"Me? Nothing, I just merely brought him back as Sarah requested." Aiden answered in a casual manner, not minding the still dripping dark, oily substance from his body. The complete disconnect between his demeanor and outlook gave a shivering, frightful feel to the onlookers. Even Sarah, who knew more about this boy than the rest was startled a bit.

"Is that blood?" Sarah asked looking at Aiden's discolored, messy right arm.

"This?" Raising his arm in front of him, he looked at his hand closer. "Most likely." Giving it a brief thought, he shrugged, answering calmly. Keeping his arm raised, he turned his attention shifting it to the worried-looking girl.

"Do you have something I can use to clean it?" He asked as the friendly smile returned once more to his face.

"S-sure…" Sarah answered, pulling a black silk kerchief from the depths of her leather vest. Although she brought it in case she would like to wrap it over her head, if it would be needed, it didn't seem to matter now.

Aiden accepted the square-shaped piece of lavishly adorned piece of cloth and without any care, he began cleaning his right arm, smearing the horrific, dark oily substance from his hand, much to the spectating guard's dismay.

The senior warrior, who was stunned to a shocked silence and then promptly ignored by the youth, finally managed to regain some of his willpower. Shaking his head, he glared at the boy once again, while wildly flailing his sword towards the youth.

"You! You… monster! What did you do to our friend?! WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM THE MISS?!" Due to the shocking revelation of the rapid turn of events, he was unable to connect the dots and process it. In his mind, the only possible outcome was that this boy most likely schemed to trick the young miss into falling into his evil hands, taking her away from him and robbing him of his rightful future!

His twisted and demented mind couldn't even process the terrifying power that this youth most likely had to be able to just vanish from sight only to reappear a moment later with a bloodied hand and a dead body. No, that was probably just a trick.

While the others were shivering in fright as they did realize the power required for accomplishing such a simplistic-looking feat and took a few steps back, their 'leader' didn't follow them. No, instead he took a few steps forward, with an ugly, twisted look on his face, eyeing this little monster from top to bottom one last time.

"I'm not going to let you go, you monster! You may have tricked the young miss, but your tricks will not work on me! I will send you back to whatever hole you have crawled out from!"

In his mind, he was proudly smirking, he thought he probably looked incredibly heroic, and once the miss was freed from her tormentor's control, she would be more than thankful to him!

Sadly, whilst in his twisted delusion he thought himself as if the hero opposing a great evil he looked more like an ant that was trying to threaten a giant. This was the sad reality that everyone besides himself has realized. If not for the dead, mutilated carcass ruining the scene, one could even say it looked rather comical even.

Completely ignoring the battle-ready posture of the man only a few steps away from him, Aiden finished cleaning his arm, and promptly put the now-bloodied cloth in his System's inventory. While the sight of the vanishing piece of cloth gave another surprise to the onlookers, Aiden turned his attention back to Sarah, and with the friendly smile not fading from his face he spoke in a calm and nonchalant manner.

"Would you deal with your men, or do you want me to do it?"

Sarah while outwardly she looked only slightly worried, she had a great tumultuous storm of emotions raging inside her. Agitation, Annoyance and a great deal of Shame mixed with Humiliation was swirling inside her mind. She couldn't speak for a moment, but to nod defeatedly.

Donning a stern look, she stepped forward, standing in front of Aiden, looking at her own, startled man.

"M-miss?" Startled and shocked, the senior warrior's expression quickly changed from the ugly mug to an incredulous, unbelieving stare. He couldn't accept the reality that the Young Miss would willingly protect this demon. However, his thoughts soon began to blur and fade, as his gaze matched the young miss's.

"Stop this! What are you doing?! Who are you to defy my order? Are you rebelling against our household?!" She looked sternly at the man as the outline of her irises began to brightly glow. Her words carried the same melodious heavenly tune that she usually used when talking as the leader of the examiners back in the guild.

"N-no miss, it's just that…" The man dazedly responded, stuttering as he did so. Twisting his head, he tried to look behind the young miss, and match the gaze of the golden-eyed boy, unsuccessfully. For some reason, he was unable to avert his attention.

"What? Just what did you think?" She continued, slightly raising her voice.

"I…" The captain was unable to reply to the question, his mind was a jumbled mess. His previous greedy dreams have vanished into smoke, abruptly waking him from his induced, delirious stupor.

"You just what? You thought are better than him? You thought you are stronger than him?" Her words completely shocked the veteran, as she was reading him like an open book. He couldn't answer and was just looking at them stupidly.

"You can't even stand up against me, much less against him! You are just a weak worm, employed by the Mistress, nothing more. Don't EVER think you will be more than that!" She scoffed as she blurted the harsh words. Once finished, she turned around, completely ignoring their presence.

Seeing Aiden's unblemished, friendly smile, she inwardly heaved in relief, her stern face immediately returned a similar friendly look.

"I'm terribly sorry for this Aiden, I did not expect that my own men would act in this way. I really just wanted to get us some updates about the situation…" Her tone was much different than just a moment ago, it lacked the earlier confidence, it sounded like the frail thoughts of a maiden and not of a seasoned leader.

Gently patting the top of her head, and stunning both the girl and the spectators, Aiden smiled at her as he lightly shook his head.

"Don't worry about it. I didn't mind it at all."

Then shifting his attention, he looked towards the forest once again, his eyes looking at nothing in particular. His smile turned slightly aloof, as he was briefly lost in his thoughts.

As Sarah looked at him, she couldn't place that particular look anywhere. It carried deep emotions as if she looked at his own home, he had this longing look flash through his eyes, albeit briefly.

"Aiden…" She gently grabbed the boy's shoulders, waking him from his reverie. "We should go."

Turning back towards Sarah, Aiden's friendly, polite smile returned to his face as he silently nodded, returning to her side.

---

A short while later, Sarah's remaining members of her recon team gave their reports, with their 'captain' staying behind the duo silently, afraid to even look at the girl or the boy, they finally left their presence and began walking towards the edges of the forest.

As they crossed the natural border and their figures vanished amidst the shrubbery, the recon team could finally sigh in relief, slumping down on the ground, not minding the bloodied and mutilated mess of their deceased fourth member.

"Are you really fine with how things turned out, Jack?" One of the two, sitting closer to their veteran member looked at him and asked the man focusing on the back of the parting figures of Sarah and Aiden.

Hearing his name called out, the man in question did not respond at all, as he turned to face his teammate. There were no traces of greed or scowl on his face. He seemed to be perpetually lost in a dreamlike haze, his eyes were blurry as if they lost their focus.

"Is he okay? W-what happened to him?" The youthful-looking man asked, looking at their senior worriedly.

The other one, although still relatively new in the ranks, had a bit more knowledge than his friend. Looking at their senior, he could only shake his head with a sad look on his face.

"This is the true power of the Mistress and their line…" He gently grabbed the shoulder of his once-captain and could only sigh as he lamented. "Jack could only blame himself for this outcome. This is why you should never EVER question or disobey the orders of the Mistress or the young miss. With just a look, they can turn you into this... Empty shell… Lost between dreams and reality, never able to come back again…"

As he said he stood up and looked at the carcass of their fourth member. His sad outlook turned somber as he sighed once more, and spoke, changing the topic.

"Just leave him, he is as good as dead now. Let's just clean up and head back to the city, our job is done, we should report back."