Chapter 370: Let’s play, shall we?

Even before walking through the back swinging door, Aiden could sense several unknown life essences at the other side. 

He paused in front of the door, and turning to look at Lily he whispered with the same calmness as if nothing out of the ordinary was about to happen.

"Sis."

"Brother?" Still hanging on his right arm and resting her head over his right shoulder, Lily raised her head and looked at Aiden with an inquisitive gaze. Although he did tell that some sort of exercise was waiting for them here, truth be told, she didn't really understand what she was referring to.

Still, she could at the very least get the fact that a group of people with clearly bad intentions were waiting at the other side. Coming to this conclusion, her hazy gaze cleared out, she let go of her brother's arm, and stood straight with her small hands balled into a pair of fists.

The shift in her demeanor made Aiden don a satisfied smirk, he nodded at her.

"Lily, although the people that came are here because of the actions of a woman, still, do not attack her. Let the man behind us take care of her. Our focus should be the thugs, they are the real issue here." Aiden muttered, whispering his thoughts so only Lily would be able to hear it.

Seeing her nod, whilst keeping her focus on the door, or more precisely the people behind it, Aiden simply smiled and pushed on the door. 

A relatively small kitchen was revealed in front of them. Whilst on one side you could see all of the necessities they needed to prepare, store and even cook the meals, the other side only had a small table with two chairs. A pair of cups were still laying on it, with some leftover coffee in it.

Opposite of them, just as they entered, on the other door a tall, slightly taller than Aiden himself entered. He had a rather exotic look to him, with a similarly unique attire. He was bronze-skinned, something that was rather rare in these parts, with a strange, mysterious, secretive look in his pale, hazel-colored eyes. 

He was clean shaven, had a crooked smile, and a huge, wide-cut that ran over his triangular face, pointed nose, and puffy lips. His black, most likely shoulder-length hair was tied up behind his head in a bun. 

The small dark brown, sleeveless, small jacket barely covered anything from his upper body, proudly showing off his muscular build for everyone to see.

His whole body was akin to a canvas to an eager artist for he had numerous, complex, simple, and realistic tattoos covering almost every inch of his body. Besides that he seemed to be rather down to earth, wearing no jewelry.

Last but not least, he had a long, thick iron link chain was wrapped around his body, with a pair of medium-sized spiky metal heads hanging from its end at his left side.

As soon as he stepped into the kitchen, he turned to look at the pair of youngsters and the two harmless-looking dogs with a cruel look over his face. Adding his crooked-looking smirk, his stare was rather ominous.

Shortly after he entered, the chubby, middle-aged woman came after him. She had a weary, worried look on her face. Still, as she spotted the black-haired boy, she steeled her resolve, and pointed at him as she exclaimed.

"Master Balun, that's the one! He is the boy that caused all that trouble this morning and invaded your turf!" Her tone was cold, ruthless, something that you wouldn't expect from someone that had such a kind, and honest look just some hours ago.

"Martha… What are you doing?!" Just as she pointed out the culprit of their misery, her husband stepped in, looking at her wife with a shocked expression. "Why did you-"

Before he could finish his words, the large bronze-skinned barbaric figure raised his right open palm in his direction, silencing him. The old man looked at him with dread, his body was trembling as he unknowingly took a step back to the doorway. 

The thug's menacing, piercing gaze then focused on the calm-looking young lad in front of him. 

What surprised him slightly was the unshaken confidence, the nonchalant, uncaring attitude he was still radiating.

Usually, when he appears at a scene, people would shake in fear, terrified even just from looking at him. However, despite that, this young man was either not scared, or, and this was what he was guessing, was ignorant, didn't know who he was.

Also, he couldn't help but appreciate the beauty standing beside him. Luscious blonde locks, dreamy azure blue eyes, and a delicate, but bountiful body… such an angel was rather hard to come by. 

Immediately, as his eyes shifted, and he kept gazing with his hungry, lust-filled stare at Lily, Aiden tightened his clenched fists. His calm smile instantly vanished from his face, he gazed at Master Balun threateningly.

Suddenly a feeling of dread washed over Master Balun, shaking his figure and waking him up from his daze. He looked at the boy again, surprise flashing through his face as he saw his cold look before he frowned and began to scrutinize his meager figure.

"Brat!" He bellowed, with rising anger in his commanding tone. Where does such a youngster get the courage to stare at him like that?! 

He pointed at the boy, as his face contorted into a vicious coldness. 

"Village boy! If you follow me obediently and come out to face your punishment, I might just keep you alive after I take your girlfriend! How dare you come into my territory and cause havoc?!"

Snickering could be heard from behind him, his gang was hollering from the outside as their leader addressed the scrawny youngster.

"Yeah! Stupid farm boy! He doesn't even know who he offended!"

"Did you guys hear the boss? There's a woman with him! We will have a new plaything!"

"Idiot! She is for the boss, didn't you hear that?!"

Waves of chatter could be heard from the outside, mostly eager to meet this new 'babe' this new girl the Master, the Leader has apparently taken a liking to. 

At the same time, hearing the thugs talk as they talked about the innocent-looking blonde girl standing beside that black-haired, golden-eyed boy, a sense of guilt and regret began to appear and replace the ruthless, cold outlook of the woman.

Thinking about the consequences of her rash actions, she couldn't help but glance at her husband, only to meet the same coldness she has shown before. There was no warmth in his eyes as he stared at her.

As he stared at her husband's eyes, her clouded mind finally cleared out. She finally realized the grave mistake she had just made. Her eyes turned blurry as tears began to gather, she slowly turned to look at the calmly smiling little girl that she had just condemned to a fate far worse than death.

Thinking about what she had done, her eyes turned foggy, she couldn't understand what happened to her.

Why did she want revenge so badly, that she would invite these bastards to cause trouble? What was she thinking? Ultimately, nothing bad happened to them, yet she wanted nothing more than to see that young boy suffer…

Slowly her previously strong stature broke down, she fell on her knees.

"M-master Balun! Please forgive my mistake and spare them!" She erupted into a pleading cry as she latched onto the tall, bulky man's right legs. She kept crying and begging, hoping to convince this man to not start any trouble because of her mistake.

Sadly, life wasn't fair. She couldn't undo her mistake that easily. With a strong kick, the bronze-tinted man threw the sobbing woman away, glancing to the side and looking at her with a disdainful look.

"Don't you dare to touch me, you wench! Don't worry, after we are done with this brat, we will be settling the debt with you and your husband as well!" He snorted, as he turned to the boy yet again.

Seeing he was still not showing any signs of fear but was staring at him with the same coldness as before, the leader could barely contain his steadily rising rage. His fists were shaking, he was clenching them so tightly, that blood began to slowly drip down to the wooden floorboard.

The only thought that kept him from going berserk at this point was the thought of what he would be doing to that blonde girl a few minutes later…

He was about to speak and order the brat to come outside, but before he could do so, the brat spoke up.

As he began to speak, his eyes suddenly flared up, instantly turning his gaze terrifying. A sudden coldness descended on the room, coming with a strange heaviness, an invisible weight falling onto his shoulders. The boy's voice also changed, shifting to a lower tone, and adding some extra power to it. 

A cruel, nasty-looking smirk contorted Aiden's youthful features as he gazed at this leader of the local thugs, Master Balun.

"Let's play, shall we?"