Pampas: Huh?

Time flew by as Su Wu immersed himself in getting stronger. It wasn't until Pampas suddenly appeared that he vaguely realized he'd been in Meteor City for quite some time.

He'd always been a top student. When he was working through problems, he often lost track of time. He used to spend entire days doing practice problems, from morning until midnight, and only put down his pen when his family told him to stop.

The only problem was that everyone assumed he already knew Nen, so there was no need for him to study it, let alone teach him how to use it.

Su Wu couldn't exactly tell them, "I really don't know Nen," or he wouldn't be able to explain how he'd blasted his way from District 13 to District 1 in the first place, or how he'd managed to teleport.

For now, he could only figure out Nen on his own. He'd heard that besides proper practice, there were other methods too, like... getting beaten up to learn?

Maybe he'd pick it up during training.

It should work much like Cursed Energy. Cursed Energy came from negative emotions, while Nen was life energy.

Pampas appeared just as Su Wu had finished a training session and was taking a break.

It was afternoon, yet the sky over Meteor City looked unchanged. There was no blood-red sunset, only black smoke that seemed as if it would never clear.

Every day, vast amounts of garbage were burned, sending clouds of smoke into the sky. As a result, no matter when you looked up, the sky over the outskirts of Meteor City always looked the same.

Gloomy and murky, as if the sunlight couldn't pierce the haze to reach this place.

The blond man suddenly appeared in front of Su Wu, who was sitting by himself.

"It's been a while. What happened to you?" His eyes held a hint of surprise as he gave Su Wu a measured look.

It had to be because he looked a little worse for wear now, Su Wu thought.

The bruises and cuts from each day's training healed by the next day, which only made Sid's methods more and more rigorous.

At first, they'd agreed to add weight once a month. Now, they added more whenever Su Wu got used to the Weighted Rings he was wearing.

By now, he'd had the weight increased six times. He didn't even know how heavy the rings were. Sapp would just touch one of them, and the weight would go up.

But feeling himself grow stronger step by step was wonderful. It was just like when he used to compete in math contests, solving one problem after another, beating one opponent after another, and claiming first place.

At the thought, Su Wu's smile took on a hint of delight. His tone was casual as he said, "Just my daily workout."

Your daily workout leaves you looking like that?

Looking at the boy's face, Pampas recalled how flawless he'd looked when they first met.

Even when he acted arrogantly and unpleasantly, he was still so good-looking that people couldn't help praising his exceptional features.

Seeing how battered his face looked now, so much that he was almost unrecognizable, Pampas wanted to say what a waste.

Su Wu's face was so beautiful that even if he'd offered to sell himself for ten billion Geni, Pampas would have bought him without hesitation.

He was confident he could sell that face for an even higher price.

But seeing how hard the boy pushed himself in his daily training made Pampas feel that his original decision had been right.

This kid would definitely become strong one day.

It had been worth intervening with the Vulture Gang, the other families in Meteor City, and the other elders to arrange for him to be placed in District 12, which was under his responsibility.

"What about Sid?" Pampas looked around but couldn't see him, so he asked Su Wu.

"Ah, him..." The white-haired boy seemed to smile with a hint of schadenfreude.

"He's changing in the church," he said breezily.

"Why change in the middle of the day?" Pampas headed toward the church.

As he moved, the children playing by the church entrance spotted him too.

"Lord Pampas, are you here to play with Lord Sid again?"

"Lord Pampas, I came in first this time!"

"Lord Pampas..."

The blond man seemed to have a great deal of influence among the children of District 12, who clearly admired him.

As soon as they saw him, they eagerly crowded around and greeted him.

The filthy children, drenched in sweat and covered in dust, surrounded Pampas in several layers.

Pampas handled them with an easy confidence, responding to the children one by one.

"That's right. Sid and I are good friends."

"You came in first? Maybe it's time to consider letting you join the Church." He smiled warmly, never ignoring a single child.

"If you stop training like this, you might get in trouble," he gently reminded them, pointing to the other priests around the church.

The children reluctantly left his side and went back to the training they'd interrupted.

Once no one was in his way, Pampas sauntered into the church.

"Changing in the middle of the day—did you do something you shouldn't have?" He knocked on the door of one of the rooms and called out, his tone teasing.

"I don't have time for anything else," Sid said in a low voice as he opened the door.

"That kid got my clothes dirty during training." He'd changed into a sleeveless shirt like the children wore, but much larger. His sharply defined muscles were on full display.

"You trained with him?" Pampas's voice rose, as if he'd heard something amusing.

What was going on? He'd thought Hill trained by himself. Why was Sid acting as his sparring partner?

"That kid was so weak before, I couldn't stand watching. Uvogin stood there and let him hit him, and he couldn't even budge him..." Sid seemed to have no end of things to say about Mist, but in the end, he only shared part of it.

Unable to suppress his curiosity, he studied Pampas inquiringly. "So I just can't figure out why you let him join the Church in the first place. Is he really your son?"

The confusion in Pampas's eyes nearly took the shape of a question mark.

Hill was so weak that even Sid couldn't stand watching?

Were they talking about the same person?

The boy could detect when Pampas was following him, and had even injured the puppet Pampas controlled with Nen from a distance.

What kid could do that? How could anyone call that weak?

Since when had Sid's standards gotten so high?

"You said he was so weak you couldn't stand watching? Was that because he'd fought the Spiders before?" Pampas picked out the key point in Sid's words and asked.

"Yeah. It was the day he first came to District 12. Shalnark and Uvogin brought some things over, and he volunteered to fight Uvogin," Sid explained frankly.

"I see..." Pampas mused.

First of all, there was no way the boy was as weak as Sid claimed.

Second, it was a little strange that he'd volunteered to fight Uvogin.

Did he know about the Phantom Troupe?

"As a smart man, Pampas looked at his less-clever friend Sid and patiently asked, "Have you ever considered what would happen if he showed how strong he was—or how interesting his ability was—or even defeated Uvogin?"

The Spiders were notoriously difficult to deal with.

"You mean he was hiding his strength? It sure didn't look that way to me..." Sid muttered, baffled.

The boy really hadn't seemed capable of fighting back during training.

"...Anyway, he really isn't as weak as you think." Pampas patted Sid on the shoulder as he explained.