The Supreme War God Has Returned!

Chapter 003 – Zach’s Retirement Reason

*****

One after another, lavish promises came forth from the six desperate men… offers that would have long made any normal person faint and lose their minds.

But Zachariah, the Supreme War God of Country Aran, did not so much as blink.

Instead, he just listened to them calmly, silently, and with the detached patience of someone being pitched dessert after already finishing a feast.

He didn’t interrupt, didn’t scoff, and didn’t as much as raise an eyebrow.

Then, once they finished presenting their offers, Zach, with the same casual ease with which someone declines a second bowl of soup, spoke.

“No.”

It was just one word spoken without the slightest tinge of hesitation. However, with this single word, he rejected everything.

And the impact… it was immediate.

The six figures froze as though struck by lightning, unable to react for a second.

But then in the following second, pure devastation washed over their faces, their hope collapsing into disbelief and pure panic.

“No… no… please don’t leave, Sir!” the President blurted, his voice cracking.

“The country might fall if you retire, Master!” one of the Gods of War shouted, panic breaking through his discipline.

Their voices overlapped, sounding frantic and unrestrained.

No matter how many times Zach clarified his intentions, they refused to accept them because retreat was not an option, and retirement was unthinkable.

The fate of the entire country… containing millions of lives and countless futures were hung by a single thread, and that thread had Zach’s title stamped all over it.

They continued pleading with him in desperation.

Only after a while did Zach... renowned for his unshakable composure, finally feel something perilously close to helplessness.

He understood them… he truly did. But understanding didn’t change his decision.

“Huff.”

A sudden sigh escaped his chest, sounding deep, heavy, and weighted with finality.

It was loud enough that every kneeling figure flinched instinctively, their hearts skipping as if a blade had brushed their throats.

Then the tent fell dead silent.

“You want to know why…” Zach spoke at last, his voice calm, flat, and almost lazy, “…why I must retire now, just when I’ve reached the apex of everything, right?”

The six men felt their hearts jolt violently.

Some of them swallowed hard, some stiffened, and the others felt an inexplicable chill crawl up their spines.

But before anyone could respond

“Well then,” Zach continued, his tone unchanged, sounding as though he were announcing the weather, “I will tell you.”

The silence that followed was absolute, enveloping everywhere for a moment until suddenly…

“Ten years ago,” his voice, calm, steady, and almost lazily composed, echoed again, cutting through the suffocating silence of the tent

It didn’t sound like the opening of a tragedy. Instead, it came out more like someone talking about the weather.

“My home, containing my mother, father, my younger brother, myself, and our family’s workers, was set ablaze in the middle of the night… when all of us were asleep.”

He spoke slowly and evenly, sounding as if the story belonged to someone else entirely… his voice containing not even the slightest tinge of emotion.

However, the moment the six men kneeling before him heard his words, they sucked in sharp and cold breaths, their spines going rigid as the color drained from their faces with frightening speed.

These were men who had stared down death countless times without blinking… yet a single sentence had struck them harder than a blade.

As for Zach… not even the slightest flicker crossed his face.

“In that fire,” he continued, his voice still level and completely detached, “my parents, brother, and every worker who served our family died… all of them burned alive.”

The words came with a quiet voice, free of drama or emotions.

However, it was also this voice that finally betrayed him… just slightly.

A barely perceptible tremor passed through a single word... so subtle that anyone less observant would have missed it entirely.

But the six men caught it, and through that millisecond flaw, they finally glimpsed the fracture hidden beneath the calm surface.

“No one survived,” Zach went on, his eyes slightly unfocused now, as if staring past the tent walls and West End itself. “No one… except me.”

He paused again, this time, his voice slightly quieter.

“And I…” His gaze drifted farther away, piercing through time and going back to that very night. “I lived only because of fate and because a young girl decided to run into a burning house to pull me out.”

Zach’s face remained expressionless, his voice staying calm.

But his hands… they suddenly clenched into two tight fists, his knuckles abruptly turning white, and thick veins popping out like coiled serpents along his arms.

“But through all these years,” Zach continued, drawing in a slow, measured breath, “I never once abandoned my intention for revenge.”

He drew in a quiet, deep, and sharp breath.

But the instant he did, a sudden surge of aura leaked from his body, and in the next instant, an invisible pressure slammed through the tent, making the six kneeling men seize up.

Before they could even process it, their throats constricted, their hearts lurched, and cold sweat drenched their backs, making it appear as though they had just been dragged through icy water.

“In fact,” Zach said impassively, though his teeth ground together ever so slightly, his eyes flashing with something dark and untamed, “if not for my master insisting that I first put an end to West End’s centuries-long battle…”

His eyes flashed.

“I would have already gone to avenge my family.”

Finished uttering this, Zach exhaled a small breath.

But in the following second, the crushing pressure filling the tent withdrew, his aura folding neatly back into himself as though it had never existed, and his expression smoothed, returning calm, distant, and unreadable once again.

“Now that I’ve completed my final mission,” he finished evenly, “I plan to go settle the scores once and for all.”

….

That was all.

Zach didn’t elaborate and didn’t explain further.

But he didn’t need to.

What he didn’t say, the six men understood all too clearly.

He planned to hunt down every single person responsible for the fire that had erased his entire world.

But unbeknownst to them, that wasn’t the only reason Zach chose to retire.

He wasn’t leaving solely for vengeance.

The second reason… one he kept buried deep inside, was a promise.