He stared at them. They stared back.

They were armed to the teeth. He was without protection.

“Oi, Kid-” One gruff Knight started walking forward only to receive spit in response from the boy in front of him. This garnered a fierce red glare from the Knight and the soft chuckles of the Knights behind him.

Viran stood only a few feet away with his arms stretched outwards, Marianne’s body laid a few feet away in comparison. He had just spit directly onto the Knight in front of him. Viran wasn’t sure if these Knights were on his side… But no matter, since he was found it was already likely enough that he would die alongside Marianne.

‘Would this be considered Noble, I wonder?’ Viran thought with a helpless smile on his face.

Contrary to the smile plastered onto his face, Viran was keenly observing all of the Knights in front of him. He didn’t know many of the Knights by their faces, and he only knew which Knights were the traitors by their names… He could only hope there were at least one Knight that was on his side.

“Grab the brat.” The gruff Knight spoke sharply as he wiped the spit off.

The two Knights went forward to grab Viran, while one Knight still stood by. Her hand firmly gripped onto her blade.

“Insolence!” She yelled, her sword sliding effortlessly out of the scabbard. “You will refer to Lord Viran as is!”

The gruff Knight shook his head and stopped the two Knights momentarily, his hand pointed towards the female Knight.

“Go deal with her first, I’ll take care of the brat. Don’t hurt her too much, she still has some uses after you beat the resistance out. Ha!”

His lecherous gaze was felt intently by the Knight and her grip tightened heavily onto the sword. There was no fear within her though, only an anger and confusion. She didn’t know why her compatriots would do something like this, but that didn’t matter. She leapt into action immediately.

Taking his eyes off of the fight commencing he could feel a deep disgust welling up within him when looking at the gruff Knight. Viran wasn’t old or experienced, but he could tell just what the gruff Knight meant. Viran thought about Marianne, and what they were likely to do with someone as fair as Marianne.

“Tsk.” He clicks his tongue in contempt for the Knight.

“Why don’t you just kill me now?”

Viran’s nerves were shaken, he dearly wishes he wasn’t in such a situation. But no matter, Viran wished he could find solace in the things he had already done in his life. But he simply couldn’t. There were simply too many more things he wanted to see in his life, he wanted to be proud of his own achievements and to finally break away from the plague that was House Idicium. But he never had the chance for any of that, and it hurt deeply. His heart tightened at the prospect of death. He wanted to run, but he couldn’t leave Marianne. Even if he did run he would only fasten how fast he would die.

His feet held firm. His heart raced. His palms started to sweat from the tension.

The gruff Knight saw through all of this, his mouth contorting into a gleeful smile. It was still the dead of Knight, and there were many Knights running around the area in search of Viran through the darkness. Even now other Knights may hear of the commotion and come running closer… Especially if a woman’s cries were heard.

He lightly hushed Viran before turning to his companions that were already gaining an edge on the female knight.

“Knock her out now. We’ll take them all to the Forest, just like we planned.” The gruff Knight said.

“Now, brat. Listen closely to me.”

The Knight stepped closer to Viran, only for a slap to come for his face which he effortlessly catches. The Knight grins, malice secreting from his smile. His hand slowly raises before coming down in a heavy-handed manner, Viran can taste iron as he falls to the ground. Hatred soares through him; Viran was already completely over being beaten up straight to the ground.

“Tch. Fine, let’s go to the forest.” Viran relents.

Viran looks closer to the female Knight battling like her life depended on it, which it did. Her sword swung in a manner completely exotic to Viran, different to any style he had seen before. The female Knight was definitely skilled with battling multiple opponents, her wide arcs were able to fend off two opponents at the same time. A bright yellow glow ran through her body, illuminating the surrounding area. Viran wasn’t sure what sort of spell she was using, but from how fast she swung her sword and how heavy she swung Viran was sure it was a powerful spell. The knights opposing her weren’t holding back much as well, green and blue hues ran through their bodies as well. It was quite a sight to view, Viran felt chills just from viewing it.

Viran’s eyes turned wide as he saw the female Knight parry a strike over to kick the ground heavily, and through that a sharp light shot out blinding both Knights at once. The gruff Knight only frowned as he stared directly towards the light, the light seemed to faze him none.

One Knight finally fell, his throat cut with blood leaking out. His eyes were turned up revealing only the whites of his eyes, and a puddle of blood soon formed around his body. The Knight's skin had already turned considerably pale. The sight made Viran’s skin crawl, and his heart thumped loudly.

Though it was someone he despised, he still felt terrible watching someone die.

The Female Knight stood over the body of the fallen Knight as she faced the remaining Knight, throughout the entire time she eyed gruff Knight. Judging from her eyes, Viran could sense a feeling of anxiety from her whenever she viewed the gruff Knight. Was he powerful? Or was she simply almost out of mana and strength to fight on against the gruff Knight?

It was terrifying to look head on at the gruff Knight, his eyes had no change when looking at the dead body of his companion. His calmness was almost frightening and it was quickly infectious for the surrounding people. Viran felt his heart skip a beat from fright and sweat began to damp his tunic, the other Knights experiencing the same feeling.

Still, Viran garnered what courage he had to look directly at the gruff Knight, staring directly at his face. His eyes reveal a darker blue than he had ever seen before.

‘Magic!’

Viran had the sudden realization, the gruff Knight was in possession of a spell that somehow infected the surrounding people’s emotions. The female Knight became completely motionless from fright, yet her eyes still revealed a deep hatred Viran could sympathize with. The opposing Knight slowly inched forward, also infected by the fright and his hand chopped down heavily on her hand, forcing the sword away.

Forced onto her knees, the female Knight was tied and gagged. The Knight turns towards Viran and Marianne with rope in hand.

“Wait! Marianne isn’t in the best condition; you can’t be too rough with her!” Viran protested only to be met with a firm slap, more blood filling his mouth.

“Shut up brat.” The gruff Knight said firmly.

“Hehehe. We’ll be rough alright.” The other Knight said with a disgusting gaze as he licked his lips.

The ropes cut into Viran’s wrists and he felt trouble breathing from the gag, he resisted all he could yet couldn’t struggle anymore once a sword was placed firmly against his neck. A foreboding sense of death infected Viran, and his eyes closed firmly.

“Fucking idiot.” The gruff Knight spit on the dead Knight’s corpse before searching through the dead body. Within the pockets were loose gold coins and a silver pendant.

“Hurry up. The others will be rushing here soon enough, we’ll be running tight on time.”

They were forced to their feet, Viran already felt sore all over from the excessive amount of mana he used and being beaten. Viran looks back towards the corpse, its blood already soaked into the dirt and grain. The smell of iron had already entered his nostrils, a disgust had surfaced from his stomach. Viran felt repulsed, and conflicted. Viran knew he shouldn’t care about someone that tried to kill him… But it was his first time seeing someone die.

It would be traumatizing for any kid his age, right?

‘I guess I really am about to die… Aren’t I?’

Passing through the grain fields illuminated by the moonlight would usually bring about excitement and joy from Viran, but now he was sick of the sight. The scent of crimson had disappeared long ago and the lights in the distance only got brighter, and closer. The deathly forest was completely dark other than that.

The trees rose high into the air and seemed to suck up as much moonlight as they could, Viran’s gaze would only meet complete darkness were he to look away from the torches. He could only shake his head lightly, he had really been thinking about getting away in such a dark forest? It was likely he would trip over a root and accidentally kill himself in the dark if anything…

Viran takes his gaze from the eternally dark forest instead meeting it forward. The sight in front of him was the female Knight forced to walk ahead of the group, the other Knight put his hands wherever he wanted much to the anger of the female Knight. Yet she was unable to do anything, tears could already be seen forming within her eyes. Viran held disdain from viewing something that disgusting…

He peeked over his soldier only to see Marianne bound and gagged while hung over the shoulder of the gruff Knight. His gaze was stern and straight forward, not even bothering to look around. Yet Viran sensed a feeling that the Knight didn’t need to look around, he somehow knew the happenings of everything around him, even Viran staring at him.

Viran quickly looked forward once more when that feeling came over him, he could feel that the gruff Knight was truly meant to be feared. Not just because of the fear inducing spell he made, but also from his own abilities. Viran could tell clearly now that the female Knight was right in fearing the gruff Knight overall. A man that is scary and powerful… Viran had actually spit at, Viran laughed within his head thinking about it.

A whistle was heard ahead of Viran. From the darkness came out a hooded figure, yet still Viran could see the metal plates that all the Knights affixed to their armor through the light clothing.

“Looks like you got lucky there, tch. Ugly bastard.” The hooded figure looked disdainfully at the gruff Knight.

“Well you thought they already reached the forest, I didn’t.” The gruff Knight responded with a smile.

“Woah, you’re gonna share her right?”

Viran’s pupils shook as anger welled up inside of him, yet he was unable to do anything. The hooded figure looked lecherously towards the female Knight, a mix of anger and contempt leapt out of her.

“Heh. Go on take her, I got this one here for myself. Though it's gonna cost you.”

“Yep. Deal.”

The hooded figure took the woman away from the Knight, a frown had formed over his face from having her taken away. As they left Viran could barely hear the whisper from the hooded figure.

“Let’s go have some alone time, ‘k?”

Viran could only shut his eyes and lead on, he prayed for her to have a quick death instead of suffering. It was a morbid thing to pray for, yet Viran thought of it was more realistic to wish for that, considering their situation.

His senses flared. Viran shut his eyes as deep as he could, hoping dearly that by doing so he could no longer hear the faint screams that linger still within the trees. The world that Viran had entered was a cruel and unjust one, a realization he had made far too late for it to matter anymore.