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."

you neither have the money nor the

while you definitely should do something, you

"You're just too weak."

gritted his teeth in

the couple. Even the Dean would have no problems. Duke Whirlwind wouldn't

gave Shang the go-ahead to take his

simply didn't have the

ask

but what was the

as long as he didn't leave Warrior's Paradise. On top

like Shang was only waiting for his death

couldn't go against these two, for the time being, he could protect

to call for

Shang disliked asking for help, but more importantly, what if something similar,

such a minor crisis, how could he expect

about when Shang became the

his enemies

Shang needed help then, would he

couldn't rely on someone else

this!' Shang

but I don't even nearly have the

first moment Shang truly got confirmation of his initial beliefs

impression

next years, Shang went through many experiences that contradicted that belief. There were

feared

had gone against him, and

reminded of

felt the hopeless powerlessness that came right before someone stronger than

was identical but weaker

happening as long as he gave them a

watched Shang silently with

that valued cooperation a lot, but he had also gone through

knew exactly how Shang

had gone through

empathy, he wasn't some naïve and innocent

he needed to kill, he wouldn't hesitate to

that he

of