“Douglas?” Captain Armis’ voice was cold and collected. “What are you doing?”

“Keeping you from killing my charge unnecessarily.” Douglas replied in a similar tone.

Kay kept his entire body still, only his eyes moving over to look at the gnome, who apparently was his savior Douglas’ hand was outstretched in the direction of the Captain, and his hand was glowing the same color as the weapon that was about to kill Kay. Glancing back and forth, Kay took in the muscles of Captain Armis’ arm were tensed and his brow was slightly furrowed. Douglas was using some kind of magic to keep the mace from smashing Kay’s head in.

“How exactly would it be unnecessary?”

“Because Kay is an Outworlder, and received his class randomly, remember?”

The Captain’s body tensed for a moment, then suddenly relaxed. He let go of the mace, which stayed floating in midair. “Shit.”

“Um.” Kay felt slightly better about the situation, not that that meant anything significant, but he felt like he had time to ask something. “What?”

The mace gently floated into Douglas’ hands, and he held it there for a moment. “The law of almost every country or other political body out there is for Blood Mages to be killed on sight. By their very nature, they are evil people guilty of horrible crimes.”

“How’s that?” Kay asked. He was pretty sure he wasn’t evil, and the worst crime he’d ever committed was jay walking. Or maybe speeding, but that wasn’t really the point.

“To get most tier one classes, you have to get at least one skill to level five. For tier one Blood Mages that skill is Blood Puppetry, which is a skill that allows the user to utilize the blood of a target and magically control their actions.” Captain Armis said quietly.

Kay blanched at the implications.

Douglas nodded. “And to simplify the explanation, the only realistically possible way to do it, and the way every known Blood Mage has done it, is through the torture of children.”

Kay paled even further.

“An absolute genius with incredibly high affinity with Blood Mage classes would need to torture at least five kids, almost always to death. There are very few geniuses with affinity that high for any class.” Captain Armis stared at his face and sighed, then turned to face Kay. “Which is why I reacted without thinking. I’m sorry.”

“Um.” Kay stared up at him, unresponsive. How the fuck was he supposed to react to this!?

Douglas walked over, and handed the Captain his mace. He nodded appreciatively and hung it back on his belt as Douglas patted Kay’s leg. “Just sit there and breath. Every thing’s fine.”

“Um?”

“Just take some deep breaths.”

“Wait, you aren’t going to do anything?” Roctis asked in a shrill tone. “He’s a Blood Mage!”

“Like I just explained out loud to him.” Armis replied in an annoyed tone, pointing over his shoulder at Kay with his thumb. “Blood Mages are kill on sight because of their past actions, not the class itself. He’s the same as if he got it from a random Class Stone.”

“But what about his life on his previous world?” Roctis demanded.

“Are you talking about the skill carry over theory?” Douglas asked angrily. “That idiotic theory has been disproven dozens of times! I was a jewelry merchant before I ended up here, and my first class was Novice Fisherman! I’d never caught a damn fish in my life before that.”

Roctis’ face was a picture of indignation. “What about the Outworlder affinity theory?”

“What does that matter?” Armis asked. “I’m not killing someone over the idea that they could be good at a dangerous class.”

“We can’t have a Blood Mage walking around in the city!” The last was practically a screech.

“I never said we were going to!” Armis snapped at him, then sighed heavily. “We’ll have to burn the class out.”

Douglass sighed along side him.

“What does that mean?” Kay asked, glancing between the two of them. “That doesn’t sound good.”

Douglas looked at him with a reluctant expression. “That’s because it isn’t. Burning a class out means that the person can’t use that class anymore, but it permanently destroys the class slot it was in.”

“It’s also really painful.” Captain Armis added. “You’ll be in bed for about a week afterward.”

“And there aren’t any other options?”

“Sadly, no. Roctis, as annoyingly as he said it, is right. A Blood Mage won’t be allowed in the city. Hell, most anyone you meet would just kill you out of hand, just for having the Blood Puppetry skill. As bad as it is for you right now, that’s the best option for you in the long run.”

“Fuck.” Kay’s head dropped as he stared at his lap.

Douglas shrugged sadly as Armis turned towards the door. As the Captain turned away a thoughtful look crossed the gnome’s face.

“I’ll go get everything ready, if you’ll stay here Douglas. It won’t take-”

“He could make a Binding Oath.” Douglass said, gazing off into space.

Armis slowly turned around. “That’s not a good idea.”

“What’s a Binding Oath?” Kay asked, looking up from his lap.

“It’s an Oath to the World. It’s permanently binding, at the cost of your life. People don’t make them lightly.”

“Because if you make one worded even slightly wrong, you can die in an instant!” Armin had a worried look in his eyes. “You really shouldn’t do it, kid.”

Again, this was another thing that was at least somewhat similar to concepts in various stories. “What exactly would I do?”

“Douglas…”

“How would this go wrong Derman?” Douglas glared up at the captain. “He’d be swearing not to use a skill that he would be executed for using anyway. Worst case he doesn’t have to get his slot burned out and he can just train it into some other class without Blood Puppetry. Actually, the real worst case is he becomes the kind of person that would use a skill like that, and dies a quick and painless death instead of getting hunted down and executed!” Douglas turned to Kay. “Look, if you swear an Oath to the World that you won’t use the Blood Puppetry skill, you’ll be able to skip getting your class burned out. You’d just have to not ever use a skill that’s particularly evil.”

Captain Armis threw his hands up. “He could suddenly drop dead!”

“How? If he swears not to use the skill, it’s not like he can use it accidentally! You don’t just accidentally start puppeting people’s bodies using magical control of their blood!”

Kay tried to tune out their arguing as he thought it over. So far, he’d been mostly reacting to things as they came at him. He wanted to take control, so he was going to decide what he would do. Up to this point, Douglas hadn’t steered him wrong, and he couldn’t think of a reason for the gnome to screw him over. Plus, all his arguments held weight. He really didn’t want to have something done to him that would be incredibly painful and leave him on bed rest for a week, and while he wasn’t that sure how bad permanently losing a class slot was, it didn’t sound good. On top of that, he really didn’t want to magically control people’s bodies through their blood. That was just fucked up on every level. But was he willing to bet his life on never doing it?

That was really the question wasn’t it? Was he willing to die in order to not be evil. That was the kind of question he’d asked himself when he would lie in bed trying to sleep. What kind of person would he be in the face of evil? When he was tempted, or in danger, or just at rock bottom, would he hold tight to his principles, or cave in? Would he be the man his brother always thought he was?

“I, Kenneth Davis, swear an Oath to the World that I will never use the skill Blood Puppetry.”

Captain Armis and Douglass were still arguing when Kay spoke. They both spun in place to stare at him with wide eyes.

[This will have permanent consequences. Do you wish to continue?]

The screen that appeared in front of him felt different from the others he’d seen. Like there was a presence to it, a weight. It made him pause for a moment, before he reaffirmed his conviction.

“Yes.”

The screen vanished. There was a pause that seemed to stretch.

Then, everything went white.