"I apologize for my unintended disrespect."
The man kept his apology brief, curt even. It felt insincere to me, but that didn't surprise me. He was being forced to kneel and apologize to someone he clearly had no respect for. The rest of his group mirrored his actions, most of them similarly irritated. It was understandable, given that they seemed to know as much about what was happening as I did. The entirety of what the girl was talking about was lost on me. I figured I'd ask the Mayor about it afterwards.
"Good. Now, turn around and get back to your jobs. This entire interaction could've been avoided if you were simply competent, remember that."
"Okay."
"It's 'Yes, Sir' when you address your superiors, boy."
The man gritted his teeth, but said nothing. His tense look quickly gave way to a small smirk, though, as he started to stand up. The sudden change in expression made me uneasy, and I moved my hand to my pistol. In the moment of time it took me to do that, I watched as he adjusted his footing and moved his right hand to the sword on his hip. In the next moment, he kicked off the ground and drew his sword, lunging towards the immobile Mayor. I started to draw my own weapon, but I couldn't match his speed. In the next moment, there was a flash next to the Mayor and the sound of metal clanging against stone rang out over the seven stunned people in the courtyard.
In that instant, Erin had moved from her spot next to the Mayor, and now had a firm grip on the man's throat, lifting him a few inches off the ground. His sword had been knocked about twenty feet away. I had also drawn my gun, and now had it trained on the closest man behind him, not that he seemed to have any intention of moving.
"You are incredibly lucky I haven't been allotted lethal discretion, and that the gap between us means I cannot reasonably argue self-defense."
With that simple and very deliberate sentence, she dropped the man. Just as his feet touched the ground, she planted her foot firmly into the man's chest, sending him stumbling back into his group. Within a second after that, she was back beside the Mayor like nothing had happened. The foremost man in the group tried to catch his leader, but only ended up getting knocked over himself. The rest of the group then moved forward to help the two up, and after few seconds of murmuring amongst themselves and a few glares sent back at the three of us, they started moving back towards the edge of the courtyard. The boy trailed behind them a bit, as usual.
The three of us watched them go. I had holstered my pistol shortly after the two men collided, as it started to feel a bit mean. I had been ready to fight when the man moved, but seeing how quickly he had been dealt with made me start to pity him. Erin was back to her typical calmness, and she seemed to be a bit less agitated than before. The Mayor seemed unaffected by it all. In fact, and I was only realizing it now, his eyes had been locked on the odd man out of their group.
"Wait."
The group stopped dead in their tracks. The tone of the Mayor's voice was no different than usual, but it echoed across the courtyard, resonating with a strange sort of power. They slowly turned around, clearly confused. The leader seemed to want to speak up, but likely didn't want to get scolded for some other breach of etiquette.
"You, young man, the one who's eyes haven't left the ground, come here. The rest of you may leave."
After a few glances among themselves, they did just that. They shot a few weird looks at the boy but, despite looking like they wanted to, said nothing. The boy then started weakly walking towards us. I had felt some discontent in the group, although it felt a bit different from what I usually sensed from them. It felt almost anxious, worried, although not as much as when they were being actively threatened. With the overconfidence of this group, I was surprised they'd feel anything other than arrogant if their lives weren't being actively threatened.
After a short while, the boy eventually made it before us once again, and started to kneel.
"You may remain standing."
The boy straightened his posture.
"Step forward."
The boy stepped forward.
"You may relax. You will not be harmed so long as you stand near me."
Erin relaxed a bit.
"Show me your hand."
The boy stuck out his right hand.
"The other one."
The boy hesitated, but hearing how gentle the Mayor's tone had become, he dropped his guard a bit and lifted his left arm. What was revealed was a pale, delicate, near-emaciated looking hand, something not particularly unusual with what I had already seen of him. What was unexpected however, were the two swollen, crooked, and discolored fingers. They were a yellowish pale, with a number of black-purple patches. The injuries on one of the fingers looked a bit more muted than the other. I started wondering why I hadn't seen it sooner, but thinking about it more, I realized I had no reason to; I had no reason to be looking specifically at his hands. That couldn't be my excuse, though. I couldn't let it be an excuse. I needed to be more observant, even with something that small. The Mayor clearly saw it, even though the closest he had ever gotten to him was more than double the distance I had been. It spoke to how much more experience he had, being able to key in on the smallest of things and know what they meant. Even the smallest of muscle movements could betray an attack in a fight, but the simple principle of observing my surroundings shouldn't have been limited just to fights. It was something I needed to practice, and I became determined to do just that.
"Erin."
"Yes, Sir. I understand."
"Go with her, kid, and stay with her for the time being."
He just nodded and walked over to Erin, who then led him off towards the town hall. She sat him down in the doorway, and soon a soft gold glow began to radiate from them. I remained by the Mayor in this. I was curious about the boy's situation, but I had yet to get my thoughts in order."
"Shame to see that."
"Yes."
"That's not what I mean."
"What do you mean, then? They did it to him, right? I don't see how else that could've happened."
"Yes, of course that's what happened, and of course that's infuriating to see. What I meant though, was that it's a shame to see people so blind to their own situation. I'll let you in on something of a well-known secret. These teams that get sent to towns, Cleaners as you know them, come at varying strengths. Members are selected for a team based on their skill, being placed with people of similar skill levels. It prevents either one person dragging the whole team down, or one person doing all the work for a team, rendering them completely helpless when that person gets overconfident and dies. That part isn't the secret. What happens though, is some teams end up underperforming to some extent, and being so far away from their 'home base', so to speak, means they can't be readily observed to determine the source of their failure. So, they'll get assigned a new member, someone quite a bit stronger than they are, who is given the task of determining the source of trouble in the team, and eliminating it depending on the situation, hence the strength. Them being assigned to the group is explained away as a management mishap and getting reassigned gives them a reason to leave and report back on their findings. Usually, the source of trouble comes from a team leader, which is almost always a de facto position, doing a shit job of actually leading, so they simply get reassigned out of the group one day, and someone different gets slotted in. Most people never realize any of this even occurred unless they achieve a high enough position to watch it happen or hear about it happening. This is the reason there're six people in this team when the standard is five."
"So, them hurting the kid is enough to warrant an investigation?"
"It is, but that's not what's happening."
"Oh."
"Yeah. The kid is a magic user, which is why he looks like he'd snap in two with a strong wind. He's under very strict orders regarding hurting them, too, I'd guess. From what I can tell, his ability with magic is strong enough to put all of them down in a heartbeat, but going by his age, he likely can't control it very well, hence why he can't stop them."
"Still, it would be justified if he hurt them after they did that to him, wouldn't it?"
"Do you remember what Erin said earlier? About not being able to justify self-defense?"
"Because the difference in strength was too great."
"Yes. The same applies here. This is why I said it's a shame. Those idiots don't get why he was placed in their team, nor why he seems to be such a pushover. The cherry on top of all this is that, once they get back to whatever town they're based out of and the kid reports what happened, they'll all likely be executed."