Chapter 17: The Wanted Name
The air in the guild turned to glass the moment the announcement ended.
A storm far heavier than the rain now loomed over the room—one made of tension, anger, and disbelief. The Enforcement Force captain stepped forward, his voice firm and unflinching.
"A reward of two million Reydon for any useful information. Do not engage him. Do not show your killing intent if you encounter him. Retreat and report to the nearby Enforcement Officer."
With that, the four soldiers in black and crimson departed, leaving behind a silence sharper than blades.
Guild members drifted toward the mission board, where the missing poster was now pinned. A bald man in thick iron armor approached it, scowling. With a flick of his wrist, he embedded a dagger through the paper.
"I'll gut that hypocrite myself if I find him," he spat, his voice shaking with rage.
A veiled woman in a grey-blue robe stood behind him. Her voice was calm but clipped.
"Didn't you hear the warning? He's a Legendary-ranked Essence Weilder. If he wanted, none of us would even see our deaths coming."
The bald man clenched his fists but said no more.
Guildmaster Bayer approached, arms crossed and expression grim.
"They took copies of all our documents," he said. "They think he's hiding in one of the guilds. I never met the Emperor's sons, but the Emperor … he was feared by other empires and beloved by his people. I respected him as well."
"Then his son betrayed him," someone muttered. "Unforgivable."
Reydon—Ravi—stood among them silently, his expression unreadable.
Everywhere he looked, faces twisted with disgust, sorrow, and rage. The Emperor had uplifted their cities, improved their lives. His death wasn't just a tragedy; it felt personal to them.
And now I wear the mask of his murderer, Ravi thought.
Then, the guild's door creaked open.
A seven years old boy stepped in, his dark hair soaked by the rain. He bore a striking resemblance to Waker—smaller, thinner, but with the same anxious eyes.
"Big Brother … Uncle and Aunt want to see you. They said it's important."
Waker blinked in surprise, then frowned. His usually goofy face turned somber. For a moment, Ravi saw something cold behind those eyes. Haunted.
"Alright," Waker said. "I'll come with you. Reydon, I'll catch you later."
He gave Ravi a half-hearted wave and followed his brother into the night.
Ravi stared after them, his thoughts uneasy.
How deep does Waker and his brother's pain effected them psychologically?
No one suspected Reydon Leyn. They couldn't. His disguise had held, his personality was too unassuming, and his Essence Aspect too weak. He had made himself too average to be a threat.
A Legendary-ranked Essence Weilder wouldn't pretend to be someone like me, he thought wryly.
But time was running out. With the Empire's eyes tightening their grip, he needed to act quickly as well.
Tonight, he'd begin the final stage of his plan. If all went smoothly, by morning he'd be assigned a C-rank mission—a standard merchant escort headed to the City of Aqua Hospice.
Such missions were frequent. With no advanced transport in Antiarena City, merchants relied on guild escorts to guard them against mercenaries, thugs, cursed beasts, and worse.
It's a perfect cover, Ravi thought. No one questions C-rank travel with average manpower.
But it wouldn't be simple. The burst-eye sigil still burned under his skin. The hallucinations were growing more frequent—bloody roses, murmuring shadows, malformed creatures whispering in forgotten tongues.
He looked at the tattered poster again.
His name. His face. A truth no one knew.
Corral Fukasaku. The Scorpio Order. You defiled the truth, erased the past, and marked me for death.
His jaw tightened. After this dark sigil … it'll be your turn.