Chapter 318: Chapter 318. This junior is extremely sorry for not noticing the difference between heaven and earth
Under the gazes of several individuals, Valeria walked towards Kailen Darkhaven, calmly standing before her elder brother with a casual expression on his face, partly obscured by the hoodie.
The young lady opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. She was simply too afraid to speak.
Compared to her previous haughty attitude when she first met Kailen, she now looked like a slave cowering in the presence of a master that could end her life at any moment. Although this was the virtual universe, he could find her in the real world, and she couldn’t even imagine what she’d have to endure. She still remembered the recent videos of how he killed the Arcane Empowerment Sect members in the academy life-and-death arenas circulating in the virtual universe forums.
Kailen Darkhaven, apart from his monstrous alchemical prowess and other feats, was a rank 1 beginner-stage Ascendant level lifeform with insane combat prowess that could rival that of rank 1 supreme-stage Ascendant lifeforms.
If he broke into higher ranks, how terrifying would his combat prowess be? This fellow dared to offend the Harkers, Darkhavens, and even kill prodigies of the Arcane Empowerment Sect without any reservations about the consequences of his actions.
If he held a grudge against her, it was only a matter of time before she ended up in a similar situation. Forget about her brother being a galactic-level lifeform? Was the sect leader of the Arcane Empowerment Sect not a galactic-level lifeform? Were the leaders of the Harkers and the leaders of the Darkhaven clans not galactic-level lifeforms? But had their prodigies on the academy campus not suffered at his hands? Had the daughter of the Harkers not committed suicide because of whatever terrifying experience he had subjected her to?
While she was shaking in fear, unable to communicate, her brother sighed in disappointment. It seemed he had doted too much on this little sister. She was gonna be his doom today.
Pa!
Another slap resounded in the environs from Valeria’s brother, causing her already swollen cheeks to swell more. The onlookers felt the weight of the towering slap, tingles of fear crawling up their spines as they couldn’t imagine themselves being not only the recipients of this humiliation but, more importantly, such vigorous slaps.
"Apologize to Sir Darkhaven now! Putting his other credentials away, he’s a better runesmith than you will ever be! Do you know how many seconds he took to complete his exams? Six seconds, with a rune skill proficiency of 99 percent!" he roared further, as expressions of astonishment and disbelief pervaded the whole place.
He bellowed, "Do you know what it means for the Association to lose someone like him? Do you know what will happen to you and even myself personally, even if he decides to let this slide? Do you think the Association will spare me? Do you think you can enjoy the resources and privileges you enjoy by then? I’ve been entertaining your stupid behavior for a while now, but it seems you’ve gone overboard this time!"
Valeria quickly fell on her knees before Kailen, the weight of her actions fully settling in. At this point, she regretted everything she had done completely. She, alongside everyone present, knew the weight of such a monstrous genius and his worth to the Association.
Completed a runesmith exam as a newbie rank 0 runesmith in just six seconds? Had something like that ever happened before in the empire? Runesmith proficiency of 99 percent? Did people like that even exist? Even the famed veterans of runesmithery had at most a rune proficiency of 95 percent.
This further cemented the value of Kailen in the Association, implying that anyone who played a role in driving him away would earn the ire of the higher ups.
Plop.
Valeria dropped all her pride and performed an extremely humble bow before Kailen, her head hitting the ground without reservations.
"This junior is extremely sorry for not noticing the difference between heaven and earth."
No one found her referring to herself as a junior in reference to Kailen illogical. After all, in terms of combat prowess, Kailen was stronger than her although she was a rank 5 beginner-stage Ascendant level lifeform. Plus, although she was also a rank 0 runesmith like Kailen, she was obviously less skilled than him after the absurd results of his examination had been revealed.
As for Kailen, since she had intended to make things difficult for him after he initially ignored her, why not take her further down a peg? Had he been a weakling, he’d have probably been in hot shit right now, without anyone trying to listen to his side of the story.
This was the natural law of the universe: the strong reigned and were right as long as they had the strength to back their actions. And a weak person, even if they were right, was the one in the wrong if they didn’t have the strength to back up their actions. Right and wrong were determined by the strong!
"Didn’t you call me a pervert and a harasser? Why the sudden change in attitude?"
His voice, playful yet cold, reverberated in the environs, causing a chill alongside helplessness to creep up her spine.
Her brother stood by the side, completely intending not to step in on her behalf. His intention was clear. She was supposed to solve this on her own.
There was too much at stake here: the loss of a genius that could help the empire win the upcoming conference, and the loss of his job, and even his ability to provide for her and the family. As for whether or not Kailen would kill her, he knew he was vengeful and cold, but he could discern the fellow would not resort to such a method in this kind of situation.
"I... I was wrong, sir! My eyes were behind my head! I didn’t see well and bumped into you, yet I not only failed to apologize for accidentally inconveniencing you with my pitiful assets, I acted all stupid, naive, and proud, and dared to think you’d be interested in a pile of dirt like me! Senior, please forgive me for my impudence!"
The haughty, snobbish, and overbearing demeanor of Valeria had been replaced with a pitiful, cowardly one, as she literally crawled at Kailen’s feet for mercy!
"I see," Kailen replied with cold indifference. "So you are telling me that you intentionally decided to make things difficult for me despite knowing that you were the one in the wrong, huh?"