Terra Nova Online: Rise of The Strongest Player

Chapter 264: Misunderstandings

Leo admitting that his master was none other than the notorious assassin Ben Faulkner made many heads turn with most not turning the good way.

Since in the future he was going to be a noble, his master having a criminal background was not going to reflect positively on him, especially amongst the highly judgmental noble society.

While his assassin skills were top-notch, Leo still wasn’t far-sighted enough when it came to politics and trade as while the essence of his request to the Emperor was simple, it was going to eventually end up costing him a lot of opportunities under the alias of ‘TheBoss’.

However, while there were some people who disapproved of Leo’s association with Ben Faulkner, there were some who could not be more proud.

‘The Uprising’ for one was an organization that was thrilled to learn that Ben Faulkner was Leo’s master.

This news sparked many misconceptions among the members, leading them to believe that their upper management was somehow linked to the legendary assassin Ben Faulkner.

ChaosBringer had structured The Uprising in a way that made everyone at the lower levels feel there was a higher echelon above them. However, in reality, ChaosBringer was the sole leader with no actual connections to TheBoss or Ben Faulkner, but he never clarified this to his subordinates.

By allowing this misconception to persist, he created the illusion that he was connected with TheBoss and that the faction was led by numerous high-level figures operating from the shadows.

Almost as soon as Leo name dropped Ben Faulkner inside the grand arena, the internal chat of the Uprising became flooded with messages of the legendary assassin.

“Holy shit! Was the Boss actually Ben Faulkner’s disciple? Does that mean the legendary assassin is connected to our organization too? @chaosbringer please clarify” -Core Team Member (1)

“There are rumors going around that Ben Faulkner made a second kill inside the royal palace recently, taking out the royal counselor. Was it a hit carried out by our faction? @chaosbringer please clarify” – Core team member (2)

“We have made astronomical sums of money by betting on TheBoss to win it all from round one. In total our cash winnings have surpassed over 130 million gold coins. But why do I feel like this sum of money is nothing much for the upper echelons of our guild and that this is only the beginning of our journey? @chaosbringer am I right?”- Core team member (3)

“Some days even I don’t understand what the structure of our guild is or how deep are our roots? Aren’t we becoming too formidable lately? @chaosbringer, we are core team members, please at least give us some clarity” – Core team member (4)

In under two minutes ChaosBringer was pinged 40+ times by his core team members, which were on paper the only hierarchy within his organization…. Composed of the people above the normal members who were the branch heads of various crime groups.

While ChaosBringer was pinged over 2000+ times total, by people of the lower realms, he did not bother even reading those pings, however, he could not ignore the messages of the core team members as in the heat of the moment he decided to lie through his teeth.

While he knew fully well that let alone Ben Faulkner, he had no connection to TheBoss either, ChaosBringer did not clarify this misunderstanding and doubled down by trying to imply that Ben Faulkner was like an uncle to him.

Reply to Core team member (4):- “We have very deep roots and even I don’t know fully as to how deep we run, however, uncle Ben is one of the people on the higher bench and his disciple is going to get a seat there as well.

As the leader of the core member team, I’m only invited to a few meetings and am not a full fledged bench member so there are many things that I don’t know.

However, the Bench is very happy with our performance in the grand tournament and indeed has big plans for that money we have collected.

Exact details about the plans will be shared soon….”

Saying this, ChaosBringer left the chat, not replying to any more pings as he let the misunderstandings organically foster within the guild.

While the core team members lost their minds thinking that they were connected to the legendary assassin Ben Faulkner resulting in many rumors beginning to spread within the organization regarding how they were soon going to become the kings of the underworld, all of their hopes and dreams were actually stemming from a lie.

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( Meanwhile The Emperor )

The Emperor was silent for a long while after Leo made his request as the audience went into an uproar.

He tried to think of any technicality, any moral ground that he could take to deny The Boss his winning wish, however, unfortunately he could think of nothing.

The Boss had been very clever, declaring beforehand that his master was a heinous criminal needing a pardon, to which Julien had already agreed.

If Leo had not declared the nature of his request beforehand, Julien could have taken the moral high ground of being unable to grant a fugitive undeserving of a pardon an imperial pardon, because that would be miscarriage of justice, however, he could no longer use that route either.

Stuck between a rock and a hard place, Julien was forced to relent as he eventually decided to grant Ben Faulkner his pardon.

“Your master is one of the most heinous criminals in the entire Empire and a man who is unmistakably not deserving of being granted a pardon. However, since I have already promised you one, I will not go back on my words and sully my honor.

From today onwards, I, Julien D Evanus, grant an imperial pardon to Ben Faulkner and free him from persecution of all his previous crimes” Julien declared with a sour face, as him saying that Ben was going to be treated as a free man was enough to be considered as law throughout the nation.