Mark entered the room where the boss usually rested during days when they didn't have any mission. As of late, their group had been just slacking and living their lives normally for some reason. The boss seemed to be trying to give them a rest before doing something that would need more struggle, or maybe he was out of problems to solve. After all, the angels seemed to be doing little to nothing in the previous weeks.
"Excuse me, sir," he politely said, his voice echoing across the empty room.
He didn't know why, but the boss liked that worn-out, musty, and stuffy room. Also, he didn't put anything there instead of a chair and a table. He spent all the day there sitting and looking at the ceiling or the walls with his legs crossed. It looked like he was meditating, but Mark was sure that there was not such deep meaning to that.
As always, the boss was doing the very same thing he did when in that room. His eyes were attentively looking at the ceiling this time, there was a hint of tiredness in them, but a slight gleam of curiosity also appeared once he heard Mark's voice. The latter usually didn't show up in his room unless he asked him to do so, after all.
"Enter," he simply answered as he adjusted himself on that chair and looked at his strongest soldier.
For a moment, Mark just stood in front of him with both hands behind his back. He had an utterly serious look on his face.
Baltazar looked at him while stroking his auburn beard.
"What do you want here? It's a surprise that you would show up on a day like this. You usually are hanging out with Valory in the suburbs on your days off, aren't you?"
He nodded his head, his face getting stern. He felt like the boss was reading him thoroughly as the latter passed his eyes across his face and body.
"I think that the scouts told you about the new discovery, right?" he asked, crossing his arms.
'Oh-oh... Baltazar crossing his arms never is a good signal. It may cause trouble to me and those scouts, unfortunately. I am sorry guys!' he apologized mentally for his own idiocy, but he couldn't hold himself anymore.
"Yes. I heard from a bird what was happening in the city center. Even if this bird hadn't told me, I would be able to know about it somehow, though. It is causing a ruckus between demons and angels, after all," Mark said, trying his best to soothe the burden on the scouts' backs.
"You are right about it, but it would last some time more for you to discover. Before it happened, I would be able to come up with something. However, since you knew it too early, here we are, facing each other. You know what I have in my mind and I know what is passing in yours right now."
Mark clenched his fists, casting a serious look at his boss.
"Then, what do you have to say about it?"
Baltazar squinted his eyes.
"Of course, the only thing I have to say to you is to get your shit together and never come to my room with such a selfish request. We won't talk about it anymore until I get to a conclusion. Period. Alas, we won't ever talk about it anymore since I just came up with the most reasonable conclusion to this situation while looking at your face."
"A-And what's this conclusion?" he asked, dumbstruck.
"We won't go take that man back. He will need to die alone or survive by himself. We can't put our noses in this delicate matter. After all, right now, he still belongs to the angel race and there is nothing we can do to change it."
Mark lost control and hit the table strongly with both hands, looking with furious eyes at Baltazar.
"Don't joke around with me!" he shouted, which startled even his boss. Mark had never acted like that before. It was something new to him.
'Is this idiot in front of me the same cold and well-composed soldier that always showed up in my room whenever I asked, accepting any mission I gave, then coming back alive along with all my other subordinates? It seems like I am dealing with a teenager, to be honest.'
The boss got pissed off just by wondering that. Nonetheless, for the time being, he suppressed his anger, maintaining his arms crossed. Anyone could see on his face that he was pissed off, but there was a hint of curiosity in his eyes.
"I dare you to say it again and explain to me the reason for this request of yours," he simply said. His eyes were still narrowed and the frown on his face just got deeper as he glared at Mark.
"I said to you to don't joke around with me," Mark said through his gritted teeth. "And now, responding to your second question: I am doing all of this for the sake of our race and because I am the only one that can do it. I know the importance of my brother to this war. I know why the angels tried to get rid of him so fast. I know everything and that's why I am willing to fight fiercely and fearlessly just to take him back.
"Just imagine, boss!" he prompted his leader as a gleam appeared in his eyes. "Imagine the demon race finally ascending to the glory after so many years being pushed against a corning! Imagine all clans getting united again and forming the strong alliance that the demon race had before! That's something that none of us can do but... what about my brother? I bet that he will become strong enough to do it. We just need to strive in the start, but the advantages of this course of action will show after some time.
"It might seem like I am doing this because of unsolved things in the past and some traumas, but my past is already buried with all my feelings about everything that happened back then. I am looking at the future now, and what I see is a very bright one if we are willing to take the risk! I bet that you know this very well, too!"
The boss sighed a hard sigh as he got up.
'You were a really good soldier... when you used to just shut the f*ck up and hear what I have to say to you, instead of trying to say to me what to do.'
He approached Mark, his imponent figure making the young man get a bit uncomfortable. Just because he was resolute, it didn't mean that he was going to ignore that aura that Baltazar had around him. It was an otherworldly thing.
"Do you have any idea about the gravity of your words, you brat? You are doing all of this for the sake of our race, you say? You are thinking about the future, the consequences? Let me say something to you...", he approached his mouth from Mark's ear before shouting: "Don't joke around with ME!!" he shouted with all his might, so strongly that Mark got a headache for some moments.
"From your perspective, it may seem like a good chance for us to turn the tables, but in MY perspective, it is the opening key to another confrontation between demons and angels in which our side will lose many. If we take that demon with us again, he paladins won't leave it as it is, be sure of it. Also, we would be breaking something that is decided long ago, a deal that is keeping us alive and with a hint of peace for the time being. If not for that sacrifice, we would have been slaughtered already."
Baltazar's voice was very angry, but he was acting solemnly and severely until now. He didn't go across a certain line. However, he soon stopped trying to hold himself once Mark went overboard.
"You are a coward, You are just trying to run away from a mistake that the past generation did... I am not willing to turn my back on this mistake."
"YOU, little bastard!" Baltazar yelled, his voice echoing through the abandoned building, seeming to even shake the ground. "You are the most irresponsible demon I ever saw in front of me for asking such idiocy! Things are like they are nowadays because we want to protect our race, and I won't let you change anything without my approval. If not for this deal that we had decades ago, things would be very different for our race!"
Tobey had seen Baltazar very angry before, but not like he was at that moment. His face was just as reddish as his beard and hair, he was sweating and panting hard as well.
"Vanish from my sight as fast as possible before I stick the leg of this chair into somewhere you surely won't like to have things stuck at!" he ordered, pointing to the exit.
Giving a last glare to his boss, Mark gave his back to him and left that room, leaving the boss alone.