Chapter 119: Acquiring Four New Useful Slav- I Mean, Subordinates

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Once Riven finally came back and finished healing Label, the girl suddenly noticed she was completely stark naked. Her earlier transformation had completely torn off her clothes by accident.

Riven made sure to look in another direction as Label screamed in pure embarrassment.

In desperation she started covering herself with her arms... only for something completely unexpected to suddenly happen.

"Eh?!"

Her long hair moved on its own with surprising intelligence, weaving a simple but sturdy black dress around her body in mere seconds.

"What?!"

She could not believe what she was seeing, and Riven was just as surprised.

That was definitely not a power she had possessed before her temporary transformation.

And because those transformations were supposed to be temporary, such an ability should not have remained with her afterward either.

"Can I control my hair? But... my transformation is already gone?"

"You made such a great Yokai Serum that you likely kept an ability or two," Riven laughed lightly. "If the recipe for something like that ever spread, a potion you can drink to permanently gain skills... it would completely change the world."

"..." Label remained amazed for a moment while looking into the distance. Then her eyes widened. "Ahhh! The ninjas!"

As she pointed toward them, the three remaining ninjas were still crying over Kagehisa’s body. The smallest one held him carefully in her lap, tears streaming down her face as she placed her hands gently on his neck.

Then...

"Uugh..."

Kagehisa groaned softly in pain and made an annoyed expression.

He coughed several times.

"Cough, cough...! Agh...! Would you be a little less brutish with me, Hinata...? I’m alright."

"KAGEHISA-SAMA!!!"

Hinata, the smallest of the ninjas, along with his two other retainers, screamed in pure disbelief and overwhelming happiness. They immediately knelt before him and continued crying tears of relief.

Label was left completely speechless as she watched the young genius of the Hattori clan... still alive!

"R-Riven... You didn’t kill him?" she asked in shock.

Riven looked back at the ninjas, who were now also glancing toward him once more with mixed emotions.

They finally realized exactly what had happened.

Riven had given Kagehisa a fate that, in their eyes, was worse than an honorable death.

He had offered the young lord pure mercy, completely humiliating him by choosing to pity him instead of ending his life.

For people who valued honor above almost everything else, they felt deeply conflicted.

On one side they were overjoyed that their lord was still alive. On the other side, their entire clan had been thoroughly humiliated by a single man... and a woman.

"I’m fine, I’m fine... stop making such a huge ruckus about it..." Kagehisa could barely move his body. "That damn bastard... I can’t believe it. After saying all of that about killing me... he never did it... cough! He even... injected me with an antidote for the poison... why... why offer me so much mercy?!"

"..." Riven sighed and slowly shook his head. "Are you aware that these people are kidnapping innocents and selling them through human trafficking?"

"..." Kagehisa averted his eyes, but he clearly knew the truth. His retainers knew it as well.

Yet he answered with his own honest perspective. "I was raised to be an assassin. I came here because I was hired to act as a guard for the boss of this place. It was an official mission from the hidden village. I’m not going to act like I’m completely innocent though."

Kagehisa was still young and developing. Above all else he was roughly Riven’s age, and someone who could still accomplish a great many good things if given the chance.

However, the major reason Riven had chosen to spare his life was something deeper.

"That’s good to know. At least you felt like what they were doing wasn’t right, correct?" Riven asked calmly. "Alright."

"W-What are you going to do with us?" one of the ninjas asked nervously.

"What?" Riven tilted his head slightly. "You’re all better off alive than dead. And because you only just arrived here... you probably aren’t even that deeply involved with the bastards doing all the real dirty work, right? Just hired guards? Alright, I can forgive that much. Although at the end of the day, I am simply desperate."

"...?" Kagehisa raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Desperate?"

"Kagehisa, this world is ending in three years from now," Riven said with complete seriousness. "I can’t afford to kill every single useful person I run into... Sure, some will still have to die no matter what. But you and your retainers? I’ll be kind enough to forgive you and instead make sure you pay for your sins in a different way. You’re going to help me save our planet, the home we all share together."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"...HAH?!"

Kagehisa was left in utter disbelief while his three ninjas simply stared in complete confusion.

Riven cracked his knuckles with a calm expression. "Sorry, but you cannot say no to this offer."

He walked toward them with a kind yet determined handsome smile. The three ninjas were suddenly beaten down the moment they tried to defend their lord. Moments later they were tightly bound with living shadows controlled by Noir, who had just woken up.

After that, Riven quickly grew a long dinosaur-like claw that leaked a specially prepared venom he had just created. He injected the substance into their bloodstream without hesitation.

"W-What are you doing?!" Kagehisa asked angrily. "They’re my retainers— Don’t...! I’ll do whatever you say, just leave them out of this!"

"Oh? I had no idea you were such a nice guy toward them," Riven remarked as he removed their masks. The faces of two young men no older than sixteen and a young girl in her mid-teens were revealed. "Kids, just as I imagined. The Hattori Clan raises child soldiers. What a shock, huh?"

Well, there was also the simple fact that they were all still children, which made Riven feel genuinely bad about the idea of killing them. He had killed one other ninja earlier, but that man had borne a different clan mark and had been an older fighter in his thirties.

That was the reason the older ninja had attacked first without obeying Kagehisa’s orders and had worked independently. Riven still asked about him. "Who was that other old guy?"

"Ahhh... he’s not related to us at all..." Kagehisa answered while slowly shaking his head.

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