Chapter 7: I even tried to be polite. (1/2)

One month later.

Arima was once again at the library. He was sitting, reading a book. After finishing the last page, he closed the book with one hand and returned it to its shelf. He stood up and left the library.

During this one-month period, Arima had spent a lot of his time reading, and in parallel, he would accept some requests from the guild. In a brief period of time, he read a least three hundred books on different topics. And the most frightening thing was that he had perfectly memorized their contents.

In fact, during this time, Arima greatly enhanced his understanding of magic and invented one to help him. He called it Hardware. Befitting of its name, it would form an artificial memory in his mind, and allow him to remember anything that he learns or reads once. Just like a second brain that would never forget anything. Thanks to that, Arima was already one of the most erudite people on the continent.

Perhaps only he would be crazy or poised enough to use magic directly on his brain though. He wasn't the only one who had attempted a magic like that. But there was a case where a mage blew his head up because of it. That's why no one ever tried it again.

When he was still around a hundred meters away from it, Arima heard a commotion through the noise of the streets and hastened his step. He arrived at the Inn almost instantly. As if he was a ghost, he sneakily appeared inside of the building. A group of men was causing a ruckus there. It was a mercenary group led by a noble. They were harassing the owner and her son who were kneeling in front of them.

On the way, Arima had listened to the conversation so he already knew what was going on. It seemed that this group had set their eyes on the owner of the place. It was true that she was a beautiful woman, so it wasn't surprising.

'They're all like that anyway. It's this world's fault for making everyone pretty,' this was Arima's senseless opinion.

This kind of thing wasn't unusual at all. Arima didn't hear all of it but the group probably blamed something on one of those two and it led to this. It was most likely caused by the small noble there. Arima didn't think that every noble was trash. There's an entire spectrum for any kind of people but this one was pretty easy to label in his opinion.

Arima sighed, the owner helped him a lot in this one-month period, so he couldn't overlook this.

”Hey, is it too much to ask you to stop?” Arima approached the group and talked to them when he was around two steps away from them.

”What? This is none of your business,” the man who seemed to be the leader of the mercenaries responded. He was startled at first because he hadn't seen or sensed Arima enter the Inn. The latter sighed again. He looked at the group in front of him with half closed, bored eyes.

”Listen, just get out, and don't come back… please?” He tilted his head at the end of his sentence as if he was really trying to find out what to say. And, maybe because he said it in a bad-sounding way, the merc's expression darkened dangerously after his words.

”I said it's not your problem!” He drew his bastard sword. Arima didn't know why he had suddenly decided to attack him. Maybe he wanted to set himself as the boss here. Or maybe this was how this type of people acted usually.

When the metallic sound of the sword resounded, the other customers of the Inn and the mother-son pair closed their eyes. When they opened them again, the sight left them dumbfounded. Arima was gripping the blade of the sword with only three fingers. He sighed for the third time.

”Seriously, I even tried to be polite. [Sunt robore] (Power up),” Arima circulated some mana in his hand and the blade snapped in half.

”What…?!” The leader exclaimed. The members of his group took a step back after seeing something that they couldn't understand while the noble, who was hiding behind them, cried in fear. That sword was a magic weapon inscribed with runes. Normally, even a scratch would be hard to make.

”…I'll repeat, get out,” Arima said that calmly and leisurely but a suffocating aura was released. It was so strong that the ground shook a bit and the wind blew. The windows were making some noise while the chairs and tables were threatening to fall apart. The mercenaries broke into a cold sweat while the noble directly ran to the door and fled. The mercenaries looked at each other and followed him.

The leader glared at Arima before leaving. ”I'll remember that.”

”Is that so? I don't really enjoy nasty people remembering me to be honest. [Umbra Falcon, Set] (Shadow falcon, Set).”

Several falcons emerged from Arima's shadow. This time, their feathers were completely black and their eyes glowed with a crimson color. They flew out of the Inn through the opened doors. Arima didn't even look at the exit and walked to the owner. ”You're okay?”

”Y-Yes, thank you,” she gathered herself and answered. She stood up with Arima's help.

”Hey kid, it's good now,” he patted the son of the owner who was a bit pale. He then looked at the mother one more time. ”Don't mind them and be at peace they won't come back.”

”What do you-” As soon as she wanted to ask, Arima interrupted her.

”Don't worry about that. Can I ask for dinner though? I'm kinda hungry.”

”Y-yes, wait a moment,” she ran back inside the staff quarters with her son. When she was out of sight, Arima looked coldly at the people there who were silently watching with stiff expressions.

”Forget what happened here. Redeem yourselves for the cowardice you displayed today,” he said emotionlessly. At that moment, his eyes flashed with an unnatural light and every customer fell into a daze for a few seconds before returning to their normal behavior as if nothing had ever happened.

***

At the same time, the birds sent by Arima had already reached the fleeing group.

”What is that?” A mercenary exclaimed after spotting the blackbirds.

”What are you talking about?” The leader looked up and his eyes narrowed. Strangely, he felt something ominous about those birds.

Right now, the group was in the middle of the street, since they had stopped to retrieve the panting noble that fled first. He was their employer after all. Just after, the black birds that were flying thirty meters high in the sky abruptly plunged, obviously aiming at them.

The leader was quick to react. ”Take cover!” He shouted while trying to avoid a bird targeting him. He easily dodged but what followed left him perplex. The birds hit the ground where their shadows were projected and merged with it as if it was liquid. The same thing happened to all of the mercenaries and the noble.

”This… it's bad,” the leader muttered. He had no idea of what just happened and that's what confounded him.