Noblesse Privilege 9 (Patreon)

Noblesse Privilege
Chapter 9

-VB-

“...What are you doing?” I asked my friend.

Luponte stared off into the distance. “I just found some rats.”

“And? Actual rats or human rats?”

“Human.”

“Okay, so?”

“I’ll be back. The others will keep you safe.”

I waved him goodbye as he walked out of the corridor and then completely vanished. Actually, I knew that he jumped away, but same shit from my perspective. I wasn’t a martial badass like him.

-VB-

Crocodile grimaced.

“What?” he growled.

Ms. Sunday sighed. “It’s too bad that their security is too good at what they do. Did you know that Noble vel Monstrathum has at least five shadows, each capable of more than a few tricks of Cipher Pol? They spotted me so quickly and just watched.” She actually shivered. “I don’t think it’s going to be a good idea for me to return to keep watch. Surely, they must have reported me to him.”

“So we’re just going to have to take it laying down, is that what you’re saying?”

She shrugged. “There’s nothing I can do,” she said and then paused. “And I think he knows you’re in the kingdom.”

He paused. “Well-”

“Well, well, well.”

Crocodile froze and then whirled around.

Crouching on an open window that hadn’t been open when Crocodile had walked into the room, a very muscular man with his hair tied back into a bun and a pair of sunglasses grinned at the two of them.

“If it isn’t Crocodile,” the man drawled as if he just saw a particularly disgusting insect. “You’re the one behind the shitfest this kingdom’s going through, huh?”

Crocodile stared at the intruder even as sand gathered around them.

The moment he recognized him, he froze.

“... Luponte.”

The man dropped from crouching to sitting on the windowsill, still grinning maliciously. It spoke of a restrained will but also invited him to attack. To show him how that story would go. Luponte wanted to kill him.

But then again, the Crazed Seal of the Marines always wanted to kill someone.

Crocodile grinned back at him even as cold sweat broke out everywhere. He controlled sand. Luponte controlled water. This was a match he was going to lose, especially since they were within twelve kilometers of the coast, which was well underneath the fifty-kilometer radius of Luponte’s ridiculous range.

“You know, you might have gotten rusty after decades serving World Nobles,” he chuckled.

“Ha? Did I just hear the baby lizard say he can take on a seal? How preposterous!” Luponte laughed before he cut it off. “Are you sure about that?”

Abruptly, the entire room chilled.

While Luponte could not affect water already inside someone, water vapors on the surface of a person or in the air were under his control. What this lunatic had done was still all of the water, which had the same effect as freezing.

Crocodile ignored the sudden bone-chilling cold and glared despite still grinning.

“Now, I’m here because my master has business with the kingdom,” Luponte backed off first with a sigh. This was not a gesture of weakness but of mercy; only the strong could back off confidently knowing that they lose nothing. “My master, you know him as the Richest World Noble-”

“You mean the Richly Depress-”

Crocodile snapped his mouth shut as his cheek froze over completely, and the frozen skin cracked open like the parched desert soil.

“May I continue without interruption?”

Silence.

Luponte grinned again. “Well, my master has taken a liking to this kingdom. You and your ilk will leave.”

“I’ve invested heavily into this kingdom. I can’t just up and leave…!”

“It’s a question of fighting me or leaving. Let me make it clear, Crocodile. I don’t give a shit about what you did here,” the ever sunglasses-wearing former Marine bodyguard snapped back. “I have a finicky master to take care of, a lot of people to delegate your assassination order, and not a lot of patience. Do what you have to do within the next few days, but I will not tolerate your presence near my master. Is that understood?”

“... Yes.”

“Good.”

And then he was gone like the wind, disappearing between one moment and then the next with only a whiff of sand dust thrown up and the boot marks on the windowsill to show that he had been there at all.

“FUCK!” Crocodile roared as soon as he thought it was safe. “Piece of shit, waltzing in here like he owns it! This is my kingdom!”

“... He did give you a few days. That should be enough for us to do something.”

He threw her a glare before he restrained himself and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Give the order out. Pack it up. The top fighters and we are going to hit the palace. And the ponegraph.”

She smiled coyly. “I knew you wouldn’t give it up so easily.”

“We strike tonight,” he grunted out. “And if we set off a fucking bomb as we leave to kill that master of Luponte, then so much the better.”