The duo of kids returned to Nina's house without accidents. They entered the kitchen and were met by Ruth.

She looked outside the window and said with a stern voice, “What have I said about coming back late.”

“But… But, we were making snowmen, we even made one this big.” Nina showed the size of the snowman with her hands.

“*Sigh* Just don't be late next time. Oh right here help Elliot bring up the bowls of soup upstairs.” Ruth handed Elliot and Nina a bowl each.

“Alright.” Answered Nina and carefully walked upstairs with the soup trying her best not to spill even a drop while Elliot was casually walking behind her with his bowl.

They came into a room to find Ryder soundly sleeping on the bed. After putting the bowls on the table Elliot came to Ryder and slowly started to shake him awake.

“Ryder, wake up, the food is here.”

“Huge horses… Beautiful lady…” He whispered half sleeping.

For some reason, Elliot suddenly had a strong feeling to pinch Ryder and he hadn't even noticed but he was already pinching his cheek.

“Ouch…” Ryder's eyes opened as he massaged his left cheek.

“Oh, Elliot what is it?”

“The food is here.” He answered coldly and went to the table.

Nina said goodnight and ran back to the kitchen. Ryder sat near the already eating Elliot, he gave out a smirk and said, “So a small bird told me someone was holding hands with Nina on the way home.”

Elliot stopped mid-spoon slowly turning red.

“Hahaha you blushing you blushing, I always wanted to see you blush!” Ryder laughed out loud while holding his belly.

“You faked sleeping!” Elliot shouted in frustration.

“Haha, that's what you get for pinching people when they sleep you little rascal.”

Elliot got even redder and lowered his head in shame.

Ryder took a spoon of soup and was about to place it in his mouth but stopped just a few inches away.

For a moment Ryder's expression turned serious as he looked at the spoon and whispered, “The soup has a new smell.” A smirk appeared on his face and he placed the spoon into his mouth.

“You said something?” Elliot raised his head because he could hear Ryder say something under his breath.

“No nothing, eat or the soup will get cold.” Ryder continued to eat as he responded, Elliot shrugged it off and finished his meal.

After their meal, the duo chatted a bit under the light of a candle before Elliot suddenly was assaulted by a sudden urge to sleep.

“*Yawn* I think I overworked myself today.” Elliot said while rubbing his eyes and walking to bed.

“Heh, sure you have overworked, playing is not working.” Ryder rolled his eyes at him but Elliot was already soundly sleeping.

Ryder looked at him for a moment and then extinguished the candle that was on the table, he looked out of the window and it was already dark outside.

“Well, I guess I'll go to sleep too. We have a very long night ahead of us.” Ryder gave out a weird smirk as he jumped on top of the bed.

***

The curtains of night long ago have covered the small village and most of the lights already vanished as the night got deeper.

The cold winds were blowing strongly for some reason making sounds that would hunt small children in their nightmares.

Some people saw those howling winds as bad omens and closed all of their doors and curtains in their house when they appeared.

In Elliot and Ryder's room, the window would rattle strongly once in a while and sounds of the wood creek would accompany it, but it didn’t disturb the sleep of the duo.

The door of their room was open ajar and would swing a little from side to side. One time it opened more than usual and stayed like that for a few moments before slowly opening completely.

Into the room entered a silhouette of a person, coming closer and closer to one of the beds where the duo slept. The person had one hand behind their back, he slowly revealed it as he approached the bed in it he had a knife.

As the person was two steps away from one of the beds the clouds that blocked the moon partly opened shining light through the window on the assailant's face, revealing the cold emotionless face of Ruth.

She stood in front of the bed as if in hesitation but after thinking for a moment of something she resolved her decision and raised both of her hands with the kitchen knife above her head, and just as she was about to thrust the blade downwards the bed's sheets flew right at her completely blocking her view for a moment.

She jumped in fright but still continued with her downwards thrust piercing right through the sheets but to her surprise piercing only the bed. Her eyes opened wide in surprise, but just as she comprehended that the bed was empty a cold hand grabbed her neck from behind.

“Aaaaaaa!” Ruth started to scream in pain as the hand slowly started to clench and even raise her centimeters from the ground, making her scrap the ground with the tip of her toes.

In a panic, she dropped the knife as her hands went to try to release herself from the deathly hold, but just as her hand touched the hand on her neck a cold metal object was pressed on her cheek.

It was a short sword and Ruth's face became completely pale as she knew that not only did her plan fail, there is even a good chance that she will lose her life today.

“Well well well what do we have here? Isn't this our lovely hostess what are you doing in our room so late at night?” Ryder's snarky voice came from behind Ruth.

“Please… Spare me…” Ruth barely was able to say those words through her clenched jaw.

“Let me guess, and now you're going to beg for your life because you have a small daughter?” Ryder said mockingly.

“She isn't my daughter… She is my sister... Our parents died when she was small… Please she has no one else besides me…” She did her best to say those words but was barely able to.

“Why are you telling me this? Do you want me to send her with you?” Even though Ryder said that he still released his grip on Ruth’s throat and let her free.

*Thud* *Cough* *cough* *cough*

Ruth fell to the floor and held her neck as she started to cough, Ryder sighed and continued to speak.

“I don't really blame you, it's a harsh time, not many people can stay pure and have no blood on their hands to survive.” Ryder fiddled with his short sword playfully as if he completely forgot about Ruth.

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“A small question, what would you do after killing me? Well, I know what you would have done with my horses. There is no way you could sell them so they would have become meat for your table, but you have the guts to even try and kill a small child?” Ryder raised his eyes from his sword and met with Ruth's, immediately chills were sent down Ruth’s heart she didn’t know how but she was sure that those eyes were of someone that murdered people before.

Ruth lowered her head in fear and said with a weak voice. “A week…”

“A week?” Ryder asked in confusion.

“That's how long we will have food for, after that Nina and I will starve.”

“Again, how is that my problem?” Ryder shook his head a little.

Ruth's small hand clenched over her collar and abruptly stood up but Ryder didn't even flinch.

Her eyes were determined. “I will do anything for my sister, anything.”

Ruth's hand slowly pulled open the dress bow behind her nape and strongly pulled the string. Within a moment her garment started to slide from her body and fall to the ground, revealing her peach-colored breasts and only leaving her in her underwear.

Ryder was taken aback for a moment, you could even hear him taking a breath of cold air as he looked at the beautiful scene in front of him.

The gentle glow of the broken moon and the stars were just enough to illuminate every part of Ruth's body, from her perky peach size breasts to her beautiful long legs.

Her body wasn’t perfect though, she had some moles on her body here and there, but it didn’t reduce her beauty, it just added some kind of charm to her.

After giving her a full look Ryder's eyes stayed at her breasts for longer than they should have and even Ruth started to blush.

Only after she gave out a small cough did Ryder return to himself and said while still maintaining eye contact with the peaches, “Well I am quite flattered but I'm only interested in women that have huge horses.”

Ruth looked at her breasts and blushed even more after hearing what Ryder said and was no different in color from a tomato, she immediately hid her breaths with her hands and looked to the side in shame.

“Well now that that’s behind I would ask for you to leave and please don’t mention this night to Elliot, children should be children and have a peaceful heart, it doesn't matter for how short that will be.” He smiled with a cold smile at Ruth.

“But I…” Ruth tried to take a step forward and beg for help once more but a short sword raised up and blocked her path.

“No buts, I have nothing to give, not even a single coin don’t forget your position.” Ryder raised his sword a little bit higher to her throat, but Ruth didn’t want to stop and was about to beg once more just to freeze in complete fear.

Ryder's left eye suddenly turned completely black and not even a little bit of white in the eye could be seen, at the same time, his right eye turned completely white.

“*Sigh* Looks like some idiots wanting to mess with my horses, I will be right back.” Ryder started to walk towards the door and just was about to get out of the room when suddenly he turned around.

“Oh, and do please stop putting sleeping herbs in our food, and trust me poison won’t help either.” He gave out a small smile and continued to walk completely, not afraid that she would do something to Elliot as he knew that if she touched him Ruth and her sister wouldn’t survive another day.

Ruth collapsed to the floor and started to sob uncontrollably, she knew that even with the money Ryder already paid her for the rent and the food, she still wouldn’t have enough food for a week.

She already did her best to gather supplies by any means necessary even going so low as selling her body. But alas after the war the taxes that were raised were impossible for most people to pay.

Not even talking about all of the manpower that was drafted for the war, most of the people that were left were barely able to work in the fields where people had to have a strong and healthy body, especially in the cold where it was twice harder to work in.

Slowly the food started to dwindle and every family that could produce food could only keep it to themself and not trade it for other products.

Because of that, the food prices skyrocketed and most of the people already started to barely make it through the day. So even if Ruth wanted to work somewhere she still would be able to get enough money to feed only her sister.

But even that wasn't a possibility because only madmen would hire someone at those hard times.

One day when she got rejected from another job and was walking on the street in a daze thinking about her bleak future when she saw an old wooden carriage entering the village, “A merchant...” She thought to herself.

She gripped her hand and teeth and immediately knew what she had to do to survive, not even thinking about the consequences it would bring her in the future.

But alas she tried to bite off more than one can chew and met Ryder, maybe any other merchant would have fallen to her simple plan but Ryder was experienced in that kind of field, it wasn't his first time and wouldn't be his last time that someone tried to stab him in the back.

While Ruth was crying something different was happening outside, Ryder was surrounded by five armed people with pickaxes, shovels, and axes.

But despite the huge difference in numbers Ryder's expression was completely calm.

“Just give us the cargo and we leave!” Shouted the leader of the group for some reason not wanting to fight the young man in front of him.

“Your timing is perfect, you see I am bottled up with bloodthirst and I need something to release it on.” Ryder smiled and looked unhuman for a moment, he took a step forward as he pulled his short sword that was hidden behind his mantle.

Before the five men could even react Ryder was already upon them slashing them with his sword.

Hundreds of small cuts and bruises appeared on the body of the person that talked, and all of the others became frightened and pale as they saw the blood splash out of the person like rain.

He slowly fell to the ground and the axe in his hands slipped from his grasp.

“Aaaahhhh!” An inhuman wail sounded through the village but it was immediately masked by the howling winds.

The four thugs didn't even have a chance to move a finger as Ryder cut one of their companions. It took a moment for one of them to come back to reality and react as he swung a pickaxe at Ryder.

Ryder's body dropped slightly and disappeared from the attacker's view. “Eh…” Was the only thing that escaped from his mouth and before he could act once more Ryder already appeared from his right.

Rain of slashes assaulted the attacker, blood splashed from his body as small cuts filled his body and another soul-crushing scream was heard in the courtyard.

“Fuck this shit!” One of the trio that was still standing shouted as he dropped his weapon and started to run.

The other two thugs hesitated for a moment but just after giving a glance at their two collapsed companions fear overwhelmed their greed and they ran as well.

But just as they took two steps a cold voice sounded beside their ears, “You want to leave, why so soon?”

“Ahhhh!”

“Aaaahhhh!!!”

“Aaaasa!”

Another three screams sounded through the village and the ground in front of a small house got a tinge of a new color.

Ryder was standing upright, the short sword still in his hand. The hood of his mantle was still on his head, looking up into the stars. somehow even though blood was everywhere around him the small area around him hadn't even had a drop of blood not even talk about his clothes that were completely clean.

“Aah…”

“Aa…”

Few wails returned him from his daze, he turned around and crouched before the first person he slashed while having a joyful expression.

The person was shaking lightly once in a while trying his best not to move, but each time he shook a tiny bit a weak weep of pain would escape his mouth.

The blood that poured out of his body stopped almost immediately, even though his body was completely filled with cuts, every wound was light and harmless. But if you take them together as a whole if not handled property even they could kill.

The worst part of those wounds is the pain that came out of every part of the body, even breathing would make the person grind their teeth from it.

Able to inflict so many small cuts without killing the person in the process was very difficult, it only showed the level of Ryder's mastery with the sword.

“Why are you lying there, do you want to die from the cold?” Ryder gave the man a kick sending him flying to the side where he struggled to breathe as the kick knocked the air out of his lungs.

“Get up and pick your shitty friends and fuck off. If I see you again…” Ryder glared at them as he spoke slowly with a penetrating tone that was full of killing intent.

The man shrugged with fear and pain as he did his best to stand up even though he could barely breathe. He immediately ran to the other thieves clenching down his teeth in pain and did his best to raise them from the ground.

It took them some time to scatter away leaving a few bloody footprints as they did.

Ryder stood up looking at the receding backs of the group and murmured to himself, “They are lucky that I don't want to be on the bad side with this village.”

Without giving them another glance Ryder went to the horses that stood near the cart and released them.

“I am tired, you protect the cart from now on.” He talked to the horses as if they were humans and had no fear of them being stolen or running away.

As Ryder left the horses they released a small *pfff* and came closer to the bloody snow, after smelling it for a moment they started to eat it as if it was their favorite food.

Ryder went back inside the house and went to his room, in it he found only Elliot inside, unharmed soundly sleeping as if everything that happened today was just a dream.

“Kids…” Said Ryder as he fell onto his bed and let his consensus wander into the world of dreams.