It made sense that he already knew, but what I was worried about was if he wouldn’t want to kill Ezio because he took me out of the mansion.

Knowing that man, he definitely could, but I doubted that. After all, Yves was his youngest son and the one he never really spared a glance at. So, I doubted he was really worried about whether he lived or died.

I turned to Ezio and smirked. "Are you not scared that the family head might kill you as punishment for accepting my request?"

Ezio flinched at my question.

He remained silent for a moment and then replied:

"I would be lying if I said that I was even a bit scared, because who wouldn’t be scared of the King of the North?"

Oh right, that was his nickname. A nickname given to him after single-handedly killing an Apex Ancient creature that breached the Northside borders when he was only thirty-two. A creature capable of wiping out cities in the span of hours.

And ever since then, no creature has even crossed the northern borders because of him, therefore earning him the title of King of the North.

One of the strongest powerhouses in this world.

I wasn’t ready to meet such a powerful man yet—someone who could kill you just by lifting a finger. But whether I was ready or not, I would eventually meet him.

I just hoped I wouldn’t shit my pants.

"I wouldn’t be that scared if you hadn’t awakened, meaning that we wouldn’t have come to this place because of your madness." Ezio said, pulling me out of my thoughts.

"But now that you have awakened, he will want to see what sort of powers you have and whether you will be able to catch up to your peers or not. So yeah, you won’t be dying on my watch. Like I said to the knights that day—I will bring you in one piece."

He said with determination before he added with a frown on his face.

"Unless you want to venture to something like Section 4, because that’s above my pay grade."

I raised both my hands up in defense.

"Don’t worry, I don’t want to commit suicide. I’m still young."

I could tell him now that the monster I wanted to kill was in the beginning of Section 3, but that would make him want to beat my ass, so I just kept quiet. This would at least delay the beating for later.

I had finally finished eating, so it was time to go venture into the tunnels and slay some undead skeletons.

But first, I needed to take a bath.

Just like I did in the past days, I wrapped myself in a cocoon of darkness and used the water from the spatial ring and shampoo I had brought from my bathroom in the mansion. When I was done, I felt so refreshed.

This time I changed to a white long-sleeve shirt that was tucked into my black pants with black boots. I tied my hair into a ponytail like always and strapped my katana to my left side.

When the cocoon crumbled, I saw Ezio getting out of a cocoon made out of shadows.

He was wearing different clothes—it wasn’t a suit but black and silver robes made of fine material that looked like a samurai yukata with cloud-like designs.

He looked cool as hell.

"Heh, so you finally decided to take a shower after a week. Is the world perhaps ending?" I said as I noticed that his black hair was still a little wet.

"Tsk, I didn’t take a shower because I was clean. Even if I didn’t take a shower during our whole trip, I still wouldn’t smell and would be as clean as a cat!" He replied.

"Yeah, right. Start taking a shower every day from now on, please. Your face is already scarecrow material, and now you want to add a bad smell as well—somebody kill me!" I said as I raised both my hands up in the air dramatically.

"Oh sure, I will kill you one day for those insults!" Ezio turned to shadows and sank into my shadow.

I laughed. "If you kill me, we both die."

I walked out of the tunnel and was greeted by the light of the sun that peered through the gap in the ceiling and landed straight on the bridge.

The undead skeletons were not in sight. When I looked at the floor, I saw their footprints that led back to the bridge and to the other side.

So I crossed the bridge calmly, and I couldn’t help but look under the abyss.

If I fell down there, I would probably die of starvation in the air before even reaching the bottom.

That was one horrific way to die—having that stomach-dropping feeling constantly as you fell was nothing but terrifying.

I finally reached the other side of the bridge and walked until I came to a halt in front of the entrance of the right tunnel where the undead skeletons were hiding.

The tunnel was nothing but pitch black, and no matter how further I looked, I couldn’t see the skeletons, so that was a good sign.

I checked my pocket watch and it was seven o’clock in the morning. I had to get out of there in four hours or less—that was just how long I could spend time in that tunnel.

"Ezio, how deep are they into the tunnel?"

’Four hundred meters away from you.’ Ezio replied mentally.

"Got it."

I activated my darkness sense circle, and a black circle of twenty-meter radius spread from under my feet. It would help me detect anything that decided to sneak up on me by foot unless they could fly.

Resting my left hand on the hilt of my katana, I infused mana into my legs and dashed inside the tunnel, in the hunt for those undead skeletons.

...

Meanwhile, thousands and thousands of kilometers away.

A tall man stood under the shadow of a white plum blossom, wearing black robes and with his hands clasped behind his back while his long snow-white hair flowed gracefully over his back and shoulders.

As quiet as a whisper, a man with a black suit appeared on his right side.

Despite the man’s appearance, the white-haired man’s red eyes never stopped staring at the white leaves above, as if the other man didn’t matter at all.

Anyone else would think that his behavior was disrespectful, but the man in the suit knew that it was just how his friend behaved.

Only after a while did the white-haired man’s piercing red eyes leave the leaves and look at the man in the suit.

"How far are they, Altair?" he asked.

"They have crossed to Section 2 and are now in the Abyss Mountain."

"I see." The man’s red eyes left the man in the suit and looked up at the leaves again.

"I wonder what got into the youngest’s head to travel there." He added.

"Should I go get them?" Altair said.

The white-haired man shook his head.

"No need. Let’s just wait and see."