?
"I will be the next Judgement, not you!" Ss shouted while pointing at Grant.
"..."
"..."
"..."
This time, the silence was genuine. No angry stares were pointed at Ss. No whispers were said. They all simply looked at him for a moment with dumbfounded expressions...
Before one of them chuckled... Grant chuckled.
And just like that, the entire neighborhood was filled with roaringughter and people pped their legs and dropped to the ground to let it all out.
The resolve on Ss'' face looked like it was being destroyed by the second, yet Grant quickly disappeared from where he stood.
Ss'' hair stood up again as his danger senses told him something wasing, yet instead of being attacked, he felt a hand drop onto his shoulder.
"That was a good one kid. You cane to this part of town whenever you want, alright?" Grant chuckled before patting Ss on the back and walking away from him.
Everyone else continued tough, but when they finally stopped, Ss realized that they didn''t re at him anymore.
Some of them even walked up to him and gave him a pat on the shoulder as well.
"That was brave, kid. I have to give you that." One of them chuckled.
"I... Didn''t expect that..." Seraphina muttered while letting out her third sigh in thest few minutes.
It had been a little bit of a rollercoaster of emotions, going from joy at seeing Ss, to stress that he might die, to shock when she saw him shiver under Grant''s gaze, before turning into terror when Ss proimed that he would be the next Judgement.
Archie and Seraphina were friends, yet from her reaction, Ss could tell that she wasn''t in on their n.
After being praised for a few minutes, Ss quickly found himself being dragged toward one of the lounge areas.
''They''re pretty outstanding... for being such losers...'' Ss couldn''t help but think that while looking at them.
They all looked like the type who would drink in the mornings and nights. Hell, some of them were drunk before he had even gotten to their part of the city, but due to him being a minor, they all avoided drinking and smoking.
It wasn''t really something Ss would think about often, but mostws didn''t really apply to Gilea. No one really enforced them, not even in the city. However, even though they were technically the enforces of the city, Ss didn''t expect them to hold up thew after what he had heard from Archie.
And not only did they hold up thew around him, but they also did the morally correct thing and avoided intoxicants while he was around.
The rest of the day passed by in what felt like the blink of an eye. It had been quite a long since Ss had an actual conversation with a real person rather than talking about things that mattered. Sure, it felt like he was wasting his time, but in a way, he justified it by calling it a "necessary interraction."
Ss made sure that, throughout the conversations, he would slip past any of the questions that he shouldn''t answer. They didn''t really look at him like a child anymore after getting to know him for an hour or two, but they still avoided doing any intoxicants.
Though, it did make it did make it easier for them to understand when Ss was trying to evade a question. Fortunately, he was pretty good at avoiding questions. It was quite easy after having to deal with so much politics back then.
"So what are you going to do now?" One of them asked while nodding at Ss.
"Hmmm. Well, I''ll probably have to train extra hard to fight against Mr. Evershield."<novelsnext></novelsnext>
"..."
"..."
"Wait, you were being serious about that?" One of them asked with shock written on his face.
"Yeah, why?" Ss tilted his head.
"Well, Judgement is extremely powerful. You won''t stand a chance against him. He''s almost as strong as our previous leader, just morepetant." One of them joked while the rest chuckled.
"Oh yeah? I''m going to beat him! Watch me." Ss tapped on his bicep.
"Your funeral." Another shrugged before taking a sip from a smoothie he had ordered.
"How about I train you for your uing fight?" Seraphine chimed in, causing everyone to look at her with raised brows.
Crossing one leg over the other, she continued- "I''m an expert fighter. My current strength might not be at the same level as Judgement, but I''m still a Gold rank with two stars." She tilted her head up in pride.
''Two stars... What the hell is that?!''
"I think that''s a pretty good idea. How about we all train him. You know, so he doesn''t immediately die against our leader." Another chimed in before they all unanimously agreed that they would train Ss.
''...'' Ss looked down before tears streaked out of his eyes.
They all looked gobsmacked for a moment, but they quickly remembered that he was still a 10-year-old... Or at least he looked like one.
"T-Thank you so much... I''ve never had this many friends before." Ss stuttered while looking up at them.
And when he did that, he saw a group of over 30 men, holding their arms over their eyes or simply sniffling, trying to suppress the tears that were about to flow out of their eyes.
''...''
The strongest amongst them walked toward Ss and got onto a knee as well. He looked down at the ground the entire time before cing his hand on Ss'' shoulder once more.
"K-Kid... We will help... We will be your friends." He sniffled while everyone behind him cheered.
''Well... I have no clue what I just did, but I guess it''s a win for me?''
A few more hours passed by, and eventually, Ss decided to call it a day and left their lounge and began to walk home, but that''s when he felt it again.
Looking up, Ss saw a pair of blue eyes stare at him from the entrance of the neighborhood. It made Ss narrow his eyes, but he continued to walk.
However, the man at the end could visibly see Ss shuddering under his power, and when he was finally a few meters away, the man opened his mouth and spoke.
"So... You weren''t joking when you said you''d fight me?"
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