Chapter 48
Chapter 48
The Guide Sows Seeds of Revenge
After being impaled by the golden spear, the guide was bridling with revenge.
“Liam… I will never forgive you…”
However, there was one problem.
As Liam currently was, it would be extremely difficult to drop him into hell.
Renowned as a virtuous ruler, he was constantly sending off disgusting positive emotions towards the guide.
It wouldn’t be easy to take revenge on him.
But that’s not to say it was impossible.
So what should he do?
“There are a lot of people who have a grudge against Liam. I’ll find them and sow the seeds of revenge.”
While grasping at his chest in pain, the guide used his power to search for individuals with strong feelings of hate towards Liam.
And while there were a number of strong reactions, there were two prominent people who stood out in particular.
“I found you!”
Stepping through the door he manifested, he appeared in front of the first person who sought revenge against Liam.
It was none other than– Yasushi.
He was grasping at his head in the middle of a dark alley.
Seeing his figure, the guide shouted out,
“SO IT’S YOU AGAAAAAIIIIINNNN!!!”
Yasushi was the origin of Liam’s unfathomable strength.
The guide didn’t have a very good opinion of him for that very reason.
Therefore, he was going to kill him this instant to appease that hate– but he stopped himself after hearing his words.
“What the hell is the One-Flash?! I’ll never forgive him for associating my name with such a thing!”
After the tournament at the elementary school, the name of the sword style Liam used spread like wildfire.
Liam told everyone it was called the One-Flash, and naturally, now all those interested were looking into it.
As such, Yasushi was constantly being chased as a result.
The guide looked down at him.
“I-if this keeps up, my lie will be exposed– and then I’ll be killed by Liam or worse. Even now, I’m being hunted by pirates as the ‘master’ who trained the Pirate Hunter.”
Yasushi made his resolve,
“If I don’t fix this soon, it’ll be the end of me. For this, I need to train some new disciples. I can’t do this by myself. If I temper them the same way I did Liam, I’m sure everything will work out.”
The guide applauded that idea, as it was something he never would’ve thought of himself,
“Yasushi… I’m counting on you.”
If his lies were to be exposed, Yasushi was sure that Liam would get rid of him.
So just like how he trained Liam, he’d train two more disciples in the same way to assassinate him.
In addition to that, he was also thinking about how this could help protect himself from pirates.
“First, I need to find a child more talented than Liam– financially, I still have some leeway. I need to temper them specifically for the sake of slaying him.”
The guide was also in favour of this idea,
“You’re better than I thought, Yasushi. I’ll support your plan, so here’s a little gift from me.”
As the guide snapped his fingers, the voices of two people fighting could be heard in the distance.
Although he was intimidated, Yasushi still went to investigate the noise.
There, he found two young children beating down a man who jumped them with sticks.
Their bodies were thin, but they were wielding large canes heavier than what you’d think they’d be able to lift.
The sticks were covered in blood, and the big man was collapsed on the ground.
That’s when the two children saw Yasushi.
Their eyes had a bestial sharpness to them.
“Eek-?!”
The children approached him.
The guide knew Yasushi couldn’t hear him, but he still went on to explain,
“I located some talented children nearby and brought them here for you. Yasushi, I hope you train them well. Prepare a true successor to the One-Flash to kill Liam!”
Before they ran away, Yasushi took some food out of his pocket and threw it towards the children.
Catching it, the two instantly began to devour the food like animals.
Looking at their figures, Yasushi went into deep thought,
“If I train these two, they’ll surely surpass Liam. If they were able to beat such a big man as they are now, they’ll undoubtedly become much stronger in the future.”
With that, he called out to the two children.
Confirming this development, the guide headed towards the next signal burning with revenge.
“Now then, who’s next?”
◇ ◇ ◇
A military re-education facility.
There, Eulisia was taking a course to become a successful female soldier.
“Oh, this woman is?”
She was withstanding severe training.
Her eyes had a sharp glare to them, and her once beautiful hair was shaved clean.
She was currently undergoing training to join the special forces.
Covered in mud, she was thrown to the ground by the instructor– and yet she still got up afterwards.
The guide was impressed by her tenacity.
“Is there a reason why she hates Liam so much? What does the voice of her heart say?”
There…
(Unforgivable. Unforgivable. Unforgivable. Unforgiv–)
It was a mantra of pure hatred for Liam.
She was the perfect avenger.
“W-wonderful! For one that holds such potential– here’s a gift from me. To make sure that you’re successful, I’ll give you my support.”
In order to make sure her blade of revenge reached Liam, she– Eulisia had to survive.
Although she was just defeated by the instructor before, it wasn’t completely one-sided.
The instructor yelled at Eulisia,
“I thought you were a woman who could only shake her ass at others, but it looks like the shitty girl has grown up a little!”
“Sir, yes sir!”
And from the voice of Eulisia’s heart,
(Liam, I swear– I will definitely have my revenge on you.)
The guide nodded,
“Your pure desire for revenge on Liam is amazing. I will support you from the shadows. I look forward to the day your retribution against him comes to fruition.”
As the guide investigated Eulisia, apparently she had been receiving quite the re-education.
It wasn’t just any normal training.
In order to advance in the military, she dabbling in various fields.
However, if she continued on like this– there was the inevitable demerit of being forced to stay conscripted in the military for an extended period of time.
Even so, Eulisia ignored such things and continued her training.
Everything was for the sake of her revenge against Liam.
With that, the guide could leave this place satisfied.
“I hope your revenge will reach Liam someday.”
The guide disappeared.
◇ ◇ ◇
After taking in the two orphans, Yasushi fell into thought.
While watching them sleep in a cheap hotel bed, he was seriously thinking about his self-preservation.
“What should I do if the assassination fails?”
The two in front of him were surely talented.
But Liam was strong.
In the first place, he was a man who could take a magic trick and turn it into an actual sword skill.
“If these two fail the assassination and are slain… it’ll be my head that’ll go flying next.”
He’d be lucky if he was just killed.
But his opponent was a nobleman.
He didn’t know what kind of horrible torture would be waiting in store for him if he was caught.
Thinking about how he could be slowly killed over a long period of time– he felt himself trembling in fear.
Therefore, the cowardly Yasushi decided,
“I-I know! I’ll just stick some random reason behind it. It’ll also keep these kids from questioning me. Yes… should I tell them that they’ll eventually have to challenge their senior pupil with all their strength?”
Even if they were killed, he might be able to convince Liam that it was all some kind of test as long as he sent a letter saying “You did well” afterwards.
“Will this work? Well… my life is still in danger even if he isn’t killed. Let’s just do whatever I can. I have to do this.”
For his love of being alive, Yasushi decided to take two children in and teach them the One-Flash.
Fortunately, he already knew how to do so.
He had prior practice through Liam.
“The problem is, even if I train them the same way, I don’t know what kind of results they’ll bring. If I only denounce Liam, they might leak to him all of my laments. Okay, let’s make sure to always praise him in front of them.”
In contradiction to his praise, Yasushi would train the children to kill Liam.
He had no other choice.
Liam had already spread the imaginary sword style’s name of the One-Flash far and wide.
Aristocrats, pirates, and even other martial artists were moving to find that strength.
Even if he ran away, he’d surely be hunted down.
Yasushi didn’t have the time to be picky with his options.
There was no other choice other than to train the children as fast as possible.
Because… he himself was weak.
“Okay, I’ll give them a letter to deliver in case of failure. If they convey the praises I’ve made of Liam properly, the right misunderstandings should occur… hopefully. But If possible, I hope they succeed with the first objective.”
Yasushi– who had taken in new disciples to assassinate Liam, muttered,
“I’ll train you to grow up as much as possible so… be wary of Liam.”
Yasushi had confused himself, and didn’t really understand what he was doing anymore.
◇ ◇ ◇
The military re-education facility.
While many men had run away from the strict training, Eulisia remained.
All of this was for her revenge against Liam.
She gazed at her reflection in the bathroom.
The beautiful hair that she was so proud of was shaved, and her body had grown more muscles after all the exercise.
“I’ll improve the quality with the next phase– I need to keep a feminine appeal. This body is also a tool necessary for my revenge.”
Liam– the one man who was completely disinterested in her.
But what was her plan for revenge?
The conclusion Eulisia came to was to aim for the period after Liam had graduated from the military academy and was conscripted into service.
During that period, the army would dispatch a lieutenant to be Liam’s aide.
Only the elite among the female officers would be chosen.
If she didn’t have the appearance, ability, and everything else required, she wouldn’t be the one selected.
To reach that position, ordinary results were inadequate.
After all, a large number of female officers that entered the military actually hailed from the Banfield house.
There were many there who had achieved excellent results at the academy and had been specifically groomed to be Liam’s aide.
If she half-assed things here, they wouldn’t even consider her.
With this in mind– Eulisia had decided to join the special forces.
After completing this rigorous training, harsh missions involving live-combat would be waiting for her.
If she could somehow finish those as well, she’d be practically guaranteed to be Liam’s lieutenant.
And after that… she’d get Liam infatuated with her and throw him away this time.
Although she wasn’t really abandoned last time, this was a problem of her pride.
The guide’s assumption of her goals– were wrong.
“I will turn things around. For that end, I’ll make sure to investigate him thoroughly.”
Throughout her rigorous training, her thoughts were always filled with Liam.
Said training was almost finished.
And once it was over, only dangerous live battlefields would be waiting for her.
Although she could’ve just given up and pursued a normal person’s happiness, Eulisia only had Liam on her mind.
“If I want to entice him this time, first I need to look into his tastes.”
A colleague who saw Eulisia creepily grinning in front of the mirror squealed out in fear.
◇ ◇ ◇
The guide stood on top of a building in the imperial capital.
“Let’s continue sowing more seeds! More and more! At least one of them has to eventually reach Liam!”
But did he overlook something?
He couldn’t help but feel that way for some reason.
“Well until that time, let’s just continue to save up power.”
Liam’s gratitude was burning his body even now.
And so, the guide continued to wait for an opportunity for revenge while absorbing the negative emotions of the imperial capital.
◇ ◇ ◇
What the guide had missed was that there were others who wanted revenge against Liam.
The Berkley family.
The family executives were attending a meeting as holograms in the dimly lit conference room.
All of them were the children of the Berkley family’s boss.
“Derrick was murdered.”
To the boss’ words, the executives started to complain about Derrick.
“That bastard lost one of our planetary development devices.”
“We didn’t have any expectations for him anyways.”
“He even lost the forces we lent him. He truly was useless.”
The boss had a cat-like creature in his arms– it was something that he truly cherished.
“My cute son was killed… so shut up.”
A blue vein had appeared on the boss’ forehead.
“There’s an idiot out there who picked a fight with our family.”
Liam’s face was then projected into the middle of the conference room.
“Pirate Hunter Liam?”
“The child prodigy from the fallen Banfield house?”
“Let’s kill him immediately.”
As the executives broke out in commotion, the boss swung down his fist with a bang.
The cat-like creature was surprised, but soon settled down after being petted.
“Our business has suffered due to this guy’s pirate hunting for some time now. I’ve always wanted to get rid of him, even before this.”
In the underworld, a huge bounty was placed on Liam’s head in hopes of gathering those who would hunt him down.
Fools rushed towards Liam’s territory for the prize, but all of them were met with nothing but death.
There was once a time when pirates scrambled towards Liam’s territory in haste– but now none of them were brave enough to challenge him, this wouldn’t change even if the bounty was raised.
This was because all the death-defying idiots who tried so far were slain before even encountering Liam himself.
“We’ll be going to war against the Banfield house in the future. The other nobles will see this as an opportunity, threaten them or do whatever you need to do to get them on our side.”
The boss decided to increase his allies to defeat Liam.
This in itself showed how dangerous of a threat he saw him as.
“Father! We can do this even without them!”
One of the sons came forward and offered to take care of Liam.
But he was stopped,
“We’ve already lost Derrick to him. From here on, we’re not going to waste anymore of our energy on idiotic things.”
The boss looked at Liam’s profile and smiled,
“Brat… when you pick a fight with the Berkley family, don’t think you’ll be able to walk away scot-free.”
In a place Liam wasn’t even aware of, the embers of war were spreading.