33 — Karla's Husband

Ducking a bandit's spear, he thrusts for the stomach, cutting upwards. Guts spill as the thief falls to the ground, motionless. That's the last of them.

Joezand looks around. Over thirty bodies. A few peasants, but mostly bandits.

"Crap, one of them cut my forearm." Lorelai says.

"I-I got hit in the shoulder." Anneliese says. "Iaomai, could you take a look?"

"Yes, no problem." Iaomai replies, putting one of his palms on each of their injuries, slowly healing both at the same time.

And the prince keeps staring at the bloodbath that took place.

...

He has died before.

He still remembers how the train felt when it cut him in half. The desperation to try to salvage something from his body as he scrambled to push his organs back inside.

And he never had to inflict this onto anyone else. Until now.

He looks at the last bandit that he killed. Innards out of their body, just like him before he came to this world.

They definitely deserved to die. All of them did. There's no doubt about that. The one bandit he tried to injure non-lethally almost cut his foot off.

But he didn't expect how heavy it'd feel.

Taking a life.

And he seems to be the only one who feels that weight.

A heavy sigh escapes his lips. He feels a hand on his back.

"Everything okay, brother?" Florian asks. "Why are you sad?"

"Sad? That's not the word I'd describe it as." Joezand sighs. "I... don't know. Killing doesn't feel good."

"Some people love it." Florian says. "It's weird you're feeling bad about it, considering what we are."

"I—" Joezand stops himself. He... actually doesn't know if he killed someone before. Like, he didn't, but maybe past Joezand did. Is killing someone like a rite of passage for von Styria? With an emperor like Thaddius, he doesn't doubt it. "I just don't remember doing anything like this. Lost memories and all."

"What?" Florian looks around quickly. Huh, weird. "Oh, yeah. I get it. You sure lost your memories."

"I think they sent a letter to you telling you the situation and that we were coming." Joezand recalls. "You... can read, right?"

"I do, but I never actually read. I just get other people to read for me."

"That can't be good for your brain." Joezand says. "Read once in a while."

"I know, I know." Florian says. "I'll get around to it sometime."

"You should start as soon as possible—"

"Jeez, what a bloodbath." A voice comes from behind them. Agnes has a crutch on one side and is being supported by Karla, the peasant woman from before, on the other. Karla's daughter is slowly trailing behind them. "Take me to my butler, please."

"Uhm, r-right." She drags Agnes towards Iaomai just as he finishes healing Anneliese's and Lorelai's injuries. He takes the duchess, her arm above his shoulder. "U-Uhm... Where's my husband?" Karla asks, a bit of desperation in her voice as she looks at the bloody carnage in front of her.

"We told everyone to disperse while we fought the bandits off." Joezand says. "Chances are your husband was among the crowd who fled." Joezand watches as Agnes pulls Iaomai, Anneliese and Lorelai to the side. They start to whisper. Strange. Well, he won't pry. The less he hears Agnes speak, the better.

"B-But there are not only dead bandits here." Karla replies. "What if he's..."

"Don't worry, I'll help you!" Florian says. "I don't think he's here, but I'll help you look through the dead."

"Oh, t-thank you." She says, and they start investigating the bodies. Lorelai and Anneliese quickly go towards the bodies as well, but they seem to be checking out the bandits. Maybe they're looting them? Agnes and Iaomai stay next to Florian and Karla, just watching as they search.

He doesn't have the stomach to look at the corpses any longer. He sits down on the ground, looking up.

The guts and blood just won't leave his brain. Every time he blinks.

It's even worse, because he was almost over his own death in Tokyo. Now the memory was refreshed. He lets gravity pull his back to the ground as he just lies there, watching the sunset.

'Not feeling well?' Sunnaria asks.

'I think you could probably guess that.' Joezand sighs. 'Never killed anyone before, so it's a huge shock.'

'It was purely self-defense, though. You were defending yourself and the village.' Sunnaria argues. 'You tried sparing one of them and he almost cut your leg off.'

'I know they deserved it. That doesn't make it feel any less disturbing.' Joezand thinks. 'I know this world apparently is more violent, but I didn't expect to need to kill actual people. Just the demon.'

'Forgive me, little lamb, but... It's going to be hard. It's going to feel awful. I won't deny that.' Sunnaria says. 'But don't forget. You really have done nothing wrong. You're the last person you should blame. The bandits didn't have any reservations about killing you.'

'Who am I to blame, then? They only attacked the village because they somehow knew that I was here. Even the peasants who died were kind of my fault.'

'Well, if it helps in any way, you can blame me.' Sunnaria replies. 'You're only here because I was the one who brought you here. I even told you to kill them.'

'You only did what you needed to do, I'm not blaming you. That's stupid.'

'Blaming yourself's even more stupid.' Sunnaria giggles. 'People have blamed me for all sorts of things over the years. Don't worry, I can take it.'

'Oh, please.' Joezand chuckles. 'You couldn't bear the thought of me hating you. You love me too much for that.'

'Tsk, tsk, tsk. I go away for a few weeks and you're already this cocky and smug.' She laughs, the sound soothing his mind. 'I raised you better than this, you know—'

"Why are you laughing to yourself?" A voice breaks his talk with Sunnaria. Again. Why do people keep doing this? His eyes go towards the speaker, expecting to see Agnes again...

And it's not.

He sees a kid. A brunette with long hair, wearing a patchy and dirty white dress and simple shoes. She has a neutral expression on her face as she looks at him.

"Oh, you're... Karla's daughter, right?" Joezand asks. "Nice to meet you. I'm Joezand."

"Why lie on the floor? You'll get your clothes dirty." She says, staring at him. She doesn't blink. Her dark green eyes seem to be able to read his soul. It's very uncomfortable. "I'm Louise."

"Y-You're right." Joezand says, getting up and patting himself down. He remembers how much Anneliese hates to do laundry. She won't be happy about this one...

"You have good clothes." Louise says, still unblinking. What's this kid's deal?

"Thank you. I like your clothes too!"

"My clothes are bad clothes." She says, looking down sadly. Thank God she's not staring at him anymore. "I wish I had good clothes."

"Well, maybe I can help with that. I'll talk to some of the tailors I know—"

"NO!" A scream cuts him off. "No, no, no, please, no..." He and Louise look to the source, and they see...

Karla, crying. While she's holding a peasant's dead body.