Free Web NovelChapter 249: Tracked
"News?" Lucas spoke to his underlings.
His office sat deeper in Red Sun territory, far enough from the guild’s louder halls that the only sound you usually heard was paper moving and the faint hum of people pretending they weren’t nervous around him.
Tonight, that silence had teeth. The lamps burned steady, but Lucas’ patience didn’t. He stood behind his desk instead of sitting, an old habit when he was waiting on something important, like sitting down would admit he had time to spare.
The underlings had lined up the way people line up for judgement. Not shoulder to shoulder, no one was that stupid, but close enough to look like a group, and far enough to dodge if his mood turned into violence.
"Nothing yet, he has yet to exit the third stage."
Lucas’ eyes narrowed as if he could squeeze a different answer out of the air. He didn’t speak for a beat, just stared, letting the silence become pressure.
"It’s been five days, what do you mean nothing yet?" Lucas asked. "Are you sure you guys are even looking?"
He leaned forward slightly, palms on the table, and the wood creaked under his weight. Not from strength alone, Lucas had been carrying frustration for days, and it made everything heavier.
The men in front of him avoided his eyes in different ways: one looked at Lucas’ shoulder, one looked at the floor, one looked at the corner like a corner could save him.
"We are. I’ve sent twenty of our members after him; they’re all on the third floor, some even completed the pain trial and accessed the fourth floor. They haven’t met anything, and he didn’t break any records..."
Lucas clicked his tongue, sharp and annoyed, like the sound of someone finding grit between their teeth. He pushed away from the desk and started pacing, not far, two steps, turn, two steps back, because his office wasn’t built for calm, it was built for control.
"The Pain trial isn’t even that hard; you just have to come in peace with the trauma that killed you. What the hell is taking him so long?" he said as he stood up from his desk and moved out. "What about Iori’s group, any news?"
The moment he said Iori’s name, one of the underlings straightened a fraction, as if invoking a "Hound" made the room safer. Lucas didn’t look at him. He looked at the wall, where reports were pinned in rows, with names and floor numbers, and crude red marks that meant ’dead’.
"They left the Wailing Forest, and are on the twelfth floor. Should I ask him to come down?" frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓
Lucas didn’t answer immediately. His mouth twitched once, an almost-smile that never became real. Iori was useful. That was the problem. Useful people got used until they snapped, and Lucas didn’t want a broken knife. freeωebnovēl.c૦m
"No, no need. Let him keep climbing; he’s been doing too many jobs for us, his progress is slowing down. Fine, just spread more people on the fourth floor. The Trial of Endurance is something that needs a group of people; if one of our members ends up with him, they can inform us."
His voice stayed even, but the room could feel the urgency hiding underneath it. Not panicked urgency, Lucas didn’t do panic. This was the urgency of someone seeing a door closing and deciding whether to shove their arm through before it latched.
"Noted, I’ll send word to the guys waiting on the fourth floor then." The men left, leaving Lucas all by himself.
The door shut behind the messenger, and for a moment, the room felt larger. Lucas stood still, staring at nothing in particular, jaw tight. Five days were long enough for a rumor to grow legs, long enough for another guild to stumble into the same target by accident. Long enough for the Leonards to sniff something out and decide they wanted it.
Not long after, another person came rushing in.
Boots too loud, breath too fast, Lucas didn’t need a map to know it was urgent. The runner didn’t even fully close the door before speaking, like the words were burning his throat.
"What is it?" Lucas asked.
"We managed to find her..."
Lucas stood up, "Oh, that’s some good news, where is she?" he asked.
The shift was immediate. His earlier irritation didn’t vanish, but it got redirected, like a blade turning from one neck to another.
Yenna was a different kind of problem. A worse one. The kind that killed your low tiers and made your high tiers nervous when they pretended not to be.
"She returned to the second floor for a while, apparently to heal her injuries. A few of our members saw her enter a Potion shop, then headed to the Elevator."
Lucas’ eyes gleamed with the kind of satisfaction that was almost ugly. Not joy. Not relief. Just the simple pleasure of finally holding a thread after days of grabbing smoke.
"Good, that means she’s climbing again. Hopefully, she’s continuing from the twenty-third floor. Get some of the men on it, I can’t go to the twenty-third floor, I’ll be heavily suppressed, otherwise I could have gotten her myself."
He said it as if it were a minor inconvenience, as if being "heavily suppressed" wasn’t the tower’s way of telling powerful people to stay in their lane.
"Yes, we’ll send in the people, also. Something’s happening with the Leonards..." he said.
The words pulled Lucas’ attention sideways instantly, the satisfaction cracking like thin ice.
"What’s going on?" Lucas asked.
"Seems like Leonard has decided to continue his climb..."
Lucas took a deep breath, "It almost feels like they know what we’re doing, for him to climb right when we spread our forces this thin... I’ll need to contact Mathew, he’ll tell us what needs to be done."
"Right, I’ll keep you posted.
"Good, finally some good news after days of drought," Lucas sighed.
The messenger lingered a moment as if waiting for another order, then backed out. The door clicked shut again, and Lucas stood alone in his office with plans stacked in his head like stones in a sack.
He didn’t sit back down.
Not yet.
