-MARCO PLEASE DON’T DIE! (sob) (sob)…

-please young miss…please don’t cry…In the future there will be many more sad things that will happen…you have to be strong…so please dry your tears.

-No! I DON’T WANNA! (sob) (sob) (sob)…

Cornelia cried, clinging onto Marco as he laid on her ground, his face pale beyond recognition and his breath short as he looked at his young miss, lamenting that he had to leave her so soon in this cruel and vicious world.

Cornelia wasn’t the only one who was crying like this either, a lot of them had been killed by the bandits were family and friends of people here that traveled together, the view was not pretty as a aura of tragedy surrounded this bloody field.

Avian quickly arrived to witness this as he spotted the field doctor belonging to the mercenary group taking care of someone, spotting Marco, but not immediately going, he first went over to the doctor to ask how Marco’s current state was, but the old doctor sadly shook his head as he spoke.

-I am sorry young man, there is simply nothing I can do, he has suffered organ damage and heavy internal bleeding, I am just an ordinary doctor, plus I don’t have the necessary tools to deal with this, we would need a magic user with healing spells at least to be able to save him alas magic users are rare, not even our mercenary group has one.

-I see.

Avian understood, no longer bothering the doctor as he decided to go over to Marco to listen to what he had to say, as he walked over he saw Cornelia crying her eyes out as she was covered in mud and grime turning her once beautiful blonde hair dark and muddy, while her clothes too were stained with mud even ripped in large chunks, her high-class looks had completely disappeared, making her even look like a beggar of sorts, but she didn’t seem to care at all even though earlier she was in full outcry whenever as much of a single speck of dust came near her, ultimately the pain of losing a loved one was far greater than anything else.

-Mister Marco! You wanted to see me?

-LUKAS! You came!

-Ahh! Lukas…Thank you for coming…I would really like to thank you for saving the life of the young miss… unfortunately…there are some things I need to say first… as you can see my time is limited…I am dying…

-…

Avian stayed silent, simply listening to the old man as he wondered what he wanted from him, actually Avian had a good idea what the old butler wanted, turning his eyes towards Cornelia who was also looking at him with her face stained with tears not knowing what to say, he turned back to Marco and said.

-If you want me to escort Cornelia to her destination, I will do it if it isn’t too far away, but I won’t do it if it is in another country or anything else.

Hearing Avian’s suddenly reply, Marco couldn’t help but momentarily crack a smile as he spoke.

-Hahh…I knew you would understand, but please listen to me first before you say this, you are right I do want you to escort the young miss, but I also…(cough) (cough)..

Blood spurted out of his mouth as he suddenly coughed, his time was truly near and every second he looked more like death, watching the blood come out of his mouth Avian momentarily wondered if he could perhaps help, using his [Blood Sense] he could acutely see where the damage was and how it looked like, unfortunately Avian had no medical knowledge to actually do anything helpful, controlling the blood of another creature was also extremely difficult if the blood wasn’t outside already, if Avian tried doing anything right now he was 100% sure he would kill the old man instantly if not faster.

Watching this, Avian quickly came to the understanding that he may need to learn the medical field if he wanted to understand his own blessing better, plus if he ever encountered the same situation he may be able to heal the person or heal himself.

-MARCO! Please stop talking, you need to rest! I am sure if you rest everything will be fine! Lukas please help us! Marco needs help, do something please!

Cornelia said, becoming desperate as she refused to accept Marco’s death while Avian simply ignored her knowing that no matter what he said he wouldn’t be able to do anything, Marco could only smile at her in regret, inside his heart he prayed to the goddess of light Mithra that she would protect this poor unlucky child before turning back to Avian.

-You are going to Alimdal aren’t you?

-How?…

Avian’s eyes momentarily widened as he didn’t expect Marco to somehow know this as he never mentioned it before and always avoided the topic, he wanted to ask how he knew, but Marco was already explaining.

-My blessing is the blessing of the [Investigator], it allows me to make conclusions by combining clues through my ability, of course since you never talked about yourself and always changed the topic, I could only make some surface level conclusions about you which is why I didn’t want the miss stick to you since you seemed suspicious at the beginning, but as time went on I realized what kind of person you truly are, of course I can’t claim to know everything about a person, but this is one of the benefits of being old, experience was enough for me to fill in the gaps, the way I figured out your destination was also simple considering that you never changed the carriage and since there are only small villages from here on out until Alimdal which is the final destination of this carriage, it can only mean you are going to Alimdal since I doubt a person like you has any business in those villages, plus while you were fighting there were some other curious things I noticed, for one I know that you have the [Monster Tamer] blessing, how I know for certain that it is the [Monster Tamer] blessing and not the [Beast Tamer] or any other similar blessing is because of how many crows you had under your control at the same time, [Beast Master’s] and most monster rearing blessings have a fixed amount of slots with which they can tame monsters while you had over 50 of them which only [Monster Tamers] could accomplish since they rely on their charisma to tame monsters, furthermore there is an even more curious thing I observed, the way you killed those bandits was masterful, but I couldn’t help but notice the crimson coating on your spear head, hahh, of course I am old and my eyes may be failing me mistaking blood for crimson coating, but considering that you had over 50 crows, and that you are a unranked [Monster Tamer] who shouldn’t have that much charisma, it is strange to think that you would be able to tame over 50 crows with your current charisma…

-…

Avian, momentarily narrowed his eyes at the dying old man as his hand couldn’t help but squeeze the short spear behind his back as dark impulses started to rise within his mind, if Marco wasn’t dying already Avian would have considered whether or not he should quietly get rid of him before he could cause him trouble, luckily since he was dying he didn’t need to do that.

In the end it was really Avian’s own fault for being discovered like this, he was aware of the existence of the [Investigator] blessing, he simply never considered that anyone present would have it since for 1 they are very rare just as rare as magic users and for 2 they usually always stay in places with a big population where there is a lot more work opportunities making them rarely travel, how could he have known that there was a [Investigator] right under his nose?

From the very beginning Avian assumed that Marco possessed some kind of combat blessing to protect his miss, never did he dream that he was a [Investigator], this was just Avian being unlucky and careless, it fortunate that this happened earlier then later as Avian realized that he should be far more careful with how he used his [Hemomancer] blessing since he never knew who was watching.

It was also fortunate that only the 3 of them were present to hear all this as everyone else was too busy with caring about their own situation to look over here and listen.

Cornelia, in this case didn’t understand anything they were talking about as she was too focused on Marco making her mind jumbled up as she couldn’t stay calm.

Marco noticed Avian’s grip on his spear, he immediately recalled how easily he slaughtered those bandits using this short and unremarkable spear making him feel cold as he quickly decided that he should stop teasing the young man and get to the point, the reason he said what he said just now was simply because he wanted Avian to really listen, he didn’t really care about Avian’s secret or anything like that since he was without a doubt going to do die today, the only thing he cared about was the safety of his miss which he would go to any lengths to achieve.

Determined, Marco pulled out a scroll from his inner breast pocket, it looked very fancy and was sealed with the official seal of the Redria kingdom which Avian had seen many times, the thing was, Avian was confused about the seal of the scroll as the only person who could legally make such a seal was…

-This is…the proof of ownership for a small general store in Alimdal signed by the king himself, we too were intending on heading towards Alimdal just like you, I am not going to explain to you how we have such a document since the young miss herself can explain once you accept the offer, instead I will tell you my offer first, I want you to escort the young miss to Alimdal and live in that store, but not only that I want you to keep her safe as much as you can for 5 no 3 years, after 3 years the store will completely belong to you and you can do whatever you wish with it while the miss will no longer be your responsibility, if you agree to this…please take the scroll.

Marco said, shakenly holding the deed to a small general store in Alimdal towards Avian as he felt his arm go weaker and weaker as he held it up, Avian merely stared at the scroll not making a single move as he simply continued to stare, Marco seeing this became increasingly nervous as he watched Avian do nothing, having lost significant amount of blood and slowly dying, his body was weak and even holding the scroll was like holding a 100 kilogram rock to him, any man in his position would have dropped it by now, but Marco refused, he would not stop until Avian said no or took the scroll, this deal represented his misses future safety, if he could not do this he would never be able to die in peace or face his dead mistress Cornelia’s mother who he promised to keep Cornelia safe.

Cornelia watched her butler in astonishment as she didn’t understand why he was doing this, she wanted him to stop already, she didn’t want any of this, watching Marco dying right in front of her eyes reminded her of her mother who also died from a disease when she was 6 years old and now that her own father had abandoned her for another women and child, the only family she had left was Marco who she couldn’t bear to lose.

Unfortunately, she could do nothing to make it better, the only thing she was good at was run and hide and even then she didn’t manage it when it truly mattered forcing Marco to protect her causing him to be so heavily injured, realizing her own weakness Cornelia could only cry as she looked at Avian hoping maybe he could do something, but he didn’t even look at her and simply stared at the scroll emotionlessly.

To Marco and eternity seemed to pass by as his vision was starting to get woozy, the weight of the scroll ever increasing as darkness started to envelope him, but even in this absolute darkness he still refused to drop the scroll.

Avian watched Marco struggle as he held the scroll that seemed to mean everything to him, Avian in his life had seen many individuals like Marco who were deathly loyal, he didn’t dislike such individuals contrary to his belief even though he could never imagine himself to be someone like that.

Really, Avian had no stake or reason in accepting this deal, even though it seemed like something that was totally beneficial to him, there were many things still unknown to him, like the origin of the scroll the identity of these two and whether or not he could bear holding such burden while going through his own plans and wishes.

All this told Avian that he really shouldn’t take this scroll no matter what and simply walk away, but for some reason Avian felt the pull of opportunity like no other, watching the scroll his hand moved unconsciously before Marco twitched and he saw the scroll in his hand disappear, now within the grasps of Avian who held it casually while looking indifferent.

-You…you accept it?

-Yes, but let me ask you something first, why can’t I just take the scroll and kill you two right here and now? Since this is a proof of ownership signed by the king himself, only the person who possesses it becomes the owner, what makes you think I will really go through the deal when I have all the power and you have none of the power?

Avian said, his voice cold and unfeeling as he spoke what he really thought from the depth of heart, he out of all people understood when one needed to be cruel and when to be generous, the world revolved around fighting, where the strong trampled the weak while the weak could only lament their weakness, to avoid being trampled on one always needed to know their own position whether or not they were weak or strong, they should change their play style depending on their position, even in his previous world stronger countries always bullied the weaker countries whenever they made trade deals, since the stronger country had all the power while the weaker country had none of it, they couldn’t complain since the consequences would be too dire to bear.

-…

-L..Lukas…what are you saying!

Cornelia spoke in outrage, her voice shaking with fear and confusion as she looked at Avian who was ever increasingly becoming someone completely unfamiliar to her, in fact she only now realized that she didn’t know this person at all, while Marco on other hand simply smiled as he clearly understood what kind of person Avian was, what he said was very fair as he had experienced and saw something like this happen many times in his long life, but he was confident that Avian was different.

-You are right…I know my position very well, I will never complain if I get tricked because of my own foolishness, but you won’t trick me, I understand you, your heart is set on a path, and you follow your will with iron zeal, you are strong because you don’t let anyone make you think otherwise, that you are right and they are wrong, but this is not the way a human should or can live, humans are not rigid machines that follow a set of instructions, those who follow such path walk the path of self-destruction which you clearly are not walking on, principles exist for a reason, no one can live without having their own principles to rely on…

As he listened, suddenly Avian was reminded of Gustave, how he said that the next time they would see each other that they would eat a pork dish inside one of his acquaintances tavern, even now he still looked forward to it…why that was…

-I want you to promise, even if you don’t mean it, I want you to say “I promise”.

-…

For a moment a deep silence enveloped these three as Avian simply stared at Marco who was now very close to death, Avian’s thoughts were as still as the surface of a pond as he looked at Marco, but ultimately he closed his eyes before looking up and taking a deep breath.

-I promise.

-Thank you…I can finally face the mistress…

-MARCO!

And just like that Marco the old butler breathed his last breath as he went limp.

Cornelia started to cry even more as she shook Marco’s dead body screaming at him to wake up and not leave her.

All the while Avian simply watched, staring at Marco’s corpses while not knowing what to think.

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