Chapter 111: Highcrest City Inspector!

Kaia looked up, her eyes burning.

"You mean... we are taking this place back for good?"

Joren raised an eyebrow, then gave a small nod.

"You could put it that way."

"Taking it back..."

Someone in the crowd suddenly shouted.

"We are reclaiming lost territory!"

That one sentence set something off.

Jazz, a mountain of a man more than two meters tall, stood there with red around his eyes.

"Fuck..."

He ripped the cigarette from his mouth, threw it down, and crushed it beneath his boot.

"Never thought I would get to do something like this in my lifetime."

A fierce grin spread across his rough face.

"Who the fuck ever thought we would be the ones pushing back into the Fallen Zone?"

For a hundred years, ever since the catastrophe began, humanity had lived on the defensive.

They had built The Absolute Barrier.

Awakened Warriors had risen.

Human civilization had survived.

But the shame of being penned in had never really gone away. Every soldier with blood still running hot in their veins knew it.

Reclaim our homeland.

Restore humanity to its former glory.

Those words sat on the first page of textbooks and covered the walls of military camps.

For most people, that was all they had ever been.

Words.

Everyone knew what lay beyond the barrier.

Endless wilderness.

Endless Voidbeasts.

And beast kings of Rank Five, each one a wall that ordinary forces could not cross.

Then Joren came along and kicked open a door that had stayed shut for a century.

He tore through a Beast Tide alone.

Killed Rank Five beasts as easily as dogs.

Then planted an entire military camp beneath an abandoned television tower deep inside what had once been Voidbeast territory.

And now he wanted every Voidbeast around it dead.

This was not another operation.

This was something people would write into history.

"For Norcrest!"

"For humanity!"

The soldiers of Antares Command erupted.

Joren stood above them, watching three thousand people suddenly act as though someone had injected them with ten doses of stimulants.

The corner of his mouth twitched.

So this was what happened when people kept reading deeper meaning into everything.

He swore he had only wanted to clear the monsters within a few dozen miles and gather enough Bloodstars for his next orange Talent.

Reclaiming lost territory?

Restoring human glory?

None of that had even crossed his mind.

Still, he was not about to complain about being worshiped.

And morale like this was definitely going to improve hunting efficiency.

Joren cleared his throat.

His voice spread across the entire camp through Mental Force.

"Since everyone understands."

The noise died away.

"At sunrise tomorrow, we advance twenty kilometers outward from this television tower."

"Yes, Frontier Marshal!"

Three thousand voices struck at once.

The shout rolled into the sky and scattered several dark clouds overhead.

...

Norcrest.

Top floor of the Alkaid Authority.

Inside the commander’s office, Manester stood before the enormous window and stared toward the distant wilderness.

The water in his cup trembled faintly.

"No idea what that kid is doing out there now."

He sighed.

"Been a while."

A voice came from the doorway.

Manester turned.

His brows tightened slightly.

A middle aged man stood there dressed entirely in black. An emblem from Highcrest City was embroidered across his chest.

There was a smile on his face.

The narrow eyes studying the room carried something much less friendly.

Manester set down his cup and put on a smile of his own.

"Sable. What brings you all the way out here?"

"You could have sent word ahead. I would have gone to the city gates to welcome you."

Sable.

A special inspector dispatched from Highcrest City.

Early stage Rank Five.

His cultivation was roughly equal to Manester’s, but that was not the important part.

He came from the superior city.

And an inspector from Highcrest City arriving without advance notice was rarely a good sign.

Sable walked into the office as though it belonged to him and sat down on the sofa.

"No need for a welcome."

He lifted his eyes toward Manester.

"Norcrest has been making quite a lot of news lately."

Manester felt the direction of the conversation immediately.

So that was why he was here.

"What news are you referring to?"

He played dumb.

"House Hurst was wiped out."

Sable spoke casually.

"And Antares Command replaced its Frontier Marshal."

He paused.

"The new Frontier Marshal is not even an adult."

The warmth disappeared from his voice.

"Manester, do you have any idea how much of a disturbance this caused in Highcrest City?"

"This is ridiculous!"

His palm slammed down on the table.

The cups rattled.

Manester did not move.

He had expected something like this sooner or later.

"Exceptional circumstances require exceptional decisions."

His tone stayed easy.

"Joren may be young, but his strength..."

"Strength?"

Sable cut him off with a cold laugh.

"Bring him here."

"I would love to see exactly what this boy is made of."

Manester scratched his head.

"He is not here."

Sable paused.

"Not here?"

Manester pointed toward the wilderness beyond the window.

"He took Antares Command into the Fallen Zone."

Sable shot to his feet.

His finger came up, pointing straight at Manester.

"You let the entire Antares Command enter the Fallen Zone?"

"If something goes wrong and the whole force gets wiped out, what is Norcrest supposed to use against the next Beast Tide?"

"Can you carry that responsibility, Manester?"

Manester wore an innocent expression.

As though I could stop him even if I wanted to.

Sable swept one arm toward the door.

"Take me there immediately."

"We bring those soldiers back before this turns into a disaster."

Manester hesitated.

"Well... things over there might be a little..."

"A little what?"

Sable snorted.

"Dangerous?"

"I am an inspector from Highcrest City. I do not care if that place is a dragon’s den."

"I am bringing those soldiers back before that idiot gets them all killed."

Manester looked at the righteous fury on Sable’s face and sighed inwardly.

"All right."

He shrugged and took his coat from the rack.

He was curious himself.

As for Sable’s misunderstanding?

Why bother explaining?

Some things were much easier to understand after seeing them with your own eyes.

"Move!"

Sable stormed out of the office first.

From the look of him, anyone who did not know better might have thought he was rushing off to catch someone cheating in bed.