19 Chapter 19 - Speech

In the morning at Maquarry City square, it's bustling with people waiting for a public speech about the murders that happened yesterday. Those who saw the murder scenes couldn't sleep because of gruesome images of families being tortured and murdered in cold blood before getting displayed around the city. They all have at least thought once "Are we going to be next?"

It wasn't a peaceful sight for Marc who was watching a good distance away while holding a blushing lady's hand. It was naturally Lisa who had used Transformation Magic on her self so people wouldn't recognize her, she's after all very famous both for her beauty, but mostly because of her wild temperament that's outside of the norm from the Heartfilia Family from the capital.

People were not calm at all, they yelled and pushed each other and demanding to get an explanation.

Suddenly people slowly began to quiet down when they saw the fat man who spoke arrogantly to Antonio yesterday. He walked slowly up the stairs to the stage and the people could hear a little creak sound from the wooden stairs because of the fat man's weight. When he reached the middle he turned around and looked at people with an arrogant look before rolling unfolding a piece of parchment where Marc's speech is written on. As Marc has to play bait, he can't be the one to give the speech and he doesn't have enough authority anyway so the fat man was chosen to do it.

"Ahem, first to the people of Maquarry City who have lost family members yesterday day, I'm terribly sorry for your loss…" the fat man went quiet for a few seconds before proceeding.

"No matter how much we wanted to reunite your families again, we, unfortunately, can't do that. But what we could do is catch these damned murders who took your family from you, and we already caught these scum. Bring them in." He said the first part with a sullen expression and a sorry voice, before shifting to one with vigor and righteousness voice that made the people heated and those who lost important ones looked at the stage with hatred. They wanted nothing more than ripping the heads of the murders who was brought in by some of Genno's men.

"Arrrg I'm going to kill you!!!" An old man who was right in front of the stage ran forward with a knife with rage and sorrow, wanting to kill the people who killed his daughter and grandchildren. But he was quickly stopped by two knights who effortlessly unarmed him and escorted him to the back of the crowd without hurting him much.

"Kill them, Kill them, Kill them…"

"Kill them, Kill them, Kill them…"

"Kill them, Kill them, Kill them…"

People began yelling the same thing over, and the fat man just let them be for some time because he knew he couldn't make them quite without letting them release some of their pent up anger. After 10 minutes of yelling, they went quiet and realized the speech wasn't done.

"I have been thinking about what makes me a human? Is it because my father and mother gave life to me? Is it because I have passions or feelings? Is it because I'm blessed with a conscience so I can stand here and bring these inhuman beings here in front of you and bring justice to you?" The fat man stopped and took a breather after speaking with high intensity.

"I think all of them is what makes me human, and I have realized that these scum aren't human, and no, they aren't even worth being called demons. These people would take great pride in being called evil, demons, devil, or animals. No, they aren't worth shit, because they are just farts who can't do anything. Although the next part I'm about to say may hurt the victims' relatives, I hope you don't take offense from me and these brave knights around you who risk their lives to keep you safe, even though we failed at it yesterday. I'm terribly sorry." Fatty bowed to the people and abounded his pride so the people will take sympathy with him. And they did because they began yelling to go on with the speech because it touched most people, especially those who didn't lose anything yesterday other than sleep.

"Don't mistake me for insulting these farts, I'm describing them for what they are, nothing and nothing more. From what our city's great Major investigated, is that these people's skills that they take so much pride in, is nothing more common than a random rock we have in our great city. In fact, they are just the dust that remains of them when they are being cut out. They are so delusional that if you got a Jewel every time they thought they were experts at their work, then you all would be the richest people in the world!"

"Unfortunately we haven't been able to track where they came from but we know their objective is to scare you and make you stop working for the Calcul-Stone Company, crippling our great city's tax before our strong country goes to war again. We don't know who gave birth to such disgusting beings, but we do think that whoever gave birth to them must have dropped them a few times."

Fatty then turned and looked at the scapegoats and said with a serious tone, high enough so everybody could hear it, even those who have troubles with hearing. "Criminals, keep rolling your eyes. Maybe you will find a brain back there. I would love to insult you but I'm afraid I won't do as a good job as nature did making you look worse than a donkey's ass. It isn't worth it wasting rotten tomatoes as they can be used as fertilizer, so we will use rocks. Remember I wasn't insulting you, I was describing you and stating a fact!"

When the fatty reached the end of his parchment, a hidden fold he didn't know about suddenly unfolded and he just began reading it after raising his eyebrows in surprise. "To show my condolences, I Master Fatman, have decided to sponsor a festival in the city so that everybody can eat the good food that I obviously have eaten too much of…." Fatty suddenly stopped reading and he began shaking and sweating after realizing what he just said.

"I have been had. Which motherfucker did this- You!!!" The fatty thought before suddenly realizing something and his eyes darted around and landed on Marc who's holding an over-average beauty in one hand and the other was stopping his mouth from laughing.

"That son of a bitch. This will cost a fortune, and if I get too stingy people will look down on me. Now that I have already said it, I can't take it back…Wait Master Fatman? NOOOOO!!!" The now called Master Fatman thought before the people saw him tearing up. The people took it as he was crying for them and felt crushed for their loss. Those who didn't lose any acquaintances began clapping while the victims' friends and family began crying together with Master Fatman.

After he sobbed a little he just wanted to finish this speech and strangle the kid who made his fortune bleed. This time he read the last of the speech first before reading it out loud to make sure nothing else will happen.

"The festival will happen in two weeks, you are now free to stone these criminals to death and let all your grievances out before the festival where we will all say goodbye to the deceased." And Master Fatman walked off the stage before most people began happily throwing stones at the four criminals Genno chose from the city's prison.

…

In the crowd are two angry men who saw the speech unfolding while being disguised as normal citizens of the city. They were so angry that they almost began randomly killing the people who bumped into them.

"…"

"…"

They were deadly silent but their veins on their arms were threatening to explode. The worst thing was that they were forced to throw stones too at the criminals who murdered people yesterday, which they know better than everybody else that it was themselves who did. If they didn't throw stones they would stand out which they didn't want to, so they were forced to throw the stones which felt like throwing stones in their own faces for some reason.

They truly felt humiliated. People used to fear them and call them monsters but this Master Fatman took that joy away from them and even said they were dropped when they were born and looked like a donkey's ass. It wasn't that bad at the beginning of the speech because they usually don't care if they win in the end, but suddenly this Master Fatman decided to hold a festival making most of the citizens forget about them. Their mission to make the citizens afraid of going out has failed and their pride got trampled upon.

"…Leader…." The usually cheerful assassin had a very dark face right now. He was actually the proudest of his art he made that Marc and Rofta saw where a pregnant woman was speared with two babies from the back.

"…Keep throwing….." Ordered the leader with a dark face of his own.

…

When Master Fatman walked off the stage and the majority began celebrating and throwing stones with a smile, he couldn't stop himself from laughing anymore after hearing what Lisa said.

"That surprised me. He's usually so stingy with his money, and since when did he call himself Master Fatman?" She said with a confused expression.

"Hahahahaha…" Marc laughed and laughed while almost hanging on Lisa's arm so he wouldn't fall on the ground.

"What are you laughing about? Do you know what's going on? The last part about the festival wasn't written on the parchment I read!" Lisa asked curious about what's going on and couldn't help pulling Marc's hand to indicate to him that she wants to know.

"Hehe, curious huh?" Marc teased.

She blushed a little and wanted to refute but she also wanted to know, so she just nodded.

"It costs a kiss on the cheek!" Marc shamelessly stated his price for the information.

Her face turned crimson and smoke came out of her head and she stuttered cutely "I-I-I-I I'm not ready yet!!"

If it was any other man that said something so brazen, he would for sure be forced to retire as a mage with multiple injures, but somehow this little man managed to leave a good impression on her…somehow.

"Hehe, I'm just kidding~ I folded the parchment in a special way to hide a section of the speech that will unfold itself if by chance that fatty held the parchment in a specific way. He could have avoided it if he read it before reading it out loud but he didn't, so now we're going to have a festival. Yay." Marc explained his little scheme that nobody knew off, not even Rofta. He unknowably made the assassins' hate reach the peak just because the fatty announced a festival. Marc didn't intend to piss the assassins of with it, he just wanted to mess with this arrogant fatty. It wasn't because he was jealous of the fatty's money…not all no….okay yes.

"Fufufufu…" Lisa couldn't help laughing after hearing that. It was just a shame she had used Transformation Magic on herself to look a little over average in looks or she would be more stunning than Demeter from DanMachi.

***

(A/N: It was pretty hard writing this speech, and I'm sorry if it was bad but this was the best I could come up with right now. But I hope it made you laugh a little 🤪🤪🤪)

(Words: 1981)