“I apologize for this inconvenience, but let’s take a break for our meeting.” Chairman Gerard said to the group of people following him.
“Don’t worry, we understand. After all, family matters should be above everything else.”
“I needed to stretch my body, anyway.”
“Then let’s all return tomorrow at the same time.”
“I don’t mind.”
Sometime later, Camille followed Chairman Gerard into the Adventurers’ Bureau.
Once they were inside his office, Chairman Gerard sat behind his office table and stared at Camille with a frown on his face.
“I thought you’d never come back to the Celestial City after your retirement, especially after all that fuss you made before you left.”
Camille sneered, “You think I wanted to be here? My friend nearly got killed because of someone in the Adventurers’ Bureau.”
“Hmm…”
Chairman Gerard placed his hands before his mouth and pondered.
“That’s some serious accusations, Camille. Where did you get the idea that someone in my Adventurers’ Bureau tried to harm your friend?”
Camille narrowed her eyes and spoke in a cold voice, “There are plenty of people who want to get back at me for opposing the Adventurers’ Bureau and retiring. However, they cannot harm me, so they decided to harm my friend instead. Of course, these people include you, father.”
“You think I had something to do with your friend? I may despise your decision to retire, but I would never do something this petty! Are you looking down on me, Camille?!” Chairman Gerard slammed the desk in front of him, causing it to jump.
If the desk hadn’t been enforced with magic, it would’ve shattered just now.
“And you still haven’t said anything about your ‘friend’.”
Camille sneered in disdain, “Still acting like you don’t know anything, huh? There’s no way the Chairman of the Adventurers’ Bureau hasn’t heard about the Adventurer that I am sponsoring. In fact, I am willing to bet that you heard about it the same day I signed the papers.”
Chairman Gerard’s eyes slightly.
“So this whole thing is about that boy, Leon… Indeed, I heard about him. His name was being mentioned practically everywhere I went for the first two days in the bureau. However, so what if I know him? What does that prove?”
“He took a special mission recently to be promoted to C-Rank. However, this special mission was related to the Scarlet Family, and as far as I am aware, this special mission was a death trap for him. He was sent there as a sacrifice, and only the Adventurers’ Bureau can assign Adventurers to specific special missions!”
“The Scarlet Family’s special mission…” Chairman Gerard finally understood the full situation.
Due to the nature of the special mission, the Adventurers’ Bureau had blacklisted it so that their system wouldn’t automatically assign any Adventurers to it.
However, the fact that Leo had been selected to do the mission meant that someone had purposefully assigned it to him.
“I want you to investigate the person who assigned him the special mission and find out why this person did it. If you don’t find the person responsible, I will hold you and the entire Adventurers’ Bureau accountable, and you can forget about our agreement.”
“You!” Chairman Gerard stood up with a deep frown on his face.
“That agreement was the only reason we allowed you to retire!”
“And what about your part of the agreement? That the Adventurers’ Bureau would never bother me if I agreed to it? Your party was the first to break the agreement, so it would only make sense for me to do the same.”
Chairman Gerard gritted his teeth in anger, but he quickly composed himself and sat back down.
“Very well, we will investigate the person responsible for assigning your protégé to the Scarlet Family’s special mission. Is this all?” he asked.
“No, I am not done. Someone had also placed a ‘bounty’ on him. It could be the same person who assigned him to the special mission, but it could also be a different person.”
“A bounty? I understand the special mission case, but anybody could’ve put a bounty on him! Why would you suspect that we’re also part of it?”
“Because the bounty appeared right before his special mission, and the bounty hunters that had been selected were his teammates during an ongoing mission, or do you expect me to believe that it’s just a coincidence?” Camille spoke.
And she continued, “Furthermore, only very few people know about the existence of Leon. If not the Adventurers’ Bureau who could access his information at will, who else would try to kill him?”
Chairman Gerard pondered for a moment before speaking, “We will investigate the person behind the special mission, but we will not entertain you with the bounty issue unless you have concrete evidence that my Adventurers’ Bureau was involved. If you’re not satisfied, you can do the investigation yourself.”
“When you find the culprit, lock him in a cell for me. I want to personally question him.”
“I understand. Then about our agreement…”
“That will depend on the result of your investigation.” Camille said in a cold voice.
“I’m leaving now. I will stay in the city for two days. Let’s hope you find the culprit by then.”
“Wait.” Chairman Gerard said right as Camille turned around.
“There is going to be an award ceremony for your brother next month. Will you be attending?” he asked.
“I only have one brother, and he’s already dead.” Camille said in a calm voice before she left the room.
“…”
Chairman Gerard laid back on his chair and rubbed his eyes.
“What a troublesome daughter…” he muttered in a sighing voice.
After leaving the Adventurers’ Bureau, Camille went to a nearby flower shop and purchased a bundle of flowers before making her way to the graveyard.
At the graveyard, she approached a certain tombstone with the name ‘Leon Light’ engraved in it.
She placed the flowers she’d just bought in front of the tombstone and silently prayed to it.
Meanwhile, Chairman Gerard ordered the Adventurers’ Bureau’s intelligence unit to investigate the person responsible for Leon’s special mission.
It didn’t take long before Chairman Gerard received a name.
“Marden Graves… I see… This makes sense. Thank you for your hard work. Lock him up in a cell for now.” Chairman Gerard dismissed the team shortly after.
He called Camille and notified her of the news.
“Marden Graves? So it was that bastard…” Camille gritted her teeth in anger after hearing his name.
“Where are you keeping him? I want to speak with him.”
“He’s currently behind bars in one of our cells in the Adventurers’ Bureau. However, we can’t keep him locked up for too long. If you want to speak with him, you must come now.”
“I am already on my way there.” Camille hung up the phone and flew straight to the Adventurers’ Bureau.
Sometime later, Chairman Gerard led Camille to their in-house prison. They stopped walking once they were in front of a certain cell, where a young man was locked up.
“Camille! You really came back!” The man inside the prison immediately jumped out of his seat and rushed to her with a blissful look on his face, clearly very happy to see her. However, he was quickly stopped by a thick layer of enhanced glass that would remain unscathed even if it was struck by a tank.
Camille frowned when she saw this, and she turned to look at Chairman Gerard with a cold gaze.
“What is the meaning of this?” she spoke in a cold voice.
“Did you think I would let you see him without ensuring his safety? I don’t care if he tried to kill your protege, you’re not going to kill him. I don’t need you stirring trouble with the Graves Family again.”
Camille sucked her teeth with an annoyed face.
“Camille! I am so happy that you came to visit me!” The person behind the glass wall exclaimed.
Camille turned to look at him with clear killing intent in her gaze, but the man didn’t seem to mind it.
“So you were the bastard behind Leon’s special mission. I should’ve known it was you, Marden. Although I can guess why you did it, I am still going to ask you— why did you target Leon?” she asked him.
“Leon? Oh, you mean that little brat who dared to get between our relationship! I won’t let another man be close to you when you already have me! I won’t have it, Camille my dear!”
“This delusional fucker!” Camille suddenly smashed the glass wall with her fist that was gushing with mana, but her fist was repelled without leaving any marks on the glass.
“Get him out there! I am going to kill him!” She turned to look at Chairman Gerard, who shook his head.
“You know I cannot allow that to happen. And don’t even try to threaten me. It’s not going to work. The relationship between our Light Family and their Graves Family is already bad enough as it is. If you kill him, it will cause a full-blown war between our families.”
“So what?! This bastard has been harassing me for years and I have endured all of it! However, he crossed the line when he tried to harm Leon, who is completely innocent! He even thinks we’re in a relationship! This world is better off without this delusional bastard! I’m going to kill him today whether you like it or not! If you think this glass wall can stop me—”
Camille’s body suddenly began emanating a golden aura, and her eyes flickered with intense killing intent.
“CAMILLE!” Chairman Gerard suddenly roared. “This isn’t just about our family! If you kill him, the Graves Family will do everything in their power to avenge him! This means that everybody close to you will be in their crosshair, including the academy! Our family might be able to handle them, but I can’t say the same for the others.”
Camille gritted her teeth in frustration, “So you’re just going to let him go?”
“The Adventurers’ Bureau will punish him accordingly for his violations. You have my word.”
“If only your words are trustworthy.” Camille sneered.
She turned to look at Marden and asked, “Are you also responsible for the bounty on Leon?”
However, he spoke with a puzzled expression, “Bounty? What bounty?”
Camille immediately frowned.
‘He’s not responsible for Leo’s bounty? But who else would want him dead beside Marden?’ she wondered inwardly.
She spoke again a moment later, “Marden, this is your last warning. If you dare mess with me or Leon again, I will kill you even if I have to start a war with the Graves Family!”
A malicious grin suddenly appeared on Marden’s face, and he spoke in a crazed voice, “If you want me to stop, you’ll have to kill me.”
“This crazy bastard…”
“Let’s go. His family has learned of his detainment and is already demanding his release. We won’t be able to keep him locked up for much longer. We’ll figure out something later, but for now…” Chairman Gerard said to her after seeing the text on his phone.
“Che!”
Camille turned around and left the in-house prison with Chairman Gerard shortly after.
Once they returned to Chairman Gerard’s office, Camille said to him, “I was serious about what I said. If you don’t want me to start a war with the Graves Family, it would be in your best interest to keep them in check.”
“You make it sound so easy. The Graves Family is on par with our Light Family in terms of influence and power, and they’re growing stronger every day. You think I don’t want to get rid of their family that is nothing but an eyesore to me? I would’ve done so already by now if it was that easy! Anyways, you should leave the city before the Graves Family arrive, unless you want to make our situation even more complicated.” Chairman Gerard said to her.
