"Who is he?" the adventurers asked when they saw a shabbily dressed young man jumping down from the top of the fort.

The short-haired youth kicked the ground as he posed, his right palm covering his face, which was slightly obscured by his fringe, his black hair seeming to move in the wind. His left hand was behind his back, holding the hilt of the sword at his waist.

"A battle event wouldn't be complete without the main character," the young man said as he posed with his right hand outstretched.

"Who is he?" asked some adventurers.

"What kind of freak is he? I don't even know what he's talking about," Raff said, scowling.

The young man looked at Raff. "You're a lucky NPC. I should have saved my future wife in this event, but I don't mind saving you."

Raff just furrowed his brow, not understanding some of the young man's words. "Does this freak also live in this town?" asked Raff, looking at the other adventurers.

The young man in front of Raff immediately drew his sword with a grin. "It looks like there are a lot of opponents, but I don't care. I'll show you the fighting style of a main character!"

"Ice Slash!" the young man shouted as he slashed his sword forward with his right hand at the wizard-class adventurer in the distance.

The wizard-class adventurer immediately retaliated by swinging his staff. "Fireball!"

A white aura seemed to surround the sword that the young man drew out, but nothing happened after that. It just slashed at the wind without any impact, a look of shock on the face of the strange young man. Meanwhile, the fireball magic shot towards his chest.

The young man in front of Raff began to pose, extending his left hand forward. "Such a lowly magical attack will not be able to hurt me! Remember my name, Hayato! I am the main character of this world! Ice javelin!" he shouted.

Dots of ice were created in the air right above Hayato, but they shattered again without creating anything. Suddenly, Hayato was even more shocked. Soon, the fireball magic hit Hayato's chest.

The sound of an explosion was heard as Hayato's body flew past Raff. The shabby clothes on his body seemed to burn. He immediately tried to use his magic again to extinguish the fire on his body, but he couldn't use it.

"It's hot! Help me!" cried Hayato as he rolled on the ground to extinguish the fire that was burning his clothes.

The adventurers present could only be confused by Hayato's behavior, while Raff began to worry because he was thinking about something else. He became more and more confused by what was happening to him. A strange world, suddenly mistaken for a killer, and a young man acting strangely with strange words he had never heard before.

"What exactly has happened to me? Have I become a madman because of the wound against Xavier?" Raff muttered in a worried tone. "Are these all my hallucinations?" Raff began to hold his head in concern.

"What are you doing gathering here?" a man suddenly shouted from a distance.

"Now what?" muttered Raff as he turned his eyes to the source of the sound, all the adventurers and soldiers present seemed to avert their eyes as well.

In the distance, a group of riders approached, and at the head of the line, a soldier with no headgear spurred his horse forward. His gaze scanned all the adventurers and soldiers surrounding Raff.

"Head of Security?" said the seven soldiers who had attacked Raff as they turned respectfully.

"We found the perpetrator of the serial murders in Rhymus City," said an adventurer, pointing at Raff.

"Murderer? Have you gone mad? He's just a teenager, look at his clothes. He's not even carrying a weapon or anything," the Rhymus City security chief grumbled.

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"But sir, he managed to..." a soldier tried to explain the situation, but his words were cut off by the security chief.

"The culprit was captured in the western area of Rhymus City. He's a former A-rank adventurer who holds a grudge against the victims. I didn't get a chance to signal you earlier because we had to fight a fierce battle there," the security chief interrupted, looking at Raff.

"He was so tough that he cornered us. We came here right after we knocked him unconscious, we saw a sign from this direction," the head of security continued.

"Huh?" said the soldiers and adventurers who were there in shock.

"You better go home and tell the locals the good news. They can already go about their usual activities at night in this town, the culprit also acted alone without any other companions to help," said the security chief as he spurred his horse to turn around again.

"Is that true?" murmured some of the adventurers who were still in disbelief.

"This young man can obviously control mana perfectly, isn't that suspicious?" asked some adventurers who were still worried after seeing Raff's fight.

"I'd better go get that quest reward," said another adventurer, who decided to get out of the way right away.

"But what about him? It seems impossible for a child to have a higher movement than an S-rank assassin," the assassin-class soldier asked.

"It is possible that he was controlled by the culprit to be a decoy here while he acted. It's possible that his strength is just a loan from the perpetrator's skills without him realizing it," the Lancer-class soldier said. "The security chief said that he was very annoying, so it's possible that he also has a power borrowing skill."

"It also makes sense that the person who harassed the security chief has a skill that was considered a fairy tale," the fighter-class soldier said.

"I agree. The security chief and his accompanying soldiers are on par with A-rank adventurers. There's no way they'd be worried if they were just fighting ordinary adventurers with no skills," the guardian-class adventurer said.

"It all makes sense now. Their wounds aren't bad either, let's just leave them here," the Wizard class warrior said as he turned around, the wind spear that had been created above his head instantly shattering as he put down his magic staff.

The archer-class adventurer seemed to nod in understanding. “No wonder he can face us all at once, even though the mana emanation in his body is so low.”

"You're right. He's even on par with the weakest students of Elexia Academy," said another archer-class adventurer.

"We should leave as well, what they explained makes sense. His strength must have been borrowed from the culprit using his skills," several adventurers said as they left the battlefield. The other adventurers also started to leave after hearing the soldiers' conversation.

Raff could only remain silent, confused by their conversation. "Borrowed power? Is that another hallucination?" he muttered.

"What a hallucination, idiot! Do you think I'm burning in your imagination?" grumbled Hayato after rolling around.

Half of Hayato's clothes seemed to be burned away, some parts of his body were also burned. Raff now looked at Hayato who was still sitting on the ground to his right.

Suddenly, Hayato's right cheek was slapped by Raff. "Ouch!" Hayato screamed in pain. "What do you mean, huh? Instead of thanking me, you slapped me," Hayato grumbled while holding his cheek and staring at Raff.

"Hehehe ... I just want to make sure that this is not all my hallucination," Raff replied with a chuckle.

"What a freak. At least slap yourself," Hayato grumbled while he took a bottle of potion out of the small bag at his waist. Hayato started to drink half of the potion and poured the other half on the wound on his body. "Tch. At least they apologized before they just left." At that moment, all the wounds on his body healed without a trace.

Raff's eyes fell on the wounds on Hayato's recovering body, "Hmm... it looks like I wasn't hallucinating."

"What do you mean?" asked Hayato as he stood up.

"I can't possibly hallucinate something that complicated, I can't even imagine how the wound-healing potion works," Raff replied seriously.

"What a strange NPC," Hayato grumbled while sheathing his sword. He also took out a piece of cloth he used as part of his sword belt, the cloth he used to cover his body after some of his clothes caught fire.

"NPC? What's this strange word? This is the first time I've heard it," Raff asked.

"Forget it. Think of it as my way of calling others," Hayato replied, looking sharply at Raff.

Raff returned Hayato's look. "The way you call others is very strange. Same with your behavior."

"Tch, your words are also quite hurtful for an NPC," Hayato grumbled. "You said you were from the Neutron party earlier, right?" asked Hayato to change the subject.

Raff's face turned smug when he heard Hayato's question. "Yes. What do you know about Neutron?"

"But you're not making this up, are you? You really know about Neutron, don't you?" asked Hayato again, looking at Raff sharply.

"Yes, I know a lot about Neutron because I'm a member," Raff replied again, furrowing his brow.

"Member?" muttered Hayato with a shocked look on his face. "What's your name?"

"Raff Lostfield," Raff answered without hesitation.

"Raff? I have never heard of him," Hayato said with a confused look on his face.

Raff's face turned disappointed. "Tch. I thought you knew about Neutron, you freak. Just wasting my time," Raff said and walked away.

"Wait. Where are you going?" asked Hayato.

"I want to find out where I am," Raff replied without turning around.

"You're in Rhymus City," Hayato said as he followed Raff.

"Rhymus? I've never heard of it," muttered Raff as he stopped his steps.

Continued...