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3rd Pov
Larfal slumped on his throne as he heard the informant, it had been months since he had been searching for the whereabouts of his son. But he got nothing, not even a clue about him, as if he had vanished completely. He had Elves from Magic Kingdom Altina search in their kingdoms, and all the nearby kingdoms, the Empire had done a search as well, even the Solingen and the dwarves who hate their kind searched for him.
His envoys had gone from kingdom to kingdom, from west to north, for south to the far east, even the Goddess Amaterasu did a search in her kingdom on his request, he had used his powers, his authority and his status to turn the entire world upside down, the Elves of Orario had also searched the Dungeon City and Melen for his whereabouts, but in the end he got nothing, absolutely nothing.
It was a very few times that Alf family had to use their authority outside of their kingdom, and it was a few of that times that he did. While the world was made to recall the authority the Alf family possessed but it also made him defeated to have not found his son despite mobilizing his true Authority.
He dismissed the informant and sighed in defeat," Fufu, already admitting defeat?", he heard the mischievous voice of his wife and looked at Ada with a frown. " Ada this is not a joke, tell me where he went, the outside world is not very safe he could be in a bad situation", he said but Ada had no intention of giving him any clue and just chuckled making veins appear on his head.
" ADDDA", he spoke in a loud voice demanding an explanation, and his wife said," LARFALLL Pffttt-", she started laughing while Larfal took a deep breathe," Fine! Fine I admit my defeat, I shouldn't have been so strict, I promise I will repent on my mistakes and make things right, but it concerns about the safety of my son, so tell me where he is?", he asked admitting his defeat.
Ada became silent and looked into his eyes, they stared at each other and said," It seems you do understand it now, jeez you always had been idiot but to think you will neglect our children as a parent, anyway the thing is I don't know", she shrugged and Larfal asked in disbelief," What do you mean by you don't know?!"
" As you heard, the plan was made by Ember and we just suggested some improvements however where he would go after running away was a mystery to us as well, to be honest you have searched all the places we had told him, or I could think of... Now that I think it was a very smart move, he must have inherited his smartness from me", she nodded proudly puffing her chest.
Larfal hearing that became stunned, suddenly he could see world go round and the next moment he was unconscious, the stress and nonsense had taken a toll on him. Ada seeing him unconscious said," Guards! The king is unconscious!", her words didn't contain much worry and soon guards arrived and escorted their unconscious king to his bedroom.
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Ember Pov
I released the bowstring letting the arrow go whoosh and pierce the leg of the man," Aghhh!!!", he cried in pain alerting everyone, I quickly nocked three arrows and aiming at the bandits released them. Whizzing through the air they hit them in various spots making them cry in pain and fall down.
" Who the fuck is it?! You sissy! If you are a man, come and face us!", the leader of the bandits screamed and I nonchalantly released another arrow hitting his elbow, the rest of the bandits seeing their leader going down started running away. However I started hitting them with arrows, making them all go down for good. Once the last of the bandits were down for good, I jumped off the tree.
The bandit behind me shrieked and gulped looking at his fallen comrades, he was a beastkin, and said," I-I have done as you said, so please let me go!", he begged and I looked at him with cold eyes," Not yet, show me all the bad deeds you have done", I said and his face became pale, I couldn't help but have a bad foreboding as I looked at his place with narrowed eyes, I sighed and looked around,' Just how I end up in this mess? '
...
*Flashback*
My horse galloped through the path as I sat on top of it, I steered it to run faster when I felt something, a very slight sense of danger and before I knew I had pulled the reins, the horse fell down due to momentum throwing me off, and landing down I could feel my bone crack slightly but ignoring the feeling I quickly ran towards the nearest cover I could find, once I had gotten behind a big rock I took a deep breath.
" Quickly get out! And hand over all the money!", I felt annoyance as I heard the voice and the tone of it, but I quickly grabbed the hilt of my sword and looked at the enemies,' There are four of them and are dressed in armor and armed with swords, there is one archer harder somewhere... There he is! ', I looked at the Archer coming out in the plain sight.
I took a deep breath and then charged coming out of the cover, they were prepared however as I approached them and clashed the blades against the first one, I found something surprising as my blade sliced through his and then his chest. " Ughhh!!!", they were non-adventurers! Thus, with a quick response I quickly took out the rest of them with ease scaring the heck out of the Archer.
" Stay there!", he looked with a panicked expression as with trembling hands he nocked an arrow and fired at me,' His aim is not bad ', I thought as I deflected the arrow with a swing of my sword, seeing that his eyes widened as he knocked two arrows at once and fired at me, which I again deflected with ease, and not wanting to delay it any longer I dashed forward and before he could knock another arrow I cut his arm off.
" Aghhhhhh!!", he screamed in pain as blood came out of his arm and my sword tip pointed on his neck," Don't move! Otherwise, this time it won't be your hand down there", I said in a threatening tone as he froze and barely held himself from wailing in pain. " Tell me about your purpose behind ambushing me", I asked.
He gritted his teeth and said," W-We- I - ughh! We belong to a bandit group, o-our purpose behind the ambush was to loot you", my eyes narrowed as I heard about it and then looking at his hand still bleeding, I said," Quickly bandage your bleeding arm", hearing my words gave him relief as he quickly bandaged it using a cloth, my intention was simply to prevent him from being unconscious till I get my answers.
" Good now you better answer my questions honestly or your head be down there", I said threateningly, but I had no intention of killing him. Disabling them should be fine, his rest of the members are down unconscious and I haven't killed them. ' I would prefer to not kill them, but seeing how they attempted to pretty much kill me, I don't care if they end up disabled or dead ', I thought.
Truth to be told I haven't taken any sentient life, not in my past life not in this life, and until my life depends on it, or someone pisses me enough to make me wanna kill them, I would prefer my hands clean. Soon he spilled everything, they were a group of 27 bandits who were travelling to Kaios Desert which is a chaotic region and perfect for killing and looting.
On way they decided to make a temporary base here, since according to their intel the only familias here work around town, and the other one while in village goes in a group for safety, they could loot others before moving again. I asked him to show me the bandit hideout, I didn't want to leave behind a potential threat, so I decided to get them arrested for good.
I tied up the unconscious bandits and him, before getting my horse and tying it to a tree, I took my bow and the arrows which luckily were not damaged. " Y-You are an Archer?", he asked me with a incredulous look, I mean it must be hard to believe for him after seeing my swordmanship. I didn't reply to his query and instead said," Show me the way and be silent, do remember if you shout for help your head will be rolling down", and hearing my words he gulped his saliva and nodded.
He soon showed me their bandit hideout and luckily there was an small elevation with dense trees on top of it, so I got ready to attack them from a long range, after all it will be wiser to engage in long range battle than short range battle considering how this guy was their one of the pitiful three archers, and after swiftly taking out their other two archers, I got ready.
...
I moved inside the cave and saw carriages with a prison, and seeing the sight inside me almost made me puked, there were many beast Kin chained and naked, with bruises all over their body. Mostly were female, around nine, and there were only other two beast kin who were male. Without a doubt the females were raped, and beast Kin were treated harshly. However, what made my blood cold was the sight of two children.
They were nine- or ten-year-olds, and were boys, and their body was in the worst condition. ' Fucking scum! ', I thought enraged while he quickly knelt and said," Please spare my life! I didn't do this! They did it! ", he looked with a beggin expression, I looked at him with emotionless face," I will let you go, if you tell me the entire story", I said and hope appeared in his eyes.
He quickly blurted out everything, apparently they had just sold the slaves they have caught and these were failed merchandise, the bandits decided to take them together for their own pleasure, the females were raped and played with while the males were used as workers, as for the two children.
I clenched my fists as I looked at the unconscious female in front of me, without any hesistion I stumped on her belly," Aghhhhh!!!", she screamed seemingly waking up a few others, unfortanuately for them they were tied up. " So you are the one who raped them huh?", I asked while she looked at me with fear, suddenly she puked blood and looked horrified at her belly, which was sunken.
Something had come out with a vile smell but ignoring it I looked at her," It was her! She is a pedophile and the one who raped those boys! ", he had said, and now that female looked with me a begging expression," Pl-Please spare me! I know what I did I was wrong! I am willing to be your slave, your co-", I sliced her head off not willing to hear anymore nonsense.
The other bandits trembled in fear, and I without any hesitation I started killing them ruthlessly, what did I felt when I took their life? Definitely not guilt, just the sadness that I had to do something like this, once they all were dead the remaining one said," T-They all are dead, you can kill those as well, n-now I should leave right? You promised me right? "
I changed my expression, and smiling I said," Yes!", hope appeared in his eyes as he turned and I thrusted my sword through his heart, he coughed blood and looked at me horrified, eyes full of betrayal," W-Why?", I snickered hearing his question, without explaining it to him I pulled back the sword watching him fall dead.
I looked at the place filled with corpses, I turned back and returned to where I have tied the remaining bandits and finished them off, once I returned, I took a deep breath and looked at the unconscious slaves,' So how I handle this? ', I thought sitting on a rock, for a moment, the world seemed to be cruel as dungeon.
To be continued...
(A/N: That's it, I don't care who you are but for this week all your powerstones are mine.
As long as you give me all your powerstones, you get chaps!
I want this fic to have a good rank by the end of the week)