Chapter 51: Witnessing Someone's Tragedy
Chapter 51: Witnessing Someone's Tragedy
Aleron, Yueha, Rias, and Roxen were enjoying lunch in the open pavilion amidst the greenery of this massive tree branch.
The food arrived one by one with such delicious aromas that genuinely invoked their hunger to devour the food.
After eating for ten minutes with gusto, Aleron patted his tummy and released a burp before chugging his jug of beer.
"It's good to be alive," Aleron contendly closed his eyes. "I'll start round two after a couple of minutes."
The food was made of exotic natural ingredients and powerful monsters' meat with a sprinkle of magic and crazy spices to increase the deliciousness of the dishes.
"I told you the food will be great," Rias smiled.
"Mhmm," Aleron nodded as he overlooked the city's huge buildings and population with a smile, 'Good city.'
With his vision skill activated, he was looking at people and vehicles, spotting some good places to visit next since he was high in the air and could observe many things.
However, his gaze fell a few hundred meters away in a minor gap to the northeast of the tree which he was facing, and witnessed something that made him frown.
He saw a young boy's terrified face briefly before it was covered by a pushing palm. He couldn't see further, but it was easy to imagine that the man smacked the kid on the ground.
The area where Aleron witnessed this was not poor, but it was a slum-equivalent area of the city with weaker people who worked on bottom rugs with no power living there.
And now that he had seen that scene, a bad taste churned in his stomach.
'I guess a beautiful city doesn't mean there is no suffering in it,' Aleron sighed. 'I'll have to hurry.'
Aleron's pupils glowed as he utilized Magilore and tried out a spell he derived from Grimoire and watching Darzax's shadow drift spell syllabus he comprehended.
"I'll be back in a bit," Aleron said before he dropped into the table's shadow, feeling himself arriving in a world of shadows while watching the world in a limited range. This range was determined based on his senses, sensitivity, and control of the spell.
As he drifted through the shadows leading towards that alley, he soon emerged from the young boy's shadow and faced three men in dark gold robes with their heads covered in hoods.
The man who had grabbed the boy's face with his palm and kept him on the ground was startled. "Wh-"
*Swoosh!*
Aleron's eyes glinted dark as the boy melted into the shadow and left the man's grasp before emerging behind Aleron while Aleron's leg swept speedily and broke the man's arm from the elbow.
However, the man simply jumped back with a painful grunt. He was an Epic-rank powerhouse, but the young man before him was a peak Epic-rank with higher speed.
He couldn't react in time due to both things happening.
However, the three men didn't do anything and simply vanished from the alley.
"Are you okay? Everything's fine now," Aleron asked with a reassuring smile as he patted the terrified boy's head. "Why were they after you?"
"M-Mother...my mother," the boy spoke while trying to catch a breath, and his terrified eyes and words caused Aleron's heart to drop.
'Soul force....I can use it to peek into his memories,' Aleron thought, sending a bit of his soul force into the boy's head.
He somehow learned how to do this since Akuma Apuch had also gained access to his memories by fiddling with his mind using his soul force.
When Aleron saw exactly what had occurred in this boy's small wooden house in this slum area, his eyes burned with anger.
This boy looked around ten years old and those three men killed his mother in front of him after silently arriving at their house!
The boy managed to escape because his dying mother had an innate talent from birth, but it could only produce vines by sprouting them from the ground. Since she was dying, she gave her all and sacrificed anything she could of her body as energy like blood as a source to empower the vines to ensnare those three to let her kid escape.
But the vines were not strong enough, so those three men swiftly escaped the ensnarement.
The terrified young boy ran blindly with only his mother's image flashing in his eyes. The people in the slums were weak and despite the young boy running away with a terrified expression and ragged breathing, nobody stopped him or asked him what happened while those three Epic-rank men silently and stealthily followed him using magic and led him to this valley 100 meters away from the house by further scaring him using magic to transmit their voices into his ears.
'Who were they? Why do they want to capture him alive?' Aleron frowned. From the memories of the boy, he learned that those three wanted to capture him alive.
"Master," Yueha's voice echoed to his side as he didn't even know when she appeared. "If you are looking for the three men that escaped, I've put a trail on them."
Aleron's angered eyes calmed down and then turned cold, "Good. Let them go to their hiding hole first."
However, he didn't know that something was also happening to him, something magical was about to trigger.
'This city has Police forces to maintain law and order, so they should have some clues,' Aleron used Shadow Drift again and left with the boy, appearing at his house.
However, his eyes narrowed as soon as he looked at the spot where the young boy's mother should have been.
'Her dead body is gone?'
Aleron's fist clenched. 'And everything is as clean as possible. What the hell...'
"M-Mother..." the young boy spoke with tear-stricken eyes and fell on the floor. "Where are
you?"
"Maa..."
The boy's breathing turned more ragged as he reached his limit and finally passed out. The only one in his life was his mother and he grew up in this harsh world, raised by his mother. Losing her at this tender age, in this situation, certainly didn't bode well for the kid.
From the moment he witnessed his mother dying to the chase by those three men while hearing scary voices in his mind, the boy was utterly traumatized.
Aleron didn't waste time and took the boy to the police station that was right outside the
slum, just 100 meters away from the house to the west.
He also tried to soothe the kid's mind using his soul energy for proper rest.
However, his mood worsened as soon as he arrived at the police station.