“M-MISTER, a soldier from outside wanted to talk to you,” a male employee tremblingly told the man.

            His name was James and he just started working in this shopping mall three months ago.  Who would have thought that something like this would happen?  He was just an ordinary law-abiding citizen with mediocre qualification.  He never imagined that one day he would find himself in such a life-or-death situation.  It’s already a miracle that he could stand here without fainting. 

Because their section leader was hit by the crazy man’s gun, the and another male employee had to take him behind the counter.  Which was thankfully a few distance away from where the crazy guy was standing.  Knowing their leader, he would definitely try to reason with that hostage taker.  That’s why two of them were with him to stop him if he tried to walked towards the crazy man again.

But while they were behind the counter, the communication device attached to there.  A soldier who introduced himself as Captain Moore asked them to explain the current situation.  It was a good thing that the counter had some sound isolation function and their section leader quickly turned it on.

The leader explained the current situation.  He looked at the crazy guy and saw that he was still manic and pointing his gun recklessly at the poor kid in his arms.  And he narrated what he saw to the captain down to the smallest detail.

James really admired his team leader.  He was shot and yet he still could remain calm like this.  Their leader’s quick thinking was probably also the reason why the soldiers came this fast.  Because he pressed the emergency button in their section the moment the crazy guy appeared.

Then the captain asked if one of them could talk to the guy and ask him if he was willing to speak with the authorities.  And that job unfortunately fell on James.

The man sharply turned to him and his knees almost buckled when he saw the bloodshot eyes of the other.  He truly wanted to cry right at this moment. 

“No!  You tell them that if they don’t want all of the people here to die, they should take back my sentence!  I will only give an hour- no- 30 minutes for them to do that.  If not,” the crazy guy started laughing crazily.  “Then all of you will just be buried with me here.”

People gasped and some even sobbed when they heard that.

Can you not be so unreasonable? – James almost cried out. 

Did this guy think that once his sentence was taken back, he would no longer be pursued by the authorities?  James had a feeling that this guy was probably having a mental breakdown that’s why he couldn’t think properly. 

But his opinion didn’t matter.  Because no matter how much he insulted this person in his mind, the other wouldn’t just magically let go of them.

He was planning to go back to the counter when he saw a young man of average height walking carefully towards the crazy guy, as if making sure he wouldn’t startle the man.  This young man was wearing a hat with its brim lowered to the extreme, covering the upper half of his face.

Some of the people were trying to stop him from approaching but the young man still kept walking.

“Get back!  I told you to get back!” the crazy guy shouted pointing the gun at the young man.

“Please, calm down,” the young man said in a very nice, calming voice.

Then he removed his hat and almost everyone in there just stared.  Including James.  Even the crazy guy became speechless.  Because the young man was simply beautiful beyond words. 

He had almost translucent white skin and pink-colored lips.  His hair looked extremely soft.  The shape of his eyes was quite unusual, its tail end sweeping upwards.  Making him look more charming.  But the most noticeable thing of all was the color of his hair and eyes. 

It’s black.   

It seemed like the darkest ink was splashed on his hair.  While his eyes were as dark as the starry night sky. 

“Pretty…” he unconsciously muttered.

Astrid, who was currently the center of attention, ignored everyone else but the man with the gun. He glanced quickly at the silver-haired boy who was still trying his best not to cry and show any weakness. 

When he saw the man’s shock expression, he quickly took advantage of that and manipulated his mental power, pushing it towards the man.

Mental powers worked in a way like exerting pressure on someone’s brain.  The higher the level of mental strength, the stronger the pressure.  Of course, it would only work when the opponent had a lower mental strength level. 

Astrid was not worried that his mental power wouldn’t work with the crazy man.  If the other’s mental strength level was on par with him, the people here with low level mental strength should be long spasming right now.  Especially because of the man’s current mental state.

His mental power quickly flowed towards the other’s brain without any hindrance.  The moment it did, the man suddenly staggered and a pained expression flashed on his face.  The grip he had on the gun and on the kid both loosened. 

Astrid saw his brother, who had been long standing on position, quickly rushing towards the man.  Although Reas wasn’t using his full ability, he could still tell by how fast he was approaching that he used a bit of it.  But he couldn’t care about that now. 

He also rushed towards the man.  Even though he was standing closer, Reas still managed to reach the man faster than him.  When his brother held both the man’s hands from behind, Astrid took the boy in his arms and jumped away from there. 

There were gasped and astonishments all around.  But he didn’t pay any attention to it and said to the boy in his arms gently, “It’s okay.  You’re safe now. Don’t be afraid.  Everything will be okay.”

He turned back to his brother and let out a sigh of relief when he saw that Reas had already disassembled the bomb attached to the man.  He was pressing the man on his back using his knee, one on the other’s neck and the other on his waist.  Making the man unable to move no matter how crazily he tried to fight back.

Seeing that, Astrid also took back his mental power.

Probably finally feeling the disappearance of the pressure in his brain, the man simply just lost it.  “You f****** bastard!  Let go!  Let go!  Let go!” 

Astrid just shook his head.  He was about to put down the kid but the boy suddenly hugged his neck tightly.  Then, he felt something wet falling on his shoulder.

“I-I want to go h-home,” the boy said, sobbing.

“You will be back home soon.  Brother promised,” Astrid said while gently patting the kid’s back.  Then, to divert the boy’s attention, he asked, “What’s your name?”

“N-Nicol.  Nicol Grimaldi.”

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