Vengeance of the Returner

Nix blinked and squinted his eyes as he was unable to understand why she sat next to him. On the other hand, Cinzia's face was calm and emotionless.

She stared at him and said.

"oi, If you don't mind can I use my ability? I mean... Can I use my hypnotic ability on you? That is if you wish to do so..."

'What?'

Nix was at loss for words because why would she even ask for permission in the first place. If she wanted to she could have used it without asking him just like how Nix used the Truth eye.

'Well, this is gonna be a huge gamble. If I lie she will detect it easily and If I refuse this she won't put her trust in me which in turn leads to mistrust and doubtfulness. I ought to get her trust. From what I saw from her traits I can gain her as an irreplaceable ally.'

He steeled his will and placed his bet on Truth eye since the uses and information are different even though its Rank was low. She indirectly asked him to make her trust him.

Nix gave a hard gulp and replied.

"Yeah, you can."

She smiled and nodded her head and drew her face close towards Nix's. Her eyes gave a purple gleam of light.

Suddenly he began to feel dizzy and the environment started swirling in his vision. Soon his vision started to get blurry.

The environment before his eyesight turned upside down and several images that were familiar to him flashed inside his mind. After simultaneous transitions, the images stopped. It slowly faded and turned dark.

Swiftly a new peculiar scene unfolded inside his mind.

A railway station without any people. None except a chap and a lady inside the railway station entered his vision and it was raining heavily as the rain droplets splattered spontaneously together with the thunder rhythmically and the sky was filled with multiple dark clouds and bolts of lightning flashed a few times.

The girl walked away from the guy after a sound argument. The vision was quite familiar to him but he wasn't able to hear the conversation.

The guy gritted his teeth to endure his surging anger. He raised his head and stared at the sky with sorrow. The identity of the guy was Nix.

Nix was able to vividly remember that day as his pupil dilated upon watching the sight and mixed emotions filled up his vessel.

The scene swiftly changed again to his past where he stood before a building with his parents.

After a few minutes, It quickly changed again.

This time the scene showed two middle school boys fighting in the center surrounded by many other boys.

A boy with short black and white hair kept punching on the other boy's face with ferocity. He forced himself on top of him and kept on stabbing the guy. His face showed nothing but rage. He didn't give attention to his surroundings nor the cheers and curses.

Some boys kept on cheering up.

"Nix! Nix! keep on punching! Kill him with a Jab!"

While others cursed.

"You Bastard! Wretched son of a bitch! You can't beat him!"

Suddenly the boy pushed Nix and began punching him and those who cursed at him rushed in and began attacking him from the rear, front, and every direction that they found comfortable. He began bleeding severely, his blood dripped on the tiled floor and his white school uniform was battered and dirtied up as it had his blood and dirt on it.

Nevertheless, he swiftly dodged some attacks and began punching everyone that fell in his sight while gritting his teeth. His knuckles and his face were swollen while his eyes showed reddish color similar to blood. His eyes dropped tears but his facial expression didn't convey that he was crying.

Before the scene could end, Few messages became visible before his eyes.

[Truth eye activated.]

[Effects of Eyes of flagrancy has been countered.]

[The User might still feel dizzy as the after-effects of undergoing the hypnosis.]

Thankfully Truth eye's passiveness helped him escape from those visions.

'Dammit! What the heck was that?'

"hah, hah"

He panted heavily as he drifted his eyes, he felt Cinzia staring at him.

Cinzia began talking.

"Are you alright?.. Just nod your head."

'Is the hypnosis still ongoing?'

He just nodded his head. She opened her mouth again.

"Who are you?"

'I see! so the hypnosis is still ongoing. I gotta be careful.'

He cautiously began talking with an emotionless face.

"I am Nix."

"Which clan are you from?"

He turned his head left and right in refusal and opened his mouth.

"I am not affiliated to any clan."

"Hmm...What's your goal in joining this mission?"

"Just wanted to earn money and gain some experience."

"Are you really a Level one?"

"Yes"

Her face showed a surprised expression but she didn't ask him how he got that much power while merely being a level one guy.

She used her hand as a support to lean. she opened her mouth without any interest to ask anything while Nix kept on acting like a robot. He tried his hardest to control himself from being caught. If he gets caught now he is done for.

"I see... Now, what should I ask?"

she muttered to herself and continued.

" what's your goal in Empyrean? And did you call me beautiful all of sudden back there?"

'Isn't this some kind of personal question? Let's just take a risk. I just said it because I felt like it but, damn I didn't think she would ask about something like that though. Imma gonna act like a dumbass.'

Thinking inwardly he answered quickly.

" To fall in love with you and I said it cuz you are beautiful."

Her face showed a hint of surprise and it slightly reddened.

'Did it work?'

He was tensed up but, soon he felt relaxed as he heard the reply from her.

"huh?... why do you want to fall in love with someone like me?"

'Dumber than me... isn't she?'

He responded to her nonchalantly.

"Cuz I am attracted to you."

She was flustered, she started talking stutteringly.

"huh?... I -I -I mean What do you find attractive about me. You should respect women. Saying that ... is just fucking dumb."

'What the hell is she spouting? I am still hypnotized. About what the hell is she conversing with a hypnotized person?'

He just nodded his head in agreement with her without speaking since he could get in trouble for deceiving her.

"Ah... Dammit, what should I do? "

She muttered to herself.

"Alright... Which quality of mine do you feel attractive?"

'Ah, I am tired of this... Lemme play with words again...'

"I find everything attractive about you."

She was perplexed by his answer and her cheeks flushed red,

"Uhm...I am delighted."

'To think she believed me!' He exclaimed inwardly. It showed how much she believed in that ability.

Her face bloomed with a smile but suddenly she grew anxious.

"Now that I think about it. The effects of Hypnotism should have worn out by now...."

Hearing it he acted like he was fainting and fell on her body and she swiftly caught him with her both hands wide open.

'Damn! so, soft and warm!'

Nix exclaimed while feeling her embrace with his head buried inside her bosom. She slowly laid him on her lap and brushed his hair slowly for a while staring down at him worriedly.

Nix acted like he was unconscious for a while and opened his eyes and found her staring down at him quietly. He hurriedly got up from her and stepped away.

"I am sorry If I caused you any trouble."

She replied.

"It's okay and I am sorry for not believing in you."

Nix smiled and questioned.

"Okay, we're good then?"

She replied to him with her usual cold tone.

"yeah."

' To think My acting worked. Bless the truth eye!. Damn! I guess it's the matter of uses and superiority that matters since the truth eye's main job is decoding and working as clairvoyance. I escaped from those fucking visions thanks to Truth eye I suppose.'

He was glad that he cleared up the trust issues with her for now. The only thing that's left is to gain more of her trust to actually make her his ally. He kind of deceived her without giving much thought to it.

Cinzia stepped into the tent and left Nix to relax out there as he was feeling a little dizzy caused by the after-effects of Eyes of Flagrancy. It was devastating for him to go through his past trauma.

He walked inside the tent after a while. Eshwar, Dalia, and Varde had a smiling face as Nix entered in. They seemed to have cleared up from the trust issues they had with him since he went through hypnotism. It clearly shows that Cinzia has already told them what happened after she used her ability.

"I heard you went through hypnosis. But, you kinda feel energetic for a person who just underwent hypnosis. From what I heard from Cinzia. A normal person can't stand the mental exhaustion as they wouldn't be able to wake up within mere thirty minutes. She herself felt astounded by your fast mental recovery, so mind telling us the secret? "

Nix's heart began to beat faster as he felt several doubtful gazes fall upon him. Suddenly a cold female voice entered his eardrum from his back. The owner of the voice is Cinzia.

"Oi! Airheads! it just simply means that he possesses greater mental strength than most people that went through mental trauma received by Eyes of flagrancy."

And she added.

"To be honest I didn't expect him to recover this fast myself and from my personal experience, this is my first time seeing someone with strong mental strength. Anyway, I don't think you people should doubt him hereafter."

Everyone had a surprised expression on their faces. Since she herself came up and acknowledged someone. Everyone present there had a smile of embarrassment since they doubted him again.

Her speech showed how much confidence she has in her ability's power. She also began to talk freely and became more friendly than before to Nix without wearing a cold expression. She turned and smiled.

"I am sorry for the misunderstanding..."

He left out a sigh of relief and opened his mouth.

"hah, It's okay."

She smiled at him and left the tent to continue to keep watch. Varde smiled in embarrassment and began speaking.

"Yo man, I am sorry for doubting you... I mean Damn! If she believes in you then we can believe in you for sure."

" "

Nix gave a wry smile.

He didn't understand why all of them woke up for such a simple thing. Maybe to kill him if he had some ulterior motives perhaps? He couldn't point out why they were wary of others or what made them so wary of others? But, one thing is for sure. They certainly have an enemy out there inside outlaws.

There was this one point that kept on popping in his mind that is. Why would they even add a stranger to their quest in the first place? He still got time to get answers about those matters, so he left it at that.

" It's alright, man."

Eshwar stepped in.

" I heard you are level one. Is that true?"

Nix nodded his head and said.

"Yeah"

Eswar furrowed his brows.

"What? I can't believe this though... I mean How can a level one person use an attribute? "

Nix clicked his tongue.

"Tch, Eshwar I hope this conversation is over. I answered your commander's question and I am not obliged to answer yours. It's my personal thing so, I ain't gonna say or share information about it."

"Alright."

Eshwar scratched his head and walked away feeling reluctant to question him any further as Nix wore an annoyed expression. Nix laid in his place after finishing the conversation to rest up both his mind and body.