28: Underground Fighting Ring

"Marshall, Can I ask why you took that money?" Kei asks in a warm voice to ease the tension that was building up on Marshall's face. Then Marshall whispers something that Kei wasn't able to understand and asked to tell again. "I'm an underground fighter, ALRIGHT!" Marshall is ashamed to admit that he was an underground fighter and he looks up to see Kei staring at him with a confused gaze "An Underground Fighter?"

Marshall is shocked for a second and thinks 'He doesn't know what an underground fighter is?' but then Marshall thinks 'I guess it makes sense, I mean look at him it does seem like he grew up in a decent family so why would he know what an underground fighter is. Now it will be even more embarrassing for me to explain what an underground fighter is.' Marshall takes a deep breath in and asks Kei "You do know that F and E-ranked hunters do not earn much in raiding the dungeon right?" and Kei nods and Marshall continues "I am an orphan but I do have one younger sister. Her name is Mia and to support her and me I went to dungeons to earn some money for us but as I am an E-rank hunter and was very young to participate in many E-rank dungeons, I didn't earn much raiding the dungeon. Then one day some people came to me and asked me to participate in underground fighting but they told me that I only have to beat some people in a fight and I would earn a huge sum of money and that time I was running out of cash so...." "So you took their offer and went with them to participate in this underground fighting." Kei sighed finished Marshall's sentence and he nodded at that.

"So let me ask you, Marshall, for how long have you been fighting in this underground fight?" Marshall puts his head down even and whispers but this time Kei heard it. "Two years! What is your age right now?" and Marshall says "I just turned nineteen this year." and Kei shouts "What were you thinking when joining the underground fight!? You weren't even an adult at that time!" Marshall could only bow his head more and say "I am sorry."

Kei takes a deep breath in and says "I shouldn't have said that to you as I am not close with you. I am sorry." but Marshall "No, the thing you said was right even though you're not close with me."

Kei smiles at that and then he asks "How much money do you have to pay to him?" and Marshall says "One hundred thousand dollars." and Kei is shocked and he asks "Marshall, why did you take such a huge amount of loan?" and Marshall quickly defends himself "I didn't take a loan. I asked Vincent to place a bet on me saying that I would win the match against my opponent but I lost and now Vincent is asking me to compensate him as he lost a huge amount of profit." hearing this Kei gets a little angry and he says "I am going to contact the Hunter's association and ask them to look into this and close this underground fighting for good." and he gets up thinking 'Who knows, how many people have suffered like Marshall at this underground fighting. I have to do something about it.'

But he stops when he hears Marshall saying "You can't." and he asks Marshall "Why not?" and Marshall looks at him with an angry glaze and says "Because Hunter's Association are the one who is running this underground fighting." hearing this news Kei is shocked and Marshall"You ever wondered how the Hunter Association got so much funding? Did you think it was from the government? Hell NO! Around sixty percent of their finances come from this. S and SS-RANK Hunters manage these things so you can't dismantle them."

Kei is shocked hearing all of this revelation and a sudden thought comes to his head 'Do Seraphina and Vector know about this?' but he shakes his head and thinks 'Even if they participate in these things I can't do anything to them for now. Let's just focus on Marshall.'

"Okay if I can't do anything about the underground fighting ring then at least I can go and beat up this GoldStrider." and he pops his knuckles. "They know the location of my younger sister, so if they know that I did something bad to them then they would capture my sister." and Kei turns to him and passes him a smile while he opens a drawer "Don't worry." and he takes out a black mask and wears it and his eyes starts to glow red. "They wouldn't be able to connect me to you. If you're still worried then go and bring your sister here. But I suggest that you don't do anything suspicious because they might suspect that you are doing something. Now tell me where the underground fighting ring is situated?"

Marshall is stunned by Kei and he asks in a shaky voice "Why are you doing this?"Kei looks at him and says "Because I can see some of my past self in you. I lost my parents five years ago and I became an orphan. I wasn't awakened at the time so I had to struggle a lot to make money and I would do anything to earn money just like you. That's the reason I am helping you." but Kei thinks 'I skipped one part from you Marshall and that was that I was and still am very ill.'

"Now, hurry up and tell me the location of the underground fighting ring otherwise how would I take revenge for you?"