Chapter 286: Black Remains

A whole night had passed since the explosion the Hanging Islands had witnessed, and the next day’s sun had already risen.

That area was in a pitiful state, the magma had frozen into a huge mirror of black glass, while part of the forest had turned into a vast black stain, and at its edges fires burned, spreading into the parts the explosion hadn’t reached... but the response teams soon put them out, afraid they’d destroy any evidence... even though it was obvious all the evidence had already been wiped away.

At the border of the black zone, where the waves crashed loudly against the stretch of obsidian, a man in his early thirties stood with his hands in the pockets of his dark pants, with a sculpted face and platinum hair carefully combed to the side, his dark eyes focused intently, trying to catch anything in the distance.

He was the King from Erebus, Oscar Arlin, Theo Arlin’s older cousin, and the first to witness the explosion while he was wandering at the top of the Hanging Islands... watching his cousin from afar... but he was the second to arrive, some time after Alicia.

A slight frown was drawn on his handsome features, before he put one hand on the back of his neck and rubbed it, letting out a frustrated breath. "Bad... very bad!"

Beside him a light, beautiful voice rang out. "What’s bad? That we didn’t make it in time, or that all this happened while we were here?"

Oscar gave a sideways glance at Hailey, standing beside him with her arms folded under her chest... the fabric of her blouse was a little wrinkled at the edges, and her long blonde hair lacked its usual flow. "Both."

"Hmm..." Hailey tilted her head in confusion. "I don’t see why this would be so bad... nobody got hurt, and Solaria is responsible for this area, so it kind of has nothing to do with us."

"Kind of?" he reminded her, his eye twitching. "An agreement is an agreement, everything that happens outside the Empires’ borders falls on everyone present, whatever their loyalty."

Hailey raised her well-defined chin. "Nah, I don’t believe in that!"

Oscar’s hand stopped rubbing his neck, and he opened his mouth, closed it, then opened it again. "You don’t believe in it!?... no, forget it, I’m the idiot arguing with someone whose only concern is going home and counting her money so she can feel happy when none of it’s missing."

Objecting to this insult, she raised her finger and wagged it. "Don’t insult me... I’m happy when my fortune grows."

"Ah, ha." Oscar winced as he put his hand over his face.

Why would there be a King obsessed with collecting money... unfortunately he didn’t have the answer.

It’s commonly known that Kings aren’t interested in material wealth, and that’s half the truth... in reality most of them love money except for a special few... but among them Hailey was an exception.

She didn’t love money... she worshiped it, treated it like the son she never had.

And for those who knew this, the question was why Hailey would volunteer to come here and work for free as a guardian for a bunch of kids.

Because she’d smelled profitable deals around, of course, and one of them was the reclusive Duchess’s request for the Lifeweaver Serum... but unfortunately, she was interrupted when she finally got some time alone with her.

And speaking of Alicia, she was the first to arrive here, even before the explosion ended, then the first to leave after they arrived.

She said she’d shut down the recording room and take the latest records, and throw out everyone in it to prevent any tampering from the inside.

And seeing the angry, heavy aura around her, nobody wanted to argue, plus this fortress belonged to Solaria, and even though the prince was here too, he’d barely done anything... or hadn’t gotten the chance to do anything.

As for the Hanging Islands stage, it had now been halted, and all the participants were moved to the capital through the gate in the fortress.

This hadn’t been announced of course, but rumors had already started spreading across social media... especially since someone had eagerly gone looking for his cameras the moment, he got back to civilization.

By this time Alicia had already reviewed the recordings before handing them over to Zen so the investigation could continue, but unfortunately there was nothing strange in the records, whether in the footage or in the elimination logs.

And of course, the analysis of the two disfigured bodies was finished, one of them was identified as one of the supervisors stationed across the Hanging Islands, as for the other, it was unidentified... not registered in any of the four Empires.

For Oscar and Hailey, the unknown man’s origin was obvious, but was the supervisor guilty or a victim? Neither of them knew.

Oscar sighed deeply. "I don’t understand what their goal was with this, murder?... but it was far from successful, causing panic? It’s easy to cover up something like this and turn it into just an Ancient monster that wandered over here and we blew up."

A few moments of silence passed while Hailey stroked her chin in deep thought, then she nodded with a seriousness that didn’t match her tone. "You know, I’m too stupid to think about this."

For a moment Oscar thought about slapping this treasure hoarder and sending her flying somewhere, but Hailey soon put her hands on her hips and shook herself off. "Doesn’t matter, they got this game canceled, temporarily at least, so you can’t say they didn’t achieve anything, and here we are wondering why they’re doing this... and maybe they’re doing something else in the meantime."

He frowned. "I guess... and where’s that bronze giant anyway?"

Hailey shrugged. "Turning the Hanging Islands upside down." Then she smiled. "Anyway, we’ve been standing here for hours and there’s nothing new, so I thought, why don’t you stand here alone while I go do a few things?"

"And what are these things?" Oscar raised his eyebrow.

She shook her head as she played with a strand of her hair. "You never understand, a woman like me needs to take care of herself, I didn’t sleep last night, and I didn’t even get time to take care of my wonderful face, look, even my hair got a little frizzy from all this dry, hot air."

Oscar scoffed. "In short, you want to run off and play, fine... one smart mind is better than two stupid—" He faltered in the middle of his sentence.

She shook her head in amusement as she turned to leave. "Too bad."

And with that Oscar was left alone, staring at the black expanse and the distant columns of smoke.

...

Far from the wilderness and deep in the safe lands, the four groups were settling into the luxurious resort, the same one they’d spent the week before the Game of Kings in.

For teenagers who’d been trying to spill each other’s blood for a few points, seeing an explosion like that wasn’t pleasant... even if they’d been told some lies, it was obvious something had happened, or was happening, behind the scenes.... otherwise, they wouldn’t have had to stop the first stage.

Not even two hours had passed since they’d returned to the capital after getting through all the inspections and safety procedures... some of them collapsed exhausted in their beds, thinking about what would happen next... would they send them back to that wilderness or cancel the game?

Nobody knew.

And while everyone was unsettled by what had happened and what was going to happen, far from the resort, in one of the small mansions on the edge of the capital, someone was resting in a bed, eyes peacefully closed.