Chapter 47: Death Sentence For Linor?

Daniel walked out of the room with quiet steps. August was waiting behind the door.

"Your friend is at the Association’s medical wing. Come on, I’ll take you there."

Daniel nodded without a word and followed August. A heavy silence hung between them, but neither said anything.

They arrived quickly. August didn’t reach for the handle.

"I’ll wait here," he simply said.

Daniel looked at him for a moment, nodded, knocked twice, and stepped inside.

The room smelled of alcohol and medicinal herbs. Linor was lying on a white bed. He wasn’t injured, but... protocol for Awakened recommended it anyway.

"Still alive?"

"I didn’t think you’d actually come." Linor gave a faint smile.

"Maybe it’s been a long time since we were friends, but still... we were friends once." Daniel chuckled and leaned on the chair beside the bed.

"You... really cleared that dungeon alone?" Linor’s smile became a bit more real for a second, but quickly faded.

His eyes held a mix of disbelief and admiration.

"I guess," Daniel shrugged.

"I’m sorry." Linor hesitated a bit. He ended up dropping the dungeon topic entirely. Honestly, as amazing as it was, there was something more important he wanted to talk about.

"Sorry? For what?" Daniel blinked.

"For everything. My jealousy broke up our group." Linor clasped his hands together.

"Linor... it wasn’t just your fault. We all made mistakes." Daniel sighed.

"No, no! It was all me. It was my jealousy. I was jealous of you—girls always gathered around you. Joe bought attention with his money. But me? I was just a little smart. No one cared about that." Linor quickly cut him off.

"When I awakened and you guys failed... God, I was so happy. I felt like it was finally my turn. My turn to be noticed. And it worked. Day by day, I got more attention. But... then the whispers started. People saying, ’Why’s he wasting time with two talentless losers?’" He exhaled sharply.

"Those words... fuck me. I realize now how shitty I was. I slowly drifted away from you guys. Then... James awakened too. Not just awakened—he got a high-ranking class. And I... like an idiot, I went to him. Got close to his disgusting little circle." His voice cracked.

Daniel sighed. James. One of the worst people he’d ever known. A manipulator to the core, always desperate to crush others.

That bastard bullied a lot of kids in middle school. Daniel had fought him a few times because of it and beat him up.

But still, he knew about most of what Linor was saying—he’d seen it with his own eyes.

"No need to apologize for that stuff," Daniel looked at Linor.

"You were always like that. But... that’s not all of it, right?"

"What else did you do?" Daniel narrowed his eyes.

"Before Joe left the country, he came to see me. We had a fight. About Sarah." Linor lowered his head.

"What?" Daniel frowned.

"Yeah. Sarah told him I was using my power to abuse with her. Joe... back then, he thought she was gonna be your wife so he was kinda wanted to acr like a big brother. I tried to convince him—no matter how much of a piece of shit I’d become, I’d never do that... but he didn’t believe me."

"Swear to God, Daniel, I never did that." He looked him straight in the eyes.

"I believe you."

"Contrary to what people think, I never liked her. She was the one who clung to me. Always fake. Always tried to play innocent and shine in other people’s shadows. That’s why I always kept my distance." Daniel sneered.

"So what happened in the end?" He stared seriously at Linor.

"I managed to convince Joe. He realized it wasn’t me behind it." Linor gave a small smile.

"Joe said, ’Well, if it wasn’t you, then it was probably that asshole James.’ Then he told me to stay away from them." He paused briefly before continuing.

"I see..." Daniel nodded slowly.

He hadn’t expected there to be a fight between two of his friends—and even worse, they’d kept it from him.

But he was curious why that Sarah tried to turn Linor and Joe against each other. He had a few ideas why, though.

"Do you forgive me?" Linor’s voice trembled as he slowly turned toward him.

"Maybe... we’ll see. Honestly, I need to talk to Joe too." Daniel let out a deep sigh. A faint smile touched his lips.

"That’s good enough. Better than nothing." Linor gave a bitter smile.

"When are you going to the capital?" Daniel shrugged.

"Three days." After a short pause, he added with hesitation:

"Hey, aren’t you coming to the capital too? There are better opportunities there."

"For now, the Celestial Domain is my priority. I’ll think about it." Daniel gave a crooked smile.

"Alright. But if you can, come. Oh, and... James is there too." Linor nodded with a sly grin.

"He’s a member of Goblin Guild now."

"Goblin Guild?" Daniel narrowed his eyes. Goblin Guild was officially the strongest guild in the country.

How the hell did that bastard end up in Goblin Guild?

"Don’t worry. Old scores get settled eventually." Still, it didn’t change anything.

After James awakened, he gave both him and Joe a hard time—especially Joe. Daniel couldn’t do anything back then, but eventually, he’d make that bastard pay.

After some lighter talk and catching up, it was finally time to leave. Daniel stepped out and closed the door behind him.

"How’d it go?" August, still waiting, stepped up to him.

"It went well... but I’ve got a question." Daniel paused. Something had been bugging him for a while.

"Yes?" August raised an eyebrow.

"That dungeon wasn’t a normal green-rank dungeon. A C-rank Awakened and a D-rank team weren’t enough for it. It needed at least a full C-rank group. Why’d you send such a weak team?" Daniel asked coldly.

"Orders from above. From the Federation, actually. They told me to send one specific person, with a weak team around him. The rest was just for show." August answered.

"Who was that specific person?" Daniel’s brows furrowed.

"Your mage friend," August replied without delay.

"Linor? He was the target?" Daniel’s eyes narrowed.

"Yeah. For some reason, the Federation wanted him to enter that dungeon with a weak team." August nodded.

"That’s basically a death sentence." Daniel’s tone turned icy.

"Honestly... I was gonna send Naya to protect that team. But when you came to my office that day, I decided to send you instead... though I still don’t understand the Federation’s reason for all this." August took a deep breath.

"You know anything? Anything at all?" Daniel asked.

"I looked into it. Found out the Federation did it at Goblin Guild’s request." August paused.

He didn’t understand why Goblin Guild would want something like this either.

Daniel’s eyes lit up. The killing intent flickered like a short flame in his gaze, but he quickly suppressed it.

"Thanks, Mr. Chairman." He nodded, then left the Awakened Association.