Chapter 245 Drawing Attention
From the corner of his eyes, he caught sight of two thugs who eyed him silently, before turning around and running in another direction.
‘That’s the area where the Viscount said Terence most likely is.’
Evan took note of this as he opened the doors of a random bar, confidently walking inside without a care in the world as he walked up to the bar and took a seat on one of the stools at the counter.
Naturally, the people who were inside the bar stared at him in surprise, with the expression on the face of the man behind the counter being no different.
He then slammed his knapsack on the table and pulled out a few gold coins, tossing them to the man before ordering a jug of beer for every table in the bar.
“…”
“Oy! Didn’t you get my order?”
When Evan called out to the man, he sighed in exhaustion before gathering the gold coins Evan had tossed on the table.
Pushing them back towards Evan, he asked.
“…Kid, are you new in town?”
“Yeah. What about it?”
The man sighed once more and turned his gaze towards the other customers in the bar and said.
“Guys, close it up.”
Right after his words, a few people stood up and shut all the doors and windows, preventing anyone outside from seeing inside the bar.
The bartender then turned back to Evan and spoke.
“I’m only gonna say this once kid, so listen closely.
This isn’t the kind of place where you casually walk around with a bag full of money while dressed like that. It’s like you’re asking to get robbed.
And right now, this city isn’t in the best state so it’s even worse.
I don’t know how you want to do it but you better go hide those coins somewhere and take off that armour before Greedy Red gets wind of yo…u…”
The man was talking before he suddenly realised something and questioned Evan impatiently.
“Did you walk out on the street like that?!”
“Yes, what about it?”
“What about it?! Is that really what you’re asking right now?!
Greedy Red has most likely already found out about you!”
Hearing the bartender’s words, Evan snorted before replying.
“Greedy Red? Who the heck is that and what sort of lame thug-like nickname is that?
I’m Evan Bourne Eris! Someone who’s destined to be a great adventurer someday. There’s no way that a mere thug calling himself ‘Greedy Red’ can scare me!”
Evan’s words made the bartender’s expression turn strange as his brow twitched, he was about to speak once more when the doors to the bar were suddenly bashed open.
Five men wearing partial leather armour stormed into the bar, led by one of the two thugs that Evan recalled eyeing him silently earlier.
‘That fast!?’
The young hero was inwardly surprised at how fast they acted but kept it from showing on his face.
The thug didn’t even need to point to Evan because all five men noticed him instantly due to him being the most eye-catching person in the place.
“Greedy Red’s goons…!”
Hearing the words of the bartender behind him, Evan confirmed that he had indeed succeeded in attracting Terence’s attention.
‘But he didn’t come in person. I guess I’m gonna have to improvise, huh?’
Before the man in the forefront could even say anything, he felt a chill run down his spine, making him feel an indescribable sense of fear.
He reflexively took a step back and pulled out his weapon before realising something.
‘Where’s the kid?!’
Evan was not seated at the counter where he was a second earlier, even the bag of gold coins and the coins on the table were gone.
“GAAAAA!!!”
He didn’t need to look around much as the cry of anguish that he heard answered his question about Evan’s location.
The young hero was standing behind the thug who had probably reported him to Terence, with his hand on the thug’s shoulder.
Evan ignored the gazes on him as he slowly squeezed his hands, causing an eerie cracking sound to ring out in the silent bar as he squashed the man’s shoulder bones.
This was followed by a scream of pain that could be heard across the entire street, sending chills down the spines of all the hearers.
“First things first, let’s go outside, shall we?”
As soon as Evan spoke, he tapped his foot on the ground, erecting two walls of ice on either side of the group of five goons, he then rose his other hand as golden tendrils of lightning crackled around it.
“Lightning Bolt.”
He slowly called out the name of the spell, a moment before he launched it towards the stunned men.
They instantly reacted and moved to dodge, having no choice but to go back out since their left and right sides were blocked by the walls of ice Evan had created.
Evan launched a few more bolts of lightning to push them further outside before dispelling the ice walls and tossing a gold coin in the direction of the bartender.
“For the damaged door. You can keep the change.”
He then dragged the thug whose shoulder he was still squeezing and flung him outside.
“Go and report to Terence and tell him that I said he should get his ass over here.
If you don’t get going in five seconds, I’d kill you.”
Immediately after Evan spoke, he created another lightning bolt and held it towards the man’s scrunched tear-filled face, causing him to force himself to his feet and run, despite the pain he was feeling in his shoulder.
Evan then fired the lightning bolt on the floor beside his feet just to scare him even more.
“Run faster.”
The crying man nodded as he dashed as fast as he could, while Evan turned his attention back to the other five goons who were staring at him warily with weapons drawn.
Heaving a short sigh, he called out to his contracted spirits and told them to handle it as he made his way towards a nearby carriage stop.
“GUH!”
“ARRRGGGHHH!!!
“GYAAA!!!!!”
He ignored the sound of lightning that accompanied the groans and screeches of pain behind him, using the bench at the carriage stop to rest his legs as he began unbuckling the armour he had on him.
◇ ◇ ◇
A few minutes later, the entire street was silent as everyone quietly watched as Evan moved one of the chairs in the carriage stop to the centre of the street and sat there before placing a bag of gold coins on the floor and waiting in silence.
The group of goons that had come for him were now laying on the floor within an inch of their lives as they had been roasted by Kayla’s lightning.
People were just watching Evan yawn silently as the surprise from seeing the same kid who walked around with shiny armour earlier beat Terence’s goons still hadn’t faded.
Just when they were about to recover from their shock, the second group of goons showed up, with them being ten in number and being more powerful than the first group.
One of them, who Evan presumed to be the leader was even a thrall of Greed, however, the person Evan had been waiting for was not present so he didn’t hesitate to let Kayla and Kuro deal with them while he personally took action against the thrall.
“W-what?!
Why isn’t it work-!”
Those were the last words of the thrall, right before Evan’s lightning-filled fist slammed into his face, causing more than half his teeth to fly out and nearly snapping his neck.
The words he spoke, however, seemed to have caught the attention of a few people who knew about the fact that Terence could pass his strange power on to his subordinates.
While they were making their speculations, Evan sent one of them back with the same message as the first time, before going back to his chair and taking a seat once more.
Silence pervaded the area once more, as people watched Evan wait for Terence’s next set of goons to show up.
It didn’t take long for the news to spread to different parts of the city, that someone was openly challenging Terence.
When people first heard this, they felt that another unfortunate soul had willingly charged towards death, but when they heard that Terence’s strange ‘power’ that he gave his subordinates wasn’t working on this challenger, things turned out a bit different.
Slowly but surely, a crowd began gathering around one of the streets of the entertainment district, blocking the way for other people and carriages that were moving around in the city.
Some people who felt that Terence would most likely show up in person like he did for the last unfortunate challenger, either fled from the area or came closer to watch a show.
A few held hopes that this kid could somehow work a miracle and defeat Terence but they were in the minority. Some tried to tell Evan to stop his actions while some others jeered him on, however, the young hero ignored them all the same.