Return of the Mythic Bloodline

"You did well," Vyaghra said, suddenly emerging in front of me. "Following orders is important, but if the orders conflict with one's ethics, are they even worth obeying?"

I raised my eyes, looked at him, and murmured, "You mean..."

"I wanted to see whether you are ready to stand up against evil. If you hadn't taken action today, I would have killed them myself."

"So you won't take me back to the inn?"

He tapped my shoulder and declared with a proud smile, "Congratulations on becoming a true warrior!"

He moved towards the captured people, who were looking at me with both fear and gratitude, and announced, pointing at the dead kidnappers, "These scums had some inner conflict, broke into a fight, and killed themselves." His gaze sharpened, and a mystic black vapor surrounded him as he demanded, "Do you understand!?"

A wave of dread washed over the slaves; their bodies trembled, and their lips shivered as they spoke in unison, "W-we understand."

Vyaghra took out two handcuffs from one of the kidnappers' space rings and attached them to the chain. He first shackled himself in the cuffs and then ordered me to do the same.

We sat beside the wall in the tunnel, and that's when I finally spoke in a low tone, "I'm scared."

"How can you feel fear for a mere mission like this?"

"No, I'm not scared of it," I murmured. "I-I'm scared of myself. This was the first time I killed a human—I did kill someone in the past, but I'm not sure whether that thing was really a human or not—and yet I don't feel any remorse."

I tightly joined my hands as I spoke further, "I-I think I'm slowly losing my humanity. What if I begin killing people at whim?"

Vyaghra was about to respond, but a low, agonized voice came from in front of us.

"I'm very... very grateful for your... sob... kind help, sir," the young man that the kidnappers had beaten earlier said, sobbing heavily.

He bowed in front of me, touching his forehead to the ground. "It's presumptuous of me to ask for another request when you just saved us, but may you please help my wife escape? She is carrying my child, and I can already guess that the place they were taking us would have people even more dangerous than them. My child won't be able to survive there. Pl-please help us."

Despite the serious injuries that could make anyone unconscious, the young man kept pleading with every ounce of strength he had.

"I... I will—"

"We refuse!" Vyaghra declared in a cold tone, stopping me from making a huge mistake. "We are neither saints nor heroes. Don't assume that we came here to save you. We had our own personal reasons for intervening today."

"S-sir, I request you..." The young man begged even more intensely, brimming with tears.

"Even if we do help you, what do you think will happen once your wife escapes?"

The young man shuddered. He was aware that her escape was only a temporary solution. Without anything to her name and no means to feed herself, she would be caught again in no time.

I was relieved that Vyaghra stopped me from making a rash decision. I would have put his wife's life in more danger if I had agreed to help him.

"I should think thoroughly before making a promise from now on," I murmured inwardly.

"Forgive me for making an irrational request," the young man murmured, raising his head and walking back to his wife.

After him, two familiar women appeared before us.

"Sir, thanks for saving our dignity," they said in unison.

I glanced at their dirt-covered faces laced with dead expressions, trying to remember where I had seen them before. One of the women had long, black, messy hair, while the other carried short, brown hair.

"Aren't these the ladies I met in the shop—Aris and Silvia!" I gasped inwardly. "But they seemed like nobles. How could they end up here?"

Seeing me getting dazed, Vyaghra spoke up, responding to the ladies, "No need to thank us. Just keep your mouths shut."

"We understand, Your Lord," they said and returned to their place as well.

After a moment, the tunnel echoed with the sound of heavy steps and numerous murmurs.

"What the fuck happened here?" a man in black exclaimed, emerging from the crossroad, followed by more than fifty people with similar builds and clothes to the kidnappers I had killed.

"Oy, you filthy slave! Explain who killed them!" The man in black demanded, pointing his hammer at the young man.

The young man gave a nervous glance at me before blurting, "Th-they fought with each other for the women and began killing each other."

"You five stay behind, investigate the corpses and check whether this slave is telling the truth," the man in black ordered the five guards beside him before shouting towards us, "Form a straight line, slaves. You're lucky that you didn't try to escape, or I would have hunted you down to the world's end."

Following the group, we walked for about an hour and reached an enormous twenty-meter-tall metallic gate. It was a double door that had numerous small magical circles inscribed on it, and beside it stood two tall, bald men covering their faces with masks.

One of them carried a hot marking rod in his hand, while the other had a furnace burning with a mysterious blue flame placed beside him.

"Move forward," one of the guards ordered, pushing the young man who was standing at the front.

As he reached closer to the gate, the bald man beside the furnace clutched the iron cuffs and broke them with his sheer strength.

At the same time, the other one grabbed the young man by the neck, forcefully bent him, and placed the marking rod on his already injured back.

Smoke emerged from the point of contact with the smell of burning flesh as the young man screamed in pain.

After a moment, the bald man removed the rod and shoved him towards the gate.

Surprisingly, the young man moved past the closed gate and vanished.

"Vyaghra, is there a way we can skip that part?" I whimpered, looking at him with puppy eyes.

"We cannot enter inside without the mark," Vyaghra responded before walking forward.

In a few minutes, Vyaghra had his marking done, with no change of expression on his face, and the time that I was definitely not looking forward to finally came.

"Haha, we got some good young blood this time. The one who just went inside didn't let out a single sound when you marked him," the bald man beside the furnace laughed.

"This one also seems to be of the same age and demeanor," the other one said, placing the rod on my back. "I don't think he will scream—"

"Aaaaaaaggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"