Chapter 15 - Monsters shouldn’t be shown mercy
After going up and down multiple times, right now they are both tied at 99 stones each and are on the last sprint to see who the winner is. Marc and Rofta are both full of sweat and their muscles ache terribly after this really intensive competition. At the start, they had energy enough to walk with the stones at a rather normal tempo, but right now they could only take mice steps because of exhaustion.
The winner will be the one who first reaches the finish line that is only 30 meters away. A rather short distance, but Marc and Rofta felt like they had to cross a death land before reaching the end.
"I'm not going to lose this one. Smell ya' later. HAAAAAAA," said Marc before he went all Super Saiyan by yelling and walking fast with the 500 kg stone on his back.
Rofta gritted his teeth and didn't say anything back before he took a big breath and held it. Then he speeds up too and walked faster right behind Marc, not wanting to be left behind.
30 meters later they both crossed the finish line, and Marc took the win by 2 seconds. As soon as they crossed, both of them immediately fell on the ground, looking like two dead fish.
"I'm…not….losing…next time…dwarf…!" Rofta squeezed out while breathing very hard.
"…Sure….you are…big foot" Marc replied while breathing equally as hard as Rofta before falling asleep.
Standing a few meters away Genno and Antonio can be seen exchanging money. Both had their pouch out but Antonio's expression wasn't looking too good. It was really sour because he was the one losing the bet, making Genno have a smile that makes him look like a nice old man. Not like Antonio who liked he's having his menopause.
…
At another place, the ugly eyed and creepy assassin is beginning to gain the information of the people who work at Calcul-Stone Company. Like their family, age, and address. They needed to be careful because there's plenty of strong mages in Maqqarry City they don't want to run into. One of them is the head guard of the north of the city, Genno Mandenno. The second is the boss of Calcul-Stone Company himself who once guarded the capital in the past.
The assassins gave the intel to their leader and he plucked out easy targets, like those who can't use magic or have a hard time feeding their family, making them vulnerable.
…
Four days later.
Antonio was in a very good mood as the stone site's volume of moving stones was at its best right now, and for once wasn't behind like it used to be.
He showed a smile that would make his acquaintances doubt their eyes. That was until he reached the stone site. As he was making sure everything was ready for a new day of work, he felt something was off. He could hear the sound of liquid dripping somewhere and smell blood?
He searched around the place and found some red stains on the ground, suddenly something dripped on his face, making him move his attention upwards.
*Drip*
He saw a man, a woman, and a little girl hanging in one of his cranes with their eyes gouged out, tongues cut off, tendons cut, and lastly, their hearts cut out and is wearing them as a necklace. A message was left that said, "You will die of exhaustion if you work for Calcul-Stone Company"
Antonio was greatly shaken, although he has seen death more than he can count, this is not something he was immune to. After being shocked for a whole 5 minutes, he began shaking like a madman before-
*BOOOM*
He released all his Magic Power at once in anger, making the stone site tremor. Heck, even the sensitive beasts on the other side of the mountain could feel minuscule tremors.
"WHO DARED TO DO THIS???" Roared Antonio like a wild beast so loud 1/4 of the city heard him.
…
Genno's situation wasn't any better right now.
He's looking at 5 dead people who have been cut to pieces. Arms, legs, and heads were cut off and put into a sack before it was dumped at the city square. Their hearts are cut out and put into the mouth and a message was left that said "We work our limbs off for the Calcul-Stone Company!"
Genno deducted it to be a man, a woman, and three kids. Two boys and a girl.
Although Genno's face didn't show any emotion on his face right now, his hand was clenching his lance very hard while shaking. Although he's a battle-hardened knight, this scene made him furious too. He was a knight supposed to protect this City's people, and right now the people he's protecting didn't just die, they were slaughtered worse than pigs.
His subordinates were even worse. Most instantly puked when they saw the content. While puking, the air suddenly grew light, and they
looked at Genno who subconsciously released his Magic Power while shaking and having an emotionless face.
"Head-Captain please calm down!"
"Head-Captain, stop!!"
"Head-Captain, stop or we will die!" His subordinates yelled in desperation, afraid their superior will kill them by mistake if he uses his magic in anger. Genno's magic is very lethal, much more than Antonio's Stone Magic.
If that happened, they would end up just as worse as the corpses on the ground.
*Breathe*
Genno heard his subordinates and took a deep breath to calm his raging emotions, so he could think clearly.
…
Marc and Rofta were walking leisurely around the city together. That was until Marc's interest was piqued when saw people gathering and yelling.
"Rofta let's see what's happening over there." Marc pointed to the gathering of people.
Rofta just nodded in confirmation, also interested in what this disturbance is about. People were screaming, puking, and running away, while some ran forward to the place.
When Marc and Rofta reached the scene, both their face instantly turned blue and purple while their stomachs turned around before they couldn't help puking too.
They just couldn't take the gruesome scene in front of them. A pregnant woman was stabbed right through her stomach from the back with a spear while being lifted and displayed like a flag, while two babies were added to the top of the spear. Blood flowed down the spear, making a big puddle on the ground.
That was not the only thing. A dead man was kneeling in front of the dead woman and children with tendons cut and his heart in his hands. A message was nailed to his chest that said "May we find a better job in heaven than Calcul-Stone Company!"
Marc and Rofta distanced themselves from the gruesome display and finished puking when suddenly Rofta yelled "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!???" He was clearly shaken to the core by the display. He has killed bandits before, but they were swiftly killed, not tortured or anything. This was his first time being such a barbaric thing in his lifetime. He's wondering if it's even something a human can do, and if it is, how can they make themself do it?
".....Ugh, a message…" Marc thought about it with a serious expression that he usually doesn't have. He remembered having seen such displays in Game of Thrones and thought it was an awesome series, but reality and TV-shows are two different things.
While traveling with Rofta, he saw him killing multiple bandits, but they were clean deaths, and he just thought about it like it was a movie. When Marc fought bandits he just knocked them out and never finished them off. Now he's thinking, maybe he should have killed them. Fairy Tail isn't such a good place as it's portrayed in the anime. Natsu never killed anybody, so he thought he was fine with doing it too, but now he doesn't want to be that kind of person.
Monsters shouldn't be shown mercy.
That's the answer he came up with after seeing the speared woman and babies.
Although this isn't Marc's fault, he still got angry at himself for being naive and delusional.
*Bang*
Marc head-butted the wall as a wake-up call, making Rofta surprised.
"What are you doing?" Asked Rofta while holding Marc's shoulder.
"I'm steeling myself!! We are going to the stone site right now!!" Marc looked at Rofta with a determined expression after remembering the message mentioning Calcul-Stone Company.
***
(A/N: This was a really harsh chapter, and I'm not sure if I should add the R-18 tag or another tag to the story. I don't want to give people hope for Adult scenes because I'm not going to write those.)
(A/N: I thought this chapter is a must because Marc has never killed or has seen such gruesome death's in his previous life other than from movies and TV-shows. I'm sure some will make comments like "MC is such a wimp" and the like, but I think this should be a fairly natural reaction for a person who had a peaceful and good previous life.)
(Words: 1519)