Ryn
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Chapter 215
🕑 Added 2024-11-27 19:00:03 +0000 UTCJulius had immediately noticed her when she got within his skill’s influence. She had been watching them silently for the past several minutes, ever since Frank took them back here.
Julius didn’t know for sure that it was this Lady Rebecca, but he was pretty certain that it was. She was wearing a fancy dress and had all of the signs of a noble lady. Also, he didn’t see a reason why someone like her would be just hanging around this area at this specific moment unless there was a reason.
Therefore, he speculated that this woman was Lady Rebecca or at least someone who was related to Cory. He didn’t know how they managed to get wind of his drop off but the fact remained that she was here.
She also knew that it was Julius and Reinera who brought Cory back. That could potentially be a problem for the two of them.
Danny whipped around as did Frank. Reinera was thankfully a little more reserved, however, she also knew about Julius’s perception ability. So she probably wasn’t that surprised that Julius was able to notice her intrusion.
Well, not intrusion exactly. This is probably her home to be fair. More like snooping, he decided.
“Who’s here?” Frank asked confused.
Julius didn’t respond, he just continued to look exactly at the spot where the lady was hiding.
Eventually, the lady seemed to understand that Julius had noticed her and slowly removed whatever stealth skill she had active, appearing in front of them.
“I thought you said you had to help out with gate duties today, Frank,” she said accusingly.
Frank seemed to both simultaneously relax and tense up. He was probably glad that it wasn’t some enemy but was also nervous at being caught red-handed.
“I’m sorry, Lady Rebecca. As you can see, I-I had good reason to,” he said with a small stutter.
Ah, so it was Lady Rebecca, Julius mentally noted, giving himself a small pat on his back for his deduction skills. She even had the same bright blue eyes as Cory as well as sharing some of his facial features.
“Yes Frank, that is the only reason why I am not upset with you or the fact that you were totally willing to lie to my face,” she said meaningfully before turning to Danny. “Hello, Mr. Hollins. Rest assured, I will also be having words with you regarding your continued services at a later date.”
Danny didn’t dare to look her in the eyes and suddenly found a smudge on the floor very interesting. Then there was Frank who was practically shaking in his boots and was about to say something but she waved her hand, interrupting whatever he had planned to tell her. Instead, she quickly crossed the room, moving in the blink of an eye.
In fact, she did. Julius didn’t sense her moving, she had used some sort of teleportation skill to move. One moment she was across the room and the next she had Cory in her arms drowning the poor boy in kisses.
Cory was obviously happy to see his mother, but on the other hand, he looked like he was trying to escape as well. He was clawing his way out of her arms with such fierceness, that it was like seeing a totally different boy. He gave Julius a look that was a clear plea for help, but Julius, the smart man he was, purposefully ignored the boy.
He was not getting in the middle of a mom and her reunion with her precious baby.
Once the mother seemed to get her fill and Cory was gasping for air, she turned to them with a dangerous glint in her eyes.
“I heard most of your guys' talk, but I noticed you failed to mention the details of my son’s kidnappers,” she said.
Julius gave Reinera a look, letting her know that he would take care of it. He didn’t want her accidentally saying something that might endanger them or even worse, Elder Han and the orphanage.
“I’m sorry, it is Lady Rebecca correct?”
She nodded.
He took a deep breath. “I wish I could tell you everything, but honestly, I can’t,” he could immediately tell that she didn’t like hearing that, so he put a placating hand up. “But… I can tell you that a group of men from a town we visited had your son imprisoned and had plans to ransom him back to you. We ended up running across them and saving them,” he explained as carefully as he could.
He probably could have told her more, but he didn’t want the remote chance of someone figuring out that the orphanage had anything to do with saving them. That group was able to hire a Tier 4 like Dustin to protect the place, which meant there were undoubtedly more Tier 4s or those even stronger involved. He didn’t want them looking for trouble and then ended up having the orphanage directly in their scope.
Then again, Elder Han was protecting the orphanage, so it might have been one of the most protected places in the region.
I am kind of interested to see what Elder Han would do if they tried, he thought humorously to himself.
He only had sympathies for anyone who dared to attack the orphanage. He doubted that there would be anything left of them if they did.
Still, there was no need to tempt fate. Who knew what could happen outside of Elder Han’s control? It’s not like the children stayed inside the orphanage forever.
This was just overall safer for everyone involved. He didn’t really care if the lady didn’t like it. They had saved her son, so that should be enough for her. If she couldn’t accept that, then that said enough about what type of person she was.
“We are already aware of the group that kidnapped my son. They messaged us a while ago. I am asking you if there are any details that you could share with us that could help us get some retribution against these scumbags,” she said murderously while also covering Cory’s ears with some mana, ensuring the little boy didn’t hear her curse.
“They’re all dead. I am not sure you are going to get much revenge on them any time soon,” he said semi-truthfully. He didn’t include Dustin with them because the man had been the reason they had even been saved. So according to Julius, Dustin was a new man and had no relation to this group anymore.
The noble lady clenched her fists. “I don’t just mean them. I want to get revenge on the whole group itself. We have been doing some investigation of our own and apparently this isn’t just some small group of criminals. They are a part of a much larger group that has been doing this with other noble families on top of some other activities. They are a parasite to society and I want to eradicate them,” she said menacingly.
Julius sympathized with her, he really did. He would like nothing more than to see this group gone for good. But he also wasn’t about to tell them that Dustin would be able to tell them everything they would need to know.
“I wish I could help you more,” he said, genuinely remorseful.
She nodded her head. “Me too. I wish you would be more forthcoming, but I see you insist on hiding some things,” she said disappointedly.
“What does that mean?” Reinera called out, sounding very displeased but not surprised.
“It means I am not going to let you leave until you give us some actual answers,” Rebecca said calmly.
“We saved your son and now you are going to imprison us?” Reinera asked.
“You can’t really expect me to just let you go, right? You snuck into our estate and had my missing son in your possession. I want some answers and if you’re not willing to help me, then I guess you will have to stay here for the time being.”
Reinera maintained her poise, acting every bit like a dignified noble. “Are you sure you want to do it like this?” However, a bit of anger leaked into her tone. He couldn’t blame her either. It wasn’t exactly a fair thing to do, but he could understand her point of view.
Lady Rebecca glared at her. “Two Tier 2s come back with my son who had just been kidnapped, saying that they managed to save him. Do you think I am ignorant or something? You guys are hiding something. I want to know what it is or you guys are never leaving here.”
Julius walked over to Reinera before she could get any more furious and tried to calm her down. “It’s okay. I don’t think she means us any harm. She just wants to find out what happened to her son,” he quietly explained, knowing full well that Cory’s mother could hear them.
There wasn’t any need to try and fight their way out either. They wouldn’t stand a chance. Julius was able to tell that the moment she teleported to Cory. He had been able to sense immensely profound Concepts and aura from her during that brief moment.
She was undoubtedly a powerful Tier 5, which was honestly a bit surprising. Tier 5 wasn’t just something you could spend gold to get to. It required talent and hard work. Whoever, this Rebecca was, she wasn’t just some pampered noble lady. She was a fighter.
He also knew that this situation had always been a possibility. In fact, he had been expecting something like this to happen. Knowing Reinera’s luck and then added to his, he had a gut feeling that something would go wrong. That was why he was against coming here in person.
Still, he couldn’t say no to such a cute face like Cory’s. He also didn’t think they were in any real trouble. It would most likely just be an annoying inconvenience.
That was why he was perfectly calm, even without the aid of [Sage of Savagery].
He took out a couple of chocolates from his storage ring and handed them over to Reinera.
“Eat these, it will help you calm down,” he told her with a grin, popping one of them into his own mouth.
She looked like she wanted to hit him, but with an angry expression indulged his request, taking a couple of pieces of chocolate for herself. She angrily chomped down on the perfectly tempered piece of chocolate and glared at the blue-eyed noble lady. Thankfully, the moment she started to eat them, her furious attitude calmed down just a hair.
What can’t chocolate fix? He thought to himself with a grin as he enjoyed his own piece.
He saw Cory try to wiggle his arms free from his mother’s arms, reaching out to Julius. He still had the earmuffs made of mana over his head, so he didn’t understand what was going on, but he saw Julius taking out chocolate. It was the same chocolate Julius had snuck to the boy during their ride to Blumand and the boy loved it.
Without any hesitation, he walked over to Cory with a smirk, taking out a nice generous hunk from his ring. Julius ignored the death stare that Lady Rebecca was giving him as he approached, having full confidence that she wasn’t going to hurt him.
Once he was within a couple of feet of Cory and his mother, Julius offered the chocolate to the boy.
“What do you think you are doing?” Lady Rebecca asked threateningly.
Julius never took his eyes off Cory. “You really think we have any intentions of hurting him after all of the trouble we went to saving him?”
“I don’t care. It might be poisoned or have some kind of mind-altering effect to it. I did just say that you are now our prisoners after all, I wouldn’t be shocked if you decide to harm him now,” she said sharply.
Julius finally looked at her. Taking in her beauty. She was tall and had the same dirty blonde hair as Cory as well as his blue eyes. Only his were a bright innocent blue, while her’s were an ice-cold blue. Still, up close he could really start to see the resemblance. They had the same lips and nose, there was no doubt that they were related.
Instead of handing it to Cory, he handed the piece of chocolate over to her. “Here try it for yourself. There’s nothing in there except for chocolate and sugar.”
When she didn’t take it and stared daggers at him, he sighed and talked quietly so that only the two could hear.
“He has just gone through a traumatic event. He didn’t eat and barely blinked when we found him,” he saw her clench her teeth at that. “That’s why I think he deserves any bit of happiness he can find right now,” he told Cory’s mother with a saddened smile.
She didn’t say anything in return, but she did up taking a tiny bite of the piece of chocolate him giving it a taste for herself. Once she ensured it wasn’t contaminated with any external elements she nodded her head and passed it over to Cory’s eagerly awaiting hands.
The boy gleefully nibbled on it as his mother smiled at his actions.
Eventually, Lady Rebecca turned to look at Julius. “Follow me, please,” she said to him in a much more civil tone.
Comments
PikaAndrew
Tftc
Jack Trowell
Her disguise is more than good, she looks and feels like a completely different person and the enchantment also has a mind altering effect distracting people thinking she might be the princess. And the story probably has not gone public yet or if it has it might just be known as "the princess disappeared in a teleportation trap in a rift"
Xepen
Well shocker, totally wasn’t expecting this development.
Dustin Riley
Where are chapters 213 and 214?
L Pedersen
Whatever. The point is that they have the clout to easily tell this woman to pound sand. But they didn't.
Sean
What plot are you referring to? If we were on the plot still he would've asked Reinera to use the beacon. Dude's just fucking around for now
L Pedersen
Seems like a distraction from the plot, Julius has better things to do.
Amazon Shopper
criminals is a b plot at most, not main arc-if it is its been a pretty bad arc so far. all the henchmen at first base dead after a single battle where mc converted their boss. if not for the looming "bigger orgonization" the entire storybeat would be long behind us
Amazon Shopper
good point, agreed
Amazon Shopper
there is no way the tier 5 nobel women doesn't recognize the princess- i get her diguise is good, but it would probably be kingdom wide news that the princess recently dissapeared, along with a male student(both at tier 2), and suddenly two people matching that description(general age, tier, and noble persuasion). at minimum she will quickly deduce it
Quentin Cozzi
Thanks for the chapter!
Zach
TFTC!! I just need all the inner monologues of these tier 4+ folks when Julius doesn’t get insta terrified - “who is this chaos spawn and wtf is backing him” Julius has also found the secret to his future married life with the princess - when in doubt, chocolate it out >>
Thaabit Rivertree
This is why they shouldnt have gone... what an ungrateful person
L Pedersen
I'd really love to see Jules and Reinera chose some goals or pick out a travel route for X reasons. "Y town is on the way back to heston, it has [insert interesting thing here] that I've always wanted to visit" This whole "lets just bum our way back and whatever happens, happens." is really not doing it for me. Other people have pointed it out but it really sucks to rob your characters of their agency. The high points of the story so far has been when Jules was first dumped in a dungeon after escaping from his house and being a badass at magic high school. Him being passive and pliant in the face of a much stronger person who's being ungrateful and unreasonable is just not fun to read. I really hope that next chapter has Jules or Reinera turning the tables on Rebecca in some way. I'm also starting to worry about pacing. This whole chapter was basically just one scene, introducing Lady Rebecca and their conversation. It felt very empty. Is Rebecca going to be a major character going forward? Important to the story? I guess time will tell. The chapter before that we met some people, ate some food, helped a traumatized boy. And before that we just travelled? I honestly don't remember it and it was only yesterday and the day before I read them. I guess we'll find out more tomorrow.
Pedro Sernagiotto
That’s really dumb. They did say mention nearly exactly what you told them to say, and the noble lady pretty clearly told them she wasn’t going to let them go and that they were prisoners a bit after. They can’t get out of there on their on with a Tier 5 right in front on them telling they won’t. And Julius mentioning who he is? At most that’s gonna make them get in contact with his House, and after that? Now his traitor family knows he is alive and where he is. At most they could say who the princess is, but they didn’t use the beacon for a reason, and if they feel the situation is bad they can still mention it later or just use the beacon. The dumb part here was going inside the estate at all. They could also mention some Tier 6 that helped them asked to not disclose anything about where he is secluded at, but that would risk angering the Elder or risk the noble family finding him and possibly create trouble between the two sides. Honestly they should have just said their goodbyes earlier and gone their way, now that it happened nothing of what you said would be a really good action to take .
L Pedersen
It's how passive he and Reinera are. He could have gotten out of this with words and not even a lot of words. "We brought your son back safe and sound Lady Rebecca but our secrets are our own and you have no right to them" If they firmly refused to cooperate, what would she do? Drag them handedly to the dungeons? Bring out the torturers? If she really did escalate they could just reveal who they are or even just Jules telling her who he is. She's not going to potentially start a conflict with another house of the same rank as her own. But no, they just nod and concede. I desperately hope we get some big dick energy from Jules or even Reinera in next chapter and this woman gets some comupance, her behaviour is disgraceful.
lilcapt
When Julius dealt withe the thugs that was attacking that couple he stole papers linking the two groups but didn't have the means to investigate. And both times he has he has interacted with criminal organizations the expositor mentioned a larger organization I wouldn't to be surprised if they were tied to an anti-Imperial organization that's trying to kill the princess
Sean
Get Cory hooked on his blindfold training, then explore teaching him about gases and liquids and whatnot. Could be a cool thing
Len
Freshmen- 9th grade- is usually 14/15(depending on when birthday was) age 13 would be 7th or 8th grade typically..based on my reading of the story, i'd say juls presents/acts like the 15-16 yrs old range i encounter in the stories i read-except for puberty stuff which you have not really gotten into-if he is 13ish then, heh heh heh, it's coming. i'm old but me at that age -range 13-16- was disgusting...especially around girls i had no clue how to act around girls, and once puberty hit...for a while there, by body was reacting at the WORST possible times...all the time. in school, at the mall,watching a movie etc anything remotely sexy by a girl would set it off for no bloody reason ok there was a reason-hormones-testosterone in my case- but it was damn embarassing esp in the early 1980's in the summer when everyone wore tight clothes. twas very noticable and uncomfortable.
L Pedersen
Why bother? The kid is really young, is he gonna be teaching him his letters and numbers? I hope they get out of this quickly.
Raymond Mouton
Thanks for the chapter. Got to be careful with those Mama Bears…
ThoMiCroN
They are future contacts for the future Patriarch Julius.
Pedro Sernagiotto
Not gonna lie, I like the story but at no point Julius was anything if not dumb. He literally risks his life all the time, be it in fighting, training or annoying people were more powerful than him that according to common sense should have killed him for it a long time ago. He basically just goes with his guts on everything. “Obstinate fool” would be a pretty good way to describe him.
Kevin McKinney
Solid stuff. Wouldn’t lady Rebecca be concerned with the mana construct, too? Delayed bomb or such?
Kyfe
There hasn't been a connection to the Duke's house with these particular kidnappers, yet (though I see it coming, lol). Only the local Noble (Baron is noble equivalent of mayor, Count controls multiple baronies. I don't think the dude's rank was ever mentioned) at the town it happened in. The last thing we knew about the Duke was his family was moving in on Heston.
Kyfe
He's letting his 13 year-old self assert dominance. I believe that's how old he is. He's basically a freshman in high school, maybe younger (and he was never a responsible adult in his previous life, responsible being the key word). The real idiot in this situation is Danny, not putting his foot down to Cory and siding with the child in a bad idea. He's supposed to be a grown man.
Read Isekai
Is she going to be hiring some mind/memory readers? She's probably going to regret it if she does....
Connor Hinrichs
I'm not sure about the school. It has undoubtedly been useful to Julius, and the school absolutely has more to teach him, but right now the first year classes are skipable, so I think a little adventure is a good idea. He can go back second year and get an education that will be more useful at that time
lilcapt
If I were Julius I would be chomping at the bit for the teir three stage advancement
lilcapt
This does move the plot along we are finding out what is happening in politics and kidnapping not to mention that he found that these criminals are connected to the family that screwed his house over
Hayden Futch
Maybe I just have PTSD from too many stories where the main character loses all agency, and the story keeps changing in unpredictable and unsatisfying ways. I love the world and characters that you have built, so I'll try and suppress my frustration and just enjoy the ride.
Sean
I'm guessing he's going to be in an informal teaching position for Cory for a little bit now?
lilcapt
Power equals responsibility thus doing dumb things for the right reasons
RedLeaf
Angry mothers are the worst enemies!
Hayden Futch
You haven't let me down for 200 chapters so I'm going try and have faith in your vision for the story, but this seems so stupid to me. Why does Julius keep on putting himself in needless danger. It's feels like the smart protagonist that I have come to love has just taken a break this arc. Maybe I'll let the chapters build up so I can speed read through this part. I have high hopes for this arc where they are traveling through the world, just hope that it isn't a bunch of Julius being stupid.
Xiver
No good deed goes unpunished.
silder
Going to be honest, looking forward to them getting back to school or somewhere that moves the main plots along. Love the story!
Austin
Nice first
