章節 8: 08A Girl In A Blood Puddle
A silhouette appeared outside the cave while Arthur fought against the bandit captain. The silhouette had the built of a man.
He stopped near the three unconscious bodies that Arthur had previously knocked out. As soon as he walked away, three bloody holes appeared on their neck.
"Trash has no place in this world."
When he entered the cave, the prisoners revealed a terrified expression looking at him and didn't dare to disturb him as he moved forward, ignoring them. He seemed to be in a hurry but didn't spare the bandits' lives on the way.
After a bout of walking through the cave, the man reached the end of the cave. The scene in front of him shocked him to the core. Gravely injured bandits laid on the blood pool, twitching and shrilled in pain. They were begging him to kill.
However, that's not the shocking part. He looked ahead to see a young boy sitting on a bulky man. The man was twitching in pain as a sword was nailing his hand to the ground. The young boy was holding the sword and applying pressure to make the man under his knees.
"Speak!" The young man said in a hoarse voice. He was extremely angry to the extent his entire body was trembling.
The bandit captain laughed mockingly and spat blood on Arthur's face, "Haha...Ashtide family should litter with corpses by now."
Dodging the spit, Arthur removed the sword from his palm and pierced it deeper again. He ignored the shrill screams of the captain and asked, "Where is the West Skull's base located?"
Arthur didn't believe they would kill his family for nothing. They want something from them, perhaps the treasure, but knowing his father's temperament there was no way he would yield so easily. So they must've taken his family to the West Skull's base.
When Arthur found out that the information his father got was fake and they intentionally spread such information to lure Layman away, a second-transformation enhancer, he had trembled in anger. But he felt incomparably calm. The angrier he got, the calmer he became.
He knew that to save them; he had to know where they had taken too. There was nothing he could do without knowing the location of West Skull's base. That is the reason Arthur didn't knock out the boss. He tortured and interrogated him for more information.
At first, the bandit captain, Reve, didn't give in. He was sure that a tiny boy-like Arthur wouldn't be able to do much harm to him. He was looking for an opportunity to escape him and make him pay. But he underestimated the young man in front of him. Under Arthur's constant torture, he finally gave in and revealed the location of West Skull's base. Arthur was correct, they were after the treasure, and that was the family heirloom.
However, he felt something amiss. Even he, the young Master of the Ashtide family, didn't know what their family heirloom was. How could the bandit know about that? There was surely a mole in their family. He knew that he could find the mole later and his priority was to save his mum, dad, and his little sister. Thinking of the harm that could befall them enraged him.
Arthur got up and turned around after extracting the information from Reve. He jumped in fright upon seeing a bulky man looking at him with a grim expression.
He patted his chest and asked, "Why are you here?" Not bothering to wait for an answer, his tone turned grim as he asked, "You heard everything, right Uncle Layman?"
The man nodded.
——————
Back inside the wagon.
Arthur and Layman stared at each other. Gath trembled in fear, wishing that 'the giant' wouldn't take all his anger out on him again. He treasured his remaining precious teeth.
The two men inside the wagon, who were in loggerheads with each other, paid little attention to Gath's thoughts. Had they known, he might not keep his remaining teeth.
"Young master, you are not strong enough to face the bandits. So I better go save them," Layman said. His tone was full of determination, with no room for arguments.
Arthur didn't speak anymore as he took a deep breath and he unsheathed the sword. In the blink of an eye, he bathed in the lightning.
Looking at the scene, Layman took the fighting stance helplessly. But before he could do anything, Layman felt tingling pain in his neck. He looked at Arthur only to find him sheathing his sword and staring at him with folded arms.
"That's better," Layman said with a smile on his face. He assumed that Arthur had agreed to his request. But he found everyone looking at him strangely, so he asked, "What happened?"
"M-master, your neck," Gath said and shut his mouth with both hands. He didn't want to sacrifice the last few teeth.
"My neck? What's wrong with it?" Layman asked. He raised his right hand to touch his neck to see what was wrong. His neck felt moist upon touching. He brought his palm in front of his face and saw red, warm liquid tracing his palms. He pressed his palm upon the wound and the bleeding stopped.
His eyes widened in shock. He looked at Arthur and asked through gritted teeth, "When?"
"The moment you blinked. " Arthur replied. He was nonchalant as he said, "I am stronger than you, uncle. Please let me go."
He just left a graze on his neck and the injury was nothing serious.
Layman was not an unreasonable man. Realizing that Arthur was stronger than him, he proposed, "Why don't we both go together?"
"No! This is the start of the moon years. As you already know, winter lasts longer in the moon years, and it is prime time to prepare for it. Also, you need to visit the noble hall and request protection. Take this badge and go there," Arthur said as he threw the Ashtide badge to Layman.
"Be careful, I know you don't kill people. However, remember one thing: know when to kill and when to spare life," Layman paused and a rare look of kindness flashed through his eyes as he continued, "kindness is sin in this world, Arthur." He patted Arthur on his shoulders.
Arthur nodded nonchalantly. They didn't know the reason he couldn't kill, otherwise, Uncle Layman wouldn't have uttered those words. Although Arthur completely agreed with his Uncle Layman, he couldn't kill, or rather, something inside him held him back from killing anyone. It was frustrating.
Before leaving, Arthur hesitated a bit before he took out a beast parchment and handed it to Layman, "I know it's not time. But if you have time, remember to buy these desserts."
Arthur then looked at the prisoners he saved and said, "I was thinking of escorting you to the village. But as you can see, I have something important to do. Uncle Layman will lead you to the nearby village. From there you should find a way yourself."
Arthur didn't bother waiting for them to reply as he bid farewell and used his lightning to shoot in the village direction. Even though he could only control the lightning for ten minutes, it was whenever he went all out. Lasting an hour or two was not a problem for him if he could concentrate the lightning only on his legs.
Regarding the speed, wind, when compared to lightning, was nothing. In just less than an hour, Arthur saw the outline of the village.
There were two guards in front of the village, and with Arthur's speed, they couldn't sense that someone entered the village under their eyes. He was heavily panting by the time he reached and suddenly stopped.
"Something is wrong," Arthur murmured.
The moon hung low, and not a single soul was visible in the streets. It was emptier than the morning when he left. Arthur looked from left to right. Not to mention any villagers. He didn't see a single animal throughout the entire radius.
The village was too calm at that moment. It was as if nothing happened. Although it was nighttime, there should be a commotion, right? Even if his family showed no resistance at all, there should be some sort of uproar, right? Although they were merchants, including Claire, there were four manipulators in the family. They had the power to defend themselves unless the enemy had defeated them before they could cast the spell.
'The enemy is stronger than I thought!' Arthur sucked a deep breath and entered the house, making no sound. He didn't want to alert the enemy if they were still here. However, the house was completely empty with no sign of life.
"There is no sign of battle here. It is as if the enemy has simply overpowered them. Even uncle Layman was not capable of it. Unless the enemy had the manipulators, at least one being at the second stage, they wouldn't be able to overpower so many people at once. Who is behind all this?" Arthur found many variables to connect. He didn't know what was going on.
No one assaulted the village previously because of the noble hall's protection, but now they did. It meant only two things. Either the enemies did not fear the higher-ups or the family heirloom was too precious enough for their greed to take over their fear.
However, he quickly denied the first assumption. If the enemy had such power, they didn't need to plot too many schemes. According to the bandit captain, the ash fruit scheme was in order to send Layman away from the village. But why? What type of precious treasure could attract such powerful people? He couldn't see anyone. Were they kidnapped or worse…
"Whatever the reason may be, I need to save my family and I shall do it at any cost," Arthur said and bounced to his courtyard to take some things before moving out. But suddenly his eyes widened and his body stiffened in shock. He heard someone groaning. Although it was too low to hear, he was not mistaken.
Arthur tried to concentrate. He found the sound coming from the study. Come to think of it, he didn't check the study previously.
Arthur himself for being careless and ran towards the study. He stopped in front of the door. His palm lingered on the door handle, but he didn't dare to twist it. He didn't dare to open it. He was too scared… Too scared to see the worst. His heart was thumping loudly and he could almost hear his heart in the strange silence of the night. The thumping of his heart along with the low groans coming from the study made it unbearable for Arthur to tolerate the silence of the night any longer.
Arthur steeled his heart and entered the room in one go. He had only one thought in his mind. He forced himself to think that he had to save the person lying inside the room, no matter whatever he might see.
Arthur's face grimaced when he entered the study. He neither saw his parents nor his little sister, Ava. The worry lines on his forehead deepened. The moonlight was seeping through the open windows. A girl was lying face down on the floor. A warm red liquid was seeping through her purple dress onto the floor. Her feeble attempts to stop the blood from leaking further didn't bring any results. But that was not the worst, she was buried under a heavy wooden bookcase.
Her purple hair was matted and strewn on the floor, her eyes were half-opened. The blood from her abdomen marred her cherry lips and half of her face. She was trying to crawl from under the bookcase, but with her feeble strength, the bookcase didn't budge.
"Claire!" Arthur shouted. Never in his wildest dream did he imagine that he would see Claire like this. He blasted the bookcase into the pieces with a punch. Then Arthur knelt in front of her. Removing all the books, he gently pulled her onto his lap.
Claire tried to open her heavy eyelids to see the man in front of her. She didn't have the energy to speak as squeezed out a few words, "Y-young master, you came…"
Arthur abruptly cut off her words saying, "Don't talk! I am taking you to grandma Helen. She can heal you."
After saying that, he lifted her into his arms and carried her princess-style as he walked out of the room. Claire couldn't utter a single word of protest. She tugged at his clothes, and in a feeble voice whispered, "Y-young master, s-sorry, Claire can…..no longer….cook for you. W-when I am not here, d-don't…."
"Shut up!" Arthur cut off her words. He didn't want to listen further. He knew what she was going to say.
He tried to not shout at her. Gritting his teeth, he continued, "Shut up! I didn't give you permission to die!"
After he said that, his body released an almost invisible green color mist. It entered her body and slowly healed her wounds. Arthur himself didn't realize the phenomenon. If Claire were to live this danger, they might believe it was a miracle. But few knew the source of the miracle was he himself.
It was the green attribute aura that had the power of healing. Perhaps it was because his subconscious strongly wanted Claire to heal. The aura activated without his awareness.
Clare's red eyes turned misty when she saw Arthur's worried face and an endearing smile appeared on her face. She buried her face in his embrace and closed her eyes with a content expression on her face.
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