The silence that followed was absolute. The sounds of the fishing village outside seemed to vanish, leaving only the two of them in the dim light of the hut.
The Beggar Sage was completely taken aback. His mind raced, trying to find the flaw in his calculations.
They did thorough research. The humanoid alien was eleven years old. Every data point suggested he should have been the perfect candidate for indoctrination. He came from a poor family—a family that he showed great importance to. Even going so far as to risk his life for them.
He had seen the cruelty of the nobility firsthand. He was young, impressionable, and possessed a power he didn't fully understand. His experiences should have made him the easiest person in the world to fool. He did know more that he should, but emotional intelligence was a completely different thing!
Merun watched the gears turning behind the old man's eyes. Then, he let go of the Sage's hand and burst into boisterous laughter.
"HAHAHAHA!"
The sound was loud and genuine, echoing off the wooden beams. Merun doubled over, clutching his stomach as he laughed at the absurdity of the moment.
The Beggar Sage remained frozen, unable to speak. He had spent hours setting a complex trap only to realize he was the one sitting in the cage.
The Sage stared at Merun for a long time. He thought of all the reasons his plan should have worked, all the psychological levers he had pulled.
Finally, he just stopped thinking. He closed his eyes and let out a long, slow exhale. Merun continued to laugh, the sound filling the hut until the walls seemed to shake.
Then, slowly, the corner of the Beggar Sage's mouth rose. A small, dry chuckle escaped his throat. It grew into a wheezing laugh that joined Merun's.
"KEKEKEKEKEKEKEKE!"
"You should have seen the look on your face!" Merun shouted between laughs. "You were so into it! The people's hero! Millions of voices!"
The Beggar Sage laughed with him, and for the first time, it sounded genuine. He had deeply underestimated this kid.
For the first time in decades, he felt the thrill of encountering something unknown.
The Beggar Sage's laughter began to change, becoming more frantic and lunatic as a new feeling ignited in his heart. It wasn't anger or embarrassment.
It was greed.
A deep, insatiable greed for information.
There was more to this kid than he thought.
He now looked at Merun not as a tool, but as a mystery that needed to be solved.
It took all of his power to hold back his curiosity and not barrage Merun with questions... he needed to follow Psyker's suggestion.
Finally, both of them stopped laughing. They sat across from each other, gasping for air.
The Beggar Sage looked at Merun with a completely renewed outlook. He wiped a tear from his eye and smiled.
"I've underestimated you, Otherworlder Merun."
Merun didn't say anything. He just smiled back, his brow raised and his arms folded across his chest.
The Beggar Sage gave a quick, sharp chuckle. "Damn. Can you truly read minds and see the future? I was sure I had you pegged."
He leaned back, his eyes glinting with a new kind of hunger. "Anyway—"
"Before you start," Merun interrupted, his voice dropping an octave. The playfulness vanished from his face, replaced by a cold, pragmatic intensity. "Bankei. And the Shinken martial artists. I want to know exactly what happened to them."
The Sage's expression sobered instantly. He didn't look away. "Bankei is fine. He's hidden in a secure location protected by the sect, recovering. He used up a lot of 'ki' and is experiencing some backlash. He'll be a valuable asset for us soon." He paused, his gaze softening with a rare touch of genuine regret. "As for the Shinken prisoners... half of them lived. It's a miracle, considering the circumstances. They would have died of slow experimentation in the dungeons of Ise if it weren't for you."
Merun's eyes narrowed. "And the other half?"
"They died a honorable, warrior's death," the Beggar Sage said.
"They were full of hope that day," Merun said, his voice dangerously quiet. "They weren't looking for a 'warrior's death.' They were looking for home. What happened?"
The Beggar Sage stared at Merun for a long time, debating how much to reveal. Finally, he chose honesty. "Our... 'special' undercover sect member happened to be there on the scene during the extraction. To keep his cover—to ensure the greater mission wasn't compromised—he had to fight them. He was the one who cut them down."
The air in the hut suddenly became heavy. The wooden beams groaned, and the world outside seemed to dim as a wave of raw, suffocating rage erupted from Merun.
His ki flared for a split second, a red-black pressure that threatened to level the small structure.
But as quickly as it appeared, it vanished. Merun took a long, jagged breath, forcing the Saiyan fury back into the cage of his mind.
He exhaled slowly, suppressing his rising anger until his face was a mask of stone.
"...What was his name?" Merun asked.
The Beggar Sage hesitated, his hand hovering near his robe. "I trust that you won't do anything rash. He is... someone who will become very, very important to the Oni Clan. That is all I can give you for now."
Merun remained quiet for several seconds, the silence thick with the weight of the lives lost.
He thought of the faces of the men and women who had cheered when he broke their chains, healed their wounds, sparred with them—men and women he would never see again.
"...Thank you for the honesty," Merun finally said, his voice devoid of emotion.
"I would like to meet the survivors later. And the graves of the rest." He looked back up at the Beggar Sage. "Let's move on. You had points to make."
He straightened his robes and set his expression, though the greedy glint remained in his eyes.
He looked Merun in the face, no longer treating him like a child to be coached, but as a player at the same table.
An equal.
"Let's do that again. Allow me to convince you to join the Beggar Sect, Merun Furutsu"