"Clemens F. Metternich?"
The name of the black-robed man was unfamiliar to Basil, and his brow furrowed slightly.
But clearly, now was not the time to look into this man's background.
Just then, he seemed to notice something, and his nose twitched sharply.
In an instant, the composure vanished from Basil's face, replaced by a look of intense disgust as he said coldly, "Damn it!!! I smell the filthy stench of a vampire!!!"
Catching that bloody scent, the silver wolf's fur bristled all over like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, a low, guttural growl rumbling from his throat.
He paused, then fixed his bell-like eyes on the group of Ormar royals, his tone dripping with mockery. "What, did your two great empires, Ormar and Sid, actually join hands to deal with me?"
For him to sense such an overwhelming threat, the bloodline of the vampire present had to be extraordinarily high — at least "prince"-tier among their kind!
To a werewolf... if the Ormar royals standing before him were merely enemies of a differing stance, then those filthy vampires were mortal enemies from thousands of years of feuding, a grudge that would never end while either side still drew breath!
Across the vast Sid Empire, how many prince-tier vampires could there even be?
For a true blood prince to lower himself to lying in ambush on Ormar imperial soil was baffling.
The Ormar and Sid royal houses had been bitter rivals for centuries — how could they suddenly have joined forces?
Whether it was his status as one of the "Ten Legendary Demon Hunters" or as leader of the "White Wolf Bandit Gang," neither should have been worth an alliance between two great empires...
In that instant, countless conspiracy theories flickered through Basil's mind, yet all of them felt hard to believe.
But strangely, everyone on the Ormar side acted as if they hadn't heard a word.
No one responded to what Basil had just said — the business about the vampire seemed to simply not exist, as far as they were concerned.
...
Standing on the drafty second floor of the tavern, Ryan wore a face of utter despair, forced to witness this entire "major incident" unfold.
He was pressed down and trembling under the sheer weight of these titans clashing, unable to move a muscle.
Any single person present could kill a small fry like him — a newly Awakened transcendent — with the flick of a finger.
He wanted to flee, but his legs wouldn't obey him.
The feeling was like being an ant beneath a herd of elephants... the slightest wrong move, and he'd be crushed to paste!
"What the hell..."
Ryan truly had no strength left to even complain.
More than a year of hellish captivity had already beaten him thoroughly against the wall of reality.
After painstakingly playing dumb for a year, he'd finally managed to slip free of the "Weasel Bandit Gang's" control, escaped that vicious schemer Pisces...
And now this? Out of the dragon's den and straight into the tiger's mouth?
A conflict on this level — was that something a small fry like him could possibly get mixed up in?
...
Meanwhile, the heavily armored knight-captain Rhein had walked into the ruins.
He helped up the badly wounded Princess Yumir, saying quietly, with an apologetic tone, "Your Highness, please leave this place first. Metternich has relayed His Majesty's secret order — I have no choice but to carry it out..."
He had originally been the only one who knew why Princess Yumir had taken the risk of coming to the "black market auction," and he knew just how much effort the Grand Princess had poured into this endeavor.
But under imperial command, he now had no choice but to join in hunting down Basil, ruining the princess's carefully laid plans in an instant.
The feeling of this betrayal weighed heavily on him with guilt.
Yumir shook her head, stopping Rhein from continuing.
Did she not understand the situation before her eyes... This was the Empress back at court, growing impatient.
Yumir didn't linger any further, nor did she offer any explanation. Clutching the wound on her chest where the wolf claws had shattered through, she resolutely turned and left.
Only Rhein, standing closest to her, caught that fleeting flicker of sorrow in her eyes.
...
Meanwhile, the entire auction grounds had erupted into chaos.
"Damn it, the Ormar royals actually came knocking! Brothers, grab your weapons, let's take those sons of bitches down with me!"
"I'd like to see which blind bastard dares scheme against our leader!"
"Too arrogant — there's no way we're letting them leave here alive."
"Mechanical city boilers to pressure, cannons ready..."
"..."
The commotion at the "Hyacinth Tavern" had grown enormous. Soon, countless bandits, weapons in hand and cursing loudly, came swarming in from all directions.
Bandits who spent their days robbing and plundering had razor-sharp combat instincts.
As a strong enemy approached, one steel fortress after another creaked and groaned into motion, their cannon after cannon swiveling to aim toward the direction of the Hyacinth Tavern.
Especially the three "War Elephant-tier" mechanical cities — each equipped with hundreds of siege cannons meant for razing cities to the ground. That kind of blanket cannon fire could reduce even a top-tier transcendent to pulp.
It was as if the tables had suddenly turned.
Basil, who moments ago had been surrounded by several top experts, had suddenly become the side with overwhelming numbers.
If it had truly just been these few Ormar royals standing before him, even with [Yama] Helmos — another of the "Ten Legendary Demon Hunters" — among them...
Today, none of them would have made it out alive!
...
At the entrance of the Hyacinth Tavern, the standoff continued.
The outnumbered side stood as calm as a mountain; Basil's numerically superior side wasn't rushing to strike either.
Aside from leader Basil himself, the "White Wolf Bandit Gang" had no shortage of experts at various ranks. Even if their overall cultivation didn't match the terrifying level of the Ormar royals before them, at the very least, with sheer numbers, they had absolute confidence they could finish the job.
Yet for some reason, watching his fellow bandits and brothers swarm in to help, Basil felt not the slightest bit reassured — quite the opposite, an ever-growing unease crept over him.
A werewolf's bloodline carried an innate talent for sensing danger.
The longer time dragged on, the thicker that sense of crisis grew.
"What in the world is going on? Where is their confidence even coming from..."
Basil stared fixedly at the calm enemies before him, his mind clouded with confusion.
He'd originally assumed his old rival [Yama] Helmos would be the greatest threat, yet for some reason, it was that obscure little aide who kept drawing his attention instead.
It was as if... there was some strange power radiating off that man, making him feel... like a demon from the abyss, cold and lethal!
...
"Finally saved..."
As the chaos among the bandits grew louder and louder, Ryan, meanwhile, finally felt his life was no longer hanging by a thread.
More and more bandits came swarming in, and the tense standoff among the tavern's heavyweights was broken up by the noisy commotion.
With more and more people crowding closer and closer, naturally no one noticed a certain small fry quietly slipping away.
Having overheard the entire war of words between both sides, Ryan was probably the bystander who understood best that a life-and-death battle was about to erupt here.
Moments ago, with all those heavyweights watching, he'd had no chance to run — now that the opportunity had come, he wasn't about to waste it, and immediately slipped into the crowd and made a run for it.
Ryan wasted no time at all, breaking into a jog, trying to put as much distance as possible between himself and the center of the incident.
Whoever among the heavyweights lived or died, he — a small fry — couldn't care less.
Whatever conspiracy lay behind all this, he had no interest in digging further...
He knew himself well — this was the kind of excitement that could get you killed. Best to steer clear!
"Everyone, please hold off a bit longer before you start fighting, just a bit longer..."
As he ran, Ryan prayed silently to every god he could think of, hoping he wouldn't get dragged into it.
A large-scale battle was a meat grinder — caught in the eye of that storm, you wouldn't even know how you died.
But then... the unexpected happened.
"BOOM!"
A sudden cannon blast rang out, stunning everyone.
Without any warning, a shell came flying from somewhere and struck true, hitting one of the "White Wolf Gang's" main mechanical cities dead-on.
Then, with a deafening "BANG," a fierce ball of fire erupted, blasting a terrifying hole clean through the thick armor plating...
The sheer power of it left everyone stunned speechless!
...
"What's going on, who's firing off cannons at random? Where the hell are they even aiming?!"
"No, wait — that kind of power... could that be some kind of oversized siege cannon?"
"Look, everyone, over by the lake... there's a steel monster rising out of the lake!"
"That tonnage... that's a Behemoth Lord-tier mechanical city! Oh no, that's the Ormar Royal Academy of Sciences' top mechanical city — the 'City of Ruin'!"
"..."
A moment later, a super steel monster, dozens of times larger than even the "War Elephant-tier" mechanical cities, slowly rose from the waters of Storm Lake, its grotesque armor plating breaking the surface, row upon dense row of massive-caliber super cannons lighting up with muzzle flare all at once...
The curtain had risen on the great battle.