“Finally, we are here.”

Hiding in a bush approximately 1m away from the entrance, Mrit looked at the gate of the town. After travelling for many days, he finally reached the town of his destination.

*Gulp! Gulp!*

Taking a sip of water from the pouch he took out from the storage ring, Mrit quench his thirst and then, from afar investigated the entrance of the town.

“Just two soldiers. I guess this is pretty much normal since this is just a countryside town. The walls also do not look much fortified, meaning that the town hasn’t been targeted most.”

Wiping the water off his face and putting the pouch inside the storage ring, Mrit retreated back into the forest with fear of getting discovered. He then allowed Pat, Rick and Gan to come out of his shadow.

“Hey, you three! Get out of the shadow.”

“What, did we reach the town?”

Gan first asked as he looked bored. Hearing his question, Mrit then replied.

“Yes, it’s just some metres away from here.”

“Then what are we waiting for, let’s go now.”

“Hold your horses for now.”

Though Gan hurried Mrit to enter the town, Mrit had other plans.

“We just literally blew away an entire village. So no matter how calmer and safer this area is, the knights of the empire or the kingdom might have come here should be close. This place is just 50 kilometres from the place of explosion. So we have to prepare a facade to enter this city safely.”

While he was talking, Mrit took out some torn clothes and the bandages that was wrapped around him when he was unconscious. The blood stained bandages covered with dirt stink horrendously, but Mrit didn’t care as he took out the armour he was wearing along the innerwear and put on the torn cloths on.

“Pat, Rick, help me in wrapping the bandages around me.”

“Yes, Sir.”

Both of them quickly executed his order and helped Mrit to wear the bandages. After some seconds, Mrit was ready and looked like someone who purposefully wore torn clothes because of his complexion and neat hair and face.

“Now for some makeup. Conjure Fire!”

Chanting the name, Mrit conjured the fire in his bare hands. After that, he brought the fire near some parts of the body, burning the parts.

“Sir!!”

Seeing Mrit self-harming himself, Pat and Rick got alerted and tried to stop him only to be stopped by Mrit.

“Stop, this is necessary. Ugh!!”

Though in pain, Mrit continued to burn himself. After sometime, he stopped and looked at the burn wounds with a satisfied look on his face. He looked like someone who just got severely burned.

“Okay, now for the final touch. Rick, take out the charcoal I told you to store.”

“Y-Yes, here!”

From his waist, Rick took out a pouch which contained some charcoal that Mrit told him to collect early in the morning when he woke up from the bonfire.

Having the pouch in his hands, Mrit then crushed the pouch for a few times and then opened it. From inside, charcoal dust came out, showing that the crushing really did its part. After that, Mrit applied it over himself, more specifically, over the burn wounds.

“Aghh!!”

Though he left some wounds for the exhibition, he still rubbed most burned parts with charcoal dust. After that, he took some soil from the ground rubbed it over himself.

“Now I look like someone who is barely alive. Now let’s go.”

Mrit who finished his preparation was about to leave for the entrance gate just when Gan called him out.

“You, you did the same thing like this when you infiltrated our base, didn’t you?”

***

“Ohh, you remember?” Mrit spoke, without showing any emotion on his face.

How can he not. The memories of the night were still vividly embedded in his mind. The night when Mrit, disguised as an injured soldier infiltrated their base and killed them one by one.

“How can I not? It was the night you used such cheap tricks and deceived us. If not for that, you would have never succeeded.”

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

“Captain, what are you talking about?”

While Gan was speaking, Rick interrupted and asked him as he looked confused. Gan looked and him and further explained.

“The night when he killed you two, he then stabbed himself and made himself look like an injured soldiers and approached me from the teleportation room. Because of darkness and blood on his face, I couldn’t see his face and he infiltrated our camp. After that, he continued to kill our members while we were investigating the portal room and then ambushed us with that little monster friend of his.”

“What?”

Rick, surprised looked at Mrit for which Mrit just smiled back at him. Gan, furious by seeing Mrit’s carefree attitude gritted his teethes and then shouted at Mrit.

“You, don’t you have sanity? How can you hurt yourself like this? Burning yourself, stabbing, don’t you feel pain?”

Gan abhorred Mrit’s way of self-harm. Never in his life he ever saw someone so ruthless that he would use his own body to get things work out for him.

Seeing Gan worked up, Mrit looked at him and just sighed and answered back.

“I feel pain, a lot. But the world I came from never allowed me to wallow on such pain. We have to move forward, even if it means cutting our limbs or killing ourselves or killing others. If you want to blame, blame your goddess who made us suffer and have this mentality instilled on us. It is how I survived till now and I don’t intend to change my ways.”

“If you have problems with my ways, then watch as you are meant to. Now don’t waste my time and enter the shadow. It’s time to move.”

Without further ado, Mrit turned his back on the three of them while commanding them to go inside his shadow. Hearing Mrit, Gan didn’t said anything, more like had nothing left to say. He has no right to blame the person who suffered the most because of their world and their Goddess.

With a deep silence, Gan, Rick and Pat dived into Mrit’s shadows. After confirming everything, Mrit then ran towards the direction of the entrance and collided with some bushes, further gaining some scratches. After coming out of the bushes, Mrit purposefully stumbled upon a rock.

The guards who were keeping a watch suddenly got alerted as Mrit slammed on the ground.

“W-What the?”

“Who is he?”

Alerted, the guards took a stance as they pointed their weapons at Mrit while being caution for Mrit’s next move.

Anticipated their moves, Mrit secretly grinned and slowly started to crawl towards the entrance while wailing for help.

“H-Help…m-m-me!!”

While acting heavily injured, Mrit crawled towards the guards while the guards, seeing the state Mrit was lowered their vigilance and hesitantly approached Mrit.

“P-pleas..h-hel- *Thud*”

Mrit then acted as if he lost consciousness after which the guards, worried, lifted Mrit and dragged him inside the town. Unbeknownst to them, Mrit slightly opened his eyes and looked at his shadow with a grin. Though no one can see, inside his shadow, Gan slightly fumed before sighing, admitting his defeat.

After that, Mrit looked around the town while not letting the guards suspect him. The people inside the town on the road also looked at Mrit and talked among themselves as guards dragged Mrit to the church. Then, after some time the three of them reached in front of the church.

“Hey, come to you senses. We have arrived at the church. The priest will heal you, keep yourself together.”

They dragged Mrit inside the church while Mrit, seemingly disgusted, swallowed his pride and let the guards take him inside. Inside, there was prayer going on with a lot of people sitting on the benches, praying to the statue of the Goddess.

“What is this?”

The priest who was performing the ritual in front of a huge statue of the Goddess on a pedestal looked back, seemingly taken aback by the sudden visit of the guards. Coming down the stairs, he approached the guards with a frown on his face.

“What are you doing here? Can’t you see that the prayer is still going on?”

Angry the he had to halt the prayer, the priest shouted at the guards. Taken aback, one the guards then spoke.

“Sir Priest, this man suddenly appeared from the forest like this and fainted in front of the gate. Please heal him, he is not in good condition.”

Hearing the guard, the priest looked at Mrit from head to toe. But his facial expression never changed.

“Not now. Put him outside the church, after the prayer is over, I will see to him.”

Without even a hint of concern on his face, the priest turned around and walked towards the statue of the goddess and again started to pray.

Mrit, who heard the priest was taken aback as he never thought that the priest would outright reject helping a wounded. But he couldn’t do anything as he continued acting fainted while clutching his fist, somehow controlling his rage.

The guards, having no choice turned back and dragged Mrit outside just when someone sitting among the people got up and silently approached the guards and whispered in one of the guard’s ears.

“Take him to the guild base and tell the receptionist I said to give him a potion.”

After that, the man looked at Mrit for a moment and again went towards his place and sat down.

The guards, hearing the man then dragged Mrit outside and walked towards a huge building. Peeking secretly, Mrit found a board above the entrance of the building on which some strange words were written, but surprisingly, Mrit could understand some of the words.

“So this is a guild base?”

After peeking, Mrit again closed his eyes as he was dragged inside the building.

Just as he entered the building, Mrit suddenly felt a huge amount of blood lust directed at him and the guards.

“Who is that?”

“Hmm, who is this rag?”

Inside, there are many people who suddenly looked at the guards. Some were sitting on the chairs while some were standing near the reception. Some were there, sharpening their weapons while some were just silently looking at Mrit and the guards.

Though the bloodlust didn’t affected him, it surely affected the two guards. Trembling, the guards slowly passed through the people and reached the reception.

“Hey, who is this person?”

“The guild master has said to bring him here and give him a potion. He is in a very bad shape!”

Though the receptionist asked the guards, the guards already terrified by the pressure exerted by the people in room hurried the receptionist.

“Okay, take him to that room!”

The receptionist pointed at the door near the reception after which the two guards took Mrit inside. Inside, there was a bed where the two guards lied Mrit down and quickly ran outside the building, leaving Mrit alone here in the building.

***