Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Seventeen
RETRIBUTION
"Alright geezer, here's your divine retribution!!"
Tom stood at Dionysus' side and began to wind up the kick, his intent being the stomach.
"Oh? You'd try to poison me?"
Dionysus finally spoke up in retaliation to them for the first time since they had met him. They had been using him as a cash grab for a while now, and not once had they ever encountered any sort of issue with him. Because of the fact that they've never had to legitimately deal with him, they were surprised at what he had just said.
"D-Did you just say something, Gramps?"
Tom beckoned for Dionysus to speak up, but that wasn't that all. His voice did contain some shock, but the biggest tone that could be found was the confusion.
'How did this geezer know I was about to poison him?'
Tom had decided that he would kick Dionysus a little bit ago, but he didn't know if he wanted to anymore. In his eyes, the man that was currently kowtowing before him was somewhat intimidating.
However, there was something even more scary to him, and that was losing his respect among his peers.
"Beat his ass Tom, make it a good kick!"
"Make him barf up everything he has!"
He didn't want to lose his spot as the leader of this little group.
"D-Damn you, old man, I'm going to ki-!"
WHA-POOM
Midway through his sentence, an ear-piercing sound boomed, and Dionysus just disappeared from their view. Tom himself had closed his eyes and held his ears tightly, as he felt as if they were going to fall off.
THWOP
"G-God damn it!"
He hit the ground head-first while holding his ears, and then continued to roll on it while still doing so. A lot of the gang members were also on the ground, but some of them weren't so lucky that they were able to move.
In fact, it wouldn't be surprising if some of them were dead.
"G-Gah . . ."
Tom, however, was different from the rest. To be able to handle a granted ability, the human body adapted strength-wise. Even if a person were to gain a granted ability that only allowed them to, for example, be really good at cleaning, the body itself would be much stronger.
In short, a person with abilities is naturally stronger than a person without them, even if the ability isn't suited for combat.
Tom opened his eyes, and began to look around. He saw that many of his fellow group members were also down on the ground, and some seemed to be bleeding blood from their mouth. Others also seemed to be gurgling on it, the sight was most definitely unpleasant.
'Where is that gramps?!'
Tom's eyes became slightly bloodshot, but nothing to truly worry about. He slowly pushed himself off the ground while looking to his right, which was the direction that Dionysus was currently walking in.
"G-Get back here . . ."
He couldn't muster up enough strength to even convey his words to Dionysus. Believing that he wouldn't be heard, Tom gave in and just dropped to the ground. Although he was stronger than the natural human, his ears still hurt, and the ringing wasn't stopping.
However, just when he was about to close his eyes and fall asleep . . .
"Sorry, maybe I'll get back there another time."
--- SEQUENCE 2 ---
"Why'd you call me out here?"
In reality, Dionysus would not have minded staying down and getting kicked by him. In fact, he wouldn't really mind anything at this point. However, right before he was about to get kicked, he saw a similar face sitting at a cafe to his left, on one of the outside tables.
"By the way, can I get your name, young lady?"
Dionysus naturally assumed that the pink-haired woman before him was younger than him. While he knew it wasn't right to assume a lot of things, he thought age was one of the things that was allowed.
"How rude, to call me a young lady. You're the one who 'kidnapped' me before, you know? Anyhow, just call me alpha."
She casually mentioned all of this while sipping what appeared to be coffee out of a cup and reading a newspaper.
"Eh?! A proper young lady shouldn't go by suc-"
"Please don't just treat me like a young lady before I use my influence to have you hanged."
SIP
She gestured for Dionysus to take a seat across from her at the same table, which he gladly did. Being a bartender was a job that had him constantly standing for hours on end, and any break that he could take would be taken gladly.
"Still, you're very different from before. You didn't even attempt to hide the fact that you were utter scum from me. Change in heart or something?"
As she had implied, Dionysus was indeed different from how he was when he met her. As for the man in question, Dionysus knew that the person she was talking about, his replica, was already long dead.
"Hah, change in heart, you say . . .?"
Dionysus didn't even know how to reply to the question. He put his hands on the table and looked up at the cloudy skies, the sun still nowhere to be seen. As for Alpha, she had put down the newspaper and was looking at Dionysus intently now.
"I didn't actually mean it when I asked if you had a change in heart, but I wonder if something changed physically . . ."
"A-Ah, nothing to worry about!"
Dionysus could feel the sweat rolling down his forehead as she clearly noted a difference. Indeed, something had physically changed, and that was the color of the eyes. From a dead, grey color to a vibrant, gold color was, in fact, quite the change.
". . . If you say so."
She sat back in her seat, but she didn't pick up the newspaper. She even went as far as to put down her cup of coffee, which Dionysus could tell was when she was getting serious.
"That's right, I called you here to see if you still remember that thing I gave you."
Even while she spoke, Dionysus' mind still attempted to wander. Of course, he wouldn't allow it to, but the temptation was still there to continue to look back on his past.
"What thing? Sorry, my memory isn't quite what it used to be."
He rubbed his head and had an apologetic tone in his voice when he said so. Alpha, who was witness to all of this, was shocked.
'I've seen people change over time, but to go from a curious person that thought it was alright to indulge in such dark things to this . . .'
"The paper with a . . ."
COUGH COUGH
"Bloody knife on it."
The first part of the sentence was said in a proper volume, but the second half was covered by coughing and said in a whisper. Dionysus quickly caught onto the fact that this was something that should not be spoken of in public, and also onto the fact that it was quite the serious topic.
" I remember it. I never quite found anything to do with it, though I didn't actually search for anything."
Dionysus replied in an honest manner, and Alpha continued to stare at him.
'. . .'
Alpha had learned a while back that people who are lying will usually not look you in the eye right after they lie, and some sweat may be seen on the person as well. That is, if they're lying. However, the man who sat in front of her currently had neither of these features, and was, in fact, looking her straight in the eyes.
"I suppose you're being honest. First of all, before we go even further than this, let me ask you something."
"Would you be willing to lay down your li-"
"Nope, sorry. Bring this up to me again and it won't go nicely for you."
Before this statement, Dionysus seemed like a laid-back person that didn't really have much care for anything. However, the second she brought up sacrifice, all the silliness was gone from his face, and the only thing that was left was a cold mask.
". . . Never mind, I see that you are also a selfish person. I'll leave you to your own business then. However, please approach me if you ever reconsider."
"Heh, thank you very much for the offer man."
It was as if Dionysus had never gotten serious in the first place. Besides that one sentence that he said, he was acting more like a normal person, though not fully. Alpha was shocked at the development, but she saw no real issues with it.
"Well then, I'll be on my way. May I acquire your name?"
She stood up and held her hand out, clearly a gesture for a handshake. Dionysus, as big a gentleman as he is, mustered the energy within him to stand up and shake her hand.
"Lione, ma'am."
He said it with a straight, smiling face, so Alpha didn't suspect in the least bit that it was a fake name.
"Then, I'll see you another day."
She retracted her hand and began to walk away.
'Daphne, huh.'
Dionysus, in a similar manner, also retracted his hands and put them in his pocket, except he once again took a seat.
HAH
He pulled out the pipe that he had been attempting to get used to for the last month or so, and once again began to smoke it, while also, once again, coughing.
'Though, I feel like I've gotten a better handle on it.'
He took his right hand off the table and put it in his pocket while leaning back and looking up at the cloudy sky. As for his left hand, it was holding the pipe.
". . ."
He continued to do so for a few minutes while still smoking and taking in the scenery, though there wasn't much to absorb. He felt confident in himself and the future, or at least he thought so before meeting up with Daphne.
'What am I doing with my life? Ever since I ran away, what have I been doing?'
He continued on to reflect on all his experiences for a bit. He had gone through quite a bit, and didn't know what to do right now.
"Um, would you like to order something, sir?"
The waiter that had been standing by the side finally made his presence known, leading to Dionysus slightly tilting his head in his direction. He took the pipe out of his mouth for a brief moment to place an order.
"Can I get some tea? Any tea is fine, just hand it."
Dionysus forked out two copper coins from his right pocket and threw them on the table. The waiter, understanding that the order had been placed, slightly bowed before heading into the cafe using the door.
THOOO
PUFF
Dionysus once again inserted the pipe into his mouth and continued to smoke, still attempting to get into the hang of it.
'So Daphne is a part of a rebel group to the empire called the Bloody Droplets, and they haven't done any operations. Their one true goal is to gather as many powerful figures, whether it be mentally, physically, influentially, or financially, as possible. Finally, with all of the figures . . .'
PUFF
'They plan to take out the current royal family, and to instill a new order into this capital.'
He had gained all this knowledge through his ability that he assumed was awakened. Usually, a person would be much more excited about awakening, but Dionysus couldn't muster up the energy to be excited.
'For two months, I lived in peace. For two months, I had finally escaped from all the chaos of this world, and was able to live as someone normal.'
THOOO
PUFF
Some more time passed, and the waiter finally came back out with the tea that Dionysus had ordered. Dionysus thanked the man before picking up his cup and taking a sip out of it.
'Ever since I was a kid, my life was never normal. Before I even knew it, I entered later adulthood, and even teenagers are starting to call me gramps.'
SIP
He continued to look at the cloudy sky while sipping his tea.
'Now that I've actually gotten to live my life without having a large weight on my shoulder, I kind of enjoy it.'
While looking at the sky, Dionysus began to wonder why he was even staring at it. There was much more scenery to look at besides it, all he had to do was tilt his head downwards to see it all.
After thinking for a bit though, he finally figured out why he didn't want to look down.
'While the skies might be gloomy, that's just nature. If I were to look down . . .'
PUFF
'I'd see the filth that humanity is.'
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Glypsumduke
Glypsumduke School started today, and, ngl, it's starting to seem like it might be too much effort to upload daily. I'll continue to upload daily on weekdays for now, but on the off-chance that it gets a bit too hard, I'll quickly rewrite my schedule so that I can continue to work on this novel of mine.
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