10 First Mission? Too easy
Valdis returned to the base together with Akame and soon after, the others arrived. It seemed like Bulat who was together with Tatsumi was reporting to Najedna how Tatsumi fared in his first battle. Valdis noticed even Akame talking to Najenda presumably reporting everything.
"So? How did he do?" Najenda asked Akame with a curious expression.
"Um, I am not sure...His target just stood in place without moving an inch, at least there was no hesitation when he killed the enemy." Akame proceeded to explain what exactly happened, including the change in his eyes.
"I see, well Teigu are mysterious artifacts so it's not impossible for it to evolve like that. It doesn't seem like he understands his own powers so I suggest we help him discover what exactly his eyes can do. I refuse to believe that the professional mercenary just got too scared to move, there must be more to it than it seems." Najenda said with a thoughtful expression and Akame nodded her head.
The group decided to celebrate to welcome their 2 new members. While Valdis was quietly drinking ale while sitting near the bonfire, Tatsumi sat next to him out of nowhere.
"Uh...thanks for the warning before."
Valdis looked at him before returning his sight to the bonfire, releasing a helpless sigh.
"...*sigh* You hesitated, didn't you?"
"*cough* Does it even matter?! I kept my guard up and didn't let his words get to me. The thing I wanted to ask you is something completely different. You mentioned something about having premonitions or whatever you called it...Did you have one with me, hence the warning?" Tatsumi asked quietly.
"What do you think personally?" Hearing his question, Valdis chuckled before replying with a mysterious smile which only infuriated Tatsumi. He wouldn't mind a simple no, yes, or refusal to answer but this kind of answer got really under his skin.
"Calm down, sometimes, it's better to know less, after all, playing around with the future can have grave consequences, that is unless you are the main character of the story."
"Excuse me?" Tatsumi completely got lost in Valdis's words.
"It's nothing, just some nonsense" Valdis shook his head as he continued drinking with an amused smile on his face.
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A few days have passed and Valdis managed to get some points from the others. Mainly during his training with Akame who outrightly told him that he is weak without any remorse. However, what she meant was that his body was weak and not accustomed to fighting.
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[Name: Valdis
Unique powers: Sharingan (3 Tomoe)
Villainous Shop
Villain Points: 350
Consumption: Body Enhancing potion (2/50)]
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Valdis opened his status window inside his room right, his shoulder-long hair was still wet from the shower he took right after he finished the training. After hearing Akame's humiliating words along seeing her dull expression, he decided not to horde the points for the future possibilities.
Without any hesitation, he purchased 3 Body Enhancing potions and 2 Mind Enhancing potions, completely depleting his points.
He gulped down Body potions without any problem and this time, the pain was much lesser than when he drank it for the first time, however, now that he grabbed the Mind potion, he hesitated a little.
'Damn, I don't really care about physical pain but I have a bad feeling that this Mind potion will cause even greater pain.'
"Well, one has to suffer to gain power" Valdis took a deep breath before he drank from both vials at the same time. He wanted to avoid experiencing any mental pain twice in a row.
*Crash* A few seconds later, his dark eyes widened and the vials in his hands fell on the floor, breaking. Soon after, Valdis collapsed on his both knees while intensively holding his head while staring absentmindedly at the floor.
To the others he would look like someone who lost his mind, however, he was actually hearing strange voices inside his mind. There were tens or even hundreds of them speaking to him, judging him for his wrongdoings, some he could vaguely recognize, some were completely unfamiliar to him.
Even his right eye changed to Sharingan as tears slowly began flowing out involuntarily. Fortunately for him, no one came to his room after hearing a little commotion.
"S-Shut up" Valdis muttered while gritting his teeth.
'Why should I let the weaklings like you, judge me?!' Valdis began overpowering the voices inside his head with his ideology which also helped to strengthen it. After a whole minute passed, Valdis finally stopped hearing voices so he slowly got up on his feet with closed eyes.
'Only strong can judge the others, power means everything no matter the world. Peaceful or violent world, it doesn't matter, if you are strong enough no one can judge you.' Valdis opened his eyes, revealing calm red eyes, however, this time not even Akame would be able to notice the minuscule change in them.
The entire experience was much more torturous than Valdis expected however he quickly discovered why.
---
[Name: Valdis
Unique powers: Sharingan (3 Tomoe)
Villainous Shop
Villain Points: 0
Consumption: Body Enhancing potion (5/50); Mind Enhancing potion (2/15)]
---
'I can only consume 15 of them?! Does that mean I drank almost one-fifth of the maximum available on my first try?! No wonder I felt like going mad...'
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After the dinner, the group who were present discussed two new requests from the Capital. One of them was a captain of the Imperial Police named Ogre and the other was an oil merchant named Gamal. Both of the targets had close ties, Ogre was accepting Gamal's bribes for his crimes while incriminating the others.
Upon hearing the details from Leone, Tatsumi gritted his teeth and started his "heroic" speech, making it hard for Valdis not to roll his eyes but for the appearance's sake, he just faintly smiled.
Najenda explained that it would be too dangerous to send Akame after Ogre since she was on the most wanted list of the Empire and in the end Tatsumi involuntarily volunteered by having too big of a mouth. Since the past few days, they have tested his strength so Najenda believed in Bulat's reports who was looking after Tatsumi's training.
"Well, looks like we will take care of Gamal!" Leone said with a cheerful tone, putting her arm around Akame's shoulder.
'Obviously, the most intelligent action would make Leone go together with Tatsumi to watch over him and Akame to go with me but I want to test how much those 2 potions strengthened my Sharingan.' Valdis thought with his eyes closed.
"Wait, I want to go take care of Gamal" Valdis spoke up after being quiet the entire time.
"Huh? Are you sure? I thought you would want to join Tatsumi. Gamal might be an easier target but only when it involves one's power. You will have to do more sneaking when it comes to Gamal." Leone asked with a confused expression.
"I don't think I am strong enough to take on someone like Ogre yet. However, if we are talking about stealth, I am very confident in this field. Otherwise, I wouldn't be a thief without a single wanted poster for so long. Please let me take care of Gamal" Valdis explained with a serious expression.
"...You aren't that weak, your body might not be strong enough to go head to head with Ogre, but fighting isn't all about physical strength." Akame strangely threw in a few words of comfort which shocked Tatsumi.
"Hey, wait! Why are you praising him and practically telling him he would succeed in killing Orge but when it comes to me, you are all doubtful?! What is this preferential treatment?!" Tatsumi shouted while pointing at Akame which caused Leone to giggle while covering her mouth.
Akame turned at Tatsumi with a dull expression which made him retract his pointing finger.
"He is humble and knows his weakness unlike someone else, however, I don't want him to be too hard on himself, he has great potential so it would be contradictory if he underestimated himself." Akame explained as if Valdis wasn't sitting at the same table.
"Ugh...You will see!" Tatsumi knew that what Akame said was right so he just said he is going to complete the mission without a fail. It also seemed to Valdis like a small rivalry was forming between him and Tatsumi which might not be exactly bad considering he wanted Tatsumi to grow stronger.
"Then it is decided! That means we have a free day, yaay!" Leone seemed really happy but that didn't last long as the mechanical hand fell on her shoulder.
"Forget about it, I have a different job for you!" Najenda said, dragging Leone away from the room.
"Nooo!" The trio could still hear her screams behind the door.
"...I shall get ready" Valdis got up and Akame nodded her head with what looked like an encouraging smile.
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Later that night, Valdis was walking down the street he would usually name the red-light district. He stopped in front of one pleasure house where he saw a single guard standing in front of the entrance so he decided to approach.
"Stop! This whole place is reserved, turn around and go find another brothel!" The guard shouted at Valdis who had a hood over his head. This was hardly a rare occurrence for the guard since he already chased away several drunk people, therefore he didn't find this suspicious in any way.
"You will do, please become my scapegoat" When the guard heard Valdis' voice, all hairs on his body stood on their ends, however, the moment he met Valdis's eyes, his entire body relaxed as an absent-minded look in his eyes appeared.
Valdis turned around and walked away and as he was approaching the opposite building, the guard entered the pleasure house. Valdis entered another pleasure house right across the street and reserved the room on the upper level where he ordered a bottle of wine.
Valdis looked out of the balcony with a wide smile as he saw the guard stabbing Gamal over and over into his fat belly inside the room of the pleasure house across the street.
"What is mister so happy about?" A beautiful blonde woman in a dress sitting next to Valdis asked with a sensual smile.
"How can I not be happy, having a beauty serving me a good wine?" Valdis gently took hold of her chin and asked with a grin.
'My Sharingan became much more powerful just from drinking those 2 potions. Right now, extracting information, removing memories or complete brainwashing should be available to me, at least against weaker opponents.
"Hehe, are you tempting me with that smile of yours, mister" The woman wrapped her arms around his neck and giggled.
"Haha, I am the real gentleman, I swear I won't lay my hand on your fair skin"
"...And what if I want to?" The woman pouted when she heard Valdis's words.
'...Why do women like smiles that are typically shown by those ugly evil people?' Valdis looked at the woman with a dull look in his eyes that he learned from Akame. He might have come here to relax a bit and enjoy the show of his target being killed and the victim of his genjutsu becoming a scapegoat for his target's death, however, he wasn't feeling especially horny.
[You have completed your mission, earning a bit of trust from Night Raid]
[Reward: 50 Villain Points]
'Looks like I found another way to earn some points, it's about the damn time since the points I am earning by being near the major characters decrease each day.'
"What a misfortune, I already swore and I am a man of his word, maybe the next time" Valdis replied with a faint smile, however, he didn't expect the woman to look at him with even more desire in her eyes than before.
At that moment, Valdis realized that he truly didn't understand women.
