Chapter 474

Raon unleashed Glacier as he walked towards the main gate of Banneret, the Five Divine Orders' city.

He spread the coldness at an extremely small pace, so people wouldn't be able to notice that he was controlling his aura.

"This is a bit cold."

"It's still the central region. This much is child's play compared to Zieghart."

"That's true. It's not piercing through our gloves and boots."

Since Raon was careful and it was winter, even the Light Wind swordsmen right next to him were unable to notice that he was using his coldness.

Raon stroked his sleeve and examined the people in front of the gate.

The Five Divine Orders' warriors were standing in front of the rampart with their spears in their hands, and the entrance was brimming with residents who'd come to watch the celebrities entering the city.

'If I was her, I would've started it here.'

Raon had dispatched swordsmen to the main gate during the Thespian Emperor's visit to pressure her.

If his expectations were correct and she didn't like to lose, she likely prepared to get on his nerves starting from the entrance, just like he'd done.

Huh.

Wrath turned his head and widened his eyes.

So you didn't suddenly start spreading coldness because you are just crazy.

'…Of course not.'

The King of Essence thought your energy center suddenly had a hole in it.

'It's not anything like that. I was trying to find the agitators among them.'

The reason why he'd spread the coldness in advance was to find the instigators among the crowd.

Did you grease your brain or something? How is it working so smoothly?

Wrath started to take notes on his palm, his chin fat shaking in the air. Some letters were being written, but Raon couldn't understand where that was being recorded.

Raon took his eyes off of Wrath and looked at the gate once again.

'It's highly likely that there's no one like that, but if there is, then it won't be a single person.'

A few instigators were usually dispatched among the crowd to use public opinion as a weapon.

Since there were almost a hundred people in front of the entrance, Raon could guess that there were at least five people ordered there by the Thespian Emperor.

'That actually makes it easier. I just need to find the signal.'

The instigators wouldn't act independently. They send signals to each other and raise their voices little by little at the most important time.

As long as he could find their signal, which would determine their course of action, it wasn't difficult to find out how many of them they were and where they were.

Whir.

Raon quietly controlled the Perception of the Snow Flower. Once Perception of the Snow Flower—which had already reached eight-stars—was added to the aura prepared in advance, Raon could feel the movement of people in front of the gate as if he were touching them.

'The guards are innocent.'

The guards' eyes were sparkling like someone who had seen a mysterious animal, and there was no way they could send any signal since they weren't averting their gaze from the front.

'Are they among the crowd?'

Raon focused his senses on the crowd. He observed the movement of their eyes, facial muscles, hands, and chins, but he couldn't notice anything strange.

Maybe there are none.

'That might be the case.'

Raon gave him a small nod since he didn't notice any signals even though he'd checked all of the spectators.

'In that case, I'll have to change my pla—Hmm?'

While Raon was thinking that he needed to change his assumption about the Thespian Emperor's personality, a spectator's shoulder trembled from his right.

It was an ordinary reaction, but six other people shook their shoulders slightly in a similar manner from other locations.

Raon focused his aura perception on the seven people who'd shaken their shoulders. All of them had average might and were extremely young. They were the perfect type of people to act as instigators.

'I found them.'

Raon pretended that he didn't notice anything, lowered his presence further, and walked towards the gate.

By the time he met the guard captain's eyes standing in front of the gate, the six people that he'd previously noticed gazed at him one after the other.

There wasn't anything like bloodlust. It was just an uncomfortable probing gaze. Some other people in the crowd weren't exactly favorable either, but they were way more natural than them.

The instigators were really here…

Wrath furrowed his brow.

Seriously, what the hell are you?

He quickly blinked in disbelief.

'Just an ordinary human.'

Raon responded casually and moved the prepared aura little by little to spread it around the seven instigators.

His aura was going to become a thin aura barrier and lock them up when he needed to.

'It's about time for them to start speaking.'

When instigators tried to get on someone's nerves, they usually glared like they were doing before they voiced out something trivial.

It should be too weak to be called an insult or a criticism, and he would look narrow-minded if he argued against it.

If they insulted him instead, it meant that they were most likely not an instigator.

By the time Raon went through half of the road that the crowd had made for him, a young warrior from the right started to speak.

"Is he Raon Zieghart?"

"It looks like it."

"He looks like a wimp, unlike the rum—"

He wasn't exactly insulting, and it couldn't really be called a criticism either. It wasn't anything serious, but it still got on his nerves, which allowed Raon to ascertain that they were dispatched by the Thespian Emperor.

Raon turned his head and the instigator sneered. He seemed to be provoking Raon into saying something.

Raon activated the aura barrier in a split second.

Whir!

It didn't surround the entire space, unlike the other times. The extremely small aura barrier was only covering the area around the instigator and himself.

It was the method that the White Lotus division leader, Ayad, had used, but Raon had learned to use it even better than him.

"Who do you think you are staring at with your dead fish eyes?"

He insulted him inside the aura barrier so that no one else could hear it. The instigator was the only person who looked like he couldn't suppress his laughter upon hearing it.

"What did you just say?! How could you say such a thing!"

The instigator shouted loudly, believing that everyone had heard it.

However, Raon had released the aura barrier and his voice spread to the crowd.

"Huh?"

"Hmm…"

Obviously, the others were looking at him as if he were a madman.

"Wh-what?! Why are you looking at me like that?! Didn't you hear what he just told me?!"

The instigator pointed at Raon with his finger, his face turning red.

He wouldn't have been deceived if Raon had said it through an aura message, but it was bound to work because he'd created an extremely thin aura barrier.

However, it was still not enough. The instigator needed to say something worse so that Raon could seize him and interrogate him.

'Should I try something about the Thespian Emperor?'

Raon created the aura barrier once again the moment the instigator shut his mouth in panic.

"Hey, fish. Do you have a fish brain to go with your eyes? Why would you speak in a way that no one other than me can hear you? Was it your master who taught you to do that?"

Raon maintained a dignified expression, but his speech was crude.

"Kuh!"

Veins bulged on the instigator's face upon having his master insulted when he was already shocked. Raon immediately removed the aura barrier.

"You son of a bitch, how dare you talk so much trash here!"

The instigator ground his teeth and unleashed his bloodlust. He looked like he was about to attack at any moment.

"Err…"

"Wh-what's wrong with him?"

"I don't know. Maybe he lost it."

"He's talking perfectly fine though, even though the content would kill him."

Everyone in front of the gate dropped their jaws while looking at the instigator who got angry out of nowhere.

The other instigators couldn't decide what to do and simply rolled their eyes.

"What is this nonsense?! Did you not hear what he just said?! Do you have a caterpillar in your ears or something?!"

The instigator's chin was trembling furiously, unable to realize what had happened to him.

Raon created an aura barrier once again and furrowed his brow.

"Thank you. I can extort a lot from your master thanks to you."

Raon couldn't stop laughing in his mind, but he couldn't show it on the outside since lots of people were watching.

"Y-you bastard!"

Since the instigator had already lost his composure, he kept shouting without realizing what was happening.

…Are you seriously a fiend?

Wrath's jaw dropped.

You couldn't do this if there was anything human left in you.

His shoulders trembled as he murmured that he'd never thought such evil could exist among humans.

"A-Allen!"

The person who got a signal from an instigator tried to stop him, but it was already too late.

"Hey!"

Martha came forward and stood in front of the instigator.

"What did you say to our vice division leader, you ugly toad? Do you have a death wish?"

"Huaah…"

He was terrified by her pressure and stepped back before he fell on his ass.

"H-he was mistaken! He sometimes sees things… Ah!"

Another instigator who was trying to defend him suddenly screamed upon noticing the blade touching his neck.

Runaan had moved before they knew it, and her blade was on their necks.

"Kill?"

Runaan blinked blankly, waiting for the order. The sleepiness in her eyes as she was about to kill people made her the most terrifying among them in a way.

"Greetings, White Sword Dragon."

The man, who seemed to be the guard captain, walked up to him and lowered his head.

"We will take care of him."

"No."

Raon shook his head. Since they were clearly on the Thespian Emperor or the Five Divine Orders' side, he wasn't about to do anything foolish like hand him over.

"Since he insulted me and revealed his bloodlust, I'll take care of him myself."

"But in this case—Kuh!"

Raon unleashed the pressure that he'd been suppressing. The violent wave of energy burst out like wildfire, and the guard captain stepped back while breaking out in a cold sweat.

"Are you telling me that he's related to the Five Divine Orders?"

"Th-that's not true."

"Then there's no problem if I take him."

"Hmm…"

The guard captain bit his lip and looked around.

The spectators were nodding in agreement. They seemed to think that the person who was humiliated should decide his punishment.

"Seize him."

"Understood."

Krein and the Light Wind swordsmen carried the man called Allen and the other instigator who was trying to stop him on their backs and followed from behind.

"You are still a novice."

Raon lifted his head while crossing the gate. He rolled his lips into a smile while thinking about the Thespian Emperor, who should've been watching.

"Try harder."

Crack!

The window frame crumpled like paper in Ariel's grasp.

"Try harder?"

'That little rat…'

She ground her teeth violently while watching Raon's back as he followed a guide towards the lodgings prepared for Zieghart.

"Wh-what just happened?"

McCain swallowed nervously and went next to Ariel.

"Why was Allen arrested instead…?"

"It was Raon Zieghart's plot."

Raon had created an extremely thin aura barrier that only included himself and Allen.

It was so refined that even Allen was unable to notice that he was inside an aura barrier, let alone the others.

'What a wicked man.'

No matter how amazing Raon's aura control was, it was impossible for him to figure out Allen's identity and create an aura barrier that no one could notice in that short period of time.

'He must've read my thoughts from the beginning.'

She was certain that Raon had predicted that she would dispatch people like Allen the moment he entered Banneret and made the necessary preparations.

'But how?'

She'd made sure to warn Allen and the instigators multiple times so that they would only get on his nerves instead of blatantly provoking him.

Their gazes and comments could've come from ordinary spectators. She couldn't understand how Raon had found them out.

"Ah…"

McCain's eyes trembled upon hearing the Thespian Emperor's explanation.

His face revealed his disbelief at the fact that Raon had made that decision in that short time and took Allen instead.

"The bigger issue is…"

Ariel furrowed her brow deeply while touching the purple book between her thighs.

'I couldn't read this scene.'

She had checked the heaven's flow to read the overall situation after she'd confirmed that Raon was coming to Banneret.

She'd seen multiple incidents, but the scene she'd witnessed wasn't there at all.

'And it was the same back then.'

She was confident when she'd gone to Zieghart in the past because she'd read heaven's flow beforehand, but the unexpected actions from Raon had completely destroyed her plan.

It was normal that she couldn't perfectly determine the entire situation from reading the heaven's flow, and there were many cases where the situation changed.

However, it was the first time that it unfolded in a completely different way.

Rattle.

Ariel lifted her left hand that was holding onto the window frame. The rubble in her hand fell at the same time.

'Raon Zieghart… Who the hell are you?'

She would be able to understand if he were a celestial being like Glenn or the other heads of the Six Kings, but he was just a youngster at the highest level of Master. She couldn't believe the fact that he had exceeded her predictions.

'I need to investigate him.'

Since it came down to it, it was necessary to move her body and brain no matter how annoying it was.

She had to discard all of the information she had and obtain new intel to analyze what kind of person he was.

"Err, master…"

McCain secretly lifted his gaze.

"Allen and Kopel have been captured. Is that going to be okay? If he raises them as an issue…"

"They aren't officially affiliated with the White Whale anyway."

Ariel sighed quietly.

"He should already be aware that I was the one who ordered them. What he did just now must be a warning for us to be more careful."

Raon had sent a signal to not mess with his Light Wind division by capturing Allen and Kopel. That was why she couldn't use the same method anymore.

"He's most likely going to subtly make a request when he returns those two after the festival."

Ariel bit her red lip slightly.

'My stomach is feeling worse again.'

The discomfort made it feel like her internal injury had opened back up. She calmed herself down and turned her head.

"McCain."

Ariel bobbed her finger at McCain.

"Let's skip the second step and proceed to the third step right away."

"…Understood."

McCain bowed deeply before leaving the office.

However, he came running back to the office before thirty minutes had passed.

"M-master! Raon Zieghart came to see you!"

Ariel closed her eyes tightly.

'Seriously, this fucking punk!'