Strongest Nova: Path of Vengeance

Chapter 64: Many Topics

Despite not being as weak as everyone said he would be, Stanley still accepted his brother’s support as they walked down the slope toward the Defenders’ quarters.

Next to him, the old mayor was also walking down slowly, assisted by the giant Illan who was ready to catch him in case he fell over.

Despite Illan easily carrying him, the mayor refused to accept Illan’s help while going down the slope. It seemed like despite being old, he liked walking with his own two legs.

Stanley had asked Bradley why the mayor was even going to the Defenders’ headquarters in the first place. It wasn’t every day that the mayor just decided to leave his mansion, so there must have been something important going around.

"The mayor is giving another speech," Bradley had answered.

’Another speech,’ Stanley thought while sneakily looking at the mayor. ’I wonder what he’s going to talk about. He thought of the possible topics and one stood out like a sore thumb.

His brother’s inauguration to become the new mayor. It had been over 2 months since the announcement was made, so the change was coming within the months.

’Is it already here?’ Stanley thought. He still wasn’t sure how to feel about his brother becoming the mayor. He was sure he should be happy, and he was sure he was happy, but there was still that feeling of fear deep inside him.

What the old man Sam had told him about what happened to the mayor after he was assigned as the new mayor simply scared him. He was scared that he would lose the only person he cared about in this world.

He was worried that he would lose the only person that cared about him in this world.

Thinking about people caring for each other made Stanley think about Bella again. "What... what happened to Bella’s parents?" he asked his brother.

"Who?" Bradley asked.

"The girl," Stanley said. He paused a bit to gather his courage before saying, "The girl I failed to save."

"Oh... her," Bradley said. "That kid that is always with you, the tall boy."

"Freddy?" Stanley asked.

"Yes, Freddy. He spoke to their parents from what I heard. I probably should’ve gone, but I was so worried about you that I didn’t leave the mansion while the mayor did his best to heal you."

"By the time you were out of danger, 2 weeks had passed, and only then had I left the mansion. That was when I heard that the Freddy kid had already talked to and apologized to the family."

Stanley looked down. "I should go and apologize too," he said softly.

"You can after you’ve healed enough," Bradley said.

Stanley could only nod and walk along.

They arrived at the Defenders headquarters and Stanley was quickly taken to his room.

"Brother, I’m hungry," Stanley said. "Can’t I rest after I’ve eaten?"

"I’ll bring the food to you," Bradley said. "You can’t eat solids from what I’ve heard, so I’ll have to ask the cook to make some soup for you for now. And that will take some time."

Stanley nodded. "Okay," he said.

"Rest for now, I’ll come back once your food is ready," Bradley said and walked away.

Stanley snuggled into his bed and got comfortable. As he stayed there, he slowly felt his body asking him to rest as sleep came for him so soon after he had just woken up from a coma.

’I must be really weak,’ he thought. As he was starting to fall asleep, a sudden high-pitched screech from the speakers woke him up.

"Good afternoon, folks," the mayor’s voice spread through the speaker. Given that it was close by for him, the voice was especially loud.

Stanley lost all sleepiness after that. "Right, he was going to make a speech. I forgot," he thought.

"How have you been doing?" the mayor asked. "Today’s speech consists of a bit more than a few topics I want to talk to you all about."

"The first topic is the Census. As you all know, we’re almost done with the census. A week or two more and we’ll be completely done with it."

"Once the census is ready, we will also publish the data for all to see. It will be a fun day for certain," the mayor said.

"I also want to talk about the farm situation. We’ve pretty much filled as many farms as we can with the Dulls we found through the census. There are still about a dozen or so people we have to replace, but until we find more Dulls I’m afraid that we won’t be able to replace them. We will try out best, however, so please do not worry."

Stanley felt a small bit of anger grow in his heart when he heard that. ’Why Dulls? What have dulls ever done to you?’ he thought. Even though he couldn’t be considered a Dull anymore, he still sympathized with them.

He remembered the memory of his mother telling him that being discriminated against was just what Dulls had to suffer in this town. Stanley hadn’t questioned it when he was a child, but now he did.

Why? Why did they have to be discriminated against just because they didn’t have any powers? That certainly didn’t make someone weak or useless for the most part.

Sure having powers was great, but it was powerless that were feeding and keeping alive the entire town aside from the Defenders. So why were they so hated? Where did this hatred even come from?

Stanley couldn’t think of any answers. As he wondered about that, the mayor moved on to the third topic which interested Stanley far more than anything else he had heard before.

"The next mayor, Bradley Reed will be assigned in a week or two," the mayor said. "In fact, let me give you a countdown even."

"Bradley Reed will become the 6th mayor of Last Hope in exactly 15 days from now," the mayor said. "You can start counting the days."