Chapter 163: A Mansion Full Of Failure
In the abstract conception of universal wrong, all concrete responsibility vanishes.
Just like Zane Atlas vanished for the Wardens.
Three hundred of them were still inside the last mansion while the other two hundred were outside waiting for the good news.
The inside of the mansion had turned to shambles as the Wardens stopped caring about the property.
They just wanted to find Zane Atlas.
But they found anything that could be found but not the gutterborn.
They found gold bars, they found money, artifacts, antiques but not Zane.
In the end, all of them came out.
By their faces, the wardens standing outside got to know about the failure.
Naturally, all eyes widened as the failure was impossible.
"Are you kidding me?" The man responsible for the erected walls snapped. "All of you cannot find one man? He went inside. We saw it. He must be inside."
"He is not!" Another warden shouted.
"Should we burn the house?" Another one suggested.
"It does not belong to your daddy. If anything, we have to arrange it as it was." One of them said.
"But how did he vanish?" Another one asked.
"He did not. He is inside. He must be. He is a filth. He doesn’t have any skills. If he had, he would have already used it." The wall-man said again.
The three hundred wardens gritted their teeth.
One of them stepped forward.
"If he was inside, we would have found him. He either teleported or turned invisible. The best we can do now is restore the house and inform the Bronzers where we saw Zane Atlas."
The warden responsible for the walls spat on the ground and let go of his hands.
The walls disappeared.
"I will look inside now. You all stay here."
"Have your way then."
No one stopped the man as he went inside.
He did the same search the others did but he took it one step further.
He removed the furniture and pierced his sword on the floor of the house.
He removed the wooden planks, he broke the tiles, he tapped on each wall and destroyed those who seemed hollow.
But he also received disappointment as Zane wasn’t anywhere.
How is this possible? He had come here. This doesn’t make sense. If he could teleport he would have done that long ago. He wouldn’t have to jump to escape us. Is he invisible right now?
The warden looked around.
He clenched his head.
I really want to burn it now. But now that the walls aren’t there, he would have escaped in his invisibility. Fuck!
He kicked the floor.
His foot got stuck on the hole he created which annoyed him more.
Nevertheless, he gave up.
He brought out his leg and left the mansion.
He was welcomed with the glares of his comrades and he didn’t blame them.
It was he who didn’t agree with them.
"So?" One of them asked.
The wall-man sighed.
"He is not inside. We can’t burn the house. Yes, we lost him."
"Told you."
The wall-man nodded and took out the communication crystal.
Along with Zane’s photograph, all of them also received the crystals.
It could fit in the size of a palm and it was transparent.
But before the man could use the crystal...
"Wait." One warden spoke.
"What?"
"Why are you informing the Bronzers? I won’t let you take the reward all for yourself."
"Yes. We all worked hard for it. The reward should be distributed among all of us."
The Wardens stopped the wall-man from taking the credit but the wall-man looked around.
He searched for someone but he didn’t find them.
"First of all," He said. "The real candidate for the reward should be Vehran. If not for him, we wouldn’t have even chased Zane Atlas."
The Wardens looked around and just like the wall-man, they also didn’t see Vehran.
"Vehran isn’t here. Now what?"
The wall-man nodded.
"Things should be fair. Most of us only ran after Zane Atlas. But those who really helped us reach closer to him were me and Gorim."
All heads turned to the Gorim.
He was the one who had teleported all of them in front of Zane.
And the wall-man also mentioned himself as he was the one who erected the walls, ensuring no escape for the gutterborn.
"But we all have worked hard!" One warden barked.
"You only ran after him. If not for us two, the man would have run away. We made it easier for us."
"Easier, my ass." Another warden stepped forward, spitting. "You were hiding behind us. If not for us, Zane Atlas would have seen you and killed you. We protected you while you maintained the walls."
"He couldn’t have killed me."
"Are you stupid? Have you not heard what he did? He survived a Trial while being a gutterborn. He came out of the clutches of the Emberlord and bit the leg of an Enforcer. A man who could do this, can certainly kill a warden having a mere skill of producing walls. We saved you, Bilder."
The wall-man’s name was Bilder and upon hearing his fellow warden, he went silent.
He thought of words but he couldn’t come up with anything that could win him the argument.
However, if he won’t win then he would not let others win as well.
"Alright then. If not for me then he would have jumped over all of you again. My walls kept him inside. But fair. Don’t give me the reward. If not me, then Gorim should get it. He teleported us. You didn’t protect him. He is solely responsible for it."
The Wardens looked left and right and before they could agree, Bilder turned to Gorim.
"Do it." He said.
Gorim already had the crystal in his hand.
He poured his resonance inside it and the next second, it turned green.
It connected to the Bronzers.
"Yes?" The voice came from the other side.
"Hello? Yes. I am Gorim. A warden around the Blue Rose street. I met Zane Atlas. He was in—"
"Yeah. Yeah. I already know. He went to that traitor’s bitch house. Someone shared it some minutes ago. Don’t share the same information two times."
TUK!
The crystal reverted back to its transparency and Gorim was left with wide eyes.
He looked around, veins popped on his neck as he roared:
"Which bastard shared the information!?"
