It took me almost a whole day before I could completely calm down from the scene in the village. I was not in a good place. I needed a way to conquer my emotions but that would have to also wait until I had a place to relax and feel safe… or at least one where I would not have to worry about being attacked by bandits at all times. I really needed one and if in the end the elven country doesn’t work out. I would just have to make one myself.

I couldn’t mess with the gods but I could just pretend to be a human and build a new kingdom or take over an existing one. In the end killing the gods would solve nothing. If I just simply lost my patience and killed them I would be plunging this world into an even deeper chaos than it’s in right now. And that’s… defeating the purpose.

The girls seemed worried when they saw that I wasn’t calming down easily but I assured them that I just needed a bit of time. Lily seemed a bit glad that I was bothered by it. She probably thought Kenos to be a bit TOO unfeeling sometimes and I agreed with her. Though in the end she probably could not deny his kind albeit merciless nature. After all it was that exact nature that saved her life.

That night Cel hugged me and asked if we could sleep together again. I could feel that this time she was doing it wholeheartedly out of worry for myself. I pet her head as I reassured her I would be okay but still didn’t deny her presence. I wonder if this would seem weird from a third party perspective. It feels so natural to me at this point. So that night I could once again not move until dawn.

As we continued our journey we tried using the roads this time but we encountered a few more bandit groups during the next few days. It seems that the fact that we didn’t encounter any bandits until now was either because we were not using a road or if we were using a road then… they were just lucky. Cel helped out from time to time and took care of the stragglers that tried to run away but for the most part me and her just sat down and watched. She was close to becoming an Archmage and didn’t quite need to move to defeat a few petty bandits.

Lily didn’t mind. In fact she preferred this. I don’t need any combat experience as the three before me have given me enough through their memories and Cel was stronger than Lily and if she also learned to strengthen herself and became a battle mage… Lily would be in some serious trouble. Well… strengthening and magic are very different and honestly once you learn one the other becomes much harder to achieve unless you’ve practiced both at once.

I’ll have to start teaching Lily mana manipulation. If she can do that she’ll be much better at strengthening her body. For Cel… I have something else in mind for her. Something a bit more special which won’t be available to Lily and only to Cel because of her monstrously high affinity to darkness. If Kate is a Child of Light… then I guess Cel would be a Child of Darkness. Though I don’t know how it affects her body. There’s technically one for each element but it would be an astronomical coincidence for all of them to be born during the same period of time…it’s not impossible though.

I also started teaching them elven. I felt sorry for them to have to learn another right after almost becoming capable of beastkin speech but… it couldn’t be helped. Though this time I concentrated on speech alone. The writing of the elven language is quite complicated so I would teach it to them later. I still kept up with teaching Lily how to control mana more easily and for Cel I had some special sessions which would help her get stronger.

It had been a few days since we left the village and we were walking on a road through a forest. I had calmed myself down and was thinking of ways to keep myself from losing control again. Though in that situation it was not necessarily bad that I did I might have been able to save a few more people if I had kept my cool. I should have put the fire out first. I should have scanned the village looking for people near death who I could bring back and try to get to them first. I was too lost in my rage to do any of that though.

I’m not going to go ahead and blame myself for their deaths. That was how the tyrant fell in the first place. He felt like all of humanity’s mistakes weighed down on his back as if they were his own and blamed himself about every little thing. Even things he obviously could not help became his fault in his head. If a child lost its mother. If a person was killed unjustly. If someone was sent to jail for a crime they did not commit. It all somehow ended up being his fault.

I sighed. It was those bandits’ fault that the people in that village died… but at the same time it was still true that I could have handled the situation better. It was no good to blame myself for everything but it would also be bad for me to not admit to my mistakes. People tend to do one or the other but a balance is important. If you can keep that then you should be okay. Only… it’s easier said than done isn’t it?

I was thinking of such things when I suddenly felt a presence and two cloak-clad people jumped out of the trees. How did I not notice them until they were so close? Damn it. Again I was too absorbed in my thoughts. This is why I wanted to deal with it in a safer place.

It was obvious that these two were not ordinary bandits. Assassins? Sent by who? To assassinate me? If it was the gods then I felt like I would be surrounded by Celestials but these guys? No… these guys were… I noticed the affinity they exuded. They weren’t human. And if anything Cel’s expression should tell me what they are. Vampires. I don’t know why but Cel obviously doesn’t have a like for her own kind. If anything she seemed terrified of them. And anything that terrified Cel should be my enemy. It should but I would still hear them out. Out of politeness if not anything else.

Yet… they said nothing. Only stood analyzing me. And looking in Cel’s direction. For whatever reason the cloaks did not work on them. I was using an unknown enchantment which I did not read about so I guess there could have been problems. Maybe it was because they weren’t human or because they have better sight. Oh… maybe it’s because they already had their attention on Cel? The enchantment states to evade attention but once someone’s attention is set on her then that’s it? That’s pretty defective. I would have to remake those cloaks later. This pretty much meant as long as somebody knows Lily or Cel and is searching for them then the attention cannot be avoided.

“You! Hand over the girl to us and we won’t hurt you!” (Vampire #1)

What kind of a blatant lie was that? I could feel his bloodlust so clearly it made me want to laugh. If I were to hand over Cel then they would just try and kill me in front of her to torture her. It was written all over their faces which they thought hidden. Nothing is hidden from me though… if only I don’t lose my head in thought. Cel looked towards me and I just smiled warmly at her. What? Did you think I’d actually do it? I turned to the vampires and smiled at them as well.

“I would advise you to leave before you get hurt.”

This smile wasn’t quite the same warm one I had given Cel though.

“I’ll say it one more time human scum! Hand over the girl!” (Vampire #1)

I was still smiling. It was a mocking smile. They didn’t feel like a threat. I could kill them in a millisecond without even using magic. No… they were dead the moment they stopped me and I saw Cel’s expression. My smile turned cold as a single sound of wood hitting the ground resounded through the surroundings and a giant monstrous mouth, made of stone emerged out of the ground beneath the vampire who had been speaking. His screams lasted less than a second before the jaws of death closed their hundreds of teeth, crushing the vampire into a bloody mess and sinking back under dragging him along. I turned to the other vampire whilst still smiling. This one would stay alive a bit longer.

He looked terrified as he turned and tried to run but he hit an invisible wall. He tried to hit it and cast dark spell after dark spell as I slowly walked over whilst still smiling. Seeing that the wall would not break he now turned and cast towards me. The spell he cast created a dark spike and shot it towards me. He seemed incredibly surprised when the spike stopped and floated in front of me harmlessly whilst turning much darker. The spell turned around a hundred and eighty degrees and shot back towards the vampire instead, missing only slightly and breaking a visible hole in the wall behind him as if it wasn’t even there.

While he fell to his knees drenched in sweat I walked over and stood above him. My smile still not disappearing. They wanted to hurt Cel? The girl who Kenos had saved. The girl who saved Kenos. The girl who saved ME? I used mana to grab him by the throat and he floated up while choking. I lessened my grip as I didn’t want him to die yet.

“Well then shall I have you answer a few questions?”

HE looked at me with anger in his eyes. Impressive. Most people wouldn’t have been able to look back like that after what they had experienced jus now. I had thought he had already given up but it seems like I was wrong. Maybe I can persuade him to change his mind. My smile once again changed. From cold to sinister. Seeing that the vampire lost a bit of the color on his face. I let my cane go, letting it float next to me instead of holding it with me hand and grabbed the vampire by the throat, dragging him into the forest.

It would be bad of me to take up space on the road whilst I was doing this after all. The girls followed me and when I stopped walking they simply found a place to rest. A wooden table raised from the ground as if growing out of it this very moment and I placed the vampire on top of it. The vampire tried to move but he couldn’t. He wasn’t strapped to the table by anything. It was just that I was keeping him from moving.

“You won’t get anything out of me!” (Vampire #2)

My smile got even wider. I wonder if I still have a few personality problems. I don’t think I’m insane still. But they do say that insanity is a thing that people that have it cannot identify. Well… no matter. Even if I am still a bit insane I feel like I would help the world better than the gods.

“Don’t worry. By the time we’re done you’ll be begging me to listen to you talk about it.”

One hour passed. The table and even the grass around it was stained in blood but the vampire still seemed to not have a single injury on him. Healing magic was useful because I could make sure the guy didn’t die no matter how ridiculously painful it got for him. If he did die I was able to revive him as long as not too much time passed. I just needed to heal his body back and retrieve his soul before it disappeared into my realm. I didn’t have to go that far though. I let him live through the entire thing. His eyes were dead.

“Do you want to tell me who sent you?”

He nodded.

“Do you want to tell me what you were intending to do with Cel?”

He nodded.

“Do you want me to end you?”

He nodded again. I smirked.

“Good. Then start speaking.”