Billy had been easing himself into a bush, just when a pair of kids ran into him. Travelling on the road for the past 2 months had been exhausting and he was just happy that he finally arrived at his destination. So imagine his surprise when one of those kids was a boy with a tail and dog-like ears, wearing a collar and broken shackles.

The boys were scared at first and Billy intended to not get involved in their matters, until one of the boys asked for help, saying "Rosine and Belfry will die if you don't help us!". Now having no choice but to aid them, Billy somehow ended up here, facing off against a tattooed man.

From his dressing style and skin colour, Billy instantly surmised he was from the South. Either a bandit from the crimson sea or a citizen of the Ahmar Empire. But upon further observation, he noticed something even odd.

"That tattoo." He dropped his sword, then gave the man a quizzical look. "The hell's a son of the Red Empress doing all the way out here? I figured your type tended to never leave the desert."

The Children of The Red Empress was a massive organisation that resided in the Crimson Sea. It wasn't until 6 years ago that they were officially recognised as the main religion of the Great Ahmar Empire, and even then, not much was still known about it by outsiders. Its members were never seen outside of the Crimson Sea.

"I'm not a believer in the Red Empress.", The man pounced on Billy. "Don't ever assume I'd devote my life to that cult!"

The man's curved blade met iron in a clash of sparks.

"That's unfortunate." Effortlessly, Billy brushed the blade off. "I was hoping I'd be able to use you to send a message to Kamran The Jumping Scorpion, but seeing as you have no value…"

He swung his blade, and for the very first time in years, the mercenary struggled to block the attack. His arms shook under the weight of Billy's sword.

"Oh, you actually blocked that. I'm impressed.", Billy swung his sword once more, bringing it down with a little bit more force than before.

The mercenary this time, opted to steal his opponent's blade instead, bringing his blade quickly from the side, hooking it and trying to pull. No matter how hard tugged however, Billy's grip on his sword didn't waver. Rashly, the mercenary switched ideas to rather, simply cut Billy's side. However, upon impact with Billy's body, the sword bounced off like a stick.

"W-What?", The mercenary spat, jumping back.

Billy, with a dead pan expression and tired eyes, simply struck a casual blow to the mercenary's abdomen, causing him to curl over, spitting out saliva.

"It's always the cocky ones that don't know their place."

Done with the mercenary, Billy turned around to face the child.

He was a tiny, lithe boy with messy blonde hair and scarlet red eyes. In more ways than one, the boy reminded him of someone he knew and it was eerily unsettling.

'He can't be…'

"You saved Belfry!", Both children from before, popped up from the bushes.

Billy thought over their sudden appearance for a moment. Considering they were in the Bewildering Forests, them appearing this early was unnatural, but he chose to assign the reason for their early escape to the beast boy's nose. It was a risky choice to leave them in the forest alone, but there was no way he'd be able to move at full speed with them coming along.

"Didn't you say there was one more?", He asked, looking around.

Both children came forward and looked around, also confused.

"She ran off when I told her to.", The blonde boy finally spoke.

Billy's eyes darted back to the boy. He was staring up at Billy with something that looked akin to relief, awe and hints of caution.

"That's a fine light in your eyes, kid.", Billy turned back to face the mercenary. "As soon as I'm done with this guy, we'll go look for this Rosine girl, then send you all back home."

**********

Belfry POV

When this mysterious man first appeared, I felt somewhat relieved, but I quickly raised my guard once more as soon as I saw him very easily overpower the mercenary. The way the mercenary's weapon bounced off his body still had in me in awe, as there was no sound of something like metal. I wanted to believe he had chainmail or any other form of armour underneath his leather vest, but it wasn't looking likely.

And now, as he was heroically staring down the vile mercenary, I had only one thought in my mind.

'This man is a hero!'[p1]

"W-W-Wait! Please listen to me!", The mercenary dropped his weapon and kowtowed, burying his head deep into the ground. The hero's shoulders slacked, clearly confused by the sudden loss of gusto. "T-The kids stole from us. W-W-We overreacted. We just wanted our property back! I swear!"

Well, he wasn't wrong. We were the instigators in this situation. He had all rights to be angry, but him trying to kidnap us and sell us as slaves just made him wrong in this situation!

"That doesn't mean you should be trying to kill them. They're just dumb kids." He sheathed his weapon, heaving a heavy, exhausted breath.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

'Yes! You tell him! We're just a bunch of stupid kids! No reason to kill us- wait! I'm not stupid, ok?'

"You two, come over here."

He crouched, beckoning both Lesley and the beast boy over. The two quickly came towards him and Lesley looked at them from head-to-toe. More specifically, he was inspecting the beast boy and checking for any injuries.

"You know, you shouldn't be doing stupid and illegal things like this.", He lectured, combing through the boy's body.

Instinctively, I could tell what he was doing, but it was still somewhat hard to believe.

"Some whip scars on his back, lack of meat on his bones and overall dirtiness."

Malnutrition and whip marks, made me believe he was most likely smaller than his actual age. Unfortunately, the beast boy was probably fine by slaver standards.

"Well, this is some fine product you've got."

Suddenly, Lesley, the beast boy and I, realised what sort of situation we were in. Billy was an adult male who just ran into a bunch of idiot kids being punished for doing something wrong. By any logical standards, he really had no right to interfere.

"How much?"

"Huh?"

"How much for the product? I'll buy him."

The mercenary's eyes widened as he staggered back up. He wrapped his fingers around the handle of his weapon and carefully answered Billy's question.

"H-He's not for sale. A n-noble has already purchased him."

"Which noble?"

"I c-can't possi-", Mid-sentence, Billy placed his hand on the hilt of his blade, threatening the mercenary. "I don't know! I swear! I'm just a watch dog for the product. I don't actually do the business! I couldn't sell the beast even if I wanted to."

"Hm, so you know absolutely nothing?"

"W-Well, I heard it's a marquess from the North. That's about as much as I know."

"A marquess, huh?" Billy let go of the hilt of his sword, then fell silent for a moment. Then with the brightest smile I'd ever seen, he just said, "Guess there's nothing I can do then. Hahaha! Here's your product."

Then flung him into the woods.

"What!?", I yelled.

"Hey!", Lesley growled, jumping at Billy. "The hell are you doing?"

"Sorry kid, but this is the best way to help you out.", Billy pushed Lesley down then faced in the direction he'd thrown the beast.

"Now that you've got your property back, I trust these children are pardoned?"

From the thick cover of the bushes and trees, gruff-looking men of varying sizes, came out, baring their weapons and glares.

I didn't sense them or even notice them watching us.

'When did they get here and just how long had they been planning on watching us? And just when-!?'

My eyes shifted to Billy who now wore the same tired and bored expression from before. From the way he reacted to them, he'd noticed them far earlier than I did and most likely came to a decision after that.

"The hell you think this is?", The biggest man, came forward, wielding his mallet. "We're going to k-"

"Shut up, Kareem!", The mercenary from before, cut off the bigger mercenary, sauntering over.

"But, Jabir-"

The mercenary shut him down with a single glare. Kareem dropped his mallet then backed down.

"We'll just take the kid and leave quietly. I believe that is enough?", Jabir asked, now standing next to his allies.

"That works for-"

"Wait!" A loud voice cut through the noise. Coming from behind was Lola holding both Rosine and a patched-up Polka in her hands.

"Haha! Now you dimwits are going to get it!", Rosine yelled, causing quite a few of the men's veins to pop out.

I on the other hand was praying she wouldn't make things any worse here. Lola put Rosine on the ground then walked over to Kareem, sizing him up. It didn't help that she was smaller than he was.

"You're going to punish the beast boy for running, right?", She interrogated, looking at the child.

"What's it to you, little lady?", The hulking man growled, slowly tightening his grip on the mallet.

"I want the children to watch."

"What?"

"Eh?

"Huh?"

Everyone had a shocked expression of some sort.

"That should be punishment enough. Letting them see what their thoughtless actions can do."

Everyone was confused by her sudden proposal.

**********

It took some time, but they agreed to her request. Now, we were all standing there, facing a slab of stone that had been placed in the middle of the road.

Slowly and sadistically, they dragged the boy over to the slab of stone. They put new chains on him, then pinned him down.

"Where's the saw?", Jabir reached out his hand, to the air, requesting for a tool. A man with a nose piercing stepped forward, handing over what looked like a butcher's knife. The cleaver's blade was a mix of reddish-brown and black. It's cutting edge was chipped and broken. Looking at it alone, one could easily tell that such a blunt weapon would be quite inefficient when trying to cut something.

However, when the goal was to cause as much pain as possible, a rusted cleaver was one way to go.

The beast boy looked at us, begging for help.

Jabir pulled the beast boy's right arm forward,[p2] then placed the rusty cleaver on his wrist. The rust formed a line on his wrist. In a twisted sort of genius, he'd just made a mark for himself.

While all this was happening, I had a tiny sliver of hope that even though the blade was completely inefficient, the mercenary's superhuman strength would allow him to do it in one blow. There was no escaping this, so he might as well get it done with as fast as possible, right?

"Kekeke, I'm going to enjoy this very much.", He muttered, raising the cleaver just a bit above his shoulder, then bringing it down. The cleaver barely made a cut, but I could hear the sound of bones cracking.

The beast boy howled in pain, his eyes turning bloodshot and his fangs coming out in full fury. He tried to claw at Jabir's face, but the mercenary slapped his claw away with the cleaver, then brought it down again, this time, spilling blood.

"Haha!", A thunderous laughter erupted amongst the crowd. They started to make jokes and taunt the boy.

Jabir brought it down again, this time, exposing the bone. The rusted metal brought out little bits of meat. Blood jutted out like a fountain. The boy's ears and tail stood tall as he tried to get his hand out of the way.

He looked around, trying to find something to help. Eventually, his eyes landed on mine. I looked him dead in the eyes. I saw him plead with me to do something. Anything. Whatever I could to lessen his suffering.

A thought came to my mind.

I stretched my hand forward and mana started to flow to it. There was one way that would end his suffering as quickly as possible.

"Don't do it, kiddo.", I felt a firm grip on my shoulder. To my side, Billy was simply watching the scene unfold. "Think about what happens if you do it. If not for your sake, at least don't do it for those around you."

I looked to my left. Rosine and Lesley stood, tears flowing down their cheeks. Rosine was being held back by Lola. She was screaming and trying to jump at the mercenary. In her eyes, all I could see was righteous fury that wasn't going to be quelled. Her skin was starting to smoke as her eyes lit up. Sensing the potential danger in that, Lola knocked her out cold.

Lesley on the other hand clutched his fists tight to the point I saw blood dripping. Somehow, this child was being more mature and logical than I was.[p3]

'How embarrassing.'

I dropped my hand. The light of hope left the boy's eyes. Now, all I saw was a dead boy, screaming as he was being tormented.

They made us stand there and watch, as the boy's right hand fell off to the ground. He howled and squirmed and clawed at anything, trying to cope with the pain, but it was too much.

One of the men then brought a blade forward. The blade glowed bright yellow. He placed this on the wound, cauterising it heartlessly, with a wide smirk on his face.