"Hello there. Do you mind if I take a look at the goods here?"
The man has the look of a neat and elegant gentleman.
With a clear and sonorous voice, completely ill-fitting in this kind of place. Such is our customer.
Another thing shocked me. The man is wearing a [Suit].
The design may have been arranged a bit however. My doubt grew deeper. This must be another [God's handiwork].
Behind the man are two men who look the part of [Ruffians] no matter the angle.
They're standing by the wall in silence, with a bitter look on their faces.
"By all means, take all the time you need."
Aryl didn't seem to see those men by the wall, she had a wonderful looking smile on her face.
Can't blame her. It's finally someone you can call a customer for real.
Or perhaps she's 'Reset' the counter since the previous two are nothing you could call customers.
Hence why her sight never caught the two men by the wall.
"Every one of them is of high quality. Quite cheap too. Much better than the items on the market. You have quite the talent at discerning goods."
The neatly trimmed all-back haired gentleman customer whose face would fit with glasses praised Aryl.
"Thank you very much. Though they're worth nothing if they don't sell."
Aryl thanked back, and made a joke at her own expense.
As they exchanged back and forth about goods, I slowly relaxed my guard.
(Guy seems like quite the gentleman, guess those two men are his bodyguards? Doesn't seem like I need to worry.)
Just as I thought that, the customer turned to look at me.
"And this man would be?"
My skepticism just shot up at this abrupt question.
"He's my bodyguard. Just you know he's very strong."
"I see. So this is the guy who did Zolden in."
The air around the man suddenly changed after he said that.
The way Aryl looked at him also changed considering that piece of information he just spoke.
It's too quick for him to know. Besides, the corpse was covered by a white cloth when it was taken away so nobody should be able to tell who it was. This guy got information from another source.
"What do you want?"
I asked the man while getting fed up at another trouble.
I threw a straight question wanting for a concise answer, and yet he began his story with the two men by the wall.
"Fumu, let us start from the beginning then. These men here were given a simple chore to grab the tally distributed at the Merchant Association this morning, see. For some reason they failed. Running back with shameless excuses like someone got in their way, or the appointed staff member gave them a wrong one."
I can see what he's talking about. But I have no clue how it comes to this.
Aryl looked perplexed. Her customer turned out not be an actual one again. She must be quite down. She might even break down.
Looking closer, the two men by the wall were the same men who tried to mess with us at the association.
Since Aryl didn't even send a glance at them back then, she probably didn't notice.
"Had things gone as scheduled, we should have finished our dealings here. With another organization, see. And so, to make up for it and to save our face, I will have you compensate for our loss."
"There should be no way to pick your tally. You're wasting your time trying to push the responsibility on us."
I know that the other party isn't the type that would accept reasoning.
His attitude of unilaterally looking down on people is proof enough.
(He's putting the blame on other since things didn't go as planned for them huh.)
Getting their hands on a specific tally that's given at random for the [Right Place] and with [Certainty].
Must mean they have an agent, a mole slipped in the Merchant Association.
This must be a so called [Crime Syndicate]. We've gotten ourselves mixed in with one such entity.
It's all so bothersome I just want to get off this train.
But my straightlaced personality came out here, prompting me to try concluding this conversation if only for appearance's sake.
"We have suffered a not insignificant loss due to this matter. I did not come all the way out here just to listen to hollow excuses, you see."
I tried to reason with him using logic, and yet the man made some outrageous claim dressed in polite words.
"We ain't giving you a dime for the mess you made yourself. Go wipe your own ass."
"Ah, I see you have resorted to foul language. I take it you won't mind the method we adopt then?"
"You can piss off with your condescending attitude. That means get lost. Or what, do I gotta spell it out for you, huh?"
I ended up snapping a bit here.
Have I always had such a short temper? Though the calm me may not be me too.
I never got mixed in a mess like this in my previous life.
Stress piled up from taking part in this persistently disjointed conversation.
(Ah, outrageous huh... I see, I get it now.)
"You have left me with no choice. Seeing as we have made violence as one of our selling points, it would do us no good to be taken lightly of."
The conversation that never saw eye to eye from the beginning is over now.
"Shoulda done that from the start. It really grated me off to no end. Going on and on pointlessly. Really gets on my nerve."
Three additional big men had shown up before I said that.
They have similar builds as Zolden, but their bulging muscles screamed [We've been training].
"Let us begin then. Go for the man first, turn him into a rag, make him regret using foul words on me. Ah, don't kill him right away you hear me? Make sure he suffers long and hard first."
The three men looking at me with grins. The two men by the wall stand watch to prevent people coming here.
"Ah right, right. Zolden was a member of ours too, but it was merely by chance he came here today. Well, a third rate that guy may be, he did provide some fund. A small fry. A weakling far down these three here. Do forgive us for having such a small fry drop by."
That was his roundabout sarcastic way to say, 'You only won by chance didn't you? We have three men far stronger than him, don't count your luck again, you hear me?'
Like, 'Don't think you've won, that guy you defeated was but the weakest member of our army!'
(Just how template-like can this be? Way too interesting.)
I almost laughed at this oft-used trite that popped up out of nowhere.
"Shut up already. I'm just about done with you."
"Now then, I shall enjoy the girl after you."
I hate characters like this. Egoistic, sarcastic, pretentious bastard.
Who could've imagined it was this stressful when I got to live through one for real.
(Stop! My patience gauge's at zero already!)
"Quit it with sleazy language, you scumbag!"
Not wanting to listen any more second, I focused in anger. Entering [Acceleration].
＝＝＝＝ ＝＝＝＝ ＝＝＝＝
I ran to the leftmost of the three men standing in a row like in a certain dra quest battle screen.
And kicked at him. A jumping kamen r*der kick.
My kick drove deep into the target's pit of stomach.
Next the man in the center. I calmly took a stance toward him.
And drove a simple straight punch at his side.
I let out a barrage of punches on the last guy's stomach.
In the image of a hundred meteor, or maybe like [Ora ora].
After about over 50 punches, I came back to myself and stopped.
By the way, the reason I hit them all in the stomach is because that's the farthest I can reach them.
They're all gigantic and tall. Their faces are too far up for me, and since I was fed up, I just picked the easiest to reach target, the stomachs.
＝＝＝＝ ＝＝＝＝ ＝＝＝＝＝
A scene of splatters. Aryl screamed, 'Hii', and fell down on her bottom.
Even the perpetrator me, averted my gaze away from it.
(Everything turned white from anger... I overdid it. Way too late for regret though.)
A scene that made me hesitate to add 'But no regret' unfolded before us all.
The men didn't end up getting blown away, they were on their spots with holes drilled in their bodies.
And blood spluttering out of the holes.
I still can't control my power in Accelerated state yet went all out.
(It's like Ultimate * Fist, or Red Drag*n... Resulting in this...)
Even as the one who made this happen himself, my face turned pale.
A pool of blood on the ground with the three men on it. Anyone could tell they were no longer breathing. That's just how much blood there.