Instinctual fear

[Chapter 78: Instinctual fear]

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"Very well, you understood everything, right?" A marine of high rank looked at the two marines in front of him and crossed his arms while looking at them with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes sir!"

"Pretty much...."

Seeing that both marines seemed to have understood, the man nodded his head in understanding. But seeing that this matter was a pretty dangerous one, he urged them to answer correctly one more time, just in case...

"Hmm... Then repeat everything I said from the beginning to the end. This is a very important matter, after all, I don't want you guys to get killed on your first day here..."

"We must not look at them straight in the eyes, and whenever they turn to look in our direction we must kneel and bow respectfully!!"

"We must not show any sign of hostility, and we must not speak to them directly..."

"And you have to protect them from any harm possible, otherwise things will get pretty bad, for everyone in this island that is... Very well, I think you understood properly. Now follow your new squad and make sure to not screw this over..."

"Yes Sir!!"

"Yes..."

And like that, both marines started walking hurriedly towards a small group of marines that seemed to have been waiting for them.

"Hey, Sid, how do you think the Tenryuubitos are going to be? As far as I can guess from the rules the captain gave us, they seem to have a pretty bad temper..." While both of them continued walking carelessly, Aveir turned to look at the seemingly more tired Sid that was walking beside him and asked him with a curious expression on his face. To which, the average-looking young man simply shook his head briefly before he then sighed in an exhausted manner.

"That's what happens when people hold too much power without any real purpose in mind... They become mindless bastards that do nothing but try to fulfill all their wishes without even caring about how do they affect the lives of others... They don't even consider others below them as people, but simple staircases that may help them accomplish what they wish." As Sid spoke, his red eyes glowed with a crimson light on them, and his voice became colder and colder with each second that passed.

"I didn't hear you, sorry, what did you say?" Aveir turned to look at him with a puzzled expression on his face, as Sid had talked a bit too low for him to hear.

"I think they are dumbasses" Sid just spoke some words before he then yawned exhausted without even caring about the tense expressions of everyone in the group of marines. Except for Aveir that is... he seemed to be the same as always.

"Oh" Aveir nodded and then continued looking around checking up on girls, trying to see whether one of them was looking in his way or not. Unfortunately for him, none were.

But before Aveir had time to sulk over his bad luck, one of their nearby companions elbowed them and whispered in a tense tone.

"We arrived, prepare yourselves!"

"Alright!" Aveir nodded with narrowed eyes, as he started looking in front of him in order to identify who was the Tenryuubito they had to protect for the time being.

"Hmm..." Sid simply nodded, as his gaze dozed off a bit into the air.

Finally, after some seconds more of walking, they all arrived in front of a fat and very bad-looking man wearing an astronaut-like suit, and a very strange haircut. He looked a bit annoyed by the arrival of the group of marines, probably because it took them a few minutes to get here.

"We greet San Charlos-sama!!"

"Good, let's go then. The auction will start in an hour or so, and I don't want to waste more time here with you commoners, I need to check out the nearby streets to see if there's someone worth becoming my slave..."

The marines obviously stiffened when they heard this, but most of them had already become accustomed to the horrible acts of these people, so they just gulped down their indignance, and nodded briefly before they started following behind Charlos.

He was constantly looking around to see if any of the nearby kneeling humans caught his attention, either to become his new chair or to become his fourteenth wife. Fortunately, none of the people there called his attention.

Aveir was looking at Charlos with narrowed eyes, and so was Sid... Well, not really. He was just looking at Charlos with a bored gaze, but his frown made him look angry and indignant... Fortunately for them, Charlos was too busy looking through the streets to notice both of their gazes.

It was then...

*Uwaaaaaah!!!*

The strenuous cries of a baby soon started echoing all around the street. Reaching the ears of Charlos, and making him frown enormously at the sudden appearance of the sound.

The parents who were trying to shut the mouth of their child looked in horror at the angry expression of Charlos, who was now looking at their baby with an annoyed gaze on his face, and his pistol on his hand.

"This sound is so annoying...! I will shut it right now..."

Charlos pointed his gun towards the baby and prepared to fire immediately. But right before the parents could try to protect their baby with their own bodies, suddenly someone moved between the family and Charlos.

"Aren't you one of those marines? Why are you trying to protect them? Hmm... I see... you must not want to see them get killed..."

The person in front of him did not say anything and instead continued looking into the air without even glancing back at Charlos.

"Tell me, what is more important... Your respect towards me? Or the lives of these filthy commoners that dared to injure my precious ears with the piercing screams of that disgusting baby?"

Charlos moved the gun towards the head of the man and grinned slightly seeing that the man was not moving at all. Everyone around was just watching with wide eyes at the sudden change in events. Especially the marines.

"O-oi Sid, stop that...!" Aveir, who saw that Sid was actually the man who was going to get shot in the head, tried to move towards him to stop him but was stopped by the other marines as they shook their heads telling him that it was useless.

"Trying to help him will only kill you... There's nothing we can do..." One of them whispered into Aveir's ears and made him widen his eyes in shock.

However, right as Aveir was about to ignore his companion's advice, the gun clicked slightly and touched directly the side of Sid's head. Indicating that it was ready to fire at any time now.

"I see you are not moving... Very well, then I will just kill you as well...!"

Charlos raised his voice in anger and looked directly into Sid's eyes, which for the first time in many seconds, were looking straight at him without hesitation.

When Charlos looked into Sid's eyes, he instinctually moved away his gun from Sid's head and started looking at his hand and gun with a puzzled face.

'No, what am I doing? It's not a good idea to do that... Let's just leave, I don't want to be here anymore...' Charlos thought, as he turned to look away once again, and started walking calmly as if nothing had happened.

Charlos brain, which was filled with murderous intent just a few seconds ago, had been completely reset and was now simply filled with expectation towards the Auction.

Sid, who was still looking at Charlos, sneered in a low tone, before he then yawned once again, and walked towards the group with the same frowning expression as always.

The technique Sid had used was actually simple. It was just a much more simple and weaker version of the usual Intimidation... Just like when you see a dangerous animal in a cage, your brain immediately sends signals to your body to not approach it because it's dangerous, and thus, it's not a good idea. Even if it actually caged.

In this case, it was very similar. Sid simply imprinted a natural fear into his brain using a much weaker version of Intimidation and made him instinctually think that shooting him was a really bad idea. Even if he was just a simple marine, and couldn't do anything to him.

It was not about making Charlos fear him, as he still considered him a simple marine in his mind. But to make his body instinctually fear him, even if his mind did not.

Thus, when he saw that he was about to shoot Sid, his brain immediately classified what he was about to do as stupid, and stopped him right away.

"Damn you scared me there Sid...! I guess the Tenryuubito decided to spare your life and that of the family... Try to not be so reckless the next time" Aveir appeared beside him, and sighed in relief seeing that Sid was completely fine even after what he had done so suddenly.

"Whatever, I just want to finish with this soon" Sid just nodded, before he then continued walking along with the speechless group of marines behind Charlos.

And like that, the small walk of Charlos across the city did not end up in a tragedy, unlike many of the marine superiors expected. And allowed the nearby people to live without guilt for another day.

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An hour after the event of the family happened, Charlos was finally guided towards the Human auctioning house, and Sid and Aveir were finally allowed to take normal jobs of marines of their rank before they were sent towards different parts across the Archipelago to make guard in case there were any dangerous pirates around, in which case they were instructed to alert the headquarters in order to send reinforcements and apprehend the pirates.

Aveir was sent towards the amusement park at Grove 32, where he could obviously try to pick up on some girls, while Sid was sent to a nearby shopping mall in Grove 30.

"The event starts in an hour or so... So I guess I have an hour to take a proper nap to recover my energies... Perfect I accept the challenge"

In the middle of the shopping mall, Sid pulled up a nearby chair and sat on it before closed his eyes and crossed his arms firmly. To the nearby people, Sid seemed to be meditating or thinking about something very deeply due to its continuous frown, but in reality, he had already fallen asleep a few seconds ago.

He developed this sleeping posture to make the people around him think he is still awake. Of course, the effect only lasts for the first ten minutes until everyone notices how he is not moving and there are even some snores coming from him. But it is still pretty effective to make his superiors think he is still working properly while he in reality he takes short naps during working hours.

Obviously, if someone tries to attack him or touch him during his sleep, his senses will rapidly wake him up and allow him to react in time to the attack. So he wasn't worried about getting kidnapped by strange guys on this island.

There were quite a few of them after all...

Now all he had to do... was wait until the hour came.

Nothing could happen during this hour that could disrupt his sleeping time... right?

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Somewhere near the shopping mall...

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"Robin! Isn't that a shopping mall?" A surprised Nami looked with expectation towards the shopping mall in the distance, before she then looked at Robin with a smile on her face.

"Hmm... it is indeed a shopping mall... Should we go there Nami? I've been certainly lacking clothes lately..." Robin nodded and smiled as well while she raised an eyebrow in wonder.

"Yeah! I bet there is a lot of things we need there. Camie, tell Luffy and the others that I and Robin will be heading towards that shopping mall to buy a few things. We will leave the coating to you guys!"

"Alright!" Camie just nodded cheerfully, before Nami and Robin started moving away in their bubble-bicycle, towards the same shopping mall where a certain young man was taking a nap.

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