I watched in horror as Medric and Ryuji stared each other down. Medric had his fists raised while Ryuji’s arms were casually hanging down at his sides. Both of them seemed too relaxed to suggest they were about to fight, though I could only assume that was because they both assumed that the other was no threat to them.

I wanted to shout at them and stop the massacre before it began, but I didn’t think Medric would listen to me, too deep in his misunderstanding to believe anything I said.

“Ryuji!” I shouted instead. The thought of trying to command an Otherworlder was terrifying to me, but so was the possibility of witnessing the murder of an innocent man. “Don’t do this! You don’t need to fight!”

Ryuji seemed to be taken aback by my outburst and looked like he was actually going to listen to me for a second, until Medric intervened in my attempt to save him.

“Aw don’t worry, missy,” the suicidal man said, cracking his knuckles. “I’ll make sure he comes out in one piece.”

Any hesitation in Ryuji’s eyes completely disappeared as he glared at Medric. I tried to wave to catch his attention again, but he refused to look at me. Cursing Medric under my breath, I panicked as my brain worked overtime to try and figure out a solution.

Ryuji wouldn’t listen to me. Medric wouldn’t listen to me. But would he listen to his boss?

I scrambled to the front of the cart I was in. I had no idea if this particular driver was the leader of the trading group, but he had been the one driver that Medric had talked to before offering to give us a ride. At the very least, Medric would listen to him.

“Hey!” I said, in a harsh whisper as I leaned as close as I could to the driver without falling out of the cart. “You have to stop them from fighting. Medric is going to die if you don’t.”

“You’ve no need to worry, child,” the driver said, not bothering to lower his voice in the slightest. “Medric is a kind man, but he is also very strong. Look how the rest of the convoy is acting. We all know that he is capable enough to humble your friend without hurting him.”

The driver didn’t bother turning around. He had a thin shawl draped over his head to protect him from the sun, so I couldn’t see his expression, but from his voice, I imagined him as a kindly looking man. The way he talked about Ryuji with a little bit of bile made it obvious that Medric had shared his theories that Ryuji was somehow hurting me. Fortunately, unlike Medric, I could talk to the driver without having to shout.

“No, Medric can’t stand up to Ryuji. Nobody can,” I said.

I looked around to confirm that Medric and Ryuji weren’t close enough to hear me. They had wandered off somewhere to the side, a bit further away from the carts, and were being slowly left behind as none of the cart drivers bothered to stop and accommodate the fight. True to the driver’s word, none of the convoy members seemed to be too interested in watching the fight, only glancing at it in mild curiosity.

None of them seemed focused enough on me that I was afraid of causing a panic with what I said next.

“Ryuji’s an Otherworlder,” I whispered.

That managed to get the man’s attention. He finally turned back to look at me, relying on his horses to guide themselves for the moment. He looked more or less how I’d expected him, though I would’ve assumed he would be a little bit younger than I’d originally assumed from his voice.

“That’s not a claim one makes lightly. You could get into some serious trouble if the wrong people heard you saying that,” he said. “Is that what the boy told you?”

Unfortunately, his expression was a lot different from what I wanted. Rather than a look of abject horror, he gave me a stare filled with pity.

I could only stare back, at a loss for words, until I realized what he was suggesting.

“I’m not lying. I’m not dumb either.” I was too panicked to feel offended, but I felt like I had to make it clear for him to even begin to believe me. “Please believe me. I know you probably think I’m some sort of naïve girl and he’s just some random thug or an abusive boyfriend. I’ve seen how strong he is. He might not look like it, but he’s not human.”

He looked a little surprised by how I’d called him out on his implied insults on my intelligence, but still didn’t seem to believe me.

“Look, child. It will be alright. Medric-“

The sound of gasping and cheers interrupted whatever the driver was about to say. I looked to the side, worried that I would see holding up a corpse in the air, but was surprised to see Medric still alive. In hindsight, I supposed the members of the convoy wouldn’t be cheering if they saw Medric being murdered.

Medric was strong. I could tell that much. Medric’s movements were sharp and precise to the point where even I could tell that he was incredibly skilled. The way he bobbed and weaved, while throwing out punches and feints at dizzying speeds was impressive to watch, and I had trouble keeping up with what he was doing.

Ryuji, on the other hand, didn’t seem to have the same problem.

Watching Ryuji dodge Medric’s attacks so casually was a strange experience because it didn’t look like it made sense. I might not have noticed if I didn’t have Medric to compare him to, but he made Ryuji look like a complete amateur. While Medric’s fighting style spoke of experience and skill, Ryuji’s simply lacked any sort of substance, his movements looking random and improvised.

Despite that, none of Medric’s attacks even got close to hitting Ryuji. Every time an expertly aimed punch was thrown at him, Ryuji would simply move out of the way, faster than I could follow. I’d lose track of Ryuji every time he moved, and it seemed like Medric did too, pausing after every punch before he chased down Ryuji in his new spot.

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Oddly enough, it seemed like Ryuji hadn’t attacked Medric at all, which was obvious from the fact that Medric hadn’t inexplicably turned into a fine mist of blood and flesh. I didn’t know why he chose to keep Medric alive, when he was obviously so much stronger than he was.

My eyes widened in realization at the simple answer that had been so obvious in hindsight.

Did Ryuji have morals?

Though I’d gotten more comfortable with Ryuji over our travels, my opinion of him had already been tainted by his handling of the demon attack. Even if I wasn’t sure whether he saw the demons as being Goblins or not, the relish he had when killing thing had made me assume that he was simply too alien in his mindset to value life.

Seeing Ryuji dealing with Medric, humiliating him without harming him, gave me hope.

“Well, he’s good, I’ll admit that much,” the driver said, interrupting my thoughts. “But that ain’t an Otherworlder. We wouldn’t be alive if it were.”

I was a little disappointed that he still didn’t believe me, but now that I’d seen evidence that Ryuji wouldn’t turn into a murderer at the slightest inconvenience, I no longer needed him to. The driver gave me a strange look.

“You’re crying,” he said, with a frown.

I blinked twice and realized he was right. The world was turning blurry from the moisture in my eyes and I could already feel large streams of tears dribbling down my face. I was a little surprised at how much I was crying. I thought I was all cried out after the first day I met Ryuji, but I realized that these tears were special. These were tears of relief.

I simply smiled at the driver, not bothering to wipe my tears away, finding myself a little amused at how confused he looked. Now that it was clear that there wasn’t a danger of Ryuji murdering someone, I could finally relax.

I turned to look at the fight, no longer as an active participant, but as a simple spectator. I didn’t enjoy watching fights usually, but with the lack of any landed blows, and the threat of violence gone, I could appreciate the fight as an impressive display of acrobatics.

The convoy had stopped moving a while ago, with the drivers and guards having been interested enough in the fight to stop and watch, and we were still close enough that we could see most of the action. As Medric continued to attack and Ryuji continued to dodge, I was almost tempted to join in the cheering and jeering of the convoy guards as they teased their Captain for losing against a teenage boy. I didn’t end up doing that, simply being content with watching and crying sweet tears of joy.

Medric didn’t seem to notice the crowd’s taunts, his eyes focused on trying to hit Ryuji, but at some point, the endless assault seemed to tire him out. He attempted one last punch and Ryuji dodged it casually, not breathing any harder than he had been at the start of the fight. Instead of following it up with another attack, like he had been for the entirety of the fight so far, Medric stepped back, putting as much distance as he could between him and Ryuji.

Even from the distance we were at, I could tell that Medric was buying time to catch his breath. He held his hands up in a defensive stance while he regained his energy, but Ryuji didn’t seem interested in taking advantage of the situation. He simply stood there, still standing in the same casual pose that he’d started the fight in and gave Medric a cocky grin.

As the convoy guards continued to throw friendly jeers at their Captain, Medric finally seemed to notice their presence. His eyes darted back, and his mouth opened in a snarl, as if he were about to tell his men off, but for a split second he locked eyes with me.

He stood there, with his mouth still open for about half a second, before snapping it shut. He had a firm look in his eyes, and his strength seemed to suddenly return to him in a moment of resolution. He nodded at me, sending me a nonverbal message that I didn’t quite catch. My eyes were still watering, and I didn’t think they would stop any time soon.

I smiled at him, silently thanking him for getting Ryuji to reveal his humane side.

For some reason, that made Medric frown even harder. He turned back to Ryuji.

In a move that surprised me, Medric lowered his hands and sighed.

“Fine, you got me,” he said, raising his hands in surrender. The convoy guards gave him a few playful boos as he approached Ryuji with his hands up, but he ignored them. “It was a good match. You clearly beat me in everything but age,” he said, with a friendly smile and a laugh.

Ryuji seemed surprised, but didn’t move from his spot, not having a guard to lower. He said nothing as Medric slowly walked closer to him.

Once he was close enough, Medric slowly reached out to Ryuji. Ryuji seemed confused, but didn’t hesitate to reach out and shake it.

In a move that was too fast for me to follow, Medric lashed out with a high kick, creating a spray of embers that spewed out from the burnt out soles of his boots. Ryuji dodged the surprise attack, stepping back just enough that he wasn’t hit by the flames, but Medric reacted, as if expecting the dodge. Reaching for his side, his hand grabbed the hilt of a dagger that he had strapped to his belt.

And with a resounding crack, Medric fell to the ground.

The jeering immediately stopped.

Ryuji, standing directly behind Medric’s fallen body, stared disdainfully down at him, with his hand raised in a chopping position. “That was very dishonourable of you. Consider yourself lucky that I stopped here,” he said.

Leaning down, Ryuji picked Medric up by the waistband and slung him over his shoulder like he weighed nothing. He walked over to the cart I was in and smiled at the driver.

“Medric might be unconscious for a few hours,” he said, shaking the body on his shoulder. “Mind if I toss him in the back? I could carry him the rest of the way, but he might wake up with a sore back.”

The driver said nothing. I empathized with him. I didn’t know what to say either.

Ryuji seemed to take the silence as confirmation, as he jumped up and into the cart. He glanced at me.

“Hey,” he said. “Don’t worry. He won’t be able to bother you for a while now. Hopefully by the time he wakes up, we’ll be in the city already. Can’t guarantee he’ll stay out for the rest of the ride, but if he wakes up, I can-“ Ryuji swung his free hand down in a chopping motion, “-just do that again.”

“What?” I croaked.

“Oh this?” Ryuji asked, chopping the air again. “It’s something that people do all the time in my w- country. Just a solid chop to the neck.” Ryuji swung his hand once more. “And they’re knocked out. First time I’ve tried it out though, so I don’t know how long it’ll last.”

What? This time the question died on my lips. What was he talking about? Could a chop to the back of the neck just knock someone out so conveniently? Maybe he was right. Maybe he had some secret Otherworlder technique to safely disable an opponent peacefully and it just happened to make a horrifying noise that sounded exactly like Medric’s bones had exploded from the force.

Yeah, that must have been what had happened. It had to be. If it wasn’t, then that meant that I was wrong and Ryuji did have the capability to be an unrepentant killer. Yeah. No way I’d been wrong about that.

I stared Ryuji in the eyes, as if daring him to deny my internal monologue.

He didn’t seem to understand what I wanted from him, and simply smiled.

I looked to Medric instead, silently begging him to give me any sort of sign that Ryuji wasn’t a murderer.

A corpse stared back at me, its head twisting at an impossible angle. Impossible for a live human at least. Unless Medric was secretly the world’s most talented contortionist?

The corpse’s eyelids fell open, exposing the whites of its eyes as it hung upside down off Ryuji’s back, and giving me the blankest expression that could ever exist on a human face.

I screamed.