Chapter 169: Reunion, II

A strange silence enveloped the battlefield as the champions had left behind four hundred unconscious warriors.

The white-haired monster’s greeting sent shivers through the warriors of the Order, while the great warrior’s eyes continued to sway back and forth. Despite himself, a moan escaped his lips.

“D-don’t tell me…?”

The great warrior blinked repeatedly, as if unable to believe his own eyes.

Before him stood a young man. This beautiful person, whose gender he couldn’t discern at first glance, bore an uncanny resemblance to someone from his past.

If that person had grown up, wouldn’t they look just like this?

The great warrior couldn’t help but stare down at his trembling hands.

Tremble, tremble, tremble.

His hands trembled incessantly, as if gripped by an icy chill. It reminded him of that long-ago encounter with Je, an enigmatic being whose mere touch could release rivers of heavenly downpour. The great warrior, his mind adrift, found himself murmuring:

“Louis…sir?”

The sound of his voice brought a knowing smile to Louis’ face. I suspected it might be you.

Just as Louis was about to speak, another voice boomed from behind him.

“What? Is it…you?!”

“A giant dwarf!”

“It’s a giant dwarf!”

The twins and Fin burst out joyously upon seeing the great warrior.

Louis finally laughed and greeted them, “Pablo, I see you’re still among the living.”

“…”

It was an odd way to greet someone after so many years, but then again, this reunion wasn’t exactly normal.

Louis scrutinized Pablo’s appearance for the first time in 250 years.

He was a burly giant well over two meters tall, with a face as menacing as Louis remembered. Other than a few scattered strands of white hair, Pablo looked as if they’d parted just yesterday.

Louis immediately knew the reason why.

He’s crossed the wall.

When they’d last met, Pablo had been at the beginning of Second-Tier. Now, however, he sensed a presence similar to someone at the initial stage of First-Tier.

He must have undergone physical reconstruction upon entering First-Tier.

Pablo’s original lifespan should have reached its limit at two hundred and fifty years. Even with the extended longevity granted by his dwarven lineage, he should have died fifty years ago.

However, breaking through the Tier 1 barrier and undergoing physical reconstruction had extended his lifespan.

Connections truly are fascinating, Louis mused.

Who could have ever predicted that he’d be reunited with Pablo here—the very place where their paths first crossed?

“Paaablooo!” Fin eagerly flew toward her old friend upon their long-awaited reunion.

As Fin circled excitedly around Pablo’s face, he murmured:

“Fin…miss?”

“It’s been a while, Pablo!”

The sight of this blur before his eyes made it clear to Pablo that what he was witnessing was indeed reality. He then noticed the young man with white hair behind Fin, looking intently at him.

“But seriously…is it really you, Louis?”

“How many times do I have to ask, you fool? Can’t you tell just by looking? Just by looking! Long time no see, eh?”

As Louis glared, Pablo’s shoulders automatically shrank back. Time had passed, yet his body still reacted instinctively—a slave syndrome, perhaps?

“N-no way,” Pablo stammered, waving his hands and breaking out in cold sweat. Those around him shot him skeptical glances.

“Great Warrior, do you know him?”

Louis answered the question. “Yes. I know him very well.”

”…?”

“I’m the one who turned that pathetic Pablo into this fine specimen, you see.”

Louis snickered.

One of the warriors standing near Pablo glared at Louis and shouted, “You bastard! Who do you think you are, talking like th— gurgle!”

Or rather, he tried to shout.

If not for the flying palm that smacked him square in the face, he might have consider his words.

Whack!

The warrior went flying after catching a solid slap from Pablo.

Caught off guard by Pablo’s sudden attack, the other warriors cried out in confusion.

“G-Great Warrior?”

“W-What is going on?!”

Pablo was just as flustered.

Oh man!

Pablo knew firsthand how much of a nasty temper Louis had, despite looking like someone who could barely hurt a fly. Decades of experience had taught him this lesson the hard way.

He’d tried to silence the warrior with a firm hand, knowing how disastrous things could get with his bad attitude, but he’d overdone it a bit.

Under the shocked gazes of the warriors, Pablo internally panicked.

What do I do now…?

As he pondered how to fix the situation, a wild idea crossed his mind. He put on a convincing act, feigning anger as he bellowed, “You bastard!”

“G-Great Warrior?”

Pablo’s outburst caused all the fighters to flinch.

He continued in a stern voice. “What audacity!”

“W-What’s brought this on?”

As confusion spread through the crowd, Pablo pressed forward with his plan without looking back. He’d already made up his mind.

“Do you not know who you’re questioning?! Show some respect for the one you address!”

“What do you mean?”

“That man is the only true apostle of the Pantheon!”

“…?!”

The pronouncement stunned the order’s fighters.

Meanwhile, Louis blinked and muttered under his breath.

“…Huh?”

Noticing Louis’s reaction, Pablo swiftly wrapped things up before Louis could try to join in.

“He’s also the true founder of this order! That’s our priest!”

“…?!”

The great warrior’s words left them all utterly shocked.

Their eyes naturally turned to Louis. As the attention focused on him…

priest? Me?

Louis could only blink, bewildered.

What in the world…

In an attempt to cool down, he had merely whacked some moving sandbags… and ended up as the leader of a cult.

Meanwhile, the twins and Pin watched from afar, dumbfounded.

“Wow…”

“Whoa… Pablo has changed so much.”

“He certainly has.”

They marveled at Pablo’s newfound agility, which had improved leaps and bounds over the years.

“T-the teacher is the priest? Does that mean we have to join this cult too? Or does being the teacher’s disciples automatically make us members?”

“Hmm… If the priest gets married, what do you call her then?”

The Flame siblings, still in shock that their guru had spawned a religion, couldn’t do much more than tilt their heads at these perplexing questions.

After the tumult had subsided and been mostly resolved, Louis and his companions moved to a quieter room. In the stillness that followed, Pablo glanced at Louis and cautiously spoke up.

“Um… Sir Louis?”

“What is it?”

“Well… I… I had no choice, you see.”

“What are you talking about?”

“The thing is…”

It seemed apparent that Pablo was hinting at something regarding Louis being introduced as the priest earlier. The subtle way he alluded to this made Louis chuckle.

As he explored their new location, Louis observed how much it had grown since its days as the humble Blood Axe Robber Gang, now known as the Order of the Divine Body. He couldn’t help but feel a sense of pride seeing the remarkable progress from its modest beginnings.

Well, I suppose I should be honest with myself: In essence, I am indeed the priest here.

When he thought about it, Louis was the one who had singlehandedly founded this order.

When he thought about it, it wasn’t wrong to call himself the apostle of the Pantheon and its priest.

Rather, this might be for the best.

It wasn’t a bad idea for the founder of the order to assert some authority.

Louis summarized the situation in his mind as he surveyed the spacious room. The place felt familiar for some reason.

“Is this… your old room?”

“Heh-heh, you remember. Yes, indeed.”

”…You, why that tone? You sound like an old man.”

“Heh-heh, well, I am getting on in years. And I must maintain my public image…”

“Huh? Selling yourself short, aren’t you? Back to your original tone.”

“I-I’ll attend to it right away! Back to normal!”

Pablo’s timid protest fell on deaf ears.

Seeing Pablo fidget nervously, Louis continued.

“By the way, what are you doing here?”

“Pardon me?”

“I said, why aren’t you at the Summer Continent? You belong there.”

“Well, about that.”

At Louis’s question, Pablo began to briefly recount his past.

After marrying Page and settling down in the Summer Continent, he had lived a peaceful life with his son. He had even seen his grandchild and some of their children. Yet despite this idyllic existence, he suddenly felt bored with life.

Although he was living a life more luxurious than ever before, he felt like he was wearing a suit too tight for him.

Around this time, after spending eighty years on the Summer Continent, he found himself dreaming about his past.

…Those were the good old days when I used to roam free.

Back then, he hadn’t owned anything but the clothes on his back, yet he had been a bandit in the Winter Continent. It was a time when he had been free to do as he pleased.

It reminded him of the time he’d left the Winter Continent with Louis, traveling around the world together. It had been miserable at the time, but looking back, he couldn’t recall ever being so happy.

The moment he felt disillusioned with life, Pablo made up his mind.

He decided to travel the world again before his body grew any older. With that resolution, he packed his bags—his trusty hammer and belongings—in great spirits and set off on his journey.

He started his adventure from the summer continent, and after more than 20 years of roaming, he arrived at the destination that would be the end of his journey: a cliff on the winter continent, a place that had become his home away from home.

What he saw there astonished him.

Huh… What is this?

Thanks to Louis’s grand departure, the Order of the Divine Body was now active at the cliff.

There, Pablo encountered someone from his past.

P-Pablo, is that you?

You know… me?

It was a descendant of the former Blood Axe Bandit Gang’s executioner who recognized Pablo.

Though he was an elderly man on his last legs, the executioner’s descendant warmly welcomed Pablo’s return.

“Ohhh! The Great Warrior has returned!”

”…A great warrior? What…?”

“My father told me! The day the supreme god descended upon this land, the name of the first warrior he chose was ‘Pablo’!”

“Dah… weh… I mean, that’s not entirely false.”

More like a captured slave than a chosen warrior, Pablo thought to himself.

And so, on that fateful day, Pablo became the Great Warrior of the supreme god.

Afterward, Pablo had spent his days in the Winter Continent, content to live out his remaining years there.

However, fate had other plans. Instead of granting him peace, it opened new possibilities for his soul.

“Ahh, I see…”

At the twilight of his life, Pablo had attained enlightenment and finally reached the coveted first tier. Having undergone physical reconstruction, he was reborn as a young man. He leveraged his experience from the Frenche Kingdom to lead his order with finesse.

Under his stewardship, the order flourished day by day, and Pablo’s reputation soared among the order’s warriors. For over a century and a half, he had worn the mantle of a great warrior, far removed from his days as a leader of bloodthirsty bandits in the hallowed halls of his new domain.

”…That’s how I ended up here,” Pablo concluded his tale.

Louis had been listening with his arms crossed, but now he looked at Pablo with newfound admiration.

“Hey, Pablo.”

“Yes?”

“Did you actually think I’d send you to do my dirty work and then expect you to hang around here? I asked you to take care of things!”

Pablo’s initial confusion quickly gave way to a proud nod of understanding as he realized what Louis had actually demanded of him.

“Pshaw! I carried out your request with utmost precision, Louis. And as I left, I doubly, even triply, impressed upon my descendants the need for vigilance!”

In the past, Louis had warned them about the noble who would emerge wielding the Holy Spear. Though Pablo couldn’t claim to grasp everything, he was confident in having faithfully heeded Louis’s admonition.

Louis snorted at Pablo’s brimming self-assurance. “Well, we’ll see about that later.”

“By all means!”

Meanwhile, Kendrick, who had been quietly listening to their exchange, blurted out a question, taken aback. “Um… Excuse me, but if you don’t mind my asking… How old are you?”

“Three hundred and four, this year,” Pablo replied matter-of-factly.

”…?!”

Kendrick’s eyes widened, and even Tanya’s were as round as saucers, utterly astounded.

Their eyes naturally turned towards Louis.

From what they could gather, there was a past connection between this great warrior Pablo and their teacher…

Then… how old is our teacher? they thought simultaneously.

While the startled siblings froze, Pablo observed them and asked, “So, who are you two?”

Louis answered, “Your juniors.”

“Pardon?”

“You’re spare laborer number one, and they’re spare laborer number two. That makes you the senior.”

“Oh! I see! So they’re my juniors!”

Pablo nodded with understanding, leaving Kendrick behind to ask in shock, “Spare laborers…? Weren’t we supposed to be the teacher’s disciples?”

“Disciples or spare laborers, it’s all the same in the end.”

“I suppose… you’re right,” Kendrick sighed in resignation.

Meanwhile, Tania…

“Heh-heh, I don’t care if you’re a disciple or just a helper. To me, Louis is always my Louis!”

“Louis, Louis—it’s ‘brother’ again, huh? Didn’t I tell you straightening your genealogy this time?”

“Hehe.”

Pablo’s eyes widened once more at the bickering between the flame siblings and Louis.

In a trembling voice, he asked, “A…a disciple? Of Louis?”

Did he just say disciple? Of Louis? A dragon’s disciple?

Then, could we also…?

It seemed Louis had anticipated Pablo’s thought as he sent him a message.

Well, someone had to be in on the secret… No, these were orders, so how could I go around spouting off?

As Louis glowered, Pablo nodded profusely. Then came the question that would turn him to stone:

“Never mind them, what happened?”

“What?”

“What lunatic… would dare to ransack my belongings?” Louis’s voice was icy cold.

Hearing this, Pablo squeezed his eyes shut, knowing the inevitable had arrived.