CHAPTER 52: THE CRUEL KING

Outside of Max’s room, in the dark narrow corridor, Harley’s heels landed on the carpet without making any noise.

Shadows around her grew darker and stirred awake as a figure materialized behind her.

"I didn’t intervene because he didn’t die, Young Miss."

"That’s fine," Harley shook her head and asked with a strange glow in her eyes. "Tell me exactly what happened there?"

Arya nodded and recounted the events involving Max, as Harley listened with interest.

She frowned when Arya finished and muttered, "He risked his life to save that girl? But why?"

"That...I don’t know."

"Huh? You didn’t get any hints from their conversation?" Harley asked in confusion.

Arya lowered her head and said, "I didn’t get too close to him because I was having this strange feeling. It was as if I tried to spy on him too much, I’d suffer terrible consequences. I rarely get this feeling, Young Miss, so I didn’t dare to get too close to them."

Harley’s lips parted as she looked at her in surprise, "Interesting! He really does have a lot of secrets. Hehe, boy, now I’m even more interested in what actually made you..."

She suddenly stopped as she remembered something and took out a file from her CID. She rapidly turned its pages before stopping on a particular one.

Her lips tugged upwards as she whispered under her breath, "What a surprise, kiddo. You’re actually quite the gentleman and a man of words."

Harley closed the file and turned around, "Tell Carlson to gather everything he can on Aurora Ashborn."

"Understood! What about her whereabouts?"

"Others will do that for us, so just continue with your duty."

"But Young Miss, what about that danger?" Arya asked helplessly. She really didn’t want to do this because she had a feeling it wouldn’t go well.

"Don’t worry about it. Just be careful around him and save him if he dies or is in a condition of permanent death," Harley gave her orders and turned around to leave.

Arya sighed and muttered, "As you command, Young Miss!"

...

In the morning, Max was back at the Moonshine Inn as he stood on his room’s balcony, looking at the bustling city which had a strange pressure on it.

Even from his position, he could hear the topic of their discussion.

The destruction of the Ashborn Clan.

Nobody could understand how the Ashborn Clan was uprooted in just one night. They were said to be one of the most powerful clans, yet they died without alerting anyone in the city.

While everyone was sleeping, someone had massacred the clan. Worse still, whoever did that was too cruel.

They hadn’t even spared young children or babies. Even those women who were pregnant were killed brutally with their wombs cut open.

Max held a cup of coffee in his hands but couldn’t bring himself to drink it. He sighed, rubbing his forehead to get the images of that destruction out of his head.

For the first time in his life, he was regretting having such a vivid imagination.

He knew his father very well and knew he would do this. That man was cold-headed, who only cared about himself and his clan.

He massacred a whole clan to get that artifact and increase his power, or at least that was what those who knew about him believed.

But Max knew there was much more than just his greed for the artifact. Edward Corelhelm was ambitious, greedy but not stupid.

The Empire would soon learn of the Spear’s existence, and Edward would have to give up on the spear. That would mean he had suffered losses.

To compensate for that, he would soon declare war on the Kelar Kingdom, their mortal enemies.

The Selero Empire would think Edward just wanted to expand his territory and let him have the spear for some time.

But that would be their biggest mistake. Because all of this was just an act to hide his true goal.

Edward would do everything to ensure his clan’s future, so he had killed even kids of Ashborn clan. According to him, only the dead couldn’t take revenge.

He was even paranoid about babies crawling out of the pregnant women, so he had killed them and their babies too.

That alone spoke of his cruelty and madness.

That was also the reason Max didn’t want to have anything to do with him.

Max didn’t consider himself a saint, as he wouldn’t just go around saving people. The world was already too cruel, and he couldn’t change it anyway.

But he also wasn’t a true villain. He had limits, emotions, and lots of weaknesses.

’Why am I thinking so much right in the morning?’ Max thought, as he gulped down the coffee in one go, shivering slightly under its strong taste.

Then, he slapped himself and muttered, "Need to get out of this shitty mood."

Max tried to ignore the thoughts about Edward and focused on his improvement. The wound on his back had healed, but it still hurt a lot, and there was no way he could fight for some time.

Fortunately for him, the whole Godshine City was closed, and every path leading outside was also closed, including the labyrinth.

So now, along with him, every Hunter from Godshine City was forbidden to enter the Labyrinth for an unknown time.

Nobody protested, as the orders came directly from the Royal Palace, and apparently, the King was too angry with the turn of events and was demanding the head of everyone who did that.

Those who knew the truth found it quite ironic, but they were also alerted and wary of the Corelhelm Clan.

Max had called Charlotte, and she sounded stressed, which was quite normal as she was the heir of the Sinclair Clan, another Gold-Rank Clan of Godshine City.

Many were suspicious of their involvement in the eradication of the Ashborn Clan, especially the Hunter Organization, so it was natural Charlotte couldn’t rest properly.

She had lots of things to deal with.

But all of it had nothing to do with Max. All he knew was that he was getting a few days to practice his mana control for free. He also needed to recover from his injuries.

’I wish I could summon Char here. Just her cute face would heal me!’