Bennett bolts southward with me thrown over his shoulder. It’s not the most comfortable position and the wind throwing my messy hair into my face due to our speed makes it even less pleasant.

He occasionally stops and looks around seemingly at random and if I’ve learned anything about the man is that he’s hella good at tracking anything.

This leads us to an abandoned-looking house near the city’s outer wall. We go inside expecting to find… something except everything just looks ordinary and abandoned.

However, even I can see the signs left behind by the kidnapper. The dust on the floor and near the cabinet looks disturbed. Lines in the dust show that something was dragged there in the past few hours or days.

“Hm, so teaching you wasn’t a total waste of time after all.” Bennet grunts, sounding smug yet somehow I can also feel some pride in there. He pushes the furniture away with ease revealing a hole at a downward slope. “A secret tunnel dug under the wall to smuggle goods. It's quite well made and certainly in proper use. Crawl behind me.”

The tunnel is damp, dark as the starless night and small even for me, poor Bennett… screw him. Some worms almost make me scream in fright and falling dirt gets into my hair nevertheless I just steadily scuffle after the sound of the old man before me. Soon he punches something up front and light finally shines upon us once again.

“Somewhere in the nearby forest, huh? They only have a few minutes of advantage.” He says and as we crawl out he picks me up right away, continuing the chase.

I have no clue what tracks he’s following. One, we’re moving way too fast for me to see anything and two, the kidnapper’s probably not an amateur and my untrained eyes are unable to pick up any clues.

Around four minutes of running later, we hear a cry somewhere in front of us. “No, no mom, dad…” Arghhh “put me down, please… my parents, they… you can’t do this, they’ll DIE!” After this, the screams disappear.

That clearly sounds like a boy who’s been kidnapped and watched his parents get cut down. We found our target, and now on to the next step.

“Listen very carefully now Elyssia, I’ll have to take the attacker down and while doing that you’ll be defenseless.” I hate how he says that even if I know what he means. ”I want you to hide as well as you can during the engagement and if possible take William away as well. Can you do that?” He asks with a dead serious face.

“I’ll be fine. Do what you must, I may be reckless, but I’m not stupid and I don’t plan on dying today.” With that confirmed, he puts me down and bolts toward the estimated position of William and the prince’s hound.

Now I’m not sure how exactly he meant things. So… I’ll just follow him, he can probably take down the guy easily.

I sneak in the general direction he blurred towards and soon hear the sound of fighting not that far ahead.

Going there would be really stupid, even a stray side effect of a deflected and missed attack could kill me. Literally anything.

I climb onto a tall nearby tree to see what’s happening.

Well, seeing is a strong word, they move way too fast for me to really see what’s going on. They’re fighting, obviously, but I can only make out the aftereffects of their clashes. Fallen trees, deep lacerations on the ground and a maelstrom of metal and flashes of light.

“What the hell is that old goat doing? Just finish him off. And where the hell is the boy?” I complain and turn my attention to their wider surroundings.

Searching for a child’s body in a forestry area with moderate underbrush from this distance is not a simple task. Add to that all the dust and debris flying around and I can’t see shit. I accidentally spot him, out cold of course, way too close to where the fight is taking place. That’s a really bad spot to take a nap.

I can’t think of a plan where the risk would be within the acceptable margin. The whole area is just too dangerous and if the kidnapper spots me… I can’t leave him. The words of his mother are haunting me, her eyes, her pain…

I climb down with utmost care, having learned from my mistake after the Dolorez mission. The sound of clashing blades has not eased at all and rampant destruction makes my little walk anything but safe. As I get closer gusts of wind try to push me away and flying metal bits litter the path.

I know this is just collateral, but damn.

I finally reach the passed out William and am able to observe the fight properly as it lulls, while pulling him away.

Bennett seems to be chasing around the kidnapper who’s cloaked in shadows with metal blades flying around him. I also for the first time see the armor the old goat is wearing. Some gray-coloured metal with red adornments, the colors of the Fist of Krieg, sturdy and functional just like its wearer. I can see him having a hard time catching the guy as both of them are roughly as agile as the other.

Seeing the pointless chase an idea pops up in my mind.

I start gathering some water nearby, make it settle on the ground and slowly freeze it creating an icy surface where the bad guy likes to dodge around. The idea is to make him lose footing and give an opportunity to Bennett to strike.

My little maneuver succeeds more or less and also draws both their attention. Bennett manages to slash the kidnapper's thigh, earning a scream. A rather feminine scream.

Wow, the hound of the prince was a woman, I mean why couldn’t she be, it’s just that she sounds quite young.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

“Run!” Bennett shouts at me, except I’m nowhere near fast enough to react.

The woman’s gaze settles on me and William. Realization fills her that the fight is unwinnable, even more so with her new injury so she switches targets. Some of the flying blades break off the swarm surrounding her and blur our direction with breakneck speed.

I pull up my Mana Shield and throw myself out of the way in hopes of surviving, my instincts shouting at me.

DEATH.

A blade nicks my shoulder and another slashes my side but at least I’m still alive. This attack opens up another opportunity for Bennett to strike, bringing his sword down across the woman's back. She collapses with another pained scream before one of her arms is hacked off.

The woman keeps backing off as Bennett tries to put an end to the fight. Her bloodshot eyes jump around and her breath turns ragged.

“For His Majesty, for the Cleansing!” She shouts and pulls out a red crystal.

The old man’s eyes widen in fright and he bolts towards me. He grinds to a halt slightly ahead of us and forms a massive shield seemingly out of pure light.

The next second the crystal explodes in a violent inferno, destroying everything in sight. Even the heat seeping through the air and the ground is almost unbearable but the fires die down quickly, leaving a decimated and smoldering crater behind.

[Your group has triumphed over the enemy [Shadow Walker - Dark lvl 633] - [Sword Dancer - Metal lvl 421] - [Ethereal Force - Gravity lvl 114].]

[Your Class [Inept Magus] has reached lvl 17 ->18, +1 Free Points, +2 Mana, +3 Willpower, +2 Intelligence, +3 Focus.]

[Your class Skill [Arcane Magic] has reached lvl 14 -> 15.]

[Your class Skill [Elemental Influence] has reached lvl 13 ->14.]

[Your class Skill [Mana Shield] has reached lvl 6 ->12.]

[The general Skill [Savant] has reached lvl 13 ->15.]

[The general Skill[ Dodging] has reached lvl 9.]

[The general Skill [Reflexes] has reached lvl 8.]

[The general Skill [Quick Witted] has reached lvl 12.]

[Congratulations, for reaching level 18 you’ve unlocked the skill [Investigate]. Would you like to assign the skill to an empty slot?]

Nope, thanks. Fighty mage here, not an Inquisitor.

[Your class [Inept Magus - Arcane] has reached lvl 18. Class advancement is now available, would you like to start the class up?]

[Y/N]

No, not yet sadly.

That’s some serious skill progress but looking at the woman's level and the fight I interfered in, it's to be expected. I haven’t done much, barely anything really, and still just too much for my level. And what was that about majesty and cleaning part at the end?

As I’m still happy with my progress Bennett walks over to me and lifts me by the collar of my shirt, looking really pissed. “Why the hell would you do that? Why would you recklessly reveal your location when you could have just both reached safety?” Now disappointment takes the place of anger. “I would have won anyway, I had the situation under control! Now look at what you've done!”

I’m slightly confused, everything turned out fine and my magic also helped a little. All he does is criticize me and make my life harder. I don’t want to be here, I want to live at home with my parents.

“What do you mean? I helped and even if it was a little it solved the problem, why the heck are you angry with me? I did things right!” Now it's my turn to be pissed.

“Did you? Didn’t you forget about why you originally came close to our fight?” And he looks to the side.

I follow his gaze and find a tragic sight next to us.

I wasn’t the only one in the path of the blades flying my way, William was by my foot. Only half of the blades were aimed at me as the other two are now sticking out of the poor boy's chest. I cover my mouth with my hands as the truth dawns on me.

He died because I revealed myself. It's my fault. I killed him.

I collapse on the ground breathing irregularly as my mind fails to recognize my actions.

I killed an innocent boy as young as me with my stupid pride. He would be still alive if I just dragged him away. Her mother’s last words ring in my ears as I stare at the still-warm body.

“No no no no..” I whisper. My mind jumbled and my body shaking uncontrollably. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry William. It’s my fault, it’s-” I would continue having a mental breakdown when a slap wakes me up.

“Get yourself together! You’re still wounded so drink this.” Bennet gives me a red potion, I down it without thinking and feel warmth spreading through me. “Elyssia, William died partially because of your carelessness. BUT, you weren’t the one who stabbed him and if I could’ve finished that damn slippery woman off quicker he’d still be alive.” He rests a hand on my shoulder. “What I’m saying is that: Yes you’re in a measure to blame, yet you can’t shoulder his death alone. Your mistake was only the last step that led to his death, not what caused it, so don't blame yourself too much.” He pauses for a minute. It’s a very long minute or at least for me.

Guilt is gnawing at me relentlessly despite Bennet’s words.

I didn’t kill him, however I could have saved him. It’s not much better, maybe even worse.

“Lassie, I’m disappointed with your decision. It was rash and stupid. I can’t really blame you since you’re just a child with no training and the intention behind the act was good.” He nods as if that would help. “I would have lost hope in you if not for the guilt clearly eating you up from the inside.” Now his face shows many years of pain. “This might have been the first time this happened to you, but it won't be the last.”

“This doesn’t help you bastard!” I scream and try to pry his hand off me.

“Okay, look at things this way… Did you get a kill notification for William?” I shake my head. “That means you didn’t assist in killing him, the System never lies. You didn’t kill him, you just didn’t manage to save the boy.”

I want to give all the Skill progress back, level be damned. Just give William back his life, he deserves better than this. Dying as young as me, there’s still so much we didn’t see, we didn’t experience.

Life is unfair.

“This is why the weak don’t have a choice, Elyssia. If he or his parents were strong nobody would have died. If you were strong enough the Shield could have protected the both of you.” He sighs. “This is an important lesson, those with strength dictate the future of the weak. Remember this well and grow strong, kid, grow strong.”

***

As we finished what we came here for, with varying degrees of success; we departed towards Granhall. I won’t complain about our deal. Even if the mission wasn’t a complete failure, I failed. Let the discomfort be a reminder of my mistakes.

“Why did the woman attack us? It was obvious she wouldn’t be able to dodge your strike that way.” This has been bugging me for a while.

Why go for us and not just flee?

“Because her mission failed the moment I caught up to them, she had but a sliver of hope that she might be able to slip away with the boy. When she saw you taking him away her mission became a guaranteed failure. And failure is not tolerated in her line of work. They’re brainwashed fanatics, so if they can’t have the boy… nobody can.”

That’s just… shocking. Such a childish reason to kill someone. Why can’t she just cut her losses and make a run for it, save the manpower she represents? Irrational, it makes my blood boil. Just how rotten do they have to be to favor such methods?

“Strength, huh? The answer to too many of my problems… Just be stronger.”