Only Wisdom Awakened - Chapter 246

Chapter 246: Different Paths
“Answer me with a single word.

You had asked me for authorization to send a support team to help Hans get out of trouble, which would also save trouble for Gianfranco, is that right?”

The old man had already hung up the second call he received and was now talking once again with the man who always came to him with bad news.

“Yes”

A metallic voice that annoyed the old man just as much as the screeching of some nails on the blackboard replied.

“There won’t be any need to do that, come to my office right now and don’t reply, this matter isn’t an emergency anymore”

The white beaded man hung up the call before the other could say anything else, and awaited his arrival in his office.

A few minutes later, a middle-aged man with relatively short black hair entered the door after being invited inside.

“Sir, what is this all about? The whole investigation team is in chaos, if Hans gets kidnapped by some evil organization, and they then collide with the Lady of Crimson, it would put Gianfranco in a terrible spot, we could even lose him.”

“That won’t be a problem anymore, I received a call from someone I know, and I found out something really interesting… just let them sort it out by themselves, but go there and limit the civilian’s access to the zone, otherwise we might see civilian’s casualties.”

“Sir, are we… giving up on Gianfranco?”

The man was worried, after all, the so-called Hell Hound had always been someone not liked by the higher-ups of the association, he did things as he liked, and resolved matters without hearing anything from his superiors, that’s the only reason why he was still only the Italian defense team leader, and only privately since the public didn’t know about him.

‘If it wasn’t for his attitude, a talent like him could’ve made it around the ruling table… does that mean that the leaders do not want to help him out even once?

Doing something like that to someone who’s protected his country for years feels a little… shameful.’

“What? ‘The hell are you thinking about? Why would we ever stay still when someone like Gianfranco is in danger? He single-handedly defends Italy from one of the Crimson Tyranny’s most active factions, without him, not only Italy but maybe even some of the surrounding nations would fall into the hands of the crimson Lady”

“Sir, I understand, but there’s no reason to blow even more air in the balloon, even if he died, the night market is still really strong in the central and northern parts of Italy, they would hold the Crimson lady faction at bay.”

“I am not exaggerating, the Night market couldn’t give a shit about who they deal with, after all, they are also very active in central Africa, and we know well that place isn’t under the jurisdiction of the Association”

“But then…”

“Why haven’t I agreed to send a team to protect Hans Richter?”

The man nodded.

“Haha… that kid doesn’t need them”

‘What? He doesn’t need them? Also… I think it has been a long time since I’ve last heard him laugh’

“Do you want to know what happened a few days ago in New York?”

With sweat running down his neck, the man replied:

“Please enlighten me”

His face changed… it became more shocked the more the old man continued speaking.

….

In the meantime, somewhere in Italy…

“Hey, you sure it’s alright to leave them here? I’m pretty sure they’ll rot before even dying”

Hans was concerned for his enemies for the first time in his life.

Emma, just beside him, replied:

“That’s what they get for trying to capture us”

In front of the two youngsters who looked like devils, three men were lying on the ground tied up with three layers of tape over their mouths.

They were shaking, asking to be spared through their body language since they couldn’t speak.

Hans looked at them pitifully… “sigh… it is true that you shouldn’t have come after us”

Hans said, giving up on letting them have a painless death.

Behind the three was a little trapdoor, it was halfway open, and coming out of it were a couple of centipedes, some maggots, and a black spider with a family big body and short legs.

Even though Hans couldn’t clearly see inside because it was dark, it looked like a room without anything but insects and a couple of carcasses, a putrifying stench emanated from that underground room to the point that Hans almost couldn’t bear it.

“How long has it been since the last time you opened up this place?”

“Dunno, maybe a year? I’m sure the little guys inside there must be quite hungry”

“I’m not entirely sure they would be able to eat them”

Hans commented.

“Yes but they would probably plant their eggs inside them and the babies would consume their skin and flesh as nutrients, since they’re awakened, going six or seven days without eating, drinking or pooping shouldn’t be a problem, the eggs will have hatched before that.”

‘She’s talking like she knows everything… but I bet half of the shit she said is a lie’

“Now, how about you start talking… who knows maybe I’ll change ideas, and spare your lives”

The three of them began nodding as fast as they could, and while Emma got closer to take the tape off their mouths, Hans decided to try something…

‘Would something like that be possible… a barrier that doesn’t do anything but block sound?

I’m pretty sure those things exist, it was on display at the Trade Center…

Does that mean that sound is yet another path I have to discover in magic…

There are still three I don’t possess…

Space magic, I have just barely gotten a hang of the first spell, then there’s time magic, I’m not sure I can master it since all the skills Emma has are class skills, but I’m sure it exists, and I’ll find a way to get my hands on it, and now even sound magic…

Ah, I guess there must also be a darkness or shadow path…

Then that makes four, I should at least start learning the sound path, it sounds easier than the others.

Let’s see… sound travels in waves, so if I were to put up a barrier that messes up the order of those waves would it be considered a sound path magic?

Hans erected his mana, it wasn’t even a barrier, just moving pure mana, he spread it out in a spherical shape, and enclosed all four of the people in front of him inside it.

This amount of mana should be enough to modify the waves… but it’s too much, it would also impact someone if they were to walk into it… I want something that stops only sound…

Hans divided his barrier into six smaller layers and then spread them out.

‘Like this… it should be too little for it to have any physical effect, but it should absorb the sound passing from every layer until it completely deletes it, six layers should be enough, but I can just create more if it isn’t.

As soon as the tape was taken off the three men’s mouths, they waited for Emma to back up, and then immediately began screaming:

“Help!! Help!!! Someone, please call the police!!!”

“Help us!! There’s a woman from an evil organization!!”

“Someone call the association!!”

They were really close to a highly populated area, even if maybe they wouldn’t have been found out in time, if the woman decided to throw them inside that place then they would’ve been found before they died, and if she decided to kill them… they weren’t afraid of death if it wasn’t in that terrifying place.

Emma immediately pulled out her sword from her necklace to kill them.

‘A subspace..’

Hans admired.

She expected them to do something like this, but there wasn’t anything else she could do, they had too little time before their backup would arrive, so they couldn’t just drag those three men to an isolated area and threaten them there.

“Seems like you’ve decided to die”

She said as she raised her sword.

She swung down ‘lightly’ and the three of them smiled awkwardly in the face of death…

‘At least… I didn’t end up in that disgusting place’

‘That’s probably what they’re thinking…

But, I won’t let them have it so easy’

Hans stopped Emma’s swing by catching her wrist.

She seemed quite surprised by his strength, even if she had used nothing near her full strength it was unusual for a mage to have high strength, she was already taken off guard by his pretty high dexterity.

“Why did you stop me?”

She asked calmly.

“There’s no need to do that…”

The eyes of the three men lit up for a second, they just didn’t know what that meant and were hoping for the impossible to happen.

“….I cast a sound-blocking barrier, no one heard them”

The expressions of the three men changed… they were now… how to say… desperate.

[congratulations, you have obtained the spell {sound barrier}(tier-2).

A “sound” spell path will not be created due to the insufficient number of spells.]