March 16, 1410

Ray, and Viola, took turns watching the house. Keeping an eye out for Vincent. As the sun was rising Ray watched Vincent come out of the forest and heading towards the back door of his house. Ray turned to Viola who was sleeping, and woke her up.

“Hey, Vincent went back into the house, what do we do?”

“He did? It took him long enough, he must have been searching for Rita the whole night, I wonder what took him so long to realize he won’t find her.” Viola said.

“He must still be angry with us, right?”

“Oh, yeah, even if I tell him, you had nothing to do with this, he is still going to take out his frustration on you.”

“... If you knew that, what was the point of dragging me into this?”

“I brought you with me, because I knew Vincent would be doing something reckless, you saw him last night, he just opened his back door and dashed towards the woods, if anybody saw that they most likely would have reported it to the knights.”

“Oh.”

“Sometimes we let our emotions control us, we don’t think about the consequences of our actions until later, like you for example when you kill those knights, did you even hesitate when you were killing them?” Viola said.

“...No, and I rather not think about that, if you don’t mind.”

“Well I won’t bring it up, but you must know, one day you will have to face what you have done to those knights.”

“I already know what I did!” Ray said.

“But it's still bothering you isn’t it?”

“.....”

“Come on, let's head back, the sooner we get this over with the better, I hope the punishment won’t be too severe for either one of us.” Viola said.

“Right!”

As they traveled back to the house, staying on top of the trees, Ray could hear yelling coming from the distance. Ray looked at Viola, Viola put her finger on her lips, and motioned her hand to follow her, without making a sound.

As they approached the sound of screaming, they could start hearing the words of the people who were yelling, it was two people arguing. Soon, Ray, and Viola were on top of the two strangers who were screaming at each other.

Both strangers were men, their clothing suggest they were hunting for food, one of the men was hunching over, he was puking, while the other man was staring at him, his chest, and arms were covered in blood.

“Shit, what do we do?!”

“I… I don’t know, the wounds on them, they weren’t killed by animals, something else killed them like that.”

“You think it could have a hybrid?”

Both Viola, and Ray look at each other, their eyes wide open.

“Come on, we have to go back to the village to inform the knights.”

“Shouldn’t we inform mister Vincent first?” One of the men said.

“Don’t be stupid what will he do? First we need to tell the knights, if they do confirm it was the work of a hybrid, we have bigger worries.”

“Do you think it might be that same hybrid who did that massacre that the knights told us about?”

“I don’t know, come on, we are almost to the village.”

Viola, and Ray waited until both of the men were gone, when they landed on the ground where the men were.

“What do you think that was about?” Ray asked.

“From the sound of it, something bad, come on let see what they saw, they left their footprints so we can see where they came from.”

As they followed the footprints the men had left behind, they found what they were worried about, they were two bodies, one was slouched over a tree, and the other one was laying on the ground. Both bodies were covered in blood.

“Stay there, I’ll check the bodies.” Viola said.

Ray instantly took a step back, he felt like he was going to throw up, but forced it back down, he looked at the bodies, the man in the ground had a hole in the middle of his chest, when Viola lifted the other man's head, he could see he had the same wound.

“What. What do you think did this?” Ray asked.

“Vincent.” Viola whispered.

“What! You can’t really believe he did this?” Ray said.

“...Come on, let’s go before we get spotted.”

Ray, and Viola left the bodies behind, and started making their way back to the house, staying on top of trees, until they finally reached the clearing to Vincent house.

“Ok, I’ll take a quick look around, make sure there are no knights around, wait for me, until I give you the go ahead, stay here.”

“Ok.”

As Viola left to check around the house, Ray waited, he kept thinking about the bodies, the one thing that was bothering him the most was what Viola said. Vincent was the one who killed them.

{Vincent wouldn’t do that, what would he gain from killing innocents, I’m sure he would say it wasn’t him, he’ll definitely tell us for sure.}

Ray waited, until he saw Viola standing behind the back door, gesturing to him to come back down. Ray landed on his feet, and quickly made his way to Viola.

“Ready?” Viola said.

“Ready.” Ray answered, while nodding his head.

“Vincent, we are back!” Viola said.

There was a silence until a stern voice spoke out.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“I’m in the living room.”

As they walked through the house, they could see it was a mess, as they approached the living room, Vincent was hunched down on a chair, his fingertips touching each other, he looked like he was praying.

“What.” Viola tried to say.

“Quiet.” Vincent said, in an angry but calm voice.

Vincent stood up, staring directly at them, his hands curled up in a fist, his whole body was shaking.

“Viola, why didn’t you tell me, she was here.” Vincent said.

“She asked me not to tell you.”

“After everything I do for you, are you still taking her side!?”

“Yes.”

“Why! Why didn’t she want to talk to me!” Vincent demanded. Vincent walked until he was directly in Viola's face.

“She knew you wouldn't accept any answer she would have given you, she decided this was the best way to deal with it.”

“Well she dealt with it like a coward.”

“She isn’t a coward! You expected her to just drop her whole life, as if the two of you can actually live happy lives.”

“We could have!”

“No, none of us do. This path we all decided to walk will never lead to a better place, you can try, but in the end you just get dragged back in!”

“That's enough, Vincent, back off!” Ray said.

They both looked at Ray, VIncent was furious, and Viola was worried. Vincent started walking closer to Ray, before Viola stood in front of him, with Ray behind her back.

“He has nothing to do with this, if you are going to punish someone do it to me, but leave him out of this, I just drag him into this, because of what you do when you are angry.”

“I will say this once, move, or I will kill you where you stand.” Vincent stated.

Viola took a deep breath, and looked at Ray, she mouthed the words, “I’m sorry.” before moving to the side. Ray couldn’t help but cower, as Vincent now stood over him, Vincent eyes piercing his.

“You will answer my question truthfully, understood?”

Ray frantically nodded his head.

“Do you know about Rita?”

Ray nodded his head.

“What do you know about her?”

“I…I.”

“Speak clearly!” Vincent demanded.

Ray clear his throat and looked at Vincent, he explained everything that he knew of Rita, what Viola told him.

“Did you know she came to the village?”

“Only when Viola told me, shortly after she took me yester-”

Vincent hit Ray in the stomach, Ray fell on his knees, with one hand holding him, and the other one clutching his stomach, the air was taken out of him.

“What are you doing!?” Viola said.

“Shut it, I’m not done with him yet.” Vincent warned.

Ray tried to regulate his breathing, but the punch hit him too deep, he kept taking loud breaths. Vincent got on his knees, his eyes meeting Ray.

“As long as you are under my care, I will decide on your life. This will be your only warning, if you break it, I will kill you. Next time you know anything about Rita, you will tell me, you are under my orders, not Viola, do you understand.”

“Yes, sir.” Ray mustered.

“Good, now then Viola, not telling me about Rita is one thing, but going over me with Ray, is one thing I will not tolerate again”

“I have no excuse, punish me as you see fit.”

“We will talk about this another time, when we are alone, make sure it doesn't happen again."

“I understand, it won’t happen again.”

Vincent walked back to his chair, and sat down.

“Both of you sit down, there are still things we have to discuss.”

Viola sat on the couch, while Ray slowly stood up, rubbing his stomach where Vincent had hit him.

“Don’t tell me, it still hurts?” Vincent said.

“Yes, it kinda does.”

“Viola what kind of training have you been giving him, I didn’t even hit him that hard? You know what, forget it, starting today I will start training him, for real.”

“Ok.” Viola said, knowing better than to object.

Ray gave Viola a worried look, but Viola just stared ahead. Ray sat down next to her.

“First thing first, I killed two villagers in the woods. In my fit of rage, they saw me with my marking, so the only choice I had was to kill them.”

{Your only choice?} Ray thought to himself.

“Yes, we wanted to talk to you about that, we saw the bodies, two villagers found the bodies, they are about to report it to the knights. This is the first time this sort of thing has happened, once the rest of the village finds out they will go into a panic.” Viola said.

“Most likely, the knights will verify the bodies before they hold a town meeting, in the meantime we will go out and do our normal routines, understood.”

“Did you really have to kill them?” Ray blurted out.

“No.” Vincent stated.

“What! Why did you?” Ray demanded.

“Because that is who we are, you better understand this will be your path.”

“But-”

“That’s enough, we will discuss this later, you still have to answer for your behavior when we were in the church, right now, go to your room and get ready, we will leave in thirty minutes.”

Ray, frustrated, went to his room, he could still hear them talking, but he focused on getting clean, after washing, and changing clothes he went back downstairs. The mess was already clean, Vincent, and Viola were nowhere to be seen.

“Are you ready?” A voice spoke out.

Ray turned, it was Vincent, the man who was just a mess a moment ago, was now his usual self, clean clothes, standing proud and tall.

“Yeah, where is Viola?”

“I made her go to her house, she will meet us at one of the shops, now come on, we don’t have much time before they start announcing the death.”

Vincent started walking to the door, Ray followed closely behind him, as Vincent opened the door Ray spoke.

“Vincent.”

“What is it?”

“I’m sorry about-”

[Slam!]

Vincent slammed his hand against the door frame. Ray insticling jumps at the sudden sound.

“We will talk about this later, right now I need you to focus, the last thing I need is for the villagers to start being suspicious of us, understand.”

“Yes sir.”

“Good, now come on.”

Ray, and Vincent started heading to the village, it was still morning, they walked silently, Ray pondered as they headed for the entrance.

{Should I tell him about the deacon? No I should wait until this all blows over, the last thing I want to do is get him, even more angry than he already is, since he told me he will kill me, Master must have giving him permission to do it, if I don’t change I will just be endangering Eda, I have to be better.}

“Alright we will head to the clothing shop first, after that little accident I need new clothes, from there we will see.” Vincent said.

“Understood.”

They walked through the village, greeting most of the villagers they passed, they went to some stores to buy items, and to Vincent's own shop to check how they are doing. When they were in front of merchants, they heard a familiar voice calling their names.

“Sir Vincent, Sam!”

They looked to see Viola coming towards them, she was wearing a bright blue tunic dress, her hair was tied in a bum. Ray noticed the merchants were looking at them.

“Hello, Miss Viola, how are you today?” Vincent asked.

“I’m doing fine, thank you, I didn’t realize you would be out here at this time of day.”

“Yes, I wanted to buy some things for my home, I intend to stop by a few more stops, why don’t you join us?”

Suddenly bells rang out. It was the church bell. The villagers started moving, passing the three of them. They could hear the panic in the villagers voices.

“Well then,” Vincent turned towards Ray with a smile. “Let’s get going.”