William wasn't that delusional to think the enemy would be powerless. Even if the Scarlet Bears were gone, the world was filled with lots of deadly monsters the dark forces could use.
That was mainly why William didn't feel such deep regret about this. He knew he'd find other dark gold monsters out there. But he needed to go out first if he wanted to get any dark gold cores.
"Time to gather the team up," he walked out from the central building, to be met with two faces who didn't belong to the guild.
"What brought you here?" William frowned for a moment, moved his eyes among Sara, Berry, Lang, and other vice leaders of his. This time, Lina and Tina were there as well.
Lina was already taller than him when he met her the first time. And even after William reinforced his body with high grade monster meat, grew taller, she still was taller than him.
This wasn't weird, after all she was from a race blessed with outstanding physique. She still wore her mask, but she replaced it with something more appealing to the eye. It got roses there, engraved over a special type of wood that could resist any physical damage and absorb it.
As for her sister, she grew to be as tall as William, despite being five years younger than him.
"What? Aren't we allowed to be here?" Kong harrumphed, while Sara's grandfather, named Lucas, smiled and said nothing.
"This isn't your academy, old man," William crossed his arms, "tell me, what brought you here?"
"Like this? Without even inviting us for dinner?" Kong was about to retort in an angry way like usual, but Lucas interfered to meddle between these two.
He already knew how explosive any meeting between William and Kong was. Just that meeting from five years ago was a great example of how weirdly tense the relationship between these two was.
"Sorry, but you came without informing me first," William didn't change his attitude for a bit, didn't even move his eyes away from Kong, "I'm busy. So sum it up and tell me what brought you here away from your academy."
"Kiddo, even if you made a name for yourself, you are still weak!" Kong didn't stay silent this time, "you should know how to deal with your masters."
"Sorry, but none of you are masters to me," William didn't show Kong any courtesy, "just cut the chase already and tell me what you want."
"Hmph! I should have brought along that kid of mine to teach you a proper lesson," Kong said, while looking at Lucas as if he was blaming him for this.
"We aren't here to cause trouble," Lucas got fed up with how stubborn his friend was. From the day Berry selected William over the Long family, overstaying on the side of her beloved grandfather, and that old man held a deep grudge against William deep inside.
In Lucas' eyes, this was a foolish act from his friend. He knew all this stemmed from the love of this old man to his granddaughter. Lucas was the same, but he was much smarter to know that these kids had their lives to live, their choices to make.
If they loved these girls, then they shouldn't stand on the path of their happiness. It wasn't as if they selected a bad man. William made a name for himself and was seen as a prodigy that was rarely seen in the entire world.
"So, what are you here for?" William took out his glaive, used it as a stick to lean on, a move that he picked from Ibra.
"We are here to talk about formal business," Lucas didn't like how William decided to speak with him like this in the open, without even inviting them to stay or to sit and rest a little bit. But he also knew this was all the result from that explosive meeting that happened five years ago, "we want you to represent our academy. We are here as elders of the Golden Stardust academy, representing it to invite you and your team to join our formal team in the upcoming contest."
"Sorry, but I don't have any interest in wasting my time."
"No way! How shameless of you!" Kong exploded when he heard these words, "didn't you promise us before that you'll go?"
"I promised to send the ones belonging to the Aspire academy to help, not me. I never said that I'd go," William evilly grinned. And seeing such a smile on his face made the already boiling blood of Kong boil more.
"You…" Kong pointed a finger at William, but Lucas interfered again like before.
"It's a grand contest with lots of prizes and honour to the ones winning it."
"No thanks, I already got my shoulder burdened with all the glory I accomplished before," William shrugged. He even moved his free hand to caress his shoulders, as if he was really carrying something heavy there that bothered him.
"Lucas, show him the scroll," Kong waved his arm as if he grew tired of what William was doing here, "show him why we are really here."
"Sigh!" Lucas took out a scroll and hesitated before opening it, "we got the official list of teams and spirit masters taking part so far in the competition."
"Why does it matter to me?" William had a better impression about Lucas than Kong. Before that explosive meeting, he felt much better towards Kong than Lucas. Yet things had changed since that meeting and the brief meetings that happened later, on rare occasions in the past years.
"When you read it, you'll understand," Lucas gave Kong a serious warning gaze, before handing the scroll over to William. The latter found a long list, one that spanned over ten papers. It wasn't just a single scroll. When he checked these, he couldn't get what the two men wanted.
"I don't get it, what's in these papers exactly that you want me to read?"
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