'I underestimated the effectiveness of charms...' the redhead thought, impressed.
This entire operation would have been much more difficult if it weren't for the two Slumber Charms he had left.
'Maybe having a Mystery Pryer on my team is a good idea...' the redhead considered, then turned his attention back to the sleeping people.
He will better consider this when he is in his room but for now, it seems that the answer is a yes.
'I didn't expect them to still be asleep despite everything that happened, although it may be because they are East Borough residents...'
'Maybe it's because their health isn't that good, the effect of the charm is much stronger than it should be...' He concluded by seeing the thin and sick bodies of the guards and civilians.
Sighing, the redhead with calm steps approached the sleeping Lacopa and without waking him up he grabbed the man's leg and dragged him away from the civilians.
Reaching where the impromptu test targets were, he released the man's leg and looked at him.
His red eyes suddenly flashed with two bolts of lightning.
Lacopa snapped awake, wriggling like a worm and convulsing a little.
Adryan watched this coldly, after a while Lacopa calmed down.
"What what what.."
Lacopa was breathing heavily, his forehead covered with sweat and he was somewhat pale. He had a dazed and confused look.
"I got a little out of hand...It doesn't matter" Adryan rolled his shoulders unimportantly, not caring in the slightest for the well-being of the fatty.
His words seem to have caught the attention of the confused Lacopa who raised his dazed gaze to him.
At the moment of seeing that creepy mask, a bucket of ice water was spilled on him and realization suddenly came.
He crawled backward terrified until colliding with the wall while shouting "Guards Guards Guards!!"
Adryan began to walk slowly toward Lacopa.
Now he looked like a Predator ready to devour his wounded prey.
This only scared Lacopa more and he yelled louder.
"Guards!!"
"No one will come to save you Mr. Lacopa" he said quietly, stopping in front of the fat man.
Beneath his mask, his red eyes glowed evil.
Lacopa looked around terrified looking for some way to escape but the only thing he managed was to see the corpses of his personal guards and his men.
His expression turned desperate and he looked at Adryan with tears falling from his eyes.
"I beg you Mr. Holmes! Please don't kill me! I can give you money, a lot of money! If you let me live I can give it to you!"
Adryan tilted his head slightly.
"Then give me the money"
"Oh, thank you thank you thank you!"
Lacopa's face lit up and he pulled out a thick wallet from his vest, which he handed to Adryan trembling.
Adryan took it rudely and pulling out the bills, he trow aside the wallet and began to count.
Lacopa swallowed saliva, with a trembling voice he asked fearfully.
"M-may I go now M-Mr. Holmes?"
"Don't you have more money? I thought the leader of Dead Shot would be fatter with money" Adryan said completely ignoring Lacopa's question.
"But it seems that the only fat thing here is your belly" he said with disappointment and Lacopa felt a chill run down his spine.
Lacopa paled, his skin white as if he had seen the Grim Reaper.
There were 300 pounds in that wallet!
"There's more! There's more! In my house! I keep it in a safe! Only I know the password, if you take me there I'll give you everything!"
Now was not the time to worry about his wealth, if he was dead how could he use it?!
He could always recover it with time!
Adryan nodded at this.
He extended his hand towards Lacopa as if he wanted to help him up.
A trembling smile grew on Lacopa's face and he slowly extended his hand towards the masked man's.
'Idiot! When we get to my house the guards there will kill you! You will not be able to escape, the moment you step in you will die! You should never have messed with me!' the fat man thought confidently.
Just as he was about to take the man's hand, a torrent of orange flames shot out from the man's palm and engulfed him.
"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH" Lacopa howled in pain and began to writhe on the ground trying to put out the fire.
Adryan watched this coldly, he had controlled the attack so it wouldn't instantly kill Lacopa.
He had only awakened the man so that he would be awake to suffer.
He wouldn't have the mercy of dying in his sleep like the rest of his guards.
"That's brutal Princess Tomato" Flora said, not in the slightest surprise to this.
Adryan calmly removed Vecchio Pomodoro from his hand and answered nonchalantly.
"A human trafficker doesn't deserve even the smallest bit of mercy."
"Damn Princess~" Flora hissed teasingly.
Adryan ignored Flora, he put the Burnt Band in one of his pockets.
He then took out the different colored candles from his jacket and began to prepare to do the ritual to invoke the spirit of Lacopa and his guards...
...
Blowing out and putting away the candles he let out a sigh as he got up from his place.
He walked to the Interrogator's body and carefully grabbed a slimy golden liquid that was in the hole of the head. He also checks his pockets and found a small wallet with 5 pounds in it.
"Why are all the wild Beyonders so poor?" the redhead muttered annoyed keeping the money.
The sailor also had 5 pounds in his wallet along with some seaweed, both kept in his pocket now.
He put the characteristics in a container and seal it with a wall of spirituality, after that, he put it in his jacket in a separate pocket from the other container with the Sailor characteristic.
'New formulas obtained~' the redhead thought very pleased as he looked at the goatskin parchment that had the Sailor, Arbiter, Sherrif, and Interrogator potion formulas written on it.
He put it in one of the many pockets of his jacket.
Now that he had more knowledge of rituals, he could invoke a spirit without needing to pray to a Deity, just using his spirituality and a simple altar would be enough.
But because of Flora that was impossible.
Why would the Blessed of a God not ask for 'His' help to perform a ritual?
That could arouse Flora's suspicion and she would start to doubt everything he does!
He knows he can't fool a Marauder Pathway Demigod for long and the truth would be out sooner rather than later.
So he decided to use the next best option...
Fake Polytheism!
If he couldn't use the Scarlet Monarch then he would use the God of Knowledge and Wisdom!
He just had to lie that he had to avoid using the name of his God and Flora would fall for it.
'In the future, I will use a ritual that targets me as the Scarlet Monarch but for now this is enough.' the redhead thought as he walked towards his soldier who was protecting the civilians with a new automatic weapon in case something unexpected happened.
If there was a small, tiny chance that the dragon didn't know of his existence he wasn't worried that using it in rituals would give him away.
He was sure of this because Klein used the Evernight Goddess to perform a ritual and was not discovered until he touched a sacred artifact of the Goddess.
'And that's without him having a Hunters Hallow to hide the aura of Sefira Castle~' the redhead thought with a smirk.
But as fast as the smirk came it was gone.
This was a tiny, almost non-existent possibility so he wouldn't trust it.
Although that would not mean that he would touch a sacred artifact of the God of Knowledge and Wisdom because, supposedly, 'He' already knew of his existence.
If the possibility that 'He' wasn't aware of him existed then he didn't want to ruin it by touching something silly...
Before going with his soldier Adryan went to the bodies of the hunters and collected their characteristics and their wallets.
Both wallets had 5 pounds.
'Don't tell me the Beyonders' salary was 5 fucking pounds each?! Are they that stupid? Are they not ashamed? A Sequence 7 being paid 5 pounds to protect a fat piece of shit? That's ridiculous!'
'Even if it's 5 pounds a day that only multiplies to 180 pounds a month!!' the redhead was completely stunned.
This was a complete shame and a great humiliation towards all the beyonders of the world!
'Did Lacopa raise them from a certain age that's why the salary is so low? He looked to be around mid-sixties or seventies but none of the guards look anything like him...'
Shaking his head, Adryan got rid of those silly thoughts.
He touched the pocket with the Interrogator characteristic.
'Seriously, the guy didn't know how to fight, how did he get to sequence 7?'
' As soon as he got the formula he prepared the potion and consumed it. Seriously, he's lucky he didn't die or turned into a monster in one of his promotions!'
Originally he thought it was someone important but it turns out the guy was just a nobody cultivated by a member of MI9.
The Interrogator did not know this, but Adryan was sure that it was the case since this organization was the only one that had the formulas for this pathway...
Also, the fact that the spirit of the Interrogator said that they were wearing a gold mask...
The Interrogator did not want to wait long after consuming the potion as every two to four months he tried to pay the MI9 member for the following formula.
Then he spent a lot of time trying to get the ingredients by paying exaggerated money to the MI9 member.
Just 1 month ago he had advanced to Interrogator and just two and a half years ago he had become a Beyonder.
'Not even by a miracle MI9 would have let someone so useless be this sequence, maybe in a month or two they would kill him to recover the characteristics.'
He was sure of this because it would be something he would do.
It's not like he was going to give someone that useless the potion in the first place though...
He has standards!
Cursing the uselessness of MI9, Adryan walked over to his soldier who was on guard for any change.
The soldier approached him and handed him an improvised bag made from the shirt of one of the guards.
"There was only 8 pounds in total sir! There was nothing usefull!"
Adryan just nodded, already having expected this.
"That will be all for today soldier, you can rest" the redhead said seriously and the soldier gave a military salute.
The soldier handed the automatic weapon to the redhead along with all the clips he had taken, then the soldier closed his eyes and broke into golden dust that flew up to Adryan's forearm.
He quickly adjusted to Bird Soldier and done so, he looked at the still sleeping civilians.
There were 30 people in total.
He thought about it for a few moments and sighing he approached the first one and shook him hard.
The worker woke up confused but when he saw who was looking at him, he was stuned.
Adryan placed his hand on the man's shoulder and said calmly.
"Help me wake up the others"
The man was silent for a few moments before nodding in a daze.
Adryan gently patted the man's shoulder and went to the next person.
The worker looked around and saw how there were several people asleep, but he also saw how separated from them were the guards.
He could see how several had bloodstains on their chests.
An unpleasant smell of burnt meat reached his nose and looking at the source of it, he saw that next to the shooting targets were several burned bodies.
"What are you doing? Wake the others" Adryan remembered without looking at the worker who was shaking and looking at him fearfully.
The worker said nothing and quickly began to wake up the rest who had a similar reaction to his when they saw the bodies...
...
Now all the civilians were awake and Adryan was standing in front of them, the civilians looking at him in fear.
The only reason they hadn't tried to run away was because they were afraid.
Adryan noticed how he was observed but did not give importance to this, he only looked at the first one who woke up.
"You, come here" he ordered pointing.
The man got scared and looked around for help but the rest just lowered their heads or looked away.
A void formed in his stomach, but resigning himself, he approached the masked man with heavy steps.
He saw how the masked man put his hand in his pocket and the worker closed his eyes waiting for the pain.
..
..
But not feeling anything, he opened his eyes confused, that confusion turned into surprise when he saw how the masked man was extending him a 10-pound note.
He looked up at the creepy mask no longer scared but confused.
Adryan sighed and shook out the bill.
"Are you going to take it or what?"
_____________________________________________
4/4
Again I didn't post this yesterday....
*Sigh* Sorry for that...
To compesate that this chapter is over 2.200 words.