Alright, let’s just take a look at the current situation. I’m standing here confused, the heroes are standing there shocked and the other companions are whispering about something over there. All in all I’ve got no idea what’s wrong… The silence had kept going for a good half a minute before Yuki finally broke it.

“D-did I hear you right there? You said you killed them.” He said.

“Indeed” I responded.

Once again, dumbfounded looks. Seriously? If you guys have something to say, you should just say it. Standing around like this was starting to bore me. I decided to have a closer look at each hero, and observed their expressions. Yuki had a conflicted look; almost as though he was struggling between being angry or satisfied. Rin had shock clearly written in her expression, eyes disbelieving. Hina just looked at me with both disdain and disgust. Hina was the first to restart the conversation.

“How could you!? Those people were still people, you can’t just go around killing them as you please: proper steps are in place to serve them justice, and you have no right to punish them in its stead” she practically spat the words at me.

… Since when wasn’t I allowed to kill people? I’m an inspector of God. Hina had started off with quite a harsh tone, and I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t a tad irritated. Why was I being reprimanded?

They are most likely unused to the loss of human life due to their previous environments. Despite the crimes these men committed, the heroes most likely believe they should be brought to justice.

That would explain it, but isn’t a bit idiotic of them to assume that the world would just work the way they wanted? Nothing comes easy. If they want to change the way things work here, they’ll have to do more than rely on their status as heroes. This entire situation was starting to anger me. It was as though I was in the wrong here.

There have been plenty of times in the past when my actions were ethically questionable, but to receive such treatment at the death of a few insignificant bandits was unacceptable. These low-lives, these beasts in the form of men, don’t deserve their lives. I’m not the one that usually dishes out punishment in these scenarios, but had it been a patrol of knight, each of these bandits would have been impaled and left to bleed to death.

Hina maintained her annoying, disdainful gaze, while Yuki also started to show a tad more anger in his expression. Rin on the other hand was just blankly staring at me. My so-called companions were merely watching by the side lines. No help? Really? I am not in the wrong here!

“Yuki, Hina, if you would explain more carefully as to how my actions went against your wishes, I’m sure we can remedy the situation.” I said, in attempt to improve the atmosphere.

Both of them turned their glares on me, anger evident in their eyes. Hina whispered something in Yuki’s ear, after which he took a careful look at me, his expression turning quite grave. It didn’t suit an idiot like him.

“Cyne, why are you still smiling? Why are you still smiling despite seeing what happened to these poor people? Why are you smiling after killing people? WHY ARE YOU ALWAYS SMILING?!” shouted Yuki, seemingly having lost it.

I could feel my eyebrow twitch, but kept my expression unchanged. Looks like he’s taking out his anger on me. His anger at these bandits was being taken out on me. The one who did not do a single thing wrong (that they know of). This attitude, this approach, was unfair, but what can I expect? I knew how life worked from a young age. I know how humans work.

They betray easily, they’re corrupted easily, they succumb all the different Sins listed by Sol, all so easily. They tread on others easily, they throw away their friends easily, they sell their souls easily and all for the right price. Humanity is greedy, and I’m no different. I’m yearn for money, power, the pleasures I find in life, and a great deal more. Over the years I learned a lot from the people I tortured, each one confessing even the smallest of things; the smallest of wrong-doings. I was the one who knew each and every one of them the best in this life. I knew their secrets, their desires, everything that made them human.

Looking at the heroes in front of me with my wealth of experience, how could I not know exactly what was going on in their little brains? What Yuki yearns for now is an outlet for his rage, what Hina yearns for is a way to put me in an uncomfortable position. What Rin yearns for is for me not to be a murderer. None of them are getting what they want.

“You are upset with me smiling?” I asked pleasantly.

“YES I AM!” shouted Yuki, Hina nodding angrily in agreement.

And with that I stopped smiling. No emotions rushed out of me like last time. I was expressionless; I was empty; I was incomplete. After so long, my smile had truly become part of who I was. It kept me sane, it kept me feeling, it kept me alive. The smile for feelings, the whistling for memories, the mementos for my past. All a part of me. Those deep, suppressed emotions are still buried far too deep to come out just by losing my smile.

I just stared emptily at them. I couldn’t muster up any feeling. Yuki looked surprised, Hina looked stunned. What did they expect? They hadn’t pushed me to my breaking point. Underneath my smile there’s nothing to see. Some people wear a mask to hide their true selves. I wear my mask, my smile, to complete myself. They most likely expected to see my true colours or something underneath my smile, but in reality it’s all part of it. Look deeply enough and you’ll see.

“Are you happy now?” I asked in that same empty voice I had just after my mother had died, so many years ago.

Yuki had visibly calmed down, and started to look down to the ground ashamed, even Hina looked uncomfortable with how things turned out. I turned my gaze to my ‘companions’ and saw both Catherine and Deane staring back as still as statues. It was enough, I’d defused the situation, but for some reason I couldn’t smile again. I couldn’t feel. I couldn’t live.

“Cyne, I’m sorry. I was unfairly taking out my anger on you…” said Yuki. He then proceeded to nudge Hina, who returned an unwilling look before looking at me.

“I’m not sorry.” She said. Yuki looked at her, stunned, but before he could cut her off, she continued.

“I didn’t like you the moment I saw you. Your smile is disgusting. After we’d been summoned and we were training, I read up about inspectors.” She said, giving a pause before continuing.

“You people are just evil. You kill others because of differences in beliefs and do all manner of horrible things.”

“I even asked after you in particular. The lead inspector came along one day, and I took that opportunity”

“He could hardly deny a hero, and so I learned about you. The smiling inspector. Others come out with severe psychological problems after going through that kind of training, but you never showed any distress.”

“A child who whistled at each pyre with a smile on his face. A child who tortured others while humming a happy tune. A child with a bright smile. That was you.”

“I was expecting you to flip out or something when I eventually managed to stop you smiling, but your reaction was even creepier. Are you even human?” she looked at me with disgusted eyes.

Normally, had my smile been on I would have done something by now. Responded, defended myself, that kind of stuff. But I just couldn’t feel the point in anything anymore. Why should I defend myself? Why should I care about what they think? Why? Why? Why?

Cyne… are you okay?

Responding was a lot of effort in my current state so I simply ignored Serenity. Why did I even let her in my body again? Why was she asking me a question? Was she concerned? No… she asked the same thing as Hina, am I even human? I guess she also wants an answer. Does it matter if I don’t answer?

I think I wouldn’t like this state if I had enough emotions to consider it… What drove me before? What did I hold on to? My hand absentmindedly travelled to my handkerchief, now stained with blood. I started to remember my father, my mother… my family. So long ago now. As I stared at the bloodied handkerchief, the other looked at me with worried eyes. Quite the contrast to before, although Hina still looked more wary than worried.

I started to think back to the tune that accompanied me through all these years. By each, pyre out loud, and in my head during times of peace. I remembered that beautiful tune, I remembered all the people I tortured, I remembered the promise I made myself so long ago. Hmm? A smile was starting to creep its way back, the corners of my lips began to tug upwards and eventually they settled into a content smile. I returned my gaze to the others, once again a complete person. That was a pretty close one; there may have been no coming back had it continued for significantly longer.

Cyne?

Serenity? Sorry to worry you! I’m right as rain now. After reassuring an uncharacteristically worried Serenity, I refocused on the situation. Where was I… oh right! That plotting woman put me in a tough spot. Hina, Hina, Hina, if you knew I wasn’t such a good guy, why did you aggravate me so?

“Sorry everyone, I was just lost in thought for a moment” I said.

Everyone started to visibly relax, although Yuki still looked guilty, while Hina was being… well Hina. Yuki walked up to me and knelt down on the floor, lowering his head to the dirt… What’s he doing?

“Please forgive me! I have no excuse! You were my companion and I turned my anger towards you” he said. Well… yeah, you did.

“Don’t worry about it, I was at fault for not being more considerate of you guys” I responded.

Yuki and Rin both looked relieved, while my companions looked somewhat guilty. Well they were the reason everything happened. I’ll get them back one day. Hehehe.

“Psycho” muttered Hina.

*thump* Oh! Nice punch Rin! Hina clutched at her side in pain as she stared in shock at a somewhat furious looking Rin. Hehehe, she got some of what she deserved… She’ll get the rest eventually.

“Stop talking” ordered Rin. Oh, the shy Rin is finally taking a step a forward.

Hina looked unwilling, but after the comical scene of Rin threatening her with a raised fist, she submitted. I let out a chuckle at the scene, which caused Rin to turn red from embarrassment and caused Hina’s expression to turn sour. It also looked as though everyone conveniently ignored what Hina said about me; well it was pretty obvious she didn't like me, making her biased in that situation. Good on you guys for carefully considering the validity of the information presented to you! Although I think Rin probably just didn't want to believe it and Yuki was too focused on his guilt.

After everything had been settled, and everyone apologised, we moved onto our plans for the future. The village had 21 captured bandits and only 9 surviving villagers (apparently some committed suicide as soon as they got a chance). Initially my foolish companions wanted to take all the bandits and villagers to the nearest town to deliver the bandits to justice and the villagers to safety. Of course, this would take up an annoyingly large amount of time, so I convinced them to leave the bandits for the next patrol of knights to pick up. Of course the knights would just kill them all, but that information was withheld. In regards to villagers, I steered everyone towards the option of dropping them off in the nearest village; fellow villagers would probably be more willing to help them out than the folks in town, and of course, the next village was only a day’s walk away. Everything just works out this way, and luckily for me no one disagreed (well Hina tried, but got punched by Rin).

To end the day we all set up camp, using the emergency supplies in the heroes’ storage rings, and I was put in charge of sending all these poor souls to Sol. Dammit, they’re just making me clean up here. I got Melissa over, and had her drag all the bodies to the centre of the plaza where I’d constructed a rather magnificent pyre. I couldn’t help but give myself a pat on the back.

The evening ended with a burning mound of corpses. It was quite a spectacular display, far superior to the comparatively shoddy job done by the bandits, but it was missing the energy and excitement that screams of pain brought to the table. I brought my hand to my face, covering my smile. It turned out that I really did need this smile. I can’t afford to lose it in the future, so I think I’ll try to have as much fun as possible from now on. Hehehe…