James looked back at Victor, his gaze filled with suspicion.
“Father, you sent Victor to carry out a task. With his brain full of muscles, I’m afraid he’ll ruin everything!”
“You’d better send me. I promise I’ll do it much better than he will!”
Aron lit a cigarette, leaned back in his chair, and calmly looked at him.
“That task isn’t suitable for you. Better tell me why you came.”
“Let me guess. It has something to do with old Mr. Howlett. You want me to heal him.”
James opened his mouth in shock.
He completely forgot to ask what Victor had gone to do and why that task was not suitable for him.
“Father, you… How did you know?”
Aron slowly exhaled a ring of smoke and casually began tapping his fingers rhythmically on the armrest.
“No one can hide their thoughts from me. At least, no one like that has appeared so far.”
“Old Mr. Howlett is dying, and I can heal him. But have you thought about the consequences? Would he be willing to endure the strange looks of other people and live with the fate of a man whom ordinary people might try to kill at any moment as a monster?”
James understood the sincere words of his foster father.
Even he, despite his youth and inexperience, knew that exactly such things could happen.
Old Mr.
Howlett was very famous throughout Canada.
Many knew that he did not have much time left and were only waiting for his death so they could pounce on the Howlett family, which would be left without its support, and divide among themselves the enormous wealth the old man would leave behind.
No one wanted to see the terminally ill old man recover, take control again, and restore the Howlett family’s former iron strength.
Those people would certainly harbor hatred and might even try to take revenge on the one who healed him.
However, none of that posed a serious problem.
The Blackwood family was several times more powerful than the Howlett family and could easily suppress the unrest that would follow.
The real problem was that birth, aging, illness, and death represented the natural law, at least a law ordinary people could not resist.
Anyone who violated that law would become a monster in their eyes.
People would immediately think of supernatural forces such as demons, vampires, magic, and witchcraft.
The way witches were treated in the Middle Ages, they would also treat old Howlett, who had violated the natural course of life and death, as well as Aron who had healed him.
At that point, the enemies of the Blackwood family would no longer be only a few families that wanted to seize the Howlett fortune, but almost all of human society.
There was an old saying: “People are always afraid of those who are not like them.”
Ordinary people started wars against one another merely because of differences in skin color and origin.
If a different being possessing supernatural power appeared, they would do only one of two things.
They would try to seize that supernatural power and place it under their own control, or they would try to completely destroy it in order to return the world to a state they considered “normal.”
James’s face paled slightly, and his voice became stiff.
“Is there really no way to solve that problem?”
He did not want to simply stand by and watch the old man die.
Old Howlett had always treated him extremely well.
Even when he learned that James was not his blood, he was still willing to entrust the entire Howlett family to him.
Such deep love surpassed the boundaries of blood relation.
Aron lightly flicked ash from his cigarette and thought for a while before seriously answering:
“Theoretically, it would be possible if you were so powerful that you could destroy the Earth whenever you wished. After all, there is no person who truly does not fear death.”
James became even more discouraged.
He realized that he had been too naive.
The possibility of someone effortlessly destroying the entire Earth sounded far too unbelievable.
“However, if you train diligently, in the future you won’t be helpless when you face a similar situation again!”
Aron encouraged him casually, then after a brief moment of thought continued:
“Instead of grieving here, make better use of every second to become stronger. Everything will be all right. I promise you.”
After seeing the dejected James off, Aron walked out onto the balcony and raised his gaze toward the starry sky.
“I can’t challenge all of human society, but on Canadian soil I can solve many problems very easily.”
…
Under the cover of the dark night, a group of people carrying torches galloped toward Ottawa.
Nathan Cole occasionally glanced at the black figure running on all fours through the forest beside the road.
Its speed did not lag behind the horses at full gallop in the slightest.
Since leaving the Blackwood estate, they had stopped only twice and covered four hundred and thirty-five kilometers in eight hours.
Two hours had passed since the last rest.
The horse beneath Nathan was almost completely exhausted, but the black shadow had been running continuously for two full hours, and its speed had not decreased in the slightest, as though it would never feel fatigue.
“Such physical ability truly belongs to a monster. A human simply cannot compare with it! Even a Transforming Force master like me cannot maintain the speed of a galloping horse for so long.”
Nathan looked away, speechless with amazement.
No wonder the master had inserted a complete beginner into this group and entrusted him with the most difficult part of the task.
Victor sensed that the eyes constantly watching him had finally turned elsewhere, so the unease in his mind eased slightly.
Since he no longer needed to restrain himself, he accelerated again.
His arms and legs moved in perfect coordination.
With a single leap, he covered seven or eight meters.
Streams, large rocks, and steep cliffs were nothing more than flat ground before Victor.
Halfway there, they stopped again so the horses could eat a little and recover their exhausted strength.
Nathan and the musketeers spread their legs one after another and let the cold night wind cool their burning thighs.
After prolonged riding, even their bodies, hardened by years of training, felt unbearable pain.
Their calluses had probably already been rubbed raw.
Victor was only breathing slightly faster and muttered unhappily:
“These horses really are useless. They had to rest three times just because of a mere six hundred kilometers!”
If he had acted according to his former nature, he would already have rushed to Ottawa alone and, as soon as he found the Governor General’s residence, killed everyone inside.
“If my king hadn’t ordered me to listen to that man, why would I waste time like this?”
Even so, he did not dare disobey Aron’s order.
He paced back and forth beside the fire, kicking up large clouds of dust.
Nathan looked at him irritably, coughed lightly, and said:
“Stop pacing in front of my eyes. How are you going to carry out tasks for the master if you’re so impatient?”
“If you can’t obey orders, go back to the estate. I’ll finish the task with the other brothers myself, just like always!”
The power of a Transforming Force master erupted from his body like a furious ocean wave.
Victor’s pupils instantly contracted, and a faint green glow appeared in them.
The hair all over his body stood on end as though a wild beast had suddenly encountered a natural enemy.
His beast-like instincts warned him that the man before him was dangerous and possessed power capable of threatening his life.
“I haven’t carried out my king’s order yet, so I can’t return. When we finish the task, I’ll challenge you to a fight!”
Victor walked over to a large rock, leaned against it, and closed his eyes to rest.
Nathan smiled coldly, paying no attention at all to his challenge.
…
Following the markings on the map, they came before an enormous estate fully illuminated by numerous lamps.
Watching the soldiers carrying torches and occasionally patrolling the surroundings, Nathan confirmed that the residence of Governor General Edmund was before them.
He carefully studied the rhythm of the soldiers’ patrols, as well as the surroundings and layout of the entire estate.
They did not merely have to complete the task, but also withdraw completely unnoticed.
They could not leave behind even the slightest trace that might allow anyone to connect the event with the Blackwood family.
“Vine, you and Smith head toward the western side and use kerosene to set the stables on fire.”
“Rodman, the two of us are the best marksmen. We’ll eliminate the lookouts on the towers.”
The three musketeers who had been called quietly replied:
“Understood!”
Nathan then looked at Victor, who was already prepared for battle, and took a sealed brown paper bag from an inner pocket.
When he opened it, a fountain pen was revealed inside.
“Victor, the master said that you have an exceptionally good sense of smell. This pen belonged to Edmund. The master paid a large sum of money to obtain it. Your task is to find Edmund and kill him.”
Victor took the pen, brought it to his nose, and deeply inhaled its scent.
Ptooey!
He spat forcefully, crushed the pen in his fist, and cursed:
“Damn it! Not only is it covered in that man’s stench, but I can also smell the disgusting scent of debauchery on it!”
“What the hell did that bastard do with this pen?”
When they heard Victor’s words, Nathan and the others froze for a moment.
As soon as they understood what he had said, they almost burst out laughing.
They tried with all their strength to hold it back, causing their faces to turn completely red.
Nathan had the best self-control.
He quickly suppressed his smile and patted Victor on the shoulder.
“I’m starting to like you, kid. When we finish the task, I’ll take you to the best brothel in the city. Then you’ll understand everything.”
“The soldiers complete a patrol circuit approximately every five minutes. Victor, pay attention to the timing when you go in.”
“The others will move after Victor enters and when the second patrol returns toward the gate. Then we’ll draw their attention.”
After finishing his orders, he looked at the thick dark clouds in the sky and, with a wave of his hand, signaled everyone to disperse and carry out their tasks.
Taking advantage of the gap between two patrols, Victor leaped barefoot onto the three-meter-high fence like a tiger stalking its prey, then crossed the wall in only a few movements.
He moved like a cat with soft pads on its paws.
Although he weighed more than two hundred kilograms, he landed on the ground without making the slightest sound.
He quickly surveyed the surroundings.
As soon as the soldiers disappeared around the corner, Victor approached the wall of the large building.
He gripped the narrow gaps between the bricks with his fingers and slowly climbed all the way to the roof, then took a deep breath through his nose.
A barely noticeable but familiar body scent led toward a room on the western side.
Victor moved silently across the roof, and the scent became stronger and stronger.
He slowly lowered himself from the roof and jumped onto the balcony of the third room from the western side.
From inside, he could hear the sounds of violent impacts and the screams of a woman.
When he looked through the window into the room, he saw two figures, one white and one black, intertwined on a large bed.
After some time, the white figure trembled several times and then stopped.
After breathing heavily for a while, the white-skinned man grabbed a candle and drove it into the black-skinned woman’s body.
At the same time, he cursed and roared:
“Fuck you! Fuck you!”
The target had been found!