A Mission to the Rebellious Town

One week later.

"Is it just the two of us going on this mission?" Chiba asked as they walked through the snow.

"No, there are more," Ultear said.

As she spoke, four or five tall men in black robes appeared a short distance ahead. Chiba had met one of them before; his name seemed to be Sawen.

"Miss Ultear," Sawen said with a smile.

"Miss Ultear." The black-robed men behind Sawen bowed their heads and greeted her respectfully.

"Mm." Ultear nodded slightly in response.

"Miss Ultear, who is this...?" One of the men in black couldn't help looking at Chiba behind her.

He couldn't sense any fluctuations of magic power from Chiba. Why would Miss Ultear bring an ordinary person to suppress the rebellion?

"He's my attendant," Ultear said calmly. "Don't provoke him. He does have some strength."

They were somewhat puzzled. Could this man be hiding his magic power?

But they didn't want to worry about it. They were subordinates; they would simply do as their superiors said.

After a while, more black-robed figures arrived one after another. At a rough count, there were around a hundred of them.

All right, he had been wrong. He had thought it would be just him and Ultear. Who would have expected so many people?

Then Chiba spotted a familiar face among them: Scarface.

Right, and there was Cross-Eyed Wolf too.

The two jerks were as thick as thieves as ever, standing together. They seemed to have spotted Chiba behind Ultear too, and alongside their anger was a trace of fear.

After all, if Ultear hadn't intervened that day, the two of them would have been reduced to ashes.

Chiba shot them an exceedingly smug, provocative look. You're not as badass as me, are you, you bunch of trash? The big shots stand on the outside; only trash marches in a line.

The two of them were furious with him.

Ultear glanced at Chiba but said nothing.

Ultear led the group to a huge stable in the town, where a large number of horses waited, already prepared.

"Mount up," Ultear ordered.

Everyone found a horse and swung into the saddle with practiced ease.

Chiba was dumbfounded. "I can't ride a horse."

"Then run behind us. Haven't you been training your body all week?" Ultear said calmly from her horse.

Chiba: "..."

Are you trying to work me to death? Then inherit my Huabei debt?

At that moment, Cross-Eyed Wolf and Scarface, who were not far away, couldn't help sneering to themselves. "He can't even ride a horse, and he's going to suppress a rebellion?"

Chiba naturally heard them clearly. He actually wanted to beat up the two loudmouths, but considering that their uncles and relatives might be around, fighting them could be a little troublesome.

He grinned at Ultear. "Big sis, give me a ride!"

"Get lost!" As expected, Ultear gave him a gentle answer.

"If you don't take me, how am I supposed to get there?"

"...Ride with Sawen."

"Why won't you take me? I'm your bodyguard, you know. Am I supposed to follow him or you?"

"..."

"All right, get on." She had probably seen through Chiba's little scheme and was somewhat speechless.

She thought Chiba had a split personality.

How should she put it? Sometimes he was mature and calm, while at other times he was like a child.

Chiba sat down behind Ultear and shot the two of them a provocative look.

They gnashed their teeth in anger, a whole range of emotions—envy, jealousy, hatred and more—rushing to their heads.

Chiba sat carefully, though, keeping at least some distance between his body and Ultear's. First, he didn't dare touch her; second, he was afraid of a misunderstanding. Besides, he only wanted to annoy those two loudmouthed jerks. There was no need to... uh... make a real thing of the act.

Ultear was at least quite satisfied with his conduct.

Night.

Several campfires had been arranged in circles, and people were chatting away. If not for the Grimoire Heart emblems on their robes, no one would have thought they belonged to a dark guild.

Ultear stepped out of the tent but didn't see Chiba, and her delicate brows furrowed slightly.

Has this guy run off to train again?

What a madman...

Meanwhile, in a distant forest, Chiba was sitting cross-legged, training.

The veins on his face bulged and throbbed, as though he were doing his utmost to suppress the pain.

Damn, this hurts way too much.

"Argh!"

He couldn't help crying out in pain again. The sensation of Chakra flowing backward and merging with his cells was simply too agonizing, and this wasn't the first time he had cried out.

His endurance was decent enough that he wasn't screaming himself into a frenzy. But decent was all it could be called; he didn't have the tremendous willpower of a novel protagonist.

Aside from his cheat, he was just an ordinary person. He trembled when he killed, felt fear in desperate situations, and suffered when he trained.

As for why he was so keen on training in Ninjutsu... he thought it was fun.

All the ways Chakra could be manipulated, along with things like Hand Seals, interested him, so he had kept training in Ninjutsu.

It was just like playing Honor of Kings in his previous life: he didn't want to stop.

So... all that stuff about getting stronger to protect something was nonsense. He was simply addicted to the game.

But even a game could get boring if you played it too much. After living so long in his previous life, he had suddenly realized that the only thing he had stuck with was charging his phone.

This Taijutsu, honestly, was something he was starting not to want to practice.

It hurt, and it was exhausting.

But if he didn't train, he would never beat Ultear, and that meant he couldn't get away from her. Given enough time, she might really lead him astray.

And when that time came, how could he face Mira?

Mm... I'd better get back to training my Taijutsu. I'll treat it like playing a hero I'm not good with and keep practicing until they reach red proficiency.

Still, now that he thought about it, the method was pretty good.

Over the past week, he had spent his days running with weights. After running, he used Chakra to strengthen his body's cells. When his Chakra ran out, he drew more energy from his body and merged it with his spiritual energy to make more Chakra, and then... then he ate and ate like crazy!

His physical stamina was growing stronger, and his cellular energy was increasing as well. Even though his spiritual energy had originally far exceeded his physical energy, the two were now actually approaching a balance.

That meant a substantial increase in the Chakra he could extract from his body!

Yet he hadn't even completed fifty percent of the first stage of training.

After training until he was physically and mentally exhausted, Chiba finally found himself struggling to carry on. He walked toward his... oh, Ultear's tent.

"So you still remember to come back?" Ultear said with a smile.

Looking completely drained, Chiba sat down on the ground listlessly and said, "Sister Lei, I'm hungry."

But after he unconsciously finished saying those words, Ultear's expression changed.

"What did you call me?"

Ultear's voice, tinged with surprise and menace, reached Chiba's ears. He jolted and came to his senses.