In the middle of the forest, a certain sound could be heard. Anyone who hears it will surely feel scared on it specially it's happening in the middle of the night. A continuous beat of stabbing something could be heard accompanied by a voice of a man continuously swearing.

If ever someone was braced enough to follow the sound, he or she will see a repulsive sight of guts and bloods scattered all over the place. In the middle of it, there's a certain girl lying down unconscious and a man repeatedly stabbing a meat, no, a human corpse. The man stabbing the corpse is Jasper while the girl lying down unconscious is Kaezar.

Jasper, still covered by the weird aura, rhythmically stabbing the one who almost raped Kaezar. His eyes, while glows like a star amidst the night sky, harbors fiery anger towards the corpse. Right now, helooks like a monster feasting upon the corpse...

"I want you to rescue Jasper and Kaezar."

With what Gino said, Graziel and company was clearly surprised. They know that Jasper was in this world but they didn't thought that he will be in this village with Kaezar to boot.

"Hey Gino... Is Kaezar alright?"

Asked by Graziel. Upon hearing that, Gino's eyes went wide due to a sudden realization. They didn't know that the Kaezar here is different from Kaezar of Earth. Scratching his head, he said.

"Well, she's fine the last time I saw her but... The Kaezar I am talking about is different from your cousin.. she's the daughter of Fernando, our benefactor."

Upon hearing that, Jack's expression suddenly changed. From being shock to feeling relieved then become serious. He felt surprised when Gino said Kaezar was here, relieved that it isn't the Kaezar he knew and serious because they need to rescue both Jasper and the said Kaezar.

"Where did they go?"

Ask Graziel. Impatience could be heard on her voice and knowing that Graziel is the ex girlfriend of Jasper and also one of his close friend, Gino understand what she currently feels. Gino wanted to search for them but he can't go since there were bandits blocking his way before and now, he's clearly exhausted.

"I don't know where they are but I think they aren't that far yet.. they might be hiding around the village or they might be at the forest."

Gino answered. If he was Jasper, he'll surely look for a safe place to hide and if he can't, then he'll bet everything and leave the village through the forest. Traversing the forest during the night raises the chance of getting attacked by monsters but it's much easier to for Gino to fight monster than human. The fact the he killed multiple human at his first time puts a big burden on his mind. Every time he killed, his conscience kick in and almost made him give up but knowing that Jeziel (and others) was right behind him, he can't fall. If he did, Jeziel (and the others) will surely suffer as a result. As a man, he can't let the happen. So every time his conscience attacks him, he keeps reminding himself that he did it to protect someone.

"Is that so? Skyla, take the heroes and search within the village. Me and the other knights will search inside the forest. And you, protect this room while you, tell the other knights to secure this building."

Percival ordered them and they started to prepare to sort out. Percival knew Fernando; in fact, he's one of his former party member and also his best friend. He hasn’t seen him yet but he assumes the worst. He might be dead right now.

The hero party searched the village. They managed to rescue some villagers hiding in their houses and they also saw horrible scenery of corpses lying down in the middle of the streets. They are numerous and the hero party can see corpses as far as the eyes can see. It's not limited to humans; there are also monsters mixed with them.

"They successfully repelled the monster horde but got done by the bandits huh..."

Jack mutters to himself. He imagined the scene where the defenders celebrate for their success only to get attacked by bandits. They tried to resist but due to being exhausted, they quickly failed and die.

"Let's go."

Jack said and led the rescued villagers towards the secured adventurer's guild.

Meanwhile, Percival's team went inside to the forest and look for Kaezar and Jasper. As they are walking, they are paying attention to their surroundings. There might be some bandits hiding at it so they didn't let their guard down.

As they walk around the shallow areas of the forest, they heard a sound of something rhythmically getting stabbed. Percival used sign language to command the knights. You might be wondering how would the knights see the sign while they are inside the forest at night, the reason was simple. The eyes of the resident of this planet are much better than the Earthlings thanks to the status points.

The knights split up and walk silently. Despite wearing metal armor and greaves, they are surprisingly quiet. Percival moved forward.

After a few minutes of walking, Percival heard a curious sound. A rhythmic sound of meat getting stabbed, he decided to investigate the sound. As he walks towards it, a thick smell of blood drifts around attracting the beasts and monsters inside the forest but surprisingly enough, they don't get too close to it. Instead, when they felt the presence of Percival, they charged towards him. Percival in return, throw his blood thirst towards them. He accurately targeted them but to his surprise, the sound he's hearing stops instead, he saw a dark thing running towards him wielding a dagger on its hand.

It moves fast enough to surprise the beast and monsters but it's still slow to Percival. For him, it looks like a child running towards him. Percival silently draws his sword and prepares to take its attack head on.

As the thing comes nearer, his heart feels something towards it. It feels nostalgic as if he saw something from his past. The thing let out a horizontal slash which Percival diverted and take a step closer towards the thing then push his palm towards its unguarded stomach. The aura covering the thing prevented Percival's attack but it soon breaks apart like a glass. At that time, the darkness covering the thing vanishes and Percival can now see the clear appearance of the thing. It's a man that looks like in his early 20's, he has black eyes and hair with a nose so similar to someone he knew.

But the black aura quickly covers the man and resumes its attack. Its attacks were heavy, quick and precise forcing Percival to focus on his defenses. This made Percival smiles a bit.

'It's been a long time since I was on defensive...'

He said to his self as he continued to block. At first, its attacks are all straight forward. It's just swinging it's dagger with all its might while relying on its physical abilities but suddenly the man's attack pattern changes. It's attack becomes more fluid and it's attack started to connect to its next move. This made Percival frown. It reminds him of arcade games where you can control your character to perform a certain chain movements to seal your opponents character.

A smile unintentionally grew on Percival's lips. This reminds him of his past. Percival, is a reincarnated person(Dayo) from Earth. When he was growing up, arcade games are one of his hobbies in fact, even when he married he didn't let go of his hobbies. So when Percival encountered this moves here, he can't help it but to smile but sadly it's not strong enough for Percival.

After deflecting some attacks, Percival decided to counter attack. Since his enemy is doing a combo move, he decided to use one to.

His attack started with an upward slash, effectively destroying his enemy's defense then he uses his fist to punch it on its unguarded stomach this made the thing flew back but Percival chase it and let out a side way slash while kicking the ground. His sword successfully hit it but due to the weird aura covering it's body, it only affected the thing lightly but it didn't matter, Percival attack just started.

After that, he kicked up the ground once more and unleashes a series of slash towards its back. Then he casted a low tiered wind magic to launch his enemy upwards, the enemy flew for about three meters above while Percival followed it by jumping and unleashes a series of slashes. Percival slashes continued until the thing's body is just 1 meter away from the ground. You might wonder what's impressive about that but every time Percival hit's the thing's body, it actually slows down its fall resulting for it to take 8 seconds to reach the 1 meter mark.

Then Percival forcefully unleashes a downward slash hitting the thing's stomach dragging it down to the ground.

"BOOM!!"

With a loud sound, the thing finally touched the ground. Dirt and fallen leaves scattered around and a crater was made on the ground. Normally, anyone hit by that attack will surely be cut into two in mid air scattering blood and guts everywhere but due to the thing's weird aura, it only left a small wound on Jasper's stomach but unfortunately his leather armor broke.

Slowly, Percival stands up and rest his sword to his shoulder but when the sword touches his shoulder, it broke down leaving only its hilt. Percival smiled wryly while shrugging his shoulders. It actually doesn't matter to Percival if he has a weapon or not after all having a weapon or not doesn't concern him.

"Now then..."

Percival look at the thing again and noticed that the weird aura slowly got sucked into the thing's chest. After a few seconds, Percival can now clearly see the thing's true appearance. Its face can't be said handsome but also not ugly, just a normal face you can normally see in the streets, its black hair is long enough to cover it's ears. The man's wearing broken leather armor and has a shallow wound on its stomach.

While observing the man, Percival feels that it's not the first time they meet. Looking closely at the man's face, he can't stop himself to feel surprised. Though it looks normal, it's a face is something he knew! Its looks the same as his face when he was in his 20's in Earth!

Percival quickly casted a [Appraisal] skill and the information about the man appeared in front of him.

* * *

Name: Jasper Perez

Race: Human

Level: 15

* * *

What shocked him isn't the fact that a level 15 human managed to move like that since he's covered by a weird aura but the name of the man he fought. Jasper isn't a rare name, at most it could be said that it's uncommon but the problem is his last name, Perez. At this world where only nobles can have a family name, it could mean that this guy is a noble but there's an exception for that and that exception were the transported people or Dayo.

Normally Percival would just ignore the fact that he's a transported person but the problem is the man's full name, Jasper Perez. Perez, Percival's last name in his previous world while Jasper was the name he gave to his only child at that world combined with the familiarity of the man's face. He's 90% sure that this guy is his son.

"Does this mean he died on Earth?"

He asked himself as he stares dumbfounded at his presuming son.

Mean while, Kaezar Padilla is experiencing something weird, it’s the feeling of falling down while she can't move her limbs nor her voice comes out from her mouth.

'where am I?! What's happening?!'

Panicking, she tried to voice out those words but no sounds come out from her mouth. Her surroundings are enveloped with darkness which reminds her of the space except no stars could be seen shining around.

'How did I end up here?'

She asks herself as she tries to recall what happened a few hours ago.

The last thing she knew was she's on the clinic with Jack and Graziel after collapsing from when Jasper's mother asked about the whereabouts of her son.

'Right... Jasper is currently missing and there's also the attack of a school Jeep on the news. It might be a coincident but I can't rule out the possibility of Jasper boarding that Jeep.'

Then she collapsed only to find herself at the clinic. She's talking with Jack then her cousin Graziel came and teased her so she decided to sleep once more. After waking up...

'...I went to my classroom at 5th floor accompanied by Jack and Graziel. Then upon arriving at the 4th floor I heard a rumor about someone seeing Jasper boarding that jeep and collapsed, leaving me with a little strength to make myself conscious then it became cloudy. It feels like someone told us that she knows where Jasper is and she will take us there then... What happened next?'

She can't figure out what happened to her after that talk. She don't know what happened and where are Jack and Graziel right now. What she can say is that, her limbs aren't bound and that she's falling down.

After a few minutes or so, Kaezar feels that her fall began to accelerate. Her hair flutters wildly on her vision while her limbs are powerless. Then she feels like she falls through a body of water slowly rising up to the surface and...

"Haaa... Haaaa... Haaaaa.."

With rugged breath, the lifeless corpse of Kaezar(Tala) springs upwards.

"Where... Am I?"

She asked herself while looking around.

The soul already changed and Kaezar(Tala) is now officially dead and replacing her is Kaezar Padilla.

Kaezar surveyed her surroundings and the first thing she saw were trees all round her. Confused by this sudden change of scenery from nothingness to being inside the forest, she overlooked the corpses and blood scattered around her.

But it didn't take a while after she regained her composure to notice those things..

"Kyaaaaaaa!!!"

She shouted at the sight of lifeless human corpses scattered around her while the nearest to her was covered with stabs wounds and appears to be missing fingers on both of its hands and feet.

"W-where am I?! Is this hell!?"

She said screaming from the bottom of her heart.

Confused, she stands up but the dress she's wearing was already torn into two making it slip down her whole body. Finding herself naked, she quickly crouched down and covers the important parts of the female body.

She quickly retrieves the now blood drenched dress and covers her body with it. She felt reluctant using it as a cover but it's better than being naked.

"Really, where am I? What should I do?"

With that muttering, tears started to flow down from her eyes. Without knowing where she is or what is happening, there's no helping that she's crying.

Then she heard a noise coming in front of her. It looks like someone stepping on dry grasses and sticks, moving towards her.

She becomes scared to that sound, what if it's a wild animal or her kidnappers? What if it was the one who did this bloody mess in front of him? Gripping tighter to the bloody dress, she moves backwards, retreating away from the noise.

'I must run...'

With that thought, she tried to stand up but her legs refuses to listen. Her expression twisted from fright while breath becomes haggard. Desperately crawling backwards, her hand touches a cold thing. Looking at it, she noticed that it's a sword. Despite being in the middle of this blood soaked place, the sword was clean and shined lightly when the moonlight touches it.

She gripped the handle and points it towards the direction of the noise. With trembling hands, she mustered all her courage and said in quivering voice,

"Who goes there?!"

Praying that it's someone who came to save her, she stared at the direction of the sound. The footstep seems to stop for a moment then a voice could be heard coming from that direction.

"I am Percival Pendragon! A knight of Sevir Kingdom! I came to help you!"

Hearing that, she feels relieved and almost let go of her sword.

'Not good, stay vigilant! It's not certain that he's saying the truth!'

She gripped the sword tightly once more and said, "Show yourself!" While wondering where in Earth is Sevir Kingdom, she waited for the man's reply.

"Okay! But please don't hurt yourself with that sword!"

The man said and slowly shows himself.

The man's wearing full plate armor with sword hanging on his waist, on his back, there's an unconscious man wearing tattered leather armor with an empty quiver at its back.

As per what he said, he really look likes a knight.

'But isn't that a bit weird? Knights exist only on old times. Seeing someone dressing up as knight in modern age makes you look like a fool...'

The thought stopped after that, she noticed that familiar face of the man at the Knight's back, the man whom she wanted to meet since morning, the man who went missing after the incident and the man who she held dearly on her maiden heart.

'Jas...per?'

"Jasper!"

She shouts the man's name and let go of the sword. Her legs that refuse to listen to her before stands up and began running towards Jasper. Disregarding the corpses in her way, she sprints forward while holding the dress.

"Oh you know him? Would that mean that you’re also from Earth? Well, due to that light I am certain that you're one."

The knight said something but Kaezar isn't listening to him. To her, getting close to Jasper is currently occupying her mind.

She then went around the knight to take Jasper's body. Reading the mood, the knight slowly passes Jasper to Kaezar.

"Aah.. I'm worried what happened to you... I don't know what I'm going to do if something happened to you.. Please don't disappear like that again..."

Kaezar said while crying while Percival look at the two with warm eyes.

'Really, getting your girl worried about you isn't something cool Jasper..'

At this point, whether Jasper is his son or not isn't relevant to him anymore. For him, looking at this scene made him feel nostalgic on his early days as an adventurer.

"I guess I should clean up."

Looking at the two, Percival muttered to himself.

Looking around, this part of the forest is a mess. Corpses and blood are scattered around. If someone claims that this was a demonic ritual site then anyone will believe them.

Percival started cleaning up the place. With his control over magic, he commanded the earth to eat the corpses and drink the blood. At first, he would like to burn them but being in the middle of the forest, burning these corpses might result into a wild fire.

As he buries the corpses, he tries to remember something about his friend, Fernando, well being. At the guild, he did not saw him neither his corpse so Percival isn't sure what happened to his friend.

'Did he survive or did he die?'

He asks himself.

'I know that he is not weak in terms of fighting but dealing with those bandits while protecting his daughter.... Wait... Does he have a daughter?'

A weird feeling encompasses Percival's heart. It feels like he forgot something but at the same time, he's not. This contradictory feelings made him try to recall every single detail about Fernando and his family but no matter what, the contradictory feelings remains, in fact the feeling that he's forgetting something weight much heavier on his heart.

'My memory tells me that Fernando and his wife doesn't have a child but somehow I am sure that they have one...'

"Hmm??"

He closes his eyes and started to organize the information in his head...

Then after a few seconds, he slowly opens his eyes. He already has an answer.

It is something he heard from a transported person whom became his friend. Apparently, when some got transported in adult form, their Tala counter parts got erased from the world as if they never existed in the first place. They hypothesized that it happens because of the soul, the soul needs to be unique to exist in this world so having a duplicate will put a burden on this world, hence the world make sure that there's only one soul existing in this world. While the reincarnated persons lived in this world since the beginning of their life, they just have the memory of their past life.

With that said, he feels that the girl hugging Jasper was someone he knew before but died and got replaced by a Dayo.

Hmm..?

Feeling unfamiliar warmth I, Jasper Perez, slowly opened my eyes.

With my blurry eyesight, I can see a figure of a face looking down on me while I feel tears fall down on my cheeks.

Slowly, the memories before I lost consciousness resurface.

"!!"

I quickly stand up and look around. The last thing I remember is Kaezar being defiled on me then my sight grew dark, I don’t know if I passed out or what but if I did passed out, I won't forgive myself, first I'll make sure that those guys will regret being born and I’ll atone my sin of not protecting her...

Killing myself won't change the past, if I did that I'm just running away from the guilt I am feeling for failing to save her.

I look around and saw that there's no bandit around instead, there's a knight with his back in front of me.

"Hey you! Where's the fucking bandits!"

I shout at the knight and slowly he turns around.

'Wait... Why does he look so familiar?'

That question was raised in my mind as I try to recall whether I met him before or not. Wait! That's not the time to think about it, I need to find Kaezar!

"Jasper! Thank God you're safe!"

I heard a familiar voice accompanied by a tight hug.

I turn around to see a girl naked under a piece of rug hugging me tightly. The tone of her voice is something I am quite familiar.

"Kae...zar?"

I asked and the girl nodded and said, "Yes it's me Kaezar Padilla". I was stunned by what Kaezar said, how did she end up here and where the hell is Kaezar of Tala?

"You know boy, the girl hugging you right now and the girl you're trying to look for is the same person. Not exactly the same but she is the girl of Earth transported into this world.."

With the Knight's input, I somehow understood the thing that Gino said before about me and another Jasper...

If I remember correctly, when that Jasper went missing or should I say erased from this world I take his place and live without his memories or everyone's memories about him. Does this mean that I, failed to protect her?

My heart aches as if a knife cutting it slowly but deeply, Tears flows down from my eyes as I regret on being too weak to protect a single girl from the bandits.

Unknowingly, I hugged her back while sobbing and saying "I'm sorry" over and over again in my mind.

"Really... T-thank God and you're alright... I, no we are quite worried about you! Especially your mother Tita Isabelle, she's quite worried you know! If you're going around to play, why didn't you contact her or me before! Then we shouldn't be this worried about you!"

Play? What does she mean? Oh right, if she got transported just now then she'll really think that I am playing around since the time of knights and arrows are already a thing in the past. But as I thought, mom is really worried about me. After all, it's been months since I came into this world... I created bonds here and almost forgot about returning home. Thanks to her, I remember that I need to go back to Earth... Well, the strongest chain that's binding me here was gone, it's sad but I'll promise her that I'll kill those bastards who defiled her.

"Wait... You're the son of Isabelle Diaz, Later married to Percival Perez?"

The knight asks. I wonder how he knew my mother's maiden name. The knight walks in front of me and crouched down so that we can easily look eyes to eyes. He looks straight to my eyes trying to probe if I'm going to answer truthfully or not.

"Yes, she's my mother. And who might you be?"

With my honest answer, the knight's eyes shine brighter delighted by it. He then fixes his expression into a serious one and said..

"Jasper Perez, I am your father and currently living as Percival Pendragon in this world."

Wait... What?