I stayed in my room for exactly seven days. Vivia brought me some food every now and then. This felt like I was back to those shit days. Those horrible days… No one had come to see me during this time. I suppose, no one wanted to see my face.

On day eight, something clicked and I strode out.

“We’re leaving,” I said.

Vivia was waiting outside. How long had she been there? I wasn’t sure. And I didn’t want to find out either.

We packed our stuff, and I put on a robe on top of my shabby armor since it was kind of busted now. Once done, we left. We paid the inn master some extra for everything and although some staff appeared sad the rest were mostly just relieved.

No one looked at me with scorn. Not inside the inn, and certainly not outside either. People had too much shit to deal with. Even if they hated my guts, they couldn’t do anything about me, they couldn’t do anything at all.

I wanted to visit the guild one last time but decided against it. And instead, just headed for the exit.

“Where do we go?” She asked.

“Not sure.”

Anywhere but here. For now, that was good enough.

We passed the debris. The rescue work was mostly just over. My funds helped. But the local guild and the lord had paid for most of the damages. I really wanted to apologize before leaving but-

I couldn’t bring myself to.

Coward.

Fucking coward.

Yet, I just ignored those words. I just ignored all that. We passed the gate, no one stopped me. People did stare, but no one stopped me.

And I moment I stepped out, I felt relieved. I was such a coward for being relieved like this. I could have at least gone through the damaged sections of the city, but I didn’t. I just didn’t!

“Hey Vivia… do you think I’m a coward?”

“I’d call you many things actually. Though not a coward.”

“Why not?”

“Did you run from that serpent? You fought it, didn’t you? Everyone ran. Everyone was afraid; perhaps you as well. And people couldn’t do anything. People were going to die anyway. But you stood your ground. Besides, you used up all your money…”

“Yet… I’m running.”

“More like a strategic retreat…”

We were out of the city, but I could still see the walls, the gates… the guards.

“Kill yourself-” I said.

She stared at me, wide eyed. Before falling backwards and going completely limp. No, she didn’t die. Instead, she was just paralyzed.

Apparently, if you gave a terrible, really shit order to your slave… the slavery would come undone. Typical stuff. “And thank you for your service. I’m sorry, I wasn’t a better master and couldn’t afford you anything better; with your adventurer status and skills, I’m sure you can live a better life.”

She stared at me, still wide eyed. “Wh-why?”

“You don’t have to go down with me. See ya?” I waved. And I left.

I had a distinct urge to summon and just severe my ties with all the skeletons but, if I did (I knew I could) they’d all just turn to dust and disappear. Yeah, I wanted to be alone. But I didn’t want to be alone.

I just…

Sighed.

I didn’t scream. I didn’t cry. I didn’t bang my hands on the damn tree. I’d done something I couldn’t take back, and now I had to live with it. But instead, I was running from it.

I just… sighed and walked.

During the last days of my life, I was alone in the true sense of the word. I knew what it was like. I knew what it was like to be powerless and unwanted. And right now, a lot of people in the city was going through that. To be honest, I couldn’t care less about people I didn’t know. However, I wasn’t some monster that went about did something absolutely terrible and not feel shit about it.

But at the end of the day, I did all that. And I screwed up big time. I could have just stayed here, trying to help and all that. But I couldn’t. I couldn’t watch their suffering. No, I chose not to. I chose to run away. Vivia said I was making a tactical retreat. But- we both knew I was just running away.

As I kept on walking, hours passed. The sun set down and before I knew it, things were going red.

I’d stopped paying attention where I was going. Forests? Fields? Animals? I didn’t really care about anything. Even though everything was keep getting redder and redder, I just didn’t stop. I kept on walking and as I came upon a frog, just jumped on it. Big frog, maybe half my size. I punctured a hole into it and then drained the blood in my mouth. Salty, juicy, tasty. Afterwards I enjoyed the flesh for a couple of minutes and then resumed my walk.

I again, walked for hours and hours till I saw some lights in the sky. I did not feel the least tired.

So, I kept walking… alone.

No matter where I go, I’d probably just create problems… so I steeled myself to just find a proper graveyard or maybe a cave and settle down for some time… cool off.

Or so I thought until a certain beastwoman jumped in front of me on all fours, panting. Dark circles underneath her eyes, she was a mess.

“Why?” I said.

“I want to repay you.”

“You already did. You’ve repaid me more than I bought you with.”

Besides, it was Escalor who bought her for me.

“No, not that. You’ve given me food, you’ve given me shelter but above all, you’ve given me hope. I was determined to die. I was determined to give up. But I found a new goal in my life. And I wanted to repay you for that.”

“Thanks. It’s all repaid so-”

“You don’t know anything about this world. But I do. Let me guide you. Let me-”

“I don’t need a slave.”

“I’m not asking you to be your slave. No. I’d rather be your friend.”

“Friend?”

“Yes. I would of course leave if you refuse. But I want to be your friend. On an equal footing. And repay you.”

“And what do you hope to gain from that?”

“Your trust.”

I doubted that. No one in their right mind would just volunteer to be your friend. Especially after you’d enslaved them for months. And yet- yet I found myself glad. I guess I really didn’t want to be alone. “Alright, Vivia.” I put my hand forward.

She grabbed it with both hands and shook. “Let’s go on an adventure, Sean. Away from all this.”

Yeah… away from all this.

***

A/N 

Okay so, hi, thanks for reading. 

I originally started this novel with the aim to do something new, something exciting. Halfway through, however, I lost my drive since no one was reading this and ended up half-assing a lot of things. While that still allowed me to continue writing, I don't think this story is as good as it could be, or even remotely close to what it should have been. Regardless, the first volume is finished and although I do plan to keep it like this for now, I will edit and fix a lot of the inconsistencies/mediocre writing in the future. Once I'm satisfied with the writing, I'll continue this book. 

Again, thank you for reading this. If you have any suggestions feel free to drop them in the comments. If you want more of my writing, 'Fake Cultist' is currently ongoing. And I have a bunch of other novels which are available on Webnovel. Check them out if you're interested. 

Anyway, that's all. Have a nice day!