Ascendance of an Ex-con

We passed through the East gate wordlessly, and continued into the city without making a sound. Neither of us wanted to breach the topic of what happens next. But soon enough we would have to acknowledge it.

Far too soon—in only a few minutes we reached the city square. From here, our paths would diverge. Where Nadine was going next, I couldn’t follow.

“I… uh, I should head home,” I fumbled awkwardly.

“You’re welcome to come back to the Tavern and Inn with me,” Nadine said. “The least I can do after all your help is buy you a drink.”

“Definitely not!”

“I-I mean…” I backtracked when I saw Nadine’s crestfallen expression, “It’s just… that place… the point is, you get to go home from here too, right? Your pilgrimage is over. No use dragging me around with you anymore. Besides, I’m looking forward to getting some real rest after everything we’ve been through.”

“Oh…”

Nadine glanced down, and in so doing noticed the pouch of coins at her waist. She detached it from her belt and started counting out silver pieces.

“At least let me pay you before we part ways.”

I stretched out my hand and took the coins. I wasn’t about to refuse payment from her. That would be doing us both a disservice.

I now held in my hand more coins than I had ever owned at once, even when I put all my effort into saving money. I quickly counted them myself. Twenty-eight imperial silvers.

“Hold on, this is two week’s wages. We only ended up traveling together for twelve days. You gave me four silvers too many.”

Nadine nodded, letting me know that it wasn’t a miscount.

“Think of it as a commission for the bandit raid, if you like.”

I did probably deserve extra for that. I pocketed the money gratefully.

“Thank you, Nadine. Seriously.”

“There’s no need. This was a simple business interaction.”

Hearing her say that kind of stung, but she was right. I had only been traveling with her and her companions because she hired me to. And professional exchanges didn’t happen with the same level of modest politeness here as they did in Japan. Thanking an employer when receiving payment wasn’t considered a requirement.

The longer I stayed here, the more difficult it would be for me to leave. Knowing this, I made the hard decision to not wait any longer. I got one last look at the green-haired water priestess.

“Well, see ya— I mean, goodbye.”

“Goodbye, Seiji.”

Nadine looked like she wanted to say something else, but after a moment’s deliberation she just smiled feebly and waved instead.

I dropped my twenty-eight imperial silvers off at my tenement room, then headed back into the city. It was getting dark, and I hadn’t been lying when I said that I would really like some rest, but there was something I had to take care of first. The wound on my leg that I told Nadine not to worry about wasn’t healing as well as I had hoped, and I was concerned that it might get infected. Before that could happen, I needed to get it looked at by a white mage.

Priests from the Protectorate Church would help anyone who came to them for a small fee, but they bumped up the expense considerably for beastkin, and I didn’t like the kind of looks I got when I was near their temple. With that option off the table, you would think I was screwed, but there actually were a few white magic users in town who specialized in treating my species. The way we were treated by the church created a large enough niche for healers to make a decent profit by exploiting it.

It was a misty evening, making it hard to see more than a few meters in front of me down the city streets. That would have been a problem if I didn’t know where I was going. Luckily I had been to see my healer of choice a number of times before when I got myself cut up during bodyguard jobs, so finding him wouldn’t be an issue.

The location was a bit out of the way, requiring a few turns down narrow alleys to get to. I shivered, remembering that day, when an encounter with thugs in an alley had changed the trajectory of my second life. The sooner I got out of here and reached the white mage’s shop, the better.

As I walked through the alleyway, something started to tickle the corner of my spiritual senses. I couldn’t see or hear anything, but I had a feeling that someone was there. Was I being watched? Or was I overly sensitive to that cliché because I really could tell when a person was near me, yet out of sight?

As the moon began to shine down, the mists around me gave off a soft, silvery glow. I wouldn’t be able to see anything as long as they were there. The mist felt off to me somehow. I couldn’t tell if it was because it was swirling around faster and more deliberately than I was used to, or—

I jumped back just as the mist tendrils streaked toward me, cutting through the air where I had been standing with a blustering hiss. They weren’t just glowing in the moonlight. Someone was controlling them with magic.

“Well well well, that was an impressive move! I’m surprised you saw me coming.”

As quickly as the mist had rushed to attack me, it parted, revealing the open alley in front of me. Standing near where it met the main road was a cloaked man with wild, dark hair and dangerous eyes. The way his gray cowl flowed in a nonexistent breeze made it look like part of the mist. In his left hand he held a long dagger. Its pommel was a grayish gemstone that glowed in the same way that the mists did, meaning that his weapon doubled as a wand.

I didn’t know what this guy wanted with me, but I could tell he was trouble. I braced myself for a fight.

“At long last, I’ve found you!” he said vehemently. “If that really is you. You fit the description that I was given, but I can hardly believe that you and the person I’ve been searching for are one in the same. You’ve certainly changed since the last time I saw you, Itten Seiji.”

Every muscle in my body tensed.

“How do you know that name?”

The cloaked man looked down at himself. “Ah, that’s right! You haven’t seen me in this form before, so you don’t recognize me. Allow me to reintroduce myself. I am your judge and executioner. The one responsible for your appearance in this land. The avenger who ensured you were adequately punished for your crimes in your previous life.”

No way. I recalled the masked man who pushed me down and stabbed me on my way home from my shift at the convenience store, only two weeks after I finally managed to get a job. I may not have been able to see his face, but one doesn’t forget their own murderer. This man looked nothing like him, but I had never told that part of my story to a single person in this world. He couldn’t have known—unless he was the real thing.

My hair stood on end. I could feel my heartbeat start to speed up. My breaths became quick and shallow.

Wasn’t this a little too cruel? Did that angel send me here just to relive all the same pain I had experienced in my last life? Was I being punished?

To be fair, there was a good reason for it if I was.

“I see you remember me,” the cloaked vigilante said. “That makes this easy. Since you already know my name, I won’t have to introduce my—”

“No I don’t.”

“…Don’t what?” He dropped his self-important smirk and pinched his eyebrows together in a perplexed manner.

“I don’t know your name. You never told me.”

“Nonsense! I’m sure I must have—”

“You said it wasn’t worth telling since I would be dead and wouldn’t remember it anyway.”

“…”

He squeezed his eyebrows together tighter, as if he was trying to recall that moment and prove me wrong.

“Well how the hell was I supposed to know you’d end up being reborn?!”

There was no doubt about it—this guy might seem scary, but he was still an amateur, just like back then. I relaxed a little.

“No matter, I’ll just tell it to you now. I am Koumori Jin, the man who slew you in your previous life. And now, I’m going to do it again.”

He was insanely persistent, I had to give him that. Following me all the way to another world just to kill me a second time? This guy must really hate me.

“Wait, that means you died too, doesn’t it? How did that happen?”

According to Verne-sensei, the only way to pass from one world into the next was through death, since the physical body is locked to the plane of existence it currently resides in.

Koumori Jin glared at me, his eyes filled with cold rage.

“After I stabbed you, I was caught. They put me on trial for the murder of Itten Seiji, the murderer. And guess what? I was found guilty! I received the death penalty, which you were somehow exempted from, despite the fact that you killed out of malice, while I only did it for justice.”

He suddenly broke into cackling, the way a character in a movie does when they’re in the process of losing their mind. For Koumori Jin, that had probably already happened long ago.

“After I died, an angel came to me and offered me a second chance at life. I accepted immediately, of course. I still had work to do. Defending the weak by ridding the world of killers is my calling, and I had only just begun when I was executed. So I was brought to this place, and I learned about black mages—people who are condemned as murderers by the very world itself. It was too perfect! All I had to do was track them down and slit their throats, and because the people of this land hate them, I would be lauded as a hero.”

A sudden memory came to me of overhearing a group of men talking about a hero hunting down and killing black mages. It wasn’t just a rumor. I had come face to face with that “hero.”

“I never anticipated I would find you here,” he continued. “It wasn’t until I heard that a black mage named Seiji had been discovered in Debutsadt that I even considered that you might have been reincarnated as well. And now, here we are, finally having the reunion that I have so desired since then. Isn’t it sweet?”

Hold on. There was a part of his story that didn’t add up. If it was well known that I was a black mage, it would have been much more difficult for me to continue to live in the city. Maybe even impossible. But then, who could he have heard it from? The list of people who knew my secret was rather short.

As if in answer to my question, I sensed a presence running through the backstreets toward our location. A young woman burst into the alley and wrapped herself around the vigilante’s right arm. She had pink hair and pointy ears, and was wearing the dress and apron combo of a tavern maid.

“Jin! There you are! I was so worried… Oh!”

She noticed me standing across from them, and her eyes went wide. Her face flashed with a flurry of emotions, from fear to anger to guilt. She looked up at the cloaked man pleadingly.

“Jin, that… that’s—”

Koumori Jin put his hand under her chin, drawing her face ever so slightly closer to his.

“Yes, my dear Blanche. I have finally found him! Your deceiver. And I promise you, I won’t let him get away. Justice will be served!”

Blanche LaRue looked at me, her emotions no less complicated than they had been a moment ago.

“Seiji, I… I’m sorry.”

She clung tighter to Koumori Jin’s arm.

“There’s no need to apologize to filth like him,” the man Miss Blanche had attached herself to said. She looked away.

I was petrified. I wasn’t supposed to ever see her again. I tried not to even think about her, though I wasn’t always consistently successful at putting her out of my mind. The pain of seeing her terrified face looking up at me was still fresh. I could tell because it still hurt now as bad as it did then.

If I were to imagine the worst possible way to meet Miss Blanche again, it wouldn’t be as bad as this.

The vigilante gently untangled her arms from his and they parted. Her hand lingered longingly on his sleeve for several seconds. I wanted to gouge my eyes out. I was sure I would be sick.

“Any last words?” Koumori Jin asked tauntingly.

Mustering the only ounce of strength I could manage to call on, I turned and ran.

The vigilante whispered something, and the silver mists moved to block my path. A rush of wind came with them, like the beginning of a hurricane. But it was just mist. What could it do to stop me?

I kept running, straight into the haze. As soon as my arm touched it, I felt a piercing pain and drew back reflexively. My forearm was speckled with small red marks, each oozing blood. It looked like I had been hit by the world’s smallest machine gun. And it felt like it too. I screamed and clutched at my arm, but all that did was smear the blood around.

“My wind can accelerate the water droplets that form mist and vapor up to the speed of a bullet,” my attacker gloated. “You’d best not touch it.”

His mist rushed at me from behind, forcing me to dodge forward, right in front of Koumori Jin. He grinned down at me as he struck out with his knife, cutting a nasty gash into my shoulder. I clenched my teeth to keep from screaming again, then rolled to the other side. Mist poured toward me. I drew my sword, knowing it would be useless against the magical onslaught. It was all I had.

I tried to use spirit sense to keep track of where Koumori Jin’s mists were at any given moment, but their power was faint, and staying ahead of them wasn’t an easy task even if I did see them coming. The vigilante was controlling the wind with a level of precision that would have taken any normal person decades to master, and he had been in this world for less than a year. It was unfair. He was cheating. How was I supposed to beat this?

I jumped and kicked off a wall, sending myself flying through the air, on a trajectory aimed straight toward my past and potential killer. I swung my sword. If he were slower, I would have relieved him of his head. Instead he sidestepped me, and I tumbled to the ground.

I leapt to my feet to avoid a mist tendril that was swooping down toward me, but Koumori Jin anticipated that. A second tendril struck me square in the back. I gasped in agony and fell forward. My back was riddled with tiny holes. I couldn’t stand. Moving at all was excruciating. My grip weakened, and I dropped my sword. I had lost.

Blanche LaRue watched in morbid anticipation as the man who had killed me once sauntered forward and bent down so he could do it a second time. He grabbed my hair, pulling my head back and exposing my neck.

“This is my favorite part,” he whispered in my ear. “Relax, it’ll be over before you know it.”

Using his left hand, he held his dagger near my throat. Thanks, Tenshi, for letting me go through this again, I thought. Next time, I’ll just go to hell, where I belong.

Suddenly, the mist flew at Koumori Jin and pushed him back. Its silver glow faded, replaced with a clear, ocean blue.

“Thank goodness, I just barely made it,” the voice of my savior said. “When I saw that girl sneaking out of the tavern, I could tell that something suspicious was going on. I’m so glad I decided to follow her. You seem to have a bad habit of finding yourself in trouble, Seiji.”

I still could barely move, but I managed to push myself up to a kneeling position and turned my head to see Nadine standing behind me. She looked at me with her kind, green eyes, then turned them furiously on my attacker and his elf companion.

Koumori Jin’s smirk didn’t break. He raised his hands in appeal to Nadine.

“I’m sure you don’t know, but that beast you’re defending is a black mage. He is a killer, condemned by the laws of the universe. Believe me, I know. Seiji and I go way back.”

No. Don’t tell her.

“He stabbed his own mother with a knife. Isn’t that despicable? Are you sure you want to stand up for someone like that?”

Please, stop. I don’t want her to hate me too.

“Whatever you think you know about him, forget it. He isn’t just some common criminal. He’s a murderer.”

Stop—

“Seiji would never murder anyone.”

Nadine spoke with such conviction that I forgot my pain for a moment in awe of her. Koumori Jin frowned.

“Did you not hear what I just said? He’s a black mage. He already did it.”

Nadine looked down at me.

“Is this true?”

I nodded pitifully.

“Then I forgive you.”

My mind didn’t register her words. She what? She… forgive… no one had ever… before…

“I told you that I firmly believe you are a good person. I am the kind of woman who is stubborn in her beliefs. Whatever you did in your past, that was then. It doesn’t define you now. Tell me, Seiji, was I wrong to say that you would never murder anyone?”

Tears formed in my eyes and began to roll down my cheeks. I shook my head.

“No. Never again. I would never do it again.”

“Good. In that case, there is no reason to treat you like a murderer now. You deserve to be forgiven.”

It wouldn’t be overdramatic to say that my entire reality changed in that instant. In all ten plus one years of my two lives since Shino’s death, not once had a single person uttered those words to me. I realized, as Nadine said them, that it was what I had been waiting for all that time. For someone, anyone, to treat me like a normal human being even after learning what I really was.

I deserved to be forgiven. I didn’t fully believe it yet, but now that I knew Nadine believed it, I felt like eventually I might be able to as well.

Koumori Jin spat. “Itten Seiji’s sins can’t be so easily absolved. Killing another person unjustly leaves a blemish on your soul that can never be wiped away. So let me wipe him away instead!”

The vigilante lunged at me, but Nadine intercepted him with the mist. She chanted a create water spell and added the resulting torrent to the hazy water that was already hanging in the air. Her opponent growled. Miss Blanche cowered against the side of a building as he stirred up the wind and tried to rip the water from Nadine’s control. But she held firm, holding an unyielding liquid barrier between us and them.

Nadine spoke the incantation for her water blade spell, and the deadly crescent burst forth from the barrier and shot toward Koumori Jin. He barely managed to dodge it in time. Miss Blanche reached out and shouted his name.

“There’s not enough air pressure,” the vigilante muttered. “I need more wind.”

He held his knife out in front of him and began to chant, causing the gem on the handle to glow.

“Argent sola oer efflo!”

Spiritual energy moved out of Koumori Jin and into the air. The wind started to build up, moving so rapidly that I could see it. Nadine’s barrier faltered.

A halo of light surrounded the visible storm that the vigilante was generating. But it wasn’t silver. The light surrounding the wind that had come from his spirit was a dark, foreboding violet.

Koumori Jin’s bloodshot eyes opened so wide I thought they were going to pop out. In the corner of my eye, I saw Miss Blanche put a hand over her mouth.

“It’s black magic,” Nadine said solemnly. “Your soul is just as tainted as Seiji’s is.”

The wind stopped. Koumori Jin bent forward and clawed at his face.

“N-no, that’s not right. I am a warrior of justice! I’ve only ever killed people who deserved it! That was just, wasn’t it? Wasn’t it?!”

He looked up and shouted at the air, as if he were communicating with some otherworldly being, or crying out to God or the universe.

“I-I-I’m a black mage. A black mage. You know what we do do black mages, don’t you, Jin? Th-th-that’s right. So there’s only one thing to do, really. It’s obvious. Haha. Hahaha! Hahahahaha!”

And while he laughed away like that, he raised his knife in his left hand, and slit his own throat. Blood spurted from the wound, and a gargled laughter continued until his legs lost their function and he collapsed to the ground.

Miss Blanche stared at his body. She shook with a potent mixture of grief and fear. For a moment I was afraid she was going to pass out, but instead she turned and ran from the alleyway, the same way she had when she saw me use my magic on those thugs. This time, I was certain that it was the last time I would ever see her.

As soon as she was gone, Nadine rushed to my side.

“Oh my gods, Seiji, are you okay?! You have to let me heal you this time.”

“That would be nice,” I groaned.

Nadine spoke the words of a basic healing spell, and my body began to glow white. I felt the tiny punctures all over my back and arm start to close, as well as the cut on my leg that I had been seeking help for. The pain numbed. It would take a while before I was all the way better, but being healed so soon after receiving my injuries would help to make sure there was no permanent damage.

I still felt like shit, but I managed to make it onto my feet by leaning on Nadine’s shoulder. She let go of me, and I stayed upright. I coughed a few times, then wiped the spit off the side of my mouth, and the tears out of my eyes.

“Did you really mean it?” I said, my voice shaking.

“Of course,” Nadine said. She smiled at me. “You are far from perfect, Seiji, but so am I.”

I wasn’t sure if I believed that, but okay.

“You saved me twice on our journey to the shrine.”

“Twice?”

Nadine nodded. “Once when I was about to be crushed by that naked bear man, and another time before that, when you chose to go with me to purge the shrine of bandits. It would have been in your best interest to just walk away. But you didn’t. You stayed with me when I needed you, because I needed you, and for no other reason. I can’t believe that a person like that is all bad.”

“Well you saved me twice too,” I said. “A lot more than twice, actually, but two of those times were just now. If you weren’t here, I would have died.”

“And?” she prompted, raising an eyebrow curiously.

“And even more important than that, you were the first person to forgive me for killing Shino— I mean my mother. I don’t know if I deserve it. I can never atone for taking her life. But all the time I spent alone in a cell, thinking about how worthless I was… it feels a little more distant now. I think… Maybe I can be worth something after all. And if it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t be able to see myself that way. So please, this time, let me thank you. Thank you so much, Nadine.”

The water priestess glanced down shyly for just a second before meeting my eyes again. Her smile was the most angelic thing I had ever experienced, and I had met an actual angel before.

“You’re welcome, Seiji.”

***

From there, things got awkward again for a bit. We stood around, not knowing what to say to each other, until finally we decided that staying in the alley with Koumori Jin’s smiling corpse was seriously unnerving and hightailed it out of there.

Tomkin’s Tavern and Inn was obviously off-limits, so we went to a tavern in town instead and found a seat in the corner. We both ordered drinks (non-alcoholic for me, of course), but neither of us actually drank much of them. We were still caught up on figuring out how to follow up a fight like that, not to mention the conversation we had afterwards. Why don’t stories ever show the part that comes after the big, dramatic moments, I found myself wondering.

In the end, Nadine was the one to break the silence.

“You probably won’t want to stay here in Debutstadt after… all that.”

I peered into my drink. “Probably not. Miss B— There was an eyewitness, and she doesn’t have her vigilante boyfriend to go to anymore, so there’s a good chance a warrant will be put out for my arrest. I’d rather not be captured or killed by some unfeeling bounty hunter, so I’ll most likely quit town as soon as possible.”

“Where will you go?”

I shrugged. “The only other place I’m familiar with is Cilstadt, and that’s too close for comfort. I’m not from this world, so I don’t know the geography or anything that well. The country of Pontmercy borders Leauland in the West, right? Maybe I’ll go there. Though I’ve heard they’re less friendly to beastkin than Leaulanders are.”

Nadine twiddled her fingers in front of her. She seemed nervous about something.

“Maybe… Perhaps, you could come with me, back to my home? I could use a good bodyguard on the way, since I’ll be making the journey on my own. I can promise you’ll be paid well! My father is well off enough for us to afford your services.”

“Nadine.” I reached across the table and placed my hand on top of hers. We both started in surprise at my bold choice, but I managed to continue speaking. “You don’t have to pay me. I’d be happy to travel with you.”

“O-oh,” she said, looking everywhere but at my face. Her cheeks colored a little.

She pulled her hand back and coughed into it to regain her composure.

“You’re not jokin’?” she asked, her eyes sparkling.

“Not at all. I don’t have any better ideas of where to go. May as well stick with the one person who doesn’t think I’m an evil monster.”

“I have to warn you, I come from way up North, in the Frozen Lands. It’s a harsh environment, full of harsh people. They’re all survivalists, because they have to be to live in a place like that. If you leave them be and don’t get in their way they don’t care who you are or where you come from, and they won’t ask. But they don’t have patience for those who can’t adapt, and one little slip could land you in big trouble if they feel like you’re causing problems. Do you think you can handle it?”

“It sounds perfect to me,” I said sincerely.

“Then we’ll leave at first light,” Nadine announced. “Any objections?”

I smiled. “None whatsoever. Just lead the way.”

“Alright then. I’m going to go find an inn and get some sleep. I’ll meet you here tomorrow. Goodnight, Seiji.”

“Goodnight, Nadine… See you tomorrow.”