Emperor Lawrence

"Draw a map of this place."

Besides him, Serene Will, Coldness Divine, and Sky Petal are present in this place. At the Unquenchable Fire Brothel.

The stationary door is hidden under hundreds of meters of earth, and not only that, it is in a remote location. Even if they wanted to, it would be difficult to find anyone nearby. Just as every kingdom has a countryside or locality they wish to cover with a veil so no one can see it, this place is no different for the Unquenchable Fire Brothel.

"Don’t make me wait too long, this won’t be the first or last time we do this."

If drawing a map were easy, the Unquenchable Fire Brothel wouldn’t still exist today. They will have to repeat this countless times to achieve results.

They swiftly move away from Lawrence, leaving him alone in the area. With no one to talk to, he looks for a place to sit and wait.

Thirty minutes quickly pass, and then the flower near his ear emits sounds.

"Lawrence, can you hear me?"

The other voice belongs to Sky Petal, but it’s strange, it should take hours before receiving a report from her and the others.

"I hear you."

"While speaking with the plants, some unexpected information came up..."

+++

In a secluded part of the Unquenchable Fire Brothel, there are facilities that appear to be a warehouse or a place for temporarily storing goods. It’s hard to tell for sure, as there are no usual workers recording, organizing, storing, or retrieving the goods.

Instead, there are only high-level guards keeping watch.

Beyond dozens of hallways and several storage rooms, there is a special chamber. From the outside, muffled screams can be heard…

Not far from the truth.

"Hmm! Hm!!"

Inside, a woman tries to scream, but the rope in her mouth prevents her from doing so.

Despite the expression on her face, it’s impossible to erase her beauty. Seemingly 34 years old, she is a woman with long black hair and blue eyes, exuding the aura of a noble skilled in political machinations. Given her level is 287, her current appearance must be her ideal image of a woman, as the higher the level, the more women desire to look youthful, between 20 and 30 years old. It’s rare to see a woman whose ideal age is this.

As if she were a lunatic from an asylum, her entire body is tied to a stretcher. It seems simple, but it’s not. Every item restraining her is a magic artifact designed to hold a high-level ranker, let alone someone like her, who is far below the target level of these magic artifacts.

After long hours, she manages to free her mouth, but the problem doesn’t end there.

"..."

She then murmurs incomprehensible words as she looks at her hand.

It’s only momentary, but she manages to partially stimulate her innate ability... and that’s more than enough. Her hand is surrounded by dark magic, but anyone seeing her at this moment would understand it’s not ordinary dark magic, it’s something far more chaotic! What kind of innate ability does this woman possess to create such changes in her magic?

As smoothly as cutting butter with a hot knife, she slices through all the magic artifacts restraining her! She divides them so effortlessly, as if these items never had any chance of holding her in the first place.

She sits up on the stretcher and then stands. "Whoever did this to me will pay the consequences! I am a noble who--!"

Just as she takes her first step toward escape, a magic formation glows in the room. In the next moment, she collapses to the floor, losing all her strength and ability to use her mana. If that weren’t enough, the gravity multiplies, pressing her against the ground!

"I-I have to get out of this place. W-Who could it have been? I-I had so many enemies."

She forces herself to move, despite the humiliation she’s enduring.

It’s a harsh blow to her pride to have to crawl like a dog to escape, when outside, she was a woman coveted by hundreds of nobles. Her Prominent Faction noble house may only hold power below level 400, and above that, they may be nothing, but their future was about to change.

The future of her noble house rested on her.

"Haha--Hahaha... W-Whoever did this must be laughing, b-but this isn’t the first time I’ve turned the unfavorable board around. I-I won’t die, I-I’ll live just to kill them!"

In the Divine Plane, nobility still exists, but their power is inferior to that of the major sects. Many have decided to invest in the sects to increase their power. Thanks to this, some of their heirs have achieved high positions within them. No noble has managed to become the lord of a city, but their power should not be underestimated. Thanks to their vast territories, their wealth is synonymous with power.

Very few things have they been unable to buy with money.

The woman leaves the marks of her nails on the ground as she crawls, still unable to accept the situation she’s in.

Until she hears footsteps outside.

She waits patiently, preparing to attack.

As soon as a man opens the door, she immediately circulates her mana to unleash a devastating attack, but... her mana is interrupted before she can strike.

"It’s useless." says the man. "The magic formation in this place is not much different from their dungeons, but this one is specially designed to prevent the product from being damaged."

The calm and confident voice of the man makes her realize he is part of all this. She grows furious at the thought that her escape has been ruined!

She glares at him with hatred. "Scum! Filth like you shouldn’t exist in this world!"

Before she can continue cursing, the man crouches close to her face and says: "I’m not your enemy. Quite the opposite... Imperial Absence."

Imperial Absence frowns, but the man simply looks around and smiles. "These are facilities I wasn’t aware of, not part of the main business of the Unquenchable Fire Brothel. It’s an intermediary place where goods are exchanged, it wouldn’t be wrong to call it a warehouse."

In other words, Imperial Absence was captured by third parties and has no connection to the main business of the Unquenchable Fire Brothel. She isn’t a prostitute but a <good> soon to be sent to her destination.

It would be naive to think this woman’s fate is anything other than death.

"Who are you?"

The man looks back at her and says: "I am Emperor Lawrence, someone who can get you out of here, but... you know, don’t you?"

Emperor Lawrence extends his hand toward Imperial Absence’s head and fixes her disheveled hair before saying: "Nothing in this world is free."

She clenches her fists. "As long as you help me escape, there will be no limits to your reward. As long as it’s within my power, I’ll give it to you."

"I knew you’d say that. Come, don’t resist."

The man called Emperor Lawrence carries her like a princess before walking through a strange rift in the air. She feels chills as her body passes through that strange magic, then holds her breath. For a moment, she feels the mana is purer and that the environment has changed, but then the scenery changes once again.

They have been transported to a distant location.

At that moment, all the restrictions on her body disappear, and she leaps from the man’s arms, distancing herself from him.

He pays no mind to this and points into the distance. "Your stay at the Unquenchable Fire Brothel isn’t long enough for you to have heard of it, but that is the barrier protecting this place from the outside. Once you cross it, you’ll be able to leave."

She doesn’t wait for Emperor Lawrence to continue explaining, she attacks the barrier without considering any consequences.

"Dark Attraction."

A black hole three meters in diameter appears in the barrier, attracting and consuming all objects within reach. Both of their hair is blown toward the black hole, and their clothing follows a similar pattern. Everything sucked into this magic is destroyed. Even if the barrier isn’t destroyed, a breach wide enough for her to pass should remain!

"No... It can’t be..."

But the barrier remains unscathed.

She doesn’t give up and continues using different dark-element magics. Her face shows she’s putting in great effort, but none of her attempts leave a mark on the barrier.

Imperial Absence is so focused on attacking the barrier that she fails to notice the astonishment and bewilderment in the man’s eyes. Because what she’s using is very similar to...!

She snaps back to reality upon hearing the man’s voice behind her.

"Level isn’t a factor to consider either."

This time, it’s Emperor Lawrence who attacks the barrier, and although his magic belongs to the opposite element of hers, the shockwave sends her flying more than 50 meters away. No one witnessing this event could imagine it’s sacred magic.

And yet...

"The barrier remains intact, as you can see." He looks at her seriously and continues speaking. "There was a rumor that this barrier could be breached by the strength of a level 500 hunter, a false rumor, as you’ve seen."

Only then does she understand the situation she’s in. If this man hadn’t appeared before her, Imperial Absence would naively believe she had a chance to leave this place and would sacrifice countless things to reach this barrier... only to see all her hopes shattered before her eyes.

"I think you now understand why I brought you here."

Her escape is far more valuable than she originally thought.

He then walks toward her and looks her in the eyes. "Do you want me to get you out of here?"

Unlike the first time he mentioned helping her, Imperial Absence’s expression is very different now.

"Please... Help me."

Because she has understood, she has realized the fate that awaited her if this man hadn’t appeared before her and shown her all this.

Emperor Lawrence smiles and nods, for he has achieved his goal. If he had simply helped her from the beginning, this woman wouldn’t have that look, wouldn’t feel the gratitude she feels for him at this moment if he hadn’t opened her eyes.

Because he doesn’t have time to earn her trust... This was his next best option.