Chapter 219: Pedro the Avenger, Part III

Translator: HunterW

Editor: RED

Pedro was looking panicked with confusion. As he remained silent, I decided to speak up instead. “I am curious about one thing. Why didn’t you accept help from a large guild or organization? There were a lot that offered, weren’t there? And you’re still popular, too. Any one of them could have easily destroyed the NCR Guild for you.”

I was always curious about this. He had an easier way to get his revenge, but never chose it. “You had only a set amount of time left. You are going to die soon, so there’s no reason to care about the truth anymore. Is it because you’re not allowed to lie or something?”

“…” Pedro remained silent. He probably did not know what to say. I didn’t wait to hear an answer and kept talking.

“Well, be that as it may, I said before that I’m on your side. That’s why I let these bastards call me a coward and let you get this far. But that is the most I can do for you. I have no reason to help you with your quest for vengeance. And while you are going to die forever today, I still have years to look forward to. Unfortunately, the NCR Guild shares the same fate as me, as shitty as they are.”

“…” Pedro said nothing.

“But don’t feel too bad about it. I always wished you the best from afar. Remember, I’m the one who chased away the Templar soldiers. Oh, and I am going to be taking away a good chunk of resources away from the NCR Guild, too.”

Finally, Pedro reacted. “Why?”

“What?”

“Why did you do all that for me? I’ve never met you before.”

“And I’ve never met you before, either.”

“Then how do you know everything? I never told anyone about my abilities and what they cost.”

“Isn’t it obvious? If you care about someone, you end up learning everything about them.”

“…”

“Whoa, I don’t mean it like that.” I threw in a little joke because of what I was about to say next. “Well, now that we broke the ice a bit, shall we get to it?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, it’s nothing, really. I really did think about giving up on the Rank 8 item and two billion golden rings the NCR Guild is supposed to pay me. I really did, if you succeeded on your own. But I’m sure you know as well that you’ve failed today,” I stuck my spear into the ground and crossed my arms. We were surrounded by the NCR Guild and Pedro had nowhere to go. I really did support Pedro. He lived a much harder life than I had in the past. No, it was more like he survived Hell itself. I pitied him for losing his family in such a cruel and violent way. I really wanted him to succeed.

“I would have been content had you successfully avenged your family, but I made my decision to step in five minutes before your death if you failed. And I’m going to hold you off for five minutes and make it look like I killed you so I can receive my payment from the NCR Guild. I’m the greediest man on Earth, as you can tell.”

“…” Pedro was starting to tremble, but I continued to talk.

“So why am I standing in front of you now? It’s simple; because it was looking like the NCR Guild was going to kill you before you died on your own. I don’t want that. I don’t want the NCR Guild to have that glory.” I pulled out my spear from the ground and took up a battle stance. “I’m sorry to have to do this, but I’m going to kill you here with my own hands.” I was left with a bitter taste in my mouth as I said that. I only wished I had either stayed completely away or outright helped him from the start. Maybe then, I wouldn’t be tasting bile at the back my throat.

“You don’t want the NCR Guild to have the glory of killing me?” I wasn’t sure how he was going to react to what I just told him. Would he curse me to the grave, or would he just laugh bitterly at his own fate? He did neither, and only seemed to care about what I said about the NCR Guild.

“That’s right. I don’t want them to have anything.” The NCR Guild wasn’t going to be the victor of this war. I was going to take whatever I could from them, and make sure their names were stricken from history.

Just then, Pedro started to laugh. He didn’t care that I had my spear raised to attack. “Do you want to know something?”

“What is it?”

“I occasionally, no, often thought about you.”

“Me?” I lowered my spear at the sudden confession.

“Yup. You always shone brightly. The whole world worships you. Well, at least that’s what everyone seems to think of you. I always wished I had your destiny, your future.”

This time, I was the one confused.

“I know. It’s as you say, I’ve failed. I knew the moment those thousand soldiers behind us closed off my escape route. So, I’ll give you my remaining four hours. I do hate you, you know. If you had just fought alongside me instead… I would have succeeded. But I get it. I get that it isn’t in your favor.” Tears were starting to well up in Pedro’s eyes. “But I still want to thank you. You gave me a chance to hurt these rat bastards. And thank you for stepping in now. I don’t want to die by their hands.”

“…” I didn’t know what to say.

“Then, let’s finish this now. I don’t want to waste any more time. I gift to you the last of my time. I’d also like it if you thought of it as a small tantrum on my part,” Pedro said as he pointed a finger at himself and then at me.

“Oh, that’s right. You said you were curious as to why I never accepted any help. The truth is…” Pedro cut himself off and started to laugh. “Actually, I won’t say. I want you stay curious for the rest of your life. That’s my last request.”

That was it. Pedro burst into pieces while still smiling. It was truly a gruesome sight. I had to avert my eyes as pieces of flesh and blood splattered everywhere. At that moment, I heard a shout from behind me.

“Use the Death Prison now!” It was Jose hurriedly giving the order and quickly, a member of the NCR Guild appeared before me.

“Summon: Death Prison!”

The ground in front of me split, and three-meter tall and wide iron cell walls rose from the depths of the earth. Inside were five iron chains snaking through the cell bars. There was obviously nothing in front of it, but the chains shackled themselves to the empty air, as if they were trying to hold an invisible man. The chains maintained that shape as they snaked back inside the cell. There was nothing there. No, it was more precise to say that the chains held onto a cloud of smoke. Everyone here, including me, knew what or who that smoke was supposed to be.

“Yaaaaah!”

“We did it! We captured Pedro!”

“We won! We won!”

I didn’t like this at all. A message appeared when Pedro exploded, but I couldn’t help but pay more attention to the cheers around me. I tightened my hold on my spear. I no longer cared about my reward. I was supposed to end this, not them. But just when I was about to charge at the NCR Guild, I heard the sound of something breaking.

It was coming from the Death Prison. The sound was growing louder and the cell walls and chains were beginning to crack and break into pieces.

“What…what’s going on?”

“Why’s the Death Prison doing that?”

“I…I don’t know, sir!”

Jose and his officers were visibly confused as the Death Prison was acting in a strange way, but I knew why it was doing that. Pedro had died a permanent death. His soul could not resurrect again, and had vanished. The Death Prison had lost the soul it was meant to catch, and was now leaving this plane, as if it had just completed its duty.

The breaking and cracking finally stopped, and the walls of the Death Prison fell to the ground.

“What…?”

“What just…”

“It…it just had Pedro’s soul…”

I smiled. Now that was the reaction they should have. I finally turned to the message that appeared before me. It appeared right after Pedro pointed at me.

“What…?” I didn’t expect Pedro to leave me this. I may have started all this for Pedro and helped him get out of the worst situation possible with good intentions, but I was still calculating to the end. Still, if there was one good thing I managed to do was that I had registered both Jose and Cantana Alejandro when I had shaken hands with them.

==[Call (Rank 9)

You can summon those registered in Call.

You can register up to 10 people into Call.

Use the command, ‘Register’ on a person while keeping that person in your sights for 1 minute to register that person into Call.

Once the Call list is full, you have to remove one person in order to register someone else.

Cooldown: 24 hours.

As long as this item remains in your inventory, you will receive the following effects:

All Stats increased by 300 points.]==

==[Call List

Sung Sooyeon (Mortal)

Jose Alejandro (Deva)

Cantana Alejandro (Deva)]==

I turned to the confused Jose and Cantana, who also turned to face me.

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