Unsealing Emptiness

“I’m Raven. This guy beside me is Blaze, and he is Ozul.”- She explained the last part by pointing towards Ozul.

“We are Mercenaries.”- Raven then proceeded to take out the three mercenary badges.

When Rufus looked at the badges, he was surprised to find out that these teenagers who survived whatever disaster happened here were just Mercenaries.

“I see. Can I ask you what events transpired here? I’m here on the orders of his Majesty, so I cannot leave empty-handed. I hope you can understand.”

Even though Rufus was cautious of Ozul, it did not mean that he was afraid of him. Maybe if he knew Ozul’s real strength, but for now, he was just a bit wary of him.

Raven did not reply and just kept staring at him coldly since she did not know what Ozul wanted to do about the situation. While it irritated Irene, who stood behind Rufus, she did not say a word and only limited her show of anger by glaring.

.....

Ozul was already annoyed by the situation, so he just wanted to get it over with as soon as possible.

“We were just passing by...We don’t know what happened here.”

Rufus’s eyes visibly twitched at this blatant lie. All those scars and injuries on the group in front of him certainly disagreed with Ozul’s statement of, ‘Just passing by.’

“So, why do you have those injuries?”- Just for the sake of not making it more awkward, Rufus asked the obvious question.

“Oh, these... They were from the fight with the Beasts.”

“And why were you fighting with the Beasts?”- Rufus again hinted at the apparent error in Ozul’s lie.

“Because everyone else was.”- Ozul did not even bat an eye before replying with his impassive face.

At this point, Rufus was at his wit’s end. He felt like this kid in front of him was doing this on purpose.

“Listen here, kid! This is not a joke! Tell me...”

Rufus was yelling at this point, but his angry cry stopped in the middle when more and more people started to come out of the woods.

All of them had about the same condition or even worse than the trio in front of him. Looking at the situation, ‘Maybe this kid is actually telling the truth?’

“Can we go now? My injuries are serious.”- said Ozul, when he saw that Rufus somewhat believed his words. Rufus came back from his stupor after hearing his words and words just left his mouth unconsciously;

“Ah! Yes yes. You can go. I would question other Mercenaries.”

Ozul and the duo did not say a word after that and started walking away. Just then, Ozul asked in a voice that Rufus could hear;

“Where is my shirt, Raven?”

“Oh. It is probably too battered to be worn now.”

Raven said before finding the shirt dropped only a few meters away from the dead body of Duke Edwin. When Ozul ‘noticed’ that the shirt was really in no condition to wear, he just nodded his head and walked away with the duo following him.

Rufus only watched this small event from afar. Only when Ozul’s group had disappeared into the woods did he realize that he had made a mistake!

First of all, why was this group of teenagers walking back all the way to the City instead of just resting at this place? Why were they in so much of a hurry!?

And then there was the fact that Ozul’s shirt was near that jelly type material on the ground and Duke Edwin! Why would it be there if the trio had just come out of the woods after the battle ended?!

“Dammit!”

Irene, who stood behind Rufus, was confused as to why he was angry all of a sudden. She, too, had fully believed the story of Ozul when she saw the state of other Mercenaries.

Only when Rufus explained later did she figure it out. Her face turned an even darker shade of red due to the anger.

‘How dare those savage Mercenaries disrespect grandfather!!!’

Irene seethed in anger but did not mindlessly run after the trio who had already disappeared from their sight.

——–

Walking back from the forest, Raven weirdly looked at Ozul. Why was he behaving so differently? She could not figure it out.

‘Is it because of gaining his leg back?’

Numerous thoughts ran past Raven’s mind, but she could not come to an answer. They were running back at this point since Ozul had obviously pointed out that he had lied when he asked about the shirt.

Raven always had Ozul’s spare shirts and pants in Spatial Ring-which for everyone’s knowledge were all black and white. After Blaze joined their little group, even he stored Ozul’s clothes just in case!

Ozul asking for his shirt at that time, meant that he wanted Rufus to notice. At this moment, he wanted to take a break, but he still had to consider his plans.

He knew that at least one of his arms was in the custody of Church of Light, but he could not be sure about the other one. And Emperor Luthien was his only lead to find where the other arm could be.

He wanted to use Rufus to approach the Emperor. Ozul had also lied through straight face even though it was beneath him to deceit. It was just because Ozul valued his laziness more than the so-called pride.

If lying could let him have a good sleep earlier, he’d happily lie every day!

Moreover, it was not the time to think about his pride. Ozul was exhausted after the events, so it made sense that he wanted to get away as soon as possible.

However, his priorities were obtaining his parts back, so he acted like that just before leaving, so Rufus would come after him later.

They had given him their names and also shown the Mercenary badges. Rufus was the Chief Leader of the knights directly placed under the Emperor of Silverbird Kingdom; it was only a matter of time for him to find their location later.

The trio ran back to the City which had suffered from the catastrophe last night. The situation seemed dire since everyone on streets looked exhausted.

The City had suffered quite a lot due to the screams of a Rank-10 existence. But Ozul did not care about any of that and just found a still working inn to rest the day.