The Legendary Pseudo-villain

"W-What?" The man was a bit intimidated by Hecathe's height that was clearly taller than him but he still pretended to be unfazed. However, one couldn't say that he did a good job at pretending since his fear could be seen in his eyes. 

"I'm the type of man that doesn't easily get fooled," Hecathe spoke up, giving an answer to the man's previous question. 

"So now tell me, which one of you has the ability to change cards," Hecathe didn't even bother giving the man time to say anything as he questioned in all seriousness. 

The man immediately gulped in response as he heard the question and looked to be a bit scared as he shook his head and stuttered out, "W-What are you talking about? What changing c-cards?" 

Hecathe sighed as he looked at the face of the poor liar, "Why are you trying to waste my time? If I ask you a question, you give me an answer, isn't that how it works?" 

Hecathe glared at the man who refused to talk. 

From behind Hecathe, they could clearly hear the voice of the other guy with a broken arm, "Don't joke around! What changing cards are you talking about?! Both of us have no abilities!" 

Hecathe frowned as he heard this and looked down at the man who seemed to be rolling on the ground, trying to ease the pain in his arm. 

"Is that so?" Hecathe questioned before he stepped on the man's hand and almost crushed his fingers under his shoe, "Are you sure that it's bullsh*t?" 

The old man let out a cry of pain which almost made Hecathe's question sound a bit inaudible. 

"Y-you can check, Sir." The other one kneeled down and grabbed Hecathe's leg as if begging him to let go of the old guy. His entire demeanor seemed to have changed within seconds after seeing his partner get a broken arm and crushed fingers. 

Hecathe's eyes narrowed down on the man as he heard this but it took him a minute to respond "Is that so?" 

The two nodded their heads in unison as if promising that their words could be trusted. 

Hecathe smiled as he saw this and his eyes glanced around to look at the small audience that had been gathered here. They were originally here to enjoy the gambling, but now, they had unexpectedly got to witness something even more interesting. 

"Then who is it?" Hecathe questioned loudly for everyone to hear, "Who is the little rat that has been swapping my cards? Come out while I still ask you nicely." 

It was only natural that nobody stepped out and Hecathe's smile turned into a frown as he spoke up, asking, "I guess the rat is a bit shy? Challenging me to hunt them instead?" 

Nobody knew who had gulped but it was so silent that even the sound of gulping could be heard clearly. 

"So you want me to personally come and check?" Hecathe asked with a frown and some who were standing at the back even thought about sneakily running away with their lives at this moment, but How could Hecathe simply just let them go that easily? 

"Don't try to run away. If you decide to run away, I'll kill you first even if you're not the rat." 

The ones, who had turned around and got ready to sneak away, immediately stopped as they heard this and remained waiting in their places, looking to be threatened by Hecathe and his words. 

"Now, which one of you is it?" Hecathe looked around and it almost seemed as if the man was analyzing their faces, however, his eyes would every now and then glance at the two old men just to see who they were looking at. 

It was an unconscious behavior. If you knew who did it, your eyes would glance at the suspect more than you'd like it to and this was exactly what was happening at this point. 

One of the two men was already in a condition where he couldn't look or waste his energy on anyone else, whereas the other had cold sweat dripping from his forehead as he glanced at a certain person every now and then. 

It didn't take a genius to guess who the rat was and even if it did take a genius, Hecathe would be more than happy to consider himself a genius for this. 

Hecathe whistled a melody as he took a few steps forward and the people in front of him moved aside as they nervously made a way for him. 

The man's footsteps came to a halt in front of the only person that hadn't moved away. 

"So it was you?" Hecathe asked with a small smirk.

The one standing in front of him was surprisingly a girl who looked to be barely seventeen. She wore a heavy oversized dark grey cardigan with just normal loose pants and a white shirt inside. Her hair was darker than the darkest black that Hecathe had ever seen and the man was unsure if it was just a naturally dark color or if it was an illusion of darkness caused by the bad lighting in the place.

Her fingers were fiddling with the hem of her cardigan, indicating that she was clearly nervous and a bit afraid, however, since she held her face down, facing the ground, Hecathe wasn't sure what expression she had on her face. 

"I asked you a question, little rat," Hecathe spoke up again after receiving no verbal response from the girl. 

"S-Sir, please forgive me," The girl didn't bother saying anything else as she straightaway apologized to Hecathe for having tried to trick him. 

Hecathe chuckled as he nodded his head and accepted the apology, "You should be sorry, but little rat, that's not the reason why I wanted to find you. Your sorry means nothing to me." 

"..." The girl gulped as she visibly flinched in fear and this made Hecathe wonder if his words were a bit too harsh. 

He was certainly not meaning to scare her but somehow that was exactly what he was doing.