[1% LIFESTEAL] Chapter 178 - Sedition

Freddy simply couldn’t process what he was seeing. The sheer pain and confusion at the sight of the mutilated, stripped young man warred somewhere in his mind, but it was for naut. His capacity for emotional distress had been simply overwhelmed. 

Lucas released a faint groan, the only sign he was even still alive.

He was in an awful state. From the looks of it, his organs and many of his other body parts, barring his heart and a lung so he wouldn’t immediately die, had been torn out, and his body had been doused in natural-quality healing medicine to crudely stitch him back together. 

Arguably, that was even worse than leaving gaping wounds open. There was no doctor in the world who could save him now. 

Janice stood there, shivering like a leaf in the wind. Her eyes were crazed and wide open, puke, which she’d vomited all over Lucas, dripped down her chin, together with blood from her bitten lips.

She kept trying to speak, but could only sound something between a whimper and a scream. “They… They…” She failed to speak through her sobs. 

It was at that moment that Freddy noticed a bloody piece of paper that had been literally nailed to Lucas’s bare chest. He pulled it off and unfurled it. 

HEY THERE, FREDSTER! 

I’M SO SORRY FOR THE INCONVENIENCE.

I NEEDED SOME SPARE PARTS SO I BORROWED THEM FROM THE BOY. 

SHOULDN’T BE A PROBLEM THOUGH, RIGHT? GIVEN WHAT I’VE HEARD OF YOUR WORK AS SKULL, YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO FIX HIM UP NO PROBLEM!

BUT I’M SO SORRY FOR BORROWING WITHOUT ASKING. 

DON’T WORRY, THOUGH.

NEXT TIME WE MEET, I’LL BE SURE WE SETTLE THIS DEBT.

WITH LOVE,

YOUR ABSOLUTE BESTEST FRIEND IN THE WORLD! XOXO

Freddy crushed the paper in his fist and took a deep breath. “Take him inside,” he told Janice. “I’ll be right back.”

He locked the door and then sprinted as quickly as he could to the nearest window, where he proceeded to jump outside. He was quite high up, but with his endurance, that kind of fall could hardly pose a risk.

Within minutes, he was at Valhalla’s headquarters. 

There were countless guards patrolling the walls with raised crossbows, and every window had been shuttered, raising the question of how those bastards even got their hands on Lucas in the first place. 

Obviously, it could hardly keep Freddy out. 

He broke in and swiftly located Sophia, who was training down in the secret chambers. Without asking, he just picked her up and went back to his room.

There, he found Lucas sprawled on a couch, with a hyperventilating, half-conscious Janice spasming on the ground. 

Sophia screamed at the sight. “Freddy, what the fuck happened!?”

“Shit,” he cursed. “Heal her first. The seizure might kill her.”

After only a brief moment of hesitation, she listened and burned a spark against the young woman’s head. She stopped seizing and just went still, falling entirely unconscious. 

Then, Sophia turned to Lucas. She burned four sparks in quick succession. Yet, her attempt barely made a dent in the boy’s injuries. 

Natural-quality healing was often referred to as the worst quality of healing. In theory, it was no better than surgery, but it was even worse in practice since there was no coherent strategy behind the healing. It crudely fused pieces back together, which often caused a mess that needed even more healing than before. 

It was barely better than nothing in most cases. But in this case, nothing would have been preferable. 

“What the hell happened, Freddy?” Sophia muttered in a daze. 

Freddy was too numb to care at that point. So while she worked on growing more sparks she could use to help heal Lucas faster, he told her the whole story. 

He told her of Mark Afronte and Harold Maskaart—also known as Basilisk. Of his recent revelation about his past with them. How it all played out with their arrival and the following conflict in the hallway. 

By the end of his retelling, she looked even angrier than he was. And then, she just broke into tears. “How can anyone be so cruel…?” she asked with a whimper. 

Freddy wondered the same thing.

It took too many sparks to fully heal Lucas. So many, in fact, that it should have been completely and absolutely impossible to save him, even with the best sources of supreme-quality healing known to humanity. 

Had Sophia not strained her talent to the point where she could barely stay awake, there was no world in which Lucas would have survived.

With the final spark burned, and the last of Lucas’s injuries taken care of, Sophia breathed out in relief and then also blacked out. 

“Great,” Freddy muttered. “Just what I needed.” 

There was nothing he wanted more at that moment than Basilisk’s head. But trying to chase the man down was out of the question. In fact, Freddy would bet anything that this was a trap intentionally designed to lure him to his death. 

Basilisk no doubt had a number of people on his payroll. Even with just him and Mark, Freddy would be hard-pressed to win in a fair fight. But it wouldn’t be a fair fight. And it certainly wouldn’t be just be the rotten city lord and the asshole traitor he was up against. 

It was thus that he was forced to take a deep breath and calm down. He’d already made the mistake of confronting Mark and Basilisk again. Even with his shit-stained record of awful choices, that had been a shining example of what not to do under any circumstances.

Left alone with his thoughts, he couldn’t help but wonder. How did they find and kidnap Lucas with Valhalla locked down and every guard on high alert? And hell, how did Janice make it to his door carrying the bloodied Lucas without being intercepted by a servant or a guard?

Without anyone still awake to answer his questions, he could only conclude that Basilisk had at least one stealth specialist on payroll. It was something to keep in mind for the future. 

Freddy had pretty much no way to fight back against such stealth. And that was a weakness he couldn’t leave open, especially not with the types of secrets he had.

Could he perhaps use his sixth sense for insanity somehow? 

He’d grown a little numb to the input from that sense lately, given how much crazy shit was happening all around him. There was a virtually constant hum of someone doing something mad somewhere in the city that he needed to tune it out, lest it worsen his already fragile mental state.

But still, even if he constantly kept a metaphorical ear open for nearby lunacy, there was no reason for that to actually help him. It would help only if the very act of trying to spy on him was considered an insane thing to do. 

His eyes widened with a sudden realization. 

What if…?

What if he spread the rumor that he had some sort of super secret special absolutely reliable method for catching spies in the act?

The rumor didn’t need to be believable. It just needed to plant a seed of doubt in people’s minds. If a would-be spy believed it even just a little bit, the act of trying to spy on Freddy would qualify as possibly dangerous in their mind. 

Which would make it insane.

Should they then try to spy on Freddy, he would feel a nearby source of insanity. 

This ruse only needed to work once. And then, the rumors would grow stronger. 

Just as he tried thinking of other possible ways to use this, his thoughts were interrupted.

With the worst possible timing imaginable, someone decided to knock on his door. Freddy looked over at it with irritation. “Why the fuck didn’t they put a goddamn peep hole?”

He was deeply tempted to ignore the knocking. And while he’d certainly offend whoever was trying to reach him, he was seriously considering it, especially given the fact that he was teetering on the edge of losing his mind. 

Sighing, he shouted, “Please wait a minute!” 

Unfortunately for him, the time to meet everyone in private was running out. There was a serious risk that anyone he chose to ignore would decide to take their people and leave, which would be a lot worse for his mental state than a quick conversation.

He picked his three guests up and delivered them to the room. The bed there was big enough for 10 people to comfortably lay down side by side, so there was more than enough space for them. 

He looked over them for a moment before groaning. “They might wake up,” he realized. 

The thought to tie them up passed through his mind, but that could create a much bigger problem for him. 

Thus, he quickly conjured a Blood Javelin and then turned to the ceiling, where he etched PLEASE DON’T SCREAM into the tiling. It would be a little awkward if they did, to say the least. He was about to leave, but decided to add, YOU ARE SAFE IN FREDDY’S ROOM. 

And, on top of that, after closing the door to the room, he made sure to seal the door with a bit of his blood. If anyone saw what happened to Lucas, it would be difficult to explain how he’d been healed like that. 

Which was a problem he’d have to find a more permanent solution for.

But now, he had a guest to attend to.

With that out of the way, he closed the door to the room and headed to invite his newest arrival.

After a quick look in the mirror to ensure he wasn’t disheveled, he squared his shoulders. 

He focused on Hydraulic Flex and Tsunami Strike, just in case he was attacked.

Then, he opened the door. And immediately, his mood soured.

Standing just a dash taller than him was the scarred, muscular woman with the fiery blonde pixie cut hair—Georgie League. She was still wearing the white tank top and blue jeans she had worn when she first arrived, but at least the belt wasn’t there this time. 

While he didn’t necessarily have a reason to dislike this woman, he was absolutely confident that he was about to have another marriage talk. Given how the last one went, he was in no mood for a second. “Hello there,” he greeted a little dryly, wanting to get the talk over with as quickly as possible.

“Hello,” she said with a quick nod in her flat, deep voice. “Do you mind if I come in? I would like to have a private conversation with you.” 

“Sure thing.”

They got seated, servants were invited to set everything up, and before long, they were left alone. 

Georgie had been the least talkative out of all the elites during the introduction. 

Frankly, out of all the elites, Freddy was the least certain of what to think of this woman. But, as the silence stretched on, he had no choice but to realize that she likely wouldn’t get to the point until he started the conversation.

Stifling a sigh not to be rude, he said, “So… to what do I owe the pleasure, Miss League?”

“Call me Georgie,” she said. “I dislike platitudes. If you wish to know something, I would prefer direct questions.”

“Right… Right. Well then, allow me to get to the point—what do you want from me?”

With a nod of what seemed to be approval—although it was hard to tell—she responded, “I originally came here intending to recruit you into my private mercenary company, but given what I saw today, I am forced to adjust my plans.”

Freddy froze and then suddenly realized something. “Oh fuck my life,” he shouted as he buried his face into his hands. 

It wasn’t her. 

The second marriage proposal would come from Emily Umbra. 

Groaning deeply at the sudden headache, he wanted the earth to open and swallow him whole.

This is the worst day of my life.

“You don’t have to be disappointed,” the woman said. “I assure you, my new offer will be a lot more attractive.”

“That’s not… I’m sorry, but I just realized something completely unrelated.” He put that away for later as he refocused. “Please, continue.”

The woman eyed him strangely for a moment and then nodded. “I am looking for people with talents themed around self-healing and regeneration, since my group is primarily composed of such individuals. Originally, I was going to invite you into my organization and offer you a prominent position, but given what I saw of you today, I believe you deserve more respect than that.”

Freddy quirked an eyebrow. “What you saw of me today?” He couldn’t hold back a self-deprecating chuckle. “Do you mind if I ask what exactly impressed you so much?”

“Your aura,” she said as if stating the obvious.

That made Freddy pause.

She took a deep breath, the most emotion he’d seen the woman show so far. “You have, by far, the single most intense aura out of any two-star I’ve ever met in my life, and that includes several people with a double talent.”

Freddy’s eyebrows rose at that. “What? Really?”

She appeared confused. “Are you not aware of just how intense your aura is?” Shaking her head in disbelief, she continued, “I can’t even begin to estimate how many stage 3 abilities you have. One would make you quite talented. Three is incredible. Five puts you at the level of a prodigy. With seven, you would be a peer to Emily Umbra, and she is almost at the level of being a generation-defining talent. 

“I have once met a man who was stuck at the peak of the second star due to paying the cost of a spirit ability. He is over 150 years of age, and has eleven stage 3 abilities. That is the only person I’ve met whose aura can compare to yours in intensity, and even then, yours is greater.” 

Freddy froze at that. He wondered what she would say if she knew he had sixteen stage 3 abilities. 

With another shake of her head, she continued, “Granted, just having a lot of powerful abilities doesn’t necessarily mean you’re the match of someone like Emily. But I think it’s safe to presume that you have the potential to become an Overlord one day.”

“Wow…” he muttered. “I guess I’m pretty amazing, huh?” He chuckled awkwardly, scratching the back of his head. “So… you said you had an offer for me? Do you mind if I ask what it is?”

She nodded. “I would like you to help me start a new country.”

Freddy stared at her for a long moment. “I’m sorry, what?”

Georgie chuckled. “I know this sounds ridiculous, but I promise that my plan is a lot more solid than it seems.”

“Okay, hold on a minute.” He raised a hand to stop her. “You want to start a new country?”

She nodded.

“Uhm… Not to sound like I’m being rude, but isn’t this sedition?” He suddenly started feeling a little nervous. “And wouldn’t the adjudicator have good reason to execute you if he heard you talking like this?”

To his surprise, she openly laughed at that. “No, I assure you, my plans are nothing like that. Hear me out first, and then make your judgment.” She reached for a nearby glass of wine and took a sip to wet her throat. “How much do you know about the Starhold Expansion Project in Faralethal?”

The mention of the large realm made Freddy’s eye twitch as he remembered his days in the slave mine. “Not much, admittedly. Actually I know almost nothing.”

“Not surprising given where we are. But to put it bluntly, by most metrics, it has been a complete and utter failure.”

He scowled. “In what way?”

“In the way that almost every attempt to establish a secondary settlement has failed. Without a direct connection to Earth, logistics around establishing new territory far from Starhold simply fall apart.”

Freddy wasn’t exactly surprised to hear this. Hell, a mere mining operation he’d been part of had suffered total devastation, so it was hardly a shocker to hear that.  

Georgie continued. “As far as I’m concerned, the people in charge are looking at the wrong solutions. Everyone is focused on trying to establish comfort. Resource and service logistics are prized above all else, and whenever a fledgling settlement is overrun by monsters, it is always blamed on ‘lack of manpower’ or ‘weak defenses’ or ‘few resources’. Then, they try sending more fighters and build more defenses and waste more resources  on the next one, and then they’re surprised when that, too, fails.”

“What do you suggest they should do, then?”

She smiled at him. “Send people like us.”

“People who can heal themselves?”

She raised a finger in a gesture of gentle correction. “People who can resist attrition. The main problem with the defenses of any settlement that is constantly battered is that the defenders are gradually whittled away. In Starhold, this problem has an invisible solution—the portal to Earth can supply a constant stream of new fighters. But anywhere further away, that invisible solution goes away. 

“When you try to establish a new settlement thousands of miles from Starhold, you have to transport new fighters over a vast stretch of hostile territory. Every fighter lost is that much more expensive and difficult to replace.”

Freddy hummed. “Why don’t they just get more healers then?”

She burst out laughing at that. “Do you have any idea how much money that would cost? Quite literally nobody can afford that. Not even the richest of overlords could poach enough healers to make that tactic worthwhile. And this is exactly the problem.”

The longer the conversation went on, the more Freddy noticed Georgie relax and grow more animated. She wasn’t nearly as frigid as he thought at the beginning, and honestly, he had to admit that the initial anxiety of talking to the woman was nowhere to be seen. 

For the first time since they started talking, he returned the smile. “I think I’m starting to understand what you’re aiming at. Every fighter needs a certain amount of infrastructure around them. And healing is a big part of it.” Then, he pointed a finger at himself. “I don’t need healing since I have a self-sustaining source. On top of that, I’m a lot less likely to die. 

“If every fighter you had had a talent like mine, you’d save billions upon billions of dollars on medical infrastructure. And that’s not even mentioning the fact that you’d need to replace fighters less often as time went on.”

Her smile grew radiant. “Bingo.”

Freddy laughed. “I’m guessing another part of the reason you’re here is to get some experience with pitting your mercenaries against a never ending horde of monsters?”

“That is exactly right. And, also, I wouldn’t mind seeing what you’re capable of.” 

“I still have a rather important question. I feel like the empire wouldn’t exactly approve of the idea of making a new country like this. What’s your plan for not being declared a traitor?”

“It will be a vassal state, of course. At least, that is the plan.” 

“Okay, that’s good.” He took a few moments to think about everything he’d heard. “While I would like to know a lot more before giving you a conclusive answer, I gotta admit, I don’t hate the offer. However…” He hesitated. “I would really like some time… to live, you know?” He chuckled. “That sounds like a lot. And I’ve been living through a lot for as long as I can remember. I do want to do something great with my life one day, but…” He raised his arms to his sides. “I would kill for a couple of years of peace.”

“I understand.” She chuckled at that. “People like us tend to be kept busy by circumstance.”

“Oh, you have no idea how true that is.” He sighed. “But still. I’ll consider the offer. I mean… of course… if I have time to think about it?”

She nodded. “You do. A lot of time, at that. This is a project that will no doubt take me decades to set up.”

He clapped his hands. “Brilliant! We’ll certainly stay in touch.”

“That would be it from me, then,” she said. Suddenly, she adopted a slightly sad look. “Are you okay?”

He froze at the question. “What do you mean?”

“With what happened earlier today… I don’t know the full story, of course, but it is quite obvious that those two have done some rather awful things to you.” She suddenly scoffed. “Basilisk is a notorious bastard, so to see him causing trouble, I’m hardly shocked. But that Mark guy… It has been a long time since I felt such an urge to kick someone’s ass.”

Freddy laughed at that. “Well… if you ever see him, you have my blessing.” His chuckles died as he deflated a bit. “He wasn’t always like that. In fact, he’s changed so much it’s like he isn’t even the same person.” His voice grew shaky. “I actually really wanted to see him again one day. This wasn’t exactly what I was imagining, however.” He sighed, suddenly feeling the weight of the years he’d technically spent alive. 

Suddenly, he heard knocking. He turned to the entrance, but it was actually coming from the door to the room. “Uh…” he muttered. 

Georgie took a single look at the door and then her gaze flashed with understanding. “It appears that you are in the middle of something. Well then, I won’t keep you away any longer.” She winked. 

Freddy winced at the misunderstanding, but didn’t correct her. “Sure thing. I am looking forward to fighting beside you,” he added.

“So do I.” She waved. “Best of luck with your endeavors. And I hope you can catch some rest before the monsters arrive.”

“Honestly? With how much bullshit I have on my plate, I rather can’t wait for it to arrive.”

She chuckled. “Have a good day.” And with that, she left.