—Who exactly is this Julian Clair? At first, I thought he was just some lucky guy who happened to find a monster-tier talent like Kiena. But after hearing the rumors and news lately, everyone’s only ever talking about just how incredible he is.
—Don’t believe these lies. The students who witnessed it are still kids, they could easily be exaggerating, especially since there’s no concrete proof, no video, not even a single photo.
—Some people are claiming Julian Clair is actually that hidden Rank-A legend everyone’s been talking about, the one spotted in the Canelo Residential District, is that actually true?
—I looked into it myself, and hey, turns out Julian actually clashed with Eland once and somehow made him back down. And you know what? Right after that, everything started going wrong for Eland. Not only did he go bankrupt, apparently he ended up severely injured and traumatized too. This info’s solid, I got it straight from someone who works as a professor at the academy.
The news spread fast. Julian’s popularity as a Hidden Master had become an incredibly hot topic lately, sparking all sorts of drawn-out debates.
Not just in Canelo, but across other regions of Central too, everyone had grown genuinely fascinated by this topic. Naturally, that popularity was bound to reach the Elite Region and the Slums eventually.
For those in the Elite Region, the topic served mostly as entertaining gossip, though a few of them treated it as something more, wondering if there might be some genuine potential worth capitalizing on.
Still, so far, no one had made any sudden moves.
Meanwhile, in the Slums. The topic became a source of far livelier entertainment. Kids exaggerated it wildly, while the adults mostly laughed it off and mocked it, assuming it was just some staged drama cooked up by people from Central.
Of course, not everyone felt that way.
"Brother, why are you laughing?"
Inside an abandoned warehouse, where a large group of children and a handful of adults had gathered, a boy holding a newspaper let out an amused laugh, his lips curling into a smirk.
Across from him, a much younger girl questioned her brother’s laughter, hesitating before stepping closer, peeking at the contents of the newspaper.
Then, her eyes went wide.
"Isn’t that...!?"
The boy nodded, lifting his face, filled with genuine admiration.
"Julian Clair... that’s his name."
Ariel smiled.
Quite a bit of time had passed since he’d last crossed paths with that figure in the white gloves, and now, finally, Ariel knew his name.
Even better, just as expected, his savior hadn’t just been all talk, he genuinely was that impressive.
Defeating a Rank-D Invader, while his disciple, undoubtedly that girl Ariel remembered, had swept the tournament effortlessly as the Dark Horse.
Just how incredible were these two, really?
Ariel’s heart pounded hard, a surge of anticipation and excitement swelling inside him.
’Ah, what do I do now? They’re growing further and further out of reach... could I really manage to reach even a level somewhat close to them?’
Not equality, Ariel was confident enough that that was impossible, so he just wanted, at the very least, to get somewhere in their vicinity.
Lost in his thoughts, someone suddenly arrived with a heavy thud.
"Ugh...! Let go of me, you bastard!"
Ariel turned toward the source of the commotion and found someone he recognized, arriving with a man being dragged along, his body covered in wounds.
"Ariel, I’m here."
Ariel nodded. "Is this the guy who’s been trying to pull the same thing we do lately? I mean, trying to sell information and set up a rival organization."
"Yeah, just as you can see, it’s definitely him. What do you want done with him?"
Ariel glanced at the man briefly, blinked a few times, trying to recall just how cold and charismatic Julian’s gaze had looked back then, and then Ariel mirrored it.
His eyes turned colder, his expression falling flat as he stared down the man in front of him. Building an organization dedicated to gathering and selling information, Ariel had gone through more than his fair share of trouble, nearly dying several times along the way, but he’d pushed through all of it and made it to where he now stood.
Throughout that time, Ariel had learned a great deal. Like, if he wanted to genuinely succeed and stay safe in this line of work, he had to make sure he never had any real competitors.
So, what did Ariel do every single time someone tried copying his business?
Capture them, and if they proved stubborn enough to fight back...
"Hah! You little brat! Do you have any idea how heavy that position actually is!? These people only let you lead because you’re useful, you damn idiot! You’re nothing but a puppet to them, you’ve never actually led anything! I’m telling you the truth here."
Ignoring that, Ariel let out a low huff, staring sharply at the man before finally smiling. "One question, are you going to stop, or not?"
The man’s face twisted with irritation and fury, his expression darkening. "Stop!? Kid, are you even listening to what I’m saying!? I’m a grown man! Listen to me!"
"Stop, or not?"
The man spat off to the side. "I’m not stopping!"
A reddish glint flashed in Ariel’s eyes hearing that, followed by an amused smile spreading across his face. "Grey, just kill him."
"Understood."
The man flinched, his face draining dark. "H-huh!? What? What did you just say, you rotten brat!? Kill him? How can you say something like that so casually!? Do you even kn—ah, ah, AAARRGHHH."
A piercing scream echoed throughout the entire abandoned warehouse. But no one there cared in the slightest, and even as blood slowly pooled across the cold floor, the scream lasted only a moment before everything fell silent once more.
Right after, three other figures approached Ariel, letting out deep, exhausted breaths.
"Ariel, we’re back."
"Oh? Welcome back, how’d it go? Good news or bad news?"
One of them didn’t hesitate, shrugging with an amused laugh. "They said they want to meet. But honestly, I think it’s worth doing?"
"Hmm... of course it’s worth doing. I mean, someone claiming to be a worshiper of the White-Gloved Figure wants to meet me, the leader of an Intel organization operating under that exact same name. I’m curious, are we actually talking about the same person, or two different ones entirely?"
Ariel kept his smile in place. "Tell them to set up the meeting."
"Understood."
Once the three of them left, Ariel couldn’t hold back the smile spreading across his face.
"Clana, what do you think? Don’t I look a lot more grown-up now, kind of like Lord Julian?"
"...You look creepy."
Ariel’s smile turned awkward hearing that, well, hardly surprising, given what he’d just done.
But that was simply how the Slums worked. He couldn’t afford to let his guard down just because he’d let someone who’d crossed him walk free, someone who’d likely come back with a grudge and a plan to hurt him and Clana.
Scratching his cheek, Ariel looked around. He’d come this far already, there was no way he wanted to fail now.
Not when he’d finally started tasting just how sweet real wealth felt.
’I have to thank my savior for all of this.’
Of course, given his age, none of this should have been possible for Ariel to pull off at all. Not every adult trusted him at first, so he’d initially started out working only with children.
Fortunately, Ariel had received one extraordinary piece of help.
The fact that... he’d awakened his own Talent, right in the middle of his darkest moment.
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