*Bam!*

In the streets of a rural village, explosive sounds rang out.

*Bam!*

Two figures swiftly moved through the crowd that filled the street. They both leaped and landed on the roof of a building and rushed towards each other. They crossed each other while dealing swift blows to the other. One started to flee while the other chased them. The one fleeing leaped towards a nearby building. They swiftly turned around and fired a beam of light at their pursuer, who moved out of the way to avoid it.

“?!”

However, the pursuer quickly found their prey in front of them. They swung their arm and smacked the pursuer out of the air. The pursuer crashed into a dumpster below. The prey landed in front of the dumpster.

*Bam!*

Suddenly the pursuer burst out of the dumpster’s side and grabbed at their target. They evaded them and slammed their fist in the chest of the pursuer.

“Cough?!”

The pursuer fell to their knees, seemingly unable to move anymore.”

“You’ve gotten better, Miko.”

Darry looked down at Miko, who was on his knees.

“Y-You bastard….Give me back my book!”

“If I do, you will leave.”

Darry showed off a book in his hand. This was the latest volume of Hina’s novel series. Miko had gotten it a few hours ago and was going to take a break from his training to read it, but his book was stolen by Darry. After that, Miko chased and fought Darry from the capital until they were now in a rural town dozens of miles away. It goes without saying that Miko was exhausted.

“Quit stealing my stuff and forcing me to chase you every chance you get!”

Miko was furious. It was now a little less than a month since Miko first fought Darry. Since then, Darry has appeared before Miko whenever he’s free and found numerous ways to force Miko to fight and chat with him. Because of that, Miko hasn’t been able to relax at all.

“I already told you. I’ve decided to help you gain the strength that you desire by being your training partner. Do you realize how beneficial it is to fight someone on a higher level than you on a regular basis?”

Darry started spinning the book on his fingertip.

“You can’t deny the fact that you’ve gotten better at fighting since I started bugging you.”

He started juggling it with his head.

“Besides, I’m giving you an outlet to unwind and release some stress.”

“You’re my main source of stress, you bastard!”

Miko pounced at Darry, but he was easily avoided and fell to the ground.

“Looks like that’s your last ounce of strength.”

Darry watched as Miko lay on the ground breathing heavily.

“Here.”

He placed the book in Miko’s hand with a generous smile. That smile only made Miko wanna tear him apart.

“….I will kill you one day.”

Miko growled.

“Hahaha! I can’t wait!”

Miko clicked his tongue and sat up and opened the book.

“What, you’re going to read it now?”

“I’m too tired to head back to the capital, so I’m going to read this to past time as I recuperate.”

“Hm….You’re a bizarre kid.”

“I don’t wanna hear that from you.”

“I guess you’re right.”

Darry sat on the ground some distance away from Miko and closed his eyes. Miko looked up.

“What, you’re staying too?”

“Yeah. I don’t really have much to do anyway.”

“Then go find a job.”

“That’s boring. I only do things that are fun.”

“What’s fun about being a bum?”

“Hey, I’m not a bum. A freedom fighter.”

Miko looked at Darry with a strange look.

(Is this guy's head screwed on right?)

“Whose freedom are you fighting for?”

“My own, and whoever I cross paths with.”

Darry placed his hand over his chest.

“To me, freedom is the most precious thing that one can ask for. It’s only with freedom we can achieve true happiness.”

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“You sound like you’re trying to invite me into some weird cult.”

Darry laughed.

“I guess you can say that I’m a fanatic for freedom.”

“Is that so? By the way, why do you always talk about freedom?”

Darry smiled before asking a question of his own.

“Have you ever heard of a book called Path to Liberty?”

Miko shook his head.

“It’s a book about a group of slaves who’ve known nothing but a life of being chained and shackled, working themselves to death for their owners. The protagonist is known only as Freeman. He’s a naïve man, who dreamt of a life where he’s free to do as he pleases. He eventually led a rebellion with his fellow slaves and gained their freedom.”

“Sounds like a classic portrayal of slavery.”

“There’s more.”

Darry smiled.

“After gaining his freedom, Freeman feared that they would be someone else who would come to enslave him and his friends again. As a precaution, he decided to build his own country, a country where everyone is free. Of course, it wasn’t easy. He faced a lot of opposition and even had periods of depression and ended up losing many of his friends. It’s a good read though. I recommend it.”

He laughed.

“I read that book as a child and became moved by Freeman’s desire for freedom. His morals, beliefs, and ideology also struck a chord with me. So much, I decided to live my life as free as I possibly can.”

He paused a bit before saying-

“You can say that I’m trying to become a real-life freeman.”

“……..”

Miko listened to him in silence. After pondering his words, he asked a question-

“But freedom is subjective, how can you grant everyone freedom if it comes in endless forms?”

“That’s easy. I just grant them the freedom that I believe is the most suitable for them at the moment.”

Darry said with a smile.

Miko immediately realized why Darry helped the girls, who were going to be kidnapped and sold into slavery. It wasn’t because he was a benevolent person, he just wanted to carry out his beliefs, his ideology of freedom.

(It worked out fine since the girls were in a predicament, but what if they weren’t, but Darry decided otherwise?)

Miko asked himself.

(He would still force his beliefs on them, whether they want it or not; all just to satisfy his own ego and way of life.)

Miko saw how Darry’s ideology could help people, but one wrong turn and he could end up oppressing others to promote his own freedom. Him forcing himself into Miko’s life was similar to this.

“I changed my mind.”

Miko suddenly closed the book.

“Let’s fight for a bit longer.”

“Are you sure?”

Miko nodded.

“Alright! Looks like you’re finally seeing the light.”

Darry sprung to his feet.

“I’ll help you gain the strength that you so desire. After that, you’ll be free from your mental burdens.”

(Bingo. He’s doing this to force his own brand of freedom on me.)

Miko smiled.

“Since he wants to help me get stronger, who am I to stop him?”

Elsewhere.

The Dragna Empire had several famous countries under its rule, but there were four in particular that stood out. These were the criminal den, Gael; the tourist hotspot, Lushun; the metropolitan city, Vera; and finally the capital, Dragna City.

Currently, inside the metropolis Vera, there were many cooperations that supplied the empire, and the continent by extension, with various services. There was a particular company known as Dixie Corps. It was an all-rounded company that did business in all forms of entertainment and pastime events. In other words, they had branched out into several fields.

Currently, in Dixie Corps publishing department, Hina was sitting around a desk looking through some papers with a frown.

“What the hell is this?”

She flung the papers on the table

“You should’ve read it, so I’m sure you know.”

A woman sat across from her. This woman was the editor of Hina’s novel series.

“Janet, this is an unreasonable request.”

Hina tapped the papers.

“You want me to speed up the release rate of my novel and write two spinoff novels? Are you mad?”

“Then you have to work harder.”

Hina’s eye twitched.

“What?”

“Look, Hina. I understand where you’re coming from, but your stories are one of the publishing sector's main breadwinners. We’re currently running low on funds because of a drop in sales with our other stories. I hope you can understand.”

“Drop in sales?”

Hina clicked her tongue.

“Do I look like an idiot to you? I read our sales reports all the time. The publishing sales are on an all-time high.”

“Those were fabricated to deceive the public. In reality, we’re declining.”

“You mean you’re losing money, but not from a drop in sales don’t you?”

Hina glared at Janet. A heavy pressure fell on Janet. She gulped as cold sweat flowed down her cheek. She wasn’t an idiot, she could tell that Hina was getting angry.

“Nebulous increased his extortion fees again, didn’t he?”

However, before she could speak, Hina spoke a name that was considered taboo in this company.

“P-Please, Hina. Mind what you say.”

Janet started looking around to see if anyone heard her. Hina ignored her and picked up the papers again.

“While it’s true I’m the reason he even began targeting this company, I once offered to leave in order to not caused you guys any trouble.”

She looked at Janet.

“What did you people say to me then?”

“….If push comes to shove then we’ll handle it.”

“And this is how you decided to handle it?”

Hina laughed and looked back at the paper.

“Not only my novel, but all my other works now have earlier release dates and more frequent releases.”

She took the papers and tore them.

“I’m not doing it.”

She spoke with a tone that had no room for refutation.

“But!”

“But nothing. I am not your slave. I’m no one’s slave.”

Hina got up.

“I’m going on an indefinite hiatus. Please pass that message to your boss.”

“?!”

Janet became pale.

“W-Wait, Hina!”

She tried to call out to Hina, but she only looked at her with detachment and spoke-

“A few years ago when my siblings and I had no money or a way of surviving on our own, your company took us in after we displayed our individual skills. We’re forever grateful for that, but the money that we’ve made you since then should have repaid our debts several times over.”

She turned around.

“We now owe you nothing.”

Hina started to walk toward the elevator. However, she was stopped by some men in suits before she could reach it.

“Ms. Akume, please calm down and sit down. If you go through with what you’re doing, the boss will lose a lot of money. This won’t make him happy.”

Hina simply smiled in response.

*Ding!*

A few minutes later, the elevator door opened in the lobby and Hina stepped out wiping her hands with a handkerchief. Once her hand was clean, she threw the bloodstained cloth into the bin.

“Oh, Hina.”

Ace and Sora had also arrived in the lobby. She quickly approached them.

“How did it go?”

Ace asked.

“What do you think?”

“I guess we’re all out of a job then.”

Sora laughed.

“Well, we’re rich enough to retire. So it isn’t that much of a big deal.”

Ace also laughed.

“The problem is that by doing this, we’ll piss off Nebulous more than we already have. Not to mention, we killed his men just now.”

Hina frowned.

“I wonder how he’ll retaliate?”

*Bam!*

Suddenly, an explosion shook the building.

“It couldn’t be….”

A terrifying thought crossed the trio’s mind.

*Boom!* *Boom!* *Boom!* *Boom!*

Several explosions rang out at once. Cracks spread throughout the building. It was obvious that it wasn’t going to last. Realizing that their fears had become a reality, they all quickly exited the building. When they looked up, the buildings were on fire and explosions could be seen happening everywhere at once.

“That crazy bastard! He anticipated that we would eventually leave the company and planted bombs in advance!”

Veins bulged in Ace’s head.

“Now that we left, he no longer needs the company since he was just extorting them to harass us. Not only that, this could be punishment for the incident with Igor Rigoni.”

Sora was calmer.

“That bastard…”

Hina was gritting her teeth.

The trio knew this was only the beginning. The maniac which was the god of crime was just warming up. From now they had two options, wait for him to harass them and hope that it would only do that.

As for the other option-

“Looks like the time for war has come quicker than expected.”

Sora’s eyes narrowed.

“From now on, it’s either Nebulous or us. One of us got to disappear.”