Strongest Nova: Path of Vengeance

Chapter 86: Threat

Illan carried the mayor up to the mansion. Once in, the mayor walked on his own, leaving Illan at the front door.

He walked in and went through a flight of stairs before arriving in a room where the bright lights shined from the ceiling, under which the black-haired girl was looking at her wounds.

"What are you doing?" the mayor asked. "I already treated you. Leave it be."

"I was just checking my wounds," the girl said. "Were you giving a speech? I could hear the speakers."

"Yes," the mayor said. "After what happened yesterday, I needed to calm down the citizens or we could face another rebellion."

The girl scoffed when she heard that.

"Speaking of rebellion, was it you who killed those 3 in the warehouse?" the mayor asked.

"Yes," the girl said without much thought.

"Why did you do that? That led to all sorts of trouble. We have nearly 15 people dead from the conflict last night," he said.

"Well, their boss chickened out of killing them, so I did," the girl said. "Well, it was out of impulse anyway."

"Their boss?" the old man’s eyes narrowed a little. He quickly pulled out something and showed it to the girl. "Is this the boss?"

"Yeah, that’s him," the girl said.

"I see, so it was the boss," the mayor said. "Is he dead?"

"No," the girl said, grumbling under her breath. "The bastard ran away."

"Ran away?" the mayor was surprised. "From you?"

"Bastard had a great concealment skill. I couldn’t even see him most of the time," the girl said.

"Even then, it’s you. How could a nobody run away from a Nova like you?" the mayor asked.

"About that..." the girl spoke. She showed her wound to the mayor and asked, "Do you know how I got this?"

The mayor looked at the wound.

It was a slightly burned wound on the side of her thigh. It looked like it would bleed, but instead, it seemed to be burned shut.

"Did you get cut and tried to cauterize the wound with fire?" the mayor asked. "I was surprised when I saw this too. You surely wouldn’t be so stupid to do something like that."

"Stop speaking nonsense. Of course, I wouldn’t," the girl said. "And I didn’t. This is not a cut wound. It’s a graze wound."

"A... graze wound?" the mayor frowned a little. "What grazed you?"

"What do you think?" the girl got slightly angry. "A fucking bullet, that’s what. That bastard shot me with a Plasma bullet, that’s how I got this burned wound. Not just that, he used a flash grenade to stun me and run away."

The mayor’s eyes went wide when he realized what that meant. "Someone from the outside!" he said.

"Yes, someone from the outside came in," the girl said. "How did that happen? Could it be while I was sleeping?"

The mayor’s eyes narrowed as he realized something. "I was right," he thought to himself. "My hypothesis was correct."

"What?" the girl asked, confused a little.

"For a while, I had a feeling that someone from outside had come in. Thoughts of rebellion, women’s equality, these sort of things aren’t something people from here usually latch on to themselves. It must’ve been someone from outside, bringing their foreign ideas to the people."

"I see, and that’s why things changed so fast," the girl said. "Why did you come to that hypothesis? Were the changes all that you needed?"

"No, I had another major hint," the old man said. "The Crawler invasion 6 months ago."

"The invasion?" the girl asked. "The one that happened while I was asleep?"

"Yes," the mayor asked. "I always wondered why so many crawlers came in at once, and there was only one conclusion I could reach."

"It was that someone came in through the veil and dragged them all along with them," the mayor said.

"That does make a lot of sense," the girl said. "Especially given the fact that those things don’t need eyes to see so that bastard’s concealment wouldn’t have helped much either."

"Yes, I think we finally cracked the code on what happened 6 months ago," the mayor said. "Haha, I feel good now."

"Stop celebrating and help me come up with an idea," the girl said.

"For what?" the mayor asked.

"What the fuck do you think? That bastard, the outsider. We need to catch him as soon as we can," the girl said.

"It’s fine," the mayor said. "We can take our time with him. He won’t think of gathering any other people for a while now."

The girl’s face was ridden with shock. She couldn’t believe how lazy this man had gotten.

"Old age really does make people senile," she said. "Are you forgetting the fact that he has a gun and grenades? He’s not a nobody. This man is a trained individual that could’ve been sent by a governmental body outside because they found us. We need to take this seriously."

"I don’t think that’s the case," the old man said. "If it was, they would have sent more people by now to look after him. We’re safe."

"What if he finds a way to leave? Maybe through the veil?" the girl asked.

"If he could, he would’ve already," the mayor said. "There’s a reason he’s staying here, and we will know soon enough. I mean, it’s been 6 months already, I doubt he’s staying because he can’t leave."

The girl frowned at the old man’s logic, only because it was logical. However, just because it was logical, didn’t mean it was right.

A human heart was fickle, one could change their mind any time they wanted to.

’He’s grown old,’ the girl thought. ’A long life has made him complacent. He doesn’t think of danger the same way he used to.’

The girl nodded to herself as she watched him leave.

"He won’t do anything anymore," she told herself. "I will have to do it all myself."