CHAPTER 140: HERE’S THE DEAL

Here’s the Deal

’... What?’ Jessica frowned deeply, not even trying her hide her disbelief and skepticism.

She looked at the man in front of her and tried to reconcile him with the old man she’d done over a week of research over.

No matter how she looked at it, he seemed like a relative, not the actual person.

’But that’s not possible.’ Vance spoke through their bond, sounding noticeably agitated. ’The only way for someone to appear that much younger is if they break through to the next rank, causing their vitality to rise, but the records say he peaked out on his potential at the Expert rank. Is he maybe using some sort of item to make himself look younger? But what would be the point of that?’ He continued to question, pretty much addressing what everyone else was thinking.

"Ah, you guys must be confused." The man, ’William’, chuckled.

"As I said, the recent sequence of events happened quite quickly, so it’s understandable that your information is still a bit unclear. You see..." He leaned forward, his gaze holding a deep well of experience that didn’t match his age.

"I recently had a breakthrough, as you know, the more one increases their rank, the more vitality they possess, allowing them to live longer. I happened to come across quite the windfall, you see." He explained simply, and everyone’s frowns deepened.

’Okay, I might get killed at this rate.’ William thought inwardly with a bit of nervousness.

He snapped his fingers and partially opened his Beast Space. As soon as he did, an aura emerged from it, and the eyes of the team of investigators widened.

’There’s no doubt about it... That’s an Elite rank beast... but how? Was he nurturing another one in secret?’ Petra questioned.

’Possibly. I see no other way. But if that’s the case. He’s a lot sneaker than we thought, considering he managed to keep the fact he was nurturing a beast with Elite rank potential under wraps for so long and only revealed it now.’ Jessica mused.

They believed that William already had a beast with Elite rank potential and didn’t consider the possibility of him evolving his current beast. Even for a Citadel as advanced as the Eden Citadel, effective beast evolution was still nothing but a pipe dream, so it wasn’t something they even considered to be a possibility.

"You’re quite cautious, hiding the fact that you were nurturing another beast for so long." Jessica conceded, which only got her a raised brow.

"I don’t think I understand," William admitted.

"Your beast. You must have nurtured another one to the Elite rank to facilitate your breakthrough." Vance pointed out, and a look of realization flashed across William’s face before he shook his head.

"I see why you’d think that was the case, but I can assure you that it isn’t." He saw confusion flash across their faces, and he quickly clarified.

"I still have the same beast from before. He got evolved, allowing for my breakthrough." The words were said curtly, but the reaction it elicited wasn’t small.

"Do you take us for fools?" Blake scoffed.

"Evolution? That’s absurd. There’s no way..." Orphie traiked off and her eyes sharpened.

’Corrupt Mana appears along with two Anomalous entities that defy conventional power systems, and suddenly his beast ’evolved’?’ Orphie relayed her doubts through the telepathic link between them, and it seemed like they shared a similar sentiment.

"Hm, you all seem to have a few misunderstandings about this entire situation." William suddenly said, his smile easy.

"I don’t blame you, this entire situation is quite complicated, both from an external and internal point of view. I’m willing to explain everything to the best of my abilities, and I assure you, the events concerning the Abyssal Scrounger and the Skyblight Harbinger are related to why my beast evolved, just not in the way that you think." Hearing this, the group shared a look.

’Teal is once more quiet.’ Blake affirmed.

’... I say we hear him out.’ Harry suggested. ’Looking menacing and threatening him won’t get us any information. At the end of the day, we need to get to the bottom of this issue, and killing him won’t help with that, if he truly is involved the way we think he is.’ He explained.

’I was thinking of something similar...’ Jessica mused before sighing.

"Alright, we’ll hear you out." She took the initiative to take one of the seats opposite the table. The others followed suit, and William smiled.

"Alright. You may use whatever means you have to determine whether I’m telling the truth or not. If you deem it necessary, that is." He offered. And the group once more shared a look.

Blake then sighed and opened up his beast space. As soon as he did, a small monkey with Teal fur and three eyes appeared on his lap before crawling to his neck, staring at William intently.

"Alright, William, we have a series of questions we’d like you to answer for us." Jessica said, her tone becoming strictly professional.

The others also watched intently as the monkey, Teal, kept its eyes trained on William.

"Ask away." He accepted.

"Alright then, would you please please give us a detailed recounting of the Beast Tide that occurred with the appearance of the Skyblight Harbinger...?"

What followed was a long session of question and answer, with Jessica and her teammates not holding back in the slightest with their questions. They questioned things from different angles, asked questions which—under normal circumstances—would be deemed as extremely delicate.

William was quite receiving, though, as he answered most of their questions honestly, and the ones he didn’t answer were a case of him either not knowing, or simply saying he wouldn’t answer.

Luckily, the ones he chose not to answer intentionally weren’t so important that they tried to press him too much for information.

However, there was something that caught their attention.

"You said it was a student who dealt a debilitating blow to the Skyblight Harbinger, and it was that same student who managed to eliminate the Abyssal Scrounger?" Jessica asked to confirm, her skepticism obvious, but Teal hadn’t done anything to suggest otherwise.

"That is correct." William nodded.

"I see. We’ll get back to that later. For now, though, I want to ask more questions, specifically, concerning how you ’evolved’ your beast and how it’s related to everything that has happened these past few months." She began, and William simply nodded

"Alright. First of all, how exactly did this happen?" Jessica asked flatly, and William nodded.

"It was after the ordeal with the Abyssal Scrounger." William leaned forward. He hesitated before pressing a button on his desk.

"Pardon me." He spoke as all the windows suddenly darkened, stopping all forms of Mana sense from piercing through.

The group was immediately on guard, but seeing as William didn’t do anything, they slowly calmed down.

"I apologize. What I’m about to tell you is extremely sensitive information, and only a select few within the Citadel are aware of it. If I’m being honest, I’d rather not tell you this at all, but I know you won’t let me off until you get a satisfactory answer." Hearing the sudden seriousness of his words, the group hesitated before Jessica nodded

"Alright, we will hear you out first." She eventually said, and William nodded.

"Good. In that case, I won’t waste any more time." He took a breath.

"After the Abyssal Scrounger was defeated, we were given an offer by a mysterious individual who refers to himself as ’Maven’." He sighed. "We don’t truly know his identity, not really. However, we know that he is someone with a very strange set of abilities." When he said this, he, glanced at the monkey.

No response.

"He came saying he wanted to take samples of the remains of both the Harbinger and the Scrounger. We were skeptical at first, but he said he would compensate us accordingly. We were doubtful, but our doubts were lessened when one of our citizens who made use of the black market attested to the effectiveness of the Maven’s abilities. They were previously an Adept rank beast tamer, with their beast having been crippled due to unfortunate circumstances. But after the Maven completed his work, not only was his beast healed, but it also evolved and got promoted to the Expert rank." He tapped his table, and a hologram appeared showing an octopus-type beast with what looked like a before and after comparison.

The first image was of a beast that had shriveled skin, with all its tentacles sliced off and its eyes gorged out.

The second one showed a perfectly healthy beast that was quite a bit larger than the last one. Its skin an oceanic blue with longer and more durable looking tentacles.

"As you can see, the subject underwent drastic changes after the evolution. This was when we decided to give this Maven a chance." William smiled as he watched the reactions of the team. He knew he had their attention.