Only Wisdom Awakened - Chapter 245

Chapter 245: The Bigger Picture
“Those crazy bastards!”

The white-haired old man exclaimed as he touched his temples.

After a few seconds of silence, in which the old man calmed down, another question came out of his mouth, always In that authoritative tone.

“So? What have you done to prevent a disaster?”

“We have deemed the clash between the two of them and the lord of crimson to be almost certain, so we have decided to send two of our top-tier scouts to follow their moves, and evacuate all the citizens in the area to avoid any civilian casualty.”

After a few seconds, the old man replied with a nod, as if his thinking had just passed an exam.

“Alright then, hurry up and prepare people on the site who will be ready to close the roads in case of a clash, it’d be troublesome if a couple of dozen people died because we arrived late.”

“Yes”

The man who had come to report left the room, and the old man found himself at peace once again as he glanced out of the glass wall, observing the beautiful city.

…

In the meantime, somewhere between the busy streets of Milan.

“Didn’t you say the Association has been keeping an eye on me?”

Hans asked as he barely managed to follow the woman through the crowd.

“Yes”

“Then why are we walking in plain sight?”

Emma finally stopped in front of a shop with a couple of people waiting in line, she turned around and said as she smiled:

“I wanted an ice cream”

Hans closed his eyes to calm himself down before trying to get something that made sense from her.

“Come on, be serious for a minute!”

But even saying that he also got in line, after all, it had been a long time since he had tasted good ice cream, most places in America made it with god knows what, so it tasted like chemicals more than milk.

“Fine fine, it doesn’t matter anymore, they probably won’t be searching for us with cameras or satellites anymore, after all, they always got cut off”

Hans expressed his curiosity without even speaking so Emma explained what she had said:

“Do you think I went unnoticed for so many years without any help? There is a team of almost thirty people who work day and night to cover me, and they are the most skilled informatics in their field, even the military wouldn’t be able to find me if I wanted to hide.

And there’s a similar team for all the higher-ups, so they don’t even know who the leader is.

Hehe, I’m a genius right?”

“Uh… yeah”

“Tch, you’re no fun.

What happened to you? I mean it looks like most of your emotions have been killed.

Whatever, I meant to say that even if they find us now it won’t be a problem, the reason why they were keeping an eye on you was to prevent you from meeting your grandpa.

You see, he isn’t known to the public because he does not like to deal with all those things, and he doesn’t want to reveal any information about himself, but he is the core of the Italian defense team.

He tracks down heinous criminals and puts them in prison, for that reason, he has become a sworn enemy of most evil organizations in Italy.

And that includes the faction of the lord of Crimson belonging to the Crimson tyranny.

They are afraid that when in just a few hours those associations become aware of you, your grandfather might be baited into a trap, and possibly lose.

Or I think at least, they could also just be scared of such a huge fight breaking out on public grounds….”

As her turn in line came, she asked for her ice cream:

“I would like a cone with pistachio and cream please”

“Sure thing” replied the lady working there before scooping the flavors as asked.

“For you young man”

She then asked as she handed the cone to Emma.

“Oh… just some pistachio and stracciatella.”

A few seconds passed and the lady handed the ice cream to him:

“Here you go”

“That’ll be twelve”

The other colleague, who was in charge of the money, added.

Emma paid for both of them and then they continued their discussion.

“So? What do you think we should do?”

Emma turned and said:

“You’re asking an awful lot of questions, aren’t you?”

“You’re the expert in this place after all”

“Hehe, damn right I am”

“Eat your ice cream it’ll melt”

“Don’t worry, the only perk of taking ice cream during winter is that you have more time to eat it.

You asked what we will be doing right?”

“Mh”

Hans nodded as he licked his ice cream.

Emma pointed at a bench and said:

“There, let’s wait for them there”

…

They sat down and talked as they finished their ice cream.

“You seem to know everything, is it all because of that skill?”

“Yes, but sometimes knowing everything isn’t enough…”

Emma said ashamed.

“What happened Emma? What made you into this? You…. Are not the person I knew as a kid”

Hans had finished eating and was now laying his back on the bench.

He talked as if it was nothing important, but they both knew that something had changed… they didn’t feel like friends anymore… more like strangers who knew something about each other.

“Hans… I don’t think this is the best time to tell you this but… he died…”

“He…”

Hans realized he stopped, frozen in place…

Emma’s pained voice continued talking:

“He died in front of me, I couldn’t do anything…

I-I knew he would’ve died… I knew it, but I couldn’t prevent it, and… he wasn’t the only one who died in my arms, the people I cared for… everyone, everyone died…

Hans’s eyes were lucid, just hearing her talk like that was enough to move his heart, and Dodo… Hans still remembered his bright smile.

Talking quietly on that bench, as the people passed by and the chaotic city continued at its usual rhythm, they both felt like their emotions didn’t make a difference in the big picture.

“…He was… fated to die, I tried to drag him out of his tedious fate but… that putrid swamp we called fate devoured him, and with him everything he hoped to accomplish, and his stupid dreams…”

For the first time since they had met up in that city, Emma showed an emotion that wasn’t confidence or joy.

“I see… so…he’s the reason why…”

“… yes, but it’s not only him… Hans, you must help me… fate… cannot remain the same”

A little tear had formed in the corner of the girl’s eyes, she wiped them with her wrist as she said:

“I think this might not be the time to talk about things, we’ll catch up another day, for now… we have some guests”

Hans had noticed them too, three men, a B-rank and two C-ranks… they were stationed around the place, one on the closest building’s rooftop, one concealed inside the ice cream bar, and the third sitting on the bench beside theirs reading a newspaper.

…

An old man was sitting at his desk, reviewing and signing some paperwork with a pair of old-style glasses on his nose bridge.

“Bzzz…. Bzzzzz…B-”

The phone was ringing, even if it was in silent mode, it shook the whole desk and annoyed the old man.

He picked up the phone, even if he felt like hanging down the call.

“What is it? Whoever you are, haven’t I told you I don’t like to listen to anyone’s voice on the phone?”

His voice was clearly annoyed and quite worked up.

A mechanical voice came from the other side of the phone, getting even more on the old man’s nerves.

“I am extremely sorry, we have an emergency…”

The voice was similar to the one of the middle-aged man with an insecure look that always came reporting to him during the past few days.

“What is it? Tell me in the least amount of words possible or I’ll hang up.”

“-…”

The other voice stopped for a few seconds, probably thinking about the order he had just received:

“Evil organization Italy found Hans Richter, we worried if we leave them be his grandfather could get himself killed”

The old man knitted his brows, and said enraged:

“I told you to reduce the amount of words in your phrase! Not to talk like an idiot.

The noise of the phone is loathsome but hearing you act like a baboon makes me want to cut my wrists!

I swear I should just fire you!”

“Please sir don’t do that”

“Don’t do what?”

“Everything you’ve said”

“Agh… whatever! Get to the point”

“We ask for permission to deploy a defense team for Hans”

“Huh… that-

As he talked another phone rang, it was his personal phone, he watched who was calling him and left the other guy hanging for a second.

“I’ll tell you in a second, wait for me right there”

He said before muting himself on the first call.

Then, he brought the other phone close to his mouth and said:

“It’s rare for me to hear anything from you, I hoped you were dead”

The person on the other side of the phone laughed, getting on the man’s nerves, and then, the deep voice of a woman resounded in the old man’s ears…

“Come on, I called to tell you something interesting I heard… there’s this mage who’s really funny.

His name’s Hans…