Chapter 18: 16 – Survivors of the Abyss

***

Glenn blinked. One moment, he was inside the sand wasteland, the next, he was back to the familiar avenue. Before he could think about anything else, a curse took his attention.

"Kuso!"

Although he didn't know what that phrase meant, he was sure that it was a curse, considering the fact that Hiro shouted that out loud as soon as he fell to the ground, head-first.

'Looks like that Spirit queen has a good sense of humor.'

Looking around, he could see that apart from him, Hiro, and Annie, there were about 40 other people in the Avenue, all of which were being apprehended by rough-looking officers. It didn't take long before the officers noticed Glenn's group and began rushing toward them. 

They put Hiro—the closest person to them—in cuffs, and yelled for him to stay on the ground.

"Let me go!" Hiro shouted. "Do you know who I am?"

But the officers didn't listen to him and instead kicked his jaws to shut him up. Then, they turned toward Glenn and was about to rush toward him. However, Ander suddenly appeared and ordered them, "leave the kid alone, I can testify that he won't spill anything. Oh, and uncuff the blonde kid. He's under Maria's protection."

"A-Are you sure, lieutenant Stelwall?"

"Positive."

The officers saluted Ander before hastily uncuffing Hiro and profusely apologizing to him. Then, they worked efficiently to capture the rest of the 40 people, who were trying to run away after seeing that they were arresting people.

Deliberately ignoring the scene of officers beating people, which, at this point, should've been familiar to him, Glenn approached Ander. "Are you okay?" He asked, eyeing Ander's bloodied body.

"I'm fine," he responded, his shoulders slumping a bit in exhaustion. "Only about half of it is my blood anyway. You should've seen what that other guy looked like. By the way, did you know what happened? I was transported back here as soon as I killed the Knight-cultist."

As Glenn was about to answer him, Kevin suddenly appeared. "Newbie, don't you dare say anything about the Spirit queen."

'Why?'

"She wouldn't want anyone to know about her."

Glenn nodded. 'Seems reasonable enough.' He didn't want to offend someone who was capable of literally stopping time and ejecting everyone out of the Abyss after all. However...

'Won't that Hiro guy leak something?'

"No need to worry about that, I saw Glacia erasing his memory before sending us back."

By now, Ander was looking at Glenn with increasing suspicion, so he decided to leave Kevin behind for now and answered, "nope. I was just as surprised as you are. We were transported back right as we was about to be killed by Death."

"You encountered Death?!" Ander shouted, his eyes were filled with pity now instead of suspicion. "Are you okay?"

"Well, do I look okay?" 

Ander drifted his eyes toward Glenn's body, which suffered not even a scratch. Even more surprisingly, his clothes, or rather, the hooded cloak that he was wearing, didn't have the slightest tear.

"I believe that you're hiding something from me..." Ander said, causing Glenn to flinch. Eventually, he sighed wearily. "Look, I can't be bothered to force anything out of you right now so please, answer me truthfully just this once."

"...Okay."

"Is your secret going to harm the alliance or me?"

"No," Glenn immediately answered. That Spirit queen didn't look like a bad person. Plus, she probably couldn't care less about the affairs of the so-called Mortal realm, and by extension, the alliance.

Seeing Glenn's almost immediately and genuine answer, Ander nodded. "Good. Now, let's get that Mana contract signed."

...

"Annnnnnnd... done!" Ander said as he watched the contract he had just signed burn into nothingness with a blue flame. Clasping his hands together and staring at Glenn, who was sitting across a makeshift table that the officers hastily build for them, Ander said, "now, I'm sure that you have a lot of question. Ask them away, and I'll answer to the best of my ability."

"Okay... First, will I get monetary aid?"

"I had a feeling that it's the first thing you're going to ask," Ander laughed heartily. Calming himself down, he answered with a resolute shake of his head. "Unfortunately, I can't. I'm already treading on thin ice by telling my officers that I took you—a complete commoner—under my protection. Preventing you from being arrested is the best I can do right now, especially after I was almost stripped of my title as an heir after I adopted Erika."

Though he didn't understand, Glenn still got the gist of it. Ander right now was in a politically precarious position, and any blunder could give his opponents grounds to ruin his political standing. He could already imagine how supplying him with money could be a bad thing—people would accuse Ander of wasting money on a completely hopeless commoner—and Ander couldn't do anything to disprove it since he himself wanted Glenn's possession of the Art of Chaos to remain a complete secret until he was strong enough to defend himself.

As such, Glenn didn't linger on it any longer and asked his next question. "Why are your officers arresting people? Don't they need medical attention, especially after they'd just came back from the Abyss?"

In response, Ander smiled apologetically. "I'd just endanger you if I tell you everything. But... there's 2 things I can say with absolute certainty: The order to arrest the citizens came from someone even higher up—not me—and that they don't want anything that happened in this Avenue to be known by the general public."

"Wow, this definitely doesn't sound like a conspiracy at all," Glenn snorted sarcastically, "Ava would love this."

"Well, tell whoever she is to not dig too deep. My protection only extends to you, not her. Speaking of which, don't speak a word of this to anyone you don't trust. Better yet, you shouldn't talk about this to anyone at all. If information about this case leaks, then there are only 3 possible suspects: You, the Hero, and the Princess of Arline Empire. I think that you can already imagine who they will be pinning the blame on."

"G-Got it." Glenn gulped. Collecting his thoughts, he asked his next question. "Why a—"

-"DAD!"

Before Glenn could utter a word, he was interrupted by a loud shout. Both him and Ander didn't have time to react before a blur of silver and gold flew toward Ander, knocking him off his chair. 

As it turn out, the blur was a girl, about a year or so older than Glenn. She had silver hair, fair skin, and most notable of all, bright golden eyes. Currently, she was wrapping her arms around Ander's back and rubbing her face on his chest. "I was so worried!"

Ander regained his composure and patted the girl's back with a surprised, yet still pleasant smile on his face. "Priscilla, did you really think that the mere 7th layer could kill your father?"

Hearing this, the girl—Priscilla—distanced herself a bit away from Ander and observed his body. "Judging by your current appearance, yes."

Ander coughed in embarrassment and tried to change the subject. "A-anyway, where's Erika?"

"She isn't here."

"Really?" Ander exclaimed, genuinely surprised. "Didn't she at least nag you to take her with you? You know how much she likes helping people in incidents like this."

"Heh, she did. But she immediately stopped when she heard that the other Hero was involved. Right now, I believe that she's helping people in a fire 8 districts away from here."

"I see..." Ander nodded in understanding. "What a shame. And here I thought she would finally be able to meet her future husband."

"Is that the reason you insisted we sign the contract here and not inside, you know, a cafe?" Glenn spoke with a raised voice after respectfully staying silent to give the father-daughter duo some privacy.

"Ah, I forgot you were here. Glenn, Priscilla. Priscilla, Glenn; my future son-in-law."

"I've already told you, I don't—"

"Nice to meet you!" Priscilla's figure turned into a blur again and she suddenly appeared right before Glenn, shaking his hand with fervor. "Take good care of Rika, will you? I know she can be a handful, but she's really sweet."

'What the fuck is wrong with this family,' was all Glenn managed to think as Priscilla broke the handshake and turned back to Ander to chat with him.

"Newbie, are you badmouthing my bloodline?" Kevin suddenly spoke up.

'Right, they're Kevin's descendants. No wonder...'

"Why does that sound like an insult?"

'You're imagining things,' Glenn terminated the conversation. Then, he approached Ander and tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention. "So... can I go now?"

"Sure, I need to catch up with my daughter anyway. It's been nearly 50 days after all."

"It's a week for me!" Priscilla interjected.

"A-A week?" Glenn felt as if his entire world had just shattered. Aside from the fact that Ava would be worried sick for him right now, he had just missed the day of the entrance exam of Kevlas. And considering how strict the academy was, there was no chance he could get an admission now. As he was about to fall into further despair, he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned around, only to meet eyes with Ander, who was smiling at him in understanding.

"You're worried about Kevlas, correct?"

Sometimes, Glenn wondered if everyone but him had some kind of mind-reading ability.

"I can't read minds."

There! He could totally read minds!

You are reading story Conqueror of the Abyss at novel35.com

Glenn shook such silly thoughts from his head and nodded in affirmation. "Yes, I just barely missed the entrance exam."

"Hah, don't worry, I got it all figured out as soon as I realized that we were going to be stuck in the Abyss for a long time," Ander laughed as he slapped Glenn's back. "I can get you into the most prestigious classes in Kevlas directly. If you're worried about my political position, don't be. I'm doing this favor for you as an instructor wanting to develop a talent that the alliance would definition fight over, not an heir using every leverages to secure his position even more. It will all work out for me... probably."

"I-I don't know what to say!" Glenn exclaimed happily. 

"Then don't. Just focus on not dying before you reach the Grandmaster stage."

"I will! But... can I opt for the... non-prestigious classes?"

"Hahahaha! Of course not!" Ander laughed as if Glenn had just told him a funny joke. However, upon seeing Glenn's frown, Ander's face turned a bit more serious. "Wait, you seriously don't want to attend the prestigious classes?"

Glenn nodded, to which Ander shook his head with a sigh. "You're going to attend Kevlas through my invitation, so you must attend all of my classes. Unfortunately for you, I teach only prestigious classes."

Though, Ander's words sounded like he was boasting instead of being apologetic.

Left with no choice, Glenn could only nod reluctantly. "Fine. I guess I shouldn't be picky about it. But before I go, can you tell me where's the nearest police station is?"

"Mmm... 35th Avenue's station is currently closed, for obvious reasons, but the 36th Avenue's should be operating just fine."

"Thanks!"

...

After parting ways with Ander and his daughter, whom fortunately, Ander didn't ask him to marry, Glenn made his way toward the 36th Avenue. As he got closer and closer to his destination, he could see officers barricading the borders of the 35th Avenue. Luckily for Glenn, they merely exchanged nods with each other before letting him through.

As Glenn slowly rejoined the busy streets, he became more conscious of his bleached white hair. As such, he pulled his hood even tighter, which made him extremely suspicious, but he didn't care.

'I'd rather be a murderer-on-the-run than the Chasm finding out about me this soon.'

After all, there was only one thing that people associate the combination of silver hair and red eyes with: Homunculi; or, as people of the Church of Storms would prefer to refer to them as, abominations that spit in the face of Gods.

Ander was polite and understanding enough to not mention the word "homunculus" in his presence, but Glenn definitely noticed glances of conflicted feelings Ander occasionally sent him. 

"I can't even blame him—" Glenn's low mutters were drowned out by the loud chattering in the streets; though, he could still hear his own voice just fine. "—I don't even know if I'm a homunculus or not."

But whatever the case was, Glenn couldn't think about it any further, as he had already reached his destination—the police station. Swallowing his nervousness and psyching himself up, he entered it with confidence. Immediately, he spotted the reception desk, and made a beeline toward it. 

"Hello," Glenn said with the most neutral voice he could conjure up.

"Mmm?" The officer behind the desk let out a low questioning hum without even taking his eyes of the documents that he was sorting through.

"I want to claim the reward bounty."

"For?"

"Last week's train incident."

The officer nodded before taking out another stack of paper, which was apparently unrelated to what Glenn was talking about. "ID?"

Glenn took out his ID and gave it to the officer, who briefly glanced over it and stood up. "Wait here for a bit." Then, he entered the door that was behind him.

What ensued was a few minutes of awkward silence, before the door opened again, and a young officer walked out. "So, you're Glenn Claidart, correct?"

Glenn nodded. "Where's the other officer?"

"He's taking a break," the officer said nonchalantly. "Anyway, I'm here with your reward."

Reaching into his pockets, he pulled out a stack of money with a congratulatory smile.

"Your reward is… 1000 Arthens!"

Glenn's eyes sparkled at the stack of Arthen notes. Although the reward was definitely not worth the risk he had to go through, money was still money. As he was about to take the money, however, the officer suddenly continued speaking.

"But that's only before tax. After applying income tax (40%), outsider's tax (10%), reward tax, and the…" He coughed loudly. "...'tips' I took from the reward for my work bringing it to you, your remaining money is 200 Arthens."

Seeing Glenn receive the money with a sullen face, the officer shamelessly saluted. "Thank you for your service! You've done a great job… for a civilian."

...

Glenn walked out of the police station with a deep from on his face. Patting the money in his pocket, he muttered, "m-money is money, r-right? No need to get mad over this. It's not like I risked my life to get the reward or anything..."

Swallowing his frustrations hard, he made his way back toward the apartment. The journey only took a few dozens of minutes, and, surprisingly, he didn't see old Mason reading a newspaper and smoking cigars like he had expected.

"Huh, he must've gone somewhere. I won't even be surprised if he went to a brothel."

Scouring Mason's table, Glenn saw a letter being pinned down by a paperweight.

===

To: Ava.

I hope the entrance exam went well. I know that you're devastated by his death, but don't let it affect your performance too much. Your dad, and especially him, would want you to be enrolled in Kevlas. I await good news from you.

P/S: I'm working to prepare for his funeral, so don't worry to much.

With respect: Mason.

===

"Who's 'him'?" Glenn muttered as he put the letter back to the same place. "Could it be Hugh? Nah, it can't be." The entire alliance would be in chaos if the prince of Arline empire suddenly dropped dead after all, and right when their princess was sucked into the Abyss at that.

Taking the spare key that Mason always kept on his desk, Glenn made his way toward his apartment. 

"Well, at least Ava's still the same." 

The apartment was still neat, and it looked exactly like when he left it.

'I guess whoever this guy is, he can't affect Ava's inner clean freak.'

"You're really clueless, aren't you?" Kevin suddenly spoke up.

"What do you mean?"

"It'd be funnier if you figured it out yourself."

Feeling that he couldn't get more out of the ghost, Glenn grumbled and made his way toward the couch; he was too tired that he didn't even bother to go to his bed. Thus, he closed his eyes, and along came his well-deserved rest.

***

"Is that all?" A woman in dark robes said with a frustrated sigh.

"Yes," answered another man, who was kneeling in respect.

"Very well, you're dismissed."

"Thanks, pontiff."

"I've already told you, call me by my real name—Dawn."

The man stayed in silence for a few seconds before respectfully bowing. "Please excuse me, pontiff."

As the kneeling man disappeared in the darkness, the robed woman heaved out a even more wearily sigh and gazed out of a window of the abandoned house she was staying in. Although she wasn't used to this kind of accommodation, this was the best she could manage right now. Never in a thousand year could anyone in the alliance imagine that the founder of the Chasm of the Abyss had no penny to her name.

Now, she felt even more bad since she had just heard the results of her plan. It was supposed to be simple, snatching the Art of Chaos before the Hero of the prophecy could get his hands on it. And although it worked to a degree, she couldn't deny that she felt like a handful of shit was shoved into her mouth when she heard the report that every Cultists involved in this plan were dead.

"O great God Theodris," she said with a voice full of reverence, "you who led me toward the truth... I'll see you soon."

You can find story with these keywords: Conqueror of the Abyss, Read Conqueror of the Abyss, Conqueror of the Abyss novel, Conqueror of the Abyss book, Conqueror of the Abyss story, Conqueror of the Abyss full, Conqueror of the Abyss Latest Chapter