Chapter 170: Who Stole My Bone? (1)

Pablo pondered deeply.

Should I tell the truth…?

If he revealed the truth, would Louis still have mercy on him? And if he lied, would his neck be safe if caught?

Wrestling between these two choices, Pablo eventually made up his mind.

Well, truth be told, he had no choice to make.

No matter what, he’d end up six feet under Louis’s fists.

Since both paths led to the same conclusion, Pablo opted for the one that might spare him a few bruises.

“I… I’m not sure about that, sir.”

His decision was to stick with the truth.

And as expected, Louis’s reaction upon hearing it was brutal.

Louis’s eyebrow twitched.

“You don’t know? What do you mean?”

“Th-the thing is… We haven’t found the culprit yet.”

Pablo’s mumbled response made Louis smirk.

“…How unfortunate, Pablo. It seems we’ll have to part ways so soon after our long-awaited reunion.”

“Pardon?”

“Don’t take it too hard; I’ll send you off in a flash. It won’t hurt. Make sure you greet Page for me.”

Crunch, crunch.

The sight of Louis striding toward him with his hands bent back caused Pablo’s face to pale.

Achoo!

When Louis appeared as a child, his threats were somewhat mitigated by his cute appearance, but seeing him fully grown and looming over them was pure terror incarnate.

Pablo raised both hands as fear gripped his heart. “P-please spare me!”

“Good grief, who said I’d kill you? I just want to give you a few good slaps.”

“Didn’t you tell Page to give me a message earlier? About how I’d be killed if I returned! That was you ordering me to be killed!”

“When did I ever say that?”

“You definitely did!”

“Oh, really? I thought Page was still alive.”

Louis’s flippant reply caused Pablo to shout desperately. “I lost her long ago! And what difference does it make since you’ll kill me either way with those punches?”

“All I need is for you to tell me where everything went wrong.”

“How can the dead speak?”

“That’s enough. Now please leave.”

“P-Please don’t come any closer!”

“Why not?”

“I’m not the same Pablo from before! If you take one more step…”

Pablo swiftly picked up his hammer.

In an instant, a dark brown crystal materialized around it.

Kendrick and Tania, witnessing the tier-1 symbol, cried out in astonishment.

“Holy Sword!”

“No, wait, is it a Holy Mace…?”

While the Flame Siblings were taken aback, Fin and the twins appeared genuinely impressed.

“Oh? Pablo, you’ve grown so much?”

“He even knows to stand up to Louis now.”

“It seems I’ve lost my touch after not seeing him for such a long time.”

Amidst their insincere expressions of admiration, Louis made his move.

Whip!

“And if I do approach?”

In a flash, Louis appeared before Pablo and playfully tapped the head of the mace with his finger.

Though it was a lighthearted gesture, like flicking a friend’s forehead, the result was far from trivial.

Crack!

The moment Louis’s finger made contact, the spiritually infused head of the mace snapped off and flew across the room.

Bam!

As the wall in the corner crumbled and dust billowed into the air, Pablo swallowed hard.

H-h-how has he become even stronger…?

Realizing that further resistance would likely end badly for him, Pablo abandoned his defiance. “I-I was going to say… if you get any closer… your dazzling presence might blind me, my lord… So please, stay a bit further away… Hehe.”

At the sight of the 300-year-old Pablo still acting so childish, Louis let out a soft sigh. He clicked his tongue and said, “Tsk. Keep it simple and brief.”

The recent incident had been like a bolt of lightning, waking up the memories of the 250-year-old incident that had been dormant in his mind. Pablo began babbling away rapidly.

“A week ago, fifty bizarre creatures invaded our kingdom. They stole your elixir, sire, and we chased after them hastily but lost them due to worsening weather conditions! Although we continue searching, there has been no news yet!”

“You’re sure it was a week ago?”

“Yes, sir!”

“Hmm…” Louis crossed his arms thoughtfully.

They arrived a week ago, he mused.

Generally, the efficacy of medicinal herbs is semi-permanent. In fact, the longer they remain intact, the more refined their attribute power becomes, leading to even better effects. However, there exist some special herbs where the potency is highest when consumed shortly after extraction.

The problem was that Groow Fruit fell into this exact category of delicate herbs.

For the Groow Fruit to truly show its medicinal effect, it must be eaten within two months of harvesting…

As each month passed the two-month mark, its effectiveness gradually diminished. By the time a year had elapsed since the harvest, the Groow Fruit would fully liquefy and disappear.

The best solution would be to find the Groow Fruit within two months… no, within the remaining nine weeks.

It would have been fine if he could have found and consumed it, but…

What if those who stole the grow fruit ate it…?

Flash!

A fierce glint flashed in Louis’s eyes.

I’ll make them pay for all their sins!

He had kindly put up a sign warning them not to touch his belongings and threatened to nine times over if they did. He fully intended to follow through on his threat.

Faber watched as Louis silently seethed with anger. Feeling the murderous aura, he trembled and whispered to himself:

…This is going to be a storm.

He had a premonition that the dragon’s rage upon his return would shake the entire winter continent.

The day after Louis’s reunion with Pablo…

As Louis ambled through the settlement, people bowed to him bashfully.

“U-um, hello, priest.”

It was only natural for them to feel awkward; after all, their sect’s leader had appeared out of nowhere—and this newcomer had soundly beaten their warriors just the day before.

“Mm, hello,” Louis acknowledged their greetings with a wave of his hand as he leisurely scanned the settlement. “Wow, it’s grown so much.”

A sprawling residential area had taken shape around the former hideout of the Blood Axe bandits and the Promise Tree.

I think they said it’s about two thousand people now?

The sect had started as a mere 300-member bandit gang in another life. Over time, as more people joined, it had grown to its current size of roughly 2,000 members.

Two thousand members—neither an insignificant nor an overwhelmingly large number.

The problem was that among them, a staggering 1,500 were classified as combat-impaired, or “instant liabilities.”

Even the remaining 500 could not be easily dismissed.

On observing the Church of the Divine Body, the people of the Winter Continent had this to say:

Children were raised within the Church to view battle scars as badges of honor.

Housewives would come out wielding knives, cook up fierce beasts for a hearty meal while warding off disease…

A near-death old man who fends off fierce orcs…

This was truly a place where reason reigned supreme.

The Order of the Divine Body, self-proclaimed as the most powerful faction on the Winter Continent, exerted significant influence on all matters. Louis scratched his chin as he observed their flourishing sect from atop a cliff.

“Well… I never expected it to turn out like this.”

Who could have foreseen such grandeur when he first set out to protect a single medicinal herb? It was both miraculous and astonishing.

As Louis gazed down at the village near the Promise Tree from his perch on the cliff, Pablo approached him.

“Ah, you’re here.”

“You coming?” Louis responded nonchalantly, adjusting his chin.

Louis’s eyes betrayed his perplexity as he surveyed the village below.

“Hey, Pablo.”

“Yes, sir.”

“How did fifty of them infiltrate here that day? Moreover, how were they able to approach the Promise Tree?”

In the morning, Louis had experienced a strange sensation when touring the compound. Now, as he gazed down from this elevated position, the answer became clear.

This village… I don’t know who planned it, but they’ve meticulously constructed fortifications.

Houses built around the Promise Tree, with watchtowers strategically placed throughout the residential area. From the outside, it might have appeared to be a simple village where the people of the order resided, but Louis recognized the layout as a meticulously calculated defense system. The Promise Tree stood at the very center of these fortifications, receiving perfect protection.

As a result, he couldn’t help but wonder:

Fifty people infiltrated the continent’s most powerful order, stole their sacred healing plant, and escaped?

Pablo responded understandingly to Louis’s doubt. “Ah, well… Do you remember how fierce the snowstorm was the day of the theft? It was pitch-dark too.”

“Hmm…”

If that was the case, then he could somewhat believe it.

Still, Louis couldn’t shake his uneasiness.

“But even so, did they say fifty people came and went however they wanted?”

“It pains me to say this, but could we really have been defeated by ordinary men? These guys… they were no common enemies.”

“How exactly?”

“While each of them was weak individually, their training seemed to be very specialized—like covert operatives. Or maybe…”

“You mean they had assassination training?”

“Yes.”

“So what happened to those bastards?”

“We killed the majority of the raiders and only allowed five to escape. They were wounded badly, so we thought capturing them wouldn’t be an issue, but…”

“There were supporters of theirs beyond the village walls, I suspect.”

“Exactly.” Pablo nodded. Louis’s assessment was correct.

They were eventually able to kill all five of the invading survivors, but the healing herb had already fallen into the hands of their external allies. The Order’s pursuers chased the invaders through the blizzard, but the relentless snow swiftly erased their tracks.

Despite this, the Order’s pursuers didn’t give up and were still tracking clues of the intruder outside. They would use any means necessary to reclaim the sacred relics of the Pantheon.

Meanwhile, the only person who knew that these relics were just elixirs for someone’s growth was…

Pablo watched Louis slowly, measuring his every move.

Why… is he so quiet?

Just yesterday, Pablo had thought Louis might do something rash at any moment. Yet surprisingly, Louis had been staying quietly within the Order all this time. Finding it odd, Pablo cautiously asked,

”…Won’t you go out?”

“Out? Where?”

“Well… I thought you’d go look for clues about those thieves?”

“Who would it bother?”

”…Pardon?” Pablo looked up at Louis, his confusion evident.

“You mean those trainees have been toiling away here, right? So why should I bother getting involved and working hard?” Louis asked, exasperated.

”…But?”

Louis tried to explain, but Pablo’s doubts only grew. Far from clearing things up, it left him more bewildered than ever.

That’s not like him at all!

The Louis he knew would be out there personally, relentlessly tracking down the thieves to give them a taste of his temper.

As Pablo stood there, utterly lost, a low voice crept into his ear:

“But you know… if I were to take action…”

Pablo’s eyes widened as he gazed at Louis.

The sight before him was Louis, wearing an insidious smile.

“You should be prepared for anything.”

”…?!”

With that, Louis turned and left. His smile vanished as he fell into deep thought.

There’s something unsettling about this.

Louis’s intuition was speaking to him. He sensed that there was more to the story behind the theft of the sacred herb. So, he waited.

When this vine is pulled, what other fruit will be revealed?

His face bore a cool smile as he strutted away.

Meanwhile, Pablo couldn’t shake off his worries as he watched Louis leave. Was Louis referring to the thief of the sacred herb, the Order warriors who had failed to bring back even a clue, or perhaps both?

It was a once-in-a-lifetime dilemma for Pablo.

Fortunately, that evening, his predicament was resolved—thanks to sheer luck.