Only Wisdom Awakened - Chapter 235

Chapter 235: Return
The withered arm lay atop a little pond of blood, with the sword still in its gripless dead hand.

If it wasn’t because of that, Hans might’ve thought it was all just a dream.

He felt that way because what he witnessed was simply… outrageous… Elijah’s whole arm had been sliced off his body, and the man had done it himself, without a single hint of doubt or fear of the pain.

And then… that excruciating process of regeneration… it wasn’t like anything he had ever seen before.

Elijah was catching his breath as his sweat was staining his clothes and the white sheets.

In the silent room, even the man’s heavy breathing seemed loud, and Hans couldn’t help but stand there dumbfounded.

“Pant… pant…

Pant…

Well…

pant…

What are you waiting for?… Take it”

Hans finally moved, his eyes still fixed on the pained man as he crouched slightly to reach the floor with his hand and pick up the sword.

The thought of using telekinesis did not even pass through his mind, since the only thing he was interested in was analyzing once again what had just happened.

In his head, again and again, he tried to portray the absurd experience he had just lived, and every time, his skin crisped at the sole thought of that sword…

It had all been so… immediate.

The moment Hans saw that sword, it had already reached his head, and Hans didn’t even notice Elijah’s other hand when it moved.

That speed was beyond being just “fast”.

He wanted to see what Elijah’s stats looked like, but the only thing his mystic insight showed him were some low stats. Belonging to a C-rank at most, with a little (corrupted) sign just beside them, and the same for his skills, they were all low-level skills with a corruption sign attached to them.

That is when Hans understood… it still wasn’t enough… he thought he was now one of the people standing at the pinnacle of the world… but it still wasn’t enough.

He needed more power… a lot more, since, just like Elijah said… as he was, he wasn’t even sure he could beat the Abyssal Snake anymore.

Hans clenched the sword firmly before picking it up, from his hand and from the blade, blood dripped to the floor, but Hans remained unperturbed.

He watched the sword and then switched his gaze over to Elijah…

“I promise you, I will make sure no one will die because of you, take it as repayment for giving me this sword”

The tired man showed a hint of happiness and relief as the corner of his lips curled into a faint smile.

“I will be counting on you…”

Replied Elijah.

Hans didn’t have anything left to do there, so he just turned around and walked away.

“Farewell”

He muttered.

Even though he had his eyes closed, Elijah heard Hans’s farewell, which barely reached his ears amongst the sound of the youngster’s shuffling footsteps.

But as the pace of Hans’s walking slowed down, the young man said one last thing:

“I almost forgot… your niece, she will be aiding me in keeping you inside that gate.”

Before Elijah could say anything, Hans began speaking once again:

“Don’t try to stop her, it would be useless.

And you can rest assured, her strength has grown at an imaginable pace… she isn’t any weaker than me… especially now that she awakened her sword aura.”

‘What?! Her sword aura?! Chloe finally…

She finally did it.

Hans was prepared to resume his walk when the voice of the white-haired man halted him.

“That is fine… but you have to promise me something…”

‘Huh? What is it now?…”

…

Almost an hour later, Hans was already sitting inside his private jet.

As he waited for the plane to take off, his fingers started rapping on the wooden table in front of him.

He was quite anxious… strangely.

When walking into a high-ranking gate or when preparing to face off against a tough opponent, he didn’t feel anxious, he was motivated, and at times slightly scared, but ‘anxious’ wasn’t a word that could be used to describe his usual emotional state.

So why was it… why did he feel like this?

The last time they, met, Emma almost punched a hole through his abdomen… was that perhaps the reason he felt anxious?…

Well, probably, but Hand wasn’t entirely sure.

“Sigh…”

His loud sigh was a sign of his anxiety.

But as he closed his eyes, Hans felt a strange sensation… something was touching his arm… his shoulder, and then his neck.

It felt pretty heavy, but as it wrapped around Hans’s neck, he already knew there was nothing to worry about.

When he opened his eyes, the young man was not so surprised to find two azurine eyes just a couple of centimeters from his face.

He raised his hand and patted the little snake standing in front of him.

“Did you feel my anxiety and come all the way here to help me out?”

The man asked with a wide smile on his face.

He then closed his hand into a fist, only keeping his index finger relaxed and slightly bending it, forming a little hook.

The white beast rubbed its head against the finger and wrapped its body around Hans’s arm.

“Haha… it’s good to have someone who’s with you all the time”

Hans lowered his arm, and with it also Ember.

When it was low enough, Ember climbed down Hans’s arm and curled up on his lap, resting peacefully.

‘It must also be good to live without any worries’

Hans commented inwardly.

‘Since the little one’s sleeping, it’s better if I call out Caelan’

For the following eight hours or so, Hans chatted with Caelan, tried to find a way to improve his space spell, meditated, and played a little bit with Ember.

When the wheels of the plane touched the landing strip, he was as fresh as a daisy and relieved of all the stress.

The anxiety he felt before taking off had completely disappeared, and the only thing left was excitement, he was happy to catch up with a friend he hadn’t seen in a long time.

As he left the aircraft, Hans bade farewell to the pilot, telling him to take a few weeks off in Italy since they would be staying there for quite a while.

When hearing the news, the pilot and the copilot rejoiced.

Ember had found her favorite spot to be: Hans’s shoulder, and having a snake beast always wrapped around his upper body, Hans was beginning to look quite scary.

He leisurely walked around the apron where the plane had stationed itself, a cold wind was blowing that day, but the moon shone brightly.

He felt at peace with himself as he calmly turned around and gazed at the few stars visible in the sky.

The moonlight painted most of his face with its bright ethereal shading, his silver-white necklace reflected the night’s luminescence and Ember’s white body emanated a certain luster under the same lighting.

The pilots saw the scene from the cockpit and couldn’t help but stare at Hans’ otherworldly stance, their mouths slightly agape.

The young man took a deep breath…

“How long has it been… seven, maybe eight years… it doesn’t matter anymore, finally I’m home”

Hans’s mind was tranquil now that he had landed in Milan, but the same couldn’t be said about the headquarters of the most powerful associations that took place in Italy…

The night market was already aware of Hans’s movements, and Emma cleared her schedule to meet him,

Other than them, another organization in Italy was already aware of the young man’s visit… they certainly weren’t pleased about it, but they had no reason to intervene.

However, Hans’s arrival in Europe had caused pure chaos in the heart of one of the most important buildings of the association…

In a quiet office atop a tall skyscraper, an old man watched the beautiful lights of the city, silently sitting on a little leather chair.

Just beside him, on a little crystal table, were left untouched a bottle of unopened wine and a big chalice, whose surface was already covered in a thin layer of dust.

‘As always… I can’t sleep.’

The old man thought.

‘I brought the wine here just like every other night, but I don’t feel like drinking even a drop of it’

His eyes were seemingly lifeless, and the bags under his eyes made him look like half a zombie.

His body however wasn’t like that, his shoulders were large, and his muscles were well trained, it was to the extent that it was easy to tell even if he was wearing a common black and white office attire.

At that moment, he heard the sound of the elevator moving up…

As it passed the first, the second, and the third floor, the old man hoped with all his soul that whatever lay inside there wasn’t headed to his office, but as he heard the elevator pass the twenty-second floor and stop just a few meters away from him, he massaged his temples with his index and his thumb…

‘What could it be this time?…’