Black Eye’s POV:

“Neymar make sure to get us two rooms at the inn, I’m going to visit the local guild hall,” I (Black Eye) said.

“Yes, Captain,” Neymar replied.

My team was staying tonight in Leafanton. It was still morning and we could continue marching south, but I decided to stay here tonight as I heard Armoun was selling some Lio to a sleeping cell in this village. He told headquarters the man is an assured ally and can be trusted. I was curious who this ally could be, so I decided to stroll through the streets, hoping to bump into this “Ally”, but first I wanted to check on the notice board in the guild.

Entering the guild hall, I chatted with the receptionist, when a man entered, no… not a man, but a tall kid. The kid was reporting to the receptionist a story about goblin sightings and how he killed two of them. The receptionist seemed to think the kid was lying. I used the rank one skill “Eye of truth” of my innate ability “Demon’s Eye” as a habit, and it turned out the kid wasn’t lying. ‘Hm, this kid is brave. I wonder if he is the one Armoun gave the Lio to,’ I thought.

“No, Amana. He’s telling the truth,” I said.

I wanted to know if the kid was what I was seeking, so I decided to ask him a few questions.

“Hey, kid come with me for a second.”

The kid followed without objections, intimidated by the Aura that my Red Shtan armor gave out passively.

“What’s your name kid?” I asked.

“Haitham, sir,” The kid replied, clearly trying not to sound respectful.

“No family name?” I asked, already guessing the answer from the kid’s clothing, but my spy training made me ask so that I am sure he wasn’t a noble.

“No sir, I’m just a farmer,” The kid said. Using my Eye of Truth, I could tell he wasn’t lying.

“Relax Kid, you can call me Captain Black Eye,” I said, trying to lower the stress the kid got from the Red Shtan armor.

“Yes, Captain Black Eye, sir,” The kid replied, not less intimidated.

“No, Just Captain,” I said, a bit of annoyance leaking through my voice as I hated all the formalities of the Assyrian language.

“Yes, Captain.”

“Let me be frank with you, kid. How did you get your ability?” I said, taking a not-so-small risk by mentioning abilities to a kid, but my intuition told me he was special.

“What! I don’t know what you're talking about,” the kid said, scared. From the kid’s reaction, I was almost certain he had one, but I used “Eye of Truth” just to be sure, and it turned out the kid was lying, he knew what I was talking about.

“So, you do have one. It seems I wasn’t wasting my time,” I said, smiling.

“H-how did you know?” The kid stuttered.

“It doesn’t matter. I want to see your ability. Come with me.” I wanted to know what ability the kid had gotten, but the kid seemed to disagree. Raising his voice, he said, “I’m not showing you my ability!”

I looked and the receptionist and she was staring at us, ‘God dammit, this happens when I try to be nice.’

First, using my rank two skill Eye of intimidation I ordered the kid to stop, as it allowed me to control any victim who was intimidated by me, and the kid was scared. Then, I pushed mana into the ring in my hand where a spell was inscribed on it. The spell would make a target forget what happened in the last five heartbeats. The ring was an expensive rune weapon, which had limited use.

The ring shone with a faint light for a second. The receptionist lost focus momentarily and then returned to her work as if nothing had happened.

“Follow me, and do nothing else other than following me,” I ordered the kid through my rank two skill, not wanting a repeat of the earlier situation.

Going back to the inn, I didn’t face any troubles. Finding my party, I ordered them, “Pack all your bags, we’ll be leaving Leafanton in half an hour.” I didn’t want to be here anymore as the receptionist might remember if she saw me or the kid again, and I was sure she would report about the kid having an ability.

The party, upon seeing my serious face, didn’t questioned my orders. ‘I really have a competent part,’ I thought to myself.

It didn’t take us long to reach the boundaries of the village, a small forest. I decided we should camp here for tonight as it was getting late.

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While the party was setting the camp, I took the opportunity to ask the kid about his ability, but the kid lied. So, I gave him a small punishment to make him regret lying. After learning that the kid had some kind of transformation ability, I decided to use a scroll of revelation on him to see what the ability really did. Using the scroll was hard, it took me in the spy training months to understand all the information I got from it, thankfully the kid’s ability wasn't complex, so it shouldn’t take me much time.

I went to my tent to fully digest the information from the scroll. It took me about three hours. I decided to make my weekly report to headquarters now as there were no communication disturbers nearby.

I provided mana through a metal disk with heavy inscriptions on it, which made the device start to hum.

“Reporting to headquarters, code: 12CXE5TS. Can you hear me?”

“Yes, I can. What do you have to report agent?” A female voice came out of the device. ‘It seems Lana is going to be receiving this report,’ I thought

“I’m about a day's walk away from Count Louis’s lands. The sun has set a few hours ago. There have been no unexpected happenings except for finding who Armoun’s sleeping cell is.”

“You saw Ghandour?” Lana said surprised.

“No, who’s Ghandour?” I asked.

“The sleeping cell helping us in Leafanton. You saw him?”

“No, I didn’t see him. I found a kid with an ability and thought he was the guy whom Armoun gave the Lio to. The kid is called Haitham. Should I ask where he got his ability from?” I asked, regretting not asking the kid where he got his ability. ‘Maybe I have been hasty?’ I thought.

“No need. The kid is the one Ghandour gave his Lio reward. How did you find the kid?”

“By accident.”

“By accident! Are you trying to get information on the sleeping cell in a roundabout way? You could get punished for that.” Lana accused me.

“No, I would never go against orders. I was in the guild when…” I told Lana how I found the kid.

“Where is the kid now?” Lana asked after I finished my explanation.

“I have captured the kid and decided that he was a good fit to enslave and make him our puppet. The kid has a strong ability, which if used properly can make him a strong card. Do you think I should proceed?”

“No, I agree on using him to further our plans but the others in your party might get mad. Remember they joined you on the basis that you’ll free the Assyrian Empire from slavery so tread carefully. I advise you to control him with fear. Sometimes fear’s chains are more bending than real chains. Now tell me what does his ability do?”

After telling Lana about the kid’s ability and finalizing the report, I was given a new mission.

“Black Eye, per Headquarters’ orders, you are to convince Count Louis to join our case. You can use all means possible, and if you fail make sure to end the Count’s life. Remember this mission is extremely important, in fact, it’s the most important one you’ve ever done. the Count has a Lio refinery, so If he joins our ranks that would be a great boost to achieving our goals. Good luck to you Agent Black Eye. Long live the cause!” Lana said the last sentence with pride.

“Long live the cause!” I replied while hitting the side of my thigh with a fist.

The call ended after that. I was feeling exhausted from using the scroll and almost depleting my mana on the call. These kinds of long-distance calls drink mana like there’s no tomorrow. I had been on the call for three minutes, which was longer than usual.

In my tent, I made a quick plan on how to use the kid. As Lana said I need to make him fear me. I need to seem merciless in front of the kid, more so than I was already doing.

Going out of the tent I faced the kid.

“Kid, the scroll wasn’t lost on you. You have a good ability that has a lot of potential,” I said, setting my bait.

“What does it do?” The kid asked.

‘Aha, he took the bait, now all I need is to drive him to the corner so I can show him what true mercilessness means.’ I thought.

“I’ll be frank with you kid, you have only two options,” I said raising two fingers. “Either I sell you to slavers, who will treat you like an animal, and will make you sign a harsh slave contract to obey any master that buys you; or you can be my slave. If you choose me, I’ll make you a slave contract that will have humane conditions. What do you say?” I gave the kid two bad choices that he is sure to refuse.

“I refuse both choices,” The kid said, defiantly.

“Hahaha, there is no third decision kid. Choose one.”

“I prefer death over slavery.”

‘I didn’t think the kid was this brave. Should I stop my sword before his neck or…’ At that moment I remembered a crucial thing about the kid’s ability. ‘It should save him,’ I thought.

“Okay, I’ll give you what you want, no need to delay the inevitable.”

I struck the kid with my sword his head flew for a second before it hit the ground. The kid’s neck didn’t erupt with blood, instead, the parts of his neck that I slashed turned into a transparent liquid.

“You are alive?” I asked unbelievingly as I half expected the kid to die.

The kid’s face which was on the ground looked to be confused too. I picked up the head and then put it back in its place.

“Yes, I’m alive,” said the kid.

“It seems that the Perfect Existence ability makes one… perfect,” I said, amazed. ‘Should I really antagonize the kid into servitude,’ I thought after seeing the kid’s monstrous ability. ‘No, I shouldn’t. I should make him an ally of the Republic, but how do I go about doing this?’

‘By using the carrot and the stick! He should still fear me, but the fear should be combined with rewards.’

After thinking of this solution, I made a plan quickly. I should make the kid part of the party, but how?

“Kid I’ll change my offer. Serve me…”

“YOU ALMOST KILLED ME, and you still think I’ll serve you?!” The kid shouted.

‘Oh, this going to be hard,’ I thought.

……….

After managing to convince the kid I went to sleep.

Walking up the next day, I told the group of our newest recruit. They had mixed reactions with Art happy to see a new face, and Hugo annoyed at the kid. I told Art that he could tell the kid the basics of how our abilities worked, as I was trying to make the kid feel more comfortable.

We continued our march into the Count’s lands. Throughout the march, I was thinking about how to appease the kid a little after yesterday’s harsh treatment, when an opportunity popped out of nowhere. Neymar reported seeing a mana touched Seezeek. I ordered the group to attack the Seezeek knowing that the fight might be hard.

The fight turned out better than I thought and what I had hoped happened, the Seezeek had a mana core!

‘This core should be a good gift to the kid as with it he should be able to get his first new ability,’ I thought.

‘I hope the kid turns out to be an ally as killing him after he gets strong will be…’