Chapitre 8: Knights of the holy light
"Mmm~ Master this is delicious!"
"Yeah, yeah. Don't talk while you eat."
"Okay, Master~"
Having passed the rest of the night uneventfully Alex eventually woke the up the sleeping Lia (who had almost managed to fall off the bed due to her constantly moving around in her sleep) and went to get the ever energetic girl some breakfast. Seeing as the person in question's appetite had only grown since the evening prior, Alex had a wry smile o his face as he noticed Lia was currently on her 3rd portion of porridge which she ate with a happy expression plastered all over her face.
(This one really doesn't have a care in the world, huh? Somehow I want to protect that overflowing happiness.)
Alex had never seen someone so happy to eat a meal up until he met Lia, it was perhaps due to that fact that a desire to protect that kid and make her happy started manifesting, as did the dark side of his personality. 'Why do I care so much about this brat anyway? She doesn't look to be worth much', 'it would be easier to just kill her and live my own life now that I've gotten a second chance', thoughts like that constantly found their way into his mind, but Alex managed to ignore all of them without any problem. Even if he wasn't aware of the reason why he could do that without any hassle, Alex had somehow come to care deeply for Lia, although Alex tough himself unable to harbour such feelings.
(Still, we need to move, and soon.)
Growing up on the streets Alex wasn't naive enough to believe that Lia would live her life from this moment without any worry, if anything Alex believed that someday, somehow, people would start hunting her or himself for the crimes they had committed. He couldn't allow such a thing to happen.
"Ah, it's the imposter."
Picking up an extremely quiet voice which he recognized, Alex turned his head to find the masked mage which Alex had met the night prior, it looked like she was in the process of checking out when her eyes had absentmindedly wandered to spot him. Seeing that she had been spotted the mage quickly finished up paying for her room while looking quite flustered, but instead of running away from Alex, she walked over to him in a brisk pace.
"G-good morning, mister imposter."
With a slightly nervous sounding voice, the masked mage greeted Alex, something he found somewhat surprising.
"Good morning miss mage, do you need anything from me?"
Phased with that sudden question the mage seemed quite unsure as to why she had greeted Alex in the first place, but after collecting her thoughts for a few seconds she seemed to remember something.
"Are you going to keep pretending to be a mage?"
"That's my plan yeah, it makes pulling off an outfit like this less suspicious."
With a straight forward and happy sounding answer Alex managed to once more fluster the mage, although he had no idea how."
"I-I see… Then you should leave this town now."
Turning surprisingly serious for the last bit of her sentence the masked mage quickly turned and left the inn, leaving Alex quite confused.
(What was that?....)
Sensing something wrong Alex sharped his senses before a bad premonition befell him.
"Lia."
"Yes, Master?"
Getting the glutton's attention Alex made a decision completely based on his gut feeling.
"We're leaving now, leave the rest of the food."
"O-okay Master."
Hearing how serious her master sounded Lia could only obey his command without question. Paying for the food and the inn stay, Alex left with Lia in tow, moving as quickly as his beastkin companion allowed him.
"Lia do you know if there are any large cities nearby?"
"I don't think there is, this entire place is the borderlands between two domains… Is this about what that masked lady said? How do you even know her?"
Getting an answer to his question Alex saw no issue with answering Lia's questions, as long as the two of them continued to move towards the exit of the town that is.
"She's a mage I met while you where sleeping. While I don't know for sure I feel like we should take her warning seriously, even is I still don't quite trust her."
"Huh? You don't trust her? Then why take her advice?"
The way she had seen it, Alex seemed quite happy to talk with the masked woman while she was busy eating, so it came as a surprise when her master said that he didn't trust her.
"I don't trust anyone unless I know their goal, but even still, she seemed afraid of something. If that mage is indeed afraid of something then we should be afraid too. You should learn to sense these things too Lia, it's a remarkably good tool for survival."
"U-understood Master, I'll do my best!"
The ability to read the surrounding atmosphere had saved Alex's life countless times doing his time in the slums where he had grown up, the sense to know when to hide and when to run away was one of his foremost tools of survival and thus, Alex relied on it and trusted it without question.
While some may call him a coward for that, Alex didn't really mind as being belittled was a much better alternative than ending up as another corpse in the local trash compactor.
-
Reaching the gate Alex spotted the masked mage in the midst of a bunch of travelling merchants leaving at first light, finding that she had a more calm air about her, Alex lowered his guard slightly as he went and queued up together with Lia to leave the town. Standing in line for a few minutes Alex gradually started zoning out as he started focusing his attention more on what the surrounding traders were talking about, but suddenly in the middle of that, he picked up the voice belonging to the masked mage.
"I know that, why do you think I'm-"
Focusing once more on the mage Alex suddenly noticed that she was talking with a cloaked man next to her, what's more, she didn't really seem to enjoy the conversation in the slightest, if anything, she seemed even more afraid than she was when she had spoken with Alex just a few minutes before that.
(Shit!)
Realizing what was going on Alex turned to Lia so he could grab her and run, Alex realized that he had been just a second too late.
"Lia!"
Finding Lia being dragged away with a knife pressed against her throat by another cloaked man Alex felt his rage starting to boil over.
"Let her go you piece of shit!"Parting he crowd near the gate with his angry and twisted voice Alex was met with a group of cloaked men standing against him, looking closely at them Alex spotted familiar looking armour under their cloaks.
(Fuck! It's the same as those people who tried to kill me! How the hell did they track me!?)
Even as his mind filled with unnecessary questions Alex sprang into action, turning his right arm into a sword he dug his feet into the ground before rushing the strange knights, or that's what he wanted to do at least.
"Wow, there! Why don't you stay there and stop moving, otherwise this lady might lose her head."
While one of the cloaked men restrained Lia, another one of them pressed a knife to her neck with such force that he drew blood while talking to Alex.
"Master just run away!""Like I could do that, you idiot! What the hell do you people want?!"
Scowling at the cloaked men Alex clearly felt that they were making fun of him, something he could absolutely not stand. As Lia continued to struggle to escape her captors eventually got tired of dealing with her and the man who held a knife to Lia's neck removed it, before punching her in the gut using his armoured fist with a considerable amount of force.
"GHA!"
Immediately puking up a fair bit of her breakfast Lia fell to the ground, curling up into a ball as the man who had punched her stepped down hard on her ribs, pinning her in place as he removed his cloak.
"We are here to exterminate some vermin! I am Claus, leader of the Knights core which takes orders only from the holy light!"
Showing off radiant and intricately engraved silver armour, the knight leader Claus revealed himself to be a man in his golden years, still what was visible of his scary riddled body told Alex that he was extremely well trained.
"Then why the hell are you mistreating that girl? She has done-"
"She has done plenty!"
Flaring with anger at a random comment from somewhere Claus once more kicked Lia who let out a pitiful scream in response.
"By being born with such cursed blood she is a follower of the darkness which threatens to destroy all, as a knight of the holy light it is my sacred duty to exterminate vermin like this piece of filth!"
Putting a hand on his longsword which was still in its scabbard, Claus pushed Lia over on her belly before stepping on her chest once more. Watching that entire facade with a grim expression on his face, Alex prayed to all the gods he knew, he just needed a single opportunity, some sort of distraction. Even as Claus continued to spit some sort of nonsense about how his goal was a holy one Alex completely zoned him out, instead he focused on Lia that was beneath his feet while almost sporadically looking for some sort of opportunity to close the distance just a fraction of a second faster than he could at the current moment.
(Isn't there anything!? The sun!? No, then that masked mage!? Also no, fuck!)
Noticing her master's panicked state through the blood that was dripping from her head over her eyes, Lia did her best to comfort him. Moving her mouth without creating any sound as Claus lifted up his sword which still was in its scabbard Lia knew what she wanted to say.
M A S T E R T H A N K Y O U F O R S A -
With the dull sound of bone breaking, Alex was snapped out of his panicked daze, looking with horror at Lia he saw how her eyes had turned dull as one of her legs slightly twitched.
The knight Claus had crushed her neck with his sword, using it as a blunt instrument, like he was putting down like some sick livestock.
"This is what happens to all the dark creatures of the world! We, the knights of the holy light will rid our world of such filth!"
L’AVIS DES CRÉATEURS 
Gamma420
Gamma420 Thanks for reading!~
I'll try and get another bonus chapter out before next week's chapter, so I'll see all of you then!
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone