Chapter 11: Delusion of Vengeance
The spacious mansion of the Crawley family, not too long ago so gracious and glorious, now lay in ruin, brought down by war or calamity. Even the outside walls were charred from the continuous flames that swallowed the pride, love, and very lives of many inhabitants. Most of the servants were the sole survivors of this tragedy, caused by a notorious criminal, the worst of the worst. At that moment, they sat on the benches in the garden, silently weeping about the loss of their jobs as well as the landlord, who had been tragically killed by the so-called Simon.
The guards took notes of what had happened, along with the physical description of Simon, which was provided by a pale doctor. After a short interrogation, the guards from the town of Wülgenville stepped aside to give the victims some time to meditate. Their eyes were filled with both frustration and fear of the one who could commit such an act.
"Not only did he kill the master of the manor, but also his teenage daughter! What kind of monster could he be?"
"Maybe it was caused by the darewolf that was recently spotted near Wülgenville? It really is hard to believe that they would be murdered for helping someone out."
"What if Mister Michael Crawley did something to Simon? Maybe offended him in some way?" suggested one guard, but they unanimously shook their heads with one actually voicing their thought, "Even if so, it just does not make sense why he would kill Lady Elen and burn down the mansion!"
So far, their brainstorming did not bring them anywhere, which was not surprising. The Schöltum region was considered one of the safest among others, so much so that their government had banned common currency in order to drop the crime rate even further. The most dangerous thing out there were monsters that came to these lands from the monster realm, thus suspecting a darewolf was one valid option, however, the number of witnesses made it hard to believe.
One of the guards turned to another one, who sat further away from the group in the wagon, "What do you think, Heindrich? You have been awfully quiet all this time. Do you have something on your mind?"
Heindrich looked at his comrades wearily, slowly nodding to the question and stepping down from the wagon. All the other guards also stood up and saluted him, but immediately stopped after Heindrich waved his hand. He looked at the ground for a second, then turned to the mansion to explain his theory.
"The description of the man named Simon… is awfully familiar, don't you think?"
The guards exchanged looks with each other, some of them shrugged, but then one suggested, "Well, his description matches that one kid who locked you up in the walls, but Wülgenville is quite far away from here. I do not think he could end up here on foot."
"The family took him in on their own volition. He was found by the road in an awful state," corrected him Heindrich and then tapped his forehead in thought. "The kid… Dusk could have slipped through our garrison, poisoned himself in the forest, or whatever happened to him, and then been taken away by the Crawley family."
"But to think that a kid would do something so brutal…"
The guards hesitated for a moment, scepticism rising among their ranks. However, Heindrich shook his head and replied, "Even if I am wrong, it does not matter. Simon or Dusk showed himself to be a brutal criminal who needs to be brought to justice. Although we might have tight competition for his head in the future… When will Lady Crawley return home?"
"One of the maids said that in a few days."
Heindrich tapped his forehead again and turned away to mount the wagon, "Then we can't afford to waste time. We should find Dusk before her arrival, or else we will lose another life as well as let the lady stain her hands in blood even further."
The men saluted Heindrich once again and prepared wagons to carry all the servants to the town. One of them wrote a letter addressed to Lady Manuela Crawley, asking to change her point of destination and arrive in the town of Wülgenville.
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I rode my horse as far away as I possibly could. I passed several more lone buildings, realizing that it was rather a community of nobles and not just one house stranded far away from civilization. This made me lucky that the night was tight, and even in the moonlight, it would be hard to witness a man riding a horse at great speed. Once there were no more branches along the way and the wilderness grew dense, I slowed down.
The blood rush finally stopped, and I realized the situation I was in. Not only had I killed a noble family, but I was also stranded in the forest yet again. But at least now I had provisions and a horse that did not seem to be bothered by the nature of the one who rode it. I gently patted the horse, to which the animal huffed and bobbed its head a little.
I decided to stop by another field, but this time with more preparations set in stone. From the Crawleys' mansion, I had taken several more things besides food. An oil lamp, a flint, a bedsheet, a rope, and even some coal were a few things in my backpack. In the dark, I prepared a campsite, while also tying the horse to a nearby tree. I tramped the grass around two places to form circles; one of them was filled with coal and branches I picked up around, and the other was occupied by the bedsheet and a few twigs to form a flimsy shelter. After several minutes of struggle, I even managed to set the wood on fire, which reminded me of the Crawley mansion that I had left behind.
Upon envisioning the dead bodies of both Michael and Elen, my hands trembled, although I was not really sure whether they did due to the excitement or horror of my actions. I did not think I was going mad. Furthermore, I did not harm anyone else in the process, at least not involuntarily anyway. All I did was the assassination of pesky nobles who must have done plenty of terrible things to common folk. Why else would they have relocated then? For sure, to escape their sinful past! Thus, I was simply committed to the role of vengeance. Whatever they did, common folk just like me could sleep tight now because those nobles were finally gone.
I would need to take more vengeance for someone else in the future. Ah, what a tragic role befell upon me. However, there was no choice but to yield to the whims of many and strip those few of their riches. It sure was not right that despite the lack of currency, there were still those above and below. I certainly couldn't overlook that. Moreover, there was no other way to get stronger. My main objective remained the same, I needed to kill a God. Which made this frenzy a fine training to commit the deed. I needed to do it for the sake of Solitaire as well, huh.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone