Ajax feels sick. The men around Ajax and Shaula are all unconscious. They’ve all passed out simply from the pain inflicted on them.
“Ajax… we did… the best we could with what we had.”
“...yeah.”
Clang.
Ajax and Shaula hear a noise. Rather they’ve been hearing a few noises for a while now. The four glave-wielders are still fighting against the two bandits at the front of their formation.
The sounds of glave and sword parrying pervade their surroundings. Ajax and Shaula can see the four men start to overpower the two bandits.
The two bandits are in fear after Ajax and Shaula so easily immobilized their allies. The leader of the bandits is still fighting valiantly but the one fighting alongside him is starting to get sloppy.
“...alright, let’s go help those guys defeat the last two bandits, Shaula.”
“You can sit this one out, I can just deal with it--”
“No. No, I’m not going to let you do that. I know you’re more used to this kind of thing than me but I’m going to have to learn as it is. I can’t stay weak t-to bloodshed.”
“I wouldn’t mind it, for now, Ajax. You’ve helped me out a lot already. Between the two of us, I could fight all of these guys singlehandedly. I understand your strength but your will isn’t up to par yet and that’s ok. It’s only the second--”
Crack.
Ajax and Shaula turn their heads abruptly to that sound they’ve just heard. Ajax had heard it before. A sound that was accompanied by his heart being torn apart, by his spinal column being separated, from his thigh being shattered.
The sound of bones breaking.
Ajax and Shaula look towards the battle they were about to enter. One man, the bandit commander, is facing four men in combat. But where is his partner in arms? Hadn’t there just been a man moving haphazardly against his enemies?
Shaula can see the man a distance away from the battle. He is lying down on the ground, his body unmoving. His neck is…
“Oh my god...”
Shaula speaks these words and Ajax runs towards the man. He runs faster than he’s ever run before.
“Hey! Are you ok? Are you alive? Hey!!”
Ajax kneels beside the man and tries to talk to him while attempting to carefully remove his helmet.
“Shaula!!!”
Ajax calls for Shaula after getting a look at the man’s face. His mouth is drooling and his eyes are twitching. He’s choking. His broken neck is affecting his respiration.
His face is light tan and scarred. This man has suffered great things already and his suffering is coming to an end. His hair is medium-length and dark brown. Ajax notices his ears. They’re on the top of his head and shaped like the ears of a cat.
He’s alive… technically.
Shaula rushes over at Ajax’s cry towards her. He’s in a panic. He’s had two men die in front of him already back at the facility. Both of them had died before he could even try to save them or prevent their deaths.
But now, this man is here on the verge of death. Not yet dead but…
“What… what is this guy? His ears...”
“Shaula! Shaula, do you know, like, first aid or anything? How do I stop this guy from dying?”
“Huh? A-Ajax, he’s--”
“Shaula, please! He’s still… he’s still alive right now! His eyes are moving. He can be saved, right? Right!?”
Shaula takes a look at the cat-eared man. He’s choking because the nerves controlling his inhalation and exhalation are misfiring. This is probably due to his broken neck.
She looks at his belly and sees blood pouring from his abdomen. His face is unconscious and his eyes closed and twitching. His complexion is turning bluish-purple as he suffocates.
“Ajax… he’s… he’s not going to make--”
“Rayn! Get away from him!! Rayn, are you alive!? Rayn!!”
Ajax and Shaula turn their heads. They see the bandit commander on the ground being held down by three men and lying on his front. His helmet is off.
He is a man with white hair, a fair complexion and ears on the top of his head as well.
He’s facing the direction of Ajax and Shaula yelling to check the safety of the man dying next to them. Ajax and Shaula didn’t notice it but he had already been dealt with quickly and unmasked by the merchant’s personnel.
Ajax and Shaula notice the man is successfully incapacitated. Three men have their knees on his back, his hip and his calves. He cannot move at all.
“Let me go, you bastards! You pieces of shit, I gonna rip your fucking heads off!!”
The thin man walks towards the pinned bandit commander. One of the four bronze armoured men pushes the head of the bandit commander into the ground, forcing him silent and breaking his nose.
Ajax and Shaula can hear the muffled screams of the bandit commander. Ajax looks away from it.
“Sir, should we bring this one for the bounty? These ones have been at large for a while now, right?”
“Mm. You’ve got a bag in the carriage, right? One of you men, go get it. Also, tell my wife and daughter that everything’s been handled.”
“Yes, sir.”
The man who is holding the bandit commander down by his hips springs up towards the carriage to get a large cloth bag to place the bandit’s corpse into. He obeyed the command of the thin man because the thin man is their leader.
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He is the merchant who the bandits had been hoping to rob and kill.
The bounty on this group of bandits can be collected regardless of whether they’re dead or alive. Their leader’s intact corpse will be needed to get the reward.
Ajax and Shaula look at the thin man and they recognize him to be the guy in charge of the carriage.
The merchant crouches at the face of the captive bandit commander. He looks to his guard holding his bandit’s head down.
“Raise his head for me, will you?”
“Sir?”
“I just want to speak to this mongrel. I might as well give him a chance to apologize before he faces judgment.”
“Yes, sir.”
The man holding the bandit commander’s head down raises it by his thick, white hair. Ajax and Shaula can see his nose bleeding and visibly deformed. Yet, his eyes still have some fight to them.
He’s not phased. He’s not afraid. He’s prepared himself for this outcome.
“Sigh. Why did you have to attack me? What did I ever do to you?”
The man speaks in a calm, annoyed manner. It is the kind of calmness that one feels when they are in full control of their opponent. The merchant has full control of this man’s life and fate.
The bandit commander doesn’t speak.
“Speak, furball. I’m giving you the opportunity to apologize for this wrong you’ve committed against me and my family.”
“...Don’t call me that.”
Ajax and Shaula notice the tone of speech that the merchant is speaking to his captured assailant in. A clear racial animus can be heard.
“Hm? Oh, you don’t like that? Well, how do you think I feel after you threatened me and my family today? Here I am with them, enjoying this beautiful day that the wonderful Sapiora has blessed us with and… hm? Oh, wait… where’s your tail?”
The bandit commander freezes at this provocation. The merchant’s tone turns jovial. Ajax and Shaula walk towards the two of them having this conversation. Ajax feels his anger start to rise in his chest.
Ajax and Shaula both process the fact that these bandits are a different race altogether. Both of them also start to consider the manner in which the merchant has been speaking to this man.
Ajax tries to walk towards the man but Shaula stops him. She wants them both to keep a certain distance and wait for the man to deal with the beastkin. They’re still very much strangers to this group.
They also need to make sure they can get their proper reward. At the very least, they can ask to keep the weapons that the bandits dropped and with the bandits all restrained, they can have unrestricted access to their cave.
Additionally, they can receive information about nearby population centres and about this world in general. They don’t even know how money works yet. A merchant is a wonderful find for them.
The merchant continues talking about the whereabouts of the bandit commander’s tail,
“Ah… I see! I see! You’ve already been caught for something and they cut off your tail as recompense.”
“...shut up.”
“Well, all you had to do was obey the law but you mutts couldn’t even do that much? Uneducated, poor and backwards… Don’t you think you were better off as our pets than--”
The merchant feels something hit his helmet. The bandit commander has spit blood at the merchant’s covered face.
“You ungrateful little… you can’t see the hospitality I’m offering you!? Just for that, I’m going to cut your ears off and scalp you before killing you!”
“Fuck you, you piece of shit!”
The merchant feels spit land on his helmet once again.
Ajax and Shaula notice the hatred flowing between the two of them. Ajax understands he’s witnessing pure racism. He’s hearing a kind of racism common in pre-modern times.
Shaula understands that the bandit commander is part of the subjugated race or subjugated class and the merchant, as well as humans in general like her and Ajax, are part of the oppressor class in this world.
The merchant trembles with rage and the man who spit at his face smiles as blood continues to flow from his mouth and nose. Then, the merchant stops and bows his head in exasperation.
He removes his left gauntlet. Ajax and Shaula cannot see it clearly but in his gauntlet is a compartment that holds a small knife.
“Sigh… I offered you a chance to apologize… maybe, just maybe, I would have taken you in alive...”
“...Liar... You would never spare--”
Before the bandit commander could even finish his sentence, in one quick motion, the merchant removes the knife from its hiding place in his left gauntlet and stabs through the bandit’s jugular vein.
The knife pierces the windpipe which causes blood to flow from the man’s jugular into his lungs. The bandit commander starts to drown in his own blood.
Ajax sees what has happened. He cannot yet process the state of events before his eyes. Shaula is not surprised. This is what she had expected to happen. Something she had somewhat wished for Ajax to see and have no ability to prevent.
In this world, Ajax might never have to kill. Shaula would kill their enemies for both of them. Ajax is a good person, perhaps the only good person in this morally backwards place. But it would be astronomically harder for him to prevent death.
“...why did you do that?”
“Hm?”
Ajax speaks up in shock towards the merchant. The guards holding down the now dead bandit commander look in his direction. They feel fear.
The merchant finally takes a good look at their benefactor.
“Ah, you... What do you mean exactly?”
“He was… captured. You had won. You didn’t have to… you could have brought him to jail with you.”
Ajax slowly walks forward towards the merchant.
“What? It is my right to kill these men who tried to trample over my life and my livelihood. Is this your first time seeing bandits disposed of? I’m going to kill the rest of them next and take their heads to claim the bounty.”
“...what?”
Ajax continues walking towards him, his face slowly losing all expression. He’s in a state of anguish and despair. His heart feels wounded by something.
His emotions have been turned off as if they were controlled by a faucet the whole time.
The actions of this man who had trampled upon human life without regard for its dignity or worth… the man who had degraded his captive enemy by pointing to his position in society as the oppressor class.
Ajax didn’t like any of it.
“These are beastkin, child! Beastkin men turn to crime, it’s in their blood!”
“...”
“I mean, they spend their time on vices like drug use and gambling, they’re suddenly confused where all their money... went? Th-They should b-be grateful we freed them from slavery and a-allowed them to live in our human cities… Otherwise, th-they’d just be f-fodder for the demons. Th-This is how they repay o-our gift? Huh?”
“...”
Ajax walks closer to the merchant until he’s four feet away. At this moment, the merchant can feel Ajax’s intent clear as day.
The merchant’s guards who saw Ajax and Shaula’s battle prowess... don’t move in defence of their master. They move back. Perhaps they’re not paid enough to handle a demigod.
“Wh-where are you men going!? Get back h--”
Ajax grabs the merchant’s helmet in his hands. His face remains expressionless, sapped of all happiness and joy.
Shaula looks at him, unmoving. She feels tears well up in her eyes. Not for the man who died. Not for any of the people who this merchant wants to kill. But for… her best friend who was made to witness something like that.
She doesn’t stop him. She knows what’s about to happen now.
Maybe… maybe he’ll feel better if he does this… maybe I could never have prevented him from becoming like… me...
“I don’t understand… He was helpless. He wasn’t going to be able to hurt you anymore. Why did you… why did you do that? Why did you… why did you kill him like he was…”
“What are you, some kind of beast lover--”
“Shut up! CONSUME!”
Frost covers the helmet of the merchant instantly. Ajax feels power and vitality circle his body. The merchant’s body freezes solid and instantly falls apart like a brittle pillar of sand. Ajax holds his intact head in his hands.
“Shit… why did you make me do this!?”
Ajax closes his hands with the merchant’s frozen head still in them; the merchant’s helmet and skull fall apart, crumbling away to dust, no feature of his face recognizable anymore.
Ajax has taken his third life. Easily.