I glared down at Tubolt with wild, intense eyes. Focused. Patient. Waiting for him to give me any reason to swing at him with all my might. Hands in my pockets, boot perched on his left armrest, emanating an invisible, ominous pressure that seemed to extend outwardly—hovering, lording, over him.
"You can say anything about us, me especially, and I'll take it," I said, my tone low. "But you diss my captain, you talk bad about Asura… and I will absolutely obliterate you. I don't care who you are," the aura I emitted was hostile and direct. I wanted him to know with every fiber of my being the grave mistake of those words he uttered.
Stunned at the sight of me, for but a few seconds, Tubolt finally responded with a blast of wrath, "ARE YOU FUCKING OUT OF YOUR MIND!? DO YOU KNOW WHO THE FUCK I AM, BOY!?"
Furious, his words summoned his two executives at my neck without him even lifting a finger. Wilren with a metal axe to my neck, and Zayden with his palm out and a formed yellow sigil in the air, ready to blast me with whatever magic he had. Both were on opposite sides of me now.
Just as quickly, Code and Havoc had appeared from behind at the two executives' necks. Code had teleported them both there, replacing themselves with the specs of dust on the floor behind me.
Code unsheathed one of his long swords to Wilren's neck, and Havoc with a hand in the form of a claw to Zayden's. Sharing that same intense look on their face as mine.
I was reckless, but despite that, the two of them followed my lead. None of us could stand Asura's name being dragged in the mud. If there was one thing we were unanimous on, it was that alone. All of us in the Black Wolves.
If anything, I was more upset that I hadn't reacted sooner, rather than having reacted at all.
"Okay then," Tubolt started with a low tone back, "You think you can take me? I will show you the power of a REAL captain, you filthy dog!!" Heavy malice carried in his tone as he matched my gaze, standing up taller than me now.
He was about six-foot-five to my six-foot stature as we glowered at each other unwaveringly.
His right hand extended, summoning black shards of carbon in the form of spears facing us. We prepared ourselves to throw down until...
"Stop this quarrel immediately!" A voice shot through with so much force it made my ears ring. A voice of justice.
In a blink, Ryo stood there in the middle of Tubolt and me, separating us. Small walls formed in between the two Purple Panther executives and Code and Havoc—Sirus' magic—and a few other mages from other Guilds held our wrists and feet in place. One of them was Snow with his hand on my bicep, facing away from me. They had all reacted quickly, but just a second later.
Snow gave me a look from the side, shaking his head slowly, telling me, pleading, to stop. His face was so serious. Like he was ready to take down his own friend if he had to.
Ryo's back was faced to me as he looked up at Tubolt.
"Captain Tubolt, I urge you to unsummon your magic and sit back down if you wish to still be a part of this meeting. Your words were already unjust toward another Guild party. I should not have let that continue the way it did, so I will take the blame for both of you. Please do not follow through with this action, lest you want to continue to sully the Valley Kingdom's integrity and your own Guild in front of all the others and the Royal King while you are at it," Ryo said sternly to the Captain of the Purple Panthers, even though he himself was only a Vice Captain.
I held my head in a dignified manner, but then Ryo had turned his attention to me. "And you, Greed," he said, holding his stance even against me. I could tell in his tone this was hard for him to say, "You and your crew… Please leave…"
I ground my teeth, even though I understood the reason for that response.
"Ryo—"
"Please, Greed. Before you force me to remove you myself," A low tone, saddened that he would have to do such a thing if I refused. And I knew he would, he wasn't one to bluff. He and Snow, and the rest of the mages who stopped us, none of them would hesitate.
I ripped my arm away from Snow and the other mages holding me, threw my hands in my jacket pockets, and tilted my head toward the exit, signaling Code and Havoc to come. The other mages released their grasp on them and let us walk ourselves out, watching our every move as we proceeded to exit from whence we came.
I looked back and Ryo remained as he was, head looking over his shoulder to me with those blazing yellow eyes, now softened as we took our leave. Tubolt then also unsummoned his magic and glowered at me as we walked out, furious still.
The Royal King shook his head to us both in disappointment, and Sirus, from his throne, held a hand to his face in what seemed like embarrassment that he had vouched for us, the hooligan Black Wolf Knights, in the first place.
Lastly, before I left, I looked at my golden princess. Her two Vice Captains neither moved an inch, both with stern looks on their faces.
My princess stayed in her slack position on her throne, legs crossed and arm still propping her head on her armrest. I could hardly read her expression. Having not even reacted, aside from that quick widening of her eyes earlier when I made a move. She stared me down with those beaming, deep blue eyes.
But I didn't feel judgement from her gaze. Perhaps it was the drape over her head that made it a bit difficult to tell, but I couldn't be wrong with that look. It was the look of relief.
I had left a bad first impression here today. But among the other lording eyes on us, hers was the one I focused on solely. And she didn't waver either.
We exited through the doors that formed back with Sirus' magic, and they closed behind us, disappearing once again and preventing reentry. The three of us, in silence, made our way out of the castle, officially kicked out and banned from our first official Kingdom's Guild Meeting.
***
Outside the castle, the sky was blue and partly cloudy. Shadows of clouds could be seen on the ground. An eaglehawk's screech echoed in the silence as the three of us sat on the long, wide staircase outside the castle on a random landing. Havoc sat a few steps below where I was, and Code was standing, smoking a cigarette with a hand to his face, eyes closed, and lost in thought.
My legs were spread out, and my elbow rested on one leg, propping my head up as I dozed off. We hadn't said a word since our little episode with the Purple Panthers, but we all thought the same thing.
What a fuckin' asshole…
Asura would not have been proud of us at all, but at least we defended his name. I could live with myself better knowing I stood up for my captain, even though he would reprimand us for our actions.
I would do it again in a heartbeat. We all would.
As I began to bring myself back to reality, I noticed a head coming out of my chest.
It was a girl with black layered hair and an eyepatch on her right eye... The dark purple left eye stared right back, startling me.
"Keeper! Ophelia, what the fuck!" I jumped.
Ophelia passed through me completely and onto the landing, giggling as she became whole. The longer blonde of her hair drifted behind her as she landed gracefully onto the brick landing we were soliciting.
"Well, look who finally decided to show up. Perfect timing," Code said sarcastically, blowing a puff in the air.
"Yeah. SUCH perfect timing," I followed.
Ophelia brushed the long part of her blonde hair and twisted it with her finger, shyly responding, "You boys don't have to gang up on me. I'm just a baby!"
"Oh, look… Ophy's here. Can I go home now?" Havoc brought up in the background of the conversation. None of us were paying attention.
Code's forehead tightened.
"So, where exactly have you been? You know you specifically needed to be present for this meeting, right? Well, not that it matters anymore after the stunt we just pulled," Code said, regretting even bringing it up.
"Oh, I know all about that… I saw the whole thing," Ophelia said casually, picking on her nails now.
"YOU WHAT?!" Code and I said at the same time while Havoc still griped in the background.
"What? First, you want me there, and now you're surprised that I was there all along? You boys need to make up your minds." She shrugged and our noses flared at her response.
"Where the hell were you? A little communication would have been nice," Code asked, annoyed and on the cusp of giving up mentally as usual.
"Well…"—beating around the bush—"There's this guy I was trying to avoid…"
We knew instantly.
"Snow?" we all said. Well... Havoc actually said 'Home', but I prepended otherwise.
"Yes! That's him! Geez… I turned him down a while back, and he just does not get the hint. I even shivered when he asked you where I was, and he was looking around like he could sense me there or something. And then he looked directly at me through the wall! Huuuu! Why is he such a creep!" She shivered.
My expression became blank. Sometimes, when Ophelia was talking, I could actively feel what little brain cells I had killing each other, fighting to the death. This was one of those moments.
"Well at least you 'technically' attended," Code said, he was even baffled by what he was saying, "So we don't have to bring you up to speed."
"Yup!" she replied, "Well, the meeting got a little boring halfway in, so I went to the castle foyer, and they had a coffee bar there! Ooooh, the Kingdom's main castle really knows how to accommodate. The coffee was so good—"
She kept talking, and at this point, all three of our brains were fried as she trailed off in the background. When she ended, she had a cheerful look on her face. Her only exposed eye closed in glee and facing us with her back toward the staircase going down.
We hardly noticed…
A big shadow behind her covered us instantly. Too quick to notice in time or wonder how it got there. Larger than us all, its six arms were huge, and its body floated over the staircase behind Ophelia. It looked like a mech...
But it had been too late to react. It swung all its arms inward and around us, and we vanished completely without a trace.