In the end, all the five Emperor's Blades could do was stand there and watch Steven walk away.
They made no further moves.
Steven's attitude had been perfectly clear—and they weren't idiots. They could tell that this mysterious young man had no interest in being further disturbed.
If they kept pushing, things would only escalate.
Before they fully understood Steven's intentions and abilities, provoking him would be a reckless and foolish decision.
Besides, their primary mission had always been to eliminate the Collapsal—anything else was secondary.
At the very least, Steven had shown no hostility toward Ursus.
Not only had he not threatened the citizens or the government, but in fact—his actions had actually saved them a lot of trouble.
After all, if that Collapsal had been so easy to deal with, they wouldn't have spent nearly a whole month tracking it down.
"Tch— The burn marks we saw earlier—those must have been left by him too."
After a long silence, one of the Emperor's Blades finally exhaled and spoke, coming to a realization.
He had sensed the same energy on Steven as in those scorched battlefields they had encountered before.
So that explained how those traps set by the Collapsal had been utterly burned to ash…
That poor bastard must have really pissed off the wrong monster.
"We need to report this individual's existence to the others—and notify the Emperor as well."
The lead Emperor's Blade stared in the direction Steven had left and issued a firm command.
"Should we monitor his movements? And if necessary—should we attempt to capture him?"
Another Emperor's Blade voiced a question that had been on everyone's mind.
This boy was too much of an unknown—and dealing with uncontrollable elements was always a problem.
"Tch— For now, don't do anything that might provoke him."
The lead Emperor's Blade hesitated for a moment before making the most rational decision.
"Just track his general movements. As long as he doesn't do anything to threaten Ursus' rule, that's all we need to know. The rest… we wait for His Majesty's orders."
They had already seen what Steven was capable of.
Capturing him would be an absolute nightmare—let alone the fact that they had no clue whether he had even greater powers hidden away.
The Emperor's Blades' main priority was still the Collapsal threat—wasting lives here on a pointless battle would be a mistake.
As long as Steven didn't cause trouble, even the Emperor would likely turn a blind eye to his existence.
After all—Ursus was full of such individuals.
As long as balance was maintained, coexistence was possible.
And there was one more crucial reason why Steven's existence wouldn't immediately spark conflict—
—He was powerful, but he wasn't an Infected.
The greatest source of tension within Ursus was the ever-growing divide between the Infected and ordinary citizens.
But Steven wasn't an Infected.
And without that source of conflict—there was no real reason for Ursus to move against him.
As long as he didn't take the side of the Infected, everything was still negotiable.
"Tch— Understood."
With a silent nod, the Emperor's Blades dispersed once more. In just a few moments, they had disappeared into the darkness of the forest.
And so, the ruined village finally fell into silence.
<+>
Meanwhile, Steven took the time to pay attention to whether those Emperor's Blades were following him.
But when he noticed that they were just as cowardly as before, he let the matter go.
Figures.
Anyone strong enough to survive in this world generally wasn't an idiot.
After he had made his stance crystal clear, they had chosen the smarter, more peaceful option.
Just like Kal'tsit.
In the end, only strength mattered in this world.
If you weren't strong enough, people wouldn't even bother treating you as an equal—they'd see you as an ant beneath their feet, not even worth acknowledging as a fellow human being.
Steven had never really understood that kind of thinking.
Why did those in power always believe that having authority and strength automatically made them superior—so superior that they weren't even human anymore?
No matter how strong you got—you were still just a person, weren't you?
At least Steven still thought of himself as a normal human who happened to be stronger than his peers.
As far as he was concerned, everyone was human—there was no such thing as someone being intrinsically superior to someone else.
But…
There wasn't much point in thinking about all this right now.
Steven yawned and pushed those thoughts aside.
Whether those so-called Emperor's Blade were smart or not, it didn't really matter.
His stance had already been made clear.
If they came looking for trouble again, he wouldn't be giving them another warning.
Following the coordinates on his mini-map, Steven headed back toward the village.
It felt like he'd been gone for a long time, but in reality, less than a day had passed.
Beneath the dark sky, the village was illuminated by a warm, orange glow.
The soft lights flickered against the cold, snowy landscape, bringing a hint of warmth to the otherwise frozen wasteland.
Compared to the previous village, this place was much smaller and simpler—but if Steven was being honest, this was exactly what a village should feel like.
At least here, the old grandpas and grannies wouldn't drag him into a barn and lock him up to starve to death the moment they saw him, right?
His plan had been to head home and call it a night, then tell Talulah all about his adventure tomorrow morning—
But just as he was about to leave, he suddenly stopped in his tracks.
It was already close to midnight, but for some reason, the lights in Alina's house were still on.
Steven knew for a fact that Talulah didn't live with Alina.
As someone who was technically a "found and adopted child," Talulah's identity in the village was that of a granddaughter to one of the old men Steven had met earlier.
She usually lived with two elderly villagers.
Which meant that Alina lived alone.
If it were Talulah staying up in the middle of the night, Steven wouldn't have thought twice about it.
That stubborn little dragon girl was probably tinkering with some weird experiments every night.
But Alina was different.
In Steven's mind, she was the type to go to bed early and wake up early—so why was she still awake at this hour?
Curious, Steven began sneaking toward the house, moving as quietly as possible.
The iron golems patrolling the village immediately detected his presence—
But a second later, they calmly returned to their patrols, showing no reaction.
After all—
Steven was their true master.
And that was something they would never forget.
Through the semi-transparent window of Alina's house, Steven could see the girl sitting at her desk, carefully stitching something under the dim glow of a small lamp.
The snow-covered plains at night were freezing cold.
Even though the house offered some shelter from the chill, Alina still had to tighten the woolen blanket around her shoulders every so often before returning her focus to her needlework.
Steven immediately recognized what she was making.
Just one glance was enough for him to figure out why she was staying up so late.
"I only mentioned it casually… She didn't have to go this far."
Muttering to himself, Steven suddenly realized that there was a small, unintentional smile forming on his lips.
Was this what it felt like to be cared for?
Ever since he came to this world, he had never experienced something quite like this—someone staying up in the middle of the night, braving the cold just to sew clothes for him.
He had no intention of knocking on the door or interrupting her work.
Instead, he quietly stepped away from the window, tilting his head up toward the sky, where snowflakes continued to drift down endlessly.
Normally, he would've enjoyed this kind of weather.
But right now, it felt a little too harsh.
Turning away, Steven headed back to his cabin, his footsteps firm against the snow.
As he walked, he casually opened the chat window and typed out a message.
"It's been snowing for days now. It's about time for some good weather, don't you think?"
Stretching lazily, he effortlessly typed in a command—
[/weather clear 60000]
And with that—
The howling winds came to a sudden halt.
The snowflakes stopped falling.
The biting cold that had gripped the village gradually faded away.
And Steven?
He simply hummed a tune—one without a name—his face lit up with satisfaction as he continued on his way home.
As for the red text message that briefly flashed across the chat window?
He ignored it completely.
[Ding! Weather command used. Deducting 100,000 WAP (World Acknowledgement Point)]
It seemed that the Will of the World had long since given up on trying to reason with him.
Rather than issuing a warning like before, it simply deducted his points and then fell silent once more—
Almost as if it knew that scolding him wouldn't change anything anyway.
"Finally, I can sleep peacefully tonight. And for the next few days, the weather's going to be great. Ahh~~ life really is wonderful."
Stretching his limbs, Steven murmured to himself.
As for the 100,000 points he just lost?
It was nothing worth worrying about.
What was the point of hoarding all those points if not to make himself happy?
And right now—
He was in a very good mood.
<+>
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