Chapter 28:

Rine opened his eyes to a darkened sky.

As the smell of blood entered his nose, he groggily stood up. Around him, the bodies of the dead guards remain unmoving, still warm to the touch. Off to the side, the horses lingered around grazing on some grass.

“W-what happened?” He muttered as he made his way to the horses.

Along the way, his memory began to return, bit by bit. From the fight against the bandits to the appearance of the black knight. His heart’s pace quickened as he recalled the knight’s fearsome strength. Finally, he recalled the appearance of a young woman speaking to him.

Finally remembering something important, he turned around to look and sure enough.

A large bag was resting on the ground close to where Rine woke up. Curious, Rine turned around and made his way toward it.

Picking up the bag, he found that it was surprisingly heavy and thus his curiosity only heightened. Untying the rope that closed the bag’s mouth off, he peered into it. His mouth hung open in surprise as he found the frankly ridiculous amount of crystals in the bag. Granted most of them were red, but the few orange ones stunned him to no end. One had to know that one orange crystal was equivalent to roughly fifty red ones.

His brightly shining eyes squinted slightly as he heard the sound of rustling behind him. Quickly closing the bag again he turned around.

Behind him, it seemed like another person was getting up. Rine recognized him to be the friend of the dead bastard who took his original crystals. ‘I think his name was Slug,’ He thought to himself as he watched the young man standing to his feet.

Slug, similar to Rine earlier, was looking around the vicinity with a foolish look on his face.

‘I should go check in on him,’ He remarked before moving towards him.

Slug’s mind was still a foggy mess when a young voice around his age called out to him. A little relieved to find a peer, he turned around. But when he saw the magician he and his boss picked on standing in front of him, he froze in fear. ‘Did he come for revenge?’ Still remembering the ball of fire the young man could conjure, Slug couldn’t help but guess the worst.

“Are you ok?”

““I’m sorry.””

The two spoke at the same time.

Rine scratched his scalp while Slug took a step back in embarrassment,

“You don’t need to apologize, it wasn’t a big deal. Besides, I’m sorry about your friend,” Rine said with some guilt. He knew that what happened to Slug’s friend was not his fault, but he couldn’t help but feel slightly responsible.

Hearing Rine’s words, Slug couldn’t help but be surprised. The memory of Boss, his childhood friend, dying resurfaced in his mind. He grew despondent at the thought of him now being alone.

The two young men stood in silence, each immersed in their own thoughts. Like this, minutes passed.

Slug grew uncomfortable and opened his mouth to speak but the magician beat him to it. “We should bury them,” He said.

Once again, Slug was surprised. It had to be known that in this world, death was as common as rain. It wasn’t odd to find a dead body on the road, rather it would be odder if the body still had its clothes on. Burial was often reserved for people close to oneself.

“Help me out, would you,” The magician’s words drew his attention. He turned to find him dragging a guard’s dead body.

In a slight daze, he went over to help.

…………………………………………

Hunter felt a drop of sweat streak down his face as the grip on his shoulder tightened.

“I see you lot have found my present,” The eerily cheery voice sounded behind him. “Tell me, what do you think?”

“Who the fuck are you!” Bruce roared in anger as he peeled his eyes away from Ratson’s head which was being cradled by Nelem. He readied his posture and tightened the grip around his sword, but deep down he knew he stood no chance. The tip of his sword was shaking faintly.

He was scared.

Ratson, the strongest in the gang, was now dead and maimed so what chance did he stand?

Coincidentally, Burns was very much in the same predicament as he tried his best to maintain a calm facade, but in truth, he was contemplating his chances of running away safely. His best bet was to rile up Bruce and get him to foolishly fight the masked intruder. Though he may not last long it would have to do.

‘Nene…’ Hunter thought as he stared at the distraught woman. He knew it was foolish but deep within his heart, he felt a slight bitterness. Why did she care so much for Boss? ‘If I were to drop dead in front of her would she even care?’ His mind spun with such thoughts. Once upon a time she might have, but now…

Silence descended upon the group of people as each stewed in their respective thoughts.

The minutes rolled by and no one said a word.

“Who sent you,” Finally Nelem uttered with a venomous tone. She knew her chances of survival were low, but she wanted to at the very least know the name of the gang that killed her.

Nelem had long decided that this whole incident was the doing of another gang. After all, it was the only way to make sense of the situation. Why would a random warrior decide to take a gang on? Was it out of heroism? Pathetic. Such notions had long since perished in Himmel.

And though she supposed it could very well be a scorned family member related to one of their victims, that was also unlikely. She was careful in her selection of targets, she had to be. For how small Phentar was there was a surprisingly large number of people they could not offend. So she was semi sure she had not offended someone strong enough to send this man.

Thus it had to be one of their rival gangs. Of which they had many. Thanks to Ratson’s unruly attitude, Red Foot was a gang with a lot of enemies and almost no allies.

“So, who?” She roared. “Was it Martial Hall? Was it Deep Blue? Or no, don’t tell me it was those dumbasses over at Darkedge,” She hated it. She hated the entire situation. In the beginning, she entertained the idea of contacting other gang members, but she knew it was useless. At worst, this man was strong enough to wipe them all out in one fell swoop, which would make gathering their members-only easier for him. At best, the man could just run away. She noticed how fast he was right away, and she knew no one in Red Foot was fast enough to catch up. Even in this case, they would live in a perpetual state of fear, waiting for the coiled snake to strike.

Thus emboldened by her imminent death she asked the question she wanted the answer to most. Who?

“Oops, I’m afraid we’ve had an issue of miscommunication, Let’s just say it’s my fault,” The masked man said leisurely. “Henceforth let us be honest with one another to prevent more confusion. I was not sent by anyone, nor am I here to hurt you.”

Hunter’s eyes shifted over to Ratson and he had trouble believing the man.

“You see, my goal is simple. I want to invest in you,” His voice grew slightly serious. “ I won’t interfere with how you choose to run the gang generally, but I will have a say in certain matters.”

After getting over her shock, Nelem’s eyes squinted. “What are your demands, and what do we get out of it?”

“For now, I will just take a portion of your monthly earnings. I will also have a say in the matters of this organization; as a partner of course, not a leader. As for what you will get… Aside from me not killing you, I will also generously offer my protectio-”

“Bullshit!” Bruce roared his blood boiling over. “You just want us to be your money bag right? Why the fuck would we agree to that.”

“Bruce! Enough,” Nelem tried to calm him.

“Enough? Don’t tell me you’re actually buying into this garbage Nelem.”

“I agree with Mohawk,” Burns pitched in. “What kind of humiliating deal is this? We are the Red Foot, We won’t bow down to some mere passer-by. Besides, this bastard just fought Boss so he’s bound to be weakened. And there are two of us, while he is by himself.” He looked over to Bruce while giving him a slight nod; his hand also grasped his weapon.

Bruce nodded back as his courage soared. What Burns said made sense. They had more people and were not fresh off an intense fight. They had a chance.

Bruce’s sword stilled from its shaking and he grew confident.

“I don’t know where you came from bastard, but one thing’s for sure… You won’t be going back,” He said as he peeked toward Burn’s who advanced alongside him. Feeling safe with a comrade by his side, he suddenly dashed forward in hopes of surprising his foe.

But halfway through, he noticed an oddity. The masked man was not looking at him, but rather just over his shoulder to where Burns was. This did not bother him in the slightest; rather, he was smirking. ‘I’ll end this in one blow,’ He thought to himself as he brandished his sword. Believing to have caught the man in a moment of weakness, he grew ecstatic. And as the blade descended he felt as if his victory was assured.

This is why the halting of his blade shocked him greatly.

With wide eyes, he stared at his hand which now stood still in the air. Squinting his eyes, he could faintly discern several wires that were tied to the entire length of his arm. ‘What is this?’ He thought as he studied them more closely.

But unfortunately, time would not allow him the luxury as he heard a rustling sound to his back. Turning his head, he could barely still see the retreating figure of Burns. In a fit of rage, he began to curse the coward, but sadly he did not issue many before feeling a sharp pain in his chest. Turning his head down slightly he could see a sword protruding out of his chest; at the other side, the masked man casually gripped the hilt.

“How decisive of him.” He even remarked with slight sarcasm. With swift haste, the masked man disappeared from his spot and chased after Burns, leaving behind the discarded corpse of Bruce.

Nelem made no motion to flee and stood motionless in her place. The events of this cursed night ran through her head again and again. All at once, her world crumbled.

“Nelem…”

And the cause of this collapse was gently calling her name.

Hunter flinched at Nelem’s frightening eyes.

…………………………………………

Cort stood among the corpses as he retrieved the silk tied dagger.

All in all, he had killed around ten men with one Burns in between. He found it regretful that he had to kill one of the leaders but he thought it would be better this way.

‘I wonder how those two are doing,’ He thought mildly before making his way back.

…………………………………………

As Hunter heard the approaching footsteps, he felt slightly glad in his heart. ‘Anything would be better than this.’ He thought as he lifted his eyes from the ground and peeked at Nelem. Her freezing eyes were still locked onto his face.

Nelem on the other hand was experiencing immense emotional turmoil. This man had effectively ruined her life, yet she could not bring herself to forget him. Hating him? That was easy. Ever since he did what he had done to her, she always hated him sorely. It was easy for one to hate someone they loved once.

The slow creaking of the opening door took both of their attention.

Cort sauntered into the room with light steps. He was rummaging through his robe, seemingly in search of something.

“Oh, here it is,” His cheery voice sounded as he tossed a pile of papers onto the desk.

As Nelem glanced at the stack, she couldn’t help but inhale a sharp breath and her face fell.

““Origin Contract.”” Both she and Hunter said simultaneously in shock.

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