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n

nA small smile formed on Tiana’s face as she looked at the four in front of her.

n“So, do the four of you understand your positions right now?”

nThere were awkward expressions on all of their faces, like they had just eaten something bitter. A girl near the back spoke up.

n“I-It’s not like we had any bad intentions!”

nTiana raised an eyebrow.

n“Oh really? To me, you just look like some rats.”

nAt first, Kairos brushed it off as a lie. But then, he remembered that the butterfly clip in Tiana’s hair would glow red when someone lied. Nonetheless, Tiana looked like she didn’t even slightly believe it.

nHe wondered what exactly their goal was.

nThe man at the front raised his hands in an attempt to pacify her.

n“Look, we will just leave and won’t come back, alright?”

nTiana rolled her eyes.

n“And you think I’m going to let you do that after dragging you over here.”

nThe man in the front frowned.

n“Then what do you want?”

nTiana rubbed her chin and looked to the side playfully.

n“I don’t know… what could I want?”

nShe raised an eyebrow.

n“Maybe… all of your supplies?”

nThe man nodded rather readily.

n“Alright, we’ll give it to you.”

nTiana narrowed her eyes, and a faint glint passed by them.

n“Oh? It seems like you all don’t have much on you. Not even backpacks. It seems you didn’t take much with you, perhaps because your secret hideout is somewhere nearby?”

nThe man in the front looked a little perturbed.

n“…Ok, we have a place like that, but it’s really far away, alright? It would be a huge pain for all of us. It’s not like we have nothing on us, we still have a decent amount to give away.”

nKairos raised an eyebrow.

n“You didn’t even try to fight when you were asked to give it up. It’s almost like you know what you had wasn’t worth much.”

nThe man raised his hands in the air.

n“It’s just because we don’t want any trouble! Look, there is no real grudge between us, you know?”

nTiana scoffed.

n“What makes you so certain of that?”

nThe man let out a defeated sigh.

n“How about this? We’ll give you everything we have on us, then we will come back to give you something worth your while.”

nTiana chuckled.

n“So just let you run away? Not a chance.”

nThe man took a deep breath.

n“Alright, alright, you can hold me hostage, and I’ll have the other three get it.”

nTiana smiled.

n“Just you? But what if you were to be a sacrificial pawn, then we wouldn’t get anything out of it, would we? What else can I expect from a bunch of thieving rascals?”

nThe girl in the back looked offended.

n“We’re not-”

n“Be quiet Jessica!”

nThe man in the front shut her up immediately. Then he stared at Tiana blankly.

n“Then what do you want?”

nTiana raised two fingers.

n“Well, for one, what if we hold three of you hostage and the last one goes back, or you bring us to this place and we take what we want?”

nThe man shut his eyelids tightly.

n“…Alright, you can take three of us hostage.”

nThe other people in his group looked rather apprehensive, not sure if they really wanted to go through with this. The man seemed to notice this but did not back down regardless.

nTiana raised a finger.

n“Ah, but if the person doesn’t come back within an hour, I’m killing all three hostages.”

nThe man’s expression twitched.

n“…Now that’s too unreasonable, it will take more than an hour to get there and back.”

nTiana put a finger on her chin.

n“Then I suppose you’ll just have to bring us!”

nThe man looked a little desperate.

n“Look, can’t you just wait for a day? It won’t take more than that, you can just leave us to starve too.”

nTiana shrugged her shoulders.

n“Sure, I can wait.”

nThe man let out a relieved sigh.

n“Thank you.”

nBut then, a rather sadistic smile formed on Tiana’s face.

n“I’ll just kill the three hostages.”

nThe man grimaced.

n“What?”

nKairos rolled his eyes.

n“Can you hurry up?”

nHe let out a soft sigh.

n“I mean, you’ve already got them wrapped around your finger now.”

nTiana chuckled.

n“Oh, you can tell?”

nKairos rubbed his temple with the tip of his finger.

n“That much is obvious.”

nWhat he was really talking about was the mana cord Tiana extending out. She had successfully connected them to all four of them without being caught at all.

nAnother guy frowned when he heard that.

n“What’s that supposed to mean?”

nThe man in the front scowled.

n“Be quiet, Jacob!”

nThe guy looked away after he heard that.

nOn the other hand, Tiana let out a laugh.

n“I suppose you’re right, Kairos. It’s time to get serious.”

nA strange smile formed on her face.

n“Now, let’s have you four tell me why you’re really here.”

nThe man furrowed his brow.

n“We’re just here exploring.”

nTiana rolled her eyes.

n“So you’re scouting out the place?”

nThe man paused.

n“…Yes, we just wanted to get a lay of the land.”

nTiana narrowed her eyes.

n“Lookie here, children. You can either choose to stop stepping around the truth, or die a painful death. It’s your choice.”

nThe man frowned.

n“But we’re really not-”

nTiana clenched her fist, and immediately afterward the guy that was referred to as Jacob fell to his knees, clutching his chest.

n“What… is this…”

nHis eyes bulged out of his sockets, while he began breathing like he was drowning, but despite taking in deep breaths one after another, his condition wasn’t getting any better.

nThe man immediately reached out to hold him up and furrowed his brows.

n“Hey! What the hell are you doing?”

nTiana tilted her head to the side slightly.

n“Making him die painfully.”

nThe man held out his hand.

n“I’ll tell you! I’ll tell you, alright? Just stop!”

nTiana’s smile grew a little larger.

n“Ah, but you see I’m a person that keeps to her word. And I said that he was going to die painfully.”

nThe man looked furious.

n“You bitch! Stop it!”

nJacob continued to gasp desperately. Tears and snot had already begun to spill out plentifully, though the person himself didn’t seem to realize it. He began to give up on breathing and simply cried out painfully, writhing in agony so hard that the man was unable to keep a proper hold on him.

nThe man tried to hold him up, but Jacob only clawed at him in return, though it didn’t seem like he even knew what he was doing. Jacob began slamming his various limbs and even head on the ground. The man desperately tried to restrain him, but it was like trying to restrain a bull.

nJacob continued to slam his limbs into the ground until they cracked and began twisting in strange directions. Soon, they began to hang limply, almost like they were the arms of a doll.

nHis skull cracked the second time he hit it against the ground, while brain matter began to leak out by the fifth time. He continued to slam his head even in this state, until his skull directly shattered, after which he stopped moving.

nThe man had his eyes widened with shock, having a hard time believing what he was seeing.

nTiana let out a soft sigh.

n“If only you told me, then he would still be alive. But you still have a chance to save your other two party members if you begin telling me the truth.”

nThe man’s eyes were filled with rage.

n“As if I’ll-”

n“We are a scouting team.”

nThe girl in the back spoke up. Her eyes were unnaturally widened, while her breathing was heavy. It seemed the scene from before shook her up quite a bit.

nThe man narrowed his eyes.

n“You…”

nThe girl swallowed and looked at the man with uncompromising eyes.

n“I don’t want to end up like that.”

nThe man frowned.

n“But what about everyone-”

n“I don’t care.”

nThe girl’s eyes almost seemed hollow.

n“The town never did anything enough for me to give up my life.”

nThe man fell silent.

nAs for Tiana, her half-clenched fist relaxed. She then clapped.

n“Alright then, tell me all about this town.”

nThe girl took a few breaths after another.

n“There are maybe about two hundred people in that town, and it’s roughly fifty kilometers away behind us.”

nTiana gave a small nod.

n“How strong are the people there?”

nThe girl spoke promptly.

n“There are quite a few strong ones, the leader is already at the peak of rank D, while there are at least twenty other low tier D ranks as well.”

nTiana let out a soft hum.

n“How much does that town have then?”

nThe girl took a deep breath.

n“T-They seem to have come across some sort of food stockpile, letting them have that many people there, so there should be quite a bit”

nTiana raised an eyebrow.

n“Are you hiding anything from me?”

nThe girl panicked.

n“No, no!”

nTiana rolled her eyes.

n“So you’re saying there’s only food?”

nThe girl furrowed her brow.

n“Um, um… t-there might be more! I remember there was this place in the middle that they wouldn’t let us enter, so there’s probably something there!”

nTiana nodded.

n“And how is the overall state of the town? ”

nThe girl blinked a few times.

n“S-Sorry, what do you mean by that?”

nTiana sighed.

n“Are they happy? Sad? Afraid?”

nThe girl paused for a moment, thinking.

n“…Most of the people are satisfied, but they are all a little afraid of the ruler.”

nTiana nodded.

n“And that’s all I needed to know, goodbye.”

nShe then clenched her fist, causing the remaining three all to collapse. There was a disbelieving expression on the girl’s face. As she began to writhe, she looked up at Tiana in despair, only to see that there was only a smile on her face.

nThe three of them proceeded to kill themselves unintentionally while writhing just like how the first one did.

nOnce they all gradually became quiet, Kairos let out a soft sigh.

n“You really are cruel, aren’t you?”

nTiana rolled her eyes.

n“Like you would’ve acted any different.”

nKairos did not respond immediately, just blinking a few times.

n“You hardly even gave them a chance to speak before killing one.”

nTiana smirked.

n“If you don’t act upon your threats, then they’ll think they can just talk their way out of the entire thing. Acting lightly is just giving them hope to escape. Many people make the mistake of not acting strongly in the beginning.”

nKairos cracked his neck.

n“Whatever. So are you going to attack that town or something?”

nTiana waved her hand dismissively.

n“Not now, at least. It doesn’t sound like they have much to take in the first place.”

nKairos nodded.

n“Alright.”

nA moment of silence lingered between them.

nKairos eventually spoke up.

n“Say, you can do the same thing you did to them, to all of us, can’t you?”

nTiana didn’t respond for quite a long time.

n“…Perhaps.”

nKairos narrowed his eyes.

nHe had seen what had actually happened since he was able to see mana. Tiana directly extracted all the mana out of their bodies, before preventing more mana from getting back to them.

nThe act of desperate breathing actually did have a point, as it seemed to vaguely influence the surrounding mana streams to enter their bodies, but Tiana held them all back. Then, before they could die from the lack of mana, they killed themselves, escaping from the pain they experienced.

nKairos couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable knowing that there was now another way for him to die. That seemed to be why mana and magic affinity were automatically added upon evolving, as the person in question would die without it.

nTiana smiled at him.

n“Come on, let’s go back”

nKairos nodded, but in his head, he had changed his first priority to learning a countermeasure.

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