SSS Transmigration: I Can Extract And Evolve Overpowered Shadows-Chapter 22: Teaching An Asshole A Lesson... Righteously Of Course (1)
After entering the city, both Geret and Chris said their goodbyes before heading to their respective families, leaving Hinata alone once again.
In a way, Hinata enjoyed the peace and quiet of being on his own, though he also loved human connection. He had always found himself strange for carrying such opposing traits, yet now, he was grateful for it.
Hinata spent some time walking through the city, letting the atmosphere settle around him, before eventually turning toward the central hall to acquire a proper card. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢
The female clerk there was kinder than he expected, and in less than ten minutes, the process was complete.
Standing outside the central hall, Hinata couldn’t help but sigh. ’Human civilization is more boring than I thought it would be.’
Goku, floating beside him, yawned. "Tell me about it."
Hinata glanced at his companion, who raised a brow. ’Why didn’t you tell me earlier we could speak like this?’
"I didn’t know either," Goku replied flatly.
Hinata turned away from the invisible dragon so as not to draw attention to himself.
He wandered the city a while longer, asking questions here and there, until his steps eventually led him to the Adventurers’ Guild.
The building stood apart from the rest of the street, broader and more rugged in design. Its stone walls were darkened by age and use, marked with faint scars hinting at battles long past.
Above the entrance hung a worn emblem, a crossed sword and shield, swaying gently in the breeze.
Hinata stared at the door, hands tucked in his pockets. The thick stench of alcohol seeped from within, curling through the gap beneath the frame.
Without hesitation, he pushed the door open. The moment it swung wide, the atmosphere struck him all at once.
Voices overlapped in a constant hum, punctuated by bursts of laughter, heated arguments, and the occasional clatter of metal against wood.
Armored figures moved through the space with purpose, while others lingered around heavy tables, trading stories, coins, or information.
Hinata’s gaze swept the room. The guild was exactly how he had imagined it: rough and loud, with the stench of sweat, booze, and steel hanging thick in the air.
The moment he stepped inside, the door groaning shut behind him, every eye in the guild shifted his way. Some stared openly; others merely glanced from the corners of their eyes before looking away.
Hinata ignored them all and moved toward the reception desk.
As he made his way to the far end of the room, head low and hands still in his pockets, his gaze drifted briefly to a notice board along the wall. His steps froze.
’What the hell?’
Pinned to the board, written in a language he had somehow been able to read since arriving in this world, was the latest notice regarding one of the heroes.
{Hero Kobayashi}
— Bounty: 460 gold coins
— Crime: Murder of the third prince of Vaeloria
Hinata blinked several times, yet the words on the worn, crumbling paper remained.
The bewilderment on his face hardened into a frown, his brows drawing tight. It had only been four days since they were summoned into this world. How was it possible that one of his classmates was already being charged with murder?
His jaw clenched. ’What the hell is happening in Vaeloria?’
He pulled his gaze from the board and started forward again, stride purposeful. He couldn’t shake the feeling that his complacency was beginning to catch up with him.
A few days of rest, and the world was already presenting him a reason not to stay idle. If one of his classmates was already being hunted by an entire nation, there was no guarantee the others had much time left.
Hinata pressed two fingers against his throbbing temple as he reached the front of the reception desk.
He glanced left, then right. Nobody was there. Even the woman he had spotted at the desk moments ago had vanished without a trace.
He clicked his tongue, leaned against the counter, and waited.
A minute passed, then two, and before long a full hour had gone by without anyone attending to him.
That was when it dawned on him.
It wasn’t that there was no one available to help him. It was that no one wanted to.
Hinata let out a quiet laugh, though it carried enough in the silence to bring the entire guild to a standstill.
’I had actually forgotten for a second,’ he mused, eyes drifting across the men and women now grinning from the corners of his vision. ’How wretched humans can be.’
One of them, a towering, broad-shouldered man with a beard streaked black and white, rose from his chair with the kind of deliberate force meant to intimidate. His boots struck the floor in heavy, measured thuds as he crossed toward Hinata.
Hinata raised his eyes to the man, who made no effort to conceal his sneer. When he spoke, his voice rolled out like a crack of thunder. "You don’t seem to be from around here, little guy!"
Hinata’s gaze didn’t waver. "No, I’m not."
The man’s smirk deepened. "Thought as much. Well, since you’re new, I’ll fill you in on how things work around here. For greenhorns like you, the first order of business is handing over all your coins, then doing a frog jump around the guild five times. Maybe then the receptionist will bother with you!"
The guild erupted in laughter and cheers.
"Nice one, Godfrey! Newcomers ought to know their place!"
"Hahaha, the kid thinks he can just stroll in and do as he pleases?!"
"Tell the bastard to drop that cloak. How dare he cover his face in front of us."
"Why doesn’t he bark for us? Maybe then we’ll show him around, carry him a little, since he’s about to go flat broke anyway!"
The laughter swelled as more voices piled on, though a few kept to themselves and simply watched.
Godfrey’s chest puffed up like the sky had no ceiling. With every jeer, his smirk stretched wider, the crowd’s mockery feeding him like fuel.
"You hear that?!" he bellowed, driving his right fist into his left palm with a sharp crack. "Unless you’d rather settle this a different way!"
Hinata simply stared up at him, eyes shimmering with a faint violet glow.
Godfrey seemed to read the silence as fear and swung his hand down in a rush of displaced air, the wind tearing around his clenched fist.
Yet Hinata didn’t flinch. Not even slightly.
The guild fell quiet all at once, the laughter snuffed out and replaced by a dense, uneasy stillness.
"What the hell? Is he looking down on Godfrey?"
"Don’t tell me that big oaf is rattled by some kid."
"Nah, the kid must be scared witless. That’s why he can’t get a word out."
"Idiots. Has anyone stopped to consider this guy might be an awakened?"
"No way an awakened would show up at a guild like this."
Godfrey, watching the crowd’s confidence in him waver, ground his teeth. His face mottled red in blotchy patches as his breathing grew shallow and rapid, nearly a pant.
"Hey! Did you go deaf?! Spit out those coins!"
Hinata rolled his neck lazily to the right, then to the left. "My head hurts."
Godfrey’s eyes went wide. "What?"
A smirk tugged at Hinata’s mouth, mana coiling steadily through his core. Perhaps it was the poster still burning in the back of his mind, but right now he wanted nothing more than to put his fist through something.
"What, didn’t you hear me?" he taunted, voice dropping low. "Get your fucking head down, asshole."
