Roaming the City

"Ha!"

"Slow."

Julia lifted her right on top of Sou's head and brought it down with force.

Boom!

Her attack made the dust fly all around the arena but she could not feel the move connect with Sou. While she was thinking about what happened a hand from the cloud of dust emerged and dug deep into Julia's gut.

"Gah!" Julia flew away with blood trailing from her mouth.

(She won't die, right?)

Boom!

She crashed into the mana shield, cracking it a little. She fell to the ground a vomited buckets of blood.

"'How is he so powerful even though he is not using any mana?' You are probably thinking along those lines, right?"

"..." Julia stared at Sou's enjoying face with a deadly, piercing, and cold gaze.

(Stop giving that look! I am gonna freeze to death!)

"Ahem! Let's continue."

Fwoosh!

Within some mere seconds, Julia was in front of Sou with her hand positioned to be driven at Sou's crotch.

(Woah... what a delicate target point! But if that's what you want...)

"... then that's what you get!"

Julia's hand moved towards Sou's crotch at a high speed, but as we know, our dear protagonist believes in the law of equivalent exchange. Before Julia could crush Sou's tied-by-fate little brother, Sou grabbed her hand and pulled her towards himself.

"Wah!"

A sweep went by Julia's legs, making her stumble and falling in Sou's hand.

(Damn, she really is flat.)

"Kya!"

(This girl can even become flustered? Heh...)

"You really got the guts to say that when you were the one who was about to destroy my future as a father..."

A mischievous smile appeared on Sou's face.

"W-What?!"

"Are you really aunt Celina's daughter?"

"W-Why?!"

(Argh! My ears!)

"No offense, but aunt Celina is quite big you know? Compared to that... you are lacking quite a bit..."

"Y-Y-You!"

"Don't worry, there are people who are into small ones." Sou got up and showed Julia a thumbs up.

{A bit happy}

(What...?)

"DIE!"

"Woah! Time to knock you up!"

Thack!

Sou's hand fell on Julia's neck and her eyes rolled back and her eyelids closed, her body now listless.

"Phew... finally she calmed down. Now..."

Sou turned his head to the arena.

"... how am I supposed to clean up this mess?"

There were craters all over the arena, big and small, and there were some parts of the mana shield broken.

"I am surely getting a scolding later."

(But damn... 'a bit happy'?)

***

Sou was meditating in his room after cleaning the mess Julia and Sou created.

"Sou!" The sound of his mother coming from downstairs echoed inside his ears.

"Ugh... here it comes."

And then he was scolded.

***

"Tch. She could have gone a bit easier on me..."

The words of his mother played on repeat on his head.

'Do you know how much expensive it is to repair the arena every single time?! We don't want to burden the Hols family more than we already did! Understand?!"

"Haa..."

(Getting scolded by my parents... is not a pleasant experience...)

Sou's face turned emotionless and grim as he remembered his betrayal. He softly touched his chest, feeling the throbbing of his heart.

"..."

'I am sorry but we have to do this. For the sake of us and you too.'

'Since you saw, and knowing you, the thing is not going to stay in your stomach, so we have no choice but to rip the roots.'

'I am sorry, son.'

'I am sorry.'

Sou clenched his chest tightly. After spending some time in Melim, he had almost forgotten the very thing he swore to become.

'You all fuckers don't want me as a good guy? Then I will become worse than the devil.'

He let go of the clench and stared outside the window beside him.

(Yeah. Never let your guard down. Never trust anyone. If anyone's in your way, then tread over them.)

{...}

Sou walked off.

***

"Brudher! Brudher! Quick!" Lia's voice could be heard from behind the doors of Sou's room.

"Wait a bit, Lia. At least let me put my dress on."

Sou was in high spirits. ever since he came to Zicrus, he wanted to explore the great city.

"Mama! Brudher not coming!"

"Haa... I am opening it."

Sou moved over to the door and turned the doorknob and started to open it slowly, but before he could open it any further, Lia pounced on him as soon as she caught a glimpse of Sou.

(Not gonna fall for that twice.)

Sou took a step to the side and tilted his body at such a delicate angle which would allow Lia to just miss her target. In simple words, he dodged her.

"Nghh... Brudher bad!" Lia squealed in pain while holding her head.

(No little Lia, it would have been bad if you were to hit the target.)

"There there. Pain gone!" Sou stroked Lia's head, almost like a doting brother which hid the bloodthirsty monster in him. 

(Ah... when will I kill again...)

***

"Wow!" So gasped in amazement when he saw the size of the market.

The market was big, fairly big, with all kinds of commodities and whatnots in every stall. There were vials of potion, seemingly for healing and other purposes.

"Woah!" Sou pointed towards a rather grand-looking shop full of monster cores, even mana beast cores were there which were very rare, almost never found.

(I guess all those efforts in finding mana beasts did go in vain...)

Sou spent almost all of his time looking for mana beasts and monsters to make into servants. So, mana beasts were not that much of a deal for him.

"I didn't know that they sold cores. How much are they?" Sou looked at Celina.

"They are roughly 50-60 gold coins. The chances to find a core full of mana is quite rare in these kinds of shops but the ones which are imported to the royal family are almost guaranteed to be full of mana, enough to help break through a mana stage." Celina gave the description.

"A mana stage?!" Sou tried his best to not let them know that he wasn't surprised by it a bit.

Sou already knew everything Celina said and he could be above the king of the human territory Humanes, or the king of the elf territory Elvenes, or the king of the dwarf territory Dwarvenes, maybe more powerful than everyone in Orken, the continent Sou was in, if he assimilated the mana cores he got from all those monsters and mana beasts he killed, not to mention, the Blues too, but he didn't. Why? Because it would raise suspicions. This is what everyone would say-

"How did a child like him stronger than the kings?"

"That child must be Godsend."

"If we can just control that child then we will rule over everyone!"

And thus, his family would be dangered. So he never bothered assimilating them and just stored them in his inventory... or that's what it was supposed to be. Actually, he simply forgot that he had to assimilate them.

"If you want to try, you can just say it, you know."

"Nah. I am afraid I am going to pass on that offer."

(Since I forgot, let's just keep it forgotten.)

"Okay."

"By the way, where is Julia?"

"She was taking a lot of time getting ready so we left without her. She said she will be joining us later. Haa..."

"What is it, aunt Celina?"

"It is just... she never takes this much time. I am wondering if it is because of Sou." She added a creepy smile at the end of her sentence.

(Nah. There's no way...)

"What... does that mean?

"Hmm~ Who knows?"

(Not that I care...)

Sou shrugged the matter like it was nothing and diverted his attention to the shops. Then, he heard a voice. 

"What are you saying, mother? You should know me by now."

"Haa... cold as ever I see..."

Sou turned to the voice and saw the figure, enchanting and bewitchingly beautiful.

"... Julia?"

***