บท 12: 12
In case someone didn't understand the last part, in the world of *Baki*, characters with Hanma blood can awaken certain parts of their body into demonic forms, developing unique abilities.
Examples include Baki's *Demon Brain* and Yujiro's *Demon Back*.
Our protagonist awakened the *Demon Lungs*.
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At the moment of the fight between Mark and Evelynn, in the highest Solari temple on Targon, a Solari priestess abruptly stood up, startling the other priests who were conducting the ceremony.
"Priestess, is everything alright?" One of the priests approached her and asked, but she seemed somewhat entranced at the moment and did not notice his question for a moment before looking him in the eyes. "Inform everyone, the Sun's Son has been found," she said, and the priests did not seem to understand what she meant for a moment before nodding in confusion.
"But Priestess, Lady Leona is already the Aspect of the Sun," one of the priests said, and the priestess looked at him. "You don't understand. The flames of the sun run through his veins. The Aspect revealed to me that this man, alongside the Aspect, will lead the Solari to glory in the difficult times to come!" she spoke, and soon the entire temple was in an uproar, with the news quickly spreading throughout the tribe and then the entire Targon region.
"The Sun's Son is on the land, and the Solari are looking for him." These words echoed from person to person, tribe to tribe, and soon reached merchants.
But Mark, the main target of this prophecy, was unaware of this at the moment.
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Mark slowly opened his eyes. He felt a recurring pain in every corner of his body and couldn't help but let out a groan of pain as he tried to move.
His body was now almost completely bandaged, but besides the muscle pains, he felt that his broken arm had already healed, though it was still a bit difficult to move in some ways, and in a few more days, his full recovery would likely occur.
Looking around, he noticed he was in a room he recognized as one of the castle's chambers. Noble accommodations and furniture were spread throughout the room. "I think I overdid it," Mark thought to himself, remembering the events that had occurred earlier.
Thanks to the *Sharingan*, even after becoming unconscious, he still remembered everything that happened until he completely passed out, with his last vision being Katarina looking at him worriedly.
Recalling that memory sent chills down Mark's spine. "I must have been hallucinating," he murmured to himself, convincing himself that Katarina's worried expression was just a figment of his imagination due to blood loss and pain.
At that moment, the door to the room opened, and he saw a sight that scared him more than when he faced Evelynn. He saw Katarina enter the room with a tray of bandages and give him a smile of genuine happiness, not the usual mocking one.
"Mark, you're awake," she said, and Mark felt chills throughout his body and began to sweat coldly, immediately activating his *Sharingan* and looking at Katarina, hoping this was an illusion.
"Hahaha, are you so scared? Traumatized after facing that demon?" Katarina laughed upon seeing him activate his *Sharingan* and fearlessly approached him. Mark froze at that moment and allowed Katarina to treat him while he carefully observed her with his active *Sharingan*.
After being absolutely sure that she was real, a big question fell onto his mind, "When and how did this happen?" Mark wasn't foolish. In fact, he was an expert at deceiving women in his past life, also known as a womanizer and playboy.
He had developed a protocol of simple steps to make any woman fall for him, provided the conditions were met. These steps were: interest, coexistence, and finally...
"Stimulation," Mark murmured to himself and realized that this was not the cunning and cruel Katarina from the game, but a younger and more innocent version who had not yet experienced the cruelties of love due to her overprotective father.
Mark's face could not help but show an expression of disbelief, and his eyes met Katarina's at that moment. They stared at each other in silence for a moment before she looked away, pretending not to be embarrassed.
"Damn, it's real! She's in love with me!" Mark shouted in his mind and deactivated his *Sharingan* but did not dare to relax. He was in a body of just under 20 now, and if Katarina took the initiative and caught him by surprise, he wouldn't know what General Du Couteau would do to him if he found out that his perfect assassin was seduced.
"You're awfully quiet, want to say something?" Katarina asked him, and Mark took a deep breath for a moment and decided to try to be as natural as possible. "Yes, I'm fine, just a bit surprised," he said, and Katarina's eyebrows raised as a provocative smile appeared on her face.
"Surprised by what, I wonder," she said playfully and brought her face closer to Mark, making him retreat to the edge of the bed, but she continued to follow him while looking into his eyes. "You know, ever since I saw those red eyes of yours for the first time, something in them intrigued me. Could you tell me what they are?" she said and placed her hand over Mark's, preventing him from continuing to move away, and cold sweat appeared on his forehead.
"My God, she's seducing me unconsciously!" Mark quickly reached this conclusion when he saw Katarina approaching him with a provocative look.
As a professional assassin, Katarina had received seduction training, but for her, it was just a technique to achieve a purpose. However, now she unconsciously applied the principles of those techniques in her approach toward Mark, making him feel suffocated.
At that moment, a guardian angel appeared. With a gentle movement, the door opened, followed by a voice, "Officer Riven reporting for..." A woman with white hair and wearing a Noxian military uniform entered the room and saw the scene of Katarina leaning over Mark, causing her words to get stuck in her throat.
"I apologize for the interruption," she said and turned to leave the room decisively, but Mark took the opportunity to move away from Katarina and stand up. "No need to leave, feel free to stay," he called out to Riven, who hesitated for a moment upon seeing the looks Katarina was giving her before stepping back into the room.
About 30 minutes later.
Mark nodded with satisfaction as he read the reports and messages Riven had brought with her. But most importantly, there was a letter from Swain informing him that his deeds had been passed on to the high command of Noxus, and he had been immediately promoted to Major of Intelligence in the Noxian army, with Swain pulling some political strings and sending him 2 battalions, each with about 500 soldiers, under his command.
The letter also mentioned that Swain had been informed about his encounter with the demon and had already requested some trusted runic blacksmiths to forge a custom set of weapons and armor for him.
Incidentally, Mark had been unconscious for 4 days, and the city guard had been reinforced, fearing that Evelynn would return to finish the job, but that did not happen. She seemed to have vanished into thin air just as she had appeared.
"At least some good news came out of all this," Mark murmured to himself and looked at Riven, who was making some tea to serve to Katarina and him, with the latter clearly in a foul mood as she pretended to read some letters sent to her by her father.
"I must have messed up the entire timeline now," Mark judged internally. The future of Noxus, Shurima, and Ionia would probably change drastically, and perhaps even the future of Zaun and Piltover would be severely altered.
Taking another letter, Mark felt his heart tighten upon seeing the family crest on it, "Medardas." Mark murmured, seeing the wolf crest, and slowly opened the letter.
Despite not being one of the founding families, the Medardas are one of the oldest families in Noxus, controlling almost all maritime routes of Noxus, making them one of the richest families in the empire.
The current matriarch of the Medardas, Ambessa, is also known for her tremendous cunning and willpower, and Mark knew she had personally killed and skinned all the Medarda family relatives who revolted when the old patriarch died without leaving a will.
All neighboring families wanted a slice of the Medarda wealth, but Ambessa found them one by one and killed them while still pregnant with her youngest daughter.
As far as Mark knew, she would also be one of the vanguards of the Noxian army in the conquest of Shurima. However, it seemed that Mark had stolen that merit from her by breaking Shurima's defenses before the invasion even began.
Mark quickly read the letter and realized that it had not been written by Ambessa but by her son, who was known for being more diplomatic. After skipping the formalities praising his deeds, Mark quickly got to the main point.
(We hope to negotiate the usage rights for the port of your new city.)
"Negotiate, huh," Mark murmured. Since he and Katarina had essentially conquered the city alone, the city would likely be handed over to their families to govern.
Mark thought for a moment, and his gaze fell on Katarina, then Riven, and finally on the papers detailing his promotion in the Noxian army, and he had a rather bold idea.
His current situation, although not bad, was far from sufficient to prevent several disasters from occurring in the world. After all, he couldn't be in Zaun, Demacia, and Freljord at the same time and stop nexus events from happening.
He might not even be able to handle the events in Shurima with his current strength. He needed time and a good place to train and develop his power.
In that regard, there were two places that could allow him to grow in power and develop his abilities, as well as gain new ones: Ionia and Targon.
"But I'm not keen on facing those hypocritical Gods and Aspects and their tribes full of internal conflicts," Mark thought to himself. In his plans, if he wanted to save the world, not only were the general threats his enemies but the Gods were as well.
Beings of immense power who constantly interfere in the lives of mortals, bringing destruction and suffering while watching their followers shed senseless blood for them.
"So, that leaves Ionia." He thought, picking up a pen and paper before starting to write a letter to Swain. Katarina was surprised to see him writing with such a determined expression and couldn't help but approach.
"What are you planning?" she asked, and Mark paused as he looked at her. "I can't believe I'm going to say this," he thought internally and took a deep breath.
"I plan to trade the city's port rights for ships and military supplies before heading to Ionia. Also, Kat, I want you to come with me," Mark said determinedly, and Katarina blushed at hearing him call her by her nickname.
Mark had called her that before, but this time she felt there was something different. "You plan to conquer a continent with 2 battalions of soldiers?" she asked, but Mark shook his head.
"Who said we're going to conquer? I was planning to migrate."
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