Soul of Negary

Augustin followed Grosk along the main road of the town. The Grace of Understanding he received from the Lord allowed him to accurately sense that there were quite a few people staring at him.

Part of them were staring at him with wicked thoughts simply because of his handsome face, others were purely monitoring him.

“Explain to me a bit about the two people” Augustin didn’t pay much attention to the stares from around him and asked Grosk.

“Ah, ok” Grosk was stunned briefly before he continued: “The first one is called Jason Todd, a mercenary. He’s a cruel bastard, but one that keeps his words. He has only been in Reya for a year, I heard that he has been searching for the culprit that murdered his family”

“The other is a hitman with a weird personality, all I know is that he’s called Jack. Every once in a while, he’ll come out looking for some business, according to him, as long as the price is right… he’ll even kill the King of the country” Grosk explained.

“As for the others, you can probably hire them for a winning battle, but if you try and get them to fight Negary, they’ll probably be the first to betray you” Grosk explained: “Of course, there might be others who are hiding their strength, but I only know those two”

“That’s fine, those two will probably look for other people they trust” Augustin smiled amiably as he walked with Grosk towards the place where Jason Todd usually stayed, a tavern.

It’s not that Jason Todd was an alcoholic, but rather because most taverns doubled as a place that issued mercenary jobs and where information brokers frequented.

Jason Todd was originally a normal family man, if nothing had gone wrong, he would’ve worked as a cargo worker at the harbour, or a carpenter, or a blacksmith. But one pirate invasion of his town changed everything.

His originally not rich but happy family was torn apart, when he luckily managed to escape, he came home to find that his father was beheaded, his mother lying dead in a pool of blood as well as his younger sister and brother who were raped to death.

The pirates didn’t care as long as there was a hole, and Jason, who couldn’t bear to accept things as they were, began to walk the path of vengeance. He found out what the culprits looked like from another lucky survivor and began to track the pirates down, honing his body and his skills on the way.

Unfortunately, after those pirates got caught in a sea battle, most of them died in battle, the few who survived disbanded, returned to land, washed themselves clean and sought to live peacefully as landowners for the rest of their lives.

After locating one of them, Jason interrogated and found out the name and whereabouts of the true culprit, then continued his pursuit. This took him 7 years, during which Jason grew from a teenager to a grown man at the prime of his life. As the years passed, still being nowhere closer to his vengeance caused Jason’s methods become crueller and more ferocious, but perhaps due to his own experiences, he greatly valued credibility. As long as he made a promise, he would definitely keep to it.

Augustin’s face drew a lot of attention within the chaotic tavern, but his Church of Divine Grace priest uniform made it so that many gave up on their wicked thoughts and stuck to observing for now.

“That is Jason Todd” Grosk pointed at a man who was seriously eating.

‘Seriously eating’ sounded like a weird way to describe someone, but when you looked at Jason Todd, you’d agree that it was accurate.

Jason put the pieces of food into his mouth with an extremely stern expression, as if that was simply a duty he had to accomplish. He was so completely serious that his expression didn’t change at all while he ate, you’d imagine he would be maintaining the exact same expression on his face even if he was eating live bugs with his food, giving off the impression that it didn’t matter what food he ate, he only ate for the sake of eating and not to enjoy his meal.

Jason was wearing a black vest and had short silver hair with his weapon propped by his side. An uninteresting and ferocious person like him would naturally have no companions.

“You’re a man who leaves quite an impression” Augustin said as he pulled out the chair across from Jason and sat down.

“Need something?” curt and direct, to Jason, wasting even a single second was a crime he didn’t want to commit.

“Yes, I have a tough job I’d like you to take” Augustin smiled and replied.

“I’ll take it” Jason agreed without even looking up.

“You already know what I want to ask you to do?” Augustin asked, a bit puzzled.

“As long as one wasn’t living under a rock, anyone would know” Jason swallowed the last piece of food and looked up at Augustin: “Didn’t you see how no one in the tavern came to greet you?”

“So why did you agree?”

“One of my targets seemed to have become a Crowmen. Even if you didn’t come to find me, I’d still go to you. Furthermore, if you intend to ask for Jack, don’t bother. I already asked, he took on a job and left Reya”

“Very well” Augustin nodded.

…

At the same time, Chris looked on as Nala came back down to continue enjoying her meal with a complicated look in his eyes. Back when he learnt [Respiratory Art], he also had a mentor, but it took him more than one whole day to finally grasp it.

But Nala only took less than one afternoon to learn everything she needed to. Chris didn’t teach her any of the advanced techniques as they were things one should comprehend on their own, as long as they understood the basics, any practitioner could perform the advanced tricks and techniques without much trouble.

The principles behind [Respiratory Art] had always been the same, but each practitioner used the same kind of [Respiratory Art] in completely different ways. Naturally, [Respiratory Art] passed down through nobility would have their own secret techniques that couldn’t be learnt naturally through comprehension, they were mostly the crystallization of knowledge through several generations.

Chris also had a secret technique, but it wasn’t suitable to be taught to Nala right now, perhaps later on.

After sending Nala away, Chris felt like sighing. After all, she was the Saintress of Salvation in the prophecy, she would at least be able to protect herself after learning [Respiratory Art].

“Come out, you’ve been listening in on us for quite a while, have any comments?” Chris’ expression turned serious and turned towards an empty corner of the room.

“So that’s the Saintress of Salvation in the prophecy?” the light in the air warped a bit as a man wearing the Royas Kingdom uniform stepped out and bowed to greet Chris: “Greetings, sir Chris, [School of Light], Smick Lancher”

“[School of Firewood], Chris Modo” Chris replied with a serious expression. Inheritors of the [Respiratory Art] used the name of their secret arts as greetings to one another.

“Negary is too dangerous, we need to join forces” Chris spoke seriously.

“His forces are certainly growing too large for comfort, it is disadvantageous for the Kingdom” Smick nodded: “Joining forces is a must”

“So what are you going to do about Nala?” Chris slowly asked.

“According to the ancient covenant, a rhythm will not extinguish another rhythm. I won’t do anything to that little girl, and you know that. That’s the reason you taught her the [Respiratory Art] even though you knew I was here, wasn’t it?” Smick replied seriously: “And so what if she is the Saintress of Salvation? Under His Majesty’s guidance, we shall trample over fate itself, let alone a mere prophecy”