Shaking the weird ideas from his head, Marik joined Bob and Acton, after a few congratulatory words from them and even some of the other servants, who want to build a relationship with someone they thought of as an individual with a bright future, showered him with flattering words.
"Something is not right!" suddenly whispered Bob.
Both Marik and Acton nodded, they too noticed the irregularity, the same for the other servants, slowly the area plunged in silence.
Only whispers could be heard from the servants.
"What are they doing?"
"How should I know!"
"Well, they must have stopped for a reason!"
The servant kept speculating why did Mr.Alfred and the two servants with him stop the job assignment, and just stood there staring at the last Rank-2 servant portraying no emotions on their faces.
"Well, the only situation that comes to my mind is a problem with his background check!" whispered Marik, with a tone of a spectator seeking some fun.
"Mmm, it should be the case!" whispered back Acton.
The audience kept viewing this unexpected event with interest, and with every second passed, they noticed the young man's face getting paler, body quivering, sweat pouring down like rain.
"Kal!" suddenly the servant with the list called for a name, which supposed to be the young man's name, yet he kept shivering in his place with no response to the call.
"What! did you forget your name? or maybe...it's not your true name, huh! what do you think?" asked Alfred, with a playful smile on his face.
Snapping out of his nervous state 'Kal' stuttered out an answer " n-no! i-it's my real name, sir! I assure you that my background is clean and I was just nervous thinking that I didn't get the job" slowly composing himself in equanimity.
"Oh! you see, that's the problem, your background is too clean! we barely found anything about you" pointed out Alfred, the smile never left his face.
By now Marik and the others somewhat got the gist of what going on.
'Yup! he's a spy, no doubt about that!' thought Marik.
As if wronged, 'Kal' argued back " Sir! that not a reason for you to doubt me!".
Alfred expression didn't change, he nodded sagely and said: " you're right, that's not a strong reason to doubt your loyalty to the family!"
upon hearing this, 'Kal' was so happy, he couldn't control his body and drew a smile on his face, but! more was shown on his face, a crafty look of victory flashed briefly in his eyes, in the end, he's still a young man in his early twenties, it's near impossible for him to hold control over his body language.
The more perceptive people in the audience and especially Mr.Alfred and the two servants, who were watching him like a vulture eyeing a dead body, easily picked up that crafty look in his eyes.
"What an idiot! he's done for" whispered Bob.
Marik was a bit surprised, he didn't think of the hyperactive Bob for someone who would pay intention to the body language of others.
Kal barely restored his confidence when he head Alfred talk again.
"But I hope you could humor me for a bit, and tell me about your childhood," said Alfred with a benevolent smile on his face.
Kal froze, he felt like the devil is looking at him, unlike the other new servants, he knows perfectly well who Alfred is, a Middle-rank Manager, meaning! he accumulated enough Loyalty points to exchange for an aura training manual, furthermore, he reached the 10th step of the aura practitioner stage.
"..." Kal opened his mouth but nothing came out, because it's useless, he fully knows that the noble family investigated him, and all the information they found is fabricated, and there is no way he will be able to remember all those information.
"What! young Kal, I am still waiting!" urged Alfred, still keeping the kind smile on his face.
When his words rang out, all sounds died, even the new servants watching from the side felt an invisible pressure weigh down on their shoulders, Marik included.
Kal's situation is even worse, an ugly expression surfaced on his face, he looked toward Alfred, body trembling, he felt like a mouse facing an Owl under the moonlight.
step!
Overwhelmed with fear, Kal took a step back, clenching his teeth and fists in an effort to control his trembling body.
'I'm not going down without a fight!'Kal resolved to give his all to save his life, obviously, he's not stupid to fight back, his only way out is running.
When the new servants kept watching what will happen next with a zest, Kal made his move.
Bending his body slightly, sharp eyes fixed on Alfred, gradually, Kal's presence started morphing into something dangerous, Marik and the others didn't notice any visible changes on Kal's body, but they felt the change and the slight pressure radiating from Kal's body.
"Come on young Kal! 'im still expecting a story or two of your childhood, oh!...young Kal, why are you looking so serious all of sudden?" Alfred still acting like nothing smells wrong in the air.
boom!
Kal didn't waste time on useless words but shot back toward the estate's outer wall like a cannonball, that was his only way out, the mansion wall, and fortunately for him, the accommodation for new servants is built against the wall, he only need to cross a distance less than 100 meters to reach the wall, with his speed, that would be 6s later.
Marik and the others were shocked seeing Kal's speed and the explosive movement he performed.
'd*mn! even Usain Bolt will bow out of respect to this speed' exclaimed Marik in his heart.
In the same time a fire sparked in the dark depths of his heart, Marik simply and purely desired for strength this level or higher, for the inhabitant of this planet seeing this sort of power may not give birth to a strong reaction or an urge to gain such power, it's there but not to the point of obsessiveness; but for someone who came from planet earth where the only place you could see this is on the TV, picture the reaction when something deemed impossible for you appears in front of you!.
When everyone is lost in their thoughts, showing different varieties of emotions from shock to dread to desire, Alfred on the other hand just smiled eerily.
1s!
2s!
3s!
(Skreech!) the sound of shoes skidding against the ground reverberated out.
With a horrendous expression, Kal came to a standstill half away to the outer wall, in front of him appeared two men with large builds, that shot from behind the last two houses right next to the wall from both sides of the gray stoned path.
"F*ck! body practitioners!" exclaimed Kal, it's easy to tell a body practitioner from a normal guard, just look at their huge bodies and hight, the bulging muscles, and imbalance in their build where you would find the arms or the legs not in proportion with the trunk of the body depends on the technique they are training in.
"Well! well! I'm honestly astonished to see such a young 6th step aura practitioner sent to be a spy!" said Alfred deliberately, surprise present in the folds of his tone, he was truly amazed after founding out the young man training level, he's but a 10th step practitioner, not a Knight, thus he couldn't perceive the young man's strength if he didn't actively use it.
Kal didn't turn or gave an answer to Alfred exclamation and kept looking towards the two new arrivals, both stood in a relaxed manner wearing white baggy comfortable training outfits, but he couldn't help but despair, just from the speed they showed earlier, they are at least senior body practitioners, that means they are stronger than Alfred since Aura practitioners still can't externalize their Aura like Knights and that puts them at a disadvantage in the strength and speed department; naturally training in Aura is much easier and faster.
Feeling the six times denser Aura coursing in his body, that used to give him a sense of safety and warmth, yet now! not a shred of warmth found its way to his heart.
'F-fight to death...or just...surrender!' struggled Kal inwardly, with these two blocking his way, even if he's twice faster, he still will be caught in no time, and the reason he's still not pushed against the ground because they see this whole thing as a fun episode.