Unsealing Emptiness

The trio instantly woke up since, even though they were sleeping, all of them had their guard up even in their periods of sleep! An average human may find it impossible, but it was nothing for a Rank-5 Mage.

Ozul didn’t even need to be a Mage to be focused since it was in the middle of the night, and his senses were back to their peak due to light’s absence.

Jinx got up from Ozul’s chest and jumped down the bed while stretching itself before Ozul stood up as well.

He had been sleeping the whole day as well, so for him, his ‘nap’ was almost done anyway. Checking out what was going on in the hotel at this hour wouldn’t really be a problem for him.

Blaze had already stood up to follow Ozul while Raven was rubbing her eyes to clear her vision as well. However, just as they were ready, Ozul motioned them to go back to sleep.

Though reluctant, they could not disobey his orders. At least not when they both knew that they wouldn’t be able to be of much help anyway.

.....

“I’m just going out for a stroll.”- With this excuse, Ozul left the room, followed by Jinx, who gave Raven a smug look before walking away.

Ozul had stopped Raven and Blaze from following him because he felt stuffy when he was followed by people all the time. Jinx was an exception since she ‘belonged’ to him.

He could still not decide what belonging to him signified, but was it necessary? With this question, he would stop thinking about useless stuff and focus on what was in front of him.

One thing that Ozul had learned after spending the 6 years in the warehouse alone was that making baseless assumptions wouldn’t get you anywhere.

Maybe you could pass your time this way, but Ozul already has his hands full all the time.

Walking down the corridor, he could already hear the voices that no ordinary human would be able to, from this distance.

“I told you... there wouldn’t be any second chance!”

“Don’t threaten me, Drom!”

“What?! You have a problem with that?... Just you wait till I tell everything to the boss!”

“You!...”

. . .

Ozul heard the conversation between the old man, Irvin, and someone whose voice he did not recognize. Despite noticing that Irvin was somehow in a problematic situation, he did not rush to the site and just leisurely strolled through the corridor.

Not only did he not have any deep relation with the old man, even if he had any, Ozul wouldn’t get so agitated just because of some small argument. Not to mention, he had nothing to do with it.

When he walked down the stairs, he saw that before Irvin stood a middle-aged man with unkempt brown hair.

Haley stood beside Irvin as the unknown man barked at the old couple.

Though Ozul did not create any sound while walking, the old couple were facing directly at the stairs, so they did not miss his figure, which gave them the chills every time they looked at him.

They had seen this world and honed their senses without the use of Mana. Their five human senses would betray them, but their instincts were seldom wrong!

And the old couple’s instincts would scream at them even when they looked at the kid with dangerous eyes. The cat elegantly walking beside him did not help reduce their uneasiness.

When the unknown man noticed that Irvin and Haley had their attention diverted by something else, he curiously looked back only to see a teenager walking down the stairs.

Only when Ozul was right in front of him was he able to utter something;

“You kid! Go back to your room and sleep. This isn’t something you can interfere in.”- The middle-aged man narrowed his eyes and waved his hands in an attempt to scare him away.

Ozul, however, was unperturbed as he walked right in between the unknown man and the old couple. However, instead of stopping in the middle as they had anticipated, Ozul just kept walking until he reached the chair before the counter.

He sat on the chair before Jinx also jumped on his lap.

“Hm? What are you staring at? Continue your...thing.”- Ozul said when he noticed that the old couple looked at him wryly while the man with brown hair had an annoyed expression on his face.

“Kid! Do you think this is some sort of a joke?!”- The man barked at him, but he received no response in return.

“Tch! I will deal with you later.”

Ozul’s behavior further annoyed the brown-haired man. Still, since he had done nothing wrong and was not even interfering in his business, the man focused his attention on Irvin.

“This is my last time asking you, you old bastards! Give me all the artifacts!”

“I had never agreed to any of such requests before joining.”- Irvin fiercely argued.

“You don’t have a choice, Irvin. You guys either die or hand over the artifacts.”- The man threatened as he took out a small dagger from his clothes, motioning towards Haley.

When Irvin noticed the danger, he brought his hands in his clothes in an attempt to use whatever he had at his disposal to get out of the situation.

Irvin was not a Mage or a Fighter, but he did have some Magical Items hidden in his clothes.

The middle-aged man, on the other hand, was a Rank-5 Fighter, as Ozul had perceived. Before that man could move forward, he heard the voice;

“Stop it. I’m interested in these people. Don’t go ruining everything.”- Ozul said with a calm voice and did not even try hiding that he was curious about the old couple.

“Huh!?”

“Who are you to stop me, kid!?”- Though the man was not a Mage, he could still perceive that the kid was only an ‘ordinary kid’ without any Mana.

“Oh, me? I’m a Silver Rank Mercenary.”- Ozul ‘introduced’ himself and showed the silver badge on the right side of his t-shirt.

He had put the badge on after Blaze and Raven had been promoted to Gold Rank. Not only him, he even forced the duo to wear the Gold Rank badges!

He did it all, just so Blaze and Raven would receive all the attention, while he would be ignored. It would indeed be a blessing when people don’t have their attention on him.

“Hmph! Everyone knows that you can get that badge even if you party with someone who is a Silver Rank Mercenary! You think that I’m a fool!?”- The man barked at Ozul.

“Eh? I never said that you’re a fool... Just told you that I’m a Silver Rank.”- Ozul tilted his head and looked at the man as if he was some kind of an idiot.

“Drom, Stop i-” Irvin called out to the man to stop, but the man named Drom did not listen to him.

“YOU!!! You dumb shit!”- Drom, the brown-haired man, was about to charge at Ozul in anger, but before he could even take a step, he fell on the floor...

*Gurgle...*

His body convulsed in pain, but the man could not even yell as all that came out of his mouth was some gurgling voices. After a few seconds, he stopped moving, as the lounge regained its silence.

Irvin was shocked out of his mind as he could not make heads or tails of the situation. Why had Drom, a Rank-5 Fighter just suddenly dropped dead on the ground.

However, when he looked at the calm face of Ozul, moving his hands through the silky smooth hair of Jinx, Irvin and Haley realized who was behind this event.

“You! You don’t know what you have done!”- Irvin looked at Ozul with annoyance clear on his face.

“You made a mess out of the situation! Their people would now keep coming after us!”- In a fit of anger, Irvin even forgot that it was Ozul that had protected them. If not for him, things might have turned out worse for them.

Irvin didn’t realize this. However, Haley, who had been beside him all this time, knew what to do.

“Calm down, Irvin! Do you think we would have been all fine if he had not interfered?”- Haley fiercely spat at him.

“This...”- Irvin wanted to retort. However, no matter how much he thought, he couldn’t find anything wrong with her statement.

He had his head bowed down in shame when suddenly the sound of footsteps could be heard just outside the hotel. It was in the middle of the night, and there were hardly any people outside, so the noise attracted their attention instantly.

“Hurry up, you fool! why is it taking so long just to deal with those old farts!?”

The high pitched voice rang out in the now silent lounge as the figure of a woman wearing some revealing clothes appeared in their view.