Chapter 79
Nash’s speed was so swift that Stellar could barely react in time.
“Damn it!” Stellar muttered, his disbelief evident. “If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t have believed a human could move that fast!”
He spat on the ground in frustration.
The warden, voice low, asked, “The others don’t have abilities as strong as his, do they?”
Stellar climbed into the car and nodded. “Nash’s strength far exceeds theirs.”
As he buckled the warden’s seatbelt, he added, “There is someone who might be able to compete with him…”
The warden raised an eyebrow in surprise. “The one from Phoenix Island?”
Stellar nodded in confirmation.
The warden chuckled dryly. “The one from Phoenix Island must be over a hundred. This kid”—he gestured to Nash—“is probably in his 20s, right?”
The car began to move slowly, and then Stellar, always with a hint of mischief, asked, “Warden, you seem to like young people like Nash and Theo. Do you have some kind of special preference for them?”
Stellar had always considered the warden his older brother and often joked around with him.
The warden shot him an irritated glare. “Cut the crap! I’m as straight as an arrow!”
He then pulled out a wallet from his pocket, taking out an old, laminated photo. The edges were scorched and faded, the figures in it nearly unrecognizable.
“Do you know why I’ve never been home?” The warden gently traced the blurry images in the photo.
Stellar, puzzled, shook his head. “No idea. You always bring out this old photo… Is that your family in it?”
The warden’s face twisted into a smirk of self-deprecation.
“I’m the warden, the defender of the nation! I’ve protected this land, but I couldn’t even protect my own home. In my first year in the Northern Territory, my wife wrote to tell me she was pregnant. That year, she gave birth to a healthy boy, but I couldn’t make it home until his first birthday. When I finally returned, all I found was ruins.”
The usual warmth around the warden vanished as he spoke of his painful past, replaced by a chilling aura of sorrow and unrelenting killing intent.
His gaze became as sharp as a blade, and the air around them thickened with tension.
Stellar struggled to breathe under the oppressive pressure. He had only ever seen the warden emanate such a terrifying aura once before—when he led a million soldiers to defend the frontier.
Stellar, careful, asked, “Who did it? Did you… get your revenge?”
The warden coughed, a hand pressing to his mouth. As he pulled it away, a few specks of blood stained his palm.
“I used every resource at my disposal to investigate, but every effort failed. It’s like someone knew I was looking into it and sabotaged me from the shadows. Ten years… Half a year ago, I lost contact with the last member of my intelligence team.”
The warden closed his eyes, his sorrow palpable.
Stellar fell silent, his mind racing.
If the warden’s story was true, the force behind it was truly terrifying. More so than the impact the Smiling Grim Reaper had left on him.
What kind of power would it take to prevent the warden from uncovering the truth for so many years?
Could this same force be behind the warden’s poisoning and the assassination attempts?
It seemed as if this force was targeting not just the warden, but everyone close to him.
Stellar clenched his fists, a fierce determination building within him.
He had to use every connection at his disposal to help the warden uncover the truth.
“Stay out of my personal matters!” The warden’s voice was raspy with warning, as though he sensed what Stellar was thinking.
He didn’t want Stellar to become involved in his private issues, especially after the recent poisoning in the Northern Territory. The force had clearly infiltrated the war zone, and the warden, who had trusted Stellar as his closest friend, didn’t want him to be put at risk because of his past.
Meanwhile, Nash returned to his apartment, undressing and inspecting the wound on his abdomen.
The ten-centimeter-long gash looked even more gruesome up close.
“Deagol’s power and speed are several times greater than Shawn’s. If I’d reacted even a second slower, he could’ve sliced me in half,” Nash muttered to himself, his hand gently brushing the wound.