Psychic Overlord

"Hoh? You are quite brave, boy. Do you even know who you are talking to?" the old man asked, his smile lessening somewhat as his beard sparked with a hint of flame. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

Kaizer simply eyed the old man with a distant look. "Blaze, am I right? The so-called strongest esper in our city."

The fellow paused, and the bodyguards accompanying him were also surprised.

"Oh? Kid, you are quite well-informed. I guess that should be the case since you managed to cook up such a believable story for my men the other time." Blaze recovered his demeanor and seemed even more authoritative.

Kaizer was nonplussed, glancing at his watch with a hint of impatience. "Is that all you came here to speak about? If not, I still have an important schedule to attend to."

Blaze tensed as his smile thinned. "Brat, you seem to think you're some hotshot just because your daddy has some money? Or is it because you successfully hid your esper awakening for a few years from us?"

Kaizer paused and shook his head. It seemed that the conclusion the officials had come to after the campus attack was that he was, in fact, the killer of Carla but had been an esper in hiding all this while, rather than a newly awakened fellow.

From their point of view, this did make sense. After all, the only way Kaizer could hide his esper ability in front of Officer James's probing last time could only be achieved by a seasoned esper. Not to mention that while there might be some espers who awaken with great power, it was hard for them to rationalize that Kaizer could kill a dangerous D-rank esper like Carla in one hit.

Kaizer could sense the thoughts of the bodyguards, but Blaze in front of him seemed to have received some form of training. While it was not as strong as what Anir wove around Rina's mind, it was still a sturdy barrier of searing flame akin to a firewall that closed off his mindscape from casual probing.

Blaze saw that Kaizer refused to answer, and his gaze became full of dissatisfaction. The old man glanced back toward the memorial area and spoke casually.

"You think you're protected just because you think you did nothing? Kid, let me tell you, we can put you away for years if we so wished right now. The charges we can place on you are not limited to just obstruction of justice for deliberately lying during the investigation led by James, but we can also attach murder for killing Carla as well as aiding and abetting a terrorist attack, namely the one on your school."

The atmosphere became tense as the bodyguards listening began to scan the area, pretending as if they couldn't hear what was going on, while Kaizer's neutral expression warped slightly to one of coldness. His blue eyes flashed with a dark glow as he glanced at the old man intensely.

"What the hell do you mean by that?" Kaizer asked slowly and deeply.

Blaze chuckled coldly. "Brat, you are too young and ignorant of the world. You think having money is everything? The only important metric in this world has and always will be power! Forget you—if any of us in the esper world really cared, we could easily capture your father and extract all his knowledge from him. I alone have a hundred ways to achieve this, and I don't have any special powers in interrogation!"

"Always remember this—a free piece of advice from an elder since I appreciate your talent. Whenever you are dealing with an esper of a higher rank than you, always maintain a respectful attitude and ditch your 'everyone is equal' mentality that the weaklings that populate society like to tell themselves."

"Now, back to my initial question. How did you sneak up on my agent?" Blaze pressed, his expression one of slight disdain as if glancing at an ant.

Kaizer was silent for a minute or two, just staring at Blaze with a somewhat neutral and thoughtful expression. When he spoke once more, Blaze thought he was about to accede to his demands, but what came out of the lad's mouth was not something he ever expected.

"I understand now. I saw snippets of this from those dark espers, and meeting you, I seem to have a fair idea of the full picture."

Kaizer suddenly smiled. "The human world and the esper world exist in the same time and space, on the same planet and in the same society and physical area, but the nature of the two is vastly different. The human world is mostly fixated on politics, law, and socioeconomics concerning survival, prosperity, and peace."

"However, the esper world is a place akin to the jungle, where the strong decide the rules. This is especially present in dark espers who can take life as and when they please, but even you, a regional head of the esper faction affiliated with the government—who should be the enforcers of law as well as the nominal 'good guys'—can freely exert your influence to be rude, demanding, and threatening despite being in the wrong."

Kaizer suddenly folded his arms behind his back and sighed wistfully. "Such a world... too barbaric. Even though it's naturally better to involve myself in it, I find that I much rather prefer normal society where people actually treat each other like sapient beings."

Blaze listened silently with half-lidded eyes, looking extremely bored. He waved to the bodyguards and began to walk away with a light step.

"Arrest him and bring him back to the base for interrogation," Blaze commanded without much weight in his tone, but his words decided Kaizer's fate right away.

Immediately, the seven or so fellows who accompanied Blaze here accepted the order and walked toward Kaizer slowly but menacingly, one of them removing a pair of cuffs. They surrounded him on all sides, preventing escape while keeping their lips tightly shut, not even reading his rights to him.

"The government, huh... To comply and become a prisoner or to rebel and become a fugitive?" Kaizer did not seem pressured as he asked himself this loudly.

The faces of those surrounding him changed slightly as they pounced forward in a coordinated move, aiming to take him down as painlessly as possible. As they were all normal people and did not have abilities themselves minus their elite training, they were not looking forward to allowing an esper like this to manifest his powers.

Kaizer eventually sighed and made a decision. He raised a finger and pointed downwards, causing the bodies of all the bodyguards rapidly approaching him to pause in the air, much to their shock, and then collapse heavily to the ground, unable to move an inch.

Blaze paused and turned around, a satisfied smile on his face. "So, you choose to resist arrest? Great, I am going to enjoy beating you within an inch of your life, boy."

Kaizer understood that the old man seemed to have come here with malicious intentions from the start, likely aiming to pressure him to do something or the other. Who was behind him and the reasons for this, Kaizer did not know.

However, what was important was to safely retreat from this place and acquire some form of support lest he give this wretched old fogey more ammunition to use against him by abusing his position and mandate.