"If that's what you say…"
This sentence had no meaning in itself. It was the context in which I said it that filled it with sense. Given how the guard clearly wanted to warn me about something that he didn't dare to spell out, my way of responding was only fitting to his ambiguous answer.
"Either way, we are already there. I assume that from this point onward you will be able to find your own way, young master. While your family might not be as lucky as the others… I still hope our hometown will one day be proud of your exploits!"
Sending me off with this strange blessing, the guard finally detached himself from my presence, instantly jumping into a relaxed run in the direction where we came from. Waving my hand after him once as to not be taken as a cold-hearted and arrogant young master like the ones from the novels I used to read before the life learned me how stupid it was to act in the way described in those novels.
Turning myself back to the direction where the two of us were heading just a moment ago, I could already discern one building from another. By stretching my eyes, I could even see a small crowd of people gathered on a large grass field on the other end of the small village. Something that with my earthy eyes wasted on hours of staring into the rapidly changing sets of numbers that allowed me to keep the financial empire of my organisation safe and officially legal, I would never be able to accomplish.
With no other specific target in my mind and this strange entity in my head failing to provide me with some kind of quest that would at least point me in the generally correct direction, approaching the crowd that I saw seemed like the only reasonable thing for me to do.
Recalling how this… system? Let's call it like that. Recalling how this system acted when I didn't follow what seemed to be the most obvious choice, I could tell that if this was really an open-world experience type of scenario, then I clearly have yet to finish clearing the damned tutorial!
Sadly, even after prompting myself to move forward, it soon proved to be quite challenging to actually approach the centre point of the crowd's attention. Only thanks to the slightly elevated position that I had on the road over everyone else located on the grass field I could tell what was attracting so much of everyone's attention.
"It's him!"
"He came? What an idiot…"
"As expected of the Oegari clan…"
If I were to follow the route that any typical novel would write for its main character, then I could either fly into a rage and achieve glory by face slapping everyone around me with my glorious talent, or attempt doing this only to learn how low I have fallen without even noticing it. Thankfully, this kind of stupid approach was far below the standards of dealing with a crowd that I learned when one of the seniors in my organization recognized my inborn talents and took me under his wings.
"Hey, you."
Pointing my finger at the random person in the crowd, I put a smile on my face, bringing the corners of my mouth as far apart as my facial skin and muscles allowed. Instantly moving in the direction that I pointed my finger at, I had to try my absolute hardest to not smile when the rest of the crowd parted before me, allowing me easy access to the random person that I just happened to point my finger at.
"Yyy… me? But I didn't say…"
Breaking the attempts of the poor randomly chosen victim of one of the basic strategies of overwhelming a crowd just by oneself by invading his personal space, instead of launching my fists in attack… I gently placed my hand on his shoulder. Turning my hand to the side, I made sure that my smile was the only thing that the poor youngster could see.
"You see…"
Starting up, I opened my eyes. Given how wide my smile was, I couldn't maintain it while keeping my eyes on the target. With just the first words leaving my mouth, the smile returned on my face just as my fist dug itself into the abdomen of the poor victim.
"Wha…!"
Instead of finishing his words, the poor young adult bent in half, desperately attempting to recover some of the breath that I pushed out of his lungs with my unexpected attack. But instead of following up with another attack, I actually slapped the back of my own victim, as if helping him to cough up all the saliva that he was choking on right now.
"Why? I didn't say nor whisper anything!"
Noticing his reaction, I knew I won. Everyone's attention was focused on the two of us, and the young man's response was that of an unreasonably beaten up dog, who was hiding his tail under his own ass while trying to understand just what the heck did he do to spark the ire of his owner. While this comparison was wild, it perfectly portrayed the attitude that everyone had towards me amongst the crowd.
"I know, I know."
Once the man finally managed to regain his composure and straighten himself up, I even went as far as to pat the sides of his shoulders with both of my hands, as if making sure that he was truly okay.
"You just stood in my way and failed to rebuke those who dared to speak ill of me and my family."
Saying those words with a sympathetic smile, I hoped that my current expression would make me appear as a teacher that albeit strict, was honestly happy that his lessons managed to ingrain a bit of knowledge in his students.
At least, that was the picture of me before I moved my hands back to their place at my sides, only to axe the victim's chin with another powerful hit from below!
"What the heck are you doing?!"
Finally, the main reason for the strange reactions of the crowd to my appearance has come. With the crowd parting to let this person go, a young girl presented herself with a furious look on her face. Most likely about to double the first digit on her age in the span of the next few months, dressed in light but clearly expensive robes…
This girl was actually the first hint that those stupid novels with the topic of transmigration, reincarnation and libation that I used to passionately learn before the life kicked me in my bottom strong enough to show how little those once sacred texts of mine had with a real-life… they actually held the key to the world around me right now!
But as much as I would love to lean over this topic for a little longer, the situation was far from allowing me to do so. Thankfully, dealing with this kind of events was something that every other thug that wished to ever grow beyond being a handyman of his superiors had to learn how to deal with!
"What I'm doing? Just a little bit of minor cleaning. After all, I need to somehow vent my fury if I were to hold myself back from exposing all yours and your father's crimes to the public right now? Or would you like me to tell everyone what happened?"
Maybe it was the situation, maybe it was the fact that I was facing against mere kids with more years of experience in dealing with idiots like them than they lived in this world, or maybe it was the idea about the truth of this world that popped in my mind a moment ago?
No matter which one was it, I was clearly on the roll with acting like your typical arrogant young master right now!
The small difference between acting as one and actually being someone who could act like that lied in fact, that those crimes that I hinted at a mere moment ago… Were nothing but baits for the girl to actually dig her grave deeper!