Kabata Katsuki

“I’m the second in-command of the seven sinners. I work right under Kamiyama-san and Ishida-sama. Still, that bitch Akira acts like she knows everything. I know her ass. She only wants to assert herself as above me, even though I work above her. She only means to disregard me as an in-command, and that’s why she said that she can’t really determine the hero only on the basis of my observation. That filthy bitch would not have ever made this far if she were not a cold bitch everyone gets scared from only by seeing her, when in reality she’s dumber than anyone of us.”

“I know, right,” Ayato replied. The two of us were on top of our brown shaded horses, walking beside each other as we held the whips. “But Kamiyama-sama must have agreed with her dumb idea for a reason,” He added with a smile.

“Yeah,” I tilted my head a little down.

TAP. TAP. TAP. TAP. The hooves of our horses tapped the white bricked ground as they walked. A small gist of wind blew from the front of the hooves from the back. Our green robes flew in the air for some time behind our back and our hair waved a little. The street was filled with people on both the sidewalks of the road. The women in royal clothes were walking with their children’s hands in one, and a basket full of vegetables, fruits, and other stuff on their right. Some people were walking alone normally. Ayato turned his head to the front. “Akira is surely dumb, but she still knows how to assert dominance and present even the dumbest of things so seriously people think it’s not funny.”

“And Ishida-sama always gets trapped in her words.”

“Aha,” He laughed a little. “But not Kamiyama-san. Kamiyama-san’s very logical when it comes to this stuff. He’s the most trusted soldier in the Dansamian army. I know he has something in his mind Akira has not thought of.”

“Tch! I know, I know!” I replied irritably. “But just think about it. How in the universe are we gonna kick the ass of that hero and dispose him off when he’s a famous and known personality?”

He thought about it for a second, turned his head at me, narrowed his eyes, and asked, “How much famous do you even think he can possibly become?”

I turned my head to my left at him, and frowned a little as I thought. “N-Not much, right?”

***

Isekai’d

Written by Dhruv Pabreja

***

“Yeah, and that’s the catch, I guess,” Ayato said as he looked into my eyes with his shiny eyes.

“But the winner is praised so much, and so are the top sixteen.”

“It’s because the price of meat!” Ayato said excitedly. “It’s their acts that get famous, not their faces!”

I frowned a little in doubt. “W-What…?”

“See,” He said as he looked into my eyes and I looked into his. “When Dansamia wins a war, the public thank the soldiers, right?”

“Yeah,” I nodded.

“Just like that, you know that during the rankings, the meat in the market comes in abundance, and the prices fall down drastically, right?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s why people talk about the rankings, right?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s why, the ones at the lower section of the rankings don’t really get recognized, because people are so busy celebrating the lowered prices!”

“O-Oh…”

“They don’t give a damn about the winners!” Ayato excitedly said. “Just like how they respect the sinners, but no one knows that we are the sinners if we don’t wear these green robes!”

“I-I guess I got it, somehow.”

“Yeah,” Ayato turned his head to the front at the road, where a bullock cart was walking slowly with loads of light brown sacs of wheat. “And I guess this is what Ishida-sama will do. He just won’t advertise the names of the winners so much. People won’t know about all of them. And, they eventually forget about it all in a month or two. So, they might kill him and no one will—”

“I guess you still don’t know how we are being hated for the Surfurine town massacre,” I told him as I looked at the front seriously. “If people get to know that the sinners have done another murder, they won’t spare us. And the worst part is that this is New Dansamia City, the capital, where all the riots take place, where we are the most vulnerable.”

“Yeah. We don’t really have more cities so developed like this one.”

“And public here is not like peasants who would just stop once they’re scared by one slap.”

Ayato chuckled a little in his throat. “MmHmmMmMmm. Correct.”

“So, then what?”

“I guess in that case, we’d let them do what they’re doing.”

I turned my head left at him.

TAP. TAP. TAP. TAP. There was silence between the two of us as I continued to look at him doubtfully.

“W-Why?”

“Let them taste their own medicine for once, Katsuki. Just this once, stop interfering with Akira.” Ayato turned his head at me, looking at me with his slender eyes and a smirk. “This plan of hers is already full of problems. Then, let’s let her do it her way, and make her fail this once.” Ayato turned his head at the front. “The hero ain’t no dying this time. It’d be the two of us who’re gonna take him down.”