“Let’s do it! Kill that idiot!”
“Yeah, kill those b*stards! If they’re not gonna let us live, we’ll fight them to the death!”
“Yeah! Let’s slaughter this kid first! Then we’ll seize Carldish Fort!”
…
The former members of the 13th Division were incredibly fired up, some of them even claiming that they wanted to seize the fort. Though Jiang Fei was brave, he did not dare proceed with that suggestion.
Instead, he had a very simple plan in mind. All he wanted was to force Aino to make an appearance. That’s why he had taken Trakus hostage. Once Aino was here, Jiang Fei would use his position as Theon’s apprentice to negotiate with him. He wasn’t even asking for much, just to save the lives of Sarila and the others.
With the threat of a master thief like Theon looming over his vault, Aino would probably agree to Jiang Fei’s request in order to protect his treasures. Jiang Fei was sure that things would go according to plan, as long as he could keep things under control.
If he actually killed Trakus like the angry soldiers wanted, things would probably get out of hand. Trakus was not in a high-ranking position, but he still had status, and there was a good chance that he was closely related to Aino.
If they killed him, Aino would probably be furious. Once he saw something as more important than his treasures, Jiang Fei would lose his leverage and no longer be able to convince him.
It was a well-known fact that Aino would always go the extra mile for his family members. Just for a prodigal son, he was already willing to start a war with the Trade Federation. So, why wouldn’t he be willing to sacrifice some treasures for Trakus?
Although Theon’s true strength was terrifying, Jiang Fei knew that he would never kill anyone over this. At most, Theon would save him and leave. If that happened, Sarila and the others would survive.
But just because he didn’t want to kill Trakus, didn’t mean that Jiang Fei couldn’t scare him a little.
Jiang Fei laughed, grabbing Trakus by the neck. “Hey kid, you heard that, right?”
“Hmph! You dare kill me?”
Although Trakus was a pampered child, he was not cowardly at all.
“How brave! Don’t you dare hurt our captain!”
“Kid, do you even know what you’re doing? You’re rebelling!”
“Have you all lost your mind? Do you all want to die?”
…
The soldiers who had accompanied Trakus were terrified by the mere possibility of Jiang Fei killing Trakus. They immediately surrounded him and tried to save their captain. Although Trakus was just a little police caption, he held a special status as Aino’s only grandson.
Aino had many sons, but most of them had died in the war. With the recent death of another one of his sons, Trakus’ father was now Aino’s only remaining son. That’s why he was especially fond of Trakus and his father.
If it wasn’t for this familial connection, Trakus wouldn’t have dared to make such a bold guarantee in front of Sarila. He knew that he would be able to greatly influence Aino’s decisions as Aino doted on him a lot.
So, when Trakus’ soldiers heard that Jiang Fei was going to kill him, they were all scared to death. Judging by Aino’s character, if anything were to happen to Trakus, they would all be buried along with him!
“Are you guys threatening me?” sneered Jiang Fei as he tightened his grip a little, suffocating Trakus and making his face turn purple.
“You… you… don’t mess around…”
Trakus’s men were so frightened that they took a few steps back. One of them turned around and ran to inform Aino of the current situation.
“Hey kid, ask your men to keep quiet, or you’ll be the one that suffers!” said Jiang Fei.
He loosening his grip slightly so that he wouldn’t get too carried away and kill Trakus by accident.
“Hmph!” Trakus turned away, completely ignoring Jiang Fei.
“Hoho, you got an attitude.”
Although Trakus played a little dirty when he previously tried to pursue Sarila, Jiang Fei had to admit that he had a lot of guts. Things were now at a deadlock. Jiang Fei had gotten hold of Trakus, but was not torturing him. And Trakus’s men were glaring at Jiang Fei, but did not dare to do anything.
Behind Jiang Fei stood more than two thousand passionate soldiers. Only a few among them looked afraid, most were boiling with anger and desperate to fight against Aino.
After all, they had not done anything wrong. Now that they were being assigned to a slave camp where they would eventually die, they naturally wanted to drag Aino and his people down with them. Killing Aino’s only grandson would only add to their satisfaction.
About ten minutes later, Jiang Fei suddenly had a bad feeling. Soon after, a horrific wave of psychic power pierced through the darkness of his mind. It seemed like it was sent to kill him!
Having learned from Theon, Jiang Fei was not the same as he used to be. While he had not yet fully mastered the use of mental strength, he was no longer that kid who could only rely on his instincts.
Om!
He used a mental shield to block the attack, then immediately sent his own psychic wave in return.
A snort came from somewhere in the crowd, “Mmph!”
Obviously, the enemy had not expected Jiang Fei to be so mentally strong, and had been caught off guard.
“Aino, did you just try to sneak attack a junior like me? Aren’t you ashamed?” shouted Jiang Fei.
With the Core of Will’s buffs, Jiang Fei’s mental strength was terrifying. Since the enemy had merely snorted upon receiving Jiang Fei’s attack, it was obvious that his strength was far superior. Only people who had a combat level of at least ten million could possess such powerful mental strength, so Jiang Fei immediately assumed that it was Aino.
“Who are you?” asked Aino as he emerged from behind the crowd. He could only see Jiang Fei’s back.
How could a kid under Alexis’ command possibly catch him by surprise like that? Alexis was a Division Commander with a combat level of only more than four million. There was no way he would have such a powerful subordinate.
“We just met a few days ago. Did you forget me already? Looks like my master and I will have to visit you more often!”
Jiang Fei immediately let go of Trakus and turned around. Now that Aino was here, Trakus was useless to him. And Jiang Fei wasn’t even planning on fighting Aino anyway.
The second Aino recognized Jiang Fei, his insides started to twist into knots. “Why are you here?!” he asked.
Seeing him here was more upsetting than having to eat a hundred dead flies.
All the high-ranking members of the Valsalrian Army would definitely agree that they hated Theon the most. The amazing thief would frequently visit their treasure vaults.
Even though he only took a few items each time, there was no way to stop him from coming again. Moreover, he would always take the most valuable items, which was extremely frustrating.
It was scarier to be specifically targeted by a thief than to be simply robbed by one. This was especially so when said thief was a master one that no one could stop. It was easy to imagine how bitter the victims would feel.
