more players, no more ambushes, nothing. If I am an SSS-rank, then I am not a criminal, and I do not want to be treated like one."

"That is reasonable."

"And take the bounty off my head."

"Yes."

"All of it."

"Of course." Milda nodded quickly. "I will see to it myself. Within the hour, if you wish."

Leon looked at her for a moment, as if checking whether she was lying. Then he nodded, satisfied.

"There is one thing," Milda said.

She spoke carefully, the way a person walks across ice. Leon’s eyes sharpened immediately.

"What thing?"

"The official ranking." She swallowed. "It cannot be done in a back room, or in a letter. A rank like this has to be announced in public. In front of the players, and in front of the other guilds. It is... it has always been done that way."

"In public."

"Yes. You see, this is the first time an SSS-rank has appeared since White. If the Association were to hide it, there would be questions."

"It would look as though we were afraid of you, or as though we had something to conceal. We have to do it openly."

Leon paused.

The wind blew past them, and the Aegis hung steady under his feet. For a few seconds he said nothing at all, and Milda watched his face with her heart in her throat.

She had no idea what he was thinking, and that frightened her more than any threat could have.

He was thinking about a trap.

It would be an easy thing to build. Gather the whole world in one place.

Make the boy stand on a stage in front of a crowd, with a thousand eyes watching, and with the Association in control of the ground he stood on. If someone wanted to hurt him, that was the moment they would choose.

He thought about it carefully, and he found that he did not care.

Let them try. If they wanted to bring everyone together, it would only save him the trouble of looking for them.

"Fine," he said. "The Association can do whatever it wants to do."

Milda let out a breath she had not known she was holding.

"But hear me, because I will say this one more time," Leon said, and his voice dropped lower.

"Do not try anything. Not a trick, not a trap, not a plan that you think I will not see. I do not care who thinks of it, or how clever it is. If I even suspect that the Association is up to something, I will not wait to find out what it is."

He lifted his head and looked straight into her amber eyes.

"I will crush the Player Guild Association. All of it. Starting with you."

The words were not shouted. They were not even said with anger. He said them quietly, as if he were stating the weather, and that made them worse.

Milda froze.