Chapter 75
"Is that him?" Natasha's eyes imperceptibly flickered as she looked at Joshua. "He's totally beyond my expectations."
Natasha gently stepped away from Icarus as if she had lost interest while Veron faced Joshua and said with a scowl, "Ash pen Frederick, so you finally showed up. Anyway, this is the first time I've ever remembered the name of a garbage commoner."
Veron’s two front teeth Joshua had knocked out and were forcibly reattached with magic started aching as he stared at Joshua’s face.
"By the way, what was that commoner talking about? Friend? Be ready for your judgement?."
Gehog shook his head.
"Pffft, is he like this too?"
Some children laughed when they saw Gehog drawing a circle over his temple. He was implying that Joshua was sick in the head.
However, Veron’s attention wasn’t on Gehog as he kept staring at Joshua, who was still approaching him.
Veron exclaimed angrily, "Stop! I told you to stop! Do you not care about what happens to this guy?"
He stomped on Icarus’ head and looked at the poker-faced Joshua with a sly smile. Veron had just stomped Icarus so hard that the latter was rendered dizzy as his vision swam with his ears ringing.
"I'm sure you know how this works. Don't even think about making a move. You know I have the authority to expel you and them from the academy, right? I also have the power to torment their families for the rest of their lives."
"..."
"You must have a reason for enrolling at the academy… Surely, you wouldn’t want to throw away everything, right?"
Veron grinned when he saw Joshua coming to a halt.
"Ah, finally… we can discuss things. The reality is that your own power doesn’t really matter that much here. The power of your family is what matters the most here, so what can someone like you do?"
"Is he that great? I actually want to witness it for myself once."?Natasha muttered under her breath.
"What nonsense." Veron grimaced and remarked, "I'll ask you something… why did you return this?"
A tiny object shimmered beneath the sunlight as Veron raised his finger and waved it.
Of course, Joshua was aware of the object.
“A member of a fallen noble family like you may not know about it, but this item is far more precious than you realize. You could buy an entire castle with this thing,” Veron said.
"Veron, he wouldn't know that even if you tell him. To kids like him, that’s just a regular ring," said Gehog.
Veron shook his head in response to Gehog's words before saying with a growl, "No, he couldn’t have threatened me with this item if he had no idea what it is."
"If that's the case, you’re making me even more curious about how you guys met. And I supposed this guy humiliated you a lot," replied Gehog with a glance at Joshua.
Natasha looked worried as she said, "Is it really appropriate to talk about that when there are so many kids around us? If the rumor that he defeated Muker were to come out of all this, the rumor will quickly be heard by your fa—"
"Who dares to spread rumors?!" Veron interrupted.
"..."
.
"At this point, it doesn't really matter. If a rumor starts, I’ll track down the one who dared to spread such rumors and trample them."
At Veron’s words, the surrounding became silent.
Veron turned to look at Joshua once more and said, "You could have scared me for a long time with this item. Sure, you would still suffer horribly for it, but you would get to keep your life in the end."
"If I did that, wouldn’t that mean I’ll become the same as you?"
"What?!"
At Veron’s astounded reply, Joshua firmly explained, "I would be no different from a scum like you if I did something even a thug wouldn't do, isn’t that right?"
"..."
The other members of Araksha stared at Joshua with wide eyes. They couldn’t believe that someone would have the guts to insult the heir of the Villas.
Would someone in their right mind even do such a thing?
"If I recall correctly, he also said that the rapier of the Stens is garbage…"
"Is he mad? Just why is he so courageous?"
"He has to be a member of the Imperial family or the Five Dukes, right? Otherwise, there’s no way he just said that!"
“Only three members of the Twelve Families are here, but even if he’s a member of the Five Dukes’ family, there’s no way he would dare to go against us. I mean unless he’s a member of Duke Agnus or Duke Tremblin’s family…”
Veron’s lips raised as the other children raised a clamor around him.
"Of course, it should be like this. I would have been disappointed if you suddenly went meek."
Once his words fell, Veron injected mana into the Deon Ring sitting on his finger.
The Deon Ring flashed, and the flash of light intensified in the blink of an eye.
The flash of light eventually enveloped Veron.
A slight rustling sound could be heard behind the lights, and Veron could finally be seen once again as the light subsided.
Veron stood there wearing full-body plate armor. The silver armor seemed coated in oil as it shimmered beneath the sunlight, stunning those looking at it for the first time. The red feathers on the helmet also flapped elegantly in the breeze. Most importantly, the Marquis Villas’ coat of arms was embroidered on the silver armor’s surcoat.
"Kya, it's a B-Class Deon Ring, and Veron looks really handsome in it, right?" exclaimed one of the children in the crowd.
"Should I get someone to modify mine?"
At Gehog’s words, Natasha snorted and said, "I think your father would be glad to sell you for an average Deon Ring instead."
"Shut up, dumbass," Gehog responded. He licked his lips with a look that seemed like he found the situation a pity.
"Wake him up," said Veron.
The two children on standby immediately moved, and a bucket of cold water was poured over Icarus.
"Ugh…"
Icarus groaned as he was jolted awake by the cold water, and his light blue hair glistened as the water drenched him.
"I shall shatter this guy’s limbs one by one. By then, he should know that having the wrong friend is a crime."
"...!"
At that, Agareth’s eyes widened as he exclaimed in despair, "Damn it all!"
“I’m saying this as your senior: if you don’t want to see this guy dying with his family, it’s best if you just stay still,” Veron said.
However, Joshua ignored Veron’s words and glanced at Icarus.
Icarus and Joshua’s eyes met in mid-air, and Joshua could see Icarus’ tiny frame trembling uncontrollably.
‘He must be scared and in agony…’?
Even amidst all this, Joshua’s gaze remained steadfast.
"..."
However, something in Joshua's heart soared and raged when he saw how Icarus slowly shook his head toward him with mournful eyes.
Icarus desperately wanted to protect something, and Joshua was the only one who could understand Icarus’ feelings.
Veron pointed at Agareth with his chin and said, "You're just like that bastard’s older brother, Shimizu kun Douglas—an idiot who dared to cross the line to change the academy. Instead of joining hands with me to live a pleasant life in the academy, he went to the professors and snitched on us like an idiot and begged for help. He went to the professors without knowing that we already bribed half of the staff here. Funny, right?"
"Stop. Please… stop." Agareth covered his ears in agony, but Veron ignored that and continued. "It was extremely annoying, you know? I mean, who would choose to live in poverty when you can live in luxury? And you know what I did with that bastard?"
Veron's grinned as he stared at Agareth writhing in anguish.
"I crippled him."
"...!" Joshua's eyes widened.
“Of course, we made sure to make it look like an accident. I was planning on just murdering him, but I decided the clean-up would be inconvenient. It didn’t seem like a bad idea to let him live life as a cripple to atone for his sin, and no one is really dumb to snitch on us knowing that we can do whatever we want with their family, right?”
At Veron’s words, Natasha said, "The Douglas family can’t really do anything to us without concrete evidence."
She licked her lips with her tongue and added, "Don’t be too worried about it. Your name is Ash, right? Listen, I will help you so that you won’t get into an unfortunate accident."
"You, Natasha—!"
Gehog was furious. He was about to intervene, but he noticed Natasha narrowing her eyes at him.
'You’re going to play with him first before completely destroying him?'?Gehog was startled at the realization, and he took a step back while muttering to himself. ‘What a crazy woman…’
Natasha turned to look at Veron and asked, "Is that fine, Veron?"
Veron responded, “First of all, my business comes first. It’s unfortunate, but those eyes that you like, I want to dig at least one of them out because they seem like they’re begging for me to remove them.”
"Um… I don’t want those dark blue eyes to get damaged because they're rare…" Natasha pondered for a second before clapping her fists and exclaiming in excitement, "Aha!"
"Oh well, I guess I should let Veron have the first say since you caught his eyes first. I can probably get him to spare the other eye, and when I think about it, having one eye can be a charm as well!"
"This crazy bitch.”
"Gehog, what did you just say?" Natasha coldly glared at Gehog.
Gehog waved his hand and said, "I didn't say anything."
"Huh?"
The two looked like they were about to start another argument again. Meanwhile, Veron looked at Joshua once more.
"Let me gouge those arrogant eyes first before I break this guy's arm," Veron said before walking toward Joshua. The fear that had been creeping up from the depths of his heart vanished when he saw Joshua.
In addition, the B-Class Deon Ring enveloping his body comforted him as well. Veron was filled with unwavering confidence thanks to the Deon Ring.
'It's a B-Class armor a C-Class mana user can only hope to scratch. As long as I don’t get careless like that idiot Muker...'?Veron thought as he tightened his grip on the sword in his hand. He slowly approached Joshua, wary of a sneak attack from the latter.
"You just said it, right?"
"...?" Veron halted. He was confused by Joshua’s words.
"Only the power of one’s family matters here..."
"Oh, so you're going to put your faith in your feeble strength and flee—"
Joshua retrieved something from his pocket before Veron could finish his sentence.
"I think you’re right." Joshua chuckled.
"That’s…" Veron was the closest to Joshua, so he discovered the identity of the object Joshua had retrieved from his pocket before anyone else, and he exclaimed, "A Deon Ring?!"
A fallen noble family couldn’t possibly possess a Deon Ring!
'No way!’
Veron took a step back after recalling Muker’s words.
"You!"
"I shall show you the true meaning of the power you have been boasting about."
Joshua then wore the Deon Ring and injected mana into it, eliciting a burst of light that was so bright and massive Veron’s Deon Ring couldn’t possibly compare to it.
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