Chapter 24- Mercenary Village (Part 3)
Kai observed the huge number of mercenaries that filled the whole main street and stretched across the whole village. It wasn't an exaggeration to say that their numbers exceeded 100 mercenaries. All had guns and all other kinds of hand weapons.
However, that didn't seem to provoke any kind of reaction from Kai who casually stood in his place, like a king staring down at mere peasants.
"Are you the one who followed us in that Jet?" Kai asked coldly.
"Hm? Who knows, kid? I'm an old man so my memory is quite hazy. Maybe it was me, maybe not." Rami replied with a grin.
He was simply trying to confuse Kai and play with his head. A tactic that will help in the fight that will ensue.
"So, kid, tell me, are you the bodyguard of that young lady?" Rami asked. "You don't seem like a normal bodyguard, though. My best bet is that you are a hitman, a good one at that. Well, not that good as your mistress foolishly revealed your real name in the spur of the moment, and then you tried to identify yourself as someone else. What kind of dumb mistake is that?" Rami laughed loudly which made the other mercenaries laugh too.
"Well, it's expected from a clueless milady that was born into gold. They will never understand the struggles of life."
"..." Kai didn't reply as he simply stared at the man with his deathly cold eyes.
" I see, so you are indeed a hitman. You lot are quite the sophisticated bunch, aren't you? Looking down on us mercenaries as if we are some kind of lower rank than you. Tsk, so annoying!"
Rami had a deep hatred toward all hitmen. He had suffered a lot because he was never able to make it as a hitman so he became a mercenary and even created his own organization dedicated to people like him who didn't have the talent to reach that level. However, he wasn't spared from the loathing eyes of people who knew from the past who did become hitmen and were now somehow better than him.
"Don't link me to anyone… Your anger and hatred are pointless." Kai replied.
"Who cares?! The most important thing is that your lady is going to be kidnapped tonight! So, whether you like it or not, your life ends here, kid."
With a simple glance back, all the mercenaries pointed their guns at Kai and readied themselves to shoot.
"Don't take it personally, kid. I'm only after the money."
Then, Rami clicked his fingers. Immediately, all the mercenaries shot their guns all at the same time. A rain of bullets filled Kai's vision for a split second. But, he didn't show any reaction as he leaped in the air, reaching 20 meters high.
All the bullets went past him without touching him. Then, Kai aimed for the main road as he descended quickly
"Tsk! Don't stop shooting," Rami ordered.
The next round of bullets was more successful as Kai had no way of dodging them, or that was what Rami thought at least.
However, the rain of bullets reached a certain distance from Kai before mysteriously diverting and moving somewhere else as if they clashed with a strong metal wall.
"What?!" The man's eyes popped in shock. For a second, he couldn't believe his eyes.
'The bullets didn't hit the boy at all. How is that even possible?'
One of the main reasons why Rami failed in becoming a hitman was his complete obliviousness to the existence of powers called Origin. So, when he saw Kai simply blocking bullets with thin air, he was totally confused as to how that was possible.
The bullets kept deflecting from the barrier until Kai landed on the ground, in the middle of the swarm of mercenaries. Immediately, everyone tried to jump on him and overwhelm him before he could do anything.
"Sleep." Kai stood up and murmured one word.
Immediately, an overwhelming aura fell down on everyone present. The feeling was akin to a huge elephant weighing down on them. Even Rami couldn't handle the pain as he fell down to the ground, withering in pain from the sheer pressure, he stared at Kai who stood in the middle of the sea of bodies that were laying down on the ground.
For a second there, Rami thought he was looking at a god, standing in the middle of his followers who were praying for him and hailing him.
"M-Monster… Who are you?!" He murmured.
That's when Kai finally looked at him.
"Who sent you?" Kai asked.
"... Hahahahahaha!" The question made the mercenary leader erupt in laughter. "You are a weird man! I'm a mercenary but I'm still a proud man. I will never allow for the identity of my client to ever be revealed. It's one of the rules I will never break."
Kai's eyes squinted for a second as he sighed and then approached Rami and picked him up by the neck.
"When I grabbed you by the neck this morning, I did read a little bit of your mind. You do not know who that client is, do you? No… That's wrong. You do know who it is. But, that person sealed your memory so that his identity isn't revealed."
'The culprit can use 'Origin' as expected. He isn't a normal person.' The boy thought silently.
When Kai said that, Rami's face frowned hard. He never expected the boy to reach the truth this quickly and he even did that before Rami could even realize it.
"Ugh!! You bastard! Do you think I will fall off without sending you to hell with me?!" Rami said in between his grunts and then opened his jacket, revealing strapped bombs to each part of his body.
Kai stared down at them for a second before he shifted back to look at his face coldly.
"Hahahaha! These bombs are strong enough to blow this whole goddamn village out of the face of the world. I doubt someone like you could even survive it."
"... So your client doesn't care if Eva was captured dead or alive?"
"Hahahahahaha! Exactly! The bounty on her head is already massive enough to not bother with things like dead or alive! You two are going to die here tonight!!" Saying that Rami tried to push the button to activate the bombs.
However, the next second, something moved from the darkness and severed his neck swiftly in less than a second.
For a second, nothing changed about Rami, and then…
*Drop*
His head fell down quietly. It took a few more seconds for the blood to finally splurt out. The reason for that was that the body still didn't realize that the head was severed and so blood continued circulation normally.
Kai dropped the body down and then dusted his hands before he said.
"I was going to stop the bombs myself, Eva."
A second later, Eva appeared from the shadows and approached Kai with her affectionate smile that she only directed toward him.
"I couldn't bear to see Kai being insulted and belittled by an ant. Besides, didn't you tell me to be ready when he was going to threaten us with bombs?" She asked.
"..."
"Now that I think about it. The plan worked perfectly. They totally thought we were a clueless duo, didn't they? I mean, the fact that he didn't even bother to think for two seconds that mistaking our real names and our fake ones was too suspicious is shocking. Is being stupid the new trend of this ear?" Eva said.
"No, it's how normal people are. They live in this world ignorantly, not using their heads to think and see the truth even if it slapped them right in the face. That's what makes them 'humans'."
From the very moment, Kai and Eva entered the village, they already created a perfect plan and knew what was going to happen exactly. Eva's innocent attitude that befitted that of a rich young lady and Kai's bad attitude created this sense of good cop bad cop interrogation in Rami's head. He immediately assumed that Eva was a harmless girl while Kai was her guard who used violence as his main weapon.
That instilled confidence in Rami that he can kill him easily. Then, when the two entered their room, Kai used the fact that he helped Eva to level up so he can make Rami think they weren't suspicious at all and were idling around in their room.
When the two finished their session and Eva was about to faint, Kai embraced her so she doesn't fall, and at that moment, he whispered.
"In a few minutes, the mercenary and his group will try to attack us. He has bombs strapped to his body. I want you to wait secretly and severe his head when he tries to detonate them."
Eva didn't show any reaction and simply replied. "Uh… I-I see." Before she drifted to fake sleep.
And then, she snuck out and waited for the opportunity before she attacked and finished her opponent in the blink of an eye. A perfectly executed plan that completely tricked the other party and didn't leave anything to luck. That was the true difference between elite hitmen and mercenaries.
"Still, it was extremely enjoyable to work with Kai again. It reminds me of the good old days~" Eva said as she hugged Kai's left arm and smiled happily at him.
Not even for a moment did she give the severed head a second look.
"Not that these days aren't as good if not better than before." She added.