[LitF] 40. Politics and Actions (Patreon)

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Arthur had never meant for things to develop this way, though his blunder wasn't that much of a surprise. He had a lot of experience killing things, but that didn't translate well to other areas. Being trained in social cues gave him a lot of theoretical knowledge, and his high wisdom allowed him to learn faster. However, his practice was limited to controlled environments. As he had constantly been reminded in the dungeon, there was no substitute for experience.

He gave Tamara a questioning glance, but she shook her head slightly. She also hadn't seen this coming. While she had some spy and counter-espionage experience, it was in a different culture. For instance, even assuming something like this happened in the Golden Kingdom, Hill and his bodyguard would be killing everyone who disobeyed the Head of Operation's command. This debacle was unacceptable and unimaginable.

This was an excellent lesson; he had underestimated cultural differences after thinking he had gotten its gist.

The armored level 15 awakeners to the side acted faster, attacking each other with abandon. They had had people in their sights for a while, and now small groups fought together, deciding who to attack based on whether the other group had a person they wanted dead.

The clerks reacted slower despite their higher average wisdom because they were not used or expecting to fight. Some didn't react at all, just shocked into inaction. A few, however, had kept their weapons on their waist and quickly got to striking others. Unlike the awakeners in plate armor, they fought individually.

A few seconds after the chaos started, fire and steel, lightning and spear, ice and shield were wielded around him. The prince sighed. The League would be so pissed at him.

The situation wasn't entirely Arthur's fault, but his words had sparked this disaster. More importantly, blowing the cover of the Free Fate Movement's agents here might change things inside the League in ways neither loyalists nor revolutionaries might be ready to deal with.

The question was what to do about it.

There was an argument to be made for Arthur quelling this localized rebellion himself. He could put everyone in the tent to sleep, then question them—without mind control—to ascertain their side. The traitors would leave this place under the loyalists' grip.

However, if the unawakened got wind of the internal fight, they might believe the League was too weak. And they would find out because the awakeners outside the tent would come to see what was happening. They would make a scene, maybe attack him. Arthur would have to also make them unconscious, regardless of whether he did it after or before they came to check on things. The unawakened would notice it, and news would spread.

Then, things would snowball into big proportions. No matter how the League played it, it would be a show of weakness. Even if they claimed everything was a scheme to uncover traitors, the Free Fate Movement would see through it and conclude the League was even more vulnerable than they had imagined. Only weakness could explain doing things this publicly. Worse, the League might think the only way to keep appearances was to claim Arthur as an attacker and seek retribution.

The prince could prevent that by also putting the unawakened to sleep, but that would be even worse. It would be a direct attack on them to hide information he had previously kept public. The mediatic storm would become a spiral of doom.

Another possibility was to keep everyone from dying or help capture only the apparent traitors he could detect. While it solved almost all the previous issues, it came with a glaring predicament. The League would suspect he had done this on purpose to come out as a hero.

In fact, no matter what he did here, someone would assume that. The more he did, the worse it would be.

He did not want to look manipulative after what his father had done to the League. Not crossing that line was crucial, even if he had to sacrifice other things to accomplish it. Even if he had to do nothing while people killed each other.

Arthur saw no way to appease all parties involved. The damage was already done. However, by doing nothing, he could send multiple messages that he considered important.

First, it would mean he saw himself as a separate entity from the League. They had to discuss terms for him to join. That came with advantages and disadvantages for both sides, which he found better than a weird merge.

Second, it would be obvious he cared about his image and didn't want to be associated with a sinking ship if he could avoid it. They would better deal with their internal matters before trying to use him to their advantage.

Third, it would signalize he wasn't soft or a saint. He had helped the League out of his volition with Howard but had been met with an espionage attempt and resented it.

Yes, the best option was definitely to just watch without lending any assistance.

Could he do it, though?

Arthur had been trained to be king. A king would never allow something like this to happen around him. Even if it was in a foreign nation, kings were supposed to be harbingers of order, paragons of justice. His mere presence should've kept this from happening, but failing that, he should take matters into his own hands.

It was hard to feel everything around him with his domain, all the life inside people and the death in their attacks' intents. Only a few seconds had passed, but time moved almost in slow motion to him. The continued threat and unmistakably written future took a toll on the prince.

People weren't pulling any punches. Awakeners attacked each other to kill, not restrain. This reckoning had been long in the making. A lot of blood would be spilled that day.

Arthur told himself he had spent half his life in a dungeon, most of it killing monsters. Death came naturally to him. He didn't like seeing people die when he could do something to stop it, but he had been very literal when he said he treated unawakened like children. These men and women, on the other hand, were awakeners, thus, adults. He would protect any of them from monsters, but their own political matters were theirs to deal with.

In the past, only awakeners could become nobles. That came with privileges, yes, but primarily responsibilities. One such responsibility was to solve your own problems. If you couldn't do that, how could anyone trust you to fight by your side to protect the whole world?

'For Sophie,' Arthur repeated to himself. 'For our family.' He had to clean House Boria's name.

His self-deception would've worked if two stupid clerks hadn't come to attack Tamara. They were fast, too, likely assassins who invested exclusively in agility. Such builds were possible at lower levels.

They got nearby in less than a second. As soon as they arrived, Graham's two flaming fists decided to share space with their heads. Their skulls popped like balloons.

Those were the first lethal causalities, and it was done gruesomely. The grand knight was sending a message to any other who was thinking about attacking Arthur's people.

Sophie's heart beat harder and faster at the scent of blood, which triggered Arthur's ultimate decision.

Sophie was a half-vampire and fought against her monster instincts because she knew better. She was always fighting against her internal monster. His suitress was the second-best awakener he knew, and it only made her so. She would never forgo herself to circumstances or because keeping fighting was inconvenient.

Arthur had almost forgotten something so fundamental he had taken it for granted: he was an awakener.

The people around, which he constantly belittled, were acting as truer awakeners than him. They had beliefs they were willing to fight for, to die for, no matter what others thought of them. The reins of their fate were in their own hands. That's what it meant to awaken, even if one side was a bunch of morons.

"Never forget you're an awakener," he had been taught. "You're too young to understand, but awakeners should only ever die in three ways: fighting monsters, fighting for what they believed in, or of old age—if and after they've already won all their fights."

It hadn't been Arthur's father who taught him that. It hadn't been Stinson. Not even William Graham.

No, it had been the best person he had ever known, who died on her bed after killing countless enemies, using her last breath to win her final battle: the one against her father. Charlotte had lived and died for what she believed in. She had tamed even Stinson in the end.

Not everything she did was fighting. She didn't take all her battles to the edge of her sword. She didn't feel strong enough about everything she believed in to fight for it.

But when something mattered, she acted according to her heart, not what other people might think of her or how politically convenient it was. That was the story of her marriage. The story of her death. The strongest awakeners he knew acted similarly, including Graham and Stinson when they disobeyed the king.

Arthur sighed.

Was that the right thing to do? Look at what the king's beliefs had done to the planet! Couldn't they all see the consequences of their arrogance?!

Arthur stood up.

Maybe that was not the correct way to live, but it was what everyone told him he should do. He had no better argument otherwise. He would think about it, research the subject, talk to modern philosophers, and try to understand if there was another path.

Until then, Arthur would not run from what he understood as his responsibility as an awakener.

The two people Graham had killed weren't the first human deaths Arthur felt, but they were the first he had let happen out of inaction. They deserved it for daring to attack one of his people, but they wouldn't have gotten even close to the grand knight if he had acted faster.

That was the weight of his power. On his decision or lack thereof rested the lives of the people around him. He wasn't king, but he suddenly realized he might as well be one regarding his tremendous power over his surroundings.

"Ten percent mana expenditure allowed," he said softly under the clash of steel. "Leave them alive, but stop this madness at once."

He could solve the situation alone, but his people were extremely frustrated. Striking some individuals down would help them destress.

Graham had been waiting anxiously for it. He immediately bulldozered through every spell and weapon on his way to the closest targets, his grand knight armor and skills protecting him with ease.

Whoever he approached was punched unconscious. It wasn't easy to put an awakener down by striking their head, but it was at least much less potentially lethal than doing it to an unawakened, and the man was very enthusiastic about it. If one punch didn't do it, certainly ten would be enough.

The League's armor didn't hold against his onslaught. Graham had to punch no more than three times to shatter enchanted helmets and strike people down, and only because he was pulling back not to kill anyone.

The equipment wasn't bad per se, but defensive enchantments hadn't advanced much in sheer power compared to the past. Without enough intelligence and wisdom, an awakener couldn't comprehend or remember enough things about an element. Without enough levels, there wouldn't be enough points to invest in intelligence or wisdom.

Sure, modern enchanters had more finesse and used creative designs that made up for some of it. Even with limited comprehension, the plated armor defenses were comparable to a Golden Kingdom's Royal Knight's armor, while the light equipment was halfway there. That was impressive, but it wasn't enough. Royal knights weren't meant to stop grand knights.

Tamara performed more subtly. She limited the power she revealed to a level 30 healer with close to no combat training. She acted slow—though still faster than the League personnel—and afraid, making it look like attacks on the air missed her by coincidence. To maintain her facade, she wielded no weapon and went for those with exposed skin. While enchanted equipment could cover empty space around it, the area was limited, and any lacking piece of defensive equipment was a vulnerability she took advantage of.

The clerks were her main targets. They hadn't worn helmets at the start of the fight, and most still hadn't produced any head cover. She "tripped,"" touched one on the head by "coincidence," widened her eyes in "surprise," and put them to sleep before moving to the next one.

Despite it being less than ten seconds since the battle started, the loyalist clerks were on the brink of being overwhelmed by the defectors. One woman specifically had taken advantage of the chaos earlier than all others. Arthur hadn't noticed her true colors before, proving good spies could still go unnoticed by his shallow screening. She had fist skills and was punching a colleague to death.

Tamara, pretending to be clumsy, couldn't stop that on time, but Sophie could.

The last heir of House Brimstone had no qualms about displaying his power. She didn't have to obey Arthur but had chosen to help, taking full advantage of her speed to prioritize the most aggressive targets. She wasn't armored and used only her mithril dagger, which she kept at her waist, over her dress.

That was the dagger Arthur had made for her. She pierced people's defenses with a single strike regardless of what defensive equipment they wore, pushed her blood into the target through the blade's internal tube, and put them to sleep with her blood magic.

Meanwhile, Arthur pulled a lot of metal from his storage ring and used his six intent strings for metalmancy, forming shields and barriers everywhere. His metal domain stopped unenchanted weapons and projectiles—some awakeners used guns—and his life domain only healed people instead of disabling them.

He had to constantly move his barriers out of his people's way, who didn't even slow down. They knew he would notice them and act accordingly.

There were less than a hundred League personnel in the tent. Another one entered the tent mid-battle. A few seconds after Arthur gave his command, everyone except Hill was unconscious on the ground. Only four had died, including the ones Graham had dispatched.

Arthur pushed all his metal into a big sphere over his head and ordered, "Ensure no one is protected against intent strings. Pacify the remaining awakeners in the area, except Wilkins. Then, bring every unconscious body to the tent. Keep the unawakened away under threat of execution. The Awakener Emergency Act is still active."

The three obeyed, nimbly removing a few armor pieces from every unconscious awakener. They were done soon.

Another awakener entered the tent to check on the noise—Arthur put him down himself—and a dozen others were inbound. While these people were weak, they had created some explosions and a lot of noise. The only reason the tent wasn't on fire was that it was enchanted.

"What about the airborne hovercars, sir?" the grand knight asked after taking the last helmet from an unconscious awakener.

"Don't worry about them," Arthur replied.

"Understood," the man replied and left with Tamara and Sophie.

Hill had put his helmet on and wielded a mace and shield. However, he had wasted so much time trying to command people that he hadn't blooded his weapon. In fact, he hadn't swung it even once.

The man was frozen in place, his eyes widened in confusion, awe, and terror as he looked at the calm prince. He had intellectually known Arthur and his people were high-level and powerful, but seeing it was something else. Now, he truly understood it.

Arthur looked at the man without a shred of pity and a lot of disapproval. Such incompetence. These deaths weighed not only on Arthur's inaction but also on this man's shoulders.

The prince said, "Go to the parked hovercar nearby and order all others to land. The pilots are to turn the engines off as soon as they touch the ground. Everyone inside is to leave and remain close to their vehicles. They better obey you, Mister Hill. Their landing won't be soft if I'm forced to put them down myself."

As he talked, he felt and heard Sophie moving without stopping, forcing her targets to fall unconscious and using their blood as paint. She drew a line in the ground one yard beyond the previous awakener perimeter.

Arthur decided the unawakened might use the difficulty of seeing the line as an excuse to do something stupid. He turned most of the metal above his head into thin three-yard-tall stakes and sent them flying outside. Then, he struck them on top of Sophie's line. The vertical bars were spaced and wouldn't physically prevent anyone from going through but formed an obvious boundary.

As if on cue, Tamara showed to the unawakened, "Stay where you are! If you cross the line, you die! This is not a drill! The Awakener Emergency Act is active!" she had yet to master the local language. Her accent was heavy, and her sentences were short but understandable.

Hill hesitated a few moments but ultimately ran outside to do as ordered. He rushed into the closest hovercar, pushed one of the already unconscious pilots to the side, and typed an order on a keyboard. The vehicle's external lights blinked brightly, sending the message to the airborne ones.

The prince watched the floating aircraft with his Mana Sight. Of the twelve flying vehicles, only two decided to disobey the order. One turned to flee while the other started turning its weapons down after two pilots killed the third.

Contrary to Arthur's threat, he elected to take those two down discretely, or else the others might panic. The League's building was thirty stories tall, well within Arthur's domain range. He put the pilots to sleep and controlled their hands to keep the hovercars in place. He didn't know how to pilot the things, but using the joystick to slowly move around the area didn't require a genius.

"Leave the landing pilots alone," the prince ordered his people.

The battle outside was over before it started. The first hovercar was not even halfway to the ground when the last awakener fell. Still, his people's job wasn't over. Tamara kept an eye on the unawakened while Sophie and Graham carried the unconscious people to the tent.

Arthur nodded to them the first time they came in and stepped outside right in time to meet Hill, who was returning from the hovercar.

Wilkins was also approaching. The bodyguard carried an unconscious Madam Haynes in his arms. He had sneak attacked her with considerable ability, coming noiselessly from underground behind her and touching her head with his scabbard, which was revealed to be enchanted to stun a target. Arthur hadn't seen that coming, nor did the chief medic, who fainted at once.

The man looked hurt and incredibly saddened. Unless he was a better actor than the prince gave him credit for, he had genuinely hoped for his son's engagement with the madam's granddaughter to go through, not because of any scheme.

Hill and Wilkins just stood there in front of Arthur in silence. The prince was still watching the incoming hovercars. Until they landed and the pilots left it, they were a threat.

The unawakened had reacted in different ways throughout the debacle. The police had told everyone to run the moment the first spell was heard. Almost no protester obeyed at first, but Sophie soon put a dagger through the throat of the awakener closest to the crowd. She stopped for a theatrical moment, her red eyes glowing as she looked at them, slowly pulling the dagger out with a floating line of blood connected to it. Almost everyone screamed and ran away then. The few who remained thought better of it when the flying metal stakes struck the asphalt ground not far from them.

Sophie's antics had been practical to make them leave, but it would do Arthur no favors with public opinion. He would have to talk to her about it later.

The reporters went into turmoil. A few spoke to the three video cameras, while the ones with picture cameras couldn't stop clicking, and the others took notes while screaming questions. They all approached the metal stakes Arthur had put on the ground, but none dared to trespass—a pleasant surprise.

Lastly, the health workers watched in awe while the police had distanced themselves from the area and were all wielding weapons, prepared to shoot. A few idiots pointed their guns at the League, but their colleagues quickly told them to point them down or sideways. The last thing they needed was an incident here.

To the police's credit, they seemed to have cleaned up quickly after their Chief of Police was caught red-handed. The officers present were restrained and responsible enough. Arthur could see no more snipers on the nearby buildings, either.

At last, the aircraft landed without further pitfalls. Everyone inside left except one person whom the prince put to sleep.

Arthur turned to Hill, sighed, and the moment he opened his mouth to speak, the world seemed to grow silent to hear his words.

"I'm sorry things came to this," he said softly but with a loud enough voice for the unawakened to hear. "I debated what to do but couldn't just watch and do nothing, even though helping you will bring me unnecessary political heat in a very delicate moment."

The prince knew saying this would make him look even more of a manipulator to anyone who wondered but decided to go with the truth. They would believe he was trying to pass as some sort of unwilling hero. However, there was nothing else to do but try to manipulate the situation, which would be worse.

Hills opened his mouth to reply, but Wilkins beat him to it. "People are dead, and you're worried about politics?!"

"Disgraceful," Graham interjected as he left the tent to grab another body.

"Excuse me?!" Wilkins demanded angrily.

The grand knight opened his mouth to reply, but Arthur raised his hand to stop him. Graham immediately left to keep bringing bodies.

"People like you are the reason I'm worried about politics, Mister Wilkins," Arthur replied in a level tone. "I captured a criminal who had taken control over a city with half a million people, saved almost all victims using means which your healer girl confirmed would be beyond you, revealed traitors have infiltrated the League's rankings and were making it impossible to find the missing victims, and stopped two hundred people from killing each other. Yet, here you are. Instead of thanking me, you question my motives. While I was stopping the situation from escalating and healing the injured, you were doing nothing but staring at the woman in your arms. Yet, somehow, you want to turn this on me." He smiled coldly. "Do you see it now, hypocrite? People like you blind yourselves to the truth when convenient and use emotions as fuel to push a narrative. Am I that wrong about worrying about your pathetic politics?"

Wilkins, who hadn't put a helmet on, visibly deflated at that. In the guy's defense, he was too weak to do much more than disable the woman during the very limited time it took for the battle to end. Still, the bodyguard had lost a few seconds just staring pensively at Madam Haynes's unconscious form.

Hill had nothing to say to that. He was still confused and unsure of what to do. Everything he did showed he was a paper pusher, not someone used to field operations. Someone like him could never have risen that high in the past.

Seeing as the other party would remain silent, the prince asked, "Do you want my help to ascertain loyalties, Mister Hill? I can ask a few quick questions and use my skills to check whether they are telling the truth. It should take no more than half a minute for each person, if that long. Such a shallow interrogation won't be entirely trustworthy, but unless you're willing to wait for people you trust to come, you must filter the infiltrators out before returning to your base to properly sort this mess out."

The Head of Operations frowned. "Interrogation?" His fear and disgust spiked.

"Nothing like what I did to Howard," Arthur clarified. "I'll only interpret their reaction. You'll also have to be present to order them to answer my questions. Feel free to question my methods if you disagree with any of them."

Hill pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "You're right; I can't stay here with people I can't trust. Do it to my biomancers first, starting with the healers. The ones you say are clean will also keep watch over your questioning." Then, he realized who he was talking to. "Is that alright?"

The prince smiled approvingly. The man was getting it together. He was slow on the uptake but maybe not as useless as Arthur had assumed.

"Graham and Sophie, after you're done moving people, keep the unawakened away. Tamara will then come to provide a second opinion during the interrogation." He turned to the reporters. "I'll give a statement after I'm done. For now, just know that things are under control."

That broke the dam of questions and frenzy, but Arthur ignored them and entered the tent with Hill and Wilkins in tow.

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* - * - *

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Arthur only asked a few direct questions to each individual. He matched what he saw and felt with what he had witnessed since he arrived in the area, especially during the short battle. Almost three hundred League personnel were there, including the pilots and a few others who had been airborne. No matter how fast he was, he still took over two hours to go through everyone.

One of the pilots gave Arthur a quick course on landing the aircraft, and he brought the last two in the air down.

After the questioning, he compiled a list of names with trust scores. Wilkins didn't like having Arthur throw suspicions on him, but he had done nothing after disabling Madam Haynes. It might've been out of legitimate concern and emotional trouble, but Arthur couldn't be sure without a more thorough interrogation.

Hill mostly used the list to select the people he would keep awake. He only needed pilots and some others to keep the remaining ones unconscious. He ordered any enchanted objects stripped from the unconscious personnel and arranged them on the hovercars like cargo.

Another half hour later, the League's parking lot was empty. The tents were gone, and the last person stepped into the hovercar. Only Hill and Wilkins remained outside.

Arthur had asked Hill to bring the victims and Howard with him. The prince had no time to waste taking care of all those people, and while Hill wouldn't have been Arthur's pick if he had a choice, he was short of alternatives. Arthur recommended keeping the victims separate and under people's watch to prevent them from being silenced.

"Are you sure about giving us the criminal, Mister Boria?" Hill asked. "I... I'll do my best to keep everyone safe, but he might get silenced."

The man was reacting adequately humble and afraid after being given enough time to process the events. His reaction time was slow, but he had an adequate head on his shoulders. He wasn't the "sharpest pencil in the box," as people would say nowadays, but he also wasn't so bad. It was only that his strengths weren't in commanding field operations.

The prince smiled sadly. "Howard is useless to me, Mister Hill. I shattered his mind and turned him into a puppet. He'll believe whatever I tell him to believe, so his testimony holds no value. The victims will tell the tale of his crimes. It will hopefully serve as the basis of my defense for doing this to him when the League decides to pursue the matter."

That wasn't what Hill was talking about. Even a blind man would realize Howard had to have a backing high up in the League. However, only someone who trusted Arthur would also trust Howard's testimony.

That was the reason Arthur had said nothing about Terrell until now. His evidence, like the necklace, mansion, and letters, was too weak and could be claimed to have been stolen, used without consent, or forged. He would likely have to deal with the man in less savory ways than a public denouncement and due legal process.

Hill nodded slowly. "You... What... What do you truly want from us, Mister Boria?" he asked in almost a whisper.

"Access to the level 95 dungeon to destroy it and the removal of corrupt elements in your ranks," Arthur replied. He had already shared with Hill that he intended to destroy the dungeon, though not the reason behind it.

The man expected more, and when nothing came after a few silent seconds, he replied, surprised, "That's it?"

The prince smiled. "Mostly. I also want to help in multiple other ways, including with its leadership, because I believe in what the League was created to do. I won't fight for it, though. If you let me in, I'll restore the League to glory. If you don't, I'll not think about you after I destroy the level 95 dungeon."

Arthur left implicit that he would fight to cleanse the League if needed.

"I see. Will... Will that be all, Mister Boria?" Hill asked.

Arthur opened his mouth to reply but heard something half-unexpected.

"Let me through!" a male voice bellowed. "That's my family! You have no right to take them away from me! Give me my family back!"

The man was one among many. Not only had the previous crowd returned, but someone was evidently financing a much broader protest. Many people screamed offenses at the League for kidnapping people without proof, and some relatives of the unconscious victims shouted angry or saddened sentences.

That voice was one Arthur recognized, though. He turned to see Jorge trying to push through the wall of metal shields wielded by the police around the area.

The prince grabbed the old unwakened with his domain and brought him floating. It caused some localized panic, which was quickly replaced with rage. The incensed sheep believed he was kidnapping someone else.

Really, these idiots' lack of self-preservation instincts was astonishing; if Arthur was that evil, he could just kill everyone. Then again, maybe that was the purpose of even the manipulated ones; they unconsciously wanted him to do something stupid to justify the lies they told themselves about him.

Jorge was initially overwhelmed with fear, but it quickly decreased and was mostly replaced with resoluteness and anger. "You damn mother—" he yelled, but Arthur made the man faint before he could say something he would regret about Her Majesty.

The prince dropped Jorge in Wilkins's arms and said, "This is Vivian Reed's husband, Emily Reed's father. He's a bit foolish but a good man. Would you bring him with you as a favor?" He felt it was a bit sad to separate the man from the family he was so crazy about.

Howard had only used mind control on his victims' families twice. He tried to kidnap only loners, but it wasn't always possible. Even then, he went for people who seemed to have family issues. Emily was one of the only two victims with parents who loved and were involved with her affairs despite all the resentment going both ways.

Arthur had already brought Vivian on one of his trips. Jorge was under no mental compulsion, though he had been verbally manipulated by his wife and daughter to believe nonsensical things. Emily especially had developed something akin to a double personality, telling Jorge and Vivian some things about the League but believing the opposite, which she shared with anyone else. It was the most incredible piece of mind control Tamara had ever heard of.

"Of course, Mister Boria," Hill replied. "I promised to do my best to keep this family safe." Even as he spoke, he knew it didn't mean much.

"Then yes, this is all," Arthur replied. "Have a safe journey, Mister Hill."

The Head of Operations hesitated before asking, "Are you sure you are not coming?"

"Yes." There was no way he would let Sophie get in a hovercar. It was a death trap. Also, "You're going in the opposite direction I need to go."

Avaria was only one country away from the Luvy nation. The League's Sector 3 also included the neighboring country, Bosnia. However, the sector's base of operations was in the middle of the sector.

Hill hesitated again. "I... It might be better to talk to the Joint Command from afar before showing up in person in Avaria."

"It might be better for me," Arthur agreed with a nod. "It wouldn't be as good for the world. I must destroy that dungeon."

The man sighed and offered the prince his hand. "If you say so. I wish you good luck, Mister Boria."

Arthur smiled and shook the man's hand. "May your fate never slip through your fingers, Mister Hill."

The Head of Operations entered the hovercar, and the fleet took flight.

The prince watched with a sad smile. The next time they saw each other, they might be enemies. It depended on how the League reacted to the events here. Hill had been on the brink of saying something bad about the League's internal affairs multiple times but also understood they might end up as enemies and held himself. The most he had done was to insist Arthur came with him, but even then, he never offered a ride to Avaria.

From the moment Arthur used the League's name without their permission, his first interaction with them was always likely to be unpleasant. He had expected something better than what happened, but that wasn't to be.

Still, kept hoping for the best. As he had told Hill, he had done a lot of good for the League, even if they came out looking weak from this episode. The only way to blame him for it was to pin Howard's crimes and a conspiracy on him. Hopefully, the images showing how effortlessly his people subdued the awakeners in the area and what he had done to Howard would make them hesitate.

It was also worth of note how the League had survived until now. It couldn't be all because of past glory or better war weaponry, not after over a thousand years. They had to be more competent than they had shown in this city.

North Lake and the chaotic event weren't a good example of how the League worked. The well-informed Terrell hand-picked the city for Howard to take control of. That suggested Sector 3 was more deeply infiltrated than other sectors, which made sense. The Free Fate Movement would focus on sectors close to Avaria, their primary target.

Arthur had considered staying close to Hill to help clean Sector 3. It would also make him look less like a wild factor. However, after suspecting the level 95 dungeon could destroy other dungeons, he wanted to destroy it fast.

Almost as importantly, the distance and some time would be good for the League to digest everything that had occurred. And for Arthur to analyze how they reacted and how long it took.

Whatever they did after today would set the tone for all their future interactions.

Still, Arthur wasn't done. Not yet. He would give them one more thing to think about.

He headed toward the reporters. Another pulpit-like table with microphones had been set up, and he stopped behind it.

Hill had said the League didn't talk to the media because it was almost entirely controlled by the FFM. All League's statements were made through owned means. The prince didn't care. He had a message to send to the League and the rest of the world, and he needed them to hear it regardless of how they twisted his words.

"Today's events were unfortunate," he started. The reporters shouldn't be able to hear anything through the protesters noise, but the microphones' wires ran on the ground to the cars on the back of the three dozen reporters, forking midway through into earphones. "I won't get into the details of what happened in this place; you'll have to wait for an official statement.

"I will, however, remind you that the League launched an investigation and uncovered a terrible ploy in this city. That is one of the reasons the League exists, and we will continue to work on that. You might have heard me discuss some internal matters with Sector Three's Head of Operations, but make no mistake, we will stand together against external threats. The rats were exposed today and will be hunted down. The League of the Fated Races has withstood the test of time and will continue to do so.

"Whichever ill-intended forces infiltrated us, mark my words well: we will hunt you, and we will put you down. You cannot hide from us. You cannot hide from me."

Arthur was once more lying about his connection to the League, but he was also very publicly telling them he was on their side. He was making them look less weak after the recent events. And he was declaring war on all his enemies without the guise of politics.

He had power and wasn't afraid of using it, regardless of public opinion.

The prince was also sending a second message. Many people would know he was, in fact, not connected to the League. It was impossible to hide it, considering Terrell's position. If the League's enemies were smart, they would see his hatred for the rats and try to make the League look worse. If it was so corrupt that there was nothing to be saved, Arthur should just burn everything down and start anew with their help. They would try to bring him to their side.

That was also good. It would let him truly see the League for what it was. They would resent him for it, but that ship had sailed.

And to be honest, if after everything he had done for the League, they decided to go against him, he wouldn't mind seeing it replaced with efficient tyrants instead of well-intended but worthless people—at least if he could control them. Arthur believed in absolute monarchies. Some kingdoms fell sometimes. World-spanning organizations weren't intrinsically eternal.

The prince didn't ask any of the reporters' flood of questions. He flew away with his people, grabbed Mr. Mustache in the hotel, bought cat food in a pet store, then headed to Jorge's house. Sophie's car was parked on the street there.

Arthur sighed deeply as he sat on the passenger's seat.

"Fate, I hate politics," he said.

He wanted to be done with this Fatedamned city. The trouble with the League might make the upcoming affairs more complicated than they needed to be. If the League did something stupid or the wrong faction got in his way, he would have to kill a lot of people.

He hated that he would do it if it came for it. And he hated the reason he would go through with it: for the greater good. Unless his father had been a psychopath, he had thought similarly as he set in motion the events that would break the world.

Sophie wordlessly turned the engine on, and they finally rode away from North Lake City.

[A/N: Phew, what I ride. I think I changed my mind; this is the last chapter in the Lost in the Future arc (which starts right after he leaves the dungeon).]

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