Sword God in a World of Magic

Shang furrowed his brows.

By now, he was certain that the Cleaner had been sent by the Wilbury couple. They were the only ones with a motive, and they had the funds to send one.

The timeline also fit very well.

"Can you tell me more about the Wilburys?" Shang asked.

"Baroness Wilbury is one of the five teachers in the outpost of the Mage Academy," Soran explained. "The outpost is specifically for students with a Poison Affinity, and it's inside the Empress Cobra Zone, inside Swamp Lake City."

"Major Wilbury is assistant to the commander of the guards of Swamp Lake City. Individually, there are two people in Swamp Lake City more powerful than them, namely the commander and the head teacher, but combined, those two hold a lot of sway over Swamp Lake City."

"You can view Swamp Lake City as a smaller and weaker version of Warrior's Paradise. Swamp Lake City, just like Warrior's Paradise, is responsible for killing beasts and selling their corpses. It is the southernmost outpost of humanity in the Empress Cobra Zone, and it takes the brunt of attacks during the Day of Chaos."

"It's only outclassed by Warrior's Paradise, which is the most powerful and biggest city in Duke Whirlwind's territory, and Ice Heaven, which is the place where most nobles live in Duke Whirlwind's territory."

"In short, those two are very powerful," Soran said.

Shang looked at Soran. "What will happen from now on?"

Soran could only sigh. "Even though we can be certain of their guilt, we can't judge or report them without evidence."

"And we have zero evidence."

Shang furrowed his brows. "So, there's nothing I can do?"

"You can't do anything against them as you are now, Shang," Soran said. "Even though you have a connection with Duke Whirlwind, he can't just start an investigation without any proof."

"Many nobles do shady things, and the Duke knows this. If the Duke suddenly starts investigating people, a great number of nobles will leave for Duke Mithril's territory."

"Green Wind County would lose a huge chunk of its force, and Duke Whirlwind can't risk that," Soran explained.

"So, I'm just supposed to not do anything?" Shang asked.

Soran sighed again. "It's not that you shouldn't do anything. It's that you can't do anything."

Shang raised an eyebrow.

"Theoretically, you could do the same thing they did. You could hire a Cleaner. You could even do it yourself as long as you stay hidden."

"I'm not telling you to stay put like a lamb waiting to be slaughtered. It's normal to retaliate if someone attacks you, and nobody will fault you for that."

have the money nor the power to do

definitely should do something,

"You're just too weak."

gritted his

no problems. Duke Whirlwind wouldn't say it, but he would probably also not mind,

the go-ahead to take his

didn't

Shang ask

what

Shang's life wasn't in danger as long as he didn't leave Warrior's Paradise. On top of that, nobody above the General Stage had technically attacked

Shang was only waiting for

for the time being, he could protect himself by

to call for help

for help, but more importantly,

even get through such a minor crisis, how could he expect to

when Shang became the most powerful

his enemies would

Shang needed help then, would he even get

knew that he couldn't rely on someone else during

this!'

I don't even nearly have the power to

was the first moment Shang truly got

Shang had been under the impression that this was a world where nothing but power

experiences that contradicted that belief.

feared ever since he had

powerful than him had gone against him,

reminded of the

Shang had felt the hopeless powerlessness that came right before someone stronger than him decided to kill

identical but

did could stop this from happening as long as he gave them a

silently with a

but he had also gone

exactly how Shang

all, he had gone through very similar situations in the

valued cooperation and empathy, he wasn't

needed to kill, he wouldn't hesitate to

he

of