Joaquin looked like he had eaten a fly. Things hadn’t gone like he expected at all.
Originally, he wanted to get Grey arrested—that much was obvious. But he had been hoping to use Sabrina’s staff as an inflection point. He hoped it would not only enrage the Holy Knights, but that it would also provide him a chance to expose Grey’s crimes as well.
Like that, he would be able to perfectly clear the Quest in one go.
Grey’s previous conclusion had been correct. Unlike Grey, Joaquin was aware that having a spatial item should have been impossible, so he didn’t quite understand how Grey had managed it.
In this loop, Joaquin didn’t know an edit would be given to first place, so he didn’t know it could have been used to break a rule. During that time, he came across Globb’s shop.
At first, Joaquin didn’t make the connection. It was just any other technician shop. But realizing he was running out of time, he was forced to try and target Grey anyway. If he couldn’t clear it perfectly, he would just settle for the common reward.
When they finally found Grey, though, the moment Joaquin saw the iron jaw on his face, he immediately made the connection.
Globb’s shop had been in an odd state when he first saw it more than half a day ago, and Globb had been completely frozen. Joaquin immediately made the connection to Quests and realized that Grey must have gotten something quite rare.
As little credit as Grey liked to give Joaquin, the wit he had shown to get this far wasn’t small. If Grey had also lost to him in the Tutorial Zone again, letting Joaquin claim first, this would already be over. With an edict, Joaquin would have already won.
But that wasn’t what had happened this time.
And unfortunately, Joaquin had fallen one step short. He hadn’t expected the Holy Knight to so easily pivot away from Grey and place all his ire on Globb.
It couldn’t have been that Grey was just so convincing. Did Grey have a unique charisma or mind-control skill? Or was it something else?
When Joaquin met Grey’s gaze, his heart couldn’t help but tremble. That gaze almost didn’t seem human at all. He could practically see chains holding back the demon that was Grey.
If there weren’t any consequences, Grey would have already attacked.
No... he would certainly attack the moment the chance presented itself.
Joaquin’s jaw set and then his lips parted.
"I know that many of you are watching right now and might have questions about why I would randomly target someone like this."
Grey frowned, but it was hard to simply interrupt someone like this without coming off more guilty.
"I lost not one, but two of my teammates to this man trying to expose him. Because of him, the most horrible of crimes were attached to me. You may not believe me, but I am not the one who killed that man or that girl. The proof was in that tool belt. But now, it’s in neither of our hands.
"I will continue to try and clear my name, and I won’t apologize for trying to do so."
Joaquin didn’t look at the crowd, his gaze focused entirely on Grey. There was a wisp in his hair and a tan to his skin that might have even reminded one of a young Hercules from the cartoons.
Everything about him felt like a disgusting caricature in Grey’s eyes.
The ones observing things from corners and alleys spoke among themselves, but Grey didn’t say a word. Instead, he squatted down in front of Globb’s head, the blood seeping between his toes feeling somehow both warm and so very cold to him.
He shouldn’t particularly feel much for Globb, and quite frankly he didn’t, if he was honest with himself.
But this death—maybe because it was his fault—really, really pissed him off.
Grey’s jaw set.
He picked up the head in one hand and hoisted Globb’s corpse up and over his other shoulder. Then he walked away, dripping blood in his wake as he walked right out of the city.
Not once did he look back toward Joaquin.
**
Hours later, Grey stood in front of a shallow grave. His stats were far from inhuman, and he didn’t have any tools to rely on anymore. All he had was a small dagger, but he had made do, using one of the scrapped stones from the ruins that littered this place to dig it out.
It had chipped and dulled his dagger, but he still managed to carve a little something onto a misfigured tomb.
Then he stood there for a little while, his mind blank as the sun rose higher and higher into the skies.
"My bad," he finally said.
Squatting down, he placed a hand on the stone.
"Flowers are for women. I’ll get you a head for your stone instead. Maybe two."
Grey stood and left.
...
An hour later, the city was within view again.
Grey hadn’t realized it yet, but the crimson in his eyes was slowly becoming more permanent, and his hair... if not for the Skrill Mask, he would have already noticed that it was becoming white at its roots.
This wasn’t what Grey was thinking about, though.
’I need to gather up five units of energy quickly. That’ll allow me to open up a personal Cyber Space. Then I’ll be able to equip and unequip this iron jaw at will. I think that’s probably what’s interfering with the uses of the Skrill Mask right now.
’But this current jaw has a limit of three. The only way for me to get five energy units is a new or a better jaw. And it will be basically impossible to do that without the tome.
’Unless...’
Grey crossed into the city just as a plume of smoke and flashing light bloomed in the city square in the far-off distance.
Slowly, a floating head he recognized all too well rose up.
The Great Udon.
’Shit.’ Grey burst into a run. But rather than running out, he rushed further into the city.