Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Sixteen

I ONCE CARED

"Mommy, is it really alright?"

"Yes sweety, it'll all be fine."

These types of words were constantly being exchanged by friends, family, companions, and so on. Ever since the final battle between the King and heaven broke out, the continent of Caldessia had been in a constant lockdown.

The battle lasted for two days, and in that time, the king slaughtered so much that mountains of bodies were built up. It was rumored that the final strike was a lucky shot from one of the angels that ripped the king's head right off, but nobody knew the truth.

Around ten percent of the continent had collapsed into the ocean surrounding it, never to be seen again, or at least within this time period. All of the land that belonged to the native tribes that weren't human, such as giants, succubi, minotaurs, and so on, had been fully erased.

"Hey, get back into your homes, quickly!"

As for the nations, all of them had gone into a full lockdown. Curfew were set, and panic was constantly around every corner and alleyway. The Gratnian kingdom, which was still missing a head figure ever since the late king was murdered, weren't doing as well as the other kingdoms lockdown-wise, but they were still fine.

It had been two months since the battle, but society was still terrified. History tended to repeat itself, but this case was quite severe, even for such a thing.

As for Dionysus . . .

"The usual cocktail?"

"Yeah."

He had fallen quite a way. From master of a dungeon to a bartender, he had seen many things. He was currently keeping his head down during the current predicament, as he didn't want to get involved anymore.

His usual golden eyes and black, short hair stayed with him, and so did his fashion sense of black jeans and a vest. Physically, he seemed no different from the version of him from four years ago.

Mentally, however, was a completely different thing. He refused to fight anymore, and for that reason, he was constantly targeted by bullies for things such as money, free drinks, and so on. He didn't mind any of the things happening to him, as he really did feel as if he deserved everything going wrong for himself.

As for his friend, Silhouette, it left him two months ago after running all the way to Eternetalia, the capital of the empire. Ever since it dropped him off at the entrance to the capital, he had made absolutely no contact with it. At this point in time, he couldn't summon it even if he mustered all of his will.

"Your shift is done, rookie, go ahead and get out."

The owner of the bar he was working for walked in through a door at the back of the bar. He was a bald man with quite the beard to him, and he was also quite tall and beefy, but there wasn't much special to him.

"Yes, sir."

Dionysus lifted the only gate that led behind and out of the counter and walked past the owner and out the back door he had entered from. After coming out, he was met with the wall of another building.

The back door led to an alleyway in which a person could either turn left or right, both of them leading into a different street. As for Dionysus, he took the left path and walked out onto the street, where it was rare to see people these days. However, it was very common to see people looking down at him through their windows.

Fear had become wide-spread in this day and age, and everyone was wary of everything. The majority of people still out on the streets either looked shady, delinquent-like, or something else. The occasional normal person could be seen roaming the streets, but they'd most likely just be leaving their homes for quick business before heading back.

'I wonder what would've happened if I'd stayed . . .'

Dionysus reached down into the pockets of his pants and pulled out a pipe, the type with which someone can smoke. He put some tobacco that he had bought just yesterday and took a puff of it, only to end up . . .

COUGH COUGH

. . . like that.

'I've been trying to get into it for a month now, but my body still isn't used to it . . .'

He slumped against a wall out in the street before sliding down and taking a seat on the ground. He continued to smoke with the pipe while on the ground, looking up at the cloudy skies. It looked as if it was going to rain, but that didn't really matter to Dionysus.

He had absolutely no home. Every night, he'd sleep out in the open, susceptible to a mugging or something else. He could get a really cheap apartment at the outskirts of the city, but the bar he worked at was near the center, and he didn't feel like making a two hour long commute every day to get to his job.

He had nowhere near the amount of confidence he had in the past. He was a shell of his former self at this point, and no allies were to be seen. Cerberus was off in a location that Dionysus didn't know about, Silhouette had left him and was nowhere to be seen, and as for the king . . .

HAH

Dionysus sighed. As for the king, he was most likely dead. At first, Dionysus hated him for taking away his life and giving it to another soul. However, as his final moments with the king began to approach, he began to understand his true motives for everything. In the end, the king wanted Dionysus to pick up his baton, which Dionysus never did.

'I . . . don't know what to think about him anymore.'

To this day, Dionysus still wondered if it was the right thing to do when he ran away from the final battle. At the time, he was scared of what was going to happen, and immediately fled the scene. Nonetheless, every now and then, Dionysus wondered if he could have helped if he had stayed.

"Of course, it's only me letting my imagination run wild. After all, I refuse to fight."

Dionysus continued to smoke with his pipe for some more time while sitting against the wall. He had nothing else to do anyway, so it really didn't take up any time needed for something else. Basically, his schedule was always open besides for work.

"Hey, look guys, it's our wallet!"

A teenage delinquent that was walking down the street with his group pointed at Dionysus, and the others also noticed him. They all looked at each other and snickered while surrounding Dionysus, who was still sitting down and smoking. He didn't have a care in the world, much less about the people in front of him.

"Come on man, lend us some more money! We know you have it on youuuuuu!"

The main delinquent, a blond, tall guy with green eyes who wore a business suit, stuck his tongue out at Dionysus at the end of his sentence as a way to mock him.

". . . just take the money and head out."

Dionysus took his wallet out of his right pocket and threw it at the blondie, who juggled it a bit by accident before catching it.

"Heh, you're the nicest old man in this city. I swear, I wish others would take after you!-~"

In a clearly mocking manner, the blond delinquent said all of this while taking all of the cash that Dionysus had on him out of his wallet. After doing so, he threw it back at Dionysus, who still didn't care about any of it.

"Yo, Tom, you sure he ain't actually dead or something? I mean, just look at those fish eyes! Creepy!-~"

A small goon, the runt of the group, also mocked Dionysus, and the others all laughed. They were all teens who wore business suits, the reason for which Dionysus couldn't deduce. He thought it had something to do with wanting to attract females or something, but he didn't actually know.

"Yo, old man. You've always given us our due without rebelling, unlike other guys, so you've always gotten off scotch-free. But, but but but, I just lost big-time at poker, and I'm kind of mad about that. Do you mind if I beat on you, just a bit?"

The main one, that Dionysus now knew was called Tom, was clearly aiming to provoke Dionysus, who still had a dead look on his face as he continued to smoke. This pissed off Tom, who was finally expecting to beat up Dionysus, who he considered arrogant and cocky.

"Oi, you fucking with us old man?! Don't disrespect us, we'll mess you up!"

Tom, who had never been so hostile to Dionysus, surprised even the rest of his gang, who stared at him for a bit before. However, as all delinquents do, they joined in on the abuse, constantly verbally abusing him. However, none of them dared to actually physically abuse him. After all, if Tom, their leader, didn't act first, then they might be severely punished.

"If you want to beat me up, go ahead."

Dionysus said this while coughing out some smoke.

'Crap, how do some people get into this stuff?'

He couldn't quite understand how to adapt to it so that he wouldn't cough, but he refused to give up.

Meanwhile, the delinquents all seemed to be getting a bit angry. Some of them were looking down on Dionysus while cracking their knuckles, while some of them were whispering to Tom about beating Dionysus up.

'I can see and hear all of it, you know . . .'

Dionysus didn't know why, but one day, he just understood everything. That day happened to be in the sixteenth year that he was stuck in the alternate dimension with the Chained King, whose fate was still unknown.

'It felt as if I understood everything there was to this world . . .'

Even now, when he looked at the delinquents now, he could hear and see through them. For example, if he were to look at Tom, he could naturally see that the only reason he acted like a delinquent was to maintain his place in society as an apex predator. Dionysus could also see many of his secrets, such as him murdering his girlfriend by accident.

'Ah, they've decided to lynch me.'

He already saw it coming.

"Alright gramps, we've decided we want some fun. Maybe if you kowtow, we won't do any-"

WHA-PAM

Dionysus didn't attempt to fight back for even a second. His head was immediately on the ground, and at a speed that sent many of the delinquent's hats flying with the burst of wind. The ground that he slammed his head in had also been cracked quite a bit, which was quite the spectacle.

"What the . . ."

This was the reaction of many of the delinquents there, or something along these lines, at the very least.

"Tom, I don't think we sho-"

"SHUT UP! We're the superior people here, so act like it!"

Many of the people who were about to lynch Dionysus now didn't want to, just because of his show of power. While they didn't know too much about the world, they knew abilities were a thing people had, as some of them even had some.

'Shit, this feels so good!'

Tom was exhilarated at the thought of making other people bow to him, so he was quite excited at the spectacle before him.

"Well, at least you know your place in society. Since you're acting like this, I'll let you off with only a single kick for being a good dog!"

Tom gestured for the others to get out of his way, which was in front of him. While all the others had surrounded Dionysus, Tom stood at the back. The others thought this was to show that Tom was their leader, but Dionysus could see the truth.

'He's afraid of being in danger, that's why he stays back.'

Tom was a fragile man to Dionysus, the most fragile out of all the teenagers in front of him. However, he must have had something that would allow him to be the leader of a gang.

'Alright, I'm gonna pretend like I'm just kicking him once, but I'll poison him and make it so that he can never stand against us again.'

'Huh, his thoughts?'

Dionysus made odd facial expressions, which caught the attention of some of the gangsters.

"Yo, you try to say something you punk?"

"Tom, beat the shit out of him, I think he's lowballing us."

"Sorry."

Dionysus apologized for his actions, but he was still on the topic of what had happened. He had always been able to tell the intentions of people for a while now, but it was never to the degree of actually reading thoughts.

'I thought that this was just a skill I had developed in the thirty years that I spent in that dimension, but no skill lets someone actually read another person's mind.'

Dionysus didn't even have to think about it for a second before understanding what was going on.

'Huh, guess I awakened.'