Kicking An Iron Plate

As Mike and Jordan fearfully looked at the man gripping their necks, they felt their blood run cold.

Wasn't Lucian Sanguinis supposed to be an F-rank talent? Someone who could at most be evaluated as a waste of space?

If so, then how was he here? Moreover, what was with those eyes that shine like blood-red rubies, and those fangs… There's no way a human can possibly have such long protruding canines.

Only one possibility formed in the two's minds.

It must be some kind of transformation-related ability! One that gave Lucian a vampire bat-like appearance.

But didn't Lucian have slightly accelerated healing? Could it be that he has two abilities?

Such a person was as rare as finding an SS rank ability!

If the world knew that the person they ridiculed as trash was one of these rare talents, how would those people feel?

There was no way the people after SanguineCorp could have ever let Lucian live this long if they knew this.

If the two of them could survive this incident, they would be able to make enough money to happily retire from this information alone.

No doubt those corporate rats would pay them an astronomical fee for this kind of intel.

Unfortunately, though, Mike and Jordan could already tell…

Their odds of making it through the night were so small they were nonexistent.

Watching their trembling faces, Lucian's smile grew wider, creating an image so eerie that it would send chills down one's spine.

"So… Are you two willing to talk?"

Lucian began his interrogation by releasing a little bit of the pressure he had on their throats.

(COUGH COUGH COUGH)

The two broke out into a coughing fit while desperately inhaling as much precious air as they could.

"So, are you two willing to answer or not? We can do this the easy way…." Lucian tightened the grip on their necks once more, "or the hard way."

The two of them cursed Lucian inwardly.

How the hell could they answer if they can't breathe?

Once again, Lucian released the grip on their necks, but instead of gasping for air this time, the two forced out a small but audible 'yes.'

Lucian shook his head with a feigned look of disappointment.

"Aww… You two are no fun. I had so much planned in case you said no, now all my preparations will go to waste…."

Mike and Jordan didn't know what this evil bastard had planned for them, but from his tone alone, they could unanimously agree that neither of them wanted to find out.

Lucian looked at the two with a pleading look.

"Can't you two be a little bit more defiant? Please?"

"W-we w-will tell y-you…" Jordan slowly responded.

Lucian threw him a dissatisfied look before releasing the grips on both of their necks.

"Alright then… I'll consider letting you both live if you can tell me the truth. I have a friend outside who can wipe memories, so we can both go on our merry ways after they wipe your memories of our little encounter."

The distraught complexions of the two flashed with a spark of hope.

Maybe, just maybe, they could get through this!

With the SanguineCorp connections, finding a skilled mental ability user wasn't too hard, so Lucian's words didn't seem too weird for them.

"So," Lucian pulled up one of the nearby chairs in the room before sitting on it backwards, "Who hired you all to target us?"

The two threw a puzzled look at Lucian's words.

"We… We weren't targeting both of you…." Mike began.

"I-It was only one…" Jordan continued.

The two knew that their lives were in Lucian's hands, so they needed to be careful that their words didn't accidentally aggravate him.

Lucian raised an eyebrow at their words.

"Who was it? I don't see much value in targeting me now. If those black-bellied bastards wanted to come finally come after me, there are far easier ways. Moreover, they wouldn't hire third-rate criminals like you all."

While Lucian's slight jab stung the pride of the two bedridden hired mercenaries, apart from their faces twitching slightly, they didn't retaliate.

Seeing Mike and Jordan make no effort to correct him, Lucian could already tell that his predictions were accurate.

"So… You were after Stella?" There were no changes to Lucian's tone, but the two could feel a bone-freezing chill go down their spines.

It was as if the temperature in the room plummeted instantly.

"I already predicted as much, but really… Finding out that people dared to target her… As expected, it's hard for me to keep my emotions in check."

Lucian's balled his fists to keep himself calm, digging his nails deep enough into his skin to draw blood.

"Who hired you?"

Mike and Jordan knew this question was coming, but they couldn't help themselves from instinctively gulping.

"We- We don't know…" Jordan stammered.

"What do you mean 'you don't know'? Why would you take a job with no guarantee for pay?"

"A masked man carrying a metal briefcase filled with money came to one of the bars we were all drinking at and told us that this was just a taste of what we would get if we did 'a small job' for him," Mike responded.

"We were originally suspicious about such a job, but after scouting the routes our target took, we felt that the risk wasn't as high as we initially thought and that her protection was lax enough to get away with kidnapping her," Jordan added.

"I see…" Lucian mumbled in a contemplative tone, "Is there anything else you two can tell me that's of value?"

Cold sweats formed on the two criminal's faces as they struggled to think of anything else they could say to convince the man before them to spare their lives.

Unfortunately, the people they worked for were far too secretive and didn't have much to go on.

Watching their faces, Lucian could already guess that the two had exhausted their value and that further interrogation was pointless.

"Alright, I've heard enough."

Standing up out of his chair, Lucian walked towards the both of them.

"W-wait! Aren't you going to spare us? Didn't you say you'll just wipe our memories?"

"Y-yeah! You said you would let us go!"

Lucian threw the two of them an amused look.

"I said that I'll consider it, and after delegating long and hard for about 2 seconds, I've decided that sparing you two will be too much of a pain, and your value to me dead is far higher than alive. You two targeted one of the few people I still give a damn about. There's no way I would ever let any of you live. Oh… About the whole memory wiping thing…." Lucian licked his lips hungrily, "I lied."

The sounds of bloody screams reverberated across the room, but sadly due to the hospital's inbuilt soundproofing, not even a peep was heard outside.

After about an hour, the hospital's nurses would be sent into a panic at the sight of several rooms filled with mangled corpses.

Not only that but a sizeable amount of their stored blood bags would also be missing.