Chapter 102: Target Locked—Peter

The next day marked three days since Andy was set up and brought to the Disciplinary Office by the slightly chubby young man, Duke. Now, he and Catherine stood before the magic mirror, beside which Andy had already prepared a small pile of magic stones. He was determined to uncover who was hiding in the shadows and causing him trouble.

After half an hour of varied and probing questions, Andy finally pieced together the whole story. To his surprise, it was Blair Clark who had instructed that fellow Duke.

Having grasped the origins of the matter, Andy began to speculate to Catherine, with feigned gravity, about how events might unfold next, drawing from the sensational novels he had read in his previous life.

Blair Clark, seeing Duke fail repeatedly to deal with Andy, would likely step in personally to cause Andy trouble, only to be humiliated and defeated. Then Blair would rally his friends and kin—senior and junior disciples, cousins both direct and distant—to seek vengeance, and Andy would defeat them as well, one after another.

Once the lesser foes were vanquished, the more formidable would appear: mentors, uncles, aunts, and fathers—well, fathers singular, not plural. They would come after Andy, and he would deal with them too.

When Andy overcame this wave, even greater adversaries would come forth. The ordeal would not end until Andy had thoroughly bested the entire Clark family.

Though Andy jested with Catherine, he had no intention of letting events play out as he described. Since arriving in this alien world, a persistent sense of danger had haunted him, especially after witnessing so much death in Dallas City.

The thrill of victory was sweet, but Andy would only indulge it if survival was assured. Comparing himself to the Clark family, he realized he had little to rely on.

He possessed a formidable soul talent and had developed powerful new sorcery, but what of it? If the Clark family had someone who disregarded convention and was willing to unleash their full might, mobilizing all their kin and allies against him, Andy would be crushed in an instant.

Or perhaps they preferred scheming—connecting with the kingdom’s elite to issue a nationwide manhunt. Andy would then become a hunted outcast.

Though his enemies had yet to take him seriously, Andy knew he could not count on their mistakes. What if they possessed a magic mirror as well? They might uncover his entire history in the blink of an eye.

After the upheaval in Dallas City, Andy became even more cautious. He sensed that this world was not as easy to navigate as he had imagined. The deaths of several prominent figures there had taught him well.

He had heard that Colin County was once called George County. When Andy’s grandfather was alive, Viscount George wielded immense power, easily seizing most of his grandfather’s assets. But later, Viscount George’s entire family met a tragic end, and Colin emerged as the new lord. At first, Viscount Colin had been merely a baron’s second son with no inheritance rights.

For him to rise to become the future Viscount Colin, there must have been countless stories—struggles, love, betrayal, intrigue, and slaughter, all buried in the dust of history. Yet where was Viscount Colin now? Long since gone, his bones lost to time. He died at the hands of Masked Knight Schmidt.

Masked Knight Schmidt was a legendary figure at the Silver Wing Fortress front, causing great upheaval. The Elan military longed to kill him, but he continued to stir trouble in Dallas City. Andy knew better than anyone what had become of him.

And then there was his mentor, Stein. Andy, looking back, realized none of the apprentices truly understood Stein—not even his two friends in the capital, nor his former lover, Flora. With the lowest possible mental talent, Stein endured countless hardships to become a Bronze Sorcerer. Despite his severe injuries, he still taught several apprentices as if nothing had happened. But where was Stein now? Andy had buried him with his own hands.

Then there was Edward. At Grim Academy, Andy had seen so-called geniuses with first-grade mental talent, but most paled in comparison to Edward. Andy was certain that if Edward had matured, he would become a force to be reckoned with, especially considering the strange methods he employed in their final battle. The memory still made Andy uneasy. Sadly, Edward’s body was traded for a bounty by Christina.

There was also that androgynous figure who died in the joint assault by Andy and the Divine Wind Knights. Their methods were unique, and at such a young age, they had already achieved Silver-level strength.

So many illustrious figures had vanished like smoke, leaving Andy deeply moved. It made him realize that even with his unlimited firepower talent, he couldn’t simply rely on it to dominate this world. Who knew what hidden adversaries lurked, possessing even more extraordinary abilities—just as Viscount Colin once wielded the magic mirror.

If Viscount Colin had paid a bit more attention to Andy back then, investigating him thoroughly with the magic mirror before he had grown, things might have turned out very differently.

Andy would not make that mistake now. He spent a great deal of magic stones to investigate why the Clark father and son harbored animosity toward him, uncovering the truth in detail. He quickly identified the crucial figure: Sealy Clark. He was the pillar of the Clark family, the true source of Peter and his son’s confidence in troubling Andy.

Andy had no interest in following the routine of defeating the juniors, then the seniors, and finally the elders. He preferred to strike directly at the core. He wanted to see whether the defenses of a Silver Sorcerer could withstand his master-level flame sniping.

Even if his opponent was a Silver Sorcerer, Andy believed that as long as he remained hidden, leveraging his long-range attack capabilities, he could escape unscathed even if he failed to break through their defenses.

He began searching for information on Sealy Clark, only to discover that Sealy had already left the capital, Prondra, and even departed the Kingdom of Elan. Thus, the only ones left in the academy to trouble him were Peter Clark and his son.

As always, dealing with the father would render the son insignificant. So Andy started investigating Peter Clark. Hearing Andy’s plan to target Peter, Catherine was quite invested—she still remembered the grudge of Peter injuring her mentor, Stein.

“Very well, let’s settle both old and new scores together!” Andy laughed heartily, but lamented that the magic mirror could only retrieve information from three days prior, unable to reveal Peter’s current whereabouts.

Catherine volunteered to gather intelligence, then vanished before Andy’s eyes. Now that she had mastered invisibility, her survival skills had greatly improved, making Andy much more at ease with her acting alone. Although, in reality, Catherine was not alone—she brought along two of her spectral companions.

Soon, Catherine returned with news: Peter was planning to leave the capital and head back to the Clark family’s satellite city.

“Excellent! No time like the present. I want to see if you can make it back unscathed,” Andy declared, rising hastily to prepare for departure…