Ray sat next to Tessa, looking at the look of surprise on her face. The guy thought about what he should do now. If he took the girl with him, she would noticeably slow him down, but he just couldn’t just leave her.

I didn't want to kill either.

Grimacing at the smell of blood coming from outside, Rei thought about what he had done. He clearly felt no remorse or remorse. The brain simply did not find the reasons that could make the guy torment himself with remorse.

It wasn't even that Rey saw the mercenaries as non-living as part of the game. No. He considered them quite real, like himself. It's just that his attitude to life has become much easier. This applied to animals and, as it turned out today, people.

When he killed them, he didn't feel any kind of kinship with them or anything like that at all. The sensations were almost identical with hunting for animals in the forest. Unless they also screamed funny.

Pushing unnecessary thoughts out of his head, Rei looked at Tessa again. Now he was already in armor, and in his hand the guy held a dagger, driving his claw along the small scratches dotting the blade. After a few moments, the boy's eyes cleared and he stood up. He grabbed the blade and returned it to its sheath.

Ray left the tent only a few minutes later. He had a girl in his arms, and in his Inventory was a bag with everything he could find inside. Laying Tessa on that rare piece of soil that was not stained with blood, Rey assembled her tent and secured it to Zessa's saddle. He did the same with a rather heavy bag of things. A kind of parody of a handbag. While the boy wasn't sure what exactly the women of his homeworld were wearing in their portable junk storage, this one clearly surpassed them. Everything was here. From the most dangerous weapons to underwear.

Collecting these things, Rey realized that she would slow him down much more than he initially thought. Tessa needed to sleep, eat, rest... These problems could be solved by the energy of souls, and the guy decided that he might reveal his secret to her, assessing the girl's reaction to what had happened. Now, under the displeased look of Tsess, who clearly did not like the role of a cargo animal, he began to stuff food and cutlery into another bag. In the process, he became more and more aware of how much of an advantage the Inventory provides to the players. And even more so for him, because everyone else also needed to eat and sleep.

Having finally finished these simple preparations, he approached Tsess. Surprisingly, he didn't crouch as usual, giving Ray a chance to mount. He just shook his back dejectedly, demonstrating his unwillingness to carry all unnecessary rubbish on himself. The guy understood him. Cess was a predator, not a domestic donkey, but he was not to be that way for long. And if at least one of the horses survived or did not run away, then there would not have to be at all.

- Be patient. It won't be an hour before I put it away. - habitually doubling mental and verbal appeal, Ray stroked the soft fur of the panther. This beast, albeit involuntarily, was his most faithful comrade. And although he could not speak, the guy noticed that every day he was becoming more reasonable. Sometimes he could even read quite human emotions in the cat's eyes. Or maybe he just spent too long in the company of animals ...

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Thinking about this, Rei remembered another important thing. Cursing and blaming himself for his indiscretion, he ran to the far end of the camp, where a minute later a fire broke out. Some time passed and the fire grew. And when Rey returned to Cess, almost the entire camp was engulfed in flames. Fortunately, the mercenaries managed to put out the previous fire before they died, otherwise he would not have had time to collect things.

Climbing onto the saddle with a girl in her arms turned out to be quite difficult. Which irritated Cess even more. Ray was even ready to swear that he saw how he rolled his eyes, but shaking his head and driving away stupid thoughts, the guy still managed to saddle in half with grief. He sat the girl in front of him, clasping his hands.

It was in this form that they slowly moved out of the burning camp. The wind blew against his back, bringing with it the smell of burning and death, but after a few minutes it disappeared. Looking back for the last time, Rei glanced at the huge fire. It will now be more difficult to understand the cause of the death of mercenaries. It didn't bother him that much, but setting the parking lot on fire wasn't too hard, either, so he didn't think it was too much of a safety net.

Turning his head, he looked at the endless plain. She lived her own life, and the petty quarrels of the ants did not bother her at all. The wind still howled, creating waves on the surface of the green ocean, watching which Rei involuntarily relaxed, surrendering to the surrounding atmosphere of peace. Cess also began to walk more slowly - it seems that the majestic beauty of nature was also not alien to the cat.

Tessa woke up only half an hour later. The guy even began to worry if he hit her too hard. Nevertheless, in the body of the forest this very force was much greater and the blow, which seemed to him soft, deprived the girl of consciousness for almost an hour.

Immediately clutching her head, she groaned in pain. It wasn't until a few seconds later that Tessa finally opened her eyes. Looking around in surprise, she did not immediately understand what was happening, but did not ask anything. Turning her head, she noticed the same serene, like a mountain stream, the look of a guy. Ray's calmness was suddenly transferred to her and the girl was finally able to think things over properly. My head still ached terribly, but my thoughts gradually gathered into a holistic puzzle. She remembered the guy’s words about the rebellion, the crowd of mercenaries marching towards her tent, whose faces burned with undisguised lust, and a strange request not to go outside…

A moment later, the girl's body was covered with goosebumps, and the gradually arising trembling became noticeable even to Ray, whose hands still firmly held Tessa in the saddle.

- You ... them. - the words were given to the girl hard, so he decided to help.

- Yes. I killed everyone. I'm sorry, but we couldn't save your cat. The voice sounded as calm as ever. It was as if the guy hugging her was not talking about the murder of hundreds of people, but simply had the most ordinary conversation with her, which had become so familiar these days.

This time, Ray's calmness had the opposite effect. Tessa trembled even more and the guy felt that she was ready to try to escape at any moment.

- Are you afraid of me?

There was no answer.

- You want to say that it cost them to give you?

Even though he said so, Rey was quite clear that this reason was not the only one. And maybe not even the main one. He just wanted to have fun. A bit odd, but still. And the fact that the warriors wanted to attack Tessa only served as a kind of catalyst, and the guy didn’t need more.

“This, incorrect, is the difference from ordinary hunting. I can't just kill people just like that."

The sudden thought seemed rather curious to Ray, but at that moment he was distracted by the sobbing sounds coming from the girl sitting in front of him