Chapter 121: Flare
Zan looked down on the boy holding on to his leg.
It was a shameful place to find one’s self in. He himself would rather die than plead to someone on his knees, much less while clutching on to their leg.
Yet…something about his gaze was odd. Despite looking worse than a beggar with all that blood dripping down his face, and despite the humiliating position he was in, the boy’s eyes now seemed crystal clear.
There was…sincerity, and a sort of courage in those eyes. Which was odd to say in the first place.
Still though, Zan’s anger in of itself did not die down.
“…Get off me dude.”
“N— No!” The boy cried out. He even held on to Zan’s leg tighter, unallowing him to move.
Zan’s eye twitched as a vein popped itself on his head. He once again entertained the idea of whacking the fellow once more.
In the end he held back though. When he looked at the stranger, it sort of felt like looking at a puppy, or some other domesticated creature.
“Don’t you have any respect for yourself? Holding on to someone’s leg, begging?”
The stranger did not say anything, continuing to hold his gaze with a pleading yet earnest look.
“Ugh.”
Zan looked away from him, and instead looked at Shelly’s unconscious body.
He stayed silent for a while, which led to the stranger thinking that he was actually considering not throwing her into the river.
“Umm…so you won’t do it right?”
“I know…I know she did a bad thing— a horrible thing! But…” The boy’s eyes lingered towards the ground, trying to pour out the words he felt stuck in his throat.
“...But it doesn’t mean she has to die, right?”
The boy looked up, hopeful that Zan would understand that there was inherent value to a life. Unfortunately, the red-haired young man did not respond.
“He– Hello?”
Turning his head, his eyes followed Zan’s gaze towards the unconscious girl…and not a moment later, the river that was only momentarily calm began to rage. The waters rushed forward, audibly roaring as loud as thunder.
Then, the young stranger felt himself being slightly lifted off the ground. He knew his arms were still clutching onto Zan’s leg, but looking down he could see the ground slightly moving away from him.
Zan was now stomping over to Shelly, vehemently pulling the stranger’s weight with him as if he didn’t care about anything else.
As they both came closer to the raging waters, the stranger finally snapped out of his shock— a look of panic and urgency struck his face as he racked over what to do.
He tried his best to put the whole weight of his feeble frame down, except Zan instead started to drag his right leg forward with the stranger’s prepubescent body unwillingly following.
Zan had his full attention on Shelly’s body. The more he looked at her, the more clearly he remembered what she had said.
It was only half an hour ago that she screamed, “She’s the one who did it! She told me in the morning after she did it!”
“No, she didn’t! We were with you the whole day!” The two other girls shouted, confused at their friend’s words but protective of his sister nonetheless.
“Well yes she did!”
“I’m taking you in.” The voice of that disgusting scum chimed in. A vile smile appearing on the one-eyed merc’s face.
“Our fathers will punish you for this!”
“My father will support you! Go!”
“She’s the one who beat Adin up! Take her away! I want you to hurt her!”
Zan remembered the affair vividly. To the exact and specific words used, and to the exact facial expressions and intentions each person had.
It was only about half an hour ago that it happened afterall, and it was only just minutes ago that his sister could have been traumatized for life.
Although it didn’t happen, thankfully to his own intervention, just the pure possibility that it almost did enraged him.
The only people he cared about other than himself was his family. And now there was only one other person who had aimed to harm them. Maybe even one sole person who was to blame for it all.
Although…maybe it was human nature to look at others instead of themselves, but Zan forgot that he himself was to blame too.
In any case, he was going to make sure that no person would ever be able to attack his family twice.
If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
As the darkness within his heart festered, a part of him wondered whether throwing her in was too merciful. Maybe he should wake her up first, and then force her head underwater…
Only three meters away from the edge of the river however, he found his vision falling. His eyelids weren’t closing though, instead he was actually falling.
That timid stranger who came out of the woods had dived for his other leg, causing him to trip and fall.
As Zan landed on the ground, he held a surprised expression on his face before “RAAAAAAAAAAH!!!”
“AHHHHHHHHHH!!!”
Zan screamed in anger, and the unknown boy screamed in surprise and fright.
“Get off me you little shit!” Zan raised his fist in an effort to intimidate him, but the boy simply closed his eyes and prepared for a blow.
Of all the ways the unknown boy could have reacted, this was maybe the only way that frustrated Zan even further.
“Ughhhhhh!!!”
“Get! Off! Of! Me!”
“N— No!”
The two loudly wrestled only a few feet away from the unconscious girl.
With the difference in weight and strength, Zan easily pried the boy’s hands off of him…except the stubborn stranger simply persisted in clamoring onto him. Adding to the fact that Zan was already exhausted and injured to begin with, the stranger was able to successfully stick onto him.
“I should have done something! I should have ran to get help!”
“But I didn’t!”
“I didn’t because I didn’t know what to do!”
“I didn’t because I was scared!”
“Because I was too timid!”
“But now I want to do something right!”
A bare foot landed onto the stranger’s face. Luckily this blow seemed to simply push his annoying face away from Zan, instead of actually aiming to injure him.
“Listen I don’t really care about you, you little fucker!”
“Who taught you all these swear words!!!”
The two continued to wrestle, argue, and yell. The loudness of their quarrel was so boisterous that a certain person even began to awaken…
Shelly’s eyes slowly fluttered open, and the first thing she saw caused her drowsy eyes to snap fully open.
Above her was a tentacle made of pure water, and it was slowly slithering forward to touch her face. Just in time however, another ray of light struck from the merciful heavens, and the slithering water tentacle lost its form.
A splash of water fell on top of Shelly’s stunned face, and it was a full three seconds later that she finally reacted.
“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!” A high pitched feminine scream resounded.
The two wrestlers stopped their grapple, turning their attention towards the source of the scream.
The stranger thought fast on his feet, finally stopping himself from clutching on to another man and rushing towards the damsel in distress.
Meanwhile, Zan’s dark mind was preoccupied with actually entertaining the idea of forcing Shelly’s head underwater. Would her screams, muffled and choking, sound better that way?
“Are you alright?”
“Um— Ye– Yeah, I think I was just seeing things…”
Shelly was confused who the bald boy was in the first place, and what had happened since that thug threw her at that gross man, but also…
She looked up coyly at the boy speaking to her. Although he didn’t have any hair on his head, and there were red stains all over his face…his face itself was kind of cute.
“Stay behind me, okay? No matter what!”
“Um…sure…” She was still confused, but for some reason she wanted to say yes to a lot of his requests…
It was at that moment that she saw a figure unhurriedly get up from the ground. She didn’t notice him at first because her eyes were up looking at the boy in front of her, but now that she saw him, a hint of uneasiness filled her heart.
‘Red hair…but it’s not Elea…’
‘It’s that thug…Elea’s brother?’
‘But what’s he doing here…’
“He wants to push you into the river.”
“Wha— What!?”
“Where’s the servant with the one-eye!?”
“Um…he’s…”
“Gone.” Zan’s voice interrupted.
The red-haired boy stopped right in front of them. So close in fact, that Shelly’s heels were right at the edge of the river. The only thing that came between Zan and her, was the unknown boy’s thin, skinny frame.
Nervousness wracked her heart, and it skipped a few beats before speeding up. Shelly looked up at the red-haired boy.
Now that Zan actually stood up, he seemed to dwarf over both of them. Reason being because of his older age, and his exercise and diet. He might have been nothing but a runt to the man from earlier, but he was definitely something compared to the two before him. Although…it was not only his actual size that made him feel big. It was also the fact that Shelly and the stranger felt a strange apprehension in their hearts. Shelly more so because it was directed at her, but she could feel a heaviness oozing out from the red-haired boy— she could virtually feel how bad he genuinely wanted to hurt her.
Knowing that, her apprehension then turned into fear. She wanted to run but there was simply nowhere to go. Her distressed eyes then drifted away from Zan and towards the river behind her. She could feel the roaring waters splash at the edges of the river, and with each splash her feet felt the faint drizzle of the cold water. Her breathing turned panicked, and heavy. The flooding danger was enough, but combined with the hallucination that she saw only moments after waking up, her fear then turned into dread.
She looked towards Zan…but then at the boy who got in between them, protecting her. Desperately, she prayed that the unknown boy could assure her safety…
In response to Zan’s threat the stranger spread out his arms, fully blanketing the girl behind him, and trying his best not to look anxious or afraid.
“And what are you doing?” The red-haired boy spoke.
“...You never hit me.”
“What?”
“Well…you actually hit me once…”
“But you never hit me again!”
Zan scoffed, both in disbelief, and because he found the stranger a little funny.
“I just don’t think you’ll push me into the river too.”
“I— I don’t think you’re that type of person!”
“...”
“You burst out running from out of the forest, dove into that flooding river, and rescued those two girls from drowning!”
“I…I really don’t know if you’re a good person…”
“...But I’m sure you’re not a bad one.”
Again, the stranger looked him in the eyes. Zan’s silently cold gaze met eyes filled with genuine sincerity and compassion, and even a hint of courage.
Of course, a part of him wanted to cringe at the boy’s mushy words and soft behavior. After all, the weakness of a thrown rock was a soft surface. It did take away some of his rage, although in the end it wasn’t the boy’s words that truly got to Zan. It was the strange, golden light that had transiently flared within his eyes. The light came and disappeared as if it had never existed, but for that brief moment Zan felt something. The light held within it a radiant kindness, that brought out the own light within his eyes.
Zan’s face didn’t change, but considering he hadn’t moved to drown Shelly just yet, there was a possibility that he was truly thinking it over. In actuality, his coldness was indeed melting, and his anger once again started to tone down even if only slightly.
Oddly enough, the river also started to calm with his emotions.
On her tippy-toes, Shelly peaked her head out from behind the stranger’s shoulder.
Along with the unknown boy, she noticed that Zan’s expression didn’t at all change. He still looked like he wanted to harm them. Actually, specifically only her…
“Pl— Please…” The boy’s soft voice rang out, but Zan continued to stay silent.
Shelly was already in a terrible mental state for more reasons than one, and the tense silence only served to flare up her worst fears and negative thoughts.
Zan noticed her peeking gaze, and his cold eyes landed right on top of hers.
He looked at her, gauging her as if he wanted to dissect her thoughts and emotions. He wanted to find out whether there was any regret in her eyes. He wanted to find out if there was any sort of remorse for siccing that mad dog of a mercenary to do unspeakable things towards his sister, maybe even himself.
Unfortunately, Shelly only derived from his gaze the desire to dissect her inside and out. Which to be fair, was actually present in his eyes, along with the tiny specks of mercy he had.
Out of terror Shelly yelled, “E– Elea wouldn’t want you to do this!”
“Hu– Huh? Ye– Yeah! I’m sure your sister wouldn't want you to do this!”
“Your sister was actually the first one I saw jump into the flooding river!”
“Your sister saved the girl right behind me!”
“Wouldn’t it be a waste of her efforts if you—”
“I’m not my sister.” Zan interrupted.
The sound of the wind broke, out of nowhere a fist flew towards the stranger. His eyes went fully wide in surprise but unfortunately he reacted way too late. It came fast despite Zan’s exhaustion, and it hit him straight in the middle of the chest, right in the center of his solar plexus. Receiving the pain of the punch was enough, but the blow surgically aimed to knock the wind out of him, and it most definitely did.
Zan made sure that he felt the impact, but also made sure that he wasn’t moved back even an inch. Instead, the unknown boy fell forward onto his knees, unable to breathe. Despite his intentions to be a shield, an immovable wall to protect the one behind him— despite it all his body had betrayed him.
And what followed as he looked up, was a foot that gently pushed the girl behind him into the raging waters of the flooding river.