Chapter Forty-Nine: Say It Again
It’s him…
It’s really him! That guy… he…
For a moment, my head went blank, and somehow, my bl**d felt like it was gushing straight to my heart. My chest started thumping like a drum, almost too fast to handle.
I was unsure whether to feel excited or panicked, maybe a little nervous too. Before I could sort through my jumbled emotions, I watched that loathsome strong man raise a drink above the silver-haired man’s head. But in the next instant, the man moved suddenly, his right hand shooting out from beneath his cloak like a lightning bolt, gripping the strong man’s wrist like a vise.
“Uh… ah—!”
The strong man’s face twisted into a menacing snarl, veins popping in his neck as he opened his mouth to let out a hoarse scream. The silver-haired man pushed him forward sharply, splashing the drink all over the strong man’s face. At that moment, the others standing nearby finally reacted, shouting and rushing towards the man.
“d*mn it…”
“k*ll him!”
Amid the chaotic shouts, the man leaped onto a chair, used it as a launching pad, and kicked one guy flying with a solid “thwack.” Another table went flying as a result, and just as someone pulled out a kn*fe to slash at him, he dodged nimbly, spun around, and sent his opponent crashing to the ground with another kick.
He landed lightly, and his cloak floated down slowly. Only then did I notice the bottle of liquor gripped in his left hand. After sending two guys tumbling, he drank deeply from the bottle like it was the most normal thing in the world. But then a guy rushed him, grabbing his arm as if to apprehend him. The man swung the bottle around and smashed it over the guy’s head with a “bang,” sending shards and liquor spraying everywhere. The guy wobbled before collapsing like a sack of potatoes.
In less than three seconds from the start of the brawl, only two were still standing at the table. The strong man knelt with a pained expression, clutching his wrist and sweating buckets. The nearby drunks were still too dazed to process what was happening, but more and more of them began to stand up, drawn by the commotion. The cheering quickly shifted from excitement to shock, and just as quickly, it died down, plunging the tavern into silence.
Clearly, the cloaked man was beyond normal fighting skill, and the drunkards were intimidated, even sobering up a bit.
I shielded Betty behind me, standing at the back of the crowd. My heart yearned to join in, but my feet wouldn’t make that move. I felt frantic and had no idea what I was worried about, though I saw the red-haired woman starting to approach, loudly chastising, “Carlos, you dog of a man!” as she wove through the tables toward him.
The action near the man was still ongoing.
He stood at a toppled table, food and drink strewn everywhere, some sticking to his boots. He stomped his feet to shake off the debris, raised his head, and let one eye peek out from under his hood, looking as unimpressed as ever. He glanced at the two terrified guys in front of him and then turned to the strong man who was slowly getting back to his feet, asking somewhat boredly, “So, what were you trying to say earlier…?”
“Come on, get him! You son of a—”
The strong man’s face turned crimson with rage as he shoved a henchman forward. The poor guy stumbled and found himself right in front of the cloaked man, suddenly yelling and reaching for his throat.
Another guy charged in as well.
But the sight of them made them look like two rabid dogs trying to challenge a lion. Just then, there was a “bang bang” as the cloak behind the man lifted again, although he didn’t seem to move a muscle. The two attackers flew backwards like they’d been hit with a hammer, one curling up mid-air like a shrimp, the other spinning like a top and crashing into several tables with a loud “boom.”
Meanwhile, the nearby drunks had all cleared a safe distance.
The area around the man had turned into a chaotic mess. He stepped through the spilled liquor towards the strong man, more white hair spilling from under his hood. He reached out and patted the man’s face, picking up the unfinished question, “Hmm? What’s your name again?”
“Louder! Tell me your name!”
The strong man swallowed hard, cold sweat running down his cheeks, teeth clenched, glaring hatefully at the man but saying nothing.
“Carlos—!”
The red-haired woman burst through the crowd, looking somewhat angry, as she began searching for something. The man seemed to finally notice her, cheekily commenting, “Oh, isn’t that my beautiful Lady Leah? Missing me already, are you… Wait, what are you doing?”
She searched for a moment, picked up an iron plate and a snuffed candleholder from the ground, one in each hand, and “whoosh” hurled them at him: “Drinking! Causing a ruckus! Look at you, what have you become—”
“Oh sh—”
He barely dodged the candleholder, but the plate smashed right on the strong man’s head with a clang. He cried out, holding his head, but no one paid him any mind.
“Hey hey hey, women should use words, not weapons…”
“Get outside with me!”
“Don’t be like that, it’ll create misunderstandings…”
“Outside—”
“Who’s causing a ruckus here?!”
Just as these two were about to get into it, the onlookers parted to create a path, shoving the frontmost figure out of the way. Three men who looked like they’d stepped out of a bad horror movie strolled in, led by one who scanned the chaos with a frown, eyeing the trio at the center before locking eyes with the cloaked man. He grunted, “Who are you? If you really have guts, take off that hood.”
In the next moment, the strong man suddenly made his move.
Taking advantage of the cloaked man’s distraction, he spun around and lunged for the red-haired woman, wrapping his arm around her neck from behind.
“Ha!”
The strong man let out a wild laugh, feeling at the back of his head and finding bl**d. His grin twisted into something even more sinister: “Sure, you’re strong in that cloak, I’ll admit defeat today! But this woman is yours, right? Is she just as capable as you?!”
He then turned to the three men who had just arrived: “Darm! You don’t need to worry about this. I’ll take the blame! Just let me and him settle this outside…”
As he trailed off, his voice dwindled when he noticed the man removing his hood, and Darm’s expression shifted dramatically.
It was like he recognized the guy, eyes flashing with a mix of deep wariness and sheer terror.
The strong man suddenly realized things had taken a turn for the worse.
But he gripped the woman tighter, dragging her away as he started retreating slowly. He figured he’d underestimated the situation, and this woman could very well be the only bargaining chip he had to escape safely: “Darm! Why are you looking at me like that? Tell me who he really is—”
“No, no, that’s not the issue anymore…”
The man, now hoodless, waved his hand as he casually scratched his untamed beard, looking at the strong man with a mixed expression of mockery and sympathy.
“I must say, you might be the bravest man I’ve encountered. I’m slightly impressed… tough guy.”
What does that even mean…
The strong man felt a gnawing sense of foreboding.
In the next heartbeat, he felt an intense pain in his arm around the woman’s neck before he could even comprehend what was happening; an overwhelming force yanked him off his feet and over the woman’s head, crashing onto the ground with a deafening “thud”—
bl**d splattered beneath the woman’s feet.
“Whoa…”
The silver-haired man chuckled irresponsibly, exclaiming, “You might just k*ll him like that…”
“He shouldn’t d*e from it.”
The woman looked down at the big guy sprawled in a pool of bl**d, neck askew, and kicked him lightly, seemingly indifferent. She shot a cold glance at Darm, who didn’t dare speak up, then turned her attention to the silver-haired man, icy in tone: “So, are you coming with me or not?”
“Of course I’m going; hanging around here isn’t fun anymore. We definitely don’t seem to have many fans…”
The man lazily surveyed the crowd of drunks before wandering over to a nearby table, unsteadily reaching for an unopened bottle of liquor amid the shocked expressions of those around him, grinning, “Once I finish this, you can take me wherever you want. This body is all yours to do as you please, no objections from me, my sexy Lady Leah…”
“Oh? Is that so?”
The woman’s eyes flashed with anger.
“Carlos, take a look over there…”
She pointed towards the crowd, the corner of her mouth curling into a sly, elegant smile like a cunning fox. “See that little girl standing at the edge?”
“Now, hold the bottle tight, walk over there, and tell her exactly what you said just now, word-for-word.”
