276 Belvoria in trouble?
"Keep repeating what I told you, and you will eventually be able to do it," Asher told Lucas, who nodded with an excited look on his face.
Asher had taught him a Mage technique that Lucas himself had created.
Although the chances were high that Lucas could recreate it, it would take an enormous amount of time.
So, Asher found it more efficient to teach him the technique under the guise of sparring and training.
And apart from Lucas, no one else could truly use this technique.
Only Asher was capable of somewhat imitating it.
"Are you going back to the Academy?" Lucas asked.
"Yeah," Asher replied.
He planned to return to the World Academy soon, as there was no longer a need for him to stay outside.
After all, the main reason Asher awakened the calamities was to move Farnus out of the World Academy.
"Rest now," Asher said as he turned and headed towards his room.
The servants gave Lucas some hand towels to remove the sweat from his face.
"Where is Liv?" Lucas asked one of the maids.
"Young Lady is on the Second Floor," she replied.
'I should take a shower,' Lucas thought, feeling his body drenched in sweat.
Amelia and Damian had left with Livia when Asher began teaching Lucas about his mistakes.
In his room, Asher changed his clothes as he examined the card-type artifact that he had taken from the Heist in Desmar.
"Time to use it," Asher said.
Asher could activate this artifact at any time, but doing so would prevent him from bringing it into the World Academy.
Therefore, he needed to add this Artifact's mana frequency to the World Academy's system. However, the security surrounding the World Academy's data system was too robust for Asher to breach.
Even Kai, with his bloodline ability, would be unable to enter. The moment he stepped foot inside, Farnus would sense their presence, and what awaited them was only death.
Farnus had complete freedom to kill anyone, no matter who they were if they entered the World Academy without permission.
And the fact that Farnus never left the World Academy made it impossible for Asher to access that data system without escaping Farnus's gaze.
One of the reasons Asher had awakened all those calamities was to force Farnus to leave the World Academy for the first time in years.
"Your own method helped quite a lot," Asher muttered as he reviewed the information Tom had sent him about the Tarvian Family.
The method to awaken those SSS Rank monsters was not something that Asher discovered himself. Instead, it was a technique found by the World Association, thanks to the combined efforts of all the Seat Holders.
Asher called Tom, whose face appeared on the hologram.
"Leak the information about the four calamities," Asher instructed as he looked at Tom.
Apart from the Seat Holders and a few others, the number of calamities awakened was kept hidden from the world.
At that moment, everyone assumed there were at most three calamities. But the people in Belvoria were oblivious that their continent was facing two SSS Rank Monsters.
"And about those companies?" Tom asked.
"Let them fight each other," Asher replied. "We don't need them all."
Asher's emotionless gaze made Tom uneasy. Right now, Asher's words alone were deciding the futures of people who held significant power in various continents' economies.
"I will release this information to the news sources first," Tom said before Asher disconnected the call.
Asher gazed at the world map, on which all five continents were visible.
"Well, I wonder if anyone will die," Asher mused, looking at Belvoria.
Even he himself didn't know which monsters he had awakened; he only knew about the method.
In his previous life, he remembered that any information about all this was strictly restricted.
The only thing he was certain of were the monsters in Desmar and Fashia, having seen the files about those monsters in his previous life.
***
"Sir, look at this!" an assistant told a man in a suit, who turned to see what was happening.
"What's wrong?" the man asked as he came closer to look.
"This can't be!" the man exclaimed in shock.
"Did they provide any proof?" he asked.
"Not for the number of calamities, but the presence of SSS Rank Hunters in Belvoria and other continents can confirm the news," the assistant explained. "As for the second part, they have provided sufficient information."
"What are we waiting for, then?" the man asked. "Regardless of any pressure from them, publish the news. We can't lag behind others."
"But what if they ask us to take it down?" the assistant questioned, realizing the sensitivity of the situation.
"We can remove it later, but we must publish it first," the man insisted.
"Announce it in the broadcast. I will handle any issues that arise," the man said, especially emphasizing the second part as a smile appeared on his face.
"We can use all this to secure the top spot," he said as he clicked on his phone.
"But don't push it too soon. I will confirm a few things first," the man reminded his assistant as he quickly turned to leave.
All the news sources had received similar information and none of them wanted to fall behind in the race.
In an instant, all the news sources were covering it.
"Breaking News, the number of calamities in Belvoria is said to be two!" the news anchor declared.
"No way!" A middle-aged woman who was watching the news expressed her shock.
Not only her, but the expressions of everyone in Belvoria changed as they heard multiple sources reporting the same thing.
At the World Association Headquarters in Belvoria,
"Who the hell is spreading this information?" the executive shouted.
They had just managed to calm the public unrest and were monitoring for any criminal activities in the meantime, but out of nowhere, crucial information had been leaked.
"Contact these bastards and tell them to stop all this nonsense," the executive said with an angry look on his face.
"Sir, the information has spread across the internet, suppressing it will be useless," one person said.
"Ah, then just spread rumors that the news is false," the executive said.
"Do anything to calm these people down," he said, but everyone in the room was confused as they couldn't think of any solutions.
They were already suppressing all sorts of articles or news about Zephyr, but now they had to calm the public down as well.
The current situation was not at a level where it could be controlled anymore.
In Belvoria, at the mansion where Casie was staying,
"So you're telling me none of those organizations have a single clue about this Zephyr?" Casie asked.
"That's what we got as a reply," the man nervously replied.
All the servants in this mansion were worried as they could sense that Casie was quite annoyed since she returned from the Gala.
Every single servant was avoiding going near Casie as much as they could.
"Go back and tell them to keep looking for clues," Casie said.
A maid was standing beside her as Casie tapped on her phone and a picture of Lucas and Livia popped up.
It was from the news sources that were going crazy over the Ivar's children, so it was obvious why such headlines were made.
If the Zephyr incident hadn't happened, Lucas and Livia would have been the highlight of the news along with Asher and his partner who shocked the world.
"What do you think about these two?" Casie asked the maid standing beside her.
'This could be my chance,' the maid thought in her head.
She had been serving the Hargraves for years, but it was the first time she had been this close to Casie Hargrave.
"Aren't these two the illegitimate children?" the maid said.
"Just by looking at them, anybody can see they don't belong in such a place," the maid said confidently.
"Right, just by looking at them, their filthy background is so obvious," Casie said as a smile appeared on her face.
"I heard some rumors that their mother isn't even alive," the maid shared what she had heard from other servants.
Casie's smile didn't disappear but if Lucas and Livia's mother was still alive, Casie would have tried to kill her, disregarding any thoughts about the consequences she might face.
"Just by looking at them, it's so obvious that that man didn't suit our Young Lady at all," the maid started speaking, thinking that Casie was enjoying it.
"He might have been just as filthy as their mother, and ignoring our young la-," Before the maid could finish, she felt the mana pressure of Casie.
The maid got nervous when she saw Casie standing up and coming towards her.
"I-I am sorry-" She didn't know what she did wrong but she apologized.
Before she could finish her sentence, Casie grabbed her face, her eyes looking down at her.
"Did you say that he is filthy?" Casie asked, and the maid started crying.
Casie forced the maid to open her mouth as a ball of lava formed just above her fingertip.
The maid couldn't move and a scream was heard by the other servants, as Casie poured lava into her mouth.
The other servants heard a scream but they chose to ignore whatever happened inside Casie's room.
It was better for them to just avoid the area.
After a few minutes, Casie stepped out of her room, noticing the empty hallway.
She went towards her bedroom, in which a single portrait of Ivar Greville was present.
She approached it, looking at the portrait.
"They will pay the price," Casie said as she touched the portrait, a smile appearing on her face.
