Burning the tongue

His eyes showed a cold intent as he stared into the eyes of Hudson, "And just a week ago, I met up with this Hero Jade. He seemed intent on taking my partner and also wanted to kill me. Tell me, should I just stand there to take his attack head on and not retaliate? I apologize but I am not that good."

Hudson was silent for a period of time before he said, "I admit that you shouldn't stand there without retaliating but killing was too much. You should have captured him and made sure he couldn't use magic."

"Sir Hudson… Do you happen to have a brother?" Saito questioned him with a straight look over his face.

Hudson was incredibly puzzled and asked him, "Yes, but why are you asking me?"

Saito further questioned him, "Do you love him?" Hudson's reply was of course a "Yes."

Saito suddenly started to chuckle darkly and said, "I was thinking of selling your brother in the slave market tomorrow. I think he will fetch a good price with the position you are on."

Suddenly, Hudson's face lost the smile and he released a huge killer intent, it seemed to pressure almost everyone who was sitting in the room except a few people, "What did you say hero Axel!?"

Saito wasn't affected by this killer intent and coldly replied, "I wonder, are you thinking of capturing me alive at this point? I don't think so, with the killer intent being released from your body. That was what Hero Jade did, he wanted to sell my partner to the Union in order to gain contribution points. Now, think of what I felt at that point. I did give him a chance to stay alive but he used one last ditch effort to kill me but that obviously failed and now he is dead."

Hudson had a strange look at being used as an example by Saito. He brought another point to which almost every council member in the room agreed to, "What did you do with the body of the Hero Jade? Why did it explode in the council room?"

A chuckle started to resound within the room, every council member was wondering why was he laughing like that and he answered before they asked him the question, "I didn't think you would actually investigate the corpse in the council room. What were you even thinking by observing his corpse with magic? What did you expect to find? A diamond?"

With a casual look, he said, "In my defense, I did inform the leader of that camp to inform you not to send your magic within the corpse. Not heeding my advice resulted in the explosion. You can't blame me for that."

In the end, Saito shrugged his shoulders. Suddenly someone stood up and asked him with a sneer, "Previously you said that you killed Hero Jade because he wanted to sell your partner Joergen, I imagine it was the beast on which you rode here. Are you telling me that you killed a human because of a beast? How can you even think that a beast is qualified enough to be a human's partner?"

Saito tilted his head towards that guy, this was a person of similar age as himself, "Who are you again? Don't you understand that when two intellectuals are talking, one shouldn't interfere in between?"

The guy spoke out loud, "Did you forget already Axel? I am Tanjiro Daishi… And did you just call me stupid?"

Saito quickly gave out his reply, "Took you a long time to understand that. Now just shut up before I make you."

One more of them stood up with a dignified look, "Axel, that is no way to talk to your classmate. He is certainly right, there is no way you can compare the life of a human to that of a beast. Apologize to him now."

Saito gave him a look of disdain, "And who do you think you are, the class monitor? Just remain seated there as you have been doing. It would be better for you."

His name was Kumiko Yasui, he was someone who had quite a lot of feelings for his classmate Chloe Morgan. There was just no way would she ever see someone other than Saito, and now that the opportunity presented itself, he wanted to show Chloe that Saito wasn't as good as she had initially imagined.

He never thought that Saito would speak to him with such a tone and not give him even a hint of respect in front of the whole council.

Saito thought gave him a disgusted look and continued speaking, "As for that statement that the life of humans and beast isn't equal. That's true…"

Seeing him agree to it so readily, a victorious smile appeared on Hudson's face. However, the smile vanished when he heard Saito's next words, "… because Joergen's life is obviously more important to me."

Another one of his classmates snorted before he started speaking, "What's so good about this beast? You should hand it over to the true Hero Renya so that he can use it to its full potential."

Saito spoke within his head 'Iris… What is this about the True Hero? Tell me anything, you know.'

[Master, the True Hero is a rare title which is given to one of the summoned heroes from the other world. Even though the ones gathered from the different world are all heroes, there is someone special who is given the title of True Hero. He has exceptional physical qualities and rare skills which make him more reliable than the other summoned heroes]

Saito glared at the guy who suggested it, "If someone suggests me giving up my partner one more time, I promise I will burn his tongue."

That guy didn't seem to understand the graveness of his tone and snorts, "Yeah right. Like you can do that in the middle of so many heroes and great knights. I repeat once again, just give up that beast of yours to someone more-…"

Suddenly, his words were cut short as Saito snapped his fingers, a small number of flames were emitted from his right hand and quickly entered his mouth, burning away his tongue.

"Seems like there is quite a lot of fat on that blabbering tongue of yours. Keep in mind… I am not scared of anyone present in this room." Saito finished speaking as all the members of the council stood up at the same time.

Other than Chloe, all the people glared at Saito before Hudson voiced out, "Quick, bring the holy water. His tongue can still be healed!"

Someone quickly left the hall to get the holy water. Hudson had a cold look in his eyes, "You have quite a bit of courage. To actually attack him while we were present in the same room…"

Saito stared at him as if he was staring at an idiot, "And you are very obviously an idiot. I already warned him in the presence of the whole council, the next time someone suggests me giving up my partner, I would burn his tongue. It was his own fault for thinking I didn't dare to do this."

The guy who left the hall for the holy water entered back in; he quickly handed the water to the guy whose tongue was burnt. After drinking the sacred water, his tongue healed mysteriously.

Saito was a little surprised at how quickly the tongue was healed. Hudson stared at Saito and starts speaking, "You shall be judged-…"

All of them stopped speaking because they felt a burst sudden burst of powerful magic. Saito stared at Hudson and says, "Just now, what I expected happened. One of your Union members tried to approach my wife and use her. All of these are consequences of your actions. If you have to blame someone, blame yourself."

Hudson was unable to speak out on those words; he was smart enough to connect the dots. Arayoshi probably asked a high-ranking Union member who was not present in the council to talk to Saito's wife.

The magic soon disappeared back as if it wasn't released at all.

After a long moment of silence, Hudson spoke out, "Very well, however, this wouldn't pardon your beast if he killed the high-ranking person."

Saito stared at Hudson and voiced out, "I don't care about the rank or the identity of that guy. He tried to manipulate my wife; he is in my hitlist. And if you want to take actions against my partner and me…"

His eyes revealed a cold look which froze them on their spots, "Try me!"

His words caused all the council members to reveal a look of shock. They couldn't believe that someone dared to stand between them and actually challenged them all.

The funny thing was, not a single one of them moved from their spot. They seemed frozen on their places, after the incident of burning of the tongue, no one wanted to try him.