The Tamer Monarch
Chapter 53: The Old Man

Chapter 53: The Old Man

(A Few Minutes Earlier)

While the meeting of the teachers had begun at the academy, a certain old man had just walked into a vast, sprawling and heavy guarded compound in Zone 2 of Nawarin City.

The man was walking with slow and deliberate steps inside the compound. He was limping and was using a walking stick as a support.

A middle-aged man, the Boss, was engrossed in looking through some documents in his office when a knock disturbed his concentration. He frowned.

"Come in."

A man entered the room. Seeing the frown on the Boss’s face, he stiffened. It was generally Axel’s job to relay any information and act as the contact point between the Boss and his gang, but that old man had gone somewhere on some business.

"Boss," the man stammered.

The Boss remained impassive, waiting for the man to continue.

"There is an old man waiting downstairs in the lobby who wants to meet you," the man added.

The frown on the Boss’s face deepened. Were these idiots disturbing him for something like this? Could any man just walk in and claim he wanted to meet him, and these fools would bring the matter straight to him? The man grew even more nervous.

"We did not agree," he explained hastily, "and we even asked him to tell us what the matter was so we could relay it to you if it was important, but he was very stubborn. He insisted on speaking only to you and said that if we did not let him meet you, it would be your loss."

Now this piqued the Boss’s interest. His loss? Those were not words to be uttered lightly and there were not many who would dare to say them to him.

"Who is he?" the Boss asked.

The man’s anxiety deepened.

"We did not ask for his name," he stammered. "He is old, with a thin and lean body."

"And yes," he continued, "He seems to be a mortal with no cultivation. The man limps..."

The Boss’s eyes widened slightly in surprise as a figure began to form in his mind.

"...and he uses a walking stick for support. The handle of the stick has engravings of something resembling a spider."

The Boss’s eyes flashed with recognition. There was no mistaking. He was that man. But why was here?

Before he could say or react, the doors of the room were pushed open again. Axel had just entered, looking rushed.

"Boss," he panted. "It’s Altuna... the old man wants to meet you."

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The Boss, followed by Axel and the other subordinates, was descending the stairs crisply. He did not want to appear to be in a hurry or too eager to meet that old man. He did not want to show a weakness, but his footsteps were certainly rushed.

The man’s appearance was no simple matter. The man himself was probably not very strong, but the person related to him was.

A few days ago, Riguras had even fleetingly considered whether that person might have been responsible for killing Dervin and his lackeys, because of the corrosion, but it had not made any sense at the time.

And now, this man’s appearance. This could not be a coincidence, and the Boss’s instincts were flaring.

In a few moments, he arrived in the lobby of the building, where an old man sat calmly on a sofa.

If Athar had been there, he would have recognized the man as the very same old man who had registered him for admission, issued him his battle techniques, and was always seen sleeping behind the counter.

The Boss walked with measured steps and took a seat on the sofa in front of the old man.

"Leave," he boomed, and every man immediately left the lobby, except Axel. He stayed. He was privy to all of the Boss’s secrets.

"How are you?" the old man asked with a faint smile. "Riguras."

"I am doing good," Riguras, the Boss, answered.

His real name. Few people ever used it, and he could not even remember the last time someone had uttered it. But he did not mind. At least not when it came from the mouth of this old man. The old man nodded.

"Why are you here?" Riguras could not wait any longer. "Why did you want to speak with me?"

"Ah!" the old man smiled. "It is nothing but a simple matter. I thought it is better to intervene before this simple matter turned too ugly."

The frown inside the Boss deepened. He could sense that something was wrong, something approaching.

"I have heard that you are planning to bring Athar out of the academy, and that Vale even interrogated and threatened him?" the old man asked. The smile on his face was gradually fading.

The Boss did not understand immediately and looked toward Axel.

"Athar," Axel clarified. "He is the first year student whom we suspect of murdering Dervin and his men."

"Oh!" the Boss responded. Just as he had felt, this was no coincidence. His instincts were hardly ever wrong. This was related to Dervin’s murder.

"Why are you interested in this?" he asked, turning his gaze back to the old man.

"Oh!" The old man chuckled. "I am not the one interested, Riguras."

"I am nothing more than an old man, with hardly any strength left. If I walk more than a few steps, I need a walking stick for support," he continued. "Why would I be interested in these affairs?"

"It is my student who is interested," the old man added, and the Boss’s eyes widened in surprise. The feeling he had, turned out to be true.

"Well, extremely interested, if I may say," the old man added.

"Why?" Boss questioned.

The old man shrugged.

"My student does not tell me everything," the old man added. "I only learned about it recently."

"And, Riguras," he continued, "if Vale, or anyone, had dared to lay a hand on him, my student would have committed a massacre."

The Boss almost flinched in fear. Had he really been that close to death?

"It is your pure luck that I happened to meet my student recently," the old man added. "And everything was revealed to me."

"So, as I said, I decided that I must intervene before things turned too ugly."

"Otherwise," Altuna whispered, "my student does not issue threats."

"And I believe you know that very well."

Altuna stood up, his stick in hand.

"What you do now is in your hands, Riguras," he said. "You can choose whether you want to leave or perish with your entire gang."

Riguras did not respond, and Altuna did not wait for one. He simply limped away.

Riguras remained seated in the exact same position. He only moved once the old man was out of sight.

He clenched his fist and slammed it down on the table in front of him. The glass shattered, clattering in all directions. He was enraged. He was humiliated. Someone had dared to come and issue him a warning on his own turf.

"Boss!" Axel called.

"No one touches Athar," the Boss muttered.

Yet there was nothing he could do. The person in question was not someone he could afford to mess with.

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