Chapter 1174: A Redemption Mission

What the hell was Valeria doing? This thought crossed Jason’s mind, but Jason didn’t bother trying to explore it more. Instead, Jason calmly turned away from Valeria’s behind and looked back at the documents while asking:

"There aren’t any guild branches along our route, are there?"

Valeria stood up and glanced back at Jason.

"Not from what I’ve seen. But there’s a branch about thirty-five worlds east of our route, though. If we take a detour, we might be able to stop over and ask them if they know anything about the mission."

Jason thought about it for a few seconds before he shook his head.

"No, it’s too far away from our destination. We’ll find them another way."

Valeria nodded in acceptance, and she finally brought up a map that showed the route they would take to their next destination. The world they were going to now was called Edgar, and it was a world filled with ghouls. When Valeria had first seen what was on this world, she had immediately stated that she wasn’t going anywhere near it. Jason was a little confused by her intense refusal at first, but it didn’t take long for Jason to realise what was going on. Valeria was scared of ghosts! Valeria had threatened to cut Jason with her sword when he began teasing her about this, but Valeria never denied it, so Jason knew he was right! It was funny to think that a tough, no-nonsense person like Valeria was scared of ghosts!

Jason decided that he would go down to this world alone this time. From the information Jason got about Edgar, Jason knew that there was one PRIMORDIAL Rank I Ghoul in charge of the other lower-ranked Ghouls on that world. That was the Ghoul Jason needed to deal with before they could finally head for Bal’ina. Since Jason was already close to reaching PRIMORDIAL Rank II, Jason hoped that he would be able to cross that threshold after this battle. If Jason isn’t able to do it, then he would have to face the PRIMORDIAL Rank II on Bal’ina while he was still a PRIMORDIAL Rank I, and that was something Jason would rather avoid.

A few minutes later, Stella and the rest of the crew came into the cockpit while laughing at some unknown joke. Helios flew over their heads with a large cracker in his mouth, and he landed on the perch that Jason made for him on one side of the cockpit before he dug into his snack while ignoring everyone else. Arte ran up to Jason and took his usual place on Jason’s lap, and Jason patted the little boy on the head before he went back to steering the ship.

"Master, dinner is ready. Would you like to have it now?"

Jason hummed as he steered the ship in the right direction, and then he turned on the autopilot feature and the ship spoke in a soft voice.

[Autopilot Activated.]

[Destination: Planet Edgar]

Jason felt the ship take the controls from him, and Jason stood up and lifted Arte into the air. The little boy squealed and laughed excitedly as Jason put him on his shoulder, and Jason called everyone to come along to eat. It had been a long day for them all, so they needed to rest.

.....

[A Few Thousand Miles Away From Jason’s ship]

A massive warship rocketed through the hyperspace as it made its way in the direction of Malovena’s ship. This ship was filled with multiple soldiers from the world of Dev’arn, and they had recently gotten information from the spies that they sent to look for Malovena that the ship belonging to the Red Skins had just left the world of Nue and was moving quickly in the direction of Edgar. The soldiers had been told by their supreme overlord that they had to bring the siblings to him as soon as possible, so they planned to intercept Malovena before she could get to Edgar. The soldiers didn’t know what Malovena planned to do on Edgar, but if they managed to catch her off guard before she got there, then it would be far easier to get the siblings back.

The soldiers from Dev’arn still had no idea that Malovena’s ship had been taken over by a new captain, but as far as they were concerned, all they needed to do was to get the siblings and return them to the overlord.

At the cockpit of the warship, a captain of the Dev’arn army named Tucel guided the ship through hyperspace with narrowed eyes. All around him, navigators and analysers carried out various necessary readings and mappings to make sure that they were going in the right direction. But the captain didn’t even bother paying attention to any of them at the moment. Instead, the captain felt a wave of irritation rising from his chest and filling his entire body. Tucel couldn’t believe that Malovena would do something like this.

Usually, it would be unheard of for a high-ranking captain like Tucel to be sent on such a simple search and retrieval mission, and although no one on the ship would dare to say it, it was obvious to all of them that this mission was being used by the overlord to punish the captain. The lesser soldiers did not know the reason for this punishment, but the high-ranking soldiers knew that this was happening because Captain Tucel was the one who had recommended Malovena to the Supreme Overlord in the first place.

The captain was one of the many contacts that Malovena kept around the Zeroth Domain, and even though he tried to hide it, it was obvious that the captain was unbelievably attracted to the red-skinned mercenary. Malovena might be a brute, but there was no denying that she was also a beautiful woman, and the captain found her to be very attractive. Malovena also noticed this attraction from the captain, and she had used it to her advantage to get him to give her any missions that the supreme overlord would want to send out. Captain Tucel had recommended Malovena, hoping to gain her favour so he could eventually take her to bed, but the stupid bitch ended up ruining his reputation when she failed to deliver.

The captain was sent on this mission by the Supreme Overlord as both a punishment and as a way for the captain to try and redeem himself. If the captain failed here, then this would be the end of his life. There was no way the Overlord would ever forgive such an unbelievable error from a high-ranking official.

"How far away are we from the location!"

The captain barked towards one of the navigators at the side, and the woman jumped in fear before she quickly typed into the panel and brought up the exact information.

"W-We’re ten hours away from contact, captain!"

The navigator answered quickly, and the captain glanced at the screen for a moment before he turned away and told one of his lieutenants to prepare for a direct attack.

"Prime all weapons and prepare the loading bay for boarding! Our first priority is to retrieve the siblings. Do not harm them and make sure their heads are covered the moment you retrieve them! Our second priority is Malovena. Bring her aboard to answer for her crimes. The moment we are certain we have everything we came for, open fire on the ship. We must make an example of the Red Skins."

The Lieutenant saluted and quickly went to do as he was told, and the captain narrowed his eyes at the vast hyperspace in front of him. It wouldn’t be long now. He would redeem himself if it was the last thing he did!