Chapter 375: The First Retainer (1/2)

“Hiruka! Hiruka! …”

Screams rang out within the black market’s underground arena as Hiruka stepped onto the stage once more. Likely due to her recent killing of Blood Mask, they were even louder and crazier than before.

Hiruka smiled charmingly back towards the crowd.

Only by drawing their attention and gaining their support could she continue to gain astonishing wealth with every match. Wealth which grew like a rolling snowball and continuously increased her strength. Wealth which was required for her continued triumph.

Furthermore, unlike the many thugs who participated purely out of greed, Hiruka had set clear rules for herself. She would stop once her strength and/or wealth grew to a point where she became capable of escaping from one of the Office of Special Affair’s arcane teams.

The longer she remained within the underground black market, the clearer she understood that the best method to wash oneself of one’s sins was to become strong enough to prevent others from killing oneself.

“Eh?”

But at this moment, a trace of shock emerged within her eyes.

She watched as Belo stepped onto the stage. Even before she saw his face, she could tell from the aura radiating from his body that he was a youth no older than sixteen.

“Belo?”

Sweat covered Moss’ body as he watched nervously from the stands.

Belo was still wearing his usual robes which they had nicknamed ‘whiteboard’. They were the cheapest linen arcane master robes one could buy with no design which offered absolutely no protection against anything, not even the most ordinary flame.

He had also chosen not to wear a mask to cover his face. Instead, he had simply taken off his glasses and made three marks atop his face with blood.

As the blood heated, it began to drip like wax, covering his face and making him unrecognizable except to those who were familiar with him.

“Eh? It’s just a child?!

“What kind of vampire is this? It’s actually a child who’s still drinking his mother’s milk!”

“What are they trying to pull? I actually bet some coins on him! Give me my money back!”

Belo’s appearance caused the stands to erupt with curses as the sounds of things being broken rang out from various corners of the stage.

Although Belo’s appearance was rather frightening, the people present were those who had all seen their fair share of blood. As a result, they didn’t take him seriously and believed that the organizers had deliberately made him seem more than he was.

“Shhhh…”

Belo raised a finger before his mouth and gestured for everyone to be silent.

“Shush yourself!”

“Hiruka! Hurry up and kill him!”

“Kill him within half a minute and I’ll gift you an artifact! I don’t want to see this idiotic child ever again!”

The crowd erupted into another wave of swearing.

Roy Wayne and several other members of the Burning Corps just stood silently outside the metal cage enclosed stage like bosses, their arms crossed before them.

“A bunch of people without eyes.”

Hearing all of the mocking and swearing, Roy Wayne sympathetically shook his head, “They do not know of this ancient beastman tradition of facial blood tattoos prior to battle. It is something which only those who have awakened their ancestral imprints and obtained the ability of Bloodline Transformation have the qualification of doing.”

“How come I’ve never heard of this tradition?” One of the arcane masters around him couldn’t resist asking.

“This tradition only existed during the Era of the War with Dragons… and by the middle of the Era of the War with Dragons, those beastman tribes were all defeated and killed.” Roy Wayne tugged at his hair as he chuckled and said, “But this just shows you how much of a genius this child from Holy Dawn Academy is. His lineage is incredibly pure, and it is of one of the ancient tribes. He should be an heir of one of the ancient beastman families. In the face of his bloodline, the beastman bloodlines known by our Kingdom of Eiche and the Kingdom of Doa are mere dregs …”

“He has the bloodline of an ancient beastman family? And its extremely pure?” All the surrounding Burning Corps’ arcane masters took a deep breath as they all looked at Roy Wayne with eyes filled with uncertainty. Could it be that their commander had actually gone a bit mad following the loss of so many arcane teams during the war?

Facing Hiruka, Belo abruptly opened his mouth and arrogantly blurted, “What are you looking at? Are you going to obediently come here and lick this grandfather’s feet?”

“What? Lick feet?”

Due to the racket caused by Belo’s appearance, those in the stands were unable to hear Belo’s words. The members of the Burning Corps, however, were able to hear everything perfectly as they all nearly tripped over their feet.

“This is also an ancient beastman tradition!” Roy Wayne exclaimed as his expression turned more serious.

“What? Telling others to lick their feet is also a tradition?” The feeling that their commander had gone mad only increased.

“Correct,” Roy Wayne nodded. “It was a tradition held by only the most ancient beastman tribes. Powerful beastmen would tell another to lick their feet to signify that they wish for that person to become their retainer – a loyal follower. That said, kissing the toes was indeed required as ceremony.”

“It really was a tradition of ancient beastmen? And it was a kind of recruiting call?” The members of the Burning Corps were thoroughly shocked once more.

If Ayrin, Rinloran and the others had heard this, they likely would have been similarly dumbfounded.

Ding! Ding! Ding! …

The sound of metal colliding repeatedly rang out at this moment.

“The pool for this match has exceeded three thousand coins! Let the match begin!” A shrill and hoarse voice sounded immediately after, announcing the start of the match.

“You won’t lick my feet?”

Belo’s eyes abruptly reddened until they were the color of blood.

At the same time, his body began to transform rapidly.

“This?”

“Is this a transformation skill? He’s transforming into a werewolf?”

“A beastman bloodline?”

The swearing within the stands disappeared as spectators began to converse heatedly amongst themselves.

“Crackle!”

A brilliant light abruptly pierced Belo’s upper body.

But it was only an afterimage.

Belo reappeared on all fours like a wild beast.

He had dodged Hiruka’s probing strike with a demonstration of astonishing speed.