"The Lost Grimoire" - Asta fanfic // Black Clover (DISCONTINUED)

Chapter 5: Shivers

"And what do you think you're doing?"

"You're... not going... to get away... with this."

"Is that– Mister Finral and Miz Vanessa!" I yelled.

"I thought you two were investigating the Royal Capital." Noelle said.

Finral panted. "We were...! But we got no useful information from there so we decided to... investigate the Common and Forsaken Realms a little bit and came across you guys..."

"O-oh, th-thank god you g-guys a-are here!" Grey was relieved.

Vanessa, who was holding the villain's sword using her threads, sounded brave about this, unlike Finral. "We're not going to let you kill our squadmates."

"Ha! I, the amazing Ajax, the murderer with the 100% killing streak, can't be defeated just by a few threads!" The villain, who seemed to be named Ajax, said as he struggled to cut the threads with his sword, which was being paused, but failed.

"Why do you even like killing people, anyways?" I asked, deadpan.

Ajax stiffened, "It's because of you Magic Knights' intentions! I know you guys really don't care about rescuing the Kingdom! You just do it in order to please the Wizard King and get your rewards. We know how you really think of your jobs."

"If we didn't care about the Kingdom at all, then why would we put our life on the line every time we face a villain. If we only cared about rewards, then wouldn't we not get into any violence at all and lie about our deeds?" Vanessa said as she was still tugging her threads to stop Ajax from swinging his sword.

"Oh yeah! That's right– we're putting our life on the line...!" Finral said in a terrified tone. "We're gonna d-die– aren't we?!"

"Just don't let your guard down, Finral, and you'll be fine." Vanessa encouraged.

"Right...!" Finral lifted his hands nervously to get ready to activate any spatial spells. He looked like he really didn't want to come and that it was Vanessa who dragged him here.

Ajax just laughed. "And do you really think the Wizard King would let you get away with a lie like that? And you're Black Bulls based on your robes! The lowest of the low!"

"The lowest of the low, huh? CALL US ANYTHING YOU WANT!" I yelled as Vanessa tugged harder and eventually, her threads broke Ajax's sword in half.

"MY SWORD!" Ajax yelled.

"My threads are no joke." Vanessa smiled.

I launched myself at the villain. "I TRAIN EVERY DAY, SO I CAN USE THAT IF I CAN'T USE MY SWORDS!" I punched him and he began to bleed.

"I knew it. He relies too much on his sword for combat. He doesn't have any full wind magic attack spells grimoirewise." Vanessa pointed out.

"COTTON MAGIC: STRIKE OF THE SLEEPING SHEEP!!!" Charmy yelled as she used her cotton magic to conjure a large sheep to punch the heck out of the villain.

Ajax looked defeated on the ground, hovering his quivering hands in front of his face. "Okay, you win. Now please don't hurt me–"

"Didn't expect him to be a coward at heart." Noelle commented.

Vanessa stood in front of the hopeless man, which made him flinch. "We're not going to hurt you, and we have no interest in doing so. But we have some questions for you and then we'll let you go if you answer truthfully." She turned to Finral. "Finral, can you portal Luck and Magna to Owen for healing?"

"S-sure..." Then he mumbled something under his breath which I couldn't quite hear, but it caused him to be shushed by Vanessa.

Finral opened a portal and slowly supported Magna and Luck through the portal with his shoulders. Vanessa then turned to me. "Kiddo, let's take this man in for questioning. Grey, Charmy, and Noelle can come along as well."

Both Grey and Charmy nodded as they followed. Noelle followed seconds after. We waved to the townspeople who were thanking us and ended up taking the man to an area where he could go through questioning in private without any possible eavesdropping.

"So... w-what would you l-like to ask me? I'd answer anything a-as long as y-you keep me a-alive–" Ajax stuttered.

"No need to be so frightened. These questions aren't personal and won't be used against you in particular." Vanessa probably said that in consideration that the bad guys definitely didn't just get their big boss man to destroy a whole village on the spot. There was definitely some planning behind this and underlings who're doing this on order. One of them being the one who broke into the hideout and stole my grimoire. "First question. I could tell the reason you told us about why you were destroying everything and killing people was a faux. What's the real reason you were destroying the village?"

"Um... on order, Miss." Ajax answered while dipping his head.

"And who exactly forced you to do so?"

"I'm unable to confess."

"Why?"

"I'm being threatened, Miss."

"Oh I see... So telling us would harm you?"

"Yes..."

"How about we promise that if you tell us, you wouldn't be in any danger and we'll make sure of that."

"How?"

"We can have the Wizard King prevent any harm to you, so you wouldn't have to be afraid of telling us anything."

"How do I know if you're telling the truth and not just trying to play me just to tell you the information you need?"

Vanessa didn't answer and just picked up her communication device. "Hey, Captain Yami, do you mind if you could ask the Wizard King if he could prevent this man, Ajax, from any danger? Mhm... mhm... Don't worry, we won't! Love you!" She then turned off her communication device and glared at Ajax. "You were saying?"

"Ugh, fine. But if you're not successful in saving my life, then I'll get assassins to kill you all." Ajax grumbled.

But wouldn't you be dead by then? Was what I wanted to say, but decided to keep quiet in order to not grow tension.

"So?" Vanessa asked.

"It was my leader. He goes by the name of Andreas. I highly recommend you don't mess with him. He's far more dangerous than I will ever be." Ajax confessed.

Vanessa placed her hand on her hip. "We'll take it from here. Asta?"

"Yes, Miz Vanessa." I nodded and faced the man. "Do you know anything about my grimoire being stolen?"

Ajax looked terrified.