'So, how should I approach this?'
During the few seconds that followed the blunder of that person, Theron deduced in general the real identity of those in front of him and what he meant for them and pondered how to proceed from there.
'It would be too strange for a five-years-old to have worked out their covert act identity and that they were here in search of him, stranger than killing someone in self-defense at least, so let's go with a different approach.' Thinking along those lines, Theron thought of a daring move that will force these people to focus only on the direction Theron wanted them to.
Under their dozen pairs of watchful eyes, Theron took a step back. His right leg was halfway through the open door behind him as he flicked his right wrist.
*Swiish!* The concealed blade that took the life of Gren Vegor sprung out from under his long sleeve once again; its sharp edges now on plain sight as Theron took a guarded stance against the people across him.
The sudden movement from Theron shocked the team of soldiers speechless, but not as much as the reveal of the hidden blade.
Their stares were dumbfounded as they watched the ready to charge figure of their five-years-old young lord.
The positioning of his legs was amateur at best and his body balance terrible in the eyes of elite soldiers like them, but come on, who was standing in front of them with a blade drawn? It wasn't any experienced soldier or assassin, but their young lord who hasn't even started school yet!
That didn't change the shocking fact that, just by looking at the dangerous gleam in his eyes - only a mature killer would have – as he stared at them, it was telling them he meant serious business; he was ready to pounce at them and plunged that blade deep in their flesh if a slightest opportunity ever arose!
"Mister Brice, mister Ulise?" they heard their young lord call out, breaking the silence that prevailed so far. "What are you doing here, and who are all those people behind you?" he asked them; a wary look surfacing on his face as he stared at them all.
"Are you all in cahoots with that crazy what's his name, store owner?!" Before either Brice or Ulise could find the right answer to justify their team's presence there, their young lord followed up his question with another.
Apparent shock and alarm were written all over his face as they watched him take another step backwards and tense up even more. His gaze intensified as if to murder them from a distance!
"Wait, young lo... lad!" Brice hurried to call out; thankfully correcting himself just in time before making the same mistake as Carl had made earlier. "Please calm yourself, we are not here to hurt you!" He managed to say.
Ulise at his side immediately gestured at the others behind them to take a few steps back, to show that they meant no harm to him by being there.
"Then why are you all here?!" Theron shouted, with his guard still up. Inside though he was sighing in relief. The exchange was going as he had predicted it would.
"That...." Brice started saying but froze. No reasonable excuse came to his mind!
"We belonged to the same unit in the army back in the day and we got together tonight to catch up." Ulise spoke, taking it over for his brother. "We were on our way to a pub when we heard noises coming from inside this store. Closed as it was supposed to be during these hours, we were about to step closer and investigate, when you happened to come out." He finished by saying.
Both Brice and the others behind them watched Ulise in amazement. His brother was thankful for the save, while the others were all thinking how amazing their captain Ulise was. He didn't like to speak much and for too long, but on the rare occasions he did, he made sure each of his words was worth it!
Casting their gazes back at their young lord, only eyes full of suspicion and mistrust greeted them back, his guarded stance having not loosened for even an inch!
'Damn!' All of them thought in awe. 'Our young lord is indeed special, just as young miss described him to be!'
Thinking of the praising and exaggerated tone in her accounts of her son being genius level in smarts, they didn't think of them as exaggerated anymore after having witnessed it for themselves just now.
"Wait..." Brice suddenly called out. "You mentioned a crazy store owner just now. Are you talking about this store's owner, Gren Vegor?" he asked as he pointed at the "Greens For You!" grocery store behind Theron.
"Yes, that's the one. Are you really not in cahoots with him?" Theron continued asking, staying true with his act.
"Yes lad, we really are not! You can trust us!" Brice said while bumping his fist over his chest to show his sincerity. "Can you tell us what happened?" He then asked; with honest concern all over his face.
The others saw their young lord contemplating on their captain's words for a while - if he should trust them or not; the wait for his next answer eating at their steel-like nerves the longer it persisted.
Eventually, and to their joy of finally being trusted, the answer came.
"What happened?" Theron started speaking, throwing a rhetorical question filled with mockery at the tip of his tongue.
Finding now to be an appropriate time, he slowly began loosening his guarded stance as he continued to speak.
"That madman jumped at me on my way home and knocked me unconscious, only for me to find myself bound on a chair when I woke up."
Starting from the sudden attack by the madman Gren Vegor rendering him unconscious, Theron recounted in extreme detail the entire sequence of events of the kidnapping, while simultaneously observing the expressions of the people across him.
As to confirm his theory over the importance he held for that unknown prominent family, all of their faces morphed and twisted the more they heard.
Just hearing of the audacity that madman had to kidnap their young lord, had all of them gnashing their teeth with rage, with the more passionate of them already forming thoughts in their heads of what method they were going to use to kill him in the most painful ways possible.
The accounts of the harm he had induced to their young lord and the action of binding him on a chair like a chicken only intensified those murderous thoughts of theirs. The killing intent they accumulated from the kills they performed so far in their careers sipped out of their bodies like a tidal wave, stifling the air around them.
"THAT B*STARD!" Brice yelled at the top of his lungs when he couldn't control his anger any longer. "I WILL RIP HIM INTO PIECES! Where is he young l....lad?! Tell me and I would immediately go now to squeeze every single breath of life FROM HIS BODY!" he finished shouting; his legs already moving forward to find him when his young lord will tell him his location.
"Oh, he is dead." Theron flatly said, stunning them where they stood and almost making Brice trip on his next step.
'W-What did the young lord just say? Gren Vegor is dead?! That madman that he was as slippery as an eel?!' Their build up wrath popped like an air balloon and evaporated to the night sky as they stared ahead, frozen on their feet.
"How?" Only a good half a minute later did Ulise - the first to recover - manage to ask following that flat but shocking statement; voicing out loud the question that was rocking at all of their common sense at that moment.
"Hm?" Theron turned his head to look at Ulise, his eyebrow raised up in question as well.
After lifting his right arm up for the blade to point at the overhead shade sails and dark sky, he opened his mouth and said: "I killed him of course."
With a sudden twitch of his wrist and an audible *swiish* sound, that seemed to slice through their stunned consciousness, the blade retracted back under his long sleeve and disappeared from their view.