Chapter 107 Revenge Time (4)
Chapter 107 Revenge Time (4)
Chapter 107: Revenge Time (4)
"Is she okay?" the female guard asked Hunter upon noticing his teammate's face. Yes, she was talking about Seraphina, whose cheeks were baking in crimson as though trying to match her hair. For outsiders, she seemed to have a fever or some kind of other disease.
Hunter faintly smiled, "Yes. It's because of the bustling crowd. You see how cramped it is… hope you guys don't have too much trouble yourselves."
After giving an excuse for Seraphina's state and cleverly shifting the topic to what must have been wearing down countless soldiers and officials under Susan Valkoch, Hunter easily diverted the guard's attention. She sighed and dropped a reassuring smile to show her and other soldiers' toughness.
Smiling, Hunter talked about formalities while waiting for another guard to come with permission for him and Seraphina to enter Susan Valkoch's mansion. That was indeed the reason they were even talking with the soldier after their sweet time in the dark alley.
It also helped Hunter to forget that he had confessed in quite inappropriate places… twice.
While holding Seraphina's hand tightly, Hunter thought about their plan in the back of his head. His and Seraphina's role was a diversion, and both of them could indeed achieve it pretty well. During that, Aimee and Mayun would sneak into Susan Valkoch's treasury and steal her items and money.
In the beginning, Hunter wasn't convinced by that revenge. After all, Susan Valkoch had stopped his teammate's escape that he had paid for a lot and threw them straight into the demon's jaw.
Had the events gone according to Lothar's plan, Aimee and Seraphina would have been already converted into demonesses, and their personalities would have been much different.
It would have been something worse than death, in his opinion.
However, Aimee sweetly laid out her plan and everything behind it. She asked Hunter the question that had been weighing on him during his walk with Seraphina, then laughed as he answered with his theory.
Then, she told him that nobles took pride in dying last because their strength depended on the territories, people, and wealth under them. In a way, they were similar to the demons and their order behind them. The more stuff under them, the stronger they were.
It was their pride to leverage all in their hands to profit and improve their names and mana.
If Aimee and Mayun were to use the situation at hand, the monster tide, and Hunter and Seraphina's diversion to snatch all that Susan possessed, they would leave her in a dangerous position in which she would be with tangled hands, without any options.
That would expose her to nobles under her and give them an idea to usurp her position. Without money and items to pay for hunters' services, let alone other associations, she wouldn't be able to request help from them, to say nothing of her keeping their services in her region.
She'd be bare to death from every angle. Nobles, commoners, big associations, and even World Order.
The latter was quite crucial in Aimee's plan. Those bastards were here to keep an eye on the death count. They wouldn't let too many commoners die as that would break the balance and give some ideas to demons and monsters. It meant that, once they came to an understanding of Susan Valkoch's poor situation, they would steer to other nobles and use them to win over the population, keeping them safe.
At the end of her explanation, Aimee leaned onto her beloved and told him, "As of now, her death is in your hands as we've become stronger than before. A mere noble with three cities can't threaten us. Should you wish for her demise, I'll assist you to the best of my ability."
Aimee thoroughly supported her beloved. If he wanted to just barge into Susan Valkoch's mansion to mete out the death punishment, she would use all her newly gained powers and Keres' knowledge to pave the way for him, even if that woman had hurt her more than him.
Also, the fact that Susan had only three cities under her meant that Aimee was convinced about stealing all of her assets.
Back then, Hunter nodded with an understanding and gave a command as the team ladder.
"We're following your plan."
-
'You won't be able to sell your body for a saving grace, Susan Valkoch,' Hunter inwardly muttered in a tone laced with killing intent, which would have sounded like a whisper of death to the outsiders. 'Your death will be you witnessing everything you built on schemes, treachery, and your self-sacrifice crumbling in front of you. That will be the death of Susan Valkoch. That said, if you turn into demons and become stronger through some rituals to come back at us, I'll gladly take you head-on.'
There was always a possibility of Susan Valkoch going insane and finding a suitable demonic mana for her madness. That would break her human limitations, and perhaps an intrigued demon lord would give her some units to strengthen her further to see how this new plaything would evolve.
Hunter knew that purposely making stronger enemies for himself was quite a foolish move, but it wasn't like he would be able to avoid it at some point. The demise of Lothar and his pal meant that demons would pry into his failure and get on track of the one who thwarted their plans.
It was inevitable to get enemies plotting against him… and World Order had already come out of nowhere to attack him just because he was a man.
So, the prospect of Susan Valkoch turning into a demon to hunt him didn't really trouble Hunter that much.
At last, the messenger guard returned and told the couple they could have an audience with her master.
It was time to face off against Susan Valkoch.
Hunter peeked at the watch tower and confirmed the time before following the soldier's back. It seemed all went according to the plan, and it was quite frightening, as it was as though Aimee had taken into consideration Hunter and Seraphina's confession time and cuddling.
Women's intuition was quite scary.
It was so scary that Hunter hadn't had time to see how Susan lived in her mansion. Before he had noticed, he was already before the double doors of her office.
The soldier knocked on those doors, promptly waking Hunter up from his needless thoughts.
"I've brought Mr. Hunter and Mrs. Seraphina from The First Hunter Union."
"Let them in," said the voice from the other side of the doors, which Seraphina recognized to be Susan's voice.
The doors were swept open by seemingly magic, unfolding the scenery of Susan Valkoch sitting by the office on which a tablet, a few documents, and pens rested. She was flanked by the soldiers that Seraphina was familiar with, the same spear users that had assaulted her and Aimee at their worst.
Wearing an amiable smile with a sharp glint shimmering in her eyes, Susan gestured to the couple to step in and take seats across her table.
Which Hunter and Seraphina didn't comply with; they preferred to stand straight. Of course, the proper etiquette required them to apologize for such disobedience, which Hunter and Seraphina did in quite a crude way, as both of them hailed from the villages.
"Sorry Missy," was their apology, which didn't seem to upset the noble woman.
Hunter then began the diversion plan, "I've been yearning to meet you, Ma'am Susan! I know you're facing a lot of troubles with the monster tide, and you must be wrecking your brain to deal with it properly, but I've come here with good news! I found the origin of the monster tide! Please, take this as a token of gratitude for saving my teammates from their plight."
At that very moment, Susan Valkoch's noble and scrutinizing expression broke for a few seconds, replaced by a bemused mask that contorted her face. Even her soldiers standing on either side with poker faces blinked and looked into each other's eyes, confused.
'The fuck is he talking about?' was the message these two soldiers exchanged through brief eye contact.
Taking the scroll from Hunter's hand, Susan thanked for it before reading the content. Of course, while Hunter's handwriting was out of this world as he had spent years studying on Earth, the content of the scroll was conjured by Aimee—Hunter had just written.
Which was because Aimee knew how to twist her tongue and could speak about a roundabout way for hours. Hunter jested that she was indeed a woman, only to face the reality that it was apparently men who could talk for hours. He coughed and continued writing the scroll without commenting.
Therefore, the scroll, though it had indeed the truth to it, was written in such a way that Susan couldn't just skim through and was compelled to read it word by word.
Some time passed. During those precious minutes, Hunter believed that his girlfriend had already invaded the treasury and had defeated whoever barred her way. Since Susan was undermanned right now, she must not have really faced many hurdles.
At the very least, no word reached the owner of the mansion yet.
"That's… sounds probable," Susan put down the scroll and smiled, "Thank you for your service."
That was when Seraphina parted her lips.
"It's our duty to hunt monsters and keep people safe. We're hunters. Before a hazard such as this stampede of monsters, we should bury the differences, and both focus on providing innocent the prospects to live good lives," Seraphina finished, taking a glance at Hunter's face as she didn't know whether she had said it well enough.
The idea behind those words was to show Susan Valkoch that Seraphina and Aimee didn't mean anything ill to her. Which was naturally a lie that had to be said to buy more time and seed more confusion.
It worked, as Susan mused over those words.
And then, she stood up, her presence sheathed in the killing intent, "You seem to be shepherd by a capable leader, but I can't let you two go…"
The way she had said those words meant that her plan was to fight Hunter and Seraphina, then squeeze out the information about Aimee's whereabouts. Susan believed that the golden-haired failed noble wasn't here because she was a backup plan to tell the union about her schemes with the demons.
She couldn't risk this much, especially in this damn demon plight that Lothar's disappearance had caused. Even now, Susan couldn't believe that this man had lost. He was too different from the demons she had conversed and dealt with, and he was also different in the bed.
In fact, Susan had thrown herself at him from time to time just for the sake of pleasure.
All of that is gone.
All because of the silver-haired man in front of her.
Hunter smiled.
The diversion plan naturally included fighting this woman here and now.