The Author's POV
chapter-70

Hollberg's sky was dyed in an orange hue. The sun was coming up from the horizon, but the scene reflected by the rising sun could only be described as tragic.

Agents surrounded a certain mansion, and desperate cries and echoes resounded across the space.

-Weeeeeooo! -Weeeeeoooo! -Weeeeeoooo!

The sound of ambulances traveling back and forth between the mansion and the hospital continuously resounded throughout the city of Hollberg. Inside of them, either corpses or wounded people were being carried.

Although the situation had been taken care of by the professors who killed all of the black-clad individuals before the agents could arrive, the aftermath of the chaos still remained.

"Students Kevin Voss, Amanda Stern, and Emma Roshfield. We heard the story."

Outside the mansion, a formal agent wearing a black suit scribbled on a piece of paper as he talked to Kevin, Amanda, and Emma.

"We will ask for details later, so go back and rest for now. Our agents will take care of the rest."

After asking Kevin, Emma, and Amanda a couple of questions, the agent dismissed them. It was evident that with everything that was going on, he was very busy.

Agents were different than Heroes. Agents were people specifically selected by the central government to take care of important incidents and assess the situation.

They were compromised of non-combatants. Most of them had professions that were very useful for supporting roles or administrative-type jobs.

Their job was to assess the situation and scene to later communicate it back to the central government who will later dictate under which jurisdiction the incident will be fall under. Either the Union or the central government, with the union being responsible for incidents that involved demons and villains.

"Um, sir. Jin is…"

Hesitating, Emma looked up at the agent and asked, to which the agent replied with a short and curt reply.

"He's fine. Although his injuries aren't light, he should make a full recovery by the end of the week."

"Yes, understood."

Satisfied, Emma didn't ask any more questions.

"Go back. We will shortly escort you to the hospital to get you guys checked"

"Thank you"

Thanking the agent, Kevin and the rest followed another agent.

As they walked, looking around, Kevin glanced at the other students.

Many of them were crying and grieving. The people with whom they were happily chatting and joking the night prior had either died or were on the verge of dying.

It was a truly saddening and horrific night...

As he looked around, Kevin also found certain students helping out with the unexpected emergency. They were helping the agents and professors carry the corpses of their fellow classmates towards the ambulances.

As they carried the corpses of their fellow classmates, the faces of the students could tell it all...

Closing his eyes and turning his head away from the students, Kevin knew that this incident will forever be marked in the hearts of everyone present.

No one will forget this day...

"Here"

Arriving in front of a large tent where many students and professors were residing, Kevin couldn't help but notice how everyone looked exhausted.

This was especially so for Donna who had dark circles underneath her beautiful eyes.

'She must've overworked herself...'

Kevin thought as he along with Emma and Amanda found a place to sit.

Despite having fought for the whole night, Donna along with professor Novak were still trying their best to help the students. They cooperated with agents and students to try to get as many people safely out of the mansion.

...not once, since the incident started, did Donna rest. This just went to show how much she cared about the students.

"..hm?"

Turning his attention away from Donna, Kevin's eyes couldn't help but drift towards a certain individual who was talking to an agent like many other students.

He had jet-black hair and deep blue eyes, and despite having been through the same situation as the others, differently from the others, he was in a better state than most people.

Although his clothes were in a bit of a mess, he looked to be relatively unharmed. He didn't look like someone who had been through the same incident as the others.

'It's him...'

Glancing beside him, Kevin noticed that he wasn't the only one that was looking at him, as he noticed both Emma and Amanda looking at him from afar.

Though their expressions were different, Kevin could tell that both of them knew that they weren't the ones that killed the black-clad individuals at the end.

Although to the agents, evidence showed that he, Amanda, and Emma, were responsible for killing the last black-clad guy...The three of them knew it wasn't actually them who killed him.

This was especially so for Amanda and Emma who attacked last...

They were definitely supposed to die.

They all knew that.

Yet, when they woke up, they found themselves alive...and next to them was the corpse of the black-clad individual laying face flat on the floor without any signs of life.

At first, they were confused.

Did they kill him?

Did that last-ditch attack manage to kill the black-clad individual?

But they soon dismissed the idea.

It was impossible.

In spite of the fact that by the time they attacked he was already quite injured due to his fight with Kevin, Emma and Amanda knew their limits.

Unless they were extremely lucky, there was no chance they could kill him.

...their assumptions were later proven correct when they received the autopsy report regarding the black-clad individual from the agents.

Though he was heavily injured, what killed him wasn't their last-ditch attack, but a clean sword cut straight into the heart.

As soon as they found out this piece of news, they instantly realized that something didn't add up.

The agents assumed that Kevin was the person responsible for killing the black-clad individual, but Kevin knew...he knew it wasn't him.

Looking at Ren talking to the agent in the distance, two questions emerged in Kevin's mind.

Who was he, and why was he hiding his strength?

...

"...Hmmm"

Waking up to the pungent smell of alcohol, covered in bandages, Jin's eyelids slowly opened.

"Khh..."

Looking up at the white ceiling illuminated by a white fluorescent light, Jin felt a throbbing sensation on his right temple causing his face to crump up.

After a couple of seconds, and after the pain passed away, trying to sit up straight, Jin suddenly felt a sharp pain coursing through his body almost resulting in him screaming.

-Pomf!

In the end, he could only helplessly lay down on the white hospital mattress. Once again staring at the white ceiling above him, Jin truly felt helpless.

Everything felt like a blur to him. Fragmented memories of what had happened prior to waking up here appeared in his mind.

The images of him almost dying and being held by the throat constantly replayed in his mind.

...it was only after a couple of seconds that Jin fully understood what had happened.

At firsts, he couldn't quite place his finger onto the emotion he was feeling, but as time passed in the white hospital room, he finally could taste it.

The bitter taste of defeat...

'Ah...'

-Pita -Pita

"huh, what's this?"

Touching his cheeks, Jin noticed a few droplets of water falling down from his eyes.

"....ahh, shit"

Covering his eyes with his arm, Jin clenched his teeth.

'How pathetic'

Pride

It first started when he defeated a <G> ranked warrior when he was eight years old.

The looks on every adult's face in the room at that time were something that he still remembered to this day.

Fear, pride, awe, shock...all types of emotions were displayed on the adult's faces as he brutally beat down an up and coming <G> ranked Hero raised by their guild.

He didn't know what was going on back then, but that day something within him changed.

The looks on the adult's faces. He couldn't get enough of it.

Therefore, from that day, Jin trained and trained and trained like there was no tomorrow.

He was strong.

He wanted people to idolize him more. He wanted them to know just how strong he was.

As the days passed and he grew older, the looks on the adult's faces changed. If before they had any slight contempt, it soon disappeared. What replaced it was either fear or worship. There was no other emotion.

He was getting stronger at speeds that were thought to be impossible for someone his age.

Soon, he started beating <F> ranked heroes that had been training for years without much effort.

'Ahh, this feels good'

Every time he beat someone, his heart would flutter.

'Worship me more!'

'Fear me more!'

'Revere me more!'

And along with the pleasure Jin felt whenever he would beat a strong opponent came a powerful realization

How strong he was and how weak they were.

From that point on, everything suddenly started to click for him.

That's right.

He was special.

He was the chosen one. He had something that others didn't.

Talent and a good background.

It was from that point on that he developed a pride that no one else had. The pride of being the best...

...At least that's what he thought.

Laying down pathetically in the hospital bed with his body covered in bandages, Jin realized that his pride had turned into conceit.

...He had been deluding himself for a long time.

First, it was Kevin, then it was Amanda, and just a night ago he almost died from a bunch of nobodies that were doing someone else's dirty work.

His body was battered beyond belief and he couldn't even lift a finger.

'How pathetic...'

'...this humiliation...remember the moment where your pathetic self almost lost to a bunch of henchmen...remember me, Ren Dover beating you!'

Recalling those words Jin's jaw clenched.

However, it soon relaxed. As he recalled those emotionless eyes staring at him as if he was nothing, Jin felt an emotion he hadn't felt in a long time well from deep within him.

"I see...this sense of loneliness, fear, and helplessness is a first for me"

They say men don't shed tears.

...yet at the age of 16, Jin for the first time in a long time, cried like there was no tomorrow.

He was strong yet so weak.