The guards encircled me, and drew their swords from their sheaths.

"This is a misunderstanding, they weren't innocent! They were bribed to humiliate my mother and I, so I retaliated!"

'You dare spout lies in the midst of your judgement? Truly a coward, trying all you can to save your skin!"

One of the guards yelled, and their encirclement got smaller and smaller. The people watched curiously and were intrigued at the sight of a man being reprimanded by the guards.

"A criminal trying to become a paladin? Of course he would get caught!"

"Now I wonder if there's any actual paladin who has a criminal record."

As the tension grew more and more, I could feel my forehead starting to sweat from it. This is the work of that Ewell bastard!

Tch*

Before they could make a move on me, I ran to the nearest guard. His face showed a flash of surprise, but he still didn't panick and plunged his sword in my direction. I dove over him and his sword, rolled on the floor, and bolted.

"He's nimble! Don't let the criminal get away!"

The guards chased after me as I ran away from the entrance. I could feel them catching up behind me. If I didn't do something, they were going to catch me. I ran through an alleyway, and saw the busy streets of the inner district. I decided to hide inside of a nearby trash bin as I heard foot steps around the corner. I made myself as quiet as possible as I saw the guards coming into view through a hole from inside.

"He got away.. we won't be able to find him in this crowd."

Tch*

The guards, one by one, after deciding they wouldn't be able to catch me, unsheathed their swords.

"I wonder why Ewell hates this kid so much.. the bastard looked eager to be a paladin."

"You gotta be kidding, that kid a paladin? He should sign up to be a bandit instead!"

The guards laughed for a while.

"Yeah, he was pretty desperate to make his life a living hell, the money's proof."

"Poor kid."

"He won't last another day."

The guards slowly made their way back to the Hall of Order. When they were out of sight, I came out of the trash bin.

I clenched my fists. First it was the staff at the inn, now the guards at the Hall of Order. I wondered to myself who wasn't corrupted in this city. I need to make sure mom's safe.

I took one last look towards the direction the guards went to, and ran into the massive crowd.

She told me to meet her in the outer district, near the east gate. I pushed my way through the crowd, and made my way through the alleyways into the outer district. Since the examinations were happening, most of the outer district was quieter and emptier than usual. Please be alright.

I ran through the empty street, towards the direction of the east gate. There were still some shady looking traders on the street, looking at me with a strange smile as I ran past them. The gate in view, I stopped and looked around in search of her. Nowhere to be found, I ran over to the guard of the gate and asked if they saw any signs of a woman with a giant sack around here. Normally there would be more, but with the examination, most were assigned to make sure the event was under control.

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He replied with a smile.

"What's your name, kid?"

I took a two steps back, and grit my teeth. This guy's in his pocket too..

I lunged at him and sank my fist on his face. He was sent tumbling back, surprised at my sudden attack. Before he could react, I sprinted over to him and grabbed the blade from his hip. I went ontop of him and held the tip of it at his neck. Blood started to slowly flow from his skin getting pierced, and I yelled in his face.

"WHERE THE FUCK IS MY MOTHER!"

The guard's face went white.

"T-they took her behind the building over t-there! Please, don't kill me!"

The guard quickly spoke, not sparing any time in order to save his life. I didn't care.

I sank the blade deep into his throat, until it came out from the other end.

Truth is, I'm not a good person. I'm 19 years old, but by the time I was 12, I already took the life of more than twenty men. In the capital of Uthernan, many people wanted to take advantage of my mother. Even though she's strong, people don't fear her. She's been an adventurer and has killed many bandits and the like, but she's put that all away and told herself she wouldn't kill anymore. She retired early, the bloodshed was too much for her to make a living out of. The Adventurer Guild she signed up in, on Mainland, thought it was a waste. I was nothing like her.

My mother is beautiful, and people look at her with lustful gazes and try to flirt with her all the time. Even though they're beat up every time, she still goes easy on them. But once I noticed they were planning to force my mother, I gave them a death sentence. There were many people like that in Miudard, mostly part of gangs and bandit groups. It was a poor city.

The first one I killed was when I was eight. There was a guy eyeing my mom, one of the guards of the city. He would persist daily, and it seemed he wouldn't take no for an answer. I gave him the death sentence when he tried to grab at my mother and was kicked in the face. Instead of stopping, he was about to unsheathe his sword when the other guards came and asked what the commotion was about.

He would get off at the night shift, and while my mother was asleep, I grabbed the kitchen knife and went towards his home. I found that out by trailing him one day, and once I arrived, I picked the door and made my way in. It was dark inside, no lights were on. I went to his bedroom, and he lay soundly asleep. I drove the knife into his heart with all my strength. He instantly opened his eyes, and looked at me with bloodshot eyes as he vomited a mouthful of blood. He died a few moments after, and his body went limp.

They found his body in the morning in a nearby alley.

Again and again, the process repeated itself. Bastards wouldn't give up, push too far, and I killed them. My mother didn't know about it. I admired the paladins, the heroes of justice that I heard in the various stories of various wars against the demons. I aspired to be like them, and I knew that they wouldn't kill people. I eventually came to terms with myself, and I decided to stop. So I trained, again and again, both my body and mind. I would always kill them at night, in their weakest and unsuspecting mindset, because I was too weak to fight them head-on. I was quick to anger.

I trained myself to let out my anger instead of pent it up, and made my body able to face them head-on in a fight, and beat the shit out of them in front of my mother, instead of my hatred building up inside of me, and outright killing them when I couldn't contain it anymore. I was an insane kid.

Then the invasion happened, and all hell broke loose. It was the first time I saw innocent people die. The ones I killed were all some type of corruption, a plague and disease that needed to be dealt with. But the people who died that day were neighbours, friends. They didn't deserve to die.

But these people did. They threatened me and my mother's life, and I had to kill them. Ewell needed to die, and everyone who interacted with him.

I took the blade out of his throat, and the blood splashed on me. I hadn't had this feeling in a while.

I ran into the direction the guard pointed to, an alleyway nearby that lead to behind the building he was talking about. The shady traders on the street were perplexed at the sight of the murder for a moment, then went back to what they were doing.

As I neared the end of the alleyway, I turned behind the building. Surrounded by a group of men, my mother's body lied on the dirty floor, her lifeless eyes staring straight at me. Several corpses were all over the place, and many wounds were seen all over her dead body.

"This fucking whore had a lot of fight in her.."

"We're not done yet boys, Ewell wants the kid too."

The one who spoke, a tall, muscular bandit with a broadsword behind his back, turned around and faced me.

"Speak of the devil."