Chapter 30: Stained Hands (Part 1)

*WARNING: This chapter may contain violance, gore and any other 18+ rated*

A voice came out from the direction where Rei was headed.

"PLEASE HELP ME!!"

Rei who heard it, quickly closed the chat monitor.

"Sorry! Old man!" He yelled as he ran towards the source of the voice.

Ray who also heard it, felt something weird. As if he somehow knew what pattern is this.

'Kiritsuka...'

"What?!" Rei shouted while still running.

At first Ray hesitated to say the words but...

'...No, nevermind.'

"Huh?" Rei narrowed his brows in confusion but didn't slow down his steps.

'Kiritsuka...from now on, no matter what you do...never hesitate.'

"What do you–"

'Focus to what I said! The moment you hesitate...is the moment where you will regret it.'

'No matter whether they are a monster...or a human....understood?'

"U-understood..." Rei couldn't help but feel like something seriously bad is coming now that he started tallking like that.

******

Soon he saw it, a carriage with a lady covering someone behind her. A little girl with blonde hair.

In front of them was a man who tried his best protecting these two from...

Bandits.

*SLASHED*

"AGH!" The man screamed as he got his shoulder slashed by one of the bandits' sword.

"Daddy!!" The little girl cried, trying to run towards her father but her mother stopped her from getting near

"Gehehehe you shouldn't have resisted, punk! Just give us the girl now~ we will fetch her a good price~" One of the bandits sneered creepily.

The man refused to give up and stood there to protect his wife and daughter.

"I'm not going to let my daughter taken away from me again...never!!"

"Heh, in that case...this is your end!!"

"No!!! Daddy!!!!!" The little girl cried louder, trying to reach out in futile.

When one of the bandits raised his sword and swung it towards him...something unexpected happen.

*SWOOSH* *SHATTER*

His sword broke without him noticing.

"Huh?–"

*TAP*

The bandits look on in suprise seeing the broken sword and they soon noticed something else flew right through that sword.

They looked on to their right side and found a sword stabbed on the ground. The direction was a perfect match to where one of the bandits sword was broken.

The bandit who was about to kill the man was slack jawed after realizing that his sword was broken to pieces.

He quickly turned his face around to the other direction...

"W-wha–buuggh!!"

And was met with a fist flying towards his face.

*BAAK*

The bandit flew away from that single punch, one of his tooth flew out from his mouth.

All of them froze...the bandits and the couple, even the little girl who was hiding behind her mother.

A red scarf fluttered around and a young man stood there in front of them.

It was Rei, he was wearing his black helmet to cover his face and showed them the might of this future knight.

"You okay?" he asked as he turned his head to check on them.

"Who the fuck are you?!" The other bandits took out their swords, preparing to attack.

'1...3...so there's 5 of them huh.' Rei observed the enemy in front of him.

"W-who are you?" The man asked, still in a daze

"Just go to safety and protect your family–" Rei noticed that when he was still talking, one of the bandits jumped towards him and swung his sword down.

"DIE!!"

*TING*

Rei blocked it by taking out another sword from his [Inventory].

"W-where did he–buugghh!!–"

He didn't give him enough time to be surprised cause Rei quickly swung his legs and kicked his face off, sending him flying towards the other guy who laid down on the ground, unconscious from his fist.

"Now then...2 down and 3 left." Rei observed calmly, pointing his sword towards the other bandits.

"D-dammit!! Get him!!! He doesn't have his sword!!" The three of them ran towards Rei at the same time to strike him with consecutive attack.

*SWOOSH*

But...

*SWOOSH*

Rei dodged all of those strikes easily,

*SWOOSH*

By using minimal movement, he moved side by side from each strikes and then countered it..

'I guess this is the first time I use it, [Weapon Break].'

His sword slowly covered with his red aura and then, he swung his sword swiftly.

At first the movement was slow, but because of his AGILITY and STRENGTH...in a blink of eyes...

*CRACK*

*SHATTER* *BAK*

*SHATTER* *BUK*

*SHATTER* *BAK*

Their swords broke one by one and in that short period of time, then they also felt a heavy punch landing on their cheek and chin.

"AGH!–"

"UGH!–"

"GUH!–W-what just...h-happen..."

All of them fall down like flies.

Rei suddenly showed up from behind them with his left hand curled into a fist and his sword emitting a dangerous red aura.

"I guess that's all of them–"

"NOO!!"

But before he could relax, he heard a scream from behind and saw that little girl was caught by the first bandit that he punched.

"N-NO! My daughter!!" The lady cried out seeing her daughter was taken.

"M-mommy! Daddy!!" the little girl struggled but then she cried louder when the bandit taken out a knife and pointed it at her neck.

'What?...did my punch wasn't enough to make him unconscious?' Rei thought since he was sure to increase the output of his strength using his aura.

"D-don't move!! Damn you...that hurt you piece of shit! If you move an inch, I will cut this girl to death!"

The bandit yelled in anger, that stopped Rei from moving and stood still instead.

He's angry since this bandit used a cheap tactic to turn a little girl like her as his hostage.

"Tsk..." Rei clicked his tongue.

'Kiritsuka...' Ray's voice came out.

'What is it Houston...'

'Right now, I'm gonna tell you how to save that girl...but this time you need to resolve yourself first.'

'What do you mean...?'

'I want you...to kill that man, before he kills that girl.'

'Wait– what?! kill?! isn't that too much?!...'

'Kiritsuka...I know you have been holding up on not using your sword and intentionally destroy their weapon and rendered them unconscious with your fist...'

Rei twitched a bit since he caught him doing that.

'But they are people Houston! I can't kill them for no reason.'

'But—!'

'No buts Houston! Killing people isn't the thing that I aimed to become a knight in the future. Cause I will protect everyone with my own ways!' Rei stubbornly spoke with determination, but that doesn't change the fact that this path wasn't gonna end well for him.

'Kiritsuka...' Ray who knew about this side of him, couldn't help but feel guilty because starting from now, things were going to be much crueler and worse than anything he ever think of.

Even after all of his death on that training, he still have those feelings. Ray knew that this is going to be Rei's weaknesses. He has soft heart, which not gonna end well when he faced with people who did bad things to others on daily basis. It also made him ignorant in case he ever let them free...of what would happen to others who were innocent.

But Ray swallowed down those thoughts and shook it away, 'Fine...then I'll give you a plan but you must not hesitate...to use your sword.'

'I–...understand' Rei couldn't help but accept it since he still need to save that girl.

Soon after they had their plan, Rei went back to reality.

Rei sighed and calmed his mind for a moment while his red eyes hidden behind his helmet started to glow.

"Little girl...close your eyes." Rei spoke in cold tone.

The little girl who heard it quickly closed her eyes.

"Oi!! you don't hear of what I– G-guuh??!"

Suddenly the bandit body became paralyzed as he couldn't move even one of his fingers or utter any words from his mouth.

'W-what the fuck is this!' The bandit thought.

'[Intimidate].'

Rei activated his skill [Intimidate], by releasing his reddish aura around his body he created a strong pressure toward whoever in it and he focused them on his eyes.

So when his eyes met with him, [Intimidate] had started using its effect.

'W-what the fuck is wrong with this guy...' The bandits murmurred as his body started shivering.

*TAP*

'H-hii!' The bandits jolted when Rei took one step forward.

*TAP* *TAP* *TAP*

Then he continue take another step again...and again as if he start casually walked towards the man who cowered from his skill.

'N-no...' he swallowed, 'D-don't..–'

*TAP*

When Rei finally getting closer and closer...

"Don't come at me!!! you monster!!!"

Then all of sudden, the bandit lost his calm and threw the little girl towards Rei.

"...?!"

Rei immediately lost focus on his skill when he caught the little girl with his free hand and that made the skill wore off and straight into cooldown.

The bandit regained his freedom. The moment he noticed Rei let down his guard, he prepared to strike.

'Kiritsuka!!' Ray shouted to remind him to focus on the bandit who is now running towards them, aiming his knife towards the little girl and him.

'Does he plan to kill us both?!' Rei ground his teeth when he realized where the knife was aimed to.

Rei gripped his sword while his other hand was too occupied on securing the little girl, 'With this angle where should I aim...!?!' As time was running out, he didn't have much choice.

"DIE YOU MONSTER!!!" The bandit shout with smile.

'Dammit... dammit!!!!'

When the knife almost reached her back...

*SLASH* *SPURTS*

"Huh???" The bandit who was about to celebrate his victory, felt something weird happen.

*THUD*

Then something fell off on the ground right beside him, "What was that?– Huh?!!!–" When he turned his head around to see what it was, his face paled.

He looked forward and saw something that made him paler...

His hand that fell off and now he saw he is handless, seeing his white bone surrounded with cleanly cut flesh with his blood spurting out from it.

"AAAGHHH!!!?!!! FUCK!!!" The bandit screamed at the delayed pain that came surging through his body.

In a flash, Rei cutted the bandit's hand that was holding the knife with a single swipe of his sword.

The blood sprayed out, staining his helmet with red.

Rei's eyes grew wide as soon as he realized he's the one who did that to the man in front of him.

His breath became short, the hand that was holding his sword trembled, and when he turned his eyes towards his sword.

It was stained by someone's blood...not a monster nor any kind of being. It's a human, the same as him..

'Kiritsuka!'

Ray shouted his name, snapping him out of his daze. Rei tried to calm himself down when he noticed the trembling little girl in his hand.

He covered her head to avoid looking at the screaming man in front of them.

He then took a step forward, landing a kick towards his head to render the bandit unconscious.

Rei panted heavily, looking down and saw the blood pooling on the ground.

The much older man and the lady who stood there watching the whole scene unfolded were shell shocked. When they noticed the fight was over, the lady quickly ran towards her daughter.

"Mommy!!" The little girl shouted, hugging her mother tight.

Rei approached the man and asked with somewhat cold tone, "You okay?"

"Ah! Y-yes! thank you very much young man..." The older man thanked him with a bow of his head while holding on his injured shoulder.

Rei suddenly opened his [Inventory], taking out a green potion, then handed it over to him.

"Huh??" The old man looked between the potion and back to his face. A bit unsure of what to do since he just offered it without saying a word.

"Drink." Rei spoke.

"A-ah! Y-yes!" The man nodded, hastily took the potion and drank it. Shortly, his body enveloped with green light that slowly healed his shoulder.

The old man was slack jawed upon seeing his injury disappeared.

"Oh?! H-how can I repay you!"

"In that case..."

"Y-yes?"

"How about you help me stop his bleeding and tied them all up first?"

Rei turned around and walked passed the mother and daughter who were watching him helping their father.

The man complied and moved to help him. The two tied the bandits with a rope and with his help, Rei finally apprehended all of them in no time.

"I guess that's all of them now." Rei sighed and closed his eyes for a moment.

"E-excuse me..."

Rei turned around to see who called him, it was the family of three that he saved before.

"Once again...we thank you for saving us Mr.Warrior." The man bowed his head as his wife followed him, even the little girl.

Rei blinked for a moment and became somewhat flustered

"O-oh! I-it's okay! I'm glad that no one is hurt." Rei smiled behind his helmet but they couldn't see it.

The tense atmosphere slowly softened when Rei acted like his usual self, it made them let out a quiet relieved sigh.

"So what should we do to them?" Rei asked, glancing at the bandits who were still unconscious.

The man smiled, "We will bring them and handed them over to the guards."

"Guards?"

"Yes, we're going to pass the border and went back to our village."

"Ahh, I see. Hmmm...how about I come with you guys?" Rei offered with a friendly smile.

"Huh? Is that okay for you, mr. Warrior?" The man was suprised that he offered to came along with them.

"I don't mind really, and I still need to check on them right?"

"Y-yeah, I understand." He nodded, "Thank you."

"No problem." Rei replied then started loading those bandits into the carriage with himself to keep a close eye on them.

After some time, the catriage started moving again towards the border like the man told him.

On their way, Rei was deep in thought. 'Today...was the first time I used my sword against human huh.'

'Kiritsuka.'

'Houston?'

'...Make sure to keep it in mind, that soon you will be facing more humans in the future...so don't let this something that chained you down and never hesitate.'

'I...understand.' Rei replied while looking down to his hands, but deep down he still have hesitation on those parts.

And so the first fight after his departure finally come to an end. But this is not the real ending cause...sooner or later the gears of fate would start moving again.

And when that day comes, Kiritsuka Rei would face the horrible truth of this world.

To be continue...