8 Oarburgh

It took them several days of traveling outside of the Empire before arriving at the mountain range.

"Granny, what is your position in Oarburgh if there is that young leader?" Ink asked while glancing around, checking the trees surrounding the road.

"I am an advisor therefore my words do have some weight but I won't be able to help you much. You will most likely be treated quite badly at first, however, as time will pass by, they will come to recognize your loyalty. Having talented and loyal members is the most difficult thing to find, even the leader won't be able to deny your value. She has to change her ways or it could bring her doom, I hope you will be the first step towards that. For that...please bear with whatever they will throw at you." Babara said with a serious tone, hiding her worry for Ink.

"Ink?" Taeko who was peacefully listening called him out when she saw Ink suddenly stop walking while looking down at the ground.

"Hm?" Babara also stopped and turned her head towards Ink.

"Granny, maybe past few years I have changed a bit, however, please don't forget that I am traveling, training, and spending all my time with you because time flows much faster this way. Your missions bring some sense of purpose into my life. I have certainly grown from my old self but I haven't grown "soft"...if they will want to kill me, go ahead. Verbal abuse? I don't care what other people think or say about me. Physical abuse? I will be glad if they will make me feel pain enough for me to scream." Ink said while looking down.

"People usually fear death and pain...Why is that so? I have been thinking about this question over and over ever since I started doing those missions and this is the conclusion I have arrived at..." Ink raised his head and waited for a few seconds before continuing

"Without a death in mind, one cannot be said to be truly alive." Ink said with a blank expression and dull half-open green eyes.

'Phew, what a kid...' Babara became almost speechless from Ink's words while Taeko kept staring at him with wide-open eyes and mouth.

"Are you saying that you, who is feeling something between alive and dead killed people who were truly alive, enjoying their life?" Babara asked with a cold intrigued smile.

"How ironic, right? A bastard who is not valuing his own life is taking other people's lives and happiness from them." Ink closed his eyes and released a slightly vicious smiled before he resumed walking.

'Heh, previously I thought that this kid will most likely fit in with the rest of the organization but I had no idea he would particularly become such an oddball, however, the entire organization is filled with oddballs so it's plus for him. Hehe.' Babara thought with a pleased smile.

They continued walking through the mountains.

"Wait..." Ink stopped walking and said while glancing left and right with his eyes.

"Again? I know that I told you to always tell us as part of your training but as of now, your intuition was spot on in 80 percent of the cases." Babara said before even she finally felt that... After a few more seconds passed by, Danger Beast of similar form to lion appeared in front of them on the road.

"...Just a Class 2? How do they even survive here? Taeko, Ink..." Babara seemed disappointed, losing interest in the danger beast before calling Taeko and Ink's names.

"Yes!"

"Hm..."

Ink charged first with Taeko behind him. He was to serve as bait since he has yet to receive any good sword which is also one of the reasons why Babara chose to return.

The danger beast swiped its claws in a diagonal way after seeing Ink's speed and estimating his position, however, Ink abruptly stopped at a place with the claws missing his face by only a few inches, even a few of his hair got cut.

When the danger beast's attack missed, Ink kicked off the ground, thrusting his wooden sword into the beast's right eye, successfully plunging an inch of the wooden sword into the beast's eyeball.

*ROAR* The beast started wailing but it did not give up and tried to swipe its claws at Ink who was close enough by now, however before the claws could reach him, a flash of reflected sun appeared for a split second before the beast's leg dropped on the ground. Before the beast could recover from the shock, another flash appeared and the beast's head started rolling on the ground.

"Danger beast dispatched" Taeko said with closed eyes and a calm expression with the metallic sound of her sword returning to the sheath.

"Hmph...The audacity of you saying that you barely held back during our sparrings..." Ink said while glaring at her.

"Tehee, but it's the truth. This Danger beast was just too weak for us already." Taeko formed an awkward smile.

"Alright, stop the idle chatter lovebirds. We are almost there." Babara ignored them and went forward towards their destination, making Taeko and Ink look at her back with a confused look in their eyes before looking at each other for answers but when they saw that both of them are confused, they just caught up to Babara.

---

When they arrived near one of the mountains, they went down below the mountain through the hidden passage.

Ink was observing the interior of the hideout and found it quite large however it was to be expected since it was all built under the large mountain. The passage itself was wide enough for tens of people to walk next to each other.

It only took them a few minutes of walking before they started meeting other people, oddly enough, all of them were females wearing maid outfits.

"It's advisor Babara and her young disciple Taeko, they returned after such a long time but who is that with them...?" Several maids were whispering to each other with a hand over their mouths while occasionally looking at Babara's group.

*sigh* 'I knew this would have happened but it's still uncomfortable and it looks like they are far more surprised than I expected. There are also much more maids than the last time I was here...' Babara thought with a slightly annoyed expression, already expecting a troublesome situation.

'What a strange place...It feels like a wild animal being displayed to the public.' Ink thought with his blank expression while Taeko was looking worriedly at Ink's back.

---

"Taeko!" A girl a few years older than Ink jumped on Taeko, locking her arms around Taeko's neck while rubbing her cheeks against Taeko's.

"M-Mera-sama?" Taeko panicked a bit, not knowing what to do and in the end, she looked at Ink who was watching this in silence.

"Stop that, we have important matters to attend to." Babara frowned and said to interrupt them.

"Ah, advisor Babara or should I already call you granny Babara?" The girl said in a naughty manner with a smile on her face while hugging Taeko. However, when her eyes finally landed on Ink, her smile disappeared and she stopped hugging Taeko.

"Who is this?" The girl called "Mera" asked Babara with furrowed brows.

"My new disciple, I returned to inform everyone and get him a few things." Babara replied calmly while staring down at Mera as if to tell her not to cause any trouble.

'...I can't tell what he is thinking. I can't see a single emotion in his expression or his eyes...' Mera thought with narrowed eyes while observing Ink's blank expression and dull green eyes.

Merraid Oarburgh - Heiress and Leader to the Oarburgh Clan, being trained by them since early childhood. She had shown to have prodigal talent in martial and assassination arts up to where she could contend with one of the strongest martial artists at her young age completely barehanded. A few of her very useful skills she very much liked to take advantage of were Microexpression reading and Psychological reading. She was usually capable of seeing through people as if they were made out of glass, it only mattered whether the glass was clean and easy see-through or a bit dirty, however, upon seeing Ink today, she felt like she met someone made out of stone instead of glass. To her, trying to read Ink was like reading the thoughts of a dead person.

She hated this feeling!

"New disciple...huh?" Mera muttered with a particular smile and Babara already knew that she is planning something.

"Then let this leader test your skills!" Mera said and without further warning, she threw something at Ink's face.

Ink quickly tilted his head to the side while watching the thing fly past his cheek only by hair's breadth.

'Needle' Ink watched the needle past him before returning his sight in front of him just to see already fist in front of his chest.

*Bang*

Ink's body was thrown back, sliding on the ground several meters back while crouching down to stop faster by helping his legs with his right hand.

'Good distraction. She is far stronger than Taeko and she isn't even using any weapon other than that earlier needle. Nothing broke...can continue moving around unrestrained.' Ink raised his head, calmly staring at the girl a few meters away from him who was looking at him with slightly surprised eyes.

"Hee, you were able to tell the difference in our strengths just by feeling the pressure from my attack so instead of meeting me head-on, you jumped back to lighten the impact, saving your ribs from being broken." Mera said with a small intrigued smile while looking at Ink.

'...What's with that expression of his?! Even when I surprised him with that distraction, he hadn't shown a surprised expression. And even though my attack didn't break any of his bones, it must have hurt him quite a lot so why is he still calmly staring back at me with those dull green eyes?' Mera thought while gritting her teeth.

"Don't you think that's enough?" Babara asked with a cold tone.

"Why? It's only a friendly spar among the members of the same organization. Plus I have every right to test the members that you bring here despite me having faith in you." Mera replied with a sly smile before redirecting her gaze at Ink who was still crouching down with his right hand on the ground in front of him.

'It will be hard to hit him with the first attack with him being in that position.' Mera thought with narrowed eyes. She wasn't taking this "spar" seriously till now, either way, she knew that killing Ink wasn't an option here. Babara's silence only told her that she has permission to play around a bit but she still should hold back.

avataravatar
Next chapter