Chapter 36
At Zeke’s confident proposal, Kei looked at him with an expression of disbelief. It was difficult to gauge how much to trust him.
“Do you know what kind of person Don Juan is?”
Zeke grinned.
“Probably no one knows Don Juan better than I do.”
In his previous life, when Zeke was Mekein’s hitman, he was Don Juan’s direct cleaner squad. He handled all the cartel’s dirty work, killing and threatening rival cartel bosses.
Thanks to Zeke, the Mekein Cartel was able to solidify its position as the number one among southern cartels. As a hitman who unusually rose to an executive position, Zeke knew many of the cartel’s secrets.
“From Don Juan’s secret vault to all the nobles and politicians he bribes, I know everything.”
It was difficult to bring down a massive cartel force with his power alone.
However, if he could use the Syndicate’s intelligence network to manipulate each cartel force, it would be possible to control them from behind to destroy each other.
When the cartels weakened from fighting each other, Zeke could swallow them whole.
But it was too burdensome for him to do it directly as a Draker. So he planned to use the Syndicate and Kei as his proxies.
He intended to control everything inconspicuously from behind Kei, making it possible to move the South without leaving traces.
For Zeke, it was a feasible plan.
And to implement this plan, he first needed to meet Don Juan, the boss of the Mekein Cartel.
When Kei couldn’t readily answer, Zeke stood up.
“Think it over and contact me when you’ve made up your mind.”
Zeke left the room without hesitation. Kei remained seated for a long time after he left.
No matter how much she thought about it, she couldn’t understand why this suddenly happened to her.
She repeatedly contemplated while looking at Zeke’s signature engraved on her wrist.
* * *
A week later, Zeke finally entered Valhalla.
A place where all machinery from across the continent gathered. It was a place that Zeke from his previous life had never visited.
“Hmm.”
Valhalla was about the size of an entire town. Unlike the rigid atmosphere of the Academy, Valhalla was very free. Students gathered in groups on campus, laughing and chatting, lying on the grass sunbathing. Some students sat on benches reading books, and quite a few were jogging from early morning.
“The atmosphere is quite different from what I expected.”
Zeke, who was used to the rigid atmosphere of the Cradle and Academy, found this free atmosphere unfamiliar.
Just then, someone approached Zeke.
“Yo, are you Zeke?”
Zeke glanced at the person calling him. A man with flashy hair was swaggering toward Zeke.
Judging by his reddish-brown skin, he seemed to be from the desert region or southern continent.
The man thumped his chest while striking an odd pose and extended his fist toward Zeke.
When Zeke just stared blankly, the man shrugged and said,
“Damn, bro. It’s gonna take you a while to get used to this place.”
Zeke looked at the man and said,
“So, you’re that… Buddy or whatever?”
The man imitated Zeke’s voice and said,
“That buddy thing or whatever. Hey, bro. What are you doing? Peace! Loosen up a bit.”
Zeke doubted whether this clown in front of him was really a Valhalla student. His behavior reminded him of Empire drug addicts.
The man grinned and led the still skeptical-looking Zeke.
“I’m Diego, Diego Villa. Nice to meet you, bro.”
Zeke was surprised to hear Diego’s name.
“Are you really Diego Villa?”
Diego struck another strange pose and shouted
‘Peace.’
Zeke looked at him with an even more dubious expression.
“Is this guy really the future Knight of Rhythm?”
Diego Villa was one of the five knights who played a major role in the Third Continental War. Knight of Rhythm Diego Villa. Knight of Flash Reina Draker. Knight of Mist Jeffrik Solma. Knight of Silence Bishop Castic. Knight of Illusion Aster Aladov.
People called these heroes who made great achievements in the Third Continental War the ‘Five Star Knights’ and praised their military accomplishments.
Looking at Diego, who was introducing various parts of Valhalla beside him, Zeke thought of the other Five Star Knights.
“Except for Reina, the other four weren’t Drakers. If I could make all the ones I can meet at Valhalla my subordinates?”
Having the Five Star Knights as subordinates along with the Mercenary King Liam would allow him to build his forces faster.
“Valhalla is a treasure trove of talent. There might be hidden outstanding talents who didn’t gain fame in the future.”
Thinking he might find talents worth drawing into his forces later, including the Five Star Knights, Zeke nodded inwardly.
After walking around for a while, the two went to the cafeteria when it was mealtime.
“Zeke bro. You must try the food here at Valhalla.”
The place Diego guided him to was a restaurant serving Southern Continental home cooking.
While Zeke wasn’t very fond of Southern food due to unpleasant memories from his previous life in the South, he sat down anyway.
Soon, generous portions of Southern food were served. Zeke picked up a tortilla and put it in his mouth.
“Hm? This is good.”
Pleased with the positive response, Diego grinned and patted Zeke’s shoulder.
While eating, Zeke heard Diego’s story.
He was from a small kingdom in the Southern Continent and was studying abroad in the Central Continent.
Diego had to forcibly learn the family’s traditional dual sword technique from childhood, but he was so talented that he surpassed his father, who was his master, at just fifteen years old.
“But I prefer making music. Speaking of which, why don’t you join our club, bro.”
He explained it was a club researching fusion new age music mixing Southern traditional rhythms with Central Continental melodies, but Zeke declined, saying he couldn’t understand even after the explanation.
Actually, he had no interest in music and didn’t have time for it either.
After finishing their meal while chatting, Diego suggested they attend class together in the afternoon.
“Is it ok to just join an upperclassman class?”
“Academy graduates are always like this! Valhalla is free! Peace! Everything about learning is allowed here, bro. Let’s go quickly!”
Zeke decided to let Diego drag him along to attend the class together.
The place Diego took him to was a liberal arts course with the strange title ‘Special Lectures by Notable Figures Leading the Central Continent.’
Zeke sat in the large lecture hall with a sullen expression after following Diego.
“Bro! Smile!”
Diego spoke to Zeke with a smile seeing him like that, and Zeke felt slightly tired watching Diego who kept talking endlessly beside him.
‘Among the Five-Star Knights, maybe this guy wouldn’t be missed.’
Just as he was thinking that, the students around them started buzzing.
They were glancing at Zeke sitting next to Diego and whispering.
They seemed to have noticed him when they turned to look because of Diego’s rather loud voice.
Zeke wondered what was going on as he watched the students murmuring while looking at them.
Diego, who was sitting next to him, suddenly made a fuss after hearing the students’ whispers.
“What? Zeke bro, you’re a Draker?”
Zeke looked at Diego in disbelief.
“You didn’t know even that until now?”
“I just thought you were from the Academy. I thought you were just putting on airs for no reason. So that’s why!”
“…”
At that moment, a group of students approached Zeke.
“Are you Zeke Draker? Nice to meet you. I’m Doug from the Roswell family. Graduate of Academy class 1025.”
The family name sounded familiar somewhere.
Zeke asked Doug.
“Do you have a younger sibling?”
Doug nodded with satisfaction.
“You know Derban? Well, at the Academy, everyone knows about ‘Slash Derban.’ My younger brother is also scheduled to enter Valhalla next year.”
“…”
He thought he had heard it somewhere, and sure enough.
Zeke privately wondered if Valhalla’s standards were lower than expected if someone like ‘Slash Derban’ could get in, but in reality, despite getting beaten by Zeke, Derban’s skills were among the top at the Academy.
Additionally, the Roswell family was a prestigious family that had maintained close ties with the influential Jiemens family of the Drakers for a long time.
It was no coincidence that the Doug and Derban brothers got into Valhalla.
However, Zeke was seriously pondering about Valhalla’s standards while barely listening to Doug’s words.
And without knowing Zeke’s thoughts, children from other prominent families of the Central Continent gathered around him.
“Zeke Draker! I’m from a prominent family in Thebea…”
“I’m from Allensia’s…”
“I’m the second son of the Central Continent Produce Guild…”
Everyone had been curious about Zeke after hearing about the super freshman who had Blue Knight-level skills at age fifteen.
Zeke was getting annoyed as people kept gathering around.
He glared at Diego, who was smiling beside him with a clueless expression.
That’s when it happened.
CLAP! CLAP!
When loud clapping was heard, all the people who had gathered around Zeke scattered and sat down.
None other than Principal Flaubert had come up to the platform himself.
Zeke finally realized why there were so many Central Kingdom nobles in what seemed like a simple liberal arts class.
It was a class where principal Flaubert personally invited notable figures to hear their life stories.
However, Diego, who had brought him here, started doodling in his notebook instead of listening to the class. After writing lyrics for a new song, he showed it to Zeke.
“Hey bro, how are these lyrics? The rhymes are killer, right?”
Zeke ignored Diego who was whispering quietly.
Flaubert began introducing the notable figure.
“Today’s speaker was really difficult to invite.”
As the principal gestured with his head, the door opened and someone entered.
Zeke’s jaw dropped when he saw who entered.
“Master Duke?”
It was Duke, neatly dressed in a Draker suit, who had come up to the platform.
Then the teaching assistants in the back raised a placard.
《 I, Duke Draker: How I Became a Black Knight from the Academy’s Bottom Class. 》
The students’ eyes sparkled with anticipation at the appearance of Duke Draker, the Knight of the Wind Storm.
The principal also came down from the platform and sat in the front row to listen to Duke’s lecture.
Duke grabbed the voice amplifier with a slightly nervous expression.
“Ahem. It’s an honor to be invited as a special lecturer to Valhalla, which I’ve always admired. Although I wasn’t able to become a student here myself.”
All the students laughed loudly at those words.
Zeke could feel the true power of authority as he watched the students responding to and laughing loudly at Duke’s every word.
Unlike when he was with Zeke, Duke seemed very happy seeing the students showing immediate and favorable responses.
Duke’s life lecture began amid great anticipation.
The life story continued for about two hours straight.
However, Duke turned out to be quite good at speaking.
The problem was that he talked way too much.
Even the students who were focused at first could be felt gradually getting tired.
To begin with, since they were knight students, they weren’t used to listening to someone else’s story unless it was during sparring.
Even principal Flaubert who had invited him showed a slightly awkward expression as Duke’s life story continued without end.
He gave signals with his eyes to wrap it up and come down, but Duke, absorbed in his own story, ignored thePrincipal’s signals and kept talking endlessly.
“So I told the head of the family. Think about it again. This really isn’t right. Then Arthur…”
That’s when it happened.
The lecture hall door opened and someone walked in.
CLINK! CLINK!
A knight with their whole body wrapped in silver armor.
Flowing platinum blonde hair that didn’t match the armor and a beautiful face like a sculpture.
The students jumped up from their seats in surprise.
“The, the Silver Knight!”
“Ka, Kali Draker!”
None other than the first child among the direct bloodline of the Draker family had appeared.
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