Chương 10: Don't be a Hero

I rose to my feet, my back warmed by the glow of the afternoon sun, and took the time to inspect the last tile I'd slotted into the once-broken roof of my house. Getting new tiles hadn't been cheap but Tiode's mason was willing to treat me with some fairness.

"Well now," I said, giving the tiles a small nudge with my heel. The slates remained firmly in place.

"Smoke, I daresay I could have made it as a builder in another life." The cub, down below, let out a long and deep meow.

"I'm glad you're so agreeable, my dear lad." I didn't need a ladder, it was trivial for me to hop off the roof and land neatly on the dirt that surrounded the house. Smoke padded over and I took a moment to reach down and pet behind his ears. Didn't have to reach too low, the little bugger was sprouting up like a weed. The regular milk we'd been getting from Tado had the hellcat growing bigger and broader, lean muscle gradually taking shape under his coat of glossy black fur.

I didn't particularly want to share my land with anyone, but Smoke was the exception.

"I have to head into town," I said, rising to my full height.

"We're running a tad low on meat, thanks to a certain someone. You stay here and keep watch, alright?" Smoke gave me a long, mewling meow. Even his voice was a little deeper now, the sound ephasizd by a rumbling purr in his throat. He stood to attention, like a little soldier, and watched me as I stalked off to the gate. Odd little fellow. If he wasn't a wildcat, I'd think he had a little extra wisdom in his head. Father good. Father feed. Father give milk.

Thoughts formed in the cat's head, hazy and ill-formed things that were fighting to break through the dull molasses of an undeveloped animal brain. Bit by bit and day by day, a consciousness was starting to crystallize inside his head. Not every animal exposed to an aura of qi on a daily basis could be expected to evolve, it was something of a rarity. Smoke, well, he was just part of rare breed.

Perhaps, without even realising it, some primal instinct had directed him to the power that faintly radiated from Eamon's body. Protect Father, Smoke thought to himself, his sharp eyes quietly scanning the expanse of his acres. Protect home. As soon as I entered Tiode I could tell something was off. Maybe it was something to do with the magicka that perpetually burned in my body, giving me senses beyond the norm. Maybe it was simply years of combat experience leaving me with taut nerves, easily tugged.

But whatever the case, as I walked through the dirt road, I couldn't help but notice how... empty and quiet the whole village was. Even the fishermen had left their boats moored. I set my jaw in an irritated grimace. It was nothing, I tried to tell myself. Just a quiet day in a quiet village. Still, I would be lying if I said the eery quiet and solitude did not put me on edge. Particularly when I passed one house and could not shake the sensation of someone leaning up to watch me from the corner of a window.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Without even thinking, old instincts coming to life in my body, I found myself slowly clenching and unclenching my fists. A tingling sensation ran down my arms, resting in my fingertips. A roiling power that threatened to burst forth if I was threatened. And then I heard it. The familiar sound of fists hitting flesh, of pained cries, joined soon after by the shrill scream of a terrified woman.

Don't get involved, you stupid bastard, I told myself. It's none of your business, whatever it is. And yet my body was already in motion, running swiftly across the main street of Tiode. Another scream caught my ear, panicked and pained. Like so many screams I had heard during Novos' campaigns. You hypocrite, you stupid fool. How many people screamed in terror because of you? Why didn't you try to aid them? Growing a conscience, playing at hero? Don't be an idiot. Don't be a hero.

You came out here to be alone, to live a peaceful life. Don't ruin it. That voice in my head had a point. But... I was not the man I had been before. Or at least, I did not want to be. I skidded to a halt at the alley beside the general store, and a sense of icy dread settled in my stomach from what I saw.

Haita and his two idiot friends had been beaten black and blue, left sprawled in the dirt Mikan was at the far end of the alley, her wrists held fast by a sneering and pale faced young man with a lean, aristocratic face. Two others joined him, about his equals in height and build, all three of them adorned in finely tailored white robes that had black lotus flowers embroidered into the material.

"Come now, you're not done already, surely?" one of the young men sneered.

"Those were only love taps!" His silky raven hair was tied back into a top knot, and unlike the other two he had a sheathed sword on his hips. One of those long curved blades the easterners were so fond of. Whatever was going on here, the sneering and fox-faced young man was clearly the ringleader of this little gang. And all three of them, I could tell at once, had magicka in their blood.

"M-Mikan," Haita croaked, trying to rise onto one knee. Blood leaked from his mouth like a river, and one of his eyes had swollen shut from the beating he had gotten. Well... he had gone up a little in my estimation. The young man, who was clearly some kind of aristocrat, scoffed.

"Mortal filth. You should know not to interfere in the affairs of your betters," he said.

"I had every intention of returning this trollop to your shitty hovel of a village. After I had my fun with her, at least." He sighed, giving an exaggerated shrug. The cords flared on my neck. Yes, definitely an aristocrat. Thinking they had the right to take whatever (or whoever) caught their eye. I was not a good man, I would freely admit that. But even as the Bloody Wight I had had some standards, and I did not tolerate raping among the men under my command.

Those who thought to, well, I had treated them as brutally as my enemies until the lesson stuck to my soldiers. Men had to have some standards to keep them apart from the animals.

"Let her go." The words left my mouth before I even realised I'd said them, and I wanted to kick myself. Talking like a hero from some bard's song. What a fool you are. Have some dignity, old man. The three boys, for they were really only teenagers, stopped and stared at me. The leader of the pack raised an incredulous, slim eyebrow.

"And who are you supposed to be?" A fool, doing something damn stupid. Playing at being the hero when he has no right to.

"It doesn't matter who I am. You let that girl go, and get out of here""M-Master Amon," Mikan whispered. Her face was red, cheeks streaked with tears, but she looked mercifully unharmed. I liked that girl, and seeing he terror in her eyes made a spasm of anger flash through my body. These little bastards...

"Wait," one of the other lads said, slightly taller and distinguished by his distractingly big nose.

"I'd heard there was a roundeyes living in Tiode. This must be the one!" And the third lad, who had a cross shaped scar above his right brow, snorted.

"A pale shaved ape. I had heard they were an ugly breed, but he truly is hideous""I've been called worse." I cracked my neck from side to side, bracing for what was to come. I knew by them that words would not change anything that was to come. But... I still had to try. For the sake of being a different man.

"Do you know who you speak to, ape?" Big Nose asked, sniffing.

"You face disciples of the Snake Flower sect, among the mightiest warriors of southern Tsukio. And this..." he motioned to their handsome leader, "is our sect's young master, Yamato."

"I don't care," I said, sighing.

"I don't give a fuck about your sects, your might, any of that nonsense. I know you're just boys but do you have any idea how ridiculous you lot sound? A lion does not need to tell the world that he is big." Yamato stood taller, his eyes flaring wider, and Scar released Mikan's wrists in his indignant shock.

"You are courting death, foreigner," Yamato growled. I silently stared at him for several seconds.

"What in damnation does that even mean?" I asked, a tired look on my face.

"It means..." Yamato took a step forward, and a whirlwind blew up the length of the alley. I winced into the gale, felt it try and fail to bowl me over.

"That your insolence has made you into a dead man walking!" One instant he was standing at the far end of the alley and in half a heartbeat he had closed the distance, moving so fast that a ghostly reflection of himself briefly lingered where he had once stood. His fist was rocketing my way, a blow that would have fractured the skull of a normal man. If it connected, at least.

There was a weighty cracking sound as I caught his fist in my palm, the crushing grip pulling a sharp gasp of pain from Yamato's stunned mouth.

"Lad," I huffed, while veins slowly rose along my raised forearm.

"you don't even know the half of it."