The captain immediately searched for a core, and picked up the same cyclops core Akuma had considered earlier.
"Aren't you a B tier? That core's A", Akuma found himself genuinely concerned about the captain. While he didn't particularly enjoy his company, he did appreciate him, and didn't want to see him taken over by a cyclops.
"Oh", the captain sounded completely unconcerned. "Don't worry. I may be B tier, but I have the capacity of an A tier. I'm only B 'cuz of my trash skills. I'll be able to subdue it fine."
And so, he absorbed the core. He seemed to have a similar experience to Akuma, but wasn't quite as excited by the skills as he has been.
"How about we go check on the others?", the captain seemed to want to get out the market as quickly as possible.
When they reached the others, Takara had already bought a truck load of equipment, so they could all leave.
"Captain, why were you in such a rush to leave?", Takara had asked the same question that had been on Akuma's mind.
"We have to go to a tricky family to collect their taxes, so it's better to get there quick to meet the deadline."
The captain's explanation wasn't enough for Takara. "What do you mean by tricky?"
"They don't like to pay, so they might make a fuss."
When the chariot reached its destination, Akuma began to understand what kind of person this client was.
They lived in a fairly isolated location, in a large house, surrounded by torn and shredded battle dummies.
When Akuma said the house was large, he meant it. The building alone was bigger than his village, and the grounds around it were even larger.
He was the kind of person who should be paying taxes.
As they approached the door, the captain gave a stark warning. "You're going to have to protect yourselves. He's way stronger than any of us."
Still, Akuma was confident that he'd be able to take him on.
They knocked the door and waited.
Then waited.
Then waited some more.
"Sir!", the captain shouted. "If you don't come out immediately, we have the rite to repossess this property."
"We do?", Takara whispered, but the captain only shrugged.
They then heard a chain opening, the a lock, then another, then another, until the door slowly began to swing open. The residents clearly didn't want visitors.
"There you are!", the captain teased.
A rough-looking old figure appeared at the door, with a bold head and a scruffy white beard that stretched to his knees.
"Huh?", the man seemed deranged and disgruntled.
"I can see why he lives out here", one of the guards joked, before finding his armour suddenly splitting in two, as though cut by a blade that wasn't there.
"He ", the captain warned, "is an incredibly powerful S rank with a skill that can hit anything within 100 meters."
The others began to worry - as they should.