"Show your respect…"
A thick killing intent flooded the room. Renas felt cornered, like he'd been locked in a cage. He thought he had no choice but to bow.
The leader of the Nameless chuckled softly and spoke again.
"You don't even know how to bow? Really… whatever. We all come from different worlds, and it seems yours didn't have slavery. That's not a bad thing — if anything, it means you're from a civilized world. You may stand. I'm not going to kill you. Even though you couldn't bow properly, watching you try was amusing."
Renas stood up again. It felt like an insult, but he didn't care. The leader of the Nameless kept talking.
"I'm the leader of this group. You can call me Thea. Still, I can't just let you into my group so easily. The only reason an unaligned person like you has survived this long must be one of two things — either you're strong, or you've been hiding at home all along. To be sure which, I'll have to put you through a little test…"
Thea had expected Renas to object, or suggest an alternative, maybe even prove his strength with some clever remark — but Renas said nothing. He just waited for Thea to finish.
Thea wondered if he'd overdone it. Maybe he shouldn't have let so much killing intent slip. The kid must be scared stiff by now.
Of course, things weren't at all as Thea thought. Renas was busy deciding what to eat tomorrow. He wasn't even listening. Worst case, he could always use his ability and bail out, so there was no point in paying attention to this boring talk. He couldn't exactly tell someone like Thea to "get to the point," so all he could do was wait for it to end.
That worked for the first few seconds, but it got dull fast. His mind wandered to dinner. Pizza or fried chicken? He'd had pizza yesterday, so chicken made more sense. Yeah, chicken.
Thea kept talking.
A single tear slid down his cheek, unnoticed by Renas.
"...To prove your strength, I want you to fight one of my pawns. I'm talking about the masked ones. You seem to carry a dagger and a strange rifle — none of my soldiers use weapons like that. So, for a fair match, you'll fight with daggers only. If you're ready, we'll begin!"
When Thea said that, he expected Renas to move, to draw his dagger — but Renas just stared blankly.
Thea cleared his throat and repeated, louder:
"If you're ready, we'll begin!"
From where he stood, Renas looked like he didn't care at all.
A move meant to avoid angering a strong person had, ironically, ended up embarrassing one.
Thea looked down, sighed lightly, and stepped from the throne with his sword in hand.
"Ehm… you may begin. I'm sure Renas will join in soon. If he didn't hear, remind him of the rules. I need to go somewhere."
He walked to a nearly invisible door at the corner of the chamber, which led into a corridor of many rooms. From there he slipped into a restroom, locked the door, and — though no one knew — cried quietly.
When Renas came to his senses, the leader of the Nameless was no longer on his throne. Some kind of teleportation ability? He didn't know, and didn't care — because a masked man with a bloody dagger was attacking him!
The cuts on his shoulder, neck, and left arm — all from that first sudden strike.
They'd taken his rifle before he noticed, and now the crowd was shouting for him to fight with a dagger.
At last, he listened and drew his own. When the masked pawn rushed him, Renas stepped back once. The pawn swung his dagger in the air — a mistake.
Renas lunged forward, fast, slicing his opponent's right shoulder.
Blood touched the blade, and it looked like the dagger's enchantment was activating — but Renas didn't know how to use it, so for now it meant nothing.
The masked pawn clutched his wounded shoulder and gasped a few times, shifting the dagger to his left hand. Renas roared and charged again:
"You think I'll let you rest, huh? Was it fair when you attacked me? My turn — I'll rip that mask right off your face!"
He seemed a bit angry. First, he stabbed the pawn in the chest to weaken him, then went for the neck. Even as blood poured, the pawn refused to die — still dangerous, could stab back any second.
Renas gripped the dagger tight. His opponent, nearly a corpse, still held on — but there was only so much a body could do. Renas tore the weapon from his hand and flung it aside.
The masked pawn was bleeding heavily, losing strength fast. Just as Renas raised his dagger to finish him, a group grabbed him from behind.
"Let me go! He deserves what's coming to him!"
He shouted, but the crowd drowned him out with cheers — "Winner!""He won!""Well done!"
Renas eventually stopped fighting them, realizing the duel was over.
Was this… normal? Felt a bit off. Whatever. Probably not important.
He reclaimed his rifle, and later met Thea face-to-face in one of the long hallway's rooms.
"Greetings again, leader of the Nameless."
Thea sighed and said,
"You're one of the Nameless now, which means I'm your leader. Could you show a little more respect?"
Renas sighed back.
"Yeah, yeah…"
He might've sounded arrogant, but he wasn't wrong. Compared to Renas — a man who'd survived five years of apocalypse — Thea was weak.
If Renas still had his full abilities, he could crush him like an insect.
By his estimate, Thea's strength matched that of a survivor from Year 2 of the apocalypse. Impressive for a newcomer, maybe, but still beneath Renas — who, even without his powers, had the experience to outmatch him.
He kept that to himself though, because Thea wasn't alone. The masks probably tied into his power — Renas guessed that from how Thea barked orders at masked people but treated unmasked ones kindly. The masked ones likely weren't human.
Another reason Renas preferred to look weak: laziness. His strength and experience could put him at the top of Village A, but that kind of attention meant death in this world. Votes could turn a person into a dog.
If someone too strong became a threat in the polls — what then? Even weak people could sit on the throne if they had the majority. Normally, the masses should rule, not Kael or Thea. But both Kael and Thea seemed to have powers that could manipulate votes.
Thea's 120-member Nameless group stood out by numbers alone — and since most of those members wore masks, it was safe to assume their votes came from Thea's power. Meaning one person — one authority — could control the majority. A single ruler immune to enslavement.
Probably the same for Kael, since he hadn't been eliminated. He must have a similar ability.
While Renas tangled with these thoughts, Thea had already replied to his earlier rudeness — though Renas hadn't caught a word.
Finally, Renas decided it was time to talk about something that mattered.
"Thea, even though I've joined this group, there's still a lot I don't know. First, how exactly do I use my votes? And second — what will my role be here?"
Thea smiled, idly twirling a small knife in his hand.
"A quarter of all positive votes each round go to me. The rest are divided among non-pawn members. Since your points are low right now, we'll be generous with your share. As for negative votes — last time, I threw them all at Kael. But one of the groups seems to be supporting him. I'm sure you've reached the same conclusion — and yes, you're right. Kael has a power like mine. So next week, we'll probably give our negative votes to members of clans we don't like, especially ones we can eliminate in a single round."
Renas said nothing, just nodded.
Thea frowned, and the knife in his hand flashed — whistling past Renas's head.
"Ah, I forgot one rule. When someone speaks to you, you must listen sincerely. Nodding isn't enough. Keep that up, and I'll have to remove you from my group."
Renas blinked, confused, then replied,
"Understood, sir."
Thea straightened, pride creeping back into his tone — this was exactly what he needed to forget that earlier humiliation.
"Good. Now, to answer your second question. From what I saw in your earlier fight, you either haven't gained a signature ability yet or it's passive… maybe one with strict activation conditions. Whatever it is, I don't care. So I won't ask. But based on that battle, putting you on the front lines seems like a good idea. You took him down fast."
Renas spoke calmly.
"Sure… I can fight on the front lines."
Then he left the room, heading down the long cave corridor to the quarters prepared for him.
As he walked, a thought crossed his mind.
Thea hadn't been there during his fight with the pawn — yet he claimed to have watched it.
"Strange," Renas thought, smirking faintly. Things were starting to get interesting.