As we started to walk back, Sydui sidled next to me to have a hushed discussion. "Why are we doing this?! This is insane!" She quietly screamed.

"There are two outcomes that are possible: first, The Stalker is lying and wants us to lower our guard, in which case I'll kill him the instant he tries anything; second, he actually feels the way he says he does and cooperates, in which case it will essentially be like when you poisoned me."

She averted her eyes from mine for a moment. "So you're going to trust him just like that?"

"No, what he's done is magnitudes worse than what you did, and I'm not so foolish to think that he's not still trying to kill me just because he said so."

"Then why are we taking him straight to our village?"

I shrugged slightly. "It's not like he doesn't already know where it is, besides, having him closer to us allows us to watch him. Worst case scenario, I'll be able to figure out whether he was lying about [Second Chance]."

"Doing this is so incredibly reckless though, he'll have the advantage of learning everything about us, where we know a lot about him already, it's just tipping our hand." Sydui argued.

"That's not even true. We know basically nothing about his ideals or values, which would offer a major advantage. Plus, it's not like we have walls anymore, he could just watch us from afar and figure out our habits."

Sydui took a deep breath. "I'm just going to trust you on this one because it makes no sense to me."

I gave her a tiny smile. "Thanks Sydui."

When we finally arrived, the village was obviously hesitant and confused, but I cleared it up for them.

"The Stalker is going to help us heal the injured, the Nemeses are going to watch him outside of the triage tent while he does. If he does anything suspicious, you have my permission to kill him immediately."

I then explained the basics of storing a charge of [Regeneration] into the new Gem Of Skill Storage.

I tried it on myself to make sure it wasn't going to make someone else explode or something ridiculous like that.

Sure enough, after about ten seconds, all my wounds healed in a short burst.

I set to work healing all of the injured Fifskae, ferrying charges from The Stalker to those who couldn't have been moved, then to those in the triage tent, then to the Nemeses next to him.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

In matter of minutes, all of the Fifskae were back on their feet and clearly feeling much better than they had in a very long time.

I allowed myself a moment of relief.

Leyn, Juohen's apprentice, stepped forward toward The Stalker.

"Thank you for healing us."

The Stalker looked completely confused. "But I almost had you killed, why are you thanking me?"

"You came back to fix what you did wrong, that's more than most do."

"Oh, I see... you're welcome?"

I chuckled despite myself.

All this happiness was just going to make the news I was about to break even harder.

"The away team and I are going to have to leave again."

Everyone's smiles disappeared.

Juohen furrowed his eyebrows and asked the question everyone was thinking. "Wait, why?"

"The fact of the matter is that everyone knows where I am, so I can't stay here if I want to keep you all safe."

"But we have a way to heal everyone now! We can fight!"

I shook my head. "I hate to say it, but no you can't... or at least they can't." I gestured to the non-Nemesis Fifskae. "They'll just get caught up in fights that will almost certainly kill them. The last thousand are going to be the best of the best, I can't risk you guys getting killed just because you happened to be between me and a champion's sneak attack."

Juohen got angry. "What do you think is going to happen when you leave?! They're just going to exploit us again! If you leave us it will all go back to the way it was!"

"Now that everyone is okay, you can all go into hiding and wait the last of this mess to be cleared up. They won't be looking for you, and even if they find you it will be pointless for them to do anything to you."

"How can you be so sure?"

I grimaced. "Because I know how champions think, they all want desperately to win for whatever wish they want granted... this close to the goal, 'they don't have time to deal with you'."

"So you just want us to live in a cave, waiting for you to solve all of our problems? To live in fear of a champion finding us, or that they might accidentally kill us with a ricocheting [Skill] or something?"

I rubbed the back of my head. "I didn't say it was a perfect solution I just can't-"

Juohen cut me off. "Andrew! What would we do if a guy like The Tamer came by and enslaved us!"

"I... I don't know."

"The problem with your thinking is that you forget that your friends are all hardened criminals, we've lived dangerous lives... we're all prepared to die, especially now that we have something to die for."

My eyes started to water. "But I don't want you to die! So many of you have suffered because of me! I want you to live and come with me to Earth where all of us can hang out and eat chips while I show you all of my favorite anime or whatever... I want you to live peaceful lives because I know how much each of you have suffered, I can't let you suff-"

Juohen grabbed my face and pulled me down to his level. "Andrew you moron, listen to me! How dare you tell us not to help the person who's saved us countless times. You say all this stuff about bringing us suffering, but consider this... what was basically the first thing that happened when you got here?"

"Sydui tried to poison me."

Juohen shook his head. "She may have given the order, but I'm the one who made the cocktails we tried to kill you with, Gredaw was the one who prepared the meal... do you understand what I'm saying? We've all done such horrible things to you in the past, and yet you forgave us... it's time you forgave yourself damn it!"

I was speechless.

It was that moment that I realized how many things I just let weigh on my conscience, constantly ignoring or putting off solving because of circumstances.

A gigantic knot had formed in my chest before I even realized it was there.

I fell down to my knees and cried... in front of everyone...

"Come on everybody, let's get everything packed up... Andrew needs some time to sort himself out." Hund instructed.

Thanks Hund, you're a lifesaver.