Strongest Nova: Path of Vengeance

Chapter 84: What Do I Want?

Stanley went to the gathering an hour later and was surprised to see how many people were gathered there.

He still wore his slightly burnt leather armor and carried his sword on his back. They were all called out to stand at the front of the gathering so no person could sneak out from there to attack the mayor.

The mayor was carried into the platform by Illan, who placed the old man in front of the microphone on the platform.

Bradley stood next to him as well, which surprised Stanley a bit. ’So that’s where he went,’ he thought.

Stanley turned back around as they had to focus on the people in the crowd, just in case they did something that they shouldn’t.

Stanley could still see the pain and loss in everyone’s eyes. Someone had only just stopped crying, while many others were still crying.

Stanley also saw hate and anger in many people’s eyes, most of which looked poor, judging by their clothes. The group had formed in the 3rd and 4th quadrant, so it was obvious more of them would have joined the group.

The people from the 1st and 2nd quadrant were only sad at the tragedy.

"First of all, I would like to extend my condolences to everyone who was impacted by the tragedy that had happened last night. I had good intentions when I sent the Defenders to capture the ones that were destroying peace."

"However, I didn’t expect a conflict as big as this to erupt from something I had assumed would be simple."

The mayor talked in vague details about what had happened last night near the warehouse. He also talked about the fire that had killed 3 people, and injured many more.

Stanley wasn’t aware of that until now. ’The fire killed people too?’ he thought. They still had no idea who started the fire.

As the mayor talked about various things, such as the funeral of the ones that had died and the imprisonment of the ones that had been captured, Stanley could see the eyes of the many grow cold.

He understood them a little. His thoughts went back the man who had told him what their plan had been.

To remove the mayor from his position and bring a new system to how the town worked. The man’s intentions for all of this stemmed from greed and jealousy as well as his own lack of ability to do better than the others on his own.

However, while his intentions lied in something flawed, his ideas weren’t all that bad.

Spreading power between a few people instead of handing it all to one person. Disclosing every bit of information about the town to the public so that they were all aware of it.

Those sorts of ideas sounded very good right now. If Dulls could be integrated into the town as well, that would be fantastic.

Stanley continued watching the crowd, but there was nothing to watch out for. With how many defenders there were, no one would dare to do anything right now.

He stood there, waiting for the speech to end, when he heard George’s name and couldn’t help but turn around.

"George was a candidate to become the mayor too. However, after I chose Bradley as my successor, he became consumed by greed and tried to kill him."

"My successor was so close to dying, and he was saved by none other than his own little brother," the Mayor said. "Stanley Reed, you have my thanks."

Stanley looked at the mayor with surprise and confusion on his face. His brother gave a small smile, but it didn’t say much.

"Ah, there you are," the mayor finally saw him now that he had turned around. The mayor gave a slight nod toward him. "Thank you for saving your brother. If not for you, we would’ve lost our next mayor."

"If there is ever anything you want, no matter how extreme, If its possible, I will give it to you," the mayor made a promise.

"Are you sure?" Stanley asked, surprising himself that he was questioning the old man.

The mayor had expected Stanley to just thank him and was going to move on with his speech, but Stanley’s words caught him off guard.

He looked at the young man with all smiles. "Is there anything you need? You can tell me," he said.

The mayor didn’t have much expectations as to what Stanley was going to ask. He was either going to ask for something like houses, or maybe a food, or something along those lines. If not, he was definitely going to ask to keep it for now and ask later.

"I..." Stanley stuttered. What did he want?

When Stanley listened to his inner feelings, he knew exactly what he wanted. He had known what he wanted for a very long time, and he even knew how he could get it.

However, if he ever got what he wanted, he was worried that everything would suddenly become true and the pains and torture he felt would increase all that more.

However, after the little girl’s death and the tragedy last night, it already had increased that much more. Stanley wasn’t sure how much longer he could keep it.

Since he was already being tortured, he might as well let himself drown in it all. If by some chance he was lucky, then he would get what he truly wanted from all of this.

Peace.

He just wanted some peace from all of these pain, tragedy, and inner turmoils.

So, Stanley finally took the first step towards that. He asked the mayor for what he wanted right now.

"I want..." he spoke, asking himself one last time if this was what he wanted right now. Yes he did.

"I want to quit," Stanley said, to the surprise of all the people around him. "I want to quit becoming a Defender."

This life was not the one he wanted or needed.

"I just want to go home."