While Illyan was finally solidifying his path towards greatness, the chaos in the town finally calmed down.

But that was only on the surface.

The mayor, who usually didn’t come out of his mansion often, had to do so this time as he was going around the town trying to soothe every force’s anger.

He didn’t care when the common people were angry because of the illegal arena matches happening in the town, but if the acolytes were feeling uncomfortable, then they could easily level the town.

The mayor only had a few knights who could fight them, but the acolytes’ advantage lay in their numbers and the unpredictability of their spells. The variety of spells each acolyte wielded could not be compared to the difference in weapon styles.

Furthermore, just Aziro alone was enough to destroy everything.

And so, he just went to visit him to discuss the further activities in the town, especially the ones in the underground arena. Whether the business would be cut off or the arena would be rebuilt.

They also had to solve the problem of the missing Caleb, as he was the main partner of Aziro concerning the underground arena. There were so many things to discuss…

The chubby man in the carriage was wiping off his sweat as he was looking nervously out of the window.

“This is horrible… How did the situation come to this?! Damn that Aziro for trying to fight that dark elf in my town…”

He was angry at the indifferent man who was destroying his town, which he then had to pay to rebuild.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t do anything. No mayor before him could. The town was Vanaras Kingdom’s territory, but not many people there were aware they were actually the vassal state of the Arkravav Empire.

It was just that they weren’t that useful and thus weren’t exploited that much.

The mayor scoffed at this information that he heard from the capital nobles.

“If this wasn’t heavy exploitation, when they kidnapped every third citizen, raided all graves, and were corrupting officials in almost every city, then I am king of the world…”

*Knock knock*

Sudden knocks were heard by him as the driver of the carriage explained to him they had arrived.

“Sir, we are here.”

“Oh…” The mayor nodded as he opened the door and waited for the servants to bring the stairs for him to get off the carriage.

Then, with the help of a strong servant, he was supported as he came down.

They arrived in front of one of the biggest mansions in the town, inferior only to his own. This was the home for Aziro in the last several decades he was living in this town.

However, this normal mansion was now giving him chills when he looked at it. It felt as if the place had turned into the colors of its owner.

The mayor shook off his thoughts as he looked down to the front doors of the mansion.

In front of him was one of the robed men who was staring expressionlessly at him. This brought great pressure to the mayor, who was just a normal person, as he started to fawn upon the man.

“Well met, Mr. Hall. I see that you are in great health as usual.” The mayor wanted to continue, but the man cut him off.

“Don’t waste my time. Sir wants to meet you as soon as possible.” With that, he turned around and went into the mansion.

‘Tch.’ The mayor only quietly clicked his tongue but didn’t say anything as he followed after.

……..

On the other side of the town, close to the slums and red-light district where most rough men coalesced, was a hideout where armed people were angrily discussing how to kill their enemies.

Most of them were on the verge of even attacking their own comrades as they argued, spitting saliva in the face of others.

This all happened around one big table in the dark room without any candles or different sources of light.

However, the men were used to it and were not inconvenienced at all.

In the end, one old man was still staring at the guy arguing with his legs on the table. He seemed unconcerned, but those who knew him would notice that he was getting annoyed.

The man was very old and frail-looking. In truth, he was also very small. Except for his bald head, which had several scars, he didn’t look like someone who should be in this circle of people. All in all, it was someone who didn’t look that threatening to most people which made them unconsciously underestimate this man.

That was one of the biggest mistakes his enemies made before losing their lives.

Even in his youth, he didn’t look like someone who could become a knight, but he proved everyone wrong.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

During his time in the military, he probably killed more people than the population of the entire Winterfrost town, and he murdered even more after he deserted and became a simple gang leader.

This was Varel the Viper. The man who built everything he had with his own hands and the blood of his enemies.

When the argument in the room reached its peak and one of the members wanted to swing his weapon, Varel unhurriedly took out a dagger from his belt, and with a simple flick, he threw it.

“Agh!” The man immediately let go of the weapon as the hand holding it had the dagger embedded in it.

Silence ensued in the room as only the slight groaning of the man resounded. However, even he didn’t dare to be too loud anymore as he held his arm tightly while carefully looking at Varel, who was still leisurely sitting.

“Keran, how many times do I have to tell you that drawing your weapon at your brethren is forbidden? If you have pent-up frustration, you can go out. In the slums, there are many people whose disappearance wouldn’t be noticed by anyone…” Varel sounded annoyed as he fiddled with yet another dagger in his hand.

“M-my apologies, boss.” The man bowed obediently.

Varel kneaded his goatee that was tied up by some strings.

He was just looking in front of him without focusing on anyone or anything and just let his thoughts flow. This time, however, nobody was willing to make noise as they waited for their boss to speak.

Eventually, Varel took a deep breath.

As he exhaled, the other members tensed up.

“It is an unfortunate incident that my precious son went missing…” Varel started speaking.

“We don’t know where he is or what the perpetrator’s motives could be except for the business my son was doing with the corpse puppeteers. It is prudent to assume he is already gone.” After he said that in a calm tone, a desperate scream resounded in the room.

“How could you say this about your own son?” A woman with a shrill voice that cracked up after yelling stood up as she looked pleadingly at the old man.

“Please… Father-in-law! I know that your relations with my husband weren’t the best, but he was still your son!” As she poured her heart out, she started to cry. Many others in the room felt uncomfortable as they knew the boss would be like this, but it was still giving them a creepy feeling when seeing him so indifferent.

Even now, nothing has changed.

Varel watched that expressionlessly as he snapped his fingers.

“Bring this hysterical woman to her room. Also, whip ten times the one who let her in on the secret meeting. The women have no place here in the first place.” His voice was hoarse, but it was filled with dignity.

The woman was soon dragged out together with another man who was actually her cousin.

“Where was I again? Oh, yes. It is very unfortunate what happened to Caleb…” Varel said.

Nobody interrupted him as they listened.

“However, it was brought upon him as he did what he did behind his family’s back. He was keeping secret the profits of the underground arena and was even investing the gang’s money for his profit. It was only because of my love for him that he wasn’t branded as a traitor.”

Varel explained calmly in the face of the unrest that was brewing in the hearts of his subordinates.

After all, everyone’s heart would turn cold if they found out their boss would sacrifice even his own child.

“But, in the end, he was still my son, no matter how foolish. That’s why we will send a group to track him down. Also, I will personally visit Aziro and hold him accountable for what happened. From what I know, he planned some kind of trap for his enemy there only to mess up like this.”

Varel’s eyes shone with a crafty look. To be honest, he didn’t care at all whether Caleb died or not. It was not like he didn’t appreciate human relations. It was just that Caleb was always someone ambitious and never wanted to help grow the gang. Instead, he took from the gang to grow his own assets.

In the end, Varel had two other sons who were much more sensible, so instead of grieving, he decided to use this situation to his advantage and try to strike up a deal with Aziro to fill the gap the disappearance of his son caused.

If everything went right, he could have a much higher share than his son.

Of course, that was only if everything went right. Aziro wasn’t easy to deal with, after all.

But the same applied to Varel.

He couldn’t beat the man, but he wouldn’t fear him either.

Varel was someone who went to war in the south many years before as part of the reinforcement that the vassal kingdom sent to help the Arkravav Empire.

He saw the way acolytes fought. They were terrifying to his younger self. But in the end, while they died in agony, he was still alive, getting older, surrounded by his family.

Power didn’t mean you

would survive when it really counted.

“Ahh, well.” Varel suddenly exhaled as he stood up, spinning a dagger around his fingers with such dexterity and confidence that nobody feared he could injure himself.

With long, straight steps, he headed out of the room, passing through the quiet gang members. This was supposed to be a meeting, but only one person was talking.

“I just called you here for one thing. To tell you not to do anything out of place. I have my own plans…”

The man then didn’t care enough to stay as he left with strong strides heading right in the direction of Aziro’s mansion…

……..

Aziro’s Mansion.

“Preposterous! Do you think I can just let go of this business?! Most of the violet coins that we earn go right to the capital, and the small amount I have for myself is used for my undead creations and other tools.”

Aziro was fuming after the mayor proposed to stop the underground arena’s business for the time being.

‘Without them, I will not be able to keep Ezekiel at bay, and he is aware of that!’ Aziro thought as he bit his lips.

“But sir… I w-will not be able to help you out with this! There would be too many expenses to rebuild the entire underground area. Our town doesn’t have such a budget to do that.” The mayor was covered in cold sweat as he tried to explain himself.

In the first place, this wasn’t even the mayor's responsibility as managing the arena was Caleb’s job. The mayor was always the one helping with security and attracting the high-paying customers.

Not that he had a choice in deciding that.

“I won’t ask you to do it for free. Once we are done, you will be taking over the shares of Caleb.” Aziro decided with a placid tone.

The mayor felt like crying when he heard it.

‘This is not just about money!’

This incident gave the mayor a huge blow. Not only did a lot of his soldiers, two who actually mastered the breathing technique, die in that place, but also his personal physician was heavily injured and was now taken care of in his mansion.

A big portion of the town was also destroyed, which he needed to take care of. Furthermore, many civilians died or were injured because of that.

If he decided to rebuild the arena, then people would be rebelling sooner or later.

Aziro noticed the mayor's reaction and frowned.

“The people’s opinion doesn’t matter. Whoever has thoughts about rebelling will be dispatched immediately.”

“Oh? Does that include me?”

Just then, voices resounded in the hall.

“Stop ther-Argh?!”

“Sir! Varel came to cause trouble!”

One of the robed men quickly came through the front door and explained the situation while having his arms in front of him maintaining a barrier spell that was almost cracked open as a small dagger was embedded inside, radiating green light.

He didn’t attack back as he felt that it would recklessly put him in danger, even though Aziro could take care of it.

Unfortunately, the second robed man wasn’t as lucky as he held the stump of his right arm while putting some liquid on it to stop the bleeding.

“Ai, ai… Nothing changed. The magicians are always so weak in direct combat. Tch, tch…”

The man said as he walked in nonchalantly while smiling.

That man was Varel. The warrior who had a lot of experience in fighting magicians…