The Greed of Kronos

The Hotspot Area

Fifty-one: The Hotspot Area

Shortly after that, a figure popped out behind Lady Carmilla and raised his one hand to pat Ajax on the head while talking to the lady. “Heh. And then you accused me of being a jester.”

It was, of course, the great Lord Dio.

Hearing this, Lady Carmilla chuckled in a low tone of voice as she looked at Lord Dio with a warm expression on his face. Shortly after that, even though she replied in a joking manner, her voice was still soothing that it could define how elegant the lady was. “Oh dear, I thought that you just wanted an excuse for me to spend time with you.”

Lord Dio’s ears unexpectedly turned red as he kept his serious face and cleared his throat. “Perhaps so. Ahem. Don’t delay them any longer. Welcome, everyone.”

Seeing this, Ajax squinted his eyes as he started at Lord Dio and called for his attention. “Grandpa.”

Did he really have the need to flirt in front of his own grandson together with the others? There’s a limit to how they could show affection in public, right?

Lord Dio seemed to comprehend very well what Ajax’s gazes were that he ignored his good grandson and shifted his gaze towards Yohan. “Yohan, is Ajax doing well in the Academy?”

With that being said, Yohan nodded as he replied with enthusiasm. “Yes, Master!”

Hearing this, everyone except the four who knew was agape as they replied in unison. AGAIN. “Master?!”

But of course, they were ignored AGAIN. They had a good conversation in their respective carriages; however, it was not something like a revelation similar to what happened at Kronos’ carriage. And even if Sir Samael was aware, the only thing that they talked about along the way was school stuff. Even if Mikhail wanted to talk about something aside from that, he could not bring himself to complain.

Well, at least they were already aware. Come to think of it, Lord Dio and Ajax shared the same face. It seemed like it was weird of them to not think about the similarity. And regards to Yohan, he was closest to Ajax, so being a watchdog was not a thing to be surprised at.

Seeing that everyone had already settled down, Lord Dio faked a cough to gather their attention. And when he succeeded, he nodded and turned around before walking on the side of the cabin. “Good. Then I will show you the hotspot area.”

“The hotspot area?” Artem asked as they followed Lord Dio, who seemed to be following a path towards a garden.

On the other hand, Lord Dio explained as they were on their way to the hotspot area located in his backyard. “It is a place that is abundant with monsters. It is off-limits with everyone since most of the monsters are corrupted, but if it’s the people spending time with my grandson, then I guess this would be too easy for all of you.”

With that being said, they looked at each other and exchanged looks. It was yet another corrupted monster. However, unlike their entrance epitropi, it seemed like they would be dealing with a hundred expect of one. Actually, it was not a bad deal. If anything, they could easily take down one monster in an hour. They were confident since they already knew every little thing that they should be doing in order to take down a corrupted monster in a split second.

Or if they would not put their heart on it, they could just ask Kronos for a favor and take down the monster in a snap.

Regardless of everything, the Exi was expecting for another line of work. So as their spokesperson, Asisi laughed nonchalantly as he commented. “Wow, so it’s another corrupted monster, huh?”

With that being said, Lord Dio turned his head around and glared towards Asisi. “What did you say, you numbskull?”

Seeing this, Asisi flinched as he abruptly hid behind Inoa and Aeria with a pair of shaky hands. Seriously, how could he be so brazen yet so cowardly at the same time?

The good thing was that Sir Samael was immune to Asisi being a pain in the ass that he abruptly joined in to their conversation and replied in a natural manner. “Never mind him, my lord. That was nothing but a petty insinuation from a student. Thank you for your hospitality, Lord Dio.”

At first, Lord Dio squinted his eyes towards the squirming Asisi. But then he let it slide afterward and tsk-ed before giving his attention towards Sir Samael. “It’s nothing, Mael. Why are you so formal? In any way, it is good to see you around again.”

And just like that, the two of them talked as if they knew each other too well. Which was true.

“Wow, Lord Dio and Papa seemed to know each other,” Aeria commented as she was busy looking at the two of them talking so comfortably.

It may be because the lady was so silent and did not utter any word since then that the kids could feel that she was being left out by the other two, which were Lord Dio and Sir Samael. But it does not look like she was angry with it though. More on, she seemed to be enjoying the view where her husband and a teacher were talking so comfortably.

“Right?” Astian commented as his eyes were locked in Lady Carmilla’s area.

After a short moment, even before they knew it, the air suddenly felt heavy, and a big, ominous gate was in front of them. “Here’s the area. What do you think?”

The giant gate was made of trees and vines, but it does not have a nature vibe, probably because the air was heavy and the leaves were dry and dead. Kronos could hear a distant sound of monsters on the other side and could feel that there were hundreds of them waiting.

However, the thing that stood the most for Kronos to comment was that “It f*****g reeks.”

Aside from emitting a dangerous vibe that was more ominous than what Kronos felt at the entrance of the forest, it reeks of blood and corpses.

With that being, Lord Dio flinched as he looked at Kronos with a glare. “This kid. Of course, it reeks. It’s full of monsters.”

How could one be bold about swearing so casually? Yet again, he was not aware of Kronos’ circumstances, and no one also did bother on telling him.

More importantly, Kronos did not even bat an eye when Lord Dio looked at him with a glare that could kill. Well, even though he wanted to react the same way Asisi did, he was just used to seeing such a face in his past life. Nothing scares him anymore.

Breaking down the tension, Naouii cleared her throat and looked at Sir Samael as she asked a very obvious question. “So we should eliminate all of them, Papa?”

It’s not that she was not aware. It was just that the awkwardness and silence were deafening that she thought of putting it to an end and asked the very first thought that popped up in her mind.

Sir Samael seemed to know what Naouii was thinking, so he stared at her for a moment and then replied with a nod, still, with his usual serious expression. “Yes, it’s not bad, is it not?”

It was not a bad deal. However, hearing hundreds of screams inside the hotspot area could quickly tell that they were not some mere ten or twenty corrupted monsters. And the time given, as far as they could remember, was twenty-four hours only. Even if they did know how to deal with it efficiently, the number of monsters was overwhelming.

“Well... I do not think that we could finish it in a day, though.” Luca shrugged.

Hearing this, Sir Samael then looked at them with a judging expression and replied arrogantly. “It’s fine. I understand your concern. But have you all forgotten who you are?”

He knew them very well. They would follow their teacher, whatever it would be. After all, everyone was still a kid that needed a guardian.

Sir Samael was filling the spot of a guardian. Hence, if he would act all high and mighty, “Right, we’re special.”

The kids would follow him.

For the kids, Sir Samael’s every action and word was deemed to be the path to their success.

“You have your own rules. The day you could finish taking down everything is also the deadline. Hence, there is no need to rush.” He added.

With that, the crowd started to get rowdy once again. They were talking about how to deal with them and what they would do since they have unlimited time.

“It’s good,” Inoa mumbled with her usual frowning expression.

“Huh?” Aeria commented as she was the one beside Inoa. The others also noticed that was why they shut their mouths and looked at Inoa.

The stare pressured her that it made her brows to be more knitted towards each other as she abruptly explained. “We can practice and cultivate our potential with all of these monsters. Right, guys?”

Since they do not have a deadline, they could think of it as an opportunity to cultivate their potential. With that being said, Kronos also realized that he could control the greed if he were to be thrown in a den of corrupted monsters. In that way, he could be more careful in the future.

“Yeah. Come to think of it, Lord Dio mentioned that there would be a variety of monsters there. So we could also have the opportunity to know everything about them.” Kallen replied as she adjusted her glasses.