Yeon Jin ran after Beric with gritted teeth. His neck had healed up but his dress was already stained with blood and whose fault was it? Beric. It was Beric's fault.
Well technically, it was Yeon Jin's fault for spying but still, if he didn't see Beric at the time, he wouldn't have spied and left immediately so it was Beric's fault.
"Where did he go?" He looked left and right but there was no sign of him. And unknowing to him, he was entering a different place entirely. And this palace seemed to be off limits, even to the royals.
Everyone adhered to it mostly because they were scared of getting their heads chopped off. Yes, it was Beric's domain and this place that was supposed to be a garden with beautiful flowers, had nothing but wild weeds and trees.
No one was allowed in, not even the gardener and that's why it was so unkept.
Yeon Jin might not have noticed it but this unkept garden was just behind Beric's palace. He was so hellbent on finding Beric and returning the scores that he did not take note of anything.
He searched for Beric diligently, gritting his teeth while thinking of all the curses he would rain on that stupid tyrant.
"Don't tell me he tricked me into coming here and then disappeared." He stopped searching, stood under a tree's shade and thought for a while, only for his thoughts to be interrupted by a small branch falling on his head.
He looked up, and there he saw Beric sitting on the tree's branch while staring right at him.
"I see you're still alive. I thought Nemari would end you for sure. That girl is one with a foul temper." He remarked.
Vexed, Yeon Jin pointed his finger at him
"You're the one with a nonsensical temper. How can you be so childish and do such a thing?" He accused him. "What if they didn't believe me and ended up attacking me?"
"You can't die." Beric nonchalantly stated and this made Yeon Jin even more angry.
He looked around him, picked up a stone and threw it at him. Beric caught the stone effortlessly and mocked Yeon Jin with a grin.
"I expected such a great archer to have more throwing prowess than this." He said.
Yeon Jin stomped towards the tree's bark and attempted to kick it.
Beric wondered if he was being dumb thinking he could get to him just by kicking the tree's truck but to his surprise, it actually happened.
As soon as Yeon Jin kicked the tree, the entire tree shook and Beric fell off the tree. How Yeon Jin did it, he did not know but he did not want to embarrass himself by falling down from a tree.
Beric disappeared from Yeon Jin's line of sight and appeared right behind him.
"Did you find a new way to use your holy powers?" He asked Yeon Jin, his eyes falling on his bloody yet healed neck.
"None of your business." Yeon Jin attempted to elbow him but he was quick enough to disappear from his bac, leaving thick black mist and appeared a few feets away.
Beric couldn't use his powers on Yeon Jin but that did not stop him from using it extensively. He just couldn't harm him with it.
"Instead of trying to attack me, why don't you think of how to be a useful guard?" Beric asked Yeon Jin. "Aren't you supposed to be 'spying' on me? And while you're at it, you should also not forget to report back to the holy empire."
Yeon Jin tilted his head.
"Wait, you really want me to report what you do to the holy empire?" He asked but Beric only gazed blankly at him. "Right, you're not doing anything so the only things I can report are unimportant things."
"So you do have a brain." Beric said.
"Can you try not to get on my nerves every five seconds?" Yeon Jin asked him.
"I can't beat you, I can't kill you, this is the only thing that actually calms my boiling nerves." Beric bluntly stated. "And I will continue so long you are in my sight."
Yeon Jin stared at him like he was a kid. Seriously, he couldn't be more childish.
He reminded him of a little kid who couldn't defeat his elder brother so he resorted to getting on his nerves every now and then just to have some sort of accomplishment and victory. That was exactly what Beric was doing.
"Anyway..." He decided to move on with the topic. "When you captured this body, did you find some sort of communication device? You guys have such a thing here, right?"
Beric tilted his head to the side a bit, darted his eyes up as if searching his memories and then looked at him.
"Yes, there was." He answered. "But I destroyed it."
"Kind of expected that." Yeon Jin said and started walking towards him. "I need a communication device to contact the holy empire. If I stay quiet for too long, they may suspect something is going on and then they'll send someone over which will spell trouble."
"It won't be trouble if I just kill them on the spot." Beric threatened.
"That's your problem. Killing. Why must you think of killing every damn time?" Yeon Jin asked in a slightly frustrated tone. "Anyway, you can't just kill them because we don't know how many will be sent and if that one dies, the others will send back word. That's going to complicate things."
"So what do you suggest? I am fine with finding every last one of them and killing them before they have the chance to send out any word." Beric earnestly said, grabbing the head of this sword.
Yeon Jin nodded. Yeah, he knew that. Beric wasn't a tyrant for nothing.
"Instead of all that, it's better I get a communication device and reach out to them. Simple." He said but Beric wasn't satisfied. He gritted his teeth and said,
"Too simple."
Yeon Jin gave him the side eye and shook his head. There was no talking sense into such a bone head.
"Forget it. Just tell me where I can get a communication device."