Our Eternity

Chapter 4 - Spotted

Scaramouche's POV

 Fuck! Barbatos? Why him of all people?!

 There's no way I could forget the Tsaritsa's expression when she got her hands on the anemo gnosis. It was terrifying.

 Apparently, Barbatos had sealed the gnosis while Signora was not paying attention, resulting in it becoming unusable unless he came and unsealed it.

 Like that's going to happen.

 Well, it would have been absolutely disgraceful for an archon to let a human steal their gnosis without a fight, especially...

 "Barbatos is... When he's in a good mood he acts like a child, but he's rather terrifying when he gets angry."

 One of the few things Raiden Ei had said that I could never forget.

 For her to call him terrifying...

 "Don't tell me he has it?"

 "I'm not sure."

 This little- How can you be unsure about something so important?!

 "What did he tell you?"

 "Let go."

 "Like hell I am!"

 "Although I would like for you to let go of my throat, that's not what I meant. 'Let go and the wind might help you.' That's what he said."

 "What kind of crazy bullshit..."

 That's pure nonsense!

 "My thought exactly." And why are you agreeing with me?

 This guy... Why is he so calm? Does he not fear death?

 Right as I was contemplating whether or not to choke him to death here and now, I felt a powerful force push against my back, making me land in an awkward position.

 Too close!

 That damn guy's face was just a few centimeters away.

 "Cough, cough! What the hell is wrong with you?!"

 It seems like the sudden movement made me exert a little too much force on his throat.

 "Tsk!"

 I tried moving away, but to my surprise, the force behind me still hadn't disappeared.

 "Move."

 "Do you think I'm staying in this position because I want to?"

 Why the hell can't I move.

 "Wind." He mumbled suddenly.

 "What?"

 "It's the wind."

 "What's with the-"

 "Shut up." He interrupted.

 "Just who are you to tell me to-"

 A hand covered my mouth before I could even react to his movement.

 What the hell is wrong with this guy?

 I had yet to try and remove his hand when I heard something else.

 Footsteps.

 "Are you sure they saw him on Ritou?"

 "Do you think I came all the way here because I'm having fun?"

 There are only two of them.

 "To think that a harbinger would betray the Tsaritsa."

 "Right. I never thought something like this could happen."

 Huh?

 "Why would we be tasked with finding him anyway? There's no way that agents like us could defeat a harbinger."

 Fatui agents? They know that I'm on Ritou?

 "What do you think? We are just cannon fodder. If we die, they can confirm that he is here. If we don't we're either lucky and didn't meet him or he's not here.

 These bastards!

 Aren't they a little too naive? If I wanted to kill them without leaving traces, it wouldn't be a hard thing to do. The only problem is...

 I still can't move!

 "They are going to walk by us in about 30 seconds." A calm voice sounded.

 At the same time, his free hand went inside my sleeve.

 "Should I get rid of them?"

 Of course.

 "How about this: I get rid of those two and after that, we restart our whole conversation?"

 Fine. I nodded.

 I felt him take his vision from my sleeve and the next moment, his throat slipped out of my hand.

 He put his vision back in place and looked around.

 "I don't have my sword..." He muttered.

 "There's a knife fastened to my belt."

 He took it without hesitation.

 "Aren't you a little too defenseless? Who knows, maybe this is just a trick to catch you off guard."

 He just looked at me as if he was looking at an idiot before answering.

 "Would you really have a need for that? If anything, you're the one who's defenseless."

 "You think you can kill me?"

 "No, I'm pretty sure I can't, but I could probably find someone who can."

 "I highly doubt that. Unless you want to look for the Shogun that is."

 "Why the hell would I voluntarily look for her?"

 He looked at me completely baffled, as if I was telling him that the sky was about to fall.

 "Because she's probably the only one I Inazuma who can defeat me?"

 "Might as well go ahead and kill me then."He scoffed before turning around.

 While we were talking, the two agents had gotten a lot closer and were just a few steps away.

 "Huh?"

 "What is it?"

 "That guy over there... Isn't he the Balladier?!"

 It looks like we were spotted.

 "Is he though? Do you think someone with his personality would have friends? We might have the wrong guy here."

 These two really can't wait to die, can they?

 "Just look at that ridiculous hat. Do you think someone else would want to wear something like that?"

 I really want to rip them to pieces.

 "Huh?"

 "What is it this time?"

 "That other guy... Where did he go?"

 "What the-"

 "You bastard-"

 Both their voices cut off mid-sentence, followed by a thud. At the same time, the pressure on my back disappeared as well.

 I turned around to see the guy standing by the bodies of the two agents. I didn't need to check to know that they were both dead, the amount of blood told me that much.

 "So..." He began to speak, twirling the knife between his fingers.

 A smile surfaced on his face. A smile that somehow gave me a bad premonition.

 "How about we have our talk then?"