Arthur looks down at the two men. They’re kneeling right now, their heads bowed in fear with a hint of anger. The two guards that Ajax captured.

They had told them everything about the festival. The twisted, cruel spectacle of it, the religious fanaticism; it is a playground for the wealthy to show how righteous they are. Daniar and Gazhiza, the two beastkin who were meant to be sacrifices, cried together considering the fate of Karu, Daniar’s daughter.

At the moment where all was revealed, Arthur felt a tightness grip his chest. Pain and panic. This is too heavy for him.

He has to fight people as cruel as this. He comes to terms with this fact for the first time since wandering out here tonight. What if he was captured and tortured by these maniacs, these psychopaths? What if… what if these people are actually tied to the church and not simply mere fanatics?

Considering the wealth on display at this place… He’d be… putting a target on his back even past tonight.  

The interrogation and Arthur’s train of thought were interrupted however.

The six of them were forced to move from their current location as they heard a group of guards moving to this area. The guards had been alerted by a crash, the destruction of the carriage. They had found the wreckage and were on high alert right now, combing the forest. Arthur had been worried about this and his worries were magnified at learning the truth just now.

Then, there was a sound that no one but Ajax heard. He recognized it. He had called it the “electric cluster bomb”, an ominous sounding name to Arthur who had read about cluster munitions back on earth; he had no idea such weaponry existed here as well.

Apparently people had already started dying far away from them, killed by someone that Arthur had virtually no idea about but who was Ajax’s comrade in arms.

Right now, the guards in the forest were heading in the same direction, towards that festival and ignored the wreckage of the carriage. After Ajax and company relocate, Arthur watches as his ice armoured acquaintance continues the interrogation. The two bound men had just told him about how two of the sacrifices had already died at the place where they were being held.

A draconid woman had struggled against her conditions; she had tried to attack a guard when this guard was mistreating someone and that guard killed her. Additionally, he accidentally killed another of the demihumans in his anger and negligence.

Both were demihuman and adults. So luckily, neither was Alinde, the human mother, or Karu, the beastkin child. Arthur notices the two beastkin solemnly watching the two guards. It would be uncouth to sigh in relief that the people who died were not important to them so they hid their relief.

“Shit, why the fuck did you have to flap your lips?”

“I-I’m sorry… I-I…”

One of the two is a cowardly man. He whimpers as he spills secret after secret concerning the conduct of his fellow guards. Arthur notices the sudden shift in manner of his ice-armoured friend.

“She was… a draconid?”

“...Yes, she was. Yellow feathers, I think.”

“...Hm.”

Arthur doesn’t know what Ajax is feeling currently. He’s quieted down a bit. He is leading the interrogation but that last part silenced him. Arthur had assumed that he was someone unmoved by cruelty. A man experienced with cruelty unlike Arthur who feels nauseous thinking about the two deaths. However… 

Ajax isn’t experienced with cruelty. He’s not a warrior, not a soldier, not someone experienced in or used to death. Right now, he is thinking about the one draconid he knows, the woman named Angelidis, a draconid with blue feathers.

A very fun person that he had gotten to know better over the past few weeks. She is one of Shaula’s closest friends here, a subversive character. Someone who can actually get along with Shaula. Someone of strength and valor.

“What was her name?”

“...”

“What was it?”

“I-I don’t know.”

“Neither do I. We weren’t paid to ask her name.”

“...So, she died, and neither of you even know her name?”

Of course, Ajax himself doesn’t remember the names of all but one of the men he killed either. The man named Ilna Fautre is the only one he remembers. However, these men had kidnapped this draconid, they had bound her, they didn’t even have the decency… to know the name of the person they were sacrificing for the good of their god?

“...Sigh. She was just a draconid…”

The man spoke under his breath, a whisper that even the cowardly guard next to him didn’t hear. However, Ajax hears.

“In my presence… please do not say things that make me want to kill you. I’m trying to… I’m trying to pay attention to the content of your words but… you’re making it difficult for me. You want to be spared, right? Right?”

Ajax grabs the man’s left forearm with his right hand. He lifts him up with an iron grip, making sure the man feels the frigid cold of his hand even through his long sleeved shirt. The sleeve of the man’s forearm starts freezing, unable to shield his skin from the frost.

“A-Alright, alright! I’m sorry!”

Ajax pauses as he looks into the man’s eyes. He still doesn’t like it. That look of fear, like a rabbit caught in a trap. He flinches at the pathetic display before him. He’s not someone who could so easily torture someone else, even if they were nothing but scum. Tonight might have gone easier if he could do that.

He lets go. The guard drops to the ground and pulls up his sleeve to his shoulder to see the ice burn on his forearm.

It is at this moment that Arthur gets a nastier feeling. There is a mark on the man’s bicep. A scar. He had seen this scar before on others in the exact same shape. A scar like a Swiss cross back on earth. He doesn’t exactly understand the significance of the mark nor was he able to find out exactly but… it was a mark that he had seen many times already.

“Are you… Are you a Linis guard?”

“...”

“...”

“Hey, answer him.”

Ajax prompts a response. The man with the cross on his bicep notices his scar is exposed and quickly covers it up. He hesitates to speak. However, the other man fills in for him, prompted by Ajax’s glare.

“H-Half of the guards in the forest are volunteers from the Linis guard force! Th-The other half are trained nobles and s-some… holy knights.”

“...What?”

Arthur is surprised by this revelation. He is currently a guard on the Linis guards force. These men, the protectors of the city, the ones who deal with civil disorder, wild animals as well as heinous criminals. The ones he’d been with were… like the average cop, somewhat violent people on power trips but… they were like this too… 

Ajax however believes this immediately. He didn’t have a good opinion on the guards force as it is but now, he’s been given a reason to be hostile to them as a whole. Arthur tries talking to the two men more about who else in the guards force is here tonight since he had not heard anything at all about this event, but Ajax interrupts. Enough beating around the bush.

“Tell us how the demihuman camp is, the place where the rest of the sacrifices are being kept. Tell me all you can about them.”

The men continue speaking. They reveal the positions of guards at the camp, the tent, the protocol for looking around the tents as well as the relative strength of the guards. It isn’t very useful to Ajax since his power can mow over most obstacles but to Arthur who is helping him and to the two Daniar and Gazhiza, this information is very reassuring.

However, nothing they’ve said so far tells Ajax that these two guardsmen should be spared. All of the guards in the forest here today are volunteers who came here to guard the nobles. They chose to come here, some for the high work payout of this event and others for the spectacle and religious fanaticism that this event inspires.

Even these two were the same. People like this will not be left alive.

~

Four individuals walk in the forest. They’re quite close to the demihuman camp now. Thanks to the information they’ve been given, Ajax and Arthur know the defensive measures that this camp will use to have the demihumans secure as effective hostages. Daniar and Gazhiza walk slowly, being extremely careful to be quiet so as not to alert any guards in the area.

The guards who discovered them are all killed by Ajax without hesitation. Daniar and Gazhiza, unaccustomed to death, had been feeling guilt seeing the deaths of all these people even knowing that they were helping keep Karu away. 

Behind the four of them lay a trail of death.

Ajax had killed the two guards who gave them all of that useful information, quite painlessly, by instantly freezing their heads. He had killed about four more guards while continuing through the forest slowly. The density of guards in this area was higher but Ajax still managed to avoid the majority.

Arthur feels sick at seeing this number of people die. Seeing them shatter makes it feel even more cruel.

He wonders how Ajax can continue to do this.

However, Ajax is even more pained by continuing along like this. He tried to have a brave face on, he tried to look the part of the seasoned veteran warrior to keep the four of them calm but… he isn’t like Shaula. Ajax grits his teeth.

Every time he blinks, he sees the faces of the last few people he killed. 

Even after he killed Ilna, he had nightmares about it for weeks. But… he simply had more nightmares about the people that Ilna himself had killed because Ajax didn’t stop him fast enough. Even if he’s going to have nightmares about these cruel men, it would be better than having to imagine the demihumans he would fail if he didn’t do things right.

If he let even a single guard go to warn the rest of them, the domino effect could be horrifying. He may stumble onto a camp with dozens of dead demihumans, a substantial number of them who were women and children. He didn’t want that.

If only he didn’t have to face this. If only he didn’t have to bear this responsibility. But of course, it’s not a responsibility, it’s his choice, his only choice to make as a person who wishes to be decent, to be righteous.

Ajax wonders why he chose this. He had willingly entered a war of his own volition. The only solace he has is that he’s fighting against true evil but… it is war nonetheless. He’s not brave, he’s just a man. However, as soon as he was given the power to help someone other than himself or those immediately close to him, he placed himself into this war.

This constant conflict where he used his power for the gain of those around him, not for himself.

Weren’t there people in his own world who needed his help when he was powerless? Why didn’t he do as much for them? He wasn’t even thinking of becoming a firefighter or a soldier or an EMT, not even a doctor or nurse. He just wanted to be an engineer. Of course, he doesn’t realize exactly why he’s become like this, but it’s very simple.

The thing to blame… it’s his own amazing senses. Back on earth, he wouldn’t be able to hear cries through multitudes of solid, enclosed walls. He wouldn’t have the vision of a hawk to notice people in pain. He wouldn’t have the ability to smell blood from miles away. So, he never felt any guilt for not doing anything for those around him.

Even if someone was being robbed a few blocks from his suburban home, he wouldn’t feel the need to intervene because he wouldn’t even notice it. Things happened without him, the world went on without his input. Such was the state of near everyone in his home world. It is only now that his goodness, his righteousness, is forcing him to help those he can reach.

Right now, he can reach anyone. 

“Hey…”

“What is it, Arthur?”

“...Why did you pick me?”

“Hm?”

“Me. I mean, you’ve said you know already that Harry is a hero too. So you could have asked him to help us out, right?”

“Ah, right. That…”

“So… what’s with that?”

“...I didn’t trust him.”

“...Why?”

“He’s… he has a bit of a short fuse. He’s… he’s not like you enough. I was watching both of you while you were patrolling on that day and his behaviour was markedly different from yours.”

“That’s… that’s not right, I mean… I mean, he’s a great guy! He would have helped us right now!”

“I couldn’t risk a factor like him tanking tonight’s plans. But… perhaps that was a mistake. It’s too late to redo things so we’ll discuss it after all of this is over.”

“...What do you want from me after this is all over? Do you want me to join you and play superhero? Do you want me to run away from the church? To not fight the demons?”

“You’re jumping to some conclusions. I simply wanted to introduce myself and what I’m all about… and later I will introduce someone else to you. I’m not trying to sell you anything, you’ll see that when it’s all over. You’ll also see why you can trust us-- Wait… we’re here. I can sense the camp up ahead. There’s a tent and… a number of guards surrounding it and inside as well.”

“Ok, so what should--”

“Wait. Let me say something right now.”

“...What?”

“It might be possible for me to take the group of beastkin in that tent through the forest by avoiding all of the guards surrounding this area. If I can sense things clearly, perhaps we won’t have to fight them all.”

“So then--”

“But I’m not going to do that.”

“...Huh?”

“You’ve seen tonight so far, haven’t you? You’ve heard what those two had to say, right?”

Ajax refers to the ones he killed, the two guards who told him about this ugly event occurring tonight.

“Don’t remind me about them. So what?”

“Taking aside the fact that there will be a number of men, women and children in that tent who could easily be made into hostages if I make even the slightest mistake… Even if I discount the fact that the beastkin sacrifices will probably be drugged and difficult to move quickly around, let me tell you what I think: these people involved in this sacrifice ritual? They’re all scum. If I let them go, eventually, someone will die by their hands, someone innocent. You understand that fact, right?”

“...Is it really your place to play judge, jury and executioner for all of them?”

“Judge, jury and executioner… hahahahaha! Then tell me! Will I be able to put them before a judge and jury? Will any of them ever meet an executioner?”

“...”

“Exactly. You understand, don’t you? With the number of people here who are members of the guards force, not even counting the nobles and holy knights, none of these people will ever see a jail cell, let alone a rope.”

“...Fuck. I-I still don’t--”

“It’s alright. I’m not going to ask you to help me carry their death sentences out. Just… stay out of my way.”

Arthur feels sick. This night will be full of death. Death he won’t be contributing to but that he will be witnessing even more of.

But, he’s right. None of them will face justice. Regardless of their tactics, Arthur and Ajax both believe in justice.

Why would Ajax however make such a statement that will contribute to his nightmares even more so? He doesn’t want to do all this. He doesn’t…

Angelidis. For something she cannot control, for actions that she might take that shouldn’t ever be illegal, for nothing but the bigotry of people who simply have the resources to do whatever they wish for… she could have been here. She could have been one of these people.

She could have died. Angelidis. Not just her. Claris too. Hila, Gren, Tori, Oitra… 

Ajax fears… they could easily have been here. They could have easily been the yellow feathered draconid woman, the beastkin woman… 

It makes him sick. Doing this might relieve his sickness. Will he feel better if these people can never hurt anyone ever again?