Chapter 6: The call.

".....alright". Raaz said as he walked towards the pinned Levi, not minding the rude Jeff's tone.

Jeff signaled to his subordinate to get off of Levi so Raaz could do what he wanted, but the foolish idiot of a subordinate did just that.

As he lifted his hands off of Levi's shoulders and stood up, Levi followed suit and attempted a last ditch effort to try and escape from his current predicament.

He stood up quickly and tried to run away, there was another person blocking his escape route but he was confident in being able to manuver past him. But his pipe dream ended almost as soon as it started with a single punch to the cheeks, sending Levi straight back to the floor.

"Fools! You..". Jeff said while pointing to one of the men.

"You can use earth magic. Don't just stand there and bind this f*cker to the ground!" Jeff roared, a little too loudly for a mercenary involved in a hidden ambush.

"S-sir!" The other man saluted then immediately went to work.

He stretched out his arms and started gathering mana. He muttered some unintelligible words, which were actually just the spells chant, before shouting the spell's name.

"Earth bound!" The man shouted.

Immediately afterwards, mana moved through the ground and the earth beneath Levi changed shape and straight up strapped him to the ground.

His four limbs were all bound as well as his chest and waist, just in case.

"Argh..." Levi let out a groan as he struggled to free himself from the Earth's firm grasp.

'ugh....I need to get out of this somehow.....' Levi struggled and struggled, but try as he might he wasn't able to break the restraints due to his exceedingly poor physique. That'll teach him to excercise more.

Raaz looked back at Jeff, seeking a confirmation and was responded by a short nod. Raaz turned his gaze back to the earth bound Leone and a smile drew itself on his face. A very..... mischievous smile.

"...you know...I've waited so long for this...". Raaz said, then knelt down directly above Levi's body and stared straight into his eyes.

"...even now, your eyes don't have any fear in them, like you're used to this kinda sh*t. But I'll change that, right here, right now". He said while sticking his arms into the pockets of his retched trousers.

He brought out a small pouch. The pouch was brown in colour and looked extremely worn out. Raaz dipped his arm into the pouch and retrieved the items which were stashed in there.

They were two brass knuckles. He wore them on both his hands then slammed them together threateningly. It wasn't all that threatening though as a man who was clearly malnourished and looked like he could die at any point in time could never make someone like Levi even bat an eye.

Yet, he did. Levi's face had lost a bit of it's calm, his eyeballs were now frantically searching for a possible escape route, but it was all for naught. Levi had a very good idea of what was about to go down.

"I 'borrowed' these from my friend without asking. Hope I'll be able to put it to good use". Raaz said, the smile on his face widening to the point that it was just below his ears.

"This...this, is payback!" Raaz shouted as he raised his fist and slammed it into Levi's nose, instantly destroying it.

*BAM*

"Urgh!" Levi shouted as the pain of a broken nose assaulted him, he wanted to caress the broken organ but the restraints weren't so generous so as to let him do that, and the feeling was excruciating.

But it didn't stop there, as Raaz continued throwing powerful punches to his face, injuring quite a few important facial components and sending Leone's teeth flying.

*BAM* *BAM*

The beat down continued for five more minutes before Jeff hurriedly dagged him off of Levi's body.

"Oi! What the f*ck do you think you're doing?! You could have killed him!" Jeff screamed at Raaz.

"Even though it's dark horse guild, I don't think I have enough value under my name to escape unscathed after being involved in the death of the count's son. No, screw unscathed, getting decapitated would be a mercy!!" Jeff shouted angrily at his client, raising his voice to high proportions.

Raaz, who had been eagerly awaiting this moment for the almost a month now didn't exactly appreciate the mercenary ruining his fun. The retched man's ego wouldn't let it go and another argument ensued.

Meanwhile, laying on the floor with a horribly beaten and battered face, was Levi. His malice was unfanthomable.

'dark horse guild huh....I'll destroy you.......I'll eliminate all of you from the face of the earth, I swear it!' Levi thought while fuming internally. Though he wasn't sure how he would achieve this feat just yet.

"Hey! The noise is coming from over here, hurry!" A voice echoed.

Jeff and Raaz immediately understood what this meant and decided it was time to make their escape.

"You release the spell, and c'mon let's get out of here". Jeff said in a voice little more than a whisper and turned heel.

The man in question immediately released the 'earth bound' spell and ran after the other escaping men.

"Hold on!" Raaz exclaimed as he went to the unmoving body of Levi's.

He dipped his hands into Levi's pockets and took ALL of his money. Raaz himself was quite surprised at the amount that Levi was holding, but the surprise died down as soon as he remembered Levi's status, leaving only joy and excitement on his face.

"Jackpot! Looks like I hit the mother lode!" Raaz said while running after his long escaped accomplices, cash in hand.

'no! At this rate, their just going to escape. I can't...ugh, I can't move!' Levi thought as he watched the five men escape.

"Hey look at this... A kid!" An unrecognizable voice shouted while pointing at Levi who was still on the floor.

'what! How did he end up here?" Another voice asked his partner.

"I don't know. Let's help him".

And so the two men carried Levi on their backs and took him to the nearest clinic.

***

'f*ck!' Levi shouted inwardly as he walked down the open street. His face was a covered in bandages, his eyes were swollen and his mouth was missing a few teeth.

After the incident, the local knights rushed Leone to the hospital and after confirming his identity, they contacted the Swordhearth family.

Their reaction to Levi suffering grave injuries was the same you'd expect from a sh*tty family who hates their kid just because he's untalented. They were indifferent. They didn't care so much that they only sent Levi's personal servant, Mariam, to go fetch him.

After getting treated, Levi had snuck out of the clinic to the dismay of the knights and doctors, who were expecting some sort of reward for saving their son. But Levi knew the truth, he was actually just a nuisance to his parents and they cared for him little more than the random servant.

'damn. My nose hurts like hell! Argh'. Levi complained inwardly.

'i wish I could use magic dammit! I'd cure an injury like this in no time at all!' Levi thought to himself. He was a realist and as such, wasn't a fan of wishful thinking. But he couldn't help those once in a while wishes to become a relevant person.

Levi had the desire to experience every part of life which he missed out on during his time on his former world on this one, but due to his lack of talent, more than half of those desires were shattered.

Levi didn't know why, but he had a curiosity towards magic and always snuck into the library to read a few things concerning the subject. But that was all he ever did, read. His inability to practice what he had learnt made the learning process faulty. Since he'd always just get mocked for going to the home library by his family, reading couldn't become a habit for Levi.

His inability to practice the art made his curiosity as fleeting as a child's dreams.

'It's kinda strange. According to webnovels, once you got reincarnated in another world you're destined to be a genius at magic or you'll get a system, but I'm the exact opposite'. Levi pondered his luck.

'what the hell am I thinking, I'm not some overly lucky genius protagonist...'

Without an affinity, one could never manifest mana or perform magic. Only sense it, and Levi couldn't even do that yet.

'....i'm just useless....whether it's my past life or this one. Doomed to forever be irrelevant to the people around me'.

Levi was in the middle of his self deprecation when he heard a voice.

'come'. The voice said, firmly.

It sounded like a male's voice as it was somewhat deep. But the tone was similar to that of a woman's, very welcoming.

'what! Who's there?' Levi said while looking around for the person who called out to him, whoever they were.

'come'. The voice called a second time, not answering Levi's question.

'i asked, who the hell are you?!' Levi screamed. He was now frantically turning his head to find the source of the sound, the action alerted the nearby passersby, prompting them to maintain a safe distance from a potentially insane person.

It was normal for them to think of him that way.

After waiting for a little while more, the voice didn't come again. Levi thought that it had stopped.

'What the hell was that? I think I'm losing it'. Levi thought while holding his head and massaging his temples, he truly believed that he was losing his sanity.

'but the voice....it..it sounded do real'. Levi still had doubts.

All his doubts were confirmed as the voice rang out a third time, but this time it added a few more.....interesting words.

'come. Oh inheritor of the legacy of shadows.'