Only Wisdom Awakened - Chapter 51

Promise
Two days passed since the incident.

Hans’ name was still printed everywhere with everyone in the forums and online doing nothing but discuss about him.

His righteous deeds as the association branch’s leader had spread all over the country, catching the attention of many.

But more than anything else, he had finally earned the crucial element needed to become a good leader: the admiration of the citizens.

People hailed him as a warrior of justice, recounted his heroic deeds, how selfless he was to care so much for the citizens as he was even willing to put his life on the line to protect them from evil, and how he shone brightly among all the other shady and materialistic people, akin to a beacon of virtue.

But the truth was different from what everyone talked about; what had happened was really simple and straightforward.

/Hans made a friend /——>

/His friend was suffering because of his abusive father/——>

/So, Hans made his friend’s father suffer/

That was all there was to it.

Nothing more, nothing less.

He no longer needed or desired the position of association branch leader, but he was stuck with it due to his promise to a certain cunning old man who had dumped it upon him.

After the fight ended, before doing anything else Hans had gone to check up on Aiden, who remained hospitalized after Emily had brought him there.

In the quiet room, the young boy lay on the bed, silently staring at the ceiling, thinking about what had just happened.

Even if he didn’t wish to and tried his best not to cry, tears welled in his eyes as he gritted his teeth.

But his heart didn’t lie and neither did his mind.

‘Why me? Why me?!!! What have I done wrong? Dad… no Logan, I truly wish you…’

At that moment, his eyes almost turned red from the killing intent, as the intense pain and sadness he was experiencing morphed into anger.

“I truly wish you’d di..”

Before he could finish such a macabre thought, the door creaked open, and Hans entered.

His clothes were marred from the recent clash and one could see a small trail of water that had formed from the path Hans had walked all his way.

Hans sat beside Aiden, who just observed him from head to toe, trying to understand what might have happened for him to appear like this.

Since Hans remained silent, Aiden followed suit.

“Hey, Aiden,” Hans finally broke the silence.

“Mh?”

“How about it? Do you want to come live with me?”

A flicker of hope lit up in Aiden’s eyes, but soon, the ephemeral smile that appeared on his face was wiped off, replaced by indifference.

“Haha, that would be …. incredible. But I might have to decline. My dad won’t allow me to do somethi-”

However, Hans stopped him midway, “Don’t worry about him. He’s been taken care of.”

“What do you mean, brother Hans?” Aiden asked in confusion.

Hans raised his eyes before turning his gaze towards the small TV that was placed in the corner of the room.

He switched it on before saying, “You’ll see in a while. I have some important matters to attend to, but I’ll visit you tomorrow.”

“While I’m away, think about my offer.”

After saying that Hans stood up and walked out of the room, leaving behind Aiden, who was still full of doubts.

Back at the association, the day was still young and there was still a ton of work that had to be done to stabilize his position and quell the chaos from the incident.

The first person to greet him in his office was ‘Kenta’, who was seated at a table, holding a drink in his hand.

Surprised, Hans immediately asked, “How did you even get inside?”

‘Kenta’ chuckled before saying jokingly, “I didn’t know you could use ice too. It’s a pretty handy ability, isn’t it? Here, could you make me two cubes?”

He raised the small glass of white wine towards Hans, who out of spite cast a smaller version of his spell {Blizzard}, making the drink turn into a block of ice.

After doing as asked, Hans pressed once again, “Who let you in?”

Seeing his stern demeanor, ‘Kenta’ sighed before setting the glass on the table, “Come on, no need to be so tense, I’m the new association branch security team leader, so, of course, they’d let me in if I want to have a meeting with you.”

“Oh, really? Well..”

Hans settled in opposite to ‘Kenta’ and changed the subject while questioning him, “So Kenta, do you like the new identity we created for you? No, since it’s just us now, should I call you Kwang-su Kim? Wait, is that even your real name? Are you from Japan or Korea?”

Hans was genuinely curious since he wanted to understand if even the name given by his {Mystic Insight} referred to the used name or the biological one.

Avoiding the second question, Kenta solely focused on the first one.

“It’s pretty good, but I’ll need time to get used to both the blonde hair and the blue eyes. Plus, being a security team leader is pretty annoying. All they care about is preventing disasters, so they rarely get into fights. It’ll be such a mundane life for the next few years, full of paperwork and routine.”

“Well, then you better get used to it. Also, I plan on stepping down from my position as soon as I can. You should consider doing the same if you find it too much of a hassle,” Hans advised.

Kenta’s eyes widened slightly and he couldn’t help but blurt out, “Why are you leaving? What will happen to the ‘Hero of Chicago’?”

“I don’t know. It’s never been my thing. Plus, I don’t like being tied down by big associations. As soon as I can, I’ll get the hell out of here,” Hans replied, shrugging his shoulders.

“Then, are you perhaps planning on starting your guild? Maybe with a select group of elites, that way you can avoid it to transform into one of the ‘big associations’ that you despise?” Kenta inquired.

Hans pondered the idea for a moment, but it didn’t take long for him to find the answer and dismiss the thought. He had sworn that he would never hurt anyone for his own interest again. Forming a guild to face that monster would only result in sending people to their deaths.

“No, that will not work. Unfortunately, anyone who wants to follow me on that path would be nothing but deadweight. In the end, I’ll be nothing but a killer, no different from Logan, who used people for his personal gains,” Hans concluded grimly.

“I see,” Kenta acknowledged.

With that, their conversation concluded and the two went into their respective offices to tackle the mountain of annoying paperwork.

As the branch leader, Hans, had to sift through and sign numerous documents, ranging from both, the economic state of the branch to the matters concerning awakened power, such as things like the market for mana stones, furs, fangs, claws, and other materials.

Along with that, he also had to organize and manage the deployment of the awakened individuals for the gate raids, a tedious task that had to be done every day, considering that numerous gates appeared every single day in Chicago.

Despite the exhaustion, Hans tried his best to resist taking a break, driven by the thought of finally being able to rest at the end of the day.

And finally, by the end of the day, having no power left in his body, Hans returned home and ate a bland plate of pasta with some tomato sauce before falling on bed and falling into deep sleep in no time.

The next morning, although the alarm didn’t ring, Hans woke up as usual, at half past six.

Normally, his work at the association started at eight, so he dressed formally before going to a bar and ordering a takeout for two.

After taking a taxi to the hospital where Aiden was hospitalized, Hans made his way to the young boy’s room to have breakfast with the fellow.

While they were eating in silence, the youngest spoke, “Brother, about what you told me yesterday… will it really not be a problem for you if I come over?”

“Mh, it would be nothing but a pleasure,” Hans nodded.

“Then, can you take me home when I get discharged today,” Aiden suggested.

Hans smiled and agreed, “Sure, I’ll pass at 4 pm and take you home.”

After a while, Hans had to leave for work knowing well that even if no one could tell him anything in case he arrived late, it would still set a bad example for the rest of the branch employees.

By exactly 8 am, Hans had already arrived at his office and was reading a document regarding the prices of gates territory when a man hurried inside the office, pushing the door wide open and gasping for breath as he tried to talk.

“Leader… PANT, PANT … we have… PANT.. a problem,” somehow he managed to say it.

This man was the director of the information-gathering unit of the association.

Hans tilted his head, curious about what might the problem be before asking what was going on.

“In our territory, something terrible has happened, a.. a B-Rank gate has appeared,” the unit director completed after regaining his breath.

“Oh okay,” Hans simply nodded.

The unit director stared at his boss with a dumbfounded expression on his face before repeating, “Ok-okay?”

“Sir, this means we will have to clear it by ourselves. Honestly speaking, it’ll be really difficult for the current association. Even if we are to gather most of our hunters, we will only have about three that are B-Rank and thirty or so C-Ranks. And if we try to mobilize more than that, we’ll risk leaving some of the lower rank gates unattended, eventually getting a lot of criticism.”

The director looked at Hans carefully making sure that he wasn’t annoyed and then continued, “Sir, I am just saying this, but perhaps we should ask for help from the American central branch.”

Meanwhile, unaware of the fact that his suggestions were completely left unheard, the director waited for an answer from the leader.

‘A B-rank gate huh, I guess it’ll be even more difficult than the one I faced last time, as that only had one monster which was a machine. But… calling the central branch? No, how could I simply give away such a precious experience source? This is a good chance, I’ll use this opportunity to level up a bit, after all, I’ve been stagnant on my current level for a while.’

After thinking, Hans raised his head and reassured the man, promising him something that definitely wasn’t what the unit director had expected as an answer.

“Don’t worry about the gate.”

Confused and full of doubts, the director raised his brows and posed a question, “Why?”

The corner of Hans’ lips curved up as he answered, “I’ll take care of it myself.”