I glowered at Tubolt with wild, enraged eyes. Wide open. Focused. Patient. Waiting for him to give me any reason to swing right at him with all my might. Hands in my pockets, boot perched on his left armrest, emanating a great, invisible, ominous pressure as it seemed to extend outwardly—hovering, lording, over him.
"You can say anything about us, me especially, and I'll take it. But you diss my captain, you talk bad about Asura… And I will absolutely obliterate you. I don't care who you are," I said. My voice was low, hostile as I glared into Tubolt's violet eyes.
Tubolt sat there stunned at the sight of me, then finally responded, "ARE YOU FUCKING OUT OF YOUR MIND!? DO YOU KNOW WHO THE FUCK I AM, BOY!?"
Furious, he summoned his two executives to me. Wilren held a metal axe to my neck, and the other, Zayden, with his palm out, formed a yellow sigil in the air, ready to blast me with whatever magic he had. Both on opposite sides of me, guarding their captain.
Just as fast, Code and Havoc were right behind me at the two executives' necks, as if Code had teleported himself and Havoc there as well, 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. Both shared that same intense look on their face, same as myself.
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. All of us in the Black Wolves. I was more upset that I hadn't reacted sooner, rather than the fact that I had reacted at all.
"Okay then. You think you can take me? I will show you the power of a REAL captain, you filthy dog!!" Tubolt said with heavy malice in his tone as he stared me down, standing up now.
He was a few inches taller than me, standing at six-foot-five to my six-foot stature. But that didn't matter; I remained looking back up at him, unwavering.
His right hand extended, summoning black shards of carbon in the form of spears facing in our direction. All of us were ready to throw down until…
"Stop this quarrel immediately!" The voice shot through with enough power in the sound to make my ears ring. Powerful and stern, if justice were a voice.
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 just as quickly, but a second later.
Snow gave me a look from the side, shaking his head ever so 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 to me as he faced Tubolt directly.
"Captain Tubolt, I urge you to unsummon your magic and sit back down if you wish to still be a part of this council. 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 other Guilds and the Royal King while you are at it," Ryo said sternly to the Captain of the Purple Panthers, even though he was only a Vice Captain himself.
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 his own friend. I could see how hard it was for him to say by the glimmer in his eyes alone, "You and your crew… Please leave…"
I stood there shocked, even though I understood the reason for that response.
"Ryo, I—"
"Please, Greed. Before you force me to remove you myself," Ryo said in a low tone, almost saddened that he would have to do such a thing if I refused. I knew he would too. He wasn't one to bluff. Both he and Snow, and the rest of the mages who stopped us, they wouldn't hesitate.
I ripped my arm away from Snow and the other mages holding me, threw my hands in my jacket pockets, and gestured with my head to Code and Havoc to come with me. The other mages holding them down released their grasp on them and let us walk ourselves out, watching our every move as we exited the meeting room.
I looked back, and Ryo still stood back, head slightly looking over to me with those blazing yellow eyes now softened as we took our leave. He did not move an inch from his stance against the Purple Panther's Captain. 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—even the shy purple-haired girl, Love, as if she were a completely different person.
My princess stayed in her slack position on her throne, legs crossed and arm still propping her head on her armrest, emotionless, disinterested even. Staring me down with those beaming, deep blue eyes all the way out the double doors that formed again with Sirus' magic.
Perhaps I had left a bad first impression. Regardless, I didn't waver as I kept staring at her all the way out. She didn't waver either.
As we exited through the doors, they closed behind us and disappeared once again, preventing reentry. The three of us, in silence, made our way out of the castle, officially kicked out and banned from our first 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, giant staircase outside the castle on a random landing. Havoc sat a few steps below where I was, and Code was standing on the landing smoking a cigarette, hand to his face, eyes closed. 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.
Fuckin' prick…
Asura wouldn't 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 if he knew what we had done. I would do it again in a heartbeat. We all would.
I was slowly inching back to reality after dozing off when I finally noticed a head coming out of my chest. It was that of a woman with black layered hair and… an eyepatch on her right eye, and the other dark purple as she stared right at me.
"Holy shit! What the fuck, Ophelia!" I jumped.
Ophelia passed through me completely and onto the landing, giggling as she became whole. The longer blonde rat tail peekaboo part of the back of her hair drifted as she landed gracefully onto the brick landing we solicited.
"Well, look who finally decided to show up. Perfect timing," Code said sarcastically.
"Yeah. SUCH perfect timing," I followed up.
Ophelia brushed the long part of her blonde hair and started twisting it with her finger as she shyly responded, "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 was 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, slightly regretting bringing it up.
"Oh, I know all about that… 'cause I saw the whole thing," Ophelia said casually.
"YOU WHAT?!" Code and I said at the same time. Havoc was still in the background, asking if he could go home.
"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 as our noses flared.
"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…" She beat around the bush. "There's this guy I was trying to avoid…"
When she said that, I knew instantly, without a shadow of a doubt…
"Snow?" Code, Havoc, and I said at the same exact time. Havoc actually said "Home," but I just pretended 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. There was even a moment during the meeting where he looked directly at where I was behind the wall… huuuu…" She shivered.
I glared at her. Sometimes, when Ophelia was talking, I could actively feel my brain cells killing each other, fighting to the death.
"So that was it? And let me guess, you just hung around through the walls the whole time?" I asked her, already knowing the answer.
"Yup… And 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 going, and at this point, all three of our brains were fried as she continued trailing off in the background. When Ophelia finished talking, she ended with a cheery look on her face. Her only available eye closed in glee, facing us and back against the staircase going down.
We hardly noticed…
A big shadow behind Ophelia covered us instantly. Too quick to even notice in time or wonder how it got there. Bigger than all of us combined, the six arms it had were huge, and its body floated. Resembling a mechanical puppet of some kind.
It was too late to react as it swung in all its arms around us, and we vanished completely without a trace.