Schwann ran out to the main streets. There would be no one this far out of the city. Just one turn into an alleyway, and he could escape through a hole in the city walls.
His eyes gleamed. Blood dripped down his horn to his forehead, streaking over his nose, before trickling down to the ground.
As his steps turned to the streets, he stopped.
A woman with long silver hair stared at him, her eyes a mix of disbelief and amusement. Next to her, a man in silver black armor had a similar reaction, albeit with his mouth opened in a tiny ‘o.’
“Am I going mad or is that a horn, Isaac?”
”I think that is a horn, Saintess.”
‘Saintess’
Had he heard right? Schwann felt his heart trembling. If just a minute… just a few seconds… if he was just slightly earlier, he would have left. If he had finished that Dark Mage off, if he hadn’t encountered him at all.
Before Schwann could decide on an action, the two people in front of him turned around and screamed as they started to run away!
“Aaaah! Isaac, it’s a demon! It’s the demon everyone was talking about! Eat Isaac, please!”
“No why me?! I don’t taste good! Eat her, no wait, we decided on brother coachman!”
The two of them fled like children seeing a scary adult. A soft smile etched on Schwann’s face.
He had heard wrong.
This was his chance.
Holding in a smile, he quickly ran ahead, toward the alleyway—
“Oh well, just kidding.”
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The armored knight and the woman both stopped and turned back. Schwann could only glance at their faces.
Their cold, indifferent faces.
The knight pulled a sword from his waist and gently swung it downward.
A flash of light filled the night sky.
A bright flash of night, like the coming of dawn.
All that remained were the two halves of the demon’s body as he fell to the ground.
“Huh, what a weak demon.”
“Shall we have the knights clean this up? I am hoping the Count will be insulted if he hears I encountered the demon.”
“What a cruel lady you are. At least I get credit for the good work.”
“What good work? It was just a bug. Are there any others?”
“No, I don’t sense any life.”
“Is that so? Then we are done here. May this demon’s soul get interrupted every five minutes as it tries to rest.”
“That’s your idea of hell? Why do you already subject me to that!?”
Their voices, like their footsteps, slowly faded away in the other direction.
***
.
.
.
There was no gasp this time, just eyes fluttering open.
One hand pushed the body off the ground and soon enough, soulless taps filled the ground.
Out of the space between the buildings, to the main street. The demon’s corpse was on the ground with the remnants of a powerful mana emission. There was no wonder here, it was obvious who had killed the demon in the passing of mere seconds.
There was no thought in the action of searching, of grabbing the flask of the living flame, no thought even as it appeared a shade brighter, and none yet as it was stoved in the bag.
The corpse of the demon was left behind as the turn into the long alleyway appeared. A final stretch away from this place.
Behind a hollow wooden crate was the hole out of the city. The escape that someone had just yearned for with all their lives was far too lackluster. Even the feeling of leaving the city was nothing great if it was a feeling in the first place.
As the soulless steps continued, the last vestiges of the city’s murmur, the splashes of the moving water, and the small hint of pain in the heart faded into nothing. They were left behind in the night.
Aimlessly, the steps continued. Slowly going past the outskirts, into the forests again, until a scent was carried with the air.
The scent of meat.
Hanging outside a run-down yet large house were the freshly cut heads of two oxen. The heads swayed in the wind.
“Pffft… hahha…”
A snort left and a laugh followed.
“Hahaha… Hahaha… HAHAHA!”
A hearty laugh straight from the stomach.
“HAHAHAHAHA! HAAAH… Oh… HAHAHAH!”
Covering his face with both his hands, shrugging his shoulders with every step, he laughed.
“Hahahaha”
Foolish Naive Ian laughed.
Naive Naive Ian laughed.
.
.
.
[Part 2: The Suffering (END)]
image [https://i.imgur.com/IaxXUEX.png]