Chapter 3: "Ashes and Shadows"

“Tell me, why did you set the mansion on fire?" My voice dripped with irony.

“It wasn’t me! By the time I arrived, the fire had already started. The guards showed up afterwards, and since I was holding an oil bottle, they thought I was the culprit.”

“I know, I know. I started the fire.”

None of us managed to remain standing. Our faces were covered in soot, making us look like mine workers. Once I sat down, the mayority of my muscles twisted in pain.

That was too much, even for someone like me, who is used to constant hustle.

“Why?”

Her voice trembled with fear , and her face depicted the uncertainty I produced on her.

As we ran, she seemed content, as if everything were just an adventure—until this moment, when she finally realized how dangerous I could be.

“It was a distraction. The fire would block the entrance and lure the guards. Afterwards, two of them would escolt the noble to the back door. Once there, I would kill my assigned taget.”

If only everything had turned out as I planned…

“But you are not an assassin, even less a hitman.”

“Why do you think that?”

Damn it. She discovered me way too fast, I lost a chance to deceive her. Did the guards notice the same?

She sat in front of me, serene. After breathing deeply for some seconds I noticed she stopped considering me a menace. That hurted my ego more than I’d like to admit.

“Your hands were shivering as you held the sword. It looked like it was about to slip from them at any moment. Honestly, it was kind of cute."

My ego isn’t hurt—it’s annihilated. How dare she call me cute?! And during an assassination attempt, no less?!

Without restraining the humilliation, I stood up and walked away.

“What are you doing?” She asked once I turned my back on her.

“There’s a village on the outsides of the forest. I’ll go there. I don’t have in mind sleeping outdoors again.” I said, looking at her with resentment.

One is ignorant of what a burning cold is until you spend the night on the streets.

“Alright. As you continue your criminal journey or whatever, I’ll go back to the mansion and explain I didn’t provoke the fire.” She pointed out, standing up and intending to walk away.

What an idiot. A small chuckle left me. She still has too much to learn.

“It’s not convenient. You’ll be killed for having started the fire.” We both stopped our tracks.

“If I enlighten them how things were and blame you, I’m pretty sure that…”

Is she stupid? I looked her right in the eyes with a sinister face. I wanted my words to sink in her soul, crumble that naive conception of hers that everything could be solved with good intentions.

“Even if you are innocent, there must be a responsible for what happened and if there’s not, one will be created. The noble will blame the guards and they will blame you. They’ll never admit to having let in an intruder that incinerated their home.”

“But…”

“You’ll be used as bait. No a chance of getting out alive from there. You should escape. From now on, you’ll be a fugitive.”

I could see how she crumbled with every word I spoke, it granted me a satisfaction I barely ever felt.

She wore the expression of someone who had lost her dreams. It was me who was responsible , she can’t do a thing about it.

Seeing her like that made my tired body feel rejuvenated. Her frustration granted me pleasure.

“You are a fugitive as well, right? Then, I’ll follow you until you manage to fix what you have destroyed in my life.”

In the blik of an eye, her anguish and fear became determination.

“I lost my job, my place to stay, and even my savings! Obviously you can’t compensate me on the last… but I’m going to charge it as well!”

Astonished by that reaction, I started moving.

“Then follow me. It will be better if we clean the soot from our faces. If we arrived at the village in this state, it would be obvious that we were implicated in the fire.”

For the gods, what I have gotten myself into again?

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We walked for an hour in the forest. I didn’t think it was so enormous.

“You haven’t introduced yourself yet. I mean, it’s the least you could do.”

“I didn’t think it was important. It’s not cautious to say your name to an assassination witness when you are the culprit.”

The darkness of the night was absolute. A sepulchral silence drilled my conciousness without rest. Nature has never seemed so suffocating. And to add, I started seeing shadows inside other shadows.

If she were to attack me from behind, I wouldn’t notice it until it was too late. I can’t let my guard down.

“My name is Darek, I am a redeemer.”

“I’m Zera, a servant that became a fugitive because of a redeemer.” She laughed, and her contagious laugh got to me before I could stop it.

“I travel from village to village, from city to city. I search the forgotten truths of this world with the intention of carrying out my vengeance.” When I finished talking, the atmosphere grew tense.

We walked side by side. The stress of being at mercy of the night tired me out. The monotony of the landscape squeezed my bones. I could not think of a worse scenario!

I still didn’t know Zera well. I needed to know more about her, not out of curiosity, but out of survival.

Is she as innocent as she looks? Could she have any other intentions? The intrigue is killing me. Even the quietness of the trees is killing me! How much longer for that damned village to appear?

“Why did you attemped to kill Lodric?”

“Who’s Lodric?”

What’s with her now? Should we be talking in a situation like this? What if the guards have already started our hunt? What if she is my real menace?

Did you really not know the name of the person you tried to kill? What kind of assassin are you?!”

“Do you really have to shout it in the middle of the night? Monsters could hear you! You are a truly burden! In exchange of killing him, I would be given certain information.”

“You are telling me you are a hitman …a hitman who can’t do his job.”

Her irony irrited me because it exposed my insecurities.

“Thanks to me, you weren’t captured by the guards.”

“Thanks to you, the guards thought I was a pyromaniac.”

I was proud of what I accomplished that night: I started the fire, evaded the guards, and survived.

Even acknowledging my doubts and mistakes, I won’t let my past define my future. Reincarnation gave me a second chance, which is why I am cold and distrustful, determined not to repeat the same failures.

“There’s still details you haven’t told me. You mentioned wanting to take revenge on someone. What’s your story?”

“Why do you ask?”

“I’m a curious girl. You said you are a redeemer, yet you don’t look like an emissary of justice.”

"I failed a mission assigned to me by those who raided me, and ever since, i've been a hunted fugitive. Now, I want revenge."

“Those people you are looking for, are you going to let them live like you did with Lodric?”

Her mockery is worthy of a court buffoon. Is she really just a servant? Her attitude seems like something out of a circus. How dare she say that to me! Isn’t she worried about walking in the middle of the night, in a forest, with a guy she has just met?

God damnit!

And what if I’m a hitman that can’t kill, useless for not being able to hesitate? ? Does she think I’m an incompetent as well?!

I froze, lost in my thoughts. Neither the exhaustion nor the pain of the burns tortured me like my memories did. I have been through so much since I was reincarnated in this world. Wrath drove me to reach for the hilt of my sword.

Damn it! I lost it at the fire. Then I just stand with one weapon.

I held my rage.

“It’s not a man who I’ll kill, but a god.”

In that precise moment, one of my worries became reality. We had company.

The air grew cold and heavy; the wind ceased its course. The leaf litter silenced its lament, and the trees arched, producing a horrible crunch. The forest revealed its true intentions.