Despite knowing why Merath told him to pay the absurd fee of five thousand merits, he just could not bring himself to easily do as she said.
It was a fucking blatant robbery in plain sight, and Jorra was extremely angry.
First it was Simon who was a worthless hybrid in his eyes.
Now, another lowly demon was extorting him?
Him?
Him?!
HIM?!!
Where would his pride and dignity go if he did not teach these lowly backwater and mouthwashed demons their place.
However, just as he was about to speak, a figure instantly appeared in front of him.
"Do not forget why we’re here. Control yourself. Reel in your killing intent, and don’t ruin everything all because of your pride and anger."
Merath whispered gently but with a cold and solemn gaze as she held Jorra’s cheeks.
Though he was wearing a plain grey mask that covered his entire face, Merath spoke like she could see the fury in his eyes.
There was an extremely tense silence as everybody watched the duo with varying expressions.
Some were confused.
Some had eyes of excitement, wondering if the duo were secretly lovers.
Some were curious.
Some were indifferent.
Many were disappointed.
Many were shocked.
And a few had solemn expressions.
Tibat was one of those few, and the reason for this is because of the killing intent she could feel from Jorra.
The killing intent was directed at her, so she felt the full brunt of it, and it made her instincts ring warning bells in her mind.
’Does he still have something else his sleeve?’ She wondered.
Meanwhile, Merath’s unblinking eyes remained on Jorra who was still silent.
Then after an extremely long and tense ten seconds of silence, he spoke, and his voice was strangely and deathly calm.
"Five thousand merits is a lot."
Merath nodded slightly. "I know, but it’s worthless compared to what we’ll lose if you don’t control yourself."
Jorra was silent for another three seconds.
"I’m going to kill them all."
Merath nodded. "I know. I want to do the same too, but we’ll have our revenge later. For now, be calm."
Jorra shifted his gaze to Tibat and he stared intensely at her for nearly six seconds before looking away and exhaling softly.
"Fine."
He gently slapped away Merath’s hands from his face.
"Send the money to her. I don’t think I’ll be able to completely control myself if she’s so close to me. I might just rip her head off."
"I’ll send you the money later."
Merath chuckled softly at his words, then she shook her head and looked at Tibat who was sweating lightly behind her mask.
The weather was cool, cold in fact, but she was still sweating because of the killing intent both Merath and Jorra released at her when they both expressed their desire to have revenge.
"Hey. We give up. Come and collect your money before I change my mind."
Merath’s voice drifted into her ears, and Tibat looked at her with a dark expression behind her mask.
’Should I kill her? Should I kill both of them?’
She shifted her gaze to Agramormos who was panting and was looking at Merath with a bone chilling glare.
’No. If I fail to kill her, then the situation would become something else. She’s not a slave I can just kill, and the punishment might be extremely heavy since she’s not just a bottom rank initiate or a slave.’
’A rank two initiate of the First Year is valued by the clan, and killing her would cause serious problems for me. Even my backer would abandon me for doing something so foolish.’
She shook her head slightly, then she approached the Merath with a solemn gaze.
Merath tilted her head slightly when Tibat stood before her, her black eyes flashing with an ominous evil red light for a fraction of a second.
"I won’t forget you." She said with a smile as she stretched out her hand for a handshake.
’Am I seeing things? Or did her eyes turn red for a second there?’
Tibat frowned deeply, but she decided to throw these thoughts to the back of her mind.
She looked at Merath’s outstretched hand.
"I hope you know that you’re both paying five thousand merits. That makes it ten thousand merits."
Merath’s smile behind her mask widened, and her eyes narrowed dangerously.
"You’re making your future death a lot worse than you think."
Despite the threat, Tibat controlled herself and remained calm.
Since she had already made these two her enemies, she’d rather go all the way and reap all the fruits of what she’d just done.
She knew that she was going overboard by extorting five thousand merits from her juniors, but the battle had gone in a direction she did not expect, and it was certain that she and the others would be fined and punished for using their chaos.
How could she collect a mere thousand or two thousand merits after everything?
Even if she collected a hundred merits, these two still hated her.
So, she chose to go all the way.
’It’s a shame that I’ll have to share the ten thousand merits with Agramormos and Belafar. I know, I’ll give Belafar the least share.’
She stretched out her right hand to shake Merath’s, so the merits could be transferred.
But just as their hands were about to touch, screams began to echo from behind her.
"WHAT THE—!"
"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU GUYS?!"
"FUCK!"
"STOP!"
Tibat, Merath, Jorra, and Agramormos turned to look at their gang members, who were cursing loudly.
That was when they saw it.
A new group of initiates- over thirty of them- emerged from beneath the causeway, leaping up onto its surface like ants.
They jumped into the midst of the gang members, wielding metal staffs, bats, and hammers.
All of them carried blunt weapons, and they brought them down hard on the bodies of the gang members, sending many crashing to the ground.
What? What is going on? Who are these guys? I don’t recognize them.
Just as Tibat had these thoughts, Belafar’s roar of fury tore through the air.
"AKAZAAAAAAA!!!!"