Theron squeezed his fist, allowing his blood to pool until it had perfectly filled the bowl to the brim. Then, he released his hold, taking out a bottle of medicine, pulling out a fingerful, and drawing a line across it.
He pushed the tip of his finger into the wound, the clay-like medicine both stemming the bleeding and healing at once.
Raiden’s approach was very different. Lightning sparked, and he directly used it to burn his wound closed.
“Like I said, you two know the rules. Questions must be related to the accusation. Failure to do so will result in immediate death. No one is obligated to ask a question, but failure to do so will increase the pressure on your pain receptors. Relief comes from answering.
“The same question cannot be asked twice. The defender has the right to rebut and counter-defend.
“The final judgment will be decided by me according to the result. Challenger, you may ask the first question.”
The old man hadn’t even stepped off of the platform when Theron spoke.
“Did you try to kill me?”
The old man almost fell off.
Almost.
This child couldn’t possibly be so foolish, right?
Laughter immediately erupted through the arena. One wouldn’t think that this was a den of assassins at all. It was more like a group of people from teen to middle ages enjoying a comedy show.
Among them, Manson’s reaction was the fiercest, directly falling out of his chair and holding onto his stomach.
Theron didn’t react to their laughter in the slightest, his gaze chilling as he met Raiden’s.
A pair of blue eyes stared back at him, and Raiden seemed to hardly react either. There was no need for him to do so when others had said all that needed to be said for him.
“Did you kill my brother?”
Raiden replied with a question.
There were three ways to reply in a True Blood dispute. The first was to answer directly under the effect of the soul contract, the second was to not answer at all, and the third was to reply with a question.
This question had to be related to the one being posed, and it had to have a path that could lead to your innocence.
Obviously, if Theron had killed Lyn, then Raiden would not only be vindicated, but he would be right to kill Theron on the spot for violating the first rule.
No one expected Theron’s reply, though.
“Did you send your brother to be killed?”
Raiden’s eyes narrowed. Clearly, he didn’t expect this reply either.
The old man’s gaze shifted to the runes and his shock toward Theron’s line of initial questioning slowly faded. It seemed that maybe… this child might know what he was doing after all.
There was no way that Theron should know of this. That meant that he had deduced it. As for why that was, it was none other than thanks to the figure that rushed in after Raiden.
Manson.
Manson was the very same assassin who had stopped Theron after he handed in the Merchant Greycoat mission back then.
The first thing he had asked Theron back then was where Lyn was.
At first, Theron didn’t think much of it. Manson and Lyn must have been friends, and it was unlikely that Lyn would hide the fact that he was going on this mission if his goal was to brag about his achievements.
But Theron spotted Manson during his escape from the culling, only for Raiden to successfully find him and almost kill him.
That much was still nothing more than a coincidence, and there was certainly no proof. It made it even harder to believe because Theron had recognized him by his gait alone before and went out of his way to avoid him.
So even if Manson had spotted him back then, how could he let Raiden know where he was?
But something kept nagging at him, confirmed especially after Manson just rushed in after Raiden.
Why would a Silver Mancy genius amongst geniuses care to spend so much time with a Bronze Assassin?
After listening to Raiden’s conversation with Sadie, Theron understood the genius’ personality quite well.
Cutthroat. Cold. Detached. Willing to do whatever he needed to claim power, but he was also no cowardly rat, and he certainly wasn’t someone who needed groupies.
That pointed to one conclusion.
It was eating Raiden up inside that he hadn’t been the one to clear the Merchant Greycoat mission… and he also really wanted to know why he hadn’t been allowed to.
His brother was his method of doing so, and Theron had stood in the way of that.
As for Manson, he had been a close friend of Lyn’s who somehow ended up being closer to Raiden than even the latter’s own brother had been. Meaning, he had some sort of special ability, talent, or usefulness.
The moment Manson walked in, Theron knew that Raiden would obediently take one step after another in the palm of his hands.
At first, the laughter was still glaring, but the longer Raiden remained silent, the more it ebbed. Soon, there was a deathly silence that hung in the air.
The pool of blood in Raiden’s bowl suddenly shrunk and ghastly green veins appeared across his body. He didn’t speak a word, and his expression didn’t so much as change, but all those present knew that he was enduring a shocking amount of pain right now.
“Interesting non-answer.” Theron said calmly. “Sending your brother to die for a mission you’re so very curious about, and then throwing a fit when someone else cleared what you couldn’t.”
“Challenger.” The old man interjected.
Theron didn’t look at the old man for the reprimand.
Raiden was seething, but there was nothing he could do. He couldn’t even bring up Sadie because it was unrelated to the question Theron had only just asked. The formation would sense that and kill him.
“Arbitrator, I would like you to cast your judgment now. I am finished with my questioning.”
The old man paused and then exhaled a breath. If the child had just come here to vent a bit, then that was fine. He had made a great enemy, but judging by their questions, it had long since reached that point already.
“What do you request?” the old man asked.
It was a right the challenger received once the defendant failed to answer a question. After all, they couldn’t allow everyone to just flout the rules, right?
Although not all requests would be followed, within certain limits, they could be accommodated.
“Three months of confinement and death by combat with his right-hand man.” Theron replied.
Raiden’s eyes narrowed. His right-hand man? Who was—?
Fury flashed through his blue gaze, lightning sparking.
“And that would be?”
“Manson 003 of ’993.”
“003 ’993!” the old man barked. “Present yourself!”
Manson didn’t expect to be called out in this way. A bit shellshocked, he made his way forward. But by the time he got to the stage, he was calm.
What was Theron? A Fifth Resonance Bronze Mancer? He had long since reached the Ninth. There was no competition.
However… maybe he should have noticed that Raiden didn’t even look at him a single time.
“I don’t know why you would come seek your own death like this,” Manson sneered.
“Begin.” The old man’s voice fell.
Manson shot forward, Dark Mana streaming out of his body as he suddenly vanished from Theron’s sight.
However, Theron was an eerie sort of calm that reminded one of a trickle of rain.
“Here…” he said softly. “Have this back.”
A spark of lightning shuddered within Theron’s body, pain flaring up within him. But one wouldn’t guess that from the way he pointed his finger forward.
A [Water Bullet] shot through the air, encased within it the last strand of lightning Raiden had left in Theron’s body in hopes of crippling him.
That night, Raiden had just not been able to leave things alone. How could he leave a threat so easily? So he compromised in this way, doing something he managed to hide even from Sadie’s eyes.
The largest reason Theron had suffered so much was because of this strand of lightning.
And right this moment, it appeared again, ejecting itself from Theron.
There was a shudder through the air as Theron’s black cloak billowed.
In a single bound, he stepped into Eighth Resonance.
BANG!
The [Water Bullet] collided with what looked like empty air.
Manson froze, convulsing once, then twice, then thrice, before exploding into a rain of blood.
Lightning that very clearly carried Raiden’s aura writhed on the ground.
Theron, however, had already turned to leave without another word. No one noticing how a [Water Wrap] tentacle took something away from Manson’s body.