"We are the law here!" one of the guards said who had a smug face of wanting to arrest Miles without any reason.
It was then they all stopped in their tracks when someone loudly clapped from the crowd.
Clap, clap, clap.
They all then turned to look at its direction.
"I was watching within the crowd to see how you would react. To think you are acting so poorly and defaming the Portal Guards' name, you should be punished heavily."
Miles sighed in relief when he saw the person's epaulets.
He intended to fight for Coin, but he wasn't certain of his win. There was a high chance of serious repercussions, or worse, death. He hated his helplessness, but he couldn't help it.
There were two levels between him and the guards. They were High-tier Guards while he was a 16 years old kid with the strength of a low-tier at most. He was really in an unfavourable position against them.
Even though he was able to fight against the princess who was middle-tier, it was all thanks to Coin’s overriding her wristwatch, assisting her in the battle with the fact she was highly underestimating him.
When they saw the person who had clapped, the guards sweated profusely with a shock on their faces.
"Post Commander!" They saluted and tried to explain.
Meanwhile, Miles looked at the person with knitted brows.
She was a black woman with an angelic face and long dark hair that almost covered her fit body, with a cloak over her cyan armor pinned by her epaulets. She was a post commander at Pinnacle-tier, a bottleneck, nearly on a breakthrough.
"Reporting to the Post Commander! That person has been suspected of killing innocents. We were about to apprehend him and bring him to court."
"We were just following His Highness Mihr Orril's orders!" said the other.
As the post commander listened to their reports, her brows began to knit.
"You were taking orders from him?" She pointed a finger at Mihr Orril.
It was then that the two guards noticed a drop in temperature. Chills ran through their spine as they felt an ominous aura coming from their post commander. Sweat started to form on their foreheads and back. They gulped in terror, taking a step back unconsciously.
"You are not taking orders from him!” She pointed at Mihr Orril “You are taking your orders from ME! And the Ministry of Portal Security!" The lady in the military uniform said. Her epaulets on her shoulder indicate her rank in the military, Post Commander of the Portal Guards.
Miles looked at the lady with a smirk and then thanked her with a nod.
The lady shook her hand loosely as if to say 'it was nothing.'
She looked at Mihr Orril, Tian Ling, and Porseila Lamaze. "You three dare to cause trouble within these walls and tend to break Unity Laws. In accordance with Article 36; Strongholds are the haven of humanity, and fighting is prohibited except allowed by the chief officer. As the post commander of the Stronghold, I sentence you to 3 days of jail time."
"Don't go too far, Quinn!" Porseila was fuming when she looked at the post commander. She knew her. Then, she glared at Miles.
Tian Ling then pointed at Miles and said, “He killed my men. I have all the right in the world to kill him back. Princess Porseila was just defending me.”
"How are you so sure he had killed your servants?" Quinn asked back.
"Someone had seen him do it. What other proof do you need?" Porseila answered back with a noble arrogance.
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"Since when do princess words have more value than anyone else's? As citizens, your words carry the same weight, and you cannot terminate with extreme prejudice." Quinn wasn't taking a step back.
"We will have proof if we look at his AI Logs."
"You are not allowed to look at a citizen's AI Logs without a Court Order. To take a court order, you must prove his guilt partially. You have nothing to support your claim. How do you think you will get the court order then, huh!? Careful what you say next, Princess!"
"You bitch! I will have my father to make you all suffer!" Princess Porseila was about to cry.
"When did this alleged murder happen?" Quinn asked amusingly, directing the question to someone else as she looked at Porseila's crying face.
"Earlier today in Rat Kingdom Forest." Tian Ling answered hastily.
"What do you say in your defense?" Quinn then looked at Miles with a wink.
"I don’t know anything about it. I have never seen them." Miles answered with a deadpan expression.
"He is lying. It was him. I saw him." Tian Ling’s man shouted hysterically.
"Even if he is lying, you have no proof. Even if you have, it is not prohibited to kill in Portal World. Maybe he had his reasons, maybe he is just an evil kid." Quinn said, and her cheerful mode vanished into thin air.
"There are laws that need to be followed, especially WITHIN these walls. No person is above the law, and you cannot break any as you wish. I don't care if you are the grandson of a general, the president, or granddaughter of the richest man in Unity. I will punish each one of you with my own two hands if you try something like this once again."
“Take Tian Ling, Mihr Orril, and Porseila Lemaze to the jail and keep them there for three days." Quinn ordered like the strong woman she is.
"As for you—" She then turned to the two guards reprimanding them of their misconduct "—You have broken the laws of the Ministry of Portal Security, breached your duties, and slandered an innocent citizen. From this day forth, you are no longer Stronghold Guards and are sentenced to prison for three months."
The faces of these two guards, now ex-guards, paled in an instant, as if life had just been drained from them.
"Take them away!"
"Yes, ma'am!" More guards appeared and took away five people who caused the ruckus.
"You, come with me." She then turned to Miles and beckoned him to follow her.
"Yes, ma'am!" Miles saluted fakely as he followed the ebony beauty. She looked at the person closely this time and admired her bearing. Her black hair was covering her beautiful face. Her dark skin and brown eyes were beautiful to look at. She had a graceful but strong body.
"Done checking my body?" She rolled her eyes.
"Not yet!" Miles answered cheekily.
"How is your brother?" She then asked when they arrived at her office room.
"I don't know what you are talking about." Miles answered with a deadpan face while feeling surprised in his heart. If the post commander knew Merlin, it wouldn’t be strange for her to know Miles too.
"Oh, come on! I was watching you closely because I knew you were coming from afar, Miles Cross."
"Since you knew, why are you asking for more?" Miles said without a change on his face.
He left his family and started to live on his own. He never used his family name to influence or intimidate someone. If he wanted to, he could just say his brother's, mother's, father's, or grandfather's name to get away scot-free. But he disdained using his family name to solve his problems.
"I just want you to know that your brother cares about you. He called and wanted me to look after you." Quinn said emotionally.
"Thanks, but no thanks," Miles said and turned around to leave. When he reached the door, he looked back at Quinn and said, "I don't need anyone's help. Nor do I need their pity."
Yes, pity. He knew his brother was pitying him because he was a cripple, but he and Coin were strong with their weaknesses.
Quinn could only stare at his back with empathy.
Miles left the room and went downstairs to trade the orbs he acquired from the one-week expedition. He took them out of his bag and placed them on the desk. "I'd like to exchange these with Unity Dollars."
"Sure, let me see." The worker at the other end lazily approached the desk and looked at them closely. When he held the low-tier psychic core he was about to drop it to the ground but recovered swiftly. "Hmm, they seem like common orbs. They are worth 20.000 UD-" Before he could finish his sentence, a solid killing intent fell on his neck. His back covered with sweat, and he was gasping for breath.
"Look. Closer." Miles said emotionlessly. He had enough for the day and had no mood to be polite with a grifter.
"Who do you think you are? I am a stronghold worker and will have you thrown to prison!" The worker said weakly, but when he saw Miles's unyielding face, he took a step back.
He heard what had happened earlier and wanted to intimidate the people with Stronghold's backing. The post commander had just said that she would not allow anyone to break the laws, thus he was certain no one would pick a fight over some money, but he was mistaken. The person in front of him was serious enough with a look that kills.
"A-alright. I will take a look again." He said sweating profusely.
"Five Elementless low-tier cores, one low-tier Armor Orb, and one low-tier Psychic core summing up to 140.000 UD. I will give you another 50.000 UD. Just don’t hurt me!"
Miles reached out Coin for the worker to transfer the money to his account. With 190.000 UD in his account, he left the room with a snort. "Time to deal with the greedy Landlord!”