Asura and Majin

Earlier the same day

Theo put on his black mask and black overalls that Suri had brought. “What do you think? Like the white hair? Too edgy? Cool?” He turned around.”

Suri facepalmed herself. “Why do you need to hide?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” He put in two swords back into their scabbards and posed. “Damn… just missing some guns.” Theo shrugged. “Forget it. Let’s save the town.”

An hour later, in the castle, seven people sat together around a long wooden table. They were the five leaders from each division of personnel. Aside from them were Clara, the escort leader under Aaron, and Sindbad, the town chief. Sindbad looked normal as all the others, even more so since he sat on a chair no different from the other six. However, no one here would dare take lightly this man, as he proved himself once and once again.

“Sindbad! Do you really think we can trust him?” Cairo, a man with a long beard and leader of the burst team, complained.

“It’s not about trust. We verified spies inside the troops and our plans are probably leaked.” Sindbad tried to reach for his hair before pulling his hand back, a habit from when he had long hair. Some compromises had to be made in the abyss. “We have to at least listen to him.”

“What if he is working for the enemy?” Said Cairo.

“Are you dumb? Why would he foil their own plans?” Sindbad looked at him, incredulous.

“What if that was his plan all along? A trap within a trap within a trap?” Cairo widened his eyes as if he had glimpsed into the deep secrets of the universe.

Clara, the leader of the escort group of the canyon rush, facepalmed herself. “Could you please not? We are trying to be useful here. Leave the conspiracies for later.”

“Thank you, Clara.” Said Sindbad.

“That’s not a conspiracy.” Cairo raised his voice. “Some ‘spies’ we’ve never heard about suddenly appeared out of nowhere, pinpointed by some random person who we also never heard about.” He widened his eyes and almost slammed on the table. “All that just after the scarlet fangs got into power and you all think I’m crazy.”

Aaron, the frontlines leader, coughed. “I would like to point out we used some convincing methods to verify the truth out of them. Moira was involved after all.”

Cairo rolled his eyes. “Great, you tortured some nonsense out of them and now we have to believe this whole circus.”

“I actually support Cairo on that one.” Clara tried to insert her opinion but was quickly cut by Sindbad, with a wave of his hands.

“I know all of your concerns.” Sindbad rubbed his temples. “However, some nagging suspicion I thought could be true was now verified. Preparing for some assault on our troops will be something that has to be done anyway. Better take anything I can get.” He took a deep breath, “Suri, could you please bring him to us?” and ordered under the reproachful eyes of his confidants.

Suri nodded and complied. She quickly slid her hands through Aaron’s hair and smiled at him before getting up. Clara promptly snorted, eyeing her with a poisonous glare.

“Would you control yourself, Clara?” Aaron stared at her. “You have been bolder and bolder lately. I want to remind you that you are only here because of your experience with the newcomers.”

Clara smirked and looked at Suri. “And she deserves to be here?”

“Suri is the leader of the logistics team, Clara. Show some respect,” said Aaron.

“Enough bickering you two. Suri, if you will.” Sindbad motioned to the door.

Clara stayed quiet but didn’t agree in the least with Suri’s position here. She came out of nowhere. Clara thought that just because Suri was shagging Aaron she got everything spoon-fed to her. Being a lucky little doll must feel really good.

Suri completely ignored Clara as she went to the door. Theo, who walked in, had an aura of complete confidence. “I don’t want to waste my time any more than I did.” He walked in large strides towards Sindbad, making the others frown and surround Sindbad to protect him. “You must have verified the clues I gave you about the spies in the town. I propose we go plan the terrain around the waterrise dungeon. If we succeed, we can start right away on the terrain trapping.”

Sindbad blinked in surprise. “I think we are overstepping yourselves here. You haven’t even shown your face. Our level of trust is not quite there yet.”

Clara smirked but soon got shut down as Theo removed the mask without hesitation. Along with the white hair, his face was different from before. No one in the room recognized it so he might as well have stayed with the mask. “The name is Majin, satisfied?”

Sindbad nodded. He usually wouldn’t put himself in such a position of submission, but the spies he had found were all in a relatively high position of power. If he hadn’t known those in the current room personally he would also start doubting them. Sindbad also didn’t want to delay any more than they had already so he promptly sent an expedition to the dungeon. Sindbad was a man who believed in actions above bickerings. They would get nowhere only talking in this room.