We did not look back to see if the man had chased after us or not. We just focused on getting as far from this place as possible.
After five minutes, and when we were sure that the man was not following us, we finally stopped.
Karime and Andrew collapsed on the ground and panted heavily, while I rested my back against a wall and took a deep breath.
“… Did we escape?” Andrew finally asked after several seconds like that.
I put on a complicated expression and nodded. “For now, at least.”
But I’m sure that this won't end so easily.
That man will definitively try to kill us again.
I didn’t say the last part loudly, but Karime and Andrew understood what I implied.
I had killed one of their companions and the brother of the leader. There is no way he will let the matter rest just like that.
When that thought appeared in my mind, I could not help but remember the expression of the man I killed when he died.
And suddenly, a powerful sense of nausea attacked me and my face turned pale.
I… I killed someone…
And this time, it was a normal and healthy human being.
God…
My mind was a mess and the nausea became stronger. I felt as though I was going to throw out everything in my stomach.
But the demon spoke at that moment.
[If you didn’t kill him, you or your friends could have died.]
These words helped me to calm down.
He is right. If I don’t kill him, perhaps the one dead would have been Andrew, Karime, or myself.
Even so, it was not easy to get rid of this terrible nausea.
[You should treasure it. After a few times, you will feel nothing after you kill a human.]
Is it so?
Yeah. I also felt sick when I killed my first berserk human, but now, I barely feel something after killing a bunch of them.
To think that one can get used to something like killing people.
“Jane, are you alright?” Karime approached me at that moment. She noticed that I was pale and looked at me with a concerned expression.
It felt a bit strange that my ex-girlfriend was this concerned about me, but I ignored that feeling and nodded.
“Yeah, I’m just a bit tired.”
“Are you sure? You look pale.” Karime’s expression was still concerned. But I was not pale due to an injury, but due to the guilt of having killed a human being.
Just then, Andrew spoke up.
“Jane, thank you… and sorry…”
I smiled wryly and nodded.
It’s obvious why Andrew was apologizing. He hesitated to kill the woman called Carla, and it ended putting all of our lives at risk.
If he would have killed Carla when he had the opportunity, then he would have not fallen into a disadvantage against the young man, and perhaps, we could have defeated the three of them.
In other words, Andrew’s naiveness put all of us at risk.
I did not blame him for it, though.
We are not used to this kind of thing. It’s normal to hesitate when killing another human being.
In fact, perhaps I’m the weird one for killing another human so decisively.
Shaking my head, I decided to stop thinking about that.
“We should focus on finding Jessica now. I forgot to tell her where to meet in the heat of the situation.”
Just when I finished saying these words, we saw a figure rushing in our direction.
It was Jessica with the little girl in her arms.
“Andrew, brother-in-law, sister!”
Jessica’s expression brightened after finding us. She seemed relieved that nothing happened to us.
“How did you find us?” I could not help but ask her, before realizing that it was a stupid question.
“I did not leave far after you told me, but I stayed in a nearby building to watch the fight. When I saw that you were running away, I ran after you.”
As expected, that was the answer.
“Well done.” I smiled at her before heaving a sigh of relief.
We were in a really dangerous situation just now, but fortunately, it seems that we managed to overcome it.
However, our problems are just starting. Now, we need to get ready to face the chase of a strong awakened filled with hatred and the desire to kill us.
My expression hardened as soon as I thought about that.
“Andrew, how are your injuries?” I asked my best friend.
“… It should be alright. I don’t have any broken bone.”
“That is good.”
Awakened can heal quickly due to the mana in their bodies. For us, small injuries would disappear in minutes to hours.
I even heard that powerful Awakened can heal broken bones in seconds!
“We should think about our next course of action then.” I put on a serious expression and looked at my three friends. “They will not leave us alone now that we killed a member of their group. In fact, perhaps they are chasing after us now.
“I don’t want to say it, but right now, our lives are in serious danger.”
Andrew, Karime, and Jessica gulped nervously.
They could feel the threat of death slowly approaching.
…
Meanwhile, at the bank where Jane and his friends fought the three robbers.
The leader of the robbers, Gil, was gazing at the body of his brother in silence.
“… Leader, what are we going to do now?” Carla, who was supporting herself with the help of a stick due to her broken leg, asked with a heavy expression.
The leader stared at her fixedly before looking in the direction that Jane and the others ran.
“You are not in conditions to fight, Carla. You should find a place to rest and hide until the dungeon is cleared.”
“But Joan died! We need to avenge him!”
“Don’t worry.” The leader’s eyes flashed with a ruthless light. “I will make sure that they pay for killing my brother.
“I will teach these little bastards what hell is.”
...
As expected, Jessica is the best. Perhaps the only one within his circle with a good head on her shoulders.
Yeah! Jessica for Harem, 2022!
The other two can pound sand.
@Blizzisme I have to disagree. Andrew had the expected human response to killing that could have been avoided if Jane had been more open to talking to him before hand. Telling them the story of that guy that turned right in front of himself would have helped. Basically Andrew is behaving like the average person, and is even able to realise he made mistakes.
Since I don't think badly of Andrew, I don't like the idea of Jessica leaving him for Jane. However I think they would be fine with the idea of Jessica sleeping with Jane once a year to help him stave off his death. I doubt he will be able to hide that from his friends and family forever.
@SuperBort I don't remember Jessica being together with Andrew... Thought she was just Karime's little sister. Reference?
@Blizzisme You are right, no clue why I thought they were together. That makes things much easier since Andrew can take Jane's ex.
@SuperBort I doubt that will happen though. Seems as though the ex is definitely not over Jane. In fact I think it's the opposite. Even if she is involved with Andrew, I think it's temporary. Mind you I don't like Karime, I find her to be shallow because of her reasons for breaking up. Think she's either gonna redeem herself, get killed, or get d*cked and dropped.
@En4cer1244 Although I don't like Karime too, her reasons for break up are not shallow. On the opposite they are too justified. The shallow one is her character not reasons.
Mind you, awakened not only gets richer and more famous, but also lives longer, stays younger, healthier and beautiful/handsome to a certain degree. Moreover awakened are more "open" even in their marriages from what we have learned during the later part of the story. They are simply another caste from masses. Thus from a pragmatist point of view her reasons are justified.
Her character is the shallow one. She is like a woman leaves her boyfriend due to social status or even serious diseases.
Remember that 20 years old young woman that left her fiancee as soon as she learned that he got cancer? Karime is that one. Everyone hates her but most people, men or women, still does the same thing thing although not as fast as Karime. Most people just try first for a clearer conscience.
@Degoneth you're right, I put what I meant the wrong way. I did mean her character in the end. I can see her reasons but I don't know about them being truly justified. Then again if a girl backs out cause you have a setback, imo she is kinda shallow; and her feelings were too.
This is the second fastest someone's responded to comment. First was literally less than 5 minutes after. It was the author and it wasn't even a recently released chapter.
@En4cer1244 Well I have seen plenty of stuff myself over the years, even stood at the receiving end a few times. It doesn't matter how long you know someone. You only learn someone's true nature when there is conflict.
I don't blame Karime. She simply didn't love Jane as much as her dreams which is justified. There are people that leave their dreams for their loved ones and regret it later, and there are people that leave their loved ones for their dreams and regret it later. But most people don't regret their decisions on something like that. What makes Karime regret was the sped of the karma. If Jane's awakening was a few years later she would have been moved and find someone else, possibly Andrew and wouldn't regret. But the speed of things makes it hurt.
Just like my answers. Answering a comment years later usually wouldn't impact people as much as answering them immediately.