Ellen stood by in case some guards left the inn for their shift while Eleris and I wandered around Klitz Point.
We were looking for supplies.
The Point was the size of a small town. So there were inns, guild offices, and shops.
All the people that should have been in those places probably all got killed.
“…Your Highness.”
“…Yes?”
Ellen was speaking more comfortably without Ellen around.
“…Are you disappointed in humanity?”
Eleris chose humans over demons.
However, she was asking me if I was disappointed in it after I had seen some of the ugly sights of humanity. Eleris already knew a lot about that ugly side—that was why she seemed to feel a little despaired taking in those sights.
She had gotten angry during the slave trade incident, but it didn’t seem like she just suddenly gained awareness of that side of humanity at that moment.
Eleris seemed highly concerned that I lost faith in them after I saw that form of humanity.
“What’s good is good, and what’s bad is just that, bad.”
Some people lived virtuous and good lives, and some lived evil and ugly lives. Some people even stood in the middle or swayed between those two sides.
“Some of them are good, and some of them are evil. Not all of them can be just good.”
Why would I be disappointed in the whole race just because there were some bad people among them?
Bad people are just bad; that doesn’t mean all of humanity is bad.
On the other hand, good people are just good, but that doesn’t mean all of humanity is good.
Good and bad could only be attributed to individuals. The whole species couldn’t be attributed as good or bad just because one group of them fit those terms.
Therefore, even if I was a real demon, I couldn’t be disappointed in the species as a whole by such sights. Some of them were just like that. They were just crazy bastards—that was how I thought of it, at least.
So those guys had to die not because they were human but because they were crazy bastards.
“…I was being presumptuous, Your Highness. My apologies.”
Eleris smiled at my words as if she had worried for no reason.
“Let’s just do what we have to do.”
“Yes. Your Highness.”
At that moment, Ellen’s words flitted through my mind.
It wasn’t the time to think.
* * *
Eleris and I went to a nearby tool store and packed all the flammable materials we could find. I couldn’t really differentiate what was and wasn’t, so I left it to Eleris while I just placed it in my backpack.
We also took a bow and arrows with us at Ellen’s request.
When we got back, Ellen pointed towards the inn.
“We can enter the kitchen through that window at the back of the inn. The fire would go out if we did it from outside, so we should lay it in there.”
“I’ll take care of setting the fire.”
It was my job to enter the kitchen and set the fire. In the meantime, Eleris would make the pit by using her Dig spell in front of the entrance of the inn. It should be deep enough that they couldn’t climb out on their own.
“I’ll take care of the ones who try to escape through the windows or other channels.”
Ellen, who had the highest individual combat power, would handle those who wanted to escape through other routes and not the entrance.
I headed to the back of the inn, carrying a bunch of flammable substances.
When I got to the window leading to the kitchen, the wooden frame wasn’t locked, and the lights were turned off inside.
It was a bit high up, but I managed to get inside after throwing my bag with the substances inside.
Then I opened the stopper of each bottle and poured its contents in all directions. It seemed to be some kind of oil. There was also something among them that smelled like alcohol.
After spreading all the contents of the bottles across the kitchen, I went outside. …Just in case an explosion occurred.
There was a reason why I took the role of setting the fire.
Ellen couldn’t see what I was doing as I was behind the inn.
I grabbed the pendant hanging at the height of my chest.
The Flame of Tuesday.
At first, sparks about the size of a lighter flame came out. I’d rarely used the artifact. Before then, I had almost no use for the powerful magical relic.
I actually had used it only once before then.
Eleris could create a firestorm that would pierce the skies with it.
It would create a flame proportionate to the user’s magical power.
Compared to my peers, my magical power seemed to be quite strong, and my growth rate was also very fast. Since I had acquired the talent of mana manipulation, I should have been able to unleash an even more powerful flame.
However, while magical power was important, there was something even more important.
‘This is an artifact that responds to the darker emotions, causing a greater flame if one were to use it against someone while holding malicious intent.’
Eleris had said that the relic was by no means anything good, as she advised me as such while handing it to me.
It was the first time I used it in an offensive way.
I would use it to kill someone.
I would use it to kill more than a dozen humans that were in that building.
I shouldn’t worry about at the moment.
I had to put off my thoughts for later.
They had to die, that was all.
With those kinds of feelings swimming in my heart, I held the Flame of Tuesday.
Flames sprung out.
A huge flame to kill those bastards that were worse than any demon.
No,
Wait a sec.
If I did that, wouldn’t my self-suggestion get triggered?
–Flare!
At that moment, I felt like I would be in trouble.
–Fwooosh!
“Huge!”
The flame immediately engulfed the entire kitchen and reacted with the flammable substances, creating a flame that came closer to an explosion.
I instantly sprinted backwards and rolled on the floor.
“Urgh…”
After I rolled on the floor, I was able to witness what I had done.
–Frrroooooh!
“This is… Crazy.”
One side of the entire inn was completely engulfed in huge flames.
I didn’t know if it was because the Flame of Tuesday exerted a lot more power than I expected or if it was the reaction with the flammable substances that caused it, or maybe it was the synergy between my supernatural power and the Flame of Tuesday.
Maybe all those aspects led to that. -What’s happening!
-Fireee!
Anyway, it was a huge success.
* * *
I almost set myself on fire with my own flames. The fire that was supposed to slowly spread to the rest of the inn, starting from the kitchen, ended up spreading to the other parts of the inn at a tremendous speed.
The pit trap in front of the entrance had been completed already.
A huge pit with a diameter of about 5 meters had been created in front of the entrance after multiple casts of Dig.
Since it was considerably deep, they wouldn’t be able to escape from it without help.
–Bump!
“Aaargh!”
–Baam!
Those who tried to escape the inn because of the fire and smoke began to fall into the pit before they even knew it.
Completely oblivious to the trap, all of them fell into it one by one as they were trying to outrun the smoke in utter disorder. If they were unlucky, they might have broken their necks and died immediately.
–Craaaaaash!
Some of them broke through the windows of the burning inn, taking deep breaths and trying to jump into the rain.
–Swish!
“Kehk!”
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However, Ellen began shooting down the guys sticking their heads out of the windows with her bow.
Ellen wasn’t skilled enough with a bow to hit running beasts with her arrows like Delphin Izadra, but she was still able to shoot at any number of slow-moving targets.
Arrows once shot to win Redina a doll were killing a man with each shot.
-Outside! There are some bastards out there!
Someone had become aware of the bow-wielding enemy outside, but it did him no good in the chaos.
“Kehk! Kehok!! Kehok!”
As people started falling down into the pit one after the other, the ones still inside the building started to realize that there was a trap in front of the entrance that one couldn’t get out of easily.
However, the inside of the building was filled with smoke. If they didn’t escape quickly, they would suffocate and die, but if they wanted to go out using the entrance, they would have to jump over a huge pit of five meters in diameter.
They were stuck between a rock and a hard place.
-The windows! Leave through the windows!
There were some among them who could still think clearly in the midst of flames and smoke. Perhaps some of them had quite the mental strength as well.
There were some on the first and second floor who crashed through the windows and popped their heads out.
–Shing
Then Ellen and I drew our swords.
“Kehoohk! Cough! Gasp!”
However, those guys who had just escaped without even being properly armed were unable to see us because they inhaled too much smoke and panicked.
–Swish!
Ellen ran towards the adventurer from their blind spot and killed him with a single stroke. She was like a ghost, killing with no hesitation.
I didn’t stay still either.
–Puk!
“K-kuhuk!”
The sword I received from Temple was of considerable quality.
It was really easy to kill those people who were trying to escape and couldn’t pull themselves together. It almost felt like killing big ants.
Thinking as such, I put my sword in the back of my opponents who weren’t even able to resist, ultimately killing them.
There was a massacre right in front of the burning inn, and those who were supposed to do the slaughtering were getting slaughtered by just two people.
By the time the fire raging around the inn was extinguished by the pouring rain, our mission had been completed.
“Phew… ”
I wiped my forehead with my trembling hand after we were done with the slaughter that almost felt like hard labor.
I’m tired.
That was the only thought I had when faced with that sea of blood and death.
* * *
Even if we managed to do it by making a three-person surprise attack on them, we still succeeded in killing the whole group of twenty bandits.
Ellen and I were covered in blood.
Even though it was raining, the bloodstains didn’t wash off so easily.
Not all of them were dead.
“He-hey… Sp-spare me…”
“Wh-why are you doing this… why…”
The guys who fell into the pit were mostly alive, although some of them were more or less injured. It was more than four meters deep, after all. It was impossible to climb up for them, and three of them seemed to have died, probably because they broke their necks.
Ellen and I were peering into the pit.
They seemed to have realized that they had fallen into a trap, that most of them were dead, and that their survival depended on our choices.
I didn’t want to let them live.
However, it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to keep a single one of them alive.
“Wouldn’t it be better to keep one alive?”
I though we should leave at least one witness alive for when we reported our findings. Ellen nodded slowly at my words.
“If we want to report this to the guild, we’d better do that.”
I took out my sword from my waist and threw it into the pit.
“Kill each other.”
I looked down as I spoke curtly to them.
For just a brief moment, they didn’t seem to understand the situation they were in.
“You’re Hi-…! Wh-what on earth are you doing?!”
When Eleris realized what I had just done, she almost made a mistake.
Ellen looked up at me with a look that seemed to ask if that was really necessary with her eyebrows furrowed.
“Why did you do this?”
I separated my gaze from the pit, looked at those two bewildered faces, and smiled.
“It’s better if we let these pieces of garbage take care of each other rather than killing them with our own hands.”
I just made them do the deed on their own, as I didn’t want to feel that disgusting sensation anymore. I didn’t want to do it with my own hands.
Those who understood what I was trying to convey started groping around the dark floor, looking for the sword I had thrown in there.
–Puk! Puk! Puk!
“Arg! Aaarg! Y-you bastard! How dare you!”
“Aaaaaah! Help me! Spare me!”
They seemed like incompetent bastards.
In the end, I was able to confirm that there was no such thing as camaraderie or companionship among those guys.
After some time…
“I… I’m… I… I-it’s me! I’m still alive! I’m alive!”
There was only one survivor shouting in that pit of hell. Ellen watched the jubilant demeanor of the last survivor who had killed all her colleagues.
“Let’s fill it up. I don’t feel good looking at this.”
Ellen seemed to have lost all interest in saving that person when she saw that scene. Her eyes held disgust as well as contempt.
“aah! Ah! Y-you promised! That’s different from what you promiiiiiiiiiiised!”
–Crush!
Eleris filled up the pit she had dug up. The survivor was immediately buried alive, so I couldn’t hear her anymore.
“Reinhardt.”
Ellen was still looking at me.
Then, she suddenly grabbed my hands.
“Don’t do things like this.”
Ellen and I both had hands miserably covered in red blood.
Her statement had no subject, but I knew well enough what Ellen was trying to say.
The madness brought about by slaughter, violence just for the sake of relieving one’s own anger.
Ellen seemed to be afraid that I might fall for such emotions. From how I looked, Ellen seemed to feel that I was about to fall for that madness.
–Shaaaaaaaaa…
The fire was extinguished, and everyone but us died.
“…Okay.”
I nodded while holding Ellen’s cold hand in the rain.
* * *
The situation was settled.
However, there was not a single witness left alive to testify to the bandits’ actions.
If we reported to the guild that something like that had happened and we were the ones to clear up the situation, they might recognize it as an achievement. Of course, they would probably impose private sanctions on us, but it could be said that the situation was rather unavoidable.
“If we report this and something goes wrong, we might get blamed for this.”
Of course, there was enough evidence scattered everywhere, but there was still a possibility that we covered all of it up. I still had the Imperial Family’s Crest, but I wasn’t sure whether I’d be able to solve this situation with only that.
Ellen pondered, and—as if she had just come to a decision—she alternated between looking at Eleris and me.
“Let’s go back to St. Point.”
Going back to St. Point…
“There’s something I want to check.”
Ellen didn’t tell us what she was thinking.
However, since I had met her, I never had a problem with just listening to Ellen.
Ellen began to rummage through the corpses.
“What are you doing?”
“Adventurer IDs.”
Ellen didn’t destroy the corpses but began to retrieve their Adventurer IDs.
“Gather all you can find.”
Ellen, Eleris, and I began rummaging through the corpses and the burnt inn out of the blue.
____
Chapter end
