Chapter 408 - This Isn’t Earth

Once everyone was seated, Cecil opened his mouth and said, "I've already heard the reports from my subordinates about what happened in the ruins. From what was reported, the casualties on your side were caused by none other than your own reckless actions."

"..."

"I remember receiving word from your president that he would cooperate fully with us and what's this I get? You fools recklessly excavated the ruins on your own and caused some unwanted and needless...casualties..."

"...We've given your people the cooperation that you've asked. Once inside the ruins, we took action according to the sit—"

Cecil tapped his fingers on the armrest of his chair and sent a shockwave towards the person who had spoken earlier, sending him flying off from his chair and into the wall.

"...I didn't ask for an excuse, did I?"

"Y-you, do you know who we are?"

"You just attacked an—"

Cecil quickly cut them off and spoke up, completely ignoring the fact that the NWR's people had turned hostile towards him for sending one of their important figures smashing into the wall. The only one who remained silent was Alek, the NWR's army commander.

"I'm not sure which one of you is the idiot that authorized the mobilization of a second team into the ruins, but what you did was pretty stupid and you're responsible for the loss of your 10 soldiers...as well as the cause for my disciple, brother, and sister going missing..."

"Huh?"

"?"

"Now, I'm going to ask you once, and only once, who's responsible for authorizing the second team to go in and cause a mess? The only thing you got from that was this insignificant artifact, the loss of your precious soldiers as well as offending the Silvaria Family of the Silvaria Kingdom..."

When Cecil rolled the artifact in his palm, Ivan noticed it and rashly spoke up, "Boy! That's the NWR's property! You people snatched it from our excavation team!"

"...And who are you?"

"I'm the NWR's leading scientist, Ivan Mikalovich! I demand that you hand back our property at once! We discovered it first inside the ruins and your people stole it from us!"

Cecil reached out with his hand and quickly pulled the man to his side using his mana. He clamped down onto his neck and began squeezing.

"So...you're the fool who's responsible for sending in that second team?"

"Ack, kuhaacckkkk—"

"You trash caused my family to go missing?"

This time, Alek couldn't stay silent since an important person of his nation was in danger.

"Unhand him right now!"

The officer next to Alek quickly stood up and spoke up to berate Cecil's actions, "You! Your actions are a direct offense to—"

Cecil didn't pay them any attention and only squeezed tighter, quickly snapping Ivan's neck.

"!"

"Y-you!"

"You dare!"

Cecil scoffed and threw Ivan's body into the air and quickly vaporized him into nothing with a Mana Bolt.

"...Next will be you fools if you don't answer my question. Who else is responsible for sending in your second team?"

"H-how, how could you kill him like that!"

"Do you have no respect for human life?!"

"Monster, we should just kill—"

The last person's words was quickly cut short since Cecil shot a Mana Bolt at him, completely erasing him from the face of the planet. His actions immediately sent shivers down everyone's spine.

They all looked back at this cold blooded young man and couldn't help but be fearful.

"...This isn't Earth. So did you think your justice system will work here?" Cecil asked coldly.

"..."

No one could give him an answer. Right now, they were only fearful of their lives. Judging by how the young man before them operates, he wouldn't bat an eye if he killed another person.

"In Alterna, justice is enacted by those with power, true power. Not some insignificant things like money, authority, or status. You bastards just offended me by causing my family to go missing. Hence, I'll enact my justice."

"..."

"..."

"..."

Seeing how fearful everyone was, Cecil scoffed, "You all should feel lucky that no one in my family are dead because if they were...I can guarantee you, you're entire nation will be wiped away from this world."

Once more, no one said anything so Cecil continued, "I'll ask one more time. Bring those responsible for sending in your second team. I'll only eliminate them and leave the rest alone."

Alek saw that everyone else was paralyzed in fear. He released a breath and spoke up, "Sir, the person who had authorized the mobilization of the second team was the person you had just killed..."

"...And who are you?"

"I'm the commanding officer of the NWR's forces who were sent to cooperate with the Silvaria's Special Forces to investigate the ruins."

"...Shouldn't a team be authorized by you for them to mobilize?"

"...I did authorize for them to move, but I gave them specific orders to stay outside."

"I heard from a report that this wasn't the case. One of the survivors that my brother selflessly saved confessed that the orders were sent by their superiors to move in after the first team and my brother's team was further into the ruins... Are you still going to lie?"

"..."

"You're selling out one of your people just so you can save the rest? It's admirable, but futile. If you won't be truthful and present them, I'll just wipe out your entire base before I go and rescue my family..."

"A-are you not afraid of ruining the alliance between our two nations?!"

"Why should I care? Do you honestly believe that my Kingdom needs this alliance? It's not us who needs it, but you. In this new world, we can take care of ourselves just fine. If we have to, we can just go to war with you and take over your nation and claim your resources and lands for ourselves. Simple and efficient, much better than putting up with this stupid facade where we have to act 'friendly' with a nation that's much weaker than us."

"..."

"I can guess that that stupid scientist was the main cause for the second team's mobilization. Your researchers were too greedy to get your hands on mana-rich materials so you couldn't help yourselves."

"We're all just humans and we needed to find a way to defend ourselves in this crazy world..."

"At the expense of your own people and those unaffiliated with you?"

"...It wasn't within our expectations—"

"It should have been since you idiots are exploring something that's beyond your knowledge!"

"..."

"I promised my wife that I wouldn't cause a ruckus when I came here and since I've already killed someone, I don't want to break my promise even further... You're nation will receive a formal complaint from my kingdom. Just know that your actions may have caused the dissolution of the alliance between our two nations."

"..."

"Now if you fools know what's good for you, scram. Before I decide to go back on my word and just kill all of you here."

After the NWR's people, who had rudely intruded on their meeting, were sent away, Cecil ordered everyone to quickly mobilize and head for the ruins.

Cecil exited the command center with Silver and his 3 disciples who led him straight to their quarters.

Once he walked into the tent, Tyra immediately jumped into his arms and sobbingly said, "M-master! My brother, my brother, he—a-and the commander, and even Angelia, th-they—"

Throughout the entire meeting, Tyra had been holding in her grievances since she was tactful enough to know that it wasn't the time or place to be showing her emotions and bawling out to her master.

"It's alright, Tyra. They're all still alive, you don't need to worry. Once everyone's packed their things, we'll head straight into the ruins to go and rescue our family."

"T-they're still alive?"

"Yup, remember that last time I had you all give me a portion of your manas? I stored them inside an artifact that lets me keep track of your general locations and life signs. The mana is still active inside the artifacts so it could only mean that they're all still alive and doing their best to stay alive inside the ruins," Cecil gently reassured.

It was a good thing that he had created multiple copies of the artifact that he had given to Lucia as a means for her to keep track of his mana levels from back then. He no longer had a need for his wife to keep track of his mana levels since he had resolved the issue of him turning berserk when his mana got too low, but now the artifact was used to keep track of his family's life signs using their mana.

He had everyone in his family, his wives, his brothers, sisters, parents, parents-in-laws, uncles, cousins, disciples, and including the people who were loyal to his family and stayed at the estate to have their own Life Force Artifacts.

Since Cecil knew that they were still alive, he wasn't all that angry at the NWR's forces even though they caused his family to be in their current condition. It would be a different story if he didn't know about their condition or if they were dead.

Who knows what he would have done to the New World Republic if he found out that his precious brother and little sister, as well as his newly acquired disciple, were killed. At the very least, the NWR would no longer exist if that was the case.