Chapter 228: Discussion with Vale
Isaac smiled at the praises.
The guild members of Titan Edge looked at him with a mix of admiration and disbelief.
He didn’t correct them, nor did he give away too much.
Instead, he simply acknowledged their words with a polite nod.
After a pause, he spoke. "I’m here to meet with the guild leader. It’s urgent."
The atmosphere shifted. Some of the onlookers exchanged glances, the casual chatter giving way to hesitation.
One of them finally said, "Oh... then come in. We’ll inform the guild leader’s secretary, and she’ll come to take you."
With that, the barrier was gone. Isaac gestured for Alice to follow, and the two of them entered the guild building.
The interior carried the weight of prestige.
Polished floors, clean walls, and banners with the guild’s emblem made it clear that Titan Edge was one of the stronger organizations around.
A staff member led them into a waiting room, far more luxurious than what Isaac had expected.
Plush seats, polished wood furniture, and a subtle fragrance that hinted at wealth and influence filled the air.
Alice sat quietly beside him.
Her eyes wandered over the room while Isaac leaned back with a calm expression.
Time passed before the door finally opened.
A woman dressed in neat attire stepped inside, holding a clipboard against her chest. She bowed slightly.
"I apologize, but the guild leader has denied any meetings for now. He is busy."
Isaac wasn’t surprised. His expression didn’t change as he replied in a steady tone. "Tell Vale this is about the Governor."
The woman’s eyes sharpened for a split second before her expression returned to its calm, professional state.
She nodded politely and turned to leave without another word.
Isaac’s gaze followed her until the door shut. His thoughts turned.
That reaction...
She had flinched at the mention of the Governor.
That meant she knew something.
Had Vale told her the truth? Or was it something else?
Is she the Governor’s spy?
The thought lingered in his mind.
Celia’s secretary had already been confirmed to be working under the Governor. It wouldn’t be strange if Vale’s secretary was the same.
Minutes passed before the door opened again. The woman stepped inside once more.
"The guild leader will see you now," she said.
Alice stood up with Isaac.
Her eyes, however, never left him.
There was a quiet intensity in her gaze, one that carried unspoken worry.
Vale wasn’t just any guild leader. He was a Champion rank, one who came from an Apex species.
Against someone like him, Isaac stood no chance in a direct confrontation.
Alice clenched her fists at her sides.
He must have a plan, she told herself.
She was ready to protect him if that plan failed, no matter the cost.
They walked down the hall, guided by the secretary, until they reached Vale’s office.
It was large but not ostentatious, with wide windows and a desk that dominated the center of the room.
Vale sat behind it.
His presence filled the space even without a word.
He gave a small nod to the secretary, dismissing her. She left quietly, closing the door behind her.
Isaac and Alice sat across from him.
"I collected the dirt on the Governor, just as you asked me," Isaac said without hesitation.
Vale’s brows rose in surprise. "You did that already?"
Isaac nodded. "I did. And now I understand why you told Celia to leave."
Vale’s eyes narrowed slightly, but Isaac continued before he could interrupt. "You were worried that once the Governor’s atrocities came to light, you’d be dragged into the backlash because you supported him.
"You didn’t want Celia caught in that mess. That’s why you never let her officially join Titan Edge Guild. You were always prepared for the Governor to fall, and you wanted to make sure she was untouched by it.
"And that’s also why you pushed her away now."
Vale’s expression stiffened. His silence betrayed more than words could.
Even Alice was taken aback.
She glanced at Isaac, almost startled.
She knew he was improvising half of this.
He didn’t truly know what the Governor had been doing.
He was making educated guesses and pushing Vale into confirming them.
"I came here to thank you," Isaac said, a grin forming on his lips.
Vale tilted his head. "Thank me?"
"I never expected it would be so easy to get my hands on Celia."
"...what?"
Isaac leaned forward. His grin shifted into something else. His friendly look faded, replaced by a smile that was more sleazy than warm.
"She’s a star. An idol admired by thousands. I always wanted to get my hands on her."
Vale stared at him, confusion flashing across his face.
Isaac chuckled, lifting a hand casually. "Ah, don’t misunderstand. I’m not here to report anything about the Governor to you. I came here to thank you and, well, you could say brag a little. Thanks to you, I now have Celia.
"After the news of your involvement with the Governor spreads, she’ll break. She won’t have your support anymore. She will be all alone. At that moment, it’ll be easy to... take advantage of her."
The office went quiet.
Vale’s fingers tightened on the armrest of his chair as his mind worked rapidly.
Isaac had always been friendly with everyone.
Vale had assumed it was Isaac’s nature, that Isaac was simply a good-natured man who connected easily with others.
But now... now he remembered something else.
There was another kind of person who acted that way.
Shrewd people.
The kind who built good relations with everyone, not out of kindness, but for their own gain.
The kind who wore a mask of friendliness because it was the easiest way to exploit others when the time came.
Was Isaac one of them?
Yes.
The realization was clear.
He was indeed one of them.
Isaac rose from his seat, brushing off his coat as if nothing heavy had been said. "Well then, I’ll be leaving."
Alice stood as well, still confused, but she followed his lead.
Her eyes flicked between Vale and Isaac. Her thoughts were a mix of concern and confusion.
Just as Isaac’s hand touched the handle of the office door, Vale’s voice broke the silence.
"Just tell me, did you make Celia your subject already?"
The words carried across the room with an unexpected coldness.
Vale wasn’t looking at him. His head was tilted back.
His eyes were fixed on the ceiling, gazing emptily.
Isaac turned his head slightly and smiled. "Yes."
Vale’s gaze didn’t shift.
He stayed like that for a long moment.
For years, Vale had kept Celia away from the Governor.
He had known what kind of man the Governor was, and what kind of things he did in the shadows.
Celia was the one person he refused to let get touched by it.
And when she left with Isaac, Vale had let it happen.
He believed Isaac was different, that maybe Celia would be safe with him.
Now he realized he had been wrong.
Not just wrong.
He had been completely mistaken about Isaac.
Isaac wasn’t different.
He was worse.
Worse, because he had come here to brag about it.
He had come to rub it in his face.
Vale exhaled slowly, then closed his eyes.
For a brief second, the doubt in them almost cracked through, but when he opened them again, it was gone.
His gaze had hardened.
He stood up from behind the desk, walking toward Isaac with calm steps.
"Isaac, the things you said about taking advantage of Celia. Were they true?"
"Of course," he answered confidently, a smile still on his face.
Vale’s hand moved.
A sword appeared from his spatial ring, and in the next instant, his body blurred forward.
The blade thrust straight for Isaac’s neck with speed that cut through the air like lightning.
Alice reacted on instinct, but she was too slow.
Vale was far faster than her, and the distance between them vanished in an instant.
A dagger appeared midair and clashed against the sword, stopping the strike a hair’s breadth from Isaac’s throat.
The clash erupted into shockwaves that cracked the walls and rattled the furniture.
Standing between them was Professor Catherine.
Vale’s eyes narrowed.
"Evil Sword," he spoke in a low and cold voice. "Move, or you’ll bear the consequences too."
Professor Catherine ignored him.
With one hand holding the dagger steady, she flicked a small object toward Isaac. He caught it without looking.
It was a ring.
Her attention turned back to Vale.
She slid her dagger along his blade, stepped in close, and drove her fist into his abdomen with a speed that split the air.
The impact shook the building.
Vale’s body was launched back, smashing through the office wall before vanishing into the distance.
Professor Catherine straightened and winked at Isaac. "I’ll take care of this matter, my lord. But you’d better compensate me for it."
Before Isaac could reply, she leapt out after Vale. The two vanishing to fight somewhere far enough not to get others caught in their battle.
The room went quiet again, though dust still drifted from the cracked ceiling.
Alice turned to Isaac, her gaze shaken. "Was this your plan?"
"What do you mean by that?"
"You wanted to make Professor Catherine fight instead of you." Alice pressed.
Isaac shrugged.
Alice was sure of her words.
She — and everyone — had seen Isaac’s strength before during the Metavore Hivemind battle, and during the N’theris Serpent fight.
Even if he fought Vale, and won, the victory wouldn’t have carried the same weight.
Defeating Vale himself wouldn’t prove much after he had already defeated N’theris Serpent.
According to most, N’theris Serpent was stronger than Vale.
Isaac still provoked Vale and brought him to a fight.
’He is doing this for his faction.’
Isaac had proved his strength already.
He was now proving the strength of the people around him.
Before Alice could push further, a shout rang out.
"What happened here!?"
"You attacked the guild leader!"
The corridor outside filled with noise as members of Titan Edge stormed forward.
Dozens of awakeners rushed in, weapons drawn and eyes full of suspicion and anger.
They surrounded Isaac and Alice, leaving no room for escape.
Alice glanced at Isaac, who remained calm.
They could have tried to deny involvement, and acted like they weren’t part of what happened.
But Alice exhaled audibly.
She pulled out a massive hammer from her spatial ring and held it with both hands.
"So this is it then," she muttered. "Since you want to prove the strength of our faction, I guess it’s my turn. I’ll defeat the Titan Edge Guild myself, right?"
"Yes." Isaac’s eyes flicked toward her. "But don’t worry. I will help you, if things get rough."
Their casual words were heard clearly by everyone around them, and the faces of the Titan Edge members tightened.
Those sentences confirmed it. Isaac and Alice weren’t just bystanders.
They were accomplices to whoever had attacked their guild leader.
Now, they were enemies.
"Saintess," a familiar voice called. Liara, who had fought alongside Alice during the Metavore incident, pushed through the crowd. Her expression was strained. "Don’t be reckless. Let’s talk this out rationally. You’re strong, but you can’t fight the entire guild on your own."
Alice lifted her hammer.
"We’ll see about that."
And then she dashed forward.
Golden flames erupted, damaging her opponents, and reducing their regeneration drastically.
The hammer swung with full force, crashing into the floor.
The building itself withstood the blow. It was built with materials reinforced for battle, but the shockwave erupted outward, knocking awakeners off their feet and slamming them against walls.
Isaac didn’t move.
He stood at the back, calmly observing.
His hand turned the ring Professor Catherine had thrown him earlier.
It was the same spatial ring he had given her before, filled with life potions. He checked inside now. The potions were gone.
She should have leveled up with them, Isaac thought. From Level 42 to Level 50.
The growth was significant.
The first time Catherine had faced a Sentinel, she had been injured gravely.
The second time, she fought on several fronts at once—one of them was where she fought a Sentinel who knew her battle style— and she won.
She was showing improvement already.
And now, after leveling further, she had reached a threshold of power she hadn’t before.
Even if Vale was an Apex rank species and she was only a High rank, she should be able to hold her own, and win.
Isaac set that thought aside and checked the ring again.
Something new had been placed inside.
He pulled out a folder.
It hadn’t been there before.
Opening it, his expression grew serious.
The first pages were full of information on the Governor.
They detailed how he had controlled underground organizations, including the city’s assassin guilds, twisting them to serve his interests.
Many of his competitors had died mysteriously, and those who didn’t were pushed out of business through targeted schemes.
Every page painted the same picture.
The Governor had been orchestrating the city in the light and the shadows like a puppeteer, all for his own benefit.
Isaac flipped through quickly until he reached the final page.
His hand stopped as his eyes scanned the words.
It was about the curse on the nagas.
The notes said the curse was too powerful, something only a figure with immense strength could have cast.
The report writer suspected it was done by a powerful awakener of humanity.
The name written there was Vale.
Professor Catherine—Evil Sword—had added her suspicions that Vale had carried out the curse on the Governor’s orders.
Isaac muttered under his breath.
"So Professor thinks the same."
He had suspected something along these lines.
Professor Catherine had attached reasons for why she believed Vale was the culprit.
At the bottom, a final note was written:
[Note: None of the nagas have been forced to admit the truth because they could die if they speak. First, we plan to apprehend Vale and interrogate him. He is suspicious because of the bloodlust he showed toward the nagas when he came to interrogate them. If no clue surfaces from him, we will then force the nagas to answer.]
Isaac closed the folder slowly.
His eyes lingered on the last words.
’So this is why Professor is fighting Vale eagerly.’
She wanted to capture him and interrogate him.