9 Lesser of Two Evil

Sujin is sprinting his way out of the market as his breath come short and shorter, he realized that he is more than afraid for his life. The encounter just now once again reaffirm that he is weak. His skill is not a battle skill, he got lucky, again. As he reflect on the battle just now he let out a weak smile due to the fact that his bluff works at the pretty lady.

The sun start to set, shown on the way back the town is getting quieter and quieter. The empty road and the orange glow seems to bring fear to Sujin. In a place where he is alone with no real allies yet he is weak. As the fountain come close to his view he saw the fountain where his party was set to gather. A little bit elated on the fact that he reached this placed he saw a bloody Baranda and Emery on her berserk mode with another 3 people near them.

Those 3 people are using the same cloak as the woman that called herself #21. It felt like a cold water is poured on his mind, Sujin pull out the metal skewer he got from the merchant on both hand to prepare for additional battle. As he come close to the party Baranda and Emery gave him a strange look as well as the 3 people that gives Sujin an inquiring look.

"Where is #21? " They asked Sujin

"Are you her accomplices ?!" Sujin took a step back and raise his hand to throwing stance.

"Wait boy, don't jump your gun yet. They explained the matter to me already. I guess its worth hearing" Said Baranda with strange calmness.

"Baranda you full of wound are you sure we can trust them to not continue ?!" Said Sujin persistently while still on battle stance.

"You think he is the only one with wounds ?!" said one of the cloaked man as a man with bald head open his cloak and showed Sujin his battered body. "That companion of yours is crazy we told him to stop so many time before he calmed down !" Complained the bald man.

"Enough #23, we know it is within his rights to do so. Anyway your name is Sujin right ? Where is #21 ? She should be the one that goes after you"

"Oh her ? I disabled her movement and run back here. She should still be in the market"

"Did you harm her ?" A feminine voice filled with killing intent came from one of the cloak man which opened her cloak not long after saying that. She was another beauty with purple hair and golden eyes, can't really see the legs or arms as the cloaks cover them. Looking at her Sujin conclude that she is related with #21 who attacked him earlier.

Having 2 of his party near him Sujin is a little bit braver than what he felt in the market earlier with a scoff he said "Not physically, but she maybe mentally harmed"

Hearing what Sujin said #22 flare up and got into attacking position before her leader once again raise his hand cutting her short out of attack. "Enough, he have enough justification to do so"

"So are you going to ever explain to me what is happening and why are you attacking us ?"

"Yes, we realized you are a summoned heroes from the bar. You guys seems to be clicking on an empty space. That action is only done by people with strange skill <Personal Interface> which only appear in summoned heroes"

"Oh so you are saying in this world summoned heroes is common occurrence ?" As Sujin questioned the group baring in mind he does have the same conclusion already.

"You are correct, we have a lot of summoned heroes their appearance brought both chaos and peace to our world. But more often that not they brought chaos. I do not know what is the god or goddess think of when they start sending children and teenagers with great power to our world, they are not known to be the most stable matter in the world, in fact they are rather unstable" a sigh escaped the cloaked man leader lips.

"We are getting astray, so can you tell me what is your objective in attacking me and my party ?"

"As you know the kingdom are summoning heroes with the intend of putting a slavery collar on them. While it is strengthening the overall power of the kingdom, their action are taking a toll on the people"

"What ? I saw the town it seems lively enough for me, the economy seems to be running well and the fact that the bar is populated seems to indicate that the people are well off"

"Do not forget the fact that you are standing on their capital, do you think a capital run by itself ? The backside of this capital tell a totally different story, life of a poverty and famine for the people simply for the sake of capital's glamorous life." The cloak man leader trembled while stating their situation.

"Still, it is a stupid behavior to run your test on summoned heroes inside the town. The guards could be anywhere"

"Humph, we have our way to do that without alerting them. That being said we tested you guys and we would like you to join our group of rebel to overthrow the kingdom. Despite our objective the three of you must have some sort of grudge with the kingdom right ?"

"I will need to talk with my group about this" stated Sujin briefly. He walked and pulled Baranda and Emery slightly further from the cloak man group.

"So Baranda, Emery what do you think ? They do not seems to be the most righteous group in the world, they do seems suspicious to me. In the first place, they seems to have intention on using the slave collar to us as well, if not for the fact that we won the fight that might be the case"

Baranda took a peek on the cloak man group before he gave out his piece "I'll say we join them. At least their causes has some justification. If needs arise we can fight them anyway" A grin escaped Baraka's mouth.

Sujin then looked at Emery, hinted that he wanted to hear Emery's opinion. "Let us go with them ! It's better than having the risk of being captured inside the town and they seems to have information"

Sujin nodded to the suggestion from his party members, he thought to himself that while it was not the ideal situation, they did not have the luxury of saying no to the situation due to their lack of knowledge on the world.

It's either follow them and be given information despite its truth, or stay in capital with high risk to scrounged for information themselves.

The party walked back to the cloak man group as they gave out their answer.

.....