37 Getting a Bigger Ne (1/2)

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What had lasted in a little over 20 minutes felt like an eternity for Ousame. Nothing he could think of worked on this devil in the form of a boy. Even if Kazuya only doubted an answer he gave, he would ruthlessly do something to make him scream in pain. The boy even claimed that he could hear his heartbeat. No matter how absurd that sounded, he believed it. All the lies he mixed in were immediately identified while the truths were dissected.

”THAT'S ALL I KNOW I SWEAR! Please…. Just let me go already…” he begged. The grown man cried loudly in front of Kazuya. He had already completely surrendered to him.

”I seem to have already run out of questions” Kazuya sighed as he showed Ousame's name had been added to his phonebook. ”I will contact you if I remember any more. You do know what happens if you lie to me right?”

”Y-yes!” his hellish experience made it abundantly clear.

”Also, I may ask you to do a few things” Kazuya pulled a chair and sat down in front of him.

”I-if it is something I can do then please… do not hesitate”

”Good. I'm really not as unreasonable as you might think. These boys over here were like you, asked by an anonymous person to hurt me” He beckoned the leader who showed the messages on his phone to Ousame. ”The requester may be careful but he still left traces. Sooner or later I will grab that tail”

[The awards ceremony will be starting in a few minutes. Will all the teams receiving an award please report to the arena]

A public announcement was heard. The tournament was finally over and all those in the room knew that Kazuya had to attend. They hid the relief they felt on their minds as this person left scars on their minds they wouldn't be able to erase so soon.

”Looks like time's up” Kazuya stood up. ”You said you bought the tall girl's debt for cheap from their family, right?”

”Y-yes” he was nervous that he would get mad at him for causing her betrayal again. ”D-do you want me to cancel their debt?” he nervously asked.

”No. I want you to charge them with the amount you paid plus the medical bills you'll be spending on your injuries. Never let anyone know that it was me who asked of this” He looked at Ousame as if he didn't want to hear anything but 'yes'.

”I will follow your instructions” he found this reasonable and accepted without hesitation.

”I also want you to find out why they suddenly sold the debt to you. It's a long shot but there might be a clue there somewhere” Kazuya gestured the five to clean up the mess.

”H-how will I contact you?” Ousame asked. Kazuya had his number but he did not know how to get in touch with him.

”Good. Looks like you really did plan on doing my request” Kazuya's response made Ousame feel glad that he asked. He didn't want to know what would happen if he forgot to ask this important question. ”I will contact you instead and give you the details on how to contact me in the future” Kazuya turned around and called the leader of the five.

”What is it boss?” After witnessing Kazuya's terror firsthand, he lost all thoughts of doing anything to get punished for.

”Give me your clothes” Kazuya quickly changed out of his uniform and wore his. He took some of the blood scattered around and made himself look like he was injured.

”Boss what are you…”

”Take a few pictures and send it to the requester. Tell them that your mission was a success and get your money” he posed as if he was injured. Several photos were taken and were sent before he quickly changed back and fixed himself up.

”Thank you boss!” he didn't think they would make any money and only suffer losses so he happily obeyed.

”No need to thank me. Whoever requested this has to suffer some loss” he grinned. ”I will also get in contact with you if I need something” He looked at the group whose legs were shivering when they met his gaze.

”Anytime boss! We're at your service!” the leader's admiration for Kazuya grew more. He viewed him as strong, ruthless and doesn't forgive betrayal. That means that he was the type to be loyal to a fault so he had no objections about having a positive relation with him.

Kazuya soon left them and headed back to the arena. Their school had successfully won two championships so everyone's eyes were mostly on them. There were even some photographers who asked Kazuya and Tomoyo to take pictures together.

The journalists who wanted to get their interviews were held back. The awards ceremony was still not over and Jirou was especially overprotective of his granddaughter. He learned from last year's events that he had to take some measures because Tomoyo was reported to have been too devastated to speak in the article about her in the last tournament.

The chairman of the committee gave a speech before handing out the awards for the team tournament. Mahiru was nowhere to be found so the Sacred Forest Academy's vice-captain received their trophy. He wanted Kazuya to receive it but ended up getting rejected. Kazuya was already going to receive the championship award for the individual tournament so he gave the chance to their vice-captain who will soon be graduating,

”Hey Kouzuki Kazuya” he was called by Akabane Nanami whose team was ranked third.

”Hello again pretty lady” Kazuya politely greeted her.

”D-do you r-really mean that?” she nervously asked. ”T-that was the question I didn't get to a-ask earlier”

”Mean what?” Kazuya tilted his head feeling confused.

”That I'm p-pretty. N-no one has ever called me that b-before especially g-good looking guys like you s-so I wanted to make sure if you were just f-flattering me” she tried to avoid his eyes. She was nervous to hear his answer so she fidgeted every time he moved.

”Why wouldn't I mean it?” She indeed looked like a rough girl but Kazuya had already seen a lot of them from his time in Edea. Those battle-hardened girls and even beast race ones were more preferable to talk to than those types who were like nobles who used products to heavily change their appearance.

”I-I don't know… y-you're the first ever to refer to me as p-pretty so I wanted to make sure”

”Please be at ease. I'm really not lying to you, you may have a wild look about you but you're certainly unlike those who doll themselves up with so much effort. A natural beauty is always better than an artificial one so please be confident about yourself” Kazuya smiled at her. She reminded her of some of his beast race people that he met. They were rough and eager to use violence but they were very straightforward and easy to get along with.

”T-thank you!” she was so overjoyed that she jumped into his arms. Kazuya found this natural and reacted as if he was pounced on by a beast kin.

”You're welcome pretty lady” he tried to calm her and used his fingers to brush through her messy hair.

”!!” Nanami indulged herself with his touch. She felt her legs melting when Kazuya gently moved his fingers to gently scratch the area below her chin. She was in bliss.