After taking off his dirtied cloth and taking a light wash, Zecruix could still smell the foul stench of the bat’s blood lingering on him.

He realized it needed a really strong fragrance just to get rid of the smell. He sighed in frustration.

On the bright side, he completed the job given to him by the village chief. After the adrenaline had died down, Zecruix slump his back against the wall near the entrance, outside of the house.

Something had been bothering him. This demon-corrupted bat was not in its natural habitat. There were several of caves near the Sirelus Mountain but even the nearest are still far from here. How come it was here?

After some times, his mind couldn’t process properly as it was too tired to even think, the only thing that matters now is to bring the corpse to the village as evidence of completing the job.

One hour later, Zecruix had dragged the corpse back to the village. Some windows and doors from the nearby houses opened up. They looked at the bat corpse with apprehension.

He stopped directly at the village’s centre. Everyone gathered, forming a circle around Zecruix. They all looked at the corpse with a astounded expression.

Amongst the crowd, the village chief came out with the same smirking face. The only difference was that his eyes looked happy.

“Welcome back Zecruix! I’m glad to know you did it!”

The village chief warmly greeted Zecruix. Zecruix relaxed his stance and nodded.

“Well, it’s a demon-corrupted bat. For some reason, it made that abandoned house its lair. I killed it.”

“That you did, well as promise and since it was demon-related I’ll pitched denurs collected from the village.”

Groaning fills the air made by the villagers.

Just as the commotion about to go down, the sound of a horse neighing could be hear.

Zecruix looked at where the sound was. There, was a single grey horse and riding on it was a woman who looked at her forties with a blond hair. She wore leather armour and a sword strapped on her right waist.

She seems to have a perplexed expression on her face as she looks around.

She then stopped at one of the villagers. After some exchange, the villager pointed at Zecruix.

Slightly baffled, Zecruix distanced himself from the bat corpse as the villagers all came streamed in to inspect and gawk the demon-corrupted bat corpse.

The woman trotted her horse towards him.

“Greeting, my name is Alvana, I’m looking for Sir Kravstor. The person over there says that you’re related to him?”

“… Sort of… How can I help you?”

Zecruix had met with his source of his biggest issue. He felt very conflicted inside.

The woman flashed a refreshing smile.

“Can you help me lead to where he lived? I was actually lost for almost half a day looking for this village.”

She laughed lightly at her own predicament. Zecruix, was in a sombre mood but for reason of his own, he couldn’t refuse her. There was something he had to ask.

“… Sure.”

--

“He kicked you out and told you to do his job?”

“Yes can you believe him?!!”

“Actually I could because that is his nature.”

They were following a barely discernible path towards the mountain. Two individuals, one walking on foot and the other on a horse was moving side by side.

“How you and he are… well…”

“Acquainted? First time we met was around twenty five years ago, I was a mercenary for hire and he was a roaming demonhunter. We worked with each other several times. Of course, I find his carefree and nonchalant nature to be annoying but those are his charms that grow on you with time.”

She smiled faintly upon remembering the memories.

“We had that sort of relationship as well but you know how demonhunter are unable to commit so we had an on and off relationship due to the fact that we don’t always work with each other and we rarely see each other too.”

“And then what happened?”

Zecruix, curious, asked her without reservation.

“After years of working as mercenary, after a particular stint, I became a rich woman. So I settled down and got married with a man younger than me. After years of marriage, I realized. that man never did love me. He just wanted an easy life. He never wanted any children and always came back home late night. He must have thought I was desperate enough to marry anyone at my age back then. I tolerate it at first but… He blatantly kissed another woman in front of my house three years ago and that broke the camel’s back… So I divorced him by the Right of Broken Vow.”

“… Ouch. What did you pick?”

“I’m a merciful person so I picked his hairs… his whole hair including down below… Got him shaved real clean.”

Zecruix shuddered involuntarily.

The Right of Broken Vow that they had spoken off is a custom of the Ebony Empire by invoking a duel for a divorce. Once invoked, the winner is given two things, first is that regardless of who wins, the divorce would proceed but if the invoke won, the loser would have to make an offering. In her case, his whole hair since the offering can’t be one’s life or something that can cripple but monetary or any materials.

Afterward there was an awkward silence in the air and an hour later, they arrived at the stone house where Kravstor resides.