Criminal X : Epitome Of Evil

When Pablo was getting ready in Sera's room, the other members of the military were already present at Ground 0.

The Nine Marshals were on the stage and the first Marshal, Fozier and the Admiral, Harlia were in the front of all the Marshals.

And that wasn't all.

Beside Fozier, a soldier was standing and it was none other than Ted.

The soldiers gathered below the stage were curious to know the agenda of the stress call.

The gong had rung two days back to back. They wanted to know what happened this time.

"Everyone," Fozier spoke.

"Yes!"

"Two more of my soldiers are missing today. I believe they are dead as well."

"What!?" The soldiers exclaimed.

"Yes. And now my soldier here has something to say." Fozier stepped back.

Ted stepped forward.

"My name is Ted Dorla and today I will share just a simple thing to all of you."

Everyone paid attention.

"Right now, everyone from the military is present here. Everyone except…"

Ted roamed his eyes around the ground.

"Pablo Castillo."

The soldiers turned their heads all around.

They began to look for Pablo.

He was not on the stage as well.

Ted continued saying.

"There is no point in looking for him, soldiers. He is not here. And he was also not in the building alloted for the Marshals."

The soldiers stopped looking for Pablo and again focused on Ted.

Ted smiled.

"And this only means one th-"

Ted paused.

One soldier had raised his hand.

"What is it?" Ted asked.

Everyone looked at the soldier who raised his hand.

And when Ted looked at him, he recognised the soldier.

"It's you. His dear friend. What do you have to say?"

Ted called the soldier a friend of Pablo and there was only one soldier whom Ted would call Pablo's friend.

Draxus Maverick.

"Marshal is not missing, Ted." Draxus said.

"Then where is he?" Ted asked.

"He is in one of the rooms where candidates live. He is not fond of big rooms so he doesn't visit the Marshal building."

"Then why hasn't he come here yet? The gong was rung a while ago." Ted asked another question.

"I don't know about that. But Marshal is certainly not missing." Draxus made himself clear.

"Like hell I will believe you. You are his accomplice. There is no way you will accept his flaw."

"I am telling the trut-"

"Shut up." Ted outright told Draxus to shut his mouth.

Draxus sighed. "Sure."

He gave up. He could have retorted more but it won't be of any use. Ted was dead set on making Pablo bad in the soldiers' eyes.

"Everyone! All of you came here in seconds just after the Gong rang because you all know gong means serious business. But Pablo, that oversmart Marshal, he still hasn't arrived yet. Which means, he doesn't care about military rules at all. He has no loyalty towards our military in his heart."

The soldiers kept listening.

"But still, the Admiral is big enough to forgive him for being late. But I want you all to think, ever since he joined the military, the soldiers began dying.

No one died in the camp in over all these years and in just three days, five Abyssal Butchers died. That man becomes a Marshal and the deaths begin. Coincidence? I think not."

Murmurs spread on the ground.

"And right now, his absence is also concerning and suspicious. What was he doing in the candidates room? Why doesn't his soldiers train and fool around all day? I mean, only he and his friend were running when we went to see ground 8. He isn't training his soldiers. He isn't taking the military seriously, everyone!"

Ted raised his voice and the soldiers also began to agree with Ted. What he said wasn't wrong.

They had seen Pablo's soldiers fooling around when the others were training their backs off for the upcoming war.

And why would someone refuse a big room to live in and go to a small one? All of this was suspicious.

Ted smiled.

Fozier and Harlia said nothing as they were out of ideas and words. They had no clue about what to do with the death of soldiers and who the hell did it.

"Therefore," Ted spread his arms. "I conclude that the killer is none other than Pablo Castillo."

Ted outright concluded the case. No investigation, no questioning. Just straight out a verdict.

And fortunately for him, no one objected to him.

The soldiers were whispering among each other and they didn't have the courage to agree with Ted openly.

Pablo's soldiers were also tense and deep in their heart, they knew Ted was right.

Pablo really was the killer. But they couldn't betray Pablo. They had given him their word.

Flashy, Nike and Hena were looking around just to see one glimpse of Pablo. He should come and save himself.

Draxus, however, was doing none of that.

He had his arms crossed in front of his chest and no shred of fear was on his face.

"Calm down, everyone." He said. But only to his fellow soldiers.

"How?" Flashy asked.

"Czar will manage."

Draxus only said that and went silent.

Flashy and the others had no choice but to stay silent as well. The least they could do is to believe in Pablo.

"Soldiers," Ted spoke. "I believe we should spread it around now and find the culprit Pablo Castillo ourselves. What do you say? Isn't that a great idea? The killer of our comrades, our brothers, let's find him and kill him!"

"There's no need for that."

All the soldiers turned their heads behind.

The people on the stage looked at the entrance of ground 0 as well.

Draxus smiled. He didn't even look behind. He knew what was up.

Someone had shouted after Ted finished his speech and when everyone looked at the source, they all removed all their thoughts of retaliation. Because the speaker was none other than the Demon slayer—Pablo Castillo.

Fozier and Harlia also looked at Pablo.

Harlia did nothing and Fozier just raised his shoulders as if saying he can't do anything about it.

"There you are? Have you thought of an excuse to tell me here? Have you made a plan to get out of this mess, huh, Pablo?" Ted retorted from the stage.

'Live while you can, bastard.'

Pablo smiled. "I need no excuse, soldier. And mind that tone with me."

"Hah! Ask him, soldiers. Where was he? Why is he late? Ask him."

Pablo sighed. "I was in the ground allotted to the candidates. I was sleeping. I woke up just as I heard the gong and came here as fast as I could."

"Lies!" Ted shouted.

"Then test my lies, soldier. Call your lie detector man again."

"That's… How do you…" Ted went silent.

Then after a second, his eyes lit up.

"See? Everyone, by lie detector he meant a soldier named Kony. He is my friend and he is missing today. That's why he is ready for the lie detection test because he knows Kony is missing. Because he knows he killed Kony so a test will be impossible. He planned everything!"

Ted shouted the loudest this time. It was as if he solved the case. He acted like he revealed all the evidence of Pablo being the killer.

"What? That guy is missing? One more of your soldiers died, first Marshal?" Pablo asked Fozier. He acted surprised like it was his first time hearing about it.

He also began walking towards the stage and soon climbed it as well. Now he was standing alongside Ted, Fozier and Harlia.

He completely ignored Ted.

"Is it true, Marshal?" Pablo asked again.

Fozier nodded. "Yes. And not only Kony, Boris is missing as well. Two of my soldiers are missing. I don't know what to do. They must be dead like others. Ted here said that you are the killer and since I had no way to refute his statement, I let him go ahead with this speech."

"I understand. But even if you catch me, the killings won't stop. The real killer is someone else. Heck, it could be Ted himself. He might be killing people just to trap me."

"What? How dare you say that?" Ted barked.

Pablo smiled. "You were accusing me all this time and I never reacted like this. I just accused you once and look at you, barking all around."

Harlia and Fozier frowned at this. They looked at Ted.

"No, Marshal. It's not me. He may not be the killer but it's certainly not me. Kony was my friend."

"Hmm." Fozier only said this.

Ted gritted his teeth. He jerked his head at Pablo.

"Stop framing me, you bastard. I will die for this kingdom. It's my motherland. Whereas you, you are just white ranked piece of shit who became a Marshal by killing a tired Demon. You don't love this kingdom at all."

Ted said all that in one breath.

The soldiers could only watch the scene and Ted accused Pablo of many things at once while insulting.

He called Pablo a piece of shit, he said the Demon which Pablo killed was tired. The near death accomplishments of Pablo were trash according to Ted.

Even Fozier became nervous hearing all that.

"Pablo, let it g-"

"Marshal," Pablo interrupted. "I am not the killer of your soldiers. But about this one…"

Pablo stood in front of Ted, looking deep inside his eyes.

"I will kill him right now."