Only Wisdom Awakened - Chapter 48

Logan’s downfall
“Let the voting commence,” declared the moderator as she continued.

“From now on, for the next thirty seconds, those opposing the dismissal of Logan Harris will have the opportunity to raise their hands. Only the raised hands that last till the end of those thirty seconds will be counted.”

A bell rang, signaling the start.

‘Watch and learn kid, this is the authority you do NOT have,’ Logan thought, anticipating an overwhelming support, expecting at least 90% of the votes to be in his favor.

To his surprise, immediately a third of the hands shot up.

Most of them came from the group of small guilds, some that had their matters covered by Logan, while others just raised them to support the three major guilds, presumed to support their retention.

Harris scanned the room, noticing the association’s officials he’d paid a lot of money but didn’t raise their hands. Even those who had received larger bribes from Hans, just avoided his gaze, looking away.

‘Well, it’s fine even like this. As soon as this is over, I’ll make sure that all of you are fired,’ Logan thought arrogantly.

However, as time passed and neither Benjamin nor Sophia raised their hands, many of the smaller guilds, initially swayed by their influence, changed their votes and retracted their support.

With each passing second, the raised hands dwindled.

And on the bell’s ring, only 12 individuals voted against the proposal.

They were all small guild leaders, who probably owed Logan a debt or had received his help in covering up something illicit.

The lady spoke again, “Total number of votes against the dismissal, 12.”

“We will now proceed to vote in favor of Logan Harris’ dismissal from his current position as the security team leader.”

“In case there are eleven or fewer votes in favor, the case stops immediately and Logan Harris will retain his position.”

“If the votes fall between 12 and 27, the case will be taken to the court. If the votes cast are 28 or higher, Logan Harris will lose his position and taking over will be the new candidate.”

“You may now cast your votes in favor by raising your hands.”

As the bell rang again, nearly half of the hands of the people in the room shot up immediately, surprising even those who raised their hands in favor, not having imagined so many of them to be voting in favor of the dismissal.

All twenty-six officials Hans had previously bribed voted for him, adding to that the eleven officials who stood by the side of justice, which included Tyler Brown, and the leaders of the Vortex and Blaze guilds. The starting votes in favor of Hans’ proposal were already enough to conclude the matter.

“BANGGGG!”

Seeing both the two guild leaders raise their hands, Logan slammed his fist against the desk in front of him, making an extremely loud noise, however, they paid no heed to him.

‘Benjamin!! Sophia!!! What the hell do you think you are doing??!!!’ Logan fumed internally.

He never expected the big guilds to stay by his side, since he knew that it would stain their image in front of the other guilds and the public, nonetheless, he expected them to abstain from the vote and also not take Hans’ side.

Even the hands of those who abstained eventually rose up, leaving only seven people without a vote, but the results didn’t change much.

The final tally was a total of sixty-three votes in favor of the dismissal of the current security team leader.

The small guilds took the same path as the two major ones, siding with Hans.

With that, the official closed and the final nail in the coffin was the golden bell’s ring.

“Dingggg”

‘You…you all forced me to do it. I’ll drag all of you in the mud with me, and don’t even dream of covering it up,’ Logan seethed.

After Kenta Kurogane gave a speech about his plan to rejuvenate the rotten security team, which was accepted with open arms by most of the officials, everyone walked out of the room.

On the ground floor, the first one to arrive was Logan Harris, he was furious and angry, and the workers tried their best not to annoy him, not sure if he was removed from his position or not.

Among the numerous workers was Aiden, who was busy printing some papers behind the reception.

Currently, his face was clean of the bruises he had suffered a few days ago after being beaten by his adoptive father.

However, just when he had returned to work, Logan Harris spotted him.

Seeing the defenseless young boy and the hesitant look on everyone’s face, a smirk appeared on the man’s face.

“Aiden!”

The young boy recognized the voice and froze in place, not daring to even take a look behind.

…

A few minutes later, Hans stepped out of the elevator and noticed a crowd of workers gathered near the door of a small storage room.

They murmured amongst themselves, clearly trying to keep their voices low.

Curious about it, Hans decided to check it out. And what he discovered was enough to make him explode from anger.

A young man was lying on the floor, but despite looking like he was on the brink of death, no one offered a helping hand.

Tears streaked the boy’s face and his body was covered in numerous bruises and scratches.

Without hesitation, the new association branch leader immediately knelt beside the boy, checking his condition urgently.

“Aiden, Aiden are you ok? What happened,” Hans inquired, concern evident in his voice.

“Brother Hans.. it hurts,” Aiden whispered before fainting.

Emily, who arrived after noticing the crowd from afar was tasked by Hans with taking the boy to the hospital.

And while she attended to Aiden, Hans took out the golden ring from his pocket and slipped it onto his finger. The next moment, violent mana emanated from him, and his eyes gleamed with a fierce killing intent.

Even without explanation, it was obvious what happened. That despicable bastard of a man, angry about losing his position, had taken it out on his son, almost beating the poor guy to death.

Hans’ mood really couldn’t get any worse. He stormed outside and made his way to Logan Harris’ house. Thanks to Aiden who pointed his finger towards it, he knew its direction.

Hans ran as fast as he could before finally reaching the coated man who was still on his way back.

Wasting no time, a sharp ice claw condensed on Hans’s forearm and hand before quickly approaching the man’s head, poised to pierce right through it, wanting to put an end to his life.

“Die,” Hans growled as he attacked.

The opponent, however, reacted in time and managed to dodge the blow.

In retaliation, Hans quickly delivered a powerful kick to the man, sending Harris tumbling into the Chicago River.

Using his powers, Hans used his spell {Blizzard}, freezing part of the water’s surface and trapping Harris within the ice.

However, just a few seconds later, the frost around the well-dressed man started to shatter, falling apart under his aura and freeing him from the icy prison.

The shards of cracked ice fell into the frozen river, shining under the sun that lit up the city.

After not having a path ahead, the various boats that conducted tours around Chicago’s river came to a halt, while all the bystanders on them started recording the unfolding scene with their phones, watching the once-in-a-lifetime spectacle that was transpiring before their eyes.

Some people even started streaming, quickly grabbing the attention of a lot of people. Despite not being a proper fight, due to all of this, the situation was already known worldwide.

Quickly realizing that he had acted on impulse, Hans regretted his actions. If it wasn’t for the quick thinking to throw Harris into the river, some civilians could’ve been caught up in their fight and would’ve probably been seriously injured if not died.

If that happened, not only would he break the promise of never again killing someone innocent because of his own interests, but it would also influence his image as the new association branch leader, tarnishing his reputation and reliability.

But now, at this moment, it was time…

Reflecting on the long meeting he had with Garrison about a week ago, Hans remembered the problem that they thought might arise when he was dealing with Logan.

_____

“And, once you have dealt with everything, there will be one final but huge obstacle left for you to face, that being…” Garrison trailed off, reclining on his leather armchair.

He took a pause and gazed at the plain ceiling above before finishing, “You’ll have to kill him.”

“Is it that difficult?” Hans inquired, seeking clarity.

Garrison nodded, “Mhh, yes, if we are simply talking about his level and stats, Logan falls in the mid-B-Rank, however, those have been stagnant since he didn’t have enough time to grow stronger by going inside the gates.”

He then continued, “Still there are many things you need to consider before making a move. First of all, he’s an experienced fighter, which means his skills are on par with a high B-Rank. Other than that, he’s a trained professional who has gone through numerous battles against other humans and his skill is specifically great for one-on-one fights or one against a group fights.”

“All this places his fighting prowess against humans to low A-Rank, basically making him as strong as me, if not even more, since my only weapon is my defense.”

“If you really want to kill him, you’ll need to hire an assassin that is at least a mid-A-Rank.”

“And employing such a powerful killer to attack a strong awakened, who is by the way also a public figure will mean a lot of exposure which will cost you a fortune.”

To that long explanation, Hans only replied with a short answer, leaving Garrison to open his mouth agape.

“Can’t bother doing that, can I? Guess I’ll just..”

_____

Back to the current situation, Hans declared, echoing the vow he had made before Garrison a week ago.

“K*ll you myself!”