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“Fine, we can—” said Zeph.

I was already moving before he started talking.

“If only I had my maid, I could still have a good f—” he stopped as I grabbed his face.

*SNAP*

A sudden turn and his slender neck snapped.

One potion wasted, I thought as his body fell to the ground.

“Why did you kill him?” I heard Zeph growl from behind me. “You didn’t even let me finish!”

He was fuming.

“You could have been faster. I told you that once already,” I told him with a shrug as I turned around. “Besides, what could you have done anyway?”

“I could have offered him a contract. Even forced him if he didn’t accept,” he said, irate.

I snorted.

“Sure, because his mommy, if she's still alive, or even the Lord of Caldris, wouldn’t have just asked the church to get rid of it, right?” I shook my head. "I doubt he had a high level in his Class anyway, so resetting wouldn’t have been a problem. Given my understanding of nobles on these parts, and his character, our wanted posters would be out on the same day."

“And,” I continued with a glare, “The words forced contract really get on my nerves, so avoid using them.”

He glared at me. “Just because a forced Contract won’t work doesn’t mean that you should kill! We could have found another way. You can’t solve everything by killing!”

I couldn’t help but laugh.

“My dear boy, in this world everything can be solved by killing,” I said after I finished laughing. “If I could have killed every problem this guy would have brought, I could have left him alive.”

After thinking about it for a moment, I added, “I would have probably killed him anyway, though.”

The guy was too damn annoying. And killing him would have prevented others from being killed by me; so a double positive.

“What that boils down to is that if you have power, you can do anything. Even have mercy. And think about it,” I said, since I saw he still had a lot of things to say. “If you had the power to kill all your problems… would you be here?”

That seemed to have shut him up for good.

I then looked at Freya, who was looking relieved after I killed the guy. She had been tense all the time after we woke him up.

You’d never think it was the kid who was more comfortable with the killing, I thought, half amused, half exasperated.

Uh, she’s not a kid though… they’re not that far apart in age, now that I think about it. It was hard to tell given their physique. And it wasn’t like I could call myself old, either.

I shook off my thoughts and continued.

“Now, let’s get this sorted before we get going. We already wasted too much time on this,” I said as I kneeled down beside his corpse. “Did the letter mention that the coin is with him or that he is transporting something?”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

I waited for a few seconds for him to gather his thoughts.

“No,” he said curtly.

“Good.” I took out the disgusting coin from the dead guy and picked him up, then I carefully made him fall and smash his head on a boulder.

“What are you doing?” Asked Zeph.

He looked disturbed by the sight, but it seemed he had enough on his mind to flip out at this too.

“Pretty stupid, I know, but maybe if some idiot finds him they’ll think he accidentally snapped his neck by falling headfirst on a boulder. You never know.” I answered shrugging. “And that coin is much better in our pocket than theirs.”

He looked at me for a moment, still gloomy, before saying, "Have it your way. With how rocky the ground is here it would be a lot of work and time to dig a hole anyway, and It would be easy to spot from far away, unless we spend time trying to camouflage it. I don't think we'd be able to do it well enough in a reasonable time frame."

Then he looked at the coin, and asked, “Do you want to keep it or give it to the Lord of Caldris?”

I stood up after I finished positioning the guy as I wanted. It looked natural enough to me, so I could just hope that an idiot stumbled upon this and moved the body before an expert came. Or that enough time passed for the body to rot. The wind would probably erase our traces from the dusty ground soon enough.

“Keep it, of course,” I answered after I checked if everything looked okay. “Why would I give it to Caldris’ Lord? He may not even compensate me. And if he gets in his head we killed the original possessor, we wouldn’t walk out of that alive.”

I looked at the sun that was descending. “We better get going now. I want to put as much distance as possible from this place before we set camp.”

“Are you not even thinking that this could end this civil war?” he continued.

This guy really has a lot of questions. I sighed. He even passed me his sighing problem. What happened to my happy self, I wonder? He was killed by this gloomy, uptight guy. That’s what happened.

“No, because even if this civil war is finished, the next will be just around the corner,” I said, to answer his question. “Maybe not now, maybe in a year, who knows. After the Lord of Caldris helps bring the situation under control, he may be the one rebelling. Or the First Oligarch may decide to get rid of him before he gets used to the new power level.

“And also, I don’t give a crap, so let’s get moving,” I finished, setting down my backpack.

I had enough of the gloomy atmosphere. Let’s get our heart pumping!

He looked at me confused. “Why did you take off your backpack?”

“You can put all our backpacks inside your ring, right?” I asked, sure that he could.

He nodded. “Yes, I can. Why?”

I smiled at him.

”’Cause we’re going to run! Let’s get our blood pumping!” I shouted, making both of them jump. “Of course, not you, Freya. You’ll just have to get on my back. Just for this time, you’ll get to ride me all… dammit!”

I coughed while they looked at me strangely.

“Anyway! You’ll get to be carried all day for the next few days!” I concluded.

They kept staring at me.

“Come on! Hurry up!” I urged.

Zeph shook his head. “I suppose that if I tell you that it’s dangerous and impossibly tiring to run in this terrain, you’ll just tell me to drink a potion.”

“Oh! Are you finally starting to see the light?” I asked, happy for his enlightenment.

“No. I only see dark days ahead,” he said gloomily.

Damn, this guy’s so depressing. I swear he wasn’t like this in the beginning.

“Fine, you be Gloom Guy. But let’s go now!” I urged again.

After our bags were inside the ring, I crouched down, and Freya hesitantly climbed on my back. I could run fairly easily with her before I had my strength boost, now she felt almost like a feather.

I looked at Zeph. “You follow me. Give a shout if you can’t keep up anymore.”

He huffed. “Think for yourself. I don’t have anyone on my back.”

Eh. Let’s see how long he can keep that up.

After that, I started running.

In my opinion, it was much more fun to run here than on a flat road. Thanks to the obstacles, I was forced to think of where to step at every moment without losing focus, so it was also a mental exercise on top of a physical one.

“S-stop!*Huff*,” he said after some time.

I slowed down and looked back, my breathing slightly heavier than when I started.

“Already?” I asked, smugly.

He scrunched his face as he took a few more breaths. “Fine. You’re too good, *huff*, but now go a bit slower, or my potions won’t last me more than a few days.”

I shrugged. “Ok, let’s go with a bit more moderation.”

I started running again, hearing him huffing and puffing behind me for the whole time, until we reached a suitable spot for camping.

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