Chapter 33 - Nobody

The man wielded a gigantic scythe, roughly almost twice his size.

He wore a pitch black trench coat which reached down to his waist.

A brown pair of pants and a pair of boots of the same color and complexion.

His features, however, were obstructed by a mask covering his whole face.

It was a gas mask.

Blood dripped from the scythe's mouth, he drew it from the Red King.

"I won't let another prey be stolen away from me. Back off."

Yin and Suna was just as shocked as the Commander and Gavin.

Who was this person?

Was he a thug from the underworld?

Was he one of the goons who attacked Luken and Gavin from earlier?

"Suna, who is this guy?"

Yin asked her.

"I have no idea as well."

She replied.

Both of them were visibly baffled.

"Is he not one of the Red King's underlings?"

Yin asked again.

"Use your eyes, Yin. Look closely, he chopped of that old man's left leg, I'm sure he's not in good terms with him whatsoever."

Suna retorted back.

"W-Who are ya?! What'd ya do that for!? My leg! My precious leg!"

The Red King, still applying pressure to stop the bleeding, asked. He found it hard to apply pressure with a broken wrist, though.

"You stole something from me."

"And what is that supposed to be?"

Gavin asked in the Red King's stead.

"A kill."

"So, eh, do you have a cough or something?"

Luken regressed back to making jokes again.

The masked individual looked at the Commander.

"You know, I would like to think of myself as a pretty sociable and outgoing person!"

The Commander added.

All eyes were now on him.

"What's that guy even saying?"

"I really don't know, I'm as confused as the next guy here."

The villagers were disoriented.

After witnessing such a bloody sight, why was the Commander talking about trivial things?

"What is he even doing?!"

Suna was now enraged.

"After all these months, I still really can't read Commander Luken at all."

Yin rested his palms at his face in disappointment.

"Alright, alright! We'll negotiate! We will give you this old coot."

"L-Luken?! We are doing no such thing!"

Gavin responded.

The masked man's attention was now piqued.

"But, what do you even have that would be of equal value? Do you even possess something that would be of similar weight to this buffoon right here?"

"H-Help me! I'm going to bleed to death!"

"In exchange for zennies, I'll take him."

His deep voice seemed shaky.

"How much do you have?"

"Fifty thousand zennies."

Everybody's jaw dropped.

"D-Did I hear correctly?"

"Yeah, I heard that too. Fifty thousand? Surely he's bluffing, right?!"

The villagers were, again, weighing in their thoughts to this absurd situation.

"Are we Slayers even allowed to do this? We are not bounty hunters, right?"

Yin said.

"This does seem pretty illegal. But just imagine the food we could buy with that much money! We would be set for life, Yin!"

Suna's face lit up in happiness.

"Aren't you supposed to be in pain or something?"

He added.

Luken locked eyes with the him.

"You're pretending. Aren't you?"

"No, I am not."

He opened up a backpack filled with thousands of shiny zennies, showing them to everyone who did not believe him."

Luken grinned.

"No, boy. Not about the money, about your voice."

"W-What?!"

The masked man who was revealed to have faked his voice to pretend to be older drew his weapon out and pointed it at the Commander.

"As you lifted your weapon up from earlier, I sensed a moment of hesitation in your actions. It was only for a split second, but it was still there. You were shaking."

Luken said.

"I thought only soulless people who murdered a hundred or more were worthy of laying a finger on the Red King, well, except us, but still, we played along with and let you have that grand entrance. Well, not so grand since you didn't really kill the guy."

Gavin added.

"You have not killed a single person, haven't you? Let alone a hundred. If you did not hesitate earlier, we still could have thrown the decrepit old man out of harm's way, but we wanted to see what you would do, boy. You try to growl and deepen your voice more than normal, you're trying to be someone you're not – a murderer."

The Commander's words finally triggered him.

"Y-You don't know the slightest thing about me!"

The boy shouted.

"Bottom line is, I could have lifted the Red King earlier and leave him unscathed, but that would not be fun for anyone, wouldn't it?"

The revelation that Luken purposefully let the boy attack the Red King angered the old man.

"You fools! Why didn't you stop him!? Ya Slayers aren't supposed to hurt other people, let alone operate in missions inside Niflheim like this!"

Gavin kicked the old man's back, causing him to grovel on the ground.

"That one was for Suna."

He said.

"This is your first time using a weapon, right? Your technique is horrible and your form leaves a lot of holes open for your opponents. There's also the fact that even though you're a Slayer, you did not use that to your advantage in a surprise attack. Factoring in the environment, since it is heavily raining, we can imply that you're either a Fire Slayer who can't maintain his skills in a heavy storm like this, or someone who is not confident enough to use his Anima skills out in a battle."

Gavin said while looking straight at the boy.

"H-How did you know I'm a Slayer?!"

"I was just bluffing. But thanks for confirming it."

The Serpent Summoner cracked a devilish smile.

"I-Incredible…"

Suna was in awe at them.

"Yeah, I know. They thought about that just and factored everything all under a second?"

Yin said.

"Our superiors are incredible."

"You can say that again."

"So, you let me cut off his leg on purpose?!"

The boy asked both the Commander and the Serpent Summoner.

They both nodded like children being asked a simple, innocent question.

"And you really did not have any intention of trading him for thousands of zennies?"

They then both shook their heads in the same manner as their nodding from earlier.

"We did pull of some great acting, didn't we, Gavin?"

The Serpent Summoner nodded.

"Heh. You got me. I really am too weak. I honestly thought I had the upper hand all this time. Bravo."

The boy now let go of his forcibly deep voice and used his real one, a gentle and soft spoken voice which reminded them of Adam Rosa's.

"Who are you, boy?"

"I'm nobody."

With that, he immediately jumped up the roof and vanished into the darkness of the storm.