Strange young man

"Who is he?" the adventurers asked when they saw a shabbily dressed young man jump down from the top of the fort.

The short-haired youth kicked the ground as he posed, his right palm covering his face, which was slightly obscured by his fringe of black hair. His left hand was behind his back, holding the hilt of the sword at his waist.

"A battle event would not be complete without the main character," the young man said as he posed with his right hand outstretched.

"Who is he?" asked some adventurers.

"What kind of freak is he? I don't even know what he's talking about," Rafe said, furrowing his brow.

"You're lucky, NPC. Even though I'm supposed to save my future wife in this case, I'm happy to save you," the young man said as he turned to Rafe.

"Is this freak also a resident of this town?" asked Rafe as he looked around at the other adventurers.

"Looks like he has a lot of opponents, but that's okay with me. I'll show you the fighting style of a main character!" the young man standing in front of Rafe shouted. He was seen drawing his sword forward.

"Ice Slash!" the youth shouted as he slashed his sword forward with his right hand at a Wizard class adventurer in the distance.

"Fireball!" a wizard class adventurer responded to the youth's attack in front of Rafe.

A white aura seemed to surround the sword the young man had drawn, but nothing happened after that. He just slashed at the wind without any impact, and the strange young man's face looked shocked. Meanwhile, a fireball magic shot towards his chest.

"Such a lowly magic attack can't hurt me! Remember my name, Hayato! I'm the main character of this world! Ice Javelin!" the young man in front of Rafe shouted as he held his left hand forward.

Ice dots were created in the air right above Hayato, but they shattered again without creating anything. Suddenly, Hayato was even more shocked. Soon, the fireball magic hit Hayato's chest.

The sound of an explosion was heard as Hayato's body flew past Rafe. The shabby clothes on his body seemed to be on fire. He immediately tried to use his magic again to put out the fire on his body, but he couldn't.

"It's hot! Help me!" cried Hayato as he rolled on the ground to extinguish the flames burning his clothes.

The adventurers who were there could only be confused by Hayato's behavior, while Rafe began to worry because he was thinking about something else. He became more and more confused by what was happening to him. A strange world, suddenly mistaken for a killer, and a young man acting strangely with strange words he had never heard before.

"What exactly has happened to me? Am I a crazy person because of the wound on Xavier?" Rafe muttered anxiously.

"Are these my hallucinations?" muttered Rafe as he held his head.

"What are you doing gathering here?" a man suddenly shouted from a distance.

"Now what?" muttered Rafe as he turned his gaze to the source of the voice, all the adventurers and warriors present seemed to turn away as well.

In the distance, a group of riders approached, and at the head of the line was a soldier without a headdress, spurring his horse forward. His gaze was fixed intently on all the adventurers and soldiers surrounding Rafe.

"Head of security?" the seven soldiers who had attacked Rafe said as they turned respectfully.

"We found the serial killer in Rhymus City," an adventurer said, pointing at Rafe.

"Serial killer? Are you out of your mind? He's just a teenager, look at his clothes. He's not even carrying a gun or anything," the Rhymus City security chief grumbled.

"But sir, he managed to..." a soldier tried to explain the situation, but his words were cut off by the security chief.

"The culprit was captured in the western area of Rhymus City. He's a former A-rank adventurer who holds a grudge against the victims. I didn't have time to signal you earlier because we had to fight a fierce battle there," the security chief interrupted as he looked at Rafe.

"I deliberately came here because I saw a sign coming from this direction," the security chief continued.

"Huh?" said the soldiers and adventurers who were there in shock.

"You better go home and tell the locals the good news. They can already go about their usual activities at night in this town, the culprit also acted alone without any other partners to help," said the head of security as he spurred his horse to turn around again.

"Is that true?" murmured some of the adventurers who were still in disbelief.

"This young man can obviously control mana perfectly, isn't that suspicious?" asked some adventurers who were still worried after seeing Rafe's fight.

"I'd better go get the quest reward," said another adventurer who decided to get out of the way.

"But what about him? It's impossible for a kid to have more moves than an S-rank assassin," asked the soldier who was carrying a knife.

"It is possible that he was controlled by the perpetrator to be a decoy here while he acted. It could be that his strength is just a loan from the perpetrator's skill without him realizing it," said the soldier with the spear.

"That makes sense, too. I've heard of people with that kind of power," said another soldier.

"It all makes sense now. Their wounds aren't bad either, let's just leave them here," said the soldier with the spear as he turned around, the wind spear created above his head instantly shattering as he put down his wand.

"We should leave as well, what they explained makes sense. His power must be just a loan from the perpetrator using his skills," some adventurers said as they left the scene of the battle. Hearing this, the other adventurers began to leave one by one, leaving Rafe and Hayato behind.

"Borrowed power? Is that another hallucination?" muttered Rafe, still confused by the situation.

"What's a hallucination, you idiot! Do you think I'm burning in your imagination?" grumbled Hayato who was rolling around.

Half of Hayato's clothes seemed to be burned off, and some parts of his body were also burned. Suddenly, Rafe turned his attention to Hayato, who was still sitting on the ground right next to him.

"Ouch!" Hayato screamed as Rafe slapped him on the cheek.

"What do you mean, huh? Instead of thanking me, you slapped me," Hayato grumbled as he held his cheek and glared at Rafe.

"Hehehe... I just wanted to make sure it wasn't my hallucination," Rafe replied with a chuckle.

"You freak. At least slap yourself," Hayato grumbled as he took a bottle of potion from a small pouch at his waist.

"Tch. At least they apologized first before they just left," Hayato grumbled as he drank half of the potion and poured the other half onto the wounds on his body. At that moment, all the wounds on his body healed without a trace.

"Hm... looks like I'm not hallucinating," Rafe said while watching Hayato in front of him.

"What do you mean?" asked Hayato as he stood up.

"There's no way I could be hallucinating something that complicated, I can't even imagine how the wound-healing potion works," Rafe replied seriously.

"What a strange NPC," Hayato grumbled as he sheathed his sword. He also took out a piece of cloth he used as part of his sword belt, the cloth he used to cover his body after some of his clothes caught fire.

"NPC? What's this strange word? This is the first time I've heard it," Rafe asked.

"Forget it. Think of it as the way I call others," Hayato replied, giving Rafe a sharp look.

"That is very strange. So is your behavior," Rafe said as he returned Hayato's look in front of him.

"Tch, your words are also quite hurtful for an NPC," Hayato grumbled.

"You said earlier that you were from the Neutron Party, right?" asked Hayato to change the subject.

"Yes. What do you know about Neutron?" Rafe replied with a smile.

"But you're not making this up, are you? You really know about Neutron?" asked Hayato again while he looked at Rafe sharply.

"Yes, I know a lot about Neutron because I'm a member," Rafe replied again, scowling.

"Member?" muttered Hayato with a shocked look on his face.

"What's your name?" asked Hayato.

"Rafe Lostfield," Rafe answered without hesitation.

"Rafe? I've never heard of him," Hayato said with a confused look on his face.

"Tch. I thought you knew about Neutron, you freak. What a waste of my time," Rafe grumbled with a disappointed look on his face.

"Wait. Where are you going?" asked Hayato when he saw Rafe about to leave.

"I want to find out where I am," Rafe replied without turning around.

"You're in Rhymus City," Hayato said as he followed Rafe.

"Rhymus? I've never heard of it," Rafe muttered as he stopped.

Continued...