Way of the Knights

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Chapter 855: Revenge

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Just as Raven said, he stayed on his shuttle. 

He left a part of his consciousness to pay attention to the world in front of him. Even the bare minimum allowed to basically know everything that's going on in that plateau. 

Raven heard Lenna's conversation with her family. 

She was a horrible liar. In the end, she didn't manage to keep the incident a secret from her own family. She was forced to tell them the truth, about her near death experience. To say that her parents were incensed would be an understatement. 

Well, she's effectively grounded to say the least. She's not allowed to leave their home world anymore. 

Raven also managed to discover what her mission was, the reason why she have to leave this place. 

See, resources doesn't grow in trees here. There aren't even trees in the first place. This world – if it could even be called as such, is piss poor. It's literally hanging on by a thread. One wrong move and it will come crashing down, dragging down its citizens down with it. 

What Lenna sought out to do, is to scavenge resources from nearby sites. Trying to see what can be brought back in order to help their people survive. 

See, there's a strange thing in thus plateau. 

At the core of the land, there is a pool which directly links to the core of this almost dead star. There, people pour over the gathered resources they collected along their expeditions. This apparently allows the star to not only keep it's structural integrity, even though barely, it also causes food and other resources to grow within the vicinity of the pool, which they can then gather and distribute amongst themselves. 

Technically, it would never be Lenna's turn for the expedition. She has three older brothers for that accord. She was the youngest and kindest amongst them. She's practically the darling of this place so everyone's overprotective of her. 

Still, Lenna was stubborn. She felt like a burden. She didn't feel like sitting still and looking pretty. She wanted to help just like her brothers could. This is why she practiced cultivation and trained like mad. 

Just as well, she was a blessed one – at least on their book she is. She has a massive reserves of energy and she was talented. She managed to catch up to her brothers quite quickly too. This earned the respect of the citizens and deemed her worthy to leave for an expedition. 

Sadly, it didn't turn out well for her. She nearly died in the process. She's even under the debt of someone from the Divine Realm. 

She wasn't admonished too bad since she brought more than enough resources with her. It's just that, her near death experience didn't please her family. 

What Raven found interesting is that, Lenna is not of their blood. He's sure of it now. 

Her parents are neither a Spirit nor a Space Beast, they're both Local Outsiders – people who were born and raised outside of the Divine Realm. 

She's probably adopted, Raven's best bet at this point. Her parents might or might not know what she is actually since he never heard them talk about it. Lenna herself probably isn't aware that she's different from them. 

Raven has no plans of telling her of course. It's none of his business to meddle with something like this, frankly he doesn't really care. 

After the brief confrontation and a long scolding from her family. Lenna managed to convince them to help. They agreed with her request and started working, but then an interesting thing occurred. 

Lenna found the same people who ambushed her. 

It was an instant decision on her side. She didn't waste time. The moment they locked eyes, the situation was set. She took out her weapon and attacked them were they stood. 

Raven could sense the panic sinking in from her ambushers. They probably couldn't believe that she's still alive and was ever strong enough to come back here unscathed. 

Raven had to give it to Lenna. She's decisive. Her decision might look reckless, attacking someone without any prior warning, but considering what place this is, it's wise. 

Their fight startled the citizens of course, especially Lenna's family. One second they were talking to people, the next thing they knew, she was already fighting someone. 

Lenna's family didn't interfere. Nobody interfered. They weren't dumb. Lenna obviously have a grudge against the two. No one would dare to step in since Lenna's family had a reputation here. They won't help Lenna but they would step in the moment someone interferes. 

This is how they do things here. This treacherous environment was harsh so people who live in could only be harsher. 

The battle allowed Raven to measure the strength of people here. Well, he really didn't need to know in the first place since he's sure nobody could threaten him here but he wouldn't be opposed to gaining a few more knowledge bits. 

Lenna's aura was unique. For someone like her, it was impressive that she could even mobilize this amount of energy under this chaotic environment without it collapsing or dispersing. Her aura took on a deep blue-ish hue, a sign that purity of her energy was mediocre at best, but she has a lot of it so that kind of cancels it out. 

It was a one versus two yet Lenna managed to push them back. It was clear that she was a capable warrior. Adept with her rapier and her footwork. How these two managed to corner and injure Lenna back there, leaving her to the brink of death, was a mystery for Raven. 

The fight didn't last long though. Lenna was better than the two combined so they were killed instead, heads pierced by Lenna's rapier, leaving a gaping hole in them. 

After their death, the compass on Raven's hand lost its luster too. Meaning that they died for real. 

With a huff, Lenna hurled their bodies to the pool at the core of the plateau, turning them into food for the star and resources to be gathered in the future. 

Lenna was interrogated by her family but after knowing that the people she killed were the ones who ambushed her, they dropped the matter altogether. That's how it's like here. Anyone could lose their lives at any given moment. 

After the battle, Raven peeled his attention away from Lenna and her family, turning it to the citizens of this plateau instead. 

For the most part, most of them here were Local Outsiders. All jaded and exhausted, barely had a grip on their will to live. 

It seems that the Broken Badlands served as some from of a sanctuary for them. A place to rest and reprieve from the cruel environment of the Outer Worlds. 

It feels a bit concerning if Raven's being honest. 

Out of his curiosity, he picked a target and discretely read their memories. This one was a man hunted by Space Pirates. He had a bounty on his head, a pretty high one at that. He's basically on the run for all of his life. It was only after someone brought him here that he managed to get some rest and peace. Yet the constant hunt still took a toll on his mentality. Now, he's reduced to a babbling old man. 

He picked another target and read their memory. It's basically the same story as the previous one. 

Really, it's concerning. Their living conditions are truly awful. Raven couldn't help but sympathize with them even just a bit. In all manner of ways, he's lucky that he's born and raised in the Divine Realm. He didn't know if he could endure a life like theirs. 

After that little incident, Raven decided to busy himself with things that actually concerns him. As much as he could sympathize with the people here, he doesn't have any plans of helping them unless they could help him. 

Kindness is a mistake in the Outer World. It has no place here. Those who are kind won't live long here. Raven didn't want to garner too much attention on himself here. He has a one mission, once he done, he's leaving. 

As for Lenna and her family, they did their best. They talked to people in batches, asking if they had an idea where Geezer might be. To Lenna's surprise, some actually appeared to have some clues about the man in the portrait but instead of calling for Raven, she decided to wait until they have everyone interviewed first so that Raven can finish them in one go. 

It took them almost a week in Divine Realm's time before they rounded up the people who knows something. So far, there about 16 people here who claimed they know something. Most of them are old while some of them are young. 

Lenna had her doubts but she already did her part. What happens next will be up to Raven. Speaking of which…

"Raven, we're done here. Please come down." Lenna called out. 

At first they were all puzzled by her actions, but then, a man suddenly appeared out of thin air beside Lenna. 

His gaze was so piercing that it seems to seep to their very soul. There was silence first before a Raven raised a brow. 

"Oh?"