“Master!!!”, Athena cried out my name while hugging the empty space where ‘I’ once was, the King looked at my once been there body. “… I guess you were truly unfortunate to be a monster. I might’ve taken you in as a knight if you were human.”, the king lamented my very existence.

The king faced his daughter eye to eye. “So, it was true what he said.”, Alice now believed the words that had been spoken to her before. “So, what are you going to do now? Betray me? Rebel against me?”, the king asked his daughter in a serious manner.

Alice clenched her fists in frustration, she was afraid to go against her father. But her righteousness would not let her back down.

“…master…”, Athena muttered in despair, the king looked at her as if he had forgotten her existence. “You seem familiar, have I met you before?”, the king barely recognized Athena.

“…”, Athena did not respond to his question and the king ignored did not say anything as well.

“Huh…”, the king inspected the place I died without getting too close to Athena. ‘Did he really die? I can’t underestimate this monster…’, the king may have been fighting his enemy knowing how it would act, but that did not mean that he knew what his enemy’s capabilities were.

The king wasn’t expecting him to be a ‘Ghost’, at most maybe an elf or a human who had found way into the village. Even Shiro’s abilities were a surprise to him, being able to fly and use magic that he had not recognized and even make steel threads to fight. It was a fight full of surprises, he could not underestimate his opponent.

‘Maybe… I’m being too paranoid.’, the king said turning away, until he suddenly felt a shiver up his spine.

The king turned around and felt a slight pinch for a second. “What happened…”, the king tried to take out his great sword, but one of his arms were missing.

“Tch, I guess I really was right, you monster. I got careless”, the king said trying to use ‘Life Attribute Magic’ to stop the bleeding. “Don’t worry, you’re not the only who got careless.”, I reassured the king.

“Master!”, Athena shouted out of happiness. “I… thought you were gone…”, Athena looked at me with tears flowing down her soft cheeks. “I’m not dying anytime soon, at the very least not yet.”, I said.

“Do you think that cutting my arm off will stop me, monster?”, the king looked at me and said.

I picked up his arm and used “Flame Manipulation” and burned it to dust making sure he could not reattach it and heal it. “The monster here is you, even after me pulling all of my trump cards, you’re still alive!”, I told him in the face.

“Hmph… so, you’re still going to fight?”, the king asked me. “I can still fight even without my arm.”, the king reached out to his sword and aimed it at me.

“No, I’m not going to fight you.”, I said, and the king suddenly fell to the ground, he dropped his sword and held his hand over the location of his missing arm. “What did you do?”, the king asked confused as to why blood was still gushing out from his wound.

“The moment I attacked you, I inflicted a curse upon you. It’s called ‘Healing Negation’.”, the moment I disappeared I had to unmaterialize my ‘Spirit Form’ and later on materialize my ‘Soul Form, so that it looked like I had died. The moment a skill evolves it does not mean that the previous one disappeared as well, it is still there and usable.

I had to use my ‘Soul Form’ as a main body to be able to move, since my soul remained untouched, I could still move with it.

I creeped up behind the king and materialized my ‘Soul’ and concentrated all of my mana on one point of my twin blades to be able to cut his arm off due to his huge ‘Vitality’, I was betting everything on one shot, if I aimed for the head, he would be able to stop it because it was too obvious where someone would aim. Thus, I had to take his arm instead.

The curse was originally a ‘Dark Attribute Magic’ spell I had in mind, but I changed it and made it into a curse. “No matter how much you try to heal, it’ll only damage you more.”, it was useless to try and stop the bleeding, however it was possible to remove the curse by getting rid of the mana doing the effect.

“I see, then why not kill me here? It’s the perfect opportunity, isn’t it? You hate me, don’t you? You loathe me.”, the king said trying to get me to do a mistake here. “Yeah, I’m still not over by what you did, but I can’t defeat you as I am now. However…”

I looked at him in the eyes with all my seriousness. “I will come back one day and kill you.”, I said without a tint of emotion in my voice like always.

“You fool.”, the king sprinted towards me and the next instant, instead of being in front of me or behind me, he got caught inside a mix of steel and sticky threads. “It seems you’re the one getting careless.”, I said turning around about to make my leave.

“Oh yeah, one more thing.”, walked towards Alice and grabbed her by her arm and held her in a princess carry. “I’ll be taking your daughter as well, taking your arm wasn’t enough.”,

“Athena let’s go!”, I said holding Alice in a princess carry and running away from the throne room. “…” the king said nothing while still trying to healing the spot of his missing arm. The king tried following us, but the blood gushed out again from the location of his missing arm was making him weak.

‘I’m losing too much blood, if I follow suit I will die!’, the king predicted and chose to stay still and tend to his wounds. “Quite a smart move…”, the king praised my coincidental planning skills.

He would either follow suit and kill me along with himself or let me retreat for now and try to find a way to heal his missing arm.

“Would you let me go!”, Alice complained while blushing slightly. “Nope, no can do.”, I answered to her complain with a short answer. “What do you mean you can’t? I am the princess, I have to stay in the kingdom! Do you know what’s going to happen to you if word gets out?”, Alice said.

I knew what was going to happen, I would be searched kingdom wide and there’s probably going to be bounties set on my head. “Yeah, I know! But the thing is I don’t care anymore!”, I couldn’t care less about what happened to this kingdom anymore! I already committed a couple of crimes tonight and some people have seen my face in those crime scenes.

“Alright, I understand. But, why do I have to come with you?”, Alice asked as Athena looked at her enviously. “Because I am going to make your father suffer one way or the other, it’s pretty much a soul for a soul! And I’m also betting on the chance that he wouldn’t attack me because I have you with me!”, if her father truly loved her, then he wouldn’t come after me, even after that injury, right?

I couldn’t win against her father, I hate to admit it. But he’s too strong if I fought him any longer, I would have died (even though I’m already dead). The moment I evolved into ‘Dark Soul’, I regained my vitality up to some extent, I had to unmaterialized my ‘Spirit Form’ and use my ‘Soul Form’ instead.

“No! Please let me go!”, she thrashed around in my arms, but she did not have an adventurer like strength, so her punches barely did any damage.

“Athena, help me!”, Alice asked Athena, but she did not listen and only looked at her with even more jealousy. “Athena?”, Alice asked for her name, but she did not react.

“Help!”, she screamed once more, we had already left the castle and were on our way to the gates that lead into the inside of the castle walls. Knights were standing in row with their bows aiming at us.

I changed the way I held the princess and held her on my back. “Athena get behind me!”, I told Athena and she hid behind me.

I unsheathed my sword and knocked down the arrows coming in my direction. “KYAAAAA!!! Why the hell are you hitting them and not dodging?!”, Alice asked, while screaming out of fear. “Because there is no better to dodge them!”, I responded quickly as I deflected the arrows as if they were bullets.

‘Thank god I played that game!’, I thanked once again the game I once played, I was able to deflect the arrows not just because of the game I once played, it was also my spell ‘Sense’ that played a major role in this.

The spell ‘Sense’ is a ‘No-Attribute Magic’ spell that spreads out my mana and by using ‘Magic Manipulation’ I can locate not just people but inanimate objects as well. When I deflected arrows before, I was using sheer skill to deflect them. But now it is way easier thanks to this spell.

“Close down the gates!”, the knight commander ordered. “Nope! That won’t happen!”, I slightly increased my pace.

Some arrows were able to pierce me, however I didn’t feel any pain, nor did they really do much. ‘Soul Form’ is like ‘Spirit Form’ in one expect, only magic attacks can truly affect me.

“Shiro, are you alright?”, Alice asked. She was looking at three arrows sticking out of my chest. “Yeah, I’m fine!”, I told her trying to reassure her.

“Faster! Close the gates quickly!”, the commander ordered. As the gate was about to close down, we were able to escape by a hair’s breadth.

“Send all knights after them!”, the commander ordered all knights to pursue us.

“This is going to be such a pain!”, I muttered in annoyance.

We were able to escape the knights chase after us, we were currently hiding in a back alley where nobody could find us.

“Master where are we going now?”, Athena asked out of breath from running. “We’re going to get Willow and Azure, then get the hell out of here!”, I said over exhausted.

We’ve been moving nonstop, we went to a noble’s mansion and encountered many guards, then we went to the castle to fight the king whose strength is monstrous. I was feeling terribly exhausted from all of this.

“Can I really not go home!?”, Alice still hanging from my back like a bag asked. “I’m most unfortunate to tell you, but my answer will be a no.”, I answered trying to be annoyingly polite.

“Don’t worry Alice. Master isn’t a bad person.”, Athena tried reassure her. “Really? T-then I’ll take your word for it. But first, could you please put me down!”, once again begged me to put her down.

“Sorry, but I can’t. If I release you, you might escape.”, there was no way I’d fall for that trap! I have fallen for it once on earth, but not twice!

“Then…! what if you…. hold my hand to make sure… that I don’t escape?”, Alice proposed an idea shyly. I thought for a couple of seconds.

It would be strange to see a young man holding a young maiden in his back like some sort of bag. “You really don’t like being held?”, I asked her jokingly.

“Of course, I don’t like it! Especially the way you’re holding me!”, I heard her voice from behind. I decided to place her down and held her hand while blushing even though it wasn’t visible since my expression barely changed.

‘It would be strange for people to see a someone being carried on their shoulders.’, I thought. My heart was beating rapidly like a torrent, even though I barely touched her hands.

“Athena, could you pass me your coat if you have it?”, I asked Athena. However, her eyes were looking at my hands intently. ‘What is wrong?’, I thought.

Athena took her coat off and passed it to me, I then passed it onto Alice. “Put it on. Some people might recognize you.”, I told her.

She wore the coat over her pajama since she didn’t have time to change. “Couldn’t I have changed first?!”, Alice complained. “No, we couldn’t greedy princess.”, I told her.

“Who’re you calling greedy princess?!”, she shouted annoyed by my answer. “Woah, okay geez. I’m sorry.”, I apologized to her.

“Anyways, we need to get moving. We don’t know when the knights are going to find us.”, we left back alley and walked back on the street.

I was holding Alice’s hand to make sure she would not run for it, while Athena was lowering her head so that nobody could recognize her face. Everyone in the streets didn’t notice us, not even a bit. It was as if we didn’t even exist.

‘Yeah, I’m used to this feeling…… of not existing.’, I remembered my public experiences on earth and the one we’re in was quite similar.

“Don’t stop searching for them. They mustn’t have gone too far!”, I heard the knights in getting closer. I increased my pace, Alice stumbled because of the sudden increase in speed and Athena increased hers as well.

“What’s wrong?”, Alice tried coming closer to me and whispered. “They’re nearby.”, I answered quickly and pulled on her hand so that she could walk side by side with us.

“Hey! Ya cheated! Ya little liar!”, Willow hit the table with his fist in frustration. “Hee-hee, am I really?”, Azure irritated him even further.

“Look at here! The cards’re supposed to be three aces! Why are there three of spades, nine of diamonds and a eight of hearts instead!”, Willow was losing his mind. ‘It’s not cheating as long as you don’t get caught.’, Azure thought mischievously.

They were currently in the living room playing cards since they were waiting for Shiro and Athena to return. “Uhhhh… Seriously, how long’re they gonna take?”, Willow complained soon after taking a gulp from his cup.

Suddenly, there was a loud sound coming from downstairs. The door to the shop was opened and from there came in three shadows.

Willow stood up from his chair, placed down his cards on the table and went downstairs. “Who’s ther—. Oh, it’s you. Ya made it alive, aye?”, Willow asked after sighting me.

“You could say ‘barely’ alive.”, I responded to him in a joking manner after locking the door to make sure the knights wouldn’t enter. “Wait a minute? Is that the princess?!”, Willow recognized Alice from the get-go.

“What is she doing here?!”, Willow asked full of suspicion. “She’s here as payment for her father’s life up to some extent.”, I answered without a tinge of hesitation and in response Alice tried to pinch me.

“He was way too rough with me!”, Alice complained still pinching my arm to loosen the grip on her soft and delicate arm. “What do you mean by ‘too rough’? I was being as gentle as I possibly could!”, I responded. “‘Gentle’?! You were practically dragging me around like a doll!”, she disapproved my response.

In the meanwhile, Athena cleaned her sword ignoring us, Willow was looking at us with a smug like smile and Azure had just arrived at the scene. “You two get along quite well.”, Willow remarked an absolute lie.

“” No, we don’t!””, Alice and I disagreed in sync to his remark. “Anyway, I’m still pissed off for being brought to near death by your father!”, I could not forgive someone like him to live on happily! I had to take something from him, so that he could at the very least suffer.

“You went into a fight against the king?”, Willow asked surprised. “Yeah, and I was utterly defeated. Like seriously, that guy is a monster all the way and the fact that someone like him had such strength pisses me off!!!”, I felt frustrated by my defeat to the king.

I could not forgive him, by what he did, by his reasoning and the fact that someone like him was THAT strong! Someone so disgusting on the inside to have such power and to use it for such evil!

I’m not the type of person to believe in true justice, I evaluate the situation with my judgement and do something about it.

“Let’s forget about that, we have to leave immediately. Did you make the preparations like I had asked you?”, I asked Willow. “Yeah they’re upstairs.”, Willow pointed to the staircase going upstairs.

Out of nowhere someone knocked on the door. “We know you’re in there! Come out or else we’ll have to knock down the door!”, a voice came from the other side of the door.

“It’s time to go!”, I said using ‘Thread Reeling’ to bind Alice’s mouth shut with a web of threads “Mhmm!!”, she tried used her free hand to get rid of the threads binding her mouth, but I ignored her and dragged her along.

“You have three seconds!”, the knight warned us. “Willow get our stuff, please.”, I asked him politely.

“Three!”, the knight shouted the word from behind the door. “Two!”, the knight counted down, from the other side door you could only hear multiple footsteps increasing in speed. “One!”, the knight knocked down the door.

“Hand over the princess!!! Huh?”, he was surprised by what greeted him from behind the door. Nothing, was the word that defined what was in front of him. The room was empty, the forge was unused as if had not been touched at all. “Do not give up! They might still be here!”, the knight told his other fellow knights to search throughout the facility.

“Goodbye my poor shop…”, Willow whined while closing the secret door that lead outside. “I never knew this was here.”, I remarked the days I have spent in this shop and never found this secret passage.

“That’s because I used the furnace to block the door leading outside, those knights will take a while to find this place.”, Willow explained.

I ripped off the web of threads from her mouth. “You didn’t have to do that! I wouldn’t have screamed for them to save me.”, Alice knew what would have happened if she had made her presence known to the knights.

I would have to fight them, and Alice knew that alarming the knights would’ve only bought her some time to run away. “I still had to make sure.”, the possibility of her alarming the guards may be low, but never zero.

“Let’s go. We don’t have much time.”, I told Athena, Azure, Willow and Alice. And thus, we made our way to leave the kingdom.

YeetusFeetus

This chapter probably didn't go the way some of you wanted it to possibly go, but I need to do this to thicken the plot you see. So, I hope you can let me do this on my part. And one more thing, if this chapter has some things that don't make sense, then that's becasue I had very little energy while writing this and it took me a while to get a good writing ambient