Unedited chapter. It will be edited soon.

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Robert Priestley smiled. "It has certainly been a long time, and I've had to deal with a lot of chaos because you don't know how to clean up your messes."

"Hahaha." Aster Mane laughed heartily and looked behind him. The Duke of Sackville, Evan Dunn, was standing there. "He's the one who usually cleans up my messes," he said before turning to look at Robert.

"But I should be grateful when someone else takes care of putting certain things in order."

Robert frowned. 'As I suspected, Evan Dunn and this man really were related in some way,' he thought.

Evan Dunn was the second or third largest among the mafias of the empire; he could be fighting for the position with that other woman; his status was great.

Aster Mane then stared at the different people from the competitors, at the new generation. Many looked at him with admiration, others with fear, and others simply with curiosity.

He didn't pay much attention to most of them, simply staring at Louis, exchanging glances that seemed to want to scrutinize him to the bone, and then his gaze remained fixed on Laura's body.

He spent more than two minutes looking at her, until he decided to look away, toward where the Emperor was standing.

"You want a war, Keller?" he asked. "I've been retired for many years, so this suits me fine to get my bones moving, which have been rusting lately. I'm willing to play this little game. Aster Mane fighting like in the old days against the bastards of the north and the useless emperor we have." He smiled mockingly. "Sounds incredible, like something out of a play, don't you think?"

"Hmph." The emperor snorted. "You want to fight us again? We've been looking for you for many years, so now that you've shown up, don't think you'll get away!"

"Oh? And what will you do?"

"I will destroy you!"

Aster Mane smiled coldly. "I want to see how you try. What will be destroyed first? Aster Mane and his mafias, or the castles of the North? The game begins today, Keller, Murphy, Morgan, Griffin, I want to see how long you will last! I remind you... the North is my backyard, before and now. You'd better come back soon."

The emperor launched an extremely powerful fire spear, trying to kill him. The attack easily pierced the barrier and approached the building. In a matter of three seconds, it had reached the building, but it didn't even hit.

His attack went wide, forcing him to look away.

From another building in the arena, Aster Mane taunted him.

"Hey, hey, I'm not ready to leave yet. I need to see who I'm going to support and who's going to support me, you know?" He pulled out a chair to sit next to Evan Dunn.

"Damn slippery bastard," Keller grumbled, but stopped paying attention to him.

Lady Loren continued to watch him out of the corner of her eye.

That man was certainly dangerous. His exploits throughout the empire in the past were astonishing.

But now the world was not the same as it had been 20 years ago.

Things had changed a lot, the Church had gained too much power, and the Castles that supported it continued to grow rapidly, allowing them to slowly but steadily take power away from the mobsters.

That's why they were confident. Aster Mane wasn't as powerful as he used to be. He was only sustained by the legends surrounding his name. The past of a legend would continue to be frightening, even when someone had already surpassed him.

Keller looked at Robert Priestley. "So it was you who had him in your custody, you damn bastard," he growled.

"Ha." Robert sneered. "Old man, I'll give you one last chance to back down. If not, you won't be able to control the coming war. You'll never recover from this."

"Hmph, I don't know surrender." He said and ignored him, proceeding to look at the young people on the sand, especially Louis. "Instead, I'll give you a chance."

Louis frowned. "If you want to say something, be direct, Emperor. Dealing with someone who can't even be direct is stressful," he said, undaunted by his dangerous gaze.

The emperor still found this disrespectful, but there was nothing he could do. This guy was still a son of Habsburg. So he decided to ignore this fact and focus on what was important.

"I like your talent. You are someone capable of growing beyond the limits of this empire," he declared. "My family has its roots in the Society of Mages, and we have strong alliances with the Hallway Family. How about joining us? I will take you beyond this empire, to the distant and magnificent continent. Not only is there money, like here, but there are also great resources to cultivate yourself and reach the top. Only there will you prosper as you deserve. If you're lucky, you might even become the disciple of a god... How does that sound? You'll avoid a senseless war, because if you join me, I can sign the withdrawal of my people."

Among those present, many people frowned.

They could understand why he was chosen for something as grand as that, he was so talented at 16, demonstrating superior talent.

But the things he said were done with several intentions: One, if Louis refused, he could be seen as selfish in the eyes of the people, in a way. He had the opportunity to avoid internal war with just one decision, but if he did so, he would surely receive some hatred.

Two, he intended to take the most talented of the new generation of men from the South, and perhaps from the empire, far away, which could naturally trigger complaints in the South, and the war would surely not stop just because of that. And even less so now that Aster Mane was here, a man who depended on chaos to be strong.

On the other hand...

Disciple of a god? Had they heard correctly? Rejecting that offer was impossible!

But Louis didn't seem interested at all.

"Disciple of a god? I am the son of two and the brother of several who will surely be gods soon. Why should I care about being the disciple of one?" Although Louis thought that, he couldn't say it, so he just shrugged.

Besides, that Hallway Family was just one of the ones Lord Jack of his family had warned him to be careful of, and that Society of Mages as well. He wasn't stupid enough to go to a place where they hated him, just because he was an armamentist.

There wasn't much to think about.

"Sorry, I'm not interested," Louis replied casually.

Aside from being led into the mouth of his enemies, wouldn't they make him lose a lot of missions?

For some time now, his system has been flashing in front of him, telling him that he had completed numerous missions and several other things. If he were sent to a passive place like that and wasted the chaos of war to create missions and become ridiculously powerful, wouldn't that be the greatest waste of resources he had ever experienced?

His growth is not like everyone else's, after all. When some think that in those places they could create missions of classes that help him gain greater power, he can create them anywhere, even better if there is chaos.

But his answer left the emperor speechless.

"What?" Even his thoughts went blank, and he wasn't the only one.

Even Hardrial, who was standing silently behind him watching everything unfold, was stunned by his answer. Rejecting the chance to be the disciple of a god?

Well, that reaffirmed his thinking. This boy must be a Lockward.

"Boy, I can repeat what I said, if you didn't hear me..."

"No need," he replied again. "No matter what god you bring me and put here, I have no interest in being the disciple of any of them. I like my current peace and quiet." He declared with complete confidence and firmness.

Words that naturally stunned everyone present. Even Aster Mane was in shock. He was already planning to threaten the emperor, telling him not to touch his men, when he was surprised to find that this guy's balls were bigger than the combat arena.

And although the situation continued to unfold, Louis had little interest at the moment in the discussions between the two sides.

He was more interested in seeing why he had so many system windows flashing in front of him.

He didn't think he had completed so many missions. He only had a few side missions that he created during the tournament and the biggest one he created when he made a bet with Robert. Why were there so many windows then?

He couldn't even choose which window to read when one of the system windows popped up in front of him, choosing itself to be the one he was going to read.

[Main Branch Mission: Help Dan Lockward, your uncle exiled from the main family, has been partially completed.

[Thanks to your control over the Industrial District, you caught the attention of the Neville Clan, the Priestley Clan, the Duke of Sackville, and the legendary mobster Aster Mane, which opened a breach in Lockward's control of these clans, something that Dan Lockward took advantage of wonderfully.]

[Dan Lockward now dominates more than 50% of the Lockward Family once again.]

[The Coin reward has been delivered, but the mission is not over yet!]

[Enjoy your reward, but make sure to help Dan Lockward gain control of 100% of the Family. A Divine Award awaits you.]

His eyes widened... 'W-w-what the hell?'

His thoughts were suddenly interrupted when a powerful force descended upon his head and back.

He and all the students had to stamp their feet, most of them falling to their knees on the ground, only he remained standing in the face of this powerful repressive force, although he was breathless.

Even the leaders of the castles were in shock and felt their backs were heavier than normal.

Few could remain calm.

Like Lady Loren and Hardrial, even though they felt the oppression.

Then...

Knock*

Knock*

The tireless sound of heels hitting the ground hard began to echo in the arena.