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Chapter 281: I’m no Devil

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“Let’s cut the jabs and go straight to the point of this meeting. The Company Branch that I control saved your city and The Company does not take jobs without proper compensations. We are an organization that is moved by profits upon every step of our feet.… I only require a district-sized Hangar Bay, five million pieces of NanoCubes, 1M vials of Red and Blue Potions… each… and at least two mega-crates of Black-Ironwood Alloy.”

“Ridiculous!”

“Shameless scoundrel!”

It was just the opening jab but Billion had already received Makunochi’s gazelle punch straight to his jaw.

Billion was choked silent, unable to reply a word as his brain was in a state of maximum override.

The two supposedly calm aides on his side were the ones that screamed. And contrary to the first impressions of his large frame, the person behind the sturdy armor and visor of his helmet, the voice that came behind that armor was a voice of a lady.

Removing her helmet’s visor, long violet hair swayed and glittered with a mighty presence of a female knight.

“Shameless, outrageous demand! You merely beat the crap out of them from behind by surprise and you demand an extravagant compensation?!”

The Mage with a handsome face added, “So here I thought that you, requesting a meeting with our Temple, was to show your regret and shame of killing one of our Elders!”

Siva’s left brows twitched. He turned to Thorn for advice but the latter only smiled and rebuked the male Mage.

“Your ‘our Temple’ is a little bit fake, isn’t it? You are but a messenger and yet to pretend to be a part of the actual Enchanters Temple. How thick is your face, then?”

Having been disgraced like this, the Mage glared at Thorn and Siva immediately understood who this person was.

‘So he was the one who delivered the letter.’

He understood where Thorn’s irritation and Volt’s sighs are coming from.

Siva then turned his gaze towards the Knight and he replied to her with a stiff indifferent tone:

“I don’t have time to be wasting with small fries like you lot as my time is wasting. Firstly, if you can’t comply with my small demand then I can just take everything in this city and be done with it. I assume that City Lord Billion wouldn’t be trying to bargain with me in this, yes?”

He was trying to tell them that right now, he has the city’s fate in his palms and him, being here, meeting them for a negotiation, is already a large grace of mercy and consideration to Billion.

“Billion, don’t believe this crap! This is a ploy of The Legion, I can feel it. He’s part of The Legion and everything that had happened is just a show!”

“City Lord, in my name as an Envoy of The Wall, I beseech you to reconsider this transaction. We will make sure that this villain will be properly dealt with when he comes into Zenturo.”

Siva’s brows perked up and twitched again as he took note of the woman’s words.

Envoy?

The Wall?

He didn’t look behind him but he felt that Volt and Thorn also had the same realization as him.

Didn’t it say on Pistareen’s letter that there was a “very important personage” in Alexandria that they had simultaneously saved in this incident?

Holding her helmet in her waist, she eyed Siva in a glare with a tinge of fiery attractiveness then pointed an accusing finger at him.

“You have just made me your enemy Siva The Destroyer…. Of all the people in the world, the ones I hated the most are thieves and criminals that extort others for their personal gains. Your greed shall be reported to the Headquarters of The Wall of Jeremiah when I return!”

Volt and Thorn clearly felt the disdain on her tone and manner, while Siva only calmly looked at her, not even a bit insulted although she clearly wanted to do just that.

To add even more salt to the rising irritation on the two advisers’ mood, the seemingly handsome-faced Mage showed his colors as an even higher and grander level of inconsideration and open disrespect to Billion’s opinion on Siva’s demand, was represented in his hand that slammed the table… followed by a finger that’s more accusing and contemptuous than the female knight’s.

“And so are we of the Enchanter Temples, to the one who once called himself The Destroyer, Siva; for the crime of killing an Enchantment Elder of The Temple, destroying a part of The Temple, stealing a prized cultural treasure and using it to create profane products of evil sorcery to conduct violence and extortion to a representative of The Temple, by my right and power as Vassal of Lord Malory of the Alexandrian Temple Council, I shall hereby demand you to surrender yourself in the custody of the Enchantment Temple to lessen the punishment that you shall meet when a formal order of your arrest is issued officially! Failure to comply will lead to your death and immediate execution!”

Speaking to this point, the Mage summoned a Magical Staff that’s imbued by distorted-shaped gems, and then started to cast a magic that made a clear crystalline bluish-white glow around Siva.

His aggressiveness and this unexpected burst of accusations surprised even the female knight on Billion’s left side.

Not only that, the spell this so called “Vassal of Lord Malory” had cast is a Tier-4 spell aimed to bind and restrain Siva’s actions.

Nobody knew, even Siva himself, of what kind of beef this guy had with him but what he could see in his actions and words are purely egotistical, as if he was a cult believer who takes the term “RPG” into a heavenly level.

Well, there are different kinds of gamers in the world as it turns out.

……but to hell with all of them?

Siva would only laugh at them on their faces!

When this “Vassal of Lord Malory” saw Siva’s pair of shaking shoulders, his face that’s supposed to be attractive on a certain extent distorted into an ugly look of fury as dark lines shadowed under the frown of his face.

“You dare to laugh at me? I am the…”

“Bahahaha… I know, I know. You’re the Vassal of Lord Malory so you don’t have to repeat that over and over again. Do forgive me for not taking you seriously because *laughing* you were just so funny…”

Vassal of Lord Malory: “You….”

Seeing Siva’s mocking laughter that’s half amused and half, well… mocking, when everyone here saw and heard him rattle on and on about his issue as a ‘Vassal of Lord Malory’, aside perhaps to the deeply thinking Billion and the female knight of The Wall, Volt and Thorn, also lost their irritation for a bit as the RPG Level of this ‘Vassal of Lord Malory’ had just exceeded 10,000!

Is there nobody here that’s going to notice his weird way of talking?

Or his weird way of addressing himself?

…or The Temple at that?

……..or maybe, at least, his distorted sense of loyalty to the organization called Alexandrian Temple Council?

Does he even have a name?

While this guy’s ridiculous RPG-level had just surpassed the marshal’s, his face however, spoke of his devotion otherwise.

“You… dared… laughed at me, the Vassal of Lord Malory, and the name of the Alexandrian Temple Council that I represent?”

Siva, Thorn, and Volt was laughing heartily to this show and the seriousness of the female knight’s and the Mage’s charges and accusations began to take a turn to an awkward direction.

Although Billion was not laughing or smiling even for just one bit, he still knew that Siva was serious when he had spoken of his demands.

After a while of laughing, Siva cleared his throat and corrected himself on the seat and pointed an indifferent gesture at the Mage, leaning closer to his chair to even add more gravity to his tone.

“Alright, I’ll give you a chance. Stop casting that spell or else I’ll beat you up with that stick in your hand.”

This was the last nail on the wood and the Mage’s last bits of sane propriety were hammered.

He was truly enraged.

SWOOOOSH!

With a flash of a light, he summoned an item from his inventory and slammed that item on the table for everyone to see.

The item was a golden palm-sized trinket, emitting a warm resonance of mana that’s either damaging or destructive but still gave a pressure that makes even the female knight frown deeper.

When he pulled out this item, the Mage’s voice even became graver and more serious.

“In the name of the Alexandrian Temple Council, for the crime of laughing at a Vassal of the House of Malory, I demand you to surrender now or face the consequences of your insulting laughter!”

“….”

No one spoke after the Mage finished talking.

Siva, Thorn, Volt, the female knight, and Billion, all of them gave that next few moments for the Mage to savour the taste of his ‘victory’……….. or not.

“Pffftt….”

“I’m sorry… I’m—pfffftt—sorry… I can’t… I…”

While Thorn and Volt had alternating red and green faces trying to hold in their laughter, Siva was unable to hold his laughter as he was the one that laughed the loudest at the next moment.

“Oh my gaaaawwwdddd…. he just pulled out a button to punish us! He just pulled out a button with a shiny stone like some noble retard! Bahaha, BWAHAHAHAHAHA…..”

“Ohhhhh…. Lord Malory! We apologize for our wrong-doing!” (Thorn)

“My heart! My heart! Wahahaha… Oooohh, I’m going to die laughing… Bahahaha… Oh I wish I recorded his face when he was saying that!” (Volt)

“Don’t worry, I did.” (Thorn)

Thorn showed him a panel window.

[In the name of the Alexandrian Temple Council, for the crime of laughing at a Vassal of…..]

The trio laughed at the comedy of the scene as they watched the recorded video from Thorn’s shared panel window.

Even the female knight, with her stiff expression from just a while ago, was biting her lips trying to hold her laughter in as much as possible.

And as for the man himself, he felt like his insides were hurting. He can’t find anything funny on the things he said and even on his actions and so he treated all these rubbish nonsense the trio was pulling right now as a direct insult to the emblem of the House of Malory.

Thus, his patience and rationale snapped. He cast the spell.

“That’s it. I’ve had enough of you.”

It was a calm and low-toned voice but the Mage is really furious that he can’t get himself to yell.

“Ah! What are you—”

“…!!”

When Billion felt that the Mage was really about to cast out the spell, he turned his head towards the man and wanted to stop him but the spell had been cast for a while now with even the female knight being unable to warn him to stop as well.

But before he could actually cast the spell, a flash of light came from Siva’s camp and just when the floor below Siva’s feet were able to materialize a set of rope-like vines that would bind him, swords flew with a trace of scintillating lights and pinned the man down on the wall behind Billion, and also cancelling the spell he had cast as it happens.

The female knight reacted fast and pulled out a large buster sword from her inventory with less than a second’s flash and swung the sword at Thorn who had a hand stretched out towards the immobilized Mage pinned wide-eyed on the wall.

“You’re going—“ the female knight’s voice trailed and stopped midway as another flash flight just appeared behind her with a hand that held her left shoulder with a gentle pat.

“No, wait sto—“ (Billion)

“Stay still.” (Volt)

“Wha… how did—“

“How did I get behind you in a blink doesn’t matter but please lay down.”

Even while the female knight was surprised and managed to utter those small words out, she was already halfway down the floor, twitching, while Volt’s hand that had electricity flowing on it was lowered on his side.

Billion was wide-eyed standing there, stiff and still unable to comprehend what just happened.

The air behind him has already fallen over as he glanced over Siva who was still seated leisurely on his chair, skull masked-faced and all.

He dearly wished he was able to look at his face right now.

Thorn and Volt now wore masks above their nose to hide their eyes and foreheads. The eyes had anti-glare glasses but on the outside, it was only white.

The scene looked like chaotic: a twitching female knight with her large buster blade laying on the floor, behind her was Volt who was just laughing just a while ago.

And then there was also Thorn, who, with a cool pose of a hand cast out towards the Mage, was looking at the man with a smile plastered on his lips.

Billion cast his gaze behind him and saw that the Mage, a representative from the Alexandrian Temple Council, was pinned on the wall in a crucified manner without a single blade piercing his body but definitely placed perfectly as to restrict the man on moving his limbs.

He can’t even move even if he wanted to.

It was only thanks to the fact that they were in a Neutral Zone that the Mage was still intact right at this moment.

Billion even thought, ‘what kind of control set up could enable a telekinesis magic to be applied that way?’ but he dismissed that idea as he also realized that these guys were accompanying Siva.

He saw the recordings and broadcasted videos of the event in Alexandria and he was even there to actually take part in the operation to defeat that Colossus Monster so he knew and did not bother to doubt that Siva was strong and had the right to threaten anyone.

The reason why he was silent just now is because he’s been trying to weigh the gains and losses if he does agree with Siva’s demands.

It wasn’t even a large demand at that and was only at least a half of the city’s monthly expenditures.

Though, that is, it is HALF of the city’s expenses every month. That’s what he was thinking over.

He thought that he could control the situation but he didn’t realize that this Vassal of Lord Malory is just as idiotic like a pig to actually disregard Siva’s warning earlier.

“I…” Billion stopped midway when he saw Siva stand up and headed straight to the man on the wall, ignoring Billion completely.

Siva picked up the staff along the way and then faced the man, a suitable distance away so that he won’t be able kick him.

“I warned you, didn’t I?” Siva’s ghastly, cool voice rang behind the mask. Billion and the female knight, or even the Mage, for that matter, didn’t even notice it earlier because of their incessant laughing…. but Siva’s voice coming from behind the mask actually sounded really creepy.

Especially to the female knight; she was only sensing it now that all of her confidence was shattered by just one tap from the man behind her, but hearing Siva’s voice at this moment of extreme silence, she could almost feel the faint murderous intent and gravity on that ghastly way of breathing.

‘We’re inside the game, right?’ her mind worked for the truth behind this sense of fear she was feeling. ‘Just what kind of man was hiding behind that mask of his?’

Siva didn’t care what they were thinking about him but he does mind the people that want to stand in his way.

He’d trample them.

Mercilessly.

“I warned you… if you had just calmed down and let Billion do his job… if you hadn’t stepped in like an idiot, flapping your lips like a stupid moron, we would have finished the transactions by now. You and your moronic cultish belief… I don’t fucking care what your pathetic house represents here in this city but I do care that you just fucking ruined my mood and this meeting.”

“Heh! You can’t hurt me!” laughed the Mage.

As it turns out, to him, everything was just a game.

Siva chuckled and then he removed his mask and his hooded cloak, revealing the monster with a black smoke skin and a wide white-teeth grin and red eyes directed at the Mage.

At that moment, the Mage’s heartbeat started to beat wildly and he stared at Siva’s face, unable to move his eyes away because of the swords that locked his head in place.

“D-Demon!” he exclaimed when he saw him.

“Hahahahahaha…. no, you’re wrong.”

Siva’s white teeth grin became even wider and he activated [Killing Zone] for maximum intimidation effect then swung the man’s staff with a full swing at his right leg….

“No. No. No. No. I’m no devil. I’m just pissed.”

70% less pain because of the [Pain Absorption]

Neutral Zone – No Damage effect

Although in hindsight, what Siva was doing is just plain useless as he can’t kill the man and he can’t even deal enough pain to him, it was still a fact that there is a 30% pain still present.

For a bound man who can’t even move, the pain in these hits would still pile up no matter how it was insignificant, paired with the fear-inducing appearance and that sadistic smile on his face, the psychological impact will pile up and will be enough to punish the man on the wall.

And since he can’t die and escape the situation….

…this, in essence, is the worst punishment ever.

.

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The meeting in shambles…

Will City Lord Billion still recover from this?

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