Rebirth of the Phoenix God

Chapter 112: Downsides of popularity

In the end, the trouble that Fen caused didn't bring an axe to his neck. No matter how the young man looked at it, just being questioned by the lazy guards in one of their offices was definitely way too little of punishment for randomly attacking a person in the street with clear intent to kill.

And it didn't really matter what kind of circumstances caused this situation. Growing up in the forest, Fen knew that if he were to randomly attack some beast, then no matter how much he would like to back down, later on, he would never be given the chance to do so.

"That will be all, then. At this point, we need to warn you though. While the only officially recognised fire church has absolutely nothing about the Phoenixian kinds, we suspect that there is quite a sizeable underground for the Draconis sect even in the Gauna. Sadly, due to the proximity of the empire, it's nearly impossible to get rid of this plague… So do never drop your guard with people that speak about or even appear as if they were somehow connected with the church. Also, given the show that you gave back on the street… We can only wish you good luck with what comes next."

Shaking his head with a clear pity written in his eyes, the main guard that was interrogating the young man stood up from his chair and guided Fen to the door. For some reason, instead of leading him for the interrogation to some kind of main guarding post, they were locked in nothing more but a small tower, barely two storeys high, appearing as nothing more but a resting place for the guards that found themselves too tired to continue with their daily tasks.

"What did you mean by that?"

Puzzled by this strange remark of the guard, Fen wanted to pry a bit deeper into the topic, but he was just a bit too late. As soon as the guard opened the gate to the small keep, Fen instantly received an answer to his question.

"Hey, would you like to join our mercenary group?"

"Stop it! He will join our group!"

���Back off, he is ours!"

Only having the small crowd that observed the show as a potential source of comparison, Fen instinctively backed out when the living mass of humans instantly lunged at him. Only by backing off into the guard's post did he manage to avoid the insane number of hands that reached out for him.

"Wait, are you going to just let them kidnap me?!"

The massive crowd on the other side of the doors was simply too big to have even the smallest semblance of organisation. For someone like Fen, used to the vast expanses with no other human within half a day worth of march, even a group of ten was already pressing, not to speak about the crowd that was many, many times greater than that!

"Everyone, calm down. I know that you are excited to find a promising recruit, but I can bet that this young man won't join any of the group that will make him feel uneasy today!"

Shaking his head with a look of annoyance in his eyes, the head guard of the post stepped forward, threateningly placing his palm on the handle of a small sword that was attached to his side. 

Only now the immense crowd moved a bit away. Sadly, outside of the few people at the very front, no one else could see the guard nor hear his threat, greatly limiting the free space that appeared between the crowd and the gate of the guard post.

"Just like the guard said. I won't be joining any group that attempted to hire me today."

Putting this statement forward, Fen made sure that his shout was loud enough for at least the closest rows of the people to hear it, before turning his head to the side where the head guard was.

"Sir, would it be possible for me to cover myself in flames as I will try to move out of this place? While I know I can't ask you to escort me out of here, I'm worried I could be trampled by the stampede of people excited to poach me to their groups if I were to go out normally."

Fen wasn't stupid enough to even think about going home in the current situation. The one thing that it would result with would be letting everyone here know where they could find him. The only viable choice for the young man to hide away seemed to be the academy itself… 

Regretfully, Latiel's place of choice for the fake show was already far away from the academy grounds, and the guards took him to the post that seemed to be even further away from the potential safety. Unless the young man was given the option to protect himself from the crowd, then the road to the academy might prove to be way harder than his escape from the damned empire!josei

"Cover yourself with fires…? Well, I can see the good points of this solution, but I can't allow you to just randomly hurt everyone around you. As long as those flames will be thin enough to just cause pain without any lasting harm, I will allow that, but keep in mind it will be your responsibility to keep those fires of yours the way I just described them."

Contrary to what Fen always thoughts about guards in any city or any place, the man beside him didn't create more problems than necessary. Sadly, the city wasn't the area where Fen could comfortably move around as easily as he could in the forest, so this kind of… threatening factor of his fires was the single thing that he could come up with for the sake of his own protection.

"Thanks. Also, there is one more thing I want to say to everyone gathered… But while it might make things easier for me, it might also potentially cause some unrest amongst this crowd. Would that be a problem?"

Even though an idea already appeared in Fen's mind, it could potentially rile up the crowd a lot, so asking the guard for the permission once again would save him the trouble of being accused of some kind of sabotage later on!

"Well, as long as the focus will be on you rather than on us or the city… I won't stop you, but given how you want to go beyond the usual measures, it will be all on you to take care of the potential repercussions."

Waving his hand to indicate how little he cared for any further Fen's actions, the head guard lightly patted him on the shoulder, indicating that it was already time for the young man to go. After all, they were in a damned guard's post not some kind of asylum or hotel!

"Okay, okay. Everyone, there is one thing that you guys need to realise."

With no other choice, Fen stepped a few paces forward, quickly gathering all the attention of the crowd on himself. Well, while it held true that the several front rows of the crowd focused on him, it was doubtful that those standing further down the street would have any idea of what he would be speaking about.

"First thing first, what you guys saw and what made you all be so interested in employing me… was just a performance of someone who only started to learn how to wield his power. That means, your current interest in my person only shows how valuable I will be once I will hone my skills."

The first aspect was obvious, but by spelling it out loud, Fen proved that he was perfectly conscious of this aspect of his situation. While by itself it wouldn't spark any form of aggression in the crowd, it was only the introduction to the wordy attack that Fen was about to execute.

"As for the second aspect, I don't know if you took me for some naive idiot, but it's obvious that the groups that could offer me truly good terms would rather wait for me to apply to their ranks rather than trying to poach me right off the streets, even going as far as to block my passage back to the academy. And given how you already proved my worth with all the interest that you guys shown in employing me…"

Before he could finish his sentence, Fen already started producing his flames. Taking care to keep them close to his own body, the young man started moving forward, instantly digging right into the middle of the crowd. Only once he was completely surrounded by the people from all sides, did his flames erupted in an intense heat that was - just as the guards asked - perfectly capable of hurting others, but not causing them any lasting harm.

"I know better than you guys would wish for, that accepting any of your offers would be a huge loss for me."