Seeing Lucielle's reaction, the man was slightly surprised. "Now it seems the little mouse managed to get her hands on some money. What happened? Did you manage to run, desperate for your life during the raid of the Gate, and leave with part of the money" He asked her with a mocking voice.
Hearing what he said, the other men laughed and looked at Lucielle with disdain. For them, Slayers who raid from time to time, people like Lucielle were the worst kind of person they could have as a raid partner, since inside the Gate she would do nothing but run and not help the team with anything. It could be said that hitting Lucielle was a way for them to take revenge for all the useless companions they had in other raids.
Lucielle could tell well that she had been one of the most important people in that mutated Gate, but she wouldn't gain anything from telling them that as they wouldn't believe her anyways. Quite the contrary, she had no reason to tell the enemy how powerful she now as, and that she was no longer the powerless F rank Slayer she had been.
"Where I got the money doesn't matter, what does matter is that I have the money in hand." She said with a thinly veiled hint of hostility. Lucielle obviously didn't want to give up the money that she had to risk her own life to get to these slugs of human society. But she couldn't do anything about it, since if she didn't pay, they would have the right to take her house away from her.
Hearing Lucielle confirm that she really had the money left the secretary surprised. He knew how much a rank F Slayer usually earned in a Gate, and seeing that Lucielle really had enough money to pay the accrued interest piqued the mans curiosity slightly. "Then transfer the money to my account, now."
Lucielle took out her cell phone and as she did every week, she transferred the money. Just like that, $900 of the $1,000 she had earned from the Gate disappeared before she even had the chance to spend any of it. The life of a low rank Slayer was very painful; she knew that very soon she'd need to find another way to earn money in addition to the money she would earn from raids of rank E Gates.
Seeing that the $900 was actually deposited into the account, the man narrowed his eyes and looked at Lucielle suspiciously. "Girl, tell me where did you get that money from?"
She was no longer in a good mood, having to transfer the money that she almost died to get to this man, so when she heard him asking from where she got the money, Lucielle was not the least bit polite to the man. "It's none of your business."
Hearing the "battle princess", whom he always mocked answering him like that stung the secretary's pride. "Who the fuck do you think you're talking to kid? You're just a F-rank shit, you don't even have a useful power! ....Actually I think I get it now! You finally started using your power to make money!" he said with a look as if he finally realized something that was plaguing him with doubt.
The two other thugs looked at him him doubtfully, not yet understanding what he meant, until the taller of the two asked, "What do you mean Mr. James? Do you think her power was useful in a Gate?"
Hearing the mans question, the secretary also known as James sighed with disappointment and explained to the man as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Look at this princess' face! She has a power that made her more beautiful. What do you think she can do to make money? Of course she finally understood her place and must have looked for some rich master to sell herself to him."
Hearing what he said, Lucielle didn't care at all. That kind of stupid judgement would obviously not affect her because it was what she heard on the daily from other Slayers. However, what one of the thugs said next his the young ladys reverse scale.
"Well I figured at least she used the power for something. I think it suits her well, being a prostitute. It even reminds me of her mother, with such a hot bod that she made a perfect hoe-" Before the man could finish his sentence, Lucielle had already advanced upon the group suddenly, drawing a tactical knife from the sleeve of her hoodie into her free hand.
Lucielle could tolerate without any problem when anyone spoke ill of him, since for all these years, the number who mocked her appearance, strength, and "uselessness" in the Gates were countless. But if someone spoke ill of the woman who practically gave her life to raise her properly, Lucielle would make that person pay somehow. And seeing as she was strong enough now, she wouldn't be anything more than a coward if she allowed some piece of human feces like this man say something like that about those whom she loved.
To say that the men were surprised would be an understatement, since in all these years that they had come to harass or violate Lucielle, Lucielle never retailed, never attacked back. She just always accepted her fate quietly to avoid being beaten and violated more.
However today was different, today this "battle princess" was going to embody her nickname to its fullest extent. Harassing Lucielle so many times caused the men to let their guards down near the girl, but the instincts of a rank E Slayer screamed fast enough to make the man dodge Lucielle's knife.
With his brain working in overdrive, the man man started to think about how he was going to handle this situation with Lucielle. He had received a power from the forest god that made his body receive properties of a wooden log, giving the man more resistance in addition to a denser mass, which helped him to withstand more impacts in addition to increasing the strength of the blows he made.
Thinking that after dodging Lucielle's stab that Lucielle would have nothing more to do in response, the man had his right arm take on some properties of wood and prepared to club the girl that he thought was helpless. But when he reached for Lucielle's left hand, he saw something he never imagined he would see her have.
Lucielle knew very well what the man's power was, since the man had used it a few times to hurt Lucielle for greater damage with less effort. So when Lucielle dove in to attack, she purposely used the knife as a feint and hid her left hand close to her side, while waiting for the right time to strike.
She knew that the man would attack her after she "missed" the stab, so when the man turned his arm into wood, Lucielle knew that he had gained the advantage in their exchange, since when the man noticed the flame coming out of her left hand, it was too late. his wooden arm instantly ignited as the flames greedily devoured the wood they had been provided with.
Seeing wood burning is normal for people but not so for the Slayers that had a power from the forest god. Their wood was unusually resistant to flames but the mans arm was quickly devoured by the flames of Lucielle's Hellfire. Before the man could think of doing anything his hand had already been reduced to ashes.
Thinking fast, the man reversed the transformation of his arm so that the flames spread would be slightly reduced before he ducked and rolled in an attempt to put the fire out. His screams of pain only grew louder as the flames refused to be doused as these weren't natural flames by any means. Lucielle watched the scene with a sadistic smile on her face as the man cried and screamed for his mommy as the flames spread over his large frame.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!" His scream of pain, agony, and despair resounded in the quiet back street as the man could only watch as the rest of his body was rapidly reduced to ashes before silence returned to the streets.
Lucielle was surprised at how strong the Hellfire was compared to how it had been since she used it on the Ratman boss back in the Gate. There was no need to mention how surprised James and his flunkies were feeling after watching a rank E Slayer reduced to nothing but ashes in the span of a few seconds, especially when they knew how strong the man had been.
The men were frozen in place until the screams died out and the mans dust was scattered in the passing breeze. James swallowed a mouthful of saliva that he didn't even know he was holding in his mouth and looked at Lucielle with a strange look. He had seen this girl being bullied for 3 years. Seeing her now, not only fighting back but killing a man in cold blood, made him have a bad feeling, a feeling that was only confirmed by him, even more, when he saw that in Lucielle's eyes there was not a shred of fear or excitement. She was looking at the dead mans ashes as one would look at a sack of potatoes. And if he was not mistaken, it seemed that the girl had an almost imperceptible sadistic smile on her face as she surveyed the destruction her flames had caused. When the girl stopped looking into the void and instead looked into his eyes, James again swallowed another mouthful of saliva as Lucielle's killing intent washed over him.