Cleaver Of Sin

Chapter 675: Return

Asher appeared within the Logistics and Missions Operation Hall in a flash of white light; the moment he arrived, he stood silent for a brief moment, inhaling deeply as though adjusting to the air of the Star Academy, reacquainting himself with its atmosphere after days away. The mission had given him one month, thirty days, to complete it, but he had accomplished it within ten days, a mere third of the allotted time.

The next moment, he turned and began to walk towards his Facilitator, who was as lazy as ever, his posture relaxed, his demeanour indifferent; but the instant he saw Asher, a different light flashed through his eyes as his professional side returned immediately, replacing that laziness with sharp attentiveness.

"You finally decided to come back," the Facilitator spoke as though he had been waiting for Asher, his tone casual yet laced with underlying acknowledgment.

"You sound as though you’ve been expecting me," Asher replied calmly as he came to a stop before the Facilitator’s desk, his gaze steady, his expression unreadable.

"I have, after all, you left fifteen villagers here and vanished immediately," the Facilitator replied as he pushed his hand forward, beckoning for Asher to hand over the mission scroll, his fingers tapping lightly against the desk in anticipation.

"Well, the mission wasn’t just to save the villagers, but also to end the cause behind the kidnapping; the reason I left immediately was to handle just that. If I had stayed behind, I would have failed the mission," Asher replied as he handed over the parchment, his explanation concise yet sufficient.

The Facilitator nodded and took the parchment from Asher’s hand, stamping it with a calm expression, his movements smooth and practiced, as though he had performed this very action countless times before.

Asher stared at the Facilitator; for some reason, the man seemed to be more... spoken than usual, more engaged than his typically detached self, as though something about this particular mission had piqued his interest.

After a moment, the Facilitator spoke, "We’ve received the mission completion notification. The reward was thirty thousand academy points, plus one thousand points for every villager saved; that comes to a total of forty-five thousand academy points," his words calm and measured. As he spoke, his hand shifted to an orb, and a minute later, Asher felt his Point Card vibrate within his space ring; he didn’t need to guess to know that it was the Facilitator crediting him with forty-five thousand academy points.

Asher took out the Point Card and gazed at it, his eyes briefly scanning the familiar interface.

---

Name: Asher Wargrave

Class: ★

Rank: 1

Points: 45,700

---

He only had about seven hundred points before he undertook the mission; ’this amount should be enough for a while, although I still need to take more missions, accumulate a huge number of points, then train for months and only come out whenever we have any sort of exams or rest,’ Asher thought to himself, his mind already planning ahead with calculated steps.

"Thank you," he told the Facilitator as his Point Card vanished from his hand and returned to his space ring.

"You’re welcome," the Facilitator stated, his tone neutral, his attention already shifting elsewhere.

"One question, where are the villagers?" Asher asked; he had simply left them with the Facilitator and rushed towards Debro and his crew, so he didn’t know where they were currently being housed.

"At the Healing Department," the Facilitator spoke without hesitation, his response immediate.

Asher nodded without a word; he turned and walked away as he headed towards the door that led outside the building. The moment Asher stepped out of the Logistics and Missions Operation Hall, two students who seemed to be a team were laughing and talking to each other, completely engrossed in their conversation, so they didn’t see Asher step out, and by mistake, one of them bumped into Asher, and as though he had collided with a wall, he staggered backwards and fell hard on his rear, the impact jarring.

The student immediately raised his head, about to shout at whoever had bumped into him, irritation already forming within his expression, but the moment his eyes fell on Asher, his words froze in his throat and refused to come out due to pure, overwhelming fear that gripped him instantly.

Asher’s eyes shifted downwards; he stared at the student on the ground. With the Limitless Physical Growth ability being activated recently, Asher’s height had increased once again, now touching six foot nine at this moment; he seemed like a giant compared to the student, who stood at six foot two, the difference in presence alone enough to intimidate.

"Te... Ten... Tenth... S... Su... Sun," the fallen student spoke as he stuttered, as though something held his tongue and throat hostage, refusing to allow him to form coherent words.

The second student, the one who hadn’t bumped into Asher, immediately ran away, not daring to incur the wrath of a Wargrave alongside his friend. Yes, they were friends, but not death-bound companions willing to risk everything for one another.

"I... I... apologies... Tenth Sun... please... sp... spare my... family," the student spoke, tears starting to fall from his eyes, his voice trembling uncontrollably, but before Asher could even speak, he fainted the next moment as fear completely consumed his consciousness, his body going limp.

Asher stood stunned for a moment as he didn’t understand what was happening. He recognised that these two were his classmates, and due to him spending almost three months within the Star Academy, nobody trembled at his feet or anything like that; people had become used to his presence and his ridiculous talent, and they neither ran away from him nor avoided him entirely.

But what had just happened at this moment left him puzzled, a rare occurrence for someone like him.

But unknown to Asher, rumours and information spread faster than any airborne disease known to mankind. Although the Wargrave Ducal family had attacked the Imperial family less than twenty-four hours ago, the information had already left the Empire and made its way to the Star Academy, carried through countless channels.

And as for how this information was able to travel so swiftly, well, Asher wasn’t the only one on a mission after all; many students, ranging from first-years to third-years, were all on missions of their own. And with people returning with the same information within the past few hours, everyone had become well informed of what had happened, the story spreading like wildfire.

Which was the reason why, amongst the two students, one had immediately fled the scene, leaving his friend behind as bait, while the other had simply fainted outright from pure fear. After all, if the Wargraves were bold enough to attack the Imperial Palace, then their own families were nothing but insignificant entities that could be wiped out without consequence.

Asher shook his head with a sigh, not bothering to think too much about what had just occurred; he simply walked past the fainted student, leaving him there on the floor as he continued to make his way to the Healing Department without any hesitation in his footsteps, his mind already shifting away from the incident as though it held no real importance.