Chapter 17: Fork in the Road

The people in the wagon eventually left him alone, picking up on the fact he was not in the mood to chat with them. A couple shot him curious glances, but no one dared to push him, which suited him just fine.

Hearing his ex-comrades being brought up made him want to snap and reveal that they were no heroes. That they had abandoned him to die.

However, that would mean revealing himself, which he couldn’t afford to do just yet.

Besides, they technically were heroes even if he wanted to say otherwise. They had been protecting the people from monsters during the last ten years while he was trapped in the seal with the evil god.

If they were evil people, they would have left it to the monster hunters to deal with them. Instead, they continued to risk their lives to protect the people.

Luke couldn’t understand how they could help people then turn around and stab him in the back.

Why him? Why could they so easily betray him despite being friends?

Or at least he had thought they were friends. The fact they could leave him for dead said otherwise.

He sighed as he thought about how a confrontation would turn out.

Previously, he had imagined facing them, forcing an answer out of them, and making them suffer before moving on with his life.

Now he had to consider what it meant for the people.

Unless he could find people who could step up to take their place, getting rid of them would only do more harm than good to the people. He didn’t want that. He only wanted the people who hurt him to pay.

His thoughts turned back to what one of the children had said about him being stronger than the heroes.

There wasn’t actually any difference between heroes and monster hunters.

It was true that the heroes went around slaying monsters, bringing hope to the people, but the monster hunters did the exact same job. There were more monster hunters than heroes, easily outnumbering them and doing more than the heroes could since there were so many.

The only reason why he and his ex-comrades were called heroes was because they were deemed by the Walandic Theocracy as such. They were the best of the best.

If the strength of the monster hunters increased, would there be any need for the so-called heroes?

As he considered the possibility and what it would entail, the wagon slowly rolled across the road to their destination. They soon reached a fork in the road when they were accosted by some people.

The driver hesitantly slowed the wagon as one of the people said, “Thank goodness, we’ve been trying to hitch a ride. Can we possibly get a ride to the next town or city?”

“Sorry, but the wagon’s full,” the driver said helplessly, glancing back at the full wagon.

“Please, we really need help. We can pay a lot,” another person begged, pulling out their wallet to hand over their money.

“I’m really sorry, but there’s nothing I can do,” the driver said as sweat formed on his brow.

The other passengers stared uneasily at the people trying to keep the wagon there. Luke tightened his grip on his sword, studying the people wanting to get on the wagon.

Their clothes were covered in dust and dirt.

They were clearly travel-worn, but where had they come from?

The road they were taking was a long one, easily more than one hundred miles between Waldbron and Dornsbachwe with no other stops in between unless they counted detours to other towns.

Luke couldn’t imagine that they traveled from either city on foot up to this point.

Even though it was clear that they had been traveling, their condition wasn’t bad enough to suggest they walked dozens of miles. It was more likely they had come from the nearby town down the fork.

However, if that was the case, why not wait for a vehicle heading to town to hitch a ride?

Something wasn’t right.

The people gathered around the wagon as they begged to be let on, making it impossible for it to move forward unless the driver was willing to run over people. The driver’s hands trembled as the other passengers stuck close to each other and away from the hands.

Seeing the situation beginning to spiral out of control, Luke stood up and got down from the wagon.

“Enough. I suggest you back off right now,” Luke barked as he brandished his sword.

Many of the people surrounding the wagon backed off, scrambling to get away from what they perceived was a crazy man. Others continued to cling to the wagon, uncaring whether they lived or died.

The sight made him frown, and he demanded, “Why are you doing this? Can’t you wait for the right vehicles to come to your town?”

One person laughed bitterly before saying, “They’re all gone. They’re not coming back.”

Their words sent chills down everyone’s spine.

“What are you talking about? What happened?” Luke asked.

“The monsters happened,” a different person answered.

The word monster caused people in the wagon to whisper nervously, glancing down the fork in the road as if expecting one to jump right out.

“Explain,” Luke said with a sinking feeling in his stomach.

“There was a monster problem, and monster hunters showed up to deal with them, but they all died. Everyone rushed to get on the vehicles to get away, but there weren’t enough. We were left behind. We were told no more vehicles would be coming to our town and that we were on our own,” someone else explained.

Anger surged in Luke’s chest.

How could they abandon all these people? Didn’t they understand what would happen if no help arrived?

However, no matter how much he sympathized with them, the fact of the matter was that there was really no space on the wagon for them.

It had already been full to begin with. Trying to put all these people on the wagon was completely unrealistic and too dangerous for the passengers already on the wagon. It wouldn’t be fair to them.

Even so, he couldn’t just leave these people. If he did, it would be the same as killing them. He had to do something.