The next morning went without a hitch. I woke up nice and early to see if my little accomplice had cleaned up after my mess/art, and was pleasantly surprised to find not even a single drop of blood to be seen. The blood from those thug-like fellows should have been soaking into the wooden floor for quite a while, but even those areas were completely clean. In fact it looked as though new floorboards had been cut and placed in their stead. I couldn’t help but give Melissa a well-deserved nod of approval. This was about as well done as the job could’ve been done. She looked extremely pleased at my reaction, tail swishing back and forth.

That poor misguided girl.

Hmm? Serenity what are you on about? She’s just making herself useful, and in my opinion she’s doing a fantastic job! As long as Melissa kept up the hard work she’d remain in my good books. Having someone to get rid of the evidence is great, but having someone to blame for the crimes should they come to light is even better, and Melissa fits into both categories perfectly. Work hard Melissa!

When the heroes and companions eventually made their way down, we all exchanged greetings before quickly getting ready and setting off to the next village over. The sun had just risen, and if we wanted to make it before nightfall, we had to pick up the pace. Unfortunately the pace was still very much not picked up. The heroes were apparently not morning people; their movements kind of reminded me of zombies, and their eyes were still closed for the most part. At the beginning I was pretty tempted to trip Hina up, but decided not aggravate her… yet.

The day was rather nice. The sun was present in the sky shining down on us, but it wasn’t unbearable due to a nice chilly breeze that accompanied our journey. The journey itself was rather uneventful in the end; just walking, occasionally meeting other travellers and the occasional break. During one of these breaks I decided to ask Melissa where she hid the bodies, simply for curiosity’s sake. To be honest, I was surprised at where they ended up. Turns out she removed all the floor boards with blood and buried the bodies underneath the inn before replacing said floorboards. It sounded as though it took a lot of effort, so I decide to give Melissa a pat on the head, in order to encourage such future endeavours. Truly such a simple creature; Melissa seems content with just praise and appreciation. I would have asked for some money.

The others kept the talking to a minimum, primarily because it seemed the heroes were so sore from walking the other day that they’d struggled to even get out of bed this morning. Catherine was feeling chatty, but with Deane, Melissa or myself to choose from, she would only receive responses which were either non-existent, too soft to hear or extremely curt. Eventually the day began to approach its end and the sun was near setting. Despite the slow pace, we were going to make it just before nightfall to the next village. This village was considerably more remote than the other, not being that close to any particular city or large town.

On the final distance of our journey, Melissa called over to me.

“Cyne, why is there smoke over there?” she asked, with a worried tone and an expression to match.

What’s she so worried about? I looked over to see the distance glow of fire and pillars of smoke rising from it in the distance… The village is on fire? Where are we going to sleep tonight? This is just my luck. I suppose we could try and make camp out here, but I don’t really like sleeping outside. Personally I need walls around me and a roof above my head. I’m also positive that the heroes would agree. What to do, what to do.

Shouldn’t you first go and help the villagers?

What?... Why? Sometimes you say the strangest things Serenity; why should I get involved in something like that. I’m an Inspector of God, not some self-righteous hero. I fight in the name of what is considered religiously correct in the kingdom of Sol. Unless there are heretics lighting those fires, I have no obligation what-so-ever.

“OH NO! Quickly guys we need to go and help them!” shouted Yuki, when he finally discovered the scene.

Yuki… for Sol’s sake, why? I know you’re a hero and everything, but come on, shouldn’t you take your companions’ feelings into consideration. Looking over I saw that both Catherine and Deane had worry clouding their expressions. They drew their weapons; a pair of curved daggers for Catherine, and a standard broadsword and shield for Deane. They turned to the heroes, and replied.

“Of course, let’s go”, *nod*.

Traitors. Dammit, now they’re all looking at me. I drew my rapier brandishing and pointing it towards the scene dramatically. Might as well make a show of it. I had to suppress a groan before offering my response to the others.

“Indeed, we must hurry to aid them” I said.

I sounded like an idiot, but the others nodded in agreement. We all ran towards the village. Except for Melissa of course, she’s no fighter. I left her behind with a spare short sword and told her to hide. If she’s as good at hiding herself as dead bodies, she’ll be fine.

I started to lag a bit behind the others, due to my lack of urgency, but made sure not to make it too obvious. Come on, at best it’ll be a few common bandits, hardly a problem for anyone here. Even the heroes in their current ‘weak’ conditions could slaughter the lot. I think I’ll just stay back and relax; they probably won’t need my help.

Soon, we came close enough to see what had happened, and what do you know, its bandits. A bunch of filthy fellows dressed in ragged clothing with extremely crude and rusted weapons. The small wooden houses were all on fire, not a single one left untouched. I admire their dedication to torching houses, they do bandits everywhere proud. Oh, and there’s some rape over there… and there… and there. These guys are animals.

Some of the bandits were chasing down villagers attempting to flee, hacking down the men and capturing the women, and children. They’d almost immediately proceed to rip their captive’s clothing off, despite their struggles and cries for help. And… well you know. There were a couple of better looking women being ganged up on by many of the dirty looking fellows. I’m shocked, never before have I seen such a display; there were even children, boys and girls, being used by the bandits. I almost wanted to applaud these guys for sticking true to the way of the bandit. I mean it was like human their basic human decency didn’t even exist; you don’t get to see this kind of display often after all. I can't help but admire such stereotypical scenes; It kind of reminds me of that incident all the way back at treetop inn. I must have read this scenario a thousand times before, and being a part of it was surprisingly exciting.

My companions weren’t so impressed, most of their eyes filling with rage. Hina and Rin seemed shocked, and unable to comprehend the situation. But soon, a surprisingly heroic Yuki gave them a wakeup call.

“You two wake up! We have to help them!” he shouted.

With that all of them shot off towards different areas of bandits. Catherine moved like a wild animal, gutting the bandits she passed, and inflicting wounds that would cause a substantial amount of pain let me tell you. I’ve studied this stuff and she was impressing even me with her performance. Deane on the other hand was picture perfect, the rage clearly present in his expression, not affecting his clean and precise swordplay. Each time he swung, another bandit would be incapacitated. Surprisingly he was avoiding killing blows.

Looking at the scene, I noticed that heroes with their clumsy movements and coordination were also avoiding killing anyone… seriously? Where’s the fun in that? Won’t capturing them delay our journey? I sighed out loud, and casually strolled towards a group of bandits who had remained under the radar of the others. As I made my merry way over to the group of bandits, I took my time to admire the scenery, the atmosphere; burning buildings, cries of pain and pleas for help. Music to my ears, these bandits did a pretty good job here, although I personally prefer burning individuals one at a time, to hear each one’s own unique melody. I do however appreciate a well-orchestrated symphony though, don’t get me wrong, this is just about personal preferences.

Maybe coming over here wasn’t so bad. Before I knew it I’d started to whistle that tune. That, slow, sad, beautiful tune. I knew the survivors crying for help in the area were giving me shocked stares, but I just tuned it out, doing my best to harmonise the tune with the screams and roars of the flames around me. I eventually reached the bandits and partially took myself out of the trance I was in. The environment was almost… intoxicating, but I still had a job to do.

The bandits were pretty disgusting. If I’m not wrong, I’m pretty sure that child is dead, and they continue with their activities… I think I just threw up in my mouth a little. Well since I’m here, might as well kill them. With that, I briskly strode to their position, stabbing the closest through the eye, giving his brain a little stir with the tip of my blade. Yep, that’ll kill him.

The other three present took notice, and immediately picked up their weapons taking up a defensive stance, one fellow with his manhood still hanging out… I don’t want to see that. With a quick swipe I removed it, sending it flying somewhere towards the plaza with a flick of my wrist. Once he realised he’d lost something very important to him, the bandit fainted. Ok enough playing around, I dashed over to the remaining two, sending thrusts of my rapier through their hearts. They couldn’t even react in time. In fact they didn’t even realise they’d been killed until the geyser of blood made itself known.

As they both collapsed to the ground, I began to carefully remove their blood from my blade, using some low tier healing magic to remove any potential diseases from said blood. These guys don’t exactly look clean after all. When the last of the blood was removed by my handkerchief, I had a quick look around to see what else I should do.

Most of them were taken care of already… Well, I did enough to say I contribu- SHIT WHAT IS THAT!?

I spun around and stabbed at the thing that had grabbed onto my leg and… Oops. As I looked down toward the end of my blade, I saw I had impaled a child. She looked to be about 7 years old, blood oozing from her wounds and unspeakable fluids flowing from her… parts. You know, I was pretty sure she was dead just now… I guess those guys weren’t actually necrophilous…

I carefully removed my blade, ignoring her pleading stare that slowly began to fade away. I’d stabbed her through the heart, so she’d die in a sec, but with her last strength she tried to pull herself closer to me, mouthing the words ‘help me’ from her dainty mouth which seemed to have lost a few teeth from abuse. That appearance of hers is rather unpleasant… and kind of repulsive.

I avoided the filthy, dying child, until the last of the light flickered out of her eyes. Would the others investigate the wounds? If so, this could be problematic. What to do? Oh! I looked over to an almost ruined and collapsed house, and came up with an idea. I carefully rolled the corpse of the child, using the tip of my shoe, over to the building and then with a solid push made it collapse on her.

Cause of death= collapsed building. Sorted.

Cyne… Are you really human?

Of course I am Serenity! What else would I be? You ask such strange questions from time to time, but don’t worry I understand. You were alone for so long you lost even your common sense. Don’t worry and just ask me anything that comes to mind!

…

Well later then, I guess. After the brief and somewhat strange conversation with Serenity I jogged over to the others, trying to emulate a sense of urgency. They looked over to me with tired and angry eyes. It looked as though they’d rounded up all the bandits they’d incapacitated. Good job guys!

“Cyne, where are the bandits you took care of?” asked Hina.

Her tone sounded almost accusing. What’s that for? I helped too. Trying to prevent an outburst directed at Hina, I turned to the others to report what I’d accomplished, adopting sad eyes, and a pitying smile.

“I took care of some bandits over there” I said, gesturing towards the area they’d overlooked. The group looked over.

“Yes, but where are they?” asked Yuki.

Where?... Does it matter? Yuki, I didn’t know you had a habit of collecting corpses. Although it’s not the first time I’ve seen it. One of our instructors back in inspector training had the same hobby. His classroom always smelled disgusting, but he was a damn good teacher.

“They’re dead…” I said.

“Dead?” parroted Yuki, staring at me wide eyed. The other heroes adopted similar shocked expressions.

Deane and Catherine were whispering about something to the side. All I could catch was “you didn’t tell him?” It looked as though I’d been left out of the loop. I had no idea the other companions were too incompetent to relay important information. I looked over to the still shocked expressions of the heroes and couldn’t help but wonder what I did wrong… that they were aware of.