THAT DAY I BECAME A STAR

"Huh?" 

"What did you just say?" 

"I-I…" The pressure inside the tent rises exponentially and the mercenary is forced to shut his mouth.

"How dare you insult the heroes who are giving up their lives and future for us. You fucking low life!!" 

This is the first time I have ever heard Frankher curse. I am surprised and happy at the same time. But now is not the time for that.

"Leave this place at once. And never come back ever again."

Frankher gives a command and the man executes without even trying to raise his head. He is followed by his whole group.. And so, we lose nine mercenaries just like that. Oh well, they weren't going to come anyway so…

***

"Ahem…I am sorry for the scene just now but you must all understand that some matters aren't to be spoken of lightly. The heroes are to be respected. I could tolerate that you speak ill of them between yourselves and where no one can see but never in public." 

"We don't do it even between ourselves so don't get any funny ideas." 

"Yeah, he is right. We might be mercenaries but we aren't savages." Willhem and the guys also supports Frankher's decision and all the mercenaries present nod heavily after that. 

"I see. In any case, the mortars are coming tomorrow morning. So we will depart the day after tomorrow. You guys will arrive a day earlier than us and stand by near the city, waiting for our arrival and planning your entry. The captain will give you the rest of the details concerning the passage, your wages and so on. Now if you will excuse me." 

He leaves the tent with a heavy atmosphere around him. He is certainly not going to do anything to those mercenaries but it wouldn't be bad if he did. They spoke of Farner so they should die. No, no, no. That's not enough reason to kill someone. I mean, maybe it is but…Anyway, let's hear what the captain has to say.

***

After the meeting, we go back to our tent and find the group of nine still around their tent. They are looking for trouble; I am sure of it. 

"What are you fuckers doing here?" 

"We will go with you guys. We have decided after talking between ourselves. So now, you must talk to those guys and convince them to-"

"I just said, what the fuck are you guys doing here?" Willhem advances to his old comrades and grabs him by the collar this time, raising above ground like a vulgar bag.

"Hey, stop this. I don't want to fight you."

"Because you think this will be a fight? You aren't even worthy of licking the dirt of my shoes." 

His nine fellow companions bring out their weapons. Bad idea, guys. Bad idea.

"Willhem." 

"Yeah?" 

"Release him." 

"…" Willhem looks at me with an interrogative face but I just look back. I don't know what kind of expression I should make right now for him to understand so I make none. 

"Ahahaha! You heard him! Release me now, fucker!!" 

The guy just digs his grave even deeper but oh well, dead men tell no tales like Hendrick said once. I don't even know what it means but I just feel like it has his place right now. 

"Sigh…" Willhem sighs and puts him down. Then while the guy fixes his shirt back, he goes behind and whispers. "Don't kill them, okay?" SO you did understand, good. But don't worry, I won't kill a single one of them. I hope.

"So, capt', I can call you capt', right? I believe we have an accord. What do you say we-"

"Overwhelming." All the guys kneeled down with both legs and some of them even have their hands to the ground, trying to hold on from the pressure I emit. 

"W-what are you-"

I grab the guy's head and then lift it up so that he can see my face. 

"Unlike the others, I am not a decent guy or a civilized one. I only know one language that can work in any circumstance: violence." 

"W-wha-" I pierce both of his eyes first. "Gya!!!" Then grab his tongue but right as I am to pull it out. The guy bits me. To no avail though. It does leave some teeth's marks on my fingers but I am slowly pulling out his tongue. The guy tries to hold on and on until my fingers and completely out of his mouth. 

"Arhh!!Arh!! Phease!! Phease!!" He then starts begging or I think he is but you know that I don't care, right?

"If you pull it out like that, he will die." Willhem from behind me. Sigh, we humans are so fragile, aren't we?

"And what if he bites it until it is cut off?" 

"He will survive. Probably." 

"I see." I stop Overwhelming and relieve everyone. "You know what you have to do if you want to live, right?"

"Pherioufly?" 

"Yup." 

"Hey!! This is unfair!" 

The others stand back up and tries to voice their opinions. 

"It's not like you guys never spoke ill of the heroes as well!!" 

"He is right!! This is unfair!! You are just abusing of your strength!!" 

They all start barking but no one dares to bite. Although, I have to say that they are right. I did spoke ill of the heroes as well before. And not just once. I even insulted them as well. But no one ever punished me that hard. 

I release the guy and as he lands on his feet, he jumps back down and is retrieved by his comrades who immediately put a piece of cloth on his punctured eyes. 

"I see. You are right. You guys are absolutely right. We…No, at least, I have insulted the heroes at least once as well. Therefore, I should be equally punished, right?" 

"Yeah!!" 

"Let us fuck you up too!!" 

The other two old comrades of Willhem stand up, already holding their weapons. They really want to settle all of their grudges with me, huh. 

"Okay. Let do this then. On each of our group, two people will be designated to beat us up to their liking. The first one to faint will obviously lose and will have to accept whatever punishment the other will choose. And to make it fair…" I approach them and heal the guy's eyes. He then removes the blindfold and looks surprised at what I did. "So, what do you say?" 

"Huh, I…" 

"Wait, will you use your healing scripts?" 

"Obviously not since this is a punishment." 

"Then we accept! Come on, man! Stand up already!" The guy is still baffled by what I just did but they don't even let him to the time to come back to reality. 

"We will be the ones to fuck you up, bastard!" 

They then advance to me, leaving their wobbling comrades behind.

"Okay. Willhem, Hendrick." I look at them and their smiles brings the cold of winter to everyone on the other side. Yup, you forgot my guys are complete fight freaks. And that will be your downfall. 

***

Not even ten minutes later, the guy has fainted with foam and blood running amok on his face and mouth.

"Huff…Huff…No way." On my side, those two had been trying to their hardest. Punching; kicking, giving head butts and elbowing me while screaming with all their lungs. 

I even thought they were getting hurt while hitting me as some point. But in the end, it didn't do much. Nothing cracked apart from my nose. It is also the only place where blood came out on my side so it is a complete loss for them.

"You guys must have cheated!!" 

"Oh come on, seriously." I speak after healing my nose back. "You were the ones who chose. So stop it and accept your fate." 

"Fuck!! No way!! We won't just watch as you kill him like that!!" They have a good sense of friendship at least. 

"Who said anything about killing?" 

"Eh?"

"Did I ever said I was going to kill him?" 

"B-but earlier you tried to…" 

"I was just teasing you. Come on, you guys don't know about jokes?" I tried to put up a smile but they all look at me with weird faces being a mix of interrogation, fear and a tiny weeny bit of anger. My attempt to make what I did earlier pass as a joke is a complete failure, sadly. 

"That was a joke?" 

"Yup." Even one of my guys asks from behind. Fucking bastard, can't you shut your trap?! I turn around and look at him to make sure he shut up. "You knew it, right?" The guy just shudders and lowers his head. Good. 

"O-okay. Then what should he do?" 

"No, no. You guys will do it together." 

"Wait, what? Why?" 

"Because you are his comrades. Isn't that right?" If you guys refuse then, it will be proof that you aren't and I can whatever I want. If you accept, well…It doesn't change anything. I can still do whatever I want. One of the principal support of the mouth foaming guy looks at all the others and they nod hesitantly. 

"O-okay. We will do it all together." 

"Good. I want you to go to the tow near the camp and say that you are the number one fans of the heroes while being fully naked." 

"WHAT?!!!!!!!!"