Return of the Fallen Volume 4 Chapter 71
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Author: Blue_Rat
ch71
While everyone was stunned, Degra looked for a proper place to sit down and converse. Looking at the room though, it was quite a mess. A broken desk was shattered to pieces in a corner and the room looked like a small tornado touched down in there. Degra saw one chair and wanted to sit down but he found that one of the legs was missing.
The only other place to sit was the bed but that would be weird in this scenario. Kazuki didn’t know what he was doing but it was clearly odd.
“Why are you messing with a chair and what do you mean in order for us to receive your help you need our help first? Explain.”
Degra stopped fiddling with the chair and simply leaned awkwardly against the wall.
“By tomorrow, the city lord will have his soldiers remove you from the city and force you out.”
Kazuki and everyone else had the same stunned expression. Degra continued before they interrupted him with stupid questions.
“You see, I may run some things in this city but not all. There are a handful of other individuals that hold sway in Gentis city but compared to me, most of them are sub-par at best. The only reason why they haven’t been dealt with permanently is because of the balance of the city. If one or two of them are removed and a big wig takes over, it would force the other puppetmaster’s hands and war would erupt between us. That only applies to the lower dregs though. When it comes to people with more power such as I and the city lord, we as well have a unique balance however if one of us is eliminated, the power dynamic becomes, winner takes all.”
“What does all of that have to do with me or my friends?”
Degra could see that they still didn’t get it and went on.
“Sorry but you all need to understand the base before I get to the rest, otherwise you’ll be scratching your heads all day. The point is, I am enemies with the city lord and he with me. In normal circumstances, we would have gone all out against one another long ago and decided things already but there is one more character that holds the balance in place. A woman named Triska. She’s a 4th stage Mage and is incredibly powerful. I hate to admit it but because she’s around, things stay balanced between the three biggest organizations. Her’s, mine, and the city lords. If one were to go all out against another then the third would stab both in the back and win everything. In this way, no one can go too far and things remain in a prolonged stalemate between us three. Now though…”
Kazuki finally put away his sword and interrupted.
“Let me guess, this Triska woman has joined hands with the city lord.”
Degra nodded.
“This doesn’t tell me why they are trying to force me and my friends out of Gentis city, we’ve done nothing to them and there’s no bad blood between us. None of us have even ever met any of them, so why push us?”
“I don’t know if your aware or not but have you heard any rumors about me. Ones like I’m on the verge of stepping into the 4th stage?”
Kazuki did hear that in a bar but what did that have to do with anything.
“It did come up at one point but what of it?”
“Well, the rumor is true and it’s because of this rumor that the two have joined hands. As you are aware, I have a special ability with my eyes. With this ability of mine, I can stop a person’s movement just by looking at them. I don’t know why they don’t work on you but even on people stronger than me it has some effect. Every time I get stronger, so to do my special eyes. Right now, with this ability, I can slow Triska greatly but I cannot stop her entirely. Because of this, I have been able to fight her on near equal footing but because she has strengthened her body, with my power, I can never deal her a fatal blow. I can barely even cut her flesh. However, if I were to step into the 4th stage. I’m confident I can stop her movements entirely, maybe even stop her heart.”
Kazuki realized the implications of this and felt a chill run up his spine.
(Damn, how can one have such a bullshit cheat-like ability?)
“So they fear you or rather you’re future potential. Once more, how does any of this relate with us?”
“Triska, like I, has many rats with eyes and ears everywhere. After that expert dropped a boulder bigger than a house on the city, no even before that I had eyes on you, following you.”
Kazuki knew that from the get-go and even got one in trouble at a store. Making it look like that fellow was trying to steal candy from that shop. Kazuki laughed inwardly remembering that.
“Yea I knew of a few of them.”
“A few, yes, but I had far more than that watching you.”
Degra threw a recording crystal into the air and it showed Kazuki standing in front of a mirror changing his face. Kazuki realized now why Degra didn’t freak out when he saw Kazuki’s new face. It’s because he already saw it much much earlier. At the same time, Kazuki felt the urge to punch Degra in the face for creeping on him in the bathroom. He didn’t care if a hot woman wanted to watch him but knowing Degra saw him just felt nasty.
“Sorry about watching you in the bathroom but the way you left my casino intrigued me. Having someone with your strength and ability working for me was too good to pass up. At the time I simply wanted to know more about you, find out your secrets and weaknesses. I was going to use them against you and make you mine.”
Everyone felt creepy vibes from Degra’s description and subconsciously took a step back.
Degra could see they were feeling uncomfortable and changed the weird tone that had come out a second ago.
“But now things have changed. Right now I could care less about what you do later on but for now, I truly am in a bad place and so are you. The crystal you just saw, I of course had quite a few with the same video. One of my men encountered one of Triska’s and his crystal was stolen. I don’t know when Triska saw the information on it but it wasn’t long after that that she went to the city lord and convinced him to go against me. I had my own man in there of course and know what they discussed. Apparently, Triska convinced the city lord that you and I actually have a working relationship of sorts. She told the city lord, that you’ve come to the city to help me enter the 4th stage and the city lord stupidly believed her.”
Kazuki clenched his fists.
“So this is why. Making my way back here, I felt the number of eyes on me increase severalfold and a few of them were even from the soldiers. Even with this face they already know of it, dammit.”
Degra nodded.
“Yes, and although they are trying t hide it, the surveillance on this place has gone up and security has tightened as well. They even know a few things about the expert who attacked the city. my man told me that Triska described the expert who attacked the city is at the 4th stage and is after you. She said she fought the person in the sky above the city and she believes she can deal with her. This expert called you out so they believe you will leave the city on your own to face the expert and in doing so, they believe that I will follow you out to protect you since they think I need your help in entering the 4th stage. And if for some reason you don’t leave, they will come up with some fake reason and kick you out. Of course, they think I’ll follow you then as well and be your shield.”
“So no matter what we do, we’ll still have to leave this city. Well, not like we we’re gonna stick around anyway. How does this lead us to help you?”
“That expert has your friends right. If you help me, then I can help you with your friends. That person may be at the 4th stage but they won’t be able to kill me. I can use my ability to slow them down and your friends can be saved. I don’t know about you but it’s clear you’re in a shitty situation. If I don’t help you, I guarantee you will fail.”
“Oh, and what makes you so sure we’ll fail.”
Degra smiled like a devil.
“Because I will use all of my men to crush you.”
Everyone froze hearing this clear threat. Nunully’s magic began to ramp up once more and both Tsura and Mei gripped their fists, ready to fight. Kazuki however remained calm.
“You would do this, knowing that if we don’t help you, you will die at the hands of Triska and the city lord.”
Degra nodded.
“I would.”
“Why?”
“Because this is my only choice. You all are my last chance. I either receive your help or I die. At least there’s a chance with you all on my side but if I don’t have you then there’s nothing left awaiting them my downfall but it’s the same for you all as well. Your backs are up against the wall. You have no allies to turn to and no options or lifelines. You need me and I as well need you. Our first encounter may have been shit but we aren’t actually enemies. I have no lingering hate for any of you and right now our goals align.”
“Our goals align?”
Degra nodded.
“We both want to live, don’t we. I’d say that’s a goal that we both share and want to see fulfilled or maybe I’m wrong and you lot have resigned yourselves to death. No more roundabouts, I need to know, are we doing this or not?”
The room grew quiet but Kazuki already knew in his mind how things would play out if they were to go it alone. Kazuki didn’t like how Degra did things but he knew that Degra may be his only hope at the moment. All this time he couldn’t come up with a single feasible plan and now Degra had dropped in out of nowhere. Kazuki wasn’t one to believe in signs or anything like that but to ignore one that was so blatant and in his face, he’d have to be a fool. Besides, Degra and he technically weren’t enemies per se, at least not in the traditional sense and the important thing was that both of them wanted to get out of this weird turn of events with their lives intact. If this was the only option, it wasn’t that disagreeable.
Nunully became curious and asked.
“The city lord it makes sense why he wants to deal with you but does this Triska woman have to deal with you like this, how underhanded.”
Degra laughed.
“Triska is many things. Ever since she was small she’s had to look after her younger sister and that’s caused her to become ruthless. She’s prideful and even honorable in some sense and truth be told she cares a great deal for those around her. But yeah, she’s definitely underhanded and will take one’s life without blinking an eye but that’s just how the underground works and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Kazuki thought about it.
(Sometimes you must shake hands with evil to beat evil. There’s not really a choice is there.)
“Nunully, lower your staff and Mei order room service, we have a lot to talk about.”
Hearing that she could order room service, the tension she felt a second ago disappeared in a flash and her brooding look was replaced with a huge smile as she began cheering and jumping with glee.
“Yay yay food. Mama let’s get nothing but dessert. I want the red fluffy cloud snack.”
Degra was taken aback by Mei’s flip of a switch attitude and whispered.
“What is a fluffy cloud snack?”
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