Chapter 70: He’s An Anomaly
After they had returned to Strength City, North granted each of them a room to spend the rest of the night, and neither Roman nor Rena wanted to stay in the same room that night.
Roman was alone in a room at the edge of the building, where he watched the city from the window and refused to sleep until it was fully bright.
Rena hadn’t slept either. She just lay on the bed and had a lot of thoughts going through her mind. All that North had told her, and of course, all that had happened between her and Roman.
She didn’t know how North had managed to get Roman away from the messengers, but at this point, she had come to really believe that they knew each other before.
The way he talked to her freely like they were friends from high school, and the way she responded so casually like she didn’t care how he talked to her.
She was the Mayor of Strength City, for crying out loud!
That was surely something, right?
But she wouldn’t go around forcing things, because now there was a lot to talk about, and a lot to clear up. From lying to him about her background to lying about her Talent as well.
He lied too, but that was still a matter to sort out while she sorted hers.
However, no matter where this was going, they still had to start finding their way back to Blood Trial Outpost.
The very next morning, North was in her chamber when Rena approached her.
"Morning, Mayor," Rena greeted.
"Young Mistress," North smiled, a wine glass already in her hand as she quickly poured another cup and extended it to Rena.
"I don’t like to be addressed like that," Rena said as she walked over.
And North furrowed her brows for a second before nodding.
"Well, I think I’ll always prefer addressing you that way. The best thing is hoping that I don’t see you that often to address you like that. So, good luck," North said.
She was still offering the glass when Rena instinctively shook her head, rejecting it.
"No thanks. I don’t drink."
"Oh, got it. You are not one of the types of us that take gingers," North smiled.
"So, what now? Will you head back to Blood Trial Outpost... or head straight to the Heartlands?" North then asked.
Rena looked at her, hesitated, before responding.
"Blood Trial Outpost. That’s where I have been, and that’s where I will be," Rena replied, her voice bold.
Then North gave the kind of look that showed she had been expecting such a response.
"Well, good luck, Young Mistress. I’ll hope to see you again."
Rena hadn’t made any response to that before Roman walked in, all dressed like someone who was about to embark on a journey.
He noticed Rena in the room with North and didn’t say a word until he had gotten really close to North.
"I’ll have to go now, North. I have to try getting back to the Frontier, as well as finding my friend Arnold. He might be needing my help right now," Roman said.
"I understand, Roman. The meeting is still in two days. Hopefully, you have enough time to catch up with everything you need to catch up with and join me back here," North said, giving a nod.
Roman nodded and turned to Rena, who was already looking at them with a curious face.
She had the urge to just ask, but then something still held her back, like she didn’t have to ask.
"You both can head to the Frontier together, right?" North said as she exchanged glances between the couple, who didn’t say anything.
She accompanied both of them outside, and North gave them a new two-seater runner to travel with.
Rena had a one-seater runner parked somewhere in the city, but she decided to leave it aside and join Roman in the two-seater runner instead.
Roman didn’t know that... and well, it wasn’t necessary for him to know that, right?
"Take care, you both. Try not to run into a tree!" North said as she watched the runner dash away from the villa.
She immediately walked back into the chamber, grabbed a couple of things, and wore her long jacket before entering another runner.
No, she wasn’t trailing them.
She was heading somewhere.
She drove to a building outside the city, one that was located quite deep in a small, ruined wasteland.
And there, there was a considerable number of guards. Not just ordinary guards... they could easily be recognized as the best guards of Strength City.
When North showed up, they greeted her, and she ordered them to take her to a room where three stranded figures were being held captive.
Two men and a woman, all chained and enraged, as expected from A-rank messenger guards who had been held captive for several hours, experiencing what captivity felt like.
When North walked over, they all raised their heads in fury, staring death into her face as she smiled at them.
"Hello," North said with a smile.
"Well, I don’t have much to say. I just wanted to tell you that I got him. Unfortunately, the other one ran into the Wanderers, but yeah, the one you need the most is free, and he’s with your main target, heading back to where they belong. Where they want to be," she added.
"The Steel Empire is where she should be. And as for that rat, he should be in hell," Sera said, her face completely dark.
"Well, talking ill about him is what pisses me off the most, Sera... I need to show you how much I care about him. But unfortunately, I probably can’t, because even he himself doesn’t know the level of care I have for him," North stated.
"You just made Strength City an enemy of the Steel Emperor," Crest then spoke. "You have no idea what you’ve just done."
"Well, I do. There’s going to be war. Big war. Big attacks. Lots of big shit and trash. But trust me, you also don’t have an idea what mess the Steel Emperor would cause for himself by harming him," North replied. "Trust me, hell is going to rain down on him, and he’s going to drink it with his tongue out."
"He’s just an F-ranker. I heard he is a Fourth Class graduate as well. What kind of threat can that be to the Steel Emperor?" Dax asked with a scoff.
"A kind of threat that would rip the Steel Empire apart, to the extent that even his unwilling heiress daughter wouldn’t have anything left to rule over," North responded.
"He might be an F-ranker... He might be a Fourth Class graduate..."
"But he’s... an Anomaly," she muttered to herself before walking away.
