Unsealing Emptiness

The dark red liquid dripped on the dead leaves from time to time before being swayed aside by the man. At a glance, it was clear that it was blood. But it wasn’t his because he showed no signs of injury.

A black cloth-like mask was glued to the man’s face from his nose to his neck. Behind his unkempt hair, his eyes were barely visible.

It was the middle of the day, so when the man reached a particular group of rough-looking men, they quickly surrounded him for interrogation.

Just before they could say or do anything, a tall red-haired man shouted, “Don’t stop him ya shits!”

“He has blood on him Boss!” one of the men surrounding him shouted back.

“I said let him in, ya wanna die?!”

.....

Begrudgingly, the men stepped aside and the blood-covered man came face to face with the leader of the Tiger Fangs.

“Ya reek of shit, ya know that? What are ya, a butcher?” The leader of Tiger Fangs curiously examined the strange man in front of him.

The reason he asked others to step aside was that he had been on full alert since the moment they had camped here in this forest. He and the vice leader both occasionally took turns to keep watch as well.

Yet, this man completely missed his senses and managed to reach their camp without anyone noticing!

The Tiger Fangs’ leader realized he wasn’t an ordinary man when he saw the black mask covering his face and the bored eyes visible behind some rough strands of hair, as well as the fact that he couldn’t seem to read how strong he was.

‘With me and the vice leader, we can probably take him out together... but,’

The leader maintained a straight confident face, but he was a little nervous. He had fought and killed countless people and there were also some who used Spiritual Artifacts to hide their strength.

He was reluctant now because if this blood-covered man turned out to be as strong as him, if not slightly stronger, they would almost totally sustain some injuries, which would be bothersome because they had a whole County Lord’s estate to fight tomorrow night.

Just then, he caught the sight of the vice leader and was internally reassured.

As of now, he was only jumping to conclusions and the blood-soaked man might not even be as strong as he assumed. It was this cautious nature of his that the Tiger Fangs had almost never suffered all these years under his leadership.

“Give me some wine, and I will mind my own business.”

The blood-soaked man spoke with a harsh but lazy voice. It felt more like he was ordering the leader of Tiger Fangs than asking him.

The leader’s blood boiled at the blatant disrespect, but he controlled himself and took a few steps back upon noticing the gestures of his right-hand man, the vice leader.

“Give the man his wine!”

He yelled before turning around and walking back into the tent.

If he stayed any longer, he would find it hard controlling himself from beating the shit out of this man. The only thing stopping him was that he didn’t like to gamble.

That man could have been very weak or could have been very strong. None of that mattered. He would just give him some wine and that would be the end of it.

Although surprised, his subordinates did not complain when they noticed that even the vice leader remained silent.

They were surprised because they were the ones openly going around and pillaging everything they needed, but now there was this thin, frail-looking man who appeared out of nowhere to get free wine from them!

“Is Boss gonna let this go?!”

“Can ya stahp it? If not, then shut up!”

One of the men who the leader had instructed took out a gourd and threw it towards the blood-soaked man.

He caught it in the air and took a seat beside other goons. They kept their distance from him, but he didn’t seem to mind any of their reactions.

The vice leader kept an eye on him from afar. The blood-soaked man seemed to have been craving for a glass of wine for ages as he opened the gourd and put it up to his mouth.

Strangely, the black mask stuck to his face moved in an absurd manner and created an opening just enough for him to be able to drink from the gourd.

“What was that!?”

One of the goons shouted as he stood up and backed away.

Others also started whispering and the vice leader rushed inside the tent in a hurry. Most likely to tell the leader that this man was indeed not ordinary.

As the man emptied out the wine gourd, he threw it on the ground and stared dead into the eyes of the man who had given him the gourd.

In response, the man felt goosebumps on his hands as he hurriedly took out another gourd and threw it toward him. It was obvious from the behavior of their leader and the vice leader that this man was probably not to be messed with.

Fortunately for him, the man didn’t continue drinking and simply tied up the gourd to his waist before resting his back on the tree and closing his eyes.

A few minutes passed just like that and no one made any noise. They all whispered in each other’s ears like scared fawns around a panther.

The men stood there watching him sleep in front of them before one of them mustered the courage to approach him and confirm that he was indeed sleeping. He didn’t even dare to touch him. He only came to see if his eyes were really closed and if his breathing was steady.

Then he vigorously nodded his head towards others who tiptoed their way towards the largest tent in the middle where both the leader and the vice leader were resting.

“Chh! Chhe!”

One of the men made some weird noise to call them outside since they were not allowed to enter without permission. They didn’t ask for permission loudly since it would wake

A few seconds later, the vice leader and the leader came out with a frown on their faces. They were already irritated by this ‘wild card’ in the middle of the forest.

They had no choice but to let that strange man do what he wanted or else it would stur a commotion and all their plans would go to ruin.

Before the leader could shout to the top of his lungs, all the men immediately motioned their fingers to their lips, gesturing for him to quiet down.

This gesture of their only further fueled his rage as no one seemed to be taking him seriously anymore, “Fucki-”

Just then he noticed the silhouette of the blood-soaked man sleeping under the tree’s shades.

“Is it about that damn shit?!”

“Y-yeah...?”

“Did I ask ya little rats to tell me every single thing about that goddamn son ova-”

The leader couldn’t finish his words because he was overcome with blood lust. As if a person is drowning and, no matter how hard they try, only water fills their lungs, further immersing them in the slow torture of impending death.

Everyone looked at him strangely as he suddenly had a look of fear towards the man when just a moment ago he was cursing him to death.

Others didn’t notice it, only the leader himself understood one thing; if he were to finish his words, those would surely be his last on the land of the living.

He gulped in fear and dropped his head in frustration. The cold feeling to the back of his neck was physical proof that it wasn’t an illusion. Right now, he was at the mercy of that frail-looking man who was sleeping under the tree!

Before the vice leader could question what suddenly happened for him to start acting this way, the leader turned around and walked back into the tent.

“Leave him alone.”

A whisper was heard from inside the tent, shocking not only the goons but also the vice leader, who had no idea what had just happened.

He quickly ran after the leader while the rest of the goons were left wondering what they should do now.

Unsurprisingly, everyone tacitly decided to ignore the man’s existence. He hadn’t harmed anyone unreasonably up to this point, so they decided to let him be.

And just like that, there was a new uninvited and unwanted guest in the camp of the Tiger Fangs.

As everyone got busy, the vice leader came out of the tent and took a seat facing the man sleeping under the tree. His serious expressions told everyone that he would stay like that for as long as it was needed.

. . .

The day passed quickly and the night came. It was at this point that the leader started getting anxious.

He would usually have to beat the shit out of his subordinates on little mistakes to keep them all in line but now with the presence of a stranger, he couldn’t constantly drill it into their mind that they had to prepare for tomorrow night.

“Will he leave before ‘that’?” the vice leader muttered under his breath.

The leader carefully held the long red sword in front of him and sighed for the umpteenth time,

“I don’t know...”

The vice leader was well aware of how much this man, who was not only his superior in this group but also a decade-old comrade, was restraining himself from going all out on the man who had so blatantly disrespected him.

Only his rage for vengeance for his sister outweighed his personal feelings. As a result, he didn’t do anything stupid.