Volume 6: Be Careful of Paper Cuts
1918 Words
"I knew it." Jaegar was looking sternly at the man quietly sitting on the bed.
"So… you were the one who killed them, even the girl?" Brittanya could not hide her shock as she covered her mouth with both her hands.
"I can't… control it..." The man was looking down at both his shaking hands, feeling both regret and anxiety. "She just… wanted to help me… and my friends…" He clenched his fists and closed his eyes. "But… those mercenaries… they… violated her…" Anger can be felt in his voice.
"You went berserk, huh…" Jaegar never averted his gaze from the man. "You're dangerous. You better leave this house once you get better."
"Hey, he's also a victim here. That's clear now." Brittanya tried to defend the man from Jaegar's judgement.
"He's right… I should… leave now…" The man tried to stand up from the bed.
"Hold it right there." Brittanya grabbed him by the shoulders and pushed him back to lie down on the bed. "You need to rest. We'll figure out things later, okay?" She smiled at him then dragged Jaegar out of the room.
---
Brittanya and Jaegar decided to go outside of the house and walk around town.
"He said he had friends together with that girl, maybe some could have survived and are in this town." Brittanya was talking aloud to herself.
"By friends, he meant all those animals in the forest." Jaegar answered nonchalantly.
"How can you tell?"
"Didn't I tell you earlier that there were no monsters in the forest? He must have eliminated most, if not all, in that area. Only the animals were left. He must have been protecting them, or something."
"That makes sense. You're good in making assumptions!" She was genuinely praising Jaegar.
"If you're complimenting me, you're doing a terrible job at it."
As they were walking around, they saw some people wearing different kinds of armor and equipment. Those people were talking loudly, frantically looking for someone.
"I heard someone saw a bloodied guy being brought inside Jiputin the other day. He must be the guy who killed our comrades." One of them spoke to his companion while they were passing by Brittanya and Jaegar.
"He won't get away with what he did!" The companion responded while still within earshot of the two. Both of them looked at each other and ran back towards the house where they left the man.
---
They arrived at the house where the man was resting. It seemed that nothing has happened yet, based on the normal atmosphere outside the house. They both rushed inside to see the surprised look of everyone there.
"What's wrong? Why are you in such a rush—" Before the elderly woman can finish talking, both rushed to the second floor where the man was staying.
Jaegar opened the door of the room, only to see the man lying down and staring at the ceiling. The man was surprised by their sudden entrance.
"You're... back... early..." The man tried to sit down.
"We've got to go." Jaegar grabbed the man's arm even before he could properly sit and dragged him off the bed.
"What… happened...?" The man's face was not particularly surprised at the turn of events. In fact, he was quite expecting something like this to happen.
"We need to hide him." Brittanya urged Jaegar.
"I know. But the question is where? I doubt the clergy will be happily accepting any suspicious people right now, especially when one of their own was killed." Jaegar was still holding the man's arm while both of them were now standing. The man was silent.
"Maybe... I should... give myself up... to whoever is looking... for me..." The man was whispering to himself. Jaegar and Brittanya did not hear what he said.
"We don't know how many comrades those killed mercenaries in the forest have left." Jaegar was talking to Brittanya while thinking of a plan of action. "I don't want to fight people, as much as possible –"
"C-comrades...?" The man's body stiffened. Jaegar felt this since he was still holding the man's arm. "Where...?" Then the man lowered his head.
"Hey, what's wrong—" Jaegar suddenly felt the familiar blood lust he felt back at the forest. "Brittanya! Run—" The man suddenly punched Brittanya who was in front of him while simultaneously swinging his arm held by Jaegar, which sent the knight flying through the window and outside the house.
Brittanya was able to block the punch to her stomach with her arms, but it still sent her crashing to the wall. The man stood still for a while then jumped through the window destroyed by Jaegar crashing through it. Once outside, he ran frantically towards the town exit and into the forest. There were a lot of people standing around that saw the whole scene. Meanwhile, Jaegar was lying down on broken crates that somehow cushioned his fall. Brittanya looked outside the destroyed window and saw Jaegar unconscious. She jumped down and rushed to him.
"Hey, Jaegar, wake up!" She slapped his face.
"Ouch! That hurts!" Jaegar immediately woke up. "Are you trying to crush my face?"
"Oh, sorry. I was just lightly tapping you."
"Lightly tapping? I thought my face would break!" Jaegar then remembered the situation. "Wait, where's that guy?" He looked at Brittanya with urgency.
"He ran towards the exit that leads to the forest." She pointed at the direction the man ran.
"Damn, what a pain in the ass. I should be hunting down monsters, not babysitting crazy people."
"So why are you doing it, then?" Brittanya helped Jaegar stand up.
"I'm still a knight of this kingdom, and I have a duty to protect human lives and all that." He begrudgingly explained. "Currently, he's a threat to everyone."
"Should we follow him?"
"I guess. Who knows if he'll come back here while still in berserk?"
Then, they saw some people running towards the same exit the man went into. They recognized that some of them were the same people looking for the man around town earlier.
"Word travels fast. They must have heard about a suspicious man running around town." Jaegar looked more concerned with each passing moment.
"Then we should go now, too." Brittanya started to run.
---
The mercenaries were able to catch up to the man in the forest, surrounding him. The man, while in berserk, stood still. Unexpectedly, he lunged towards one of the mercenaries. Before he could reach the mercenary, his body suddenly fell to the ground.
"That's the second time I had to do that to you." Jaegar was standing beside the man's fallen body. He struck the back of the man's neck to render him unconscious.
"Wh-what just happened?" The mercenary who was saved by Jaegar lost all strength from his legs and fell to the ground. "I was going to die..."
"I saved you." Jaegar shifted his gaze to the mercenary.
A companion of the mercenary suddenly shouted from the crowd.
"What are you all doing just standing around? Kill that man!" He was pointing towards the unconscious berserker. His voice was shaking from fear. "He killed our comrades!"
"But your comrades attacked him and the priestess first!" Brittanya retorted. "And he accidentally killed her because of that..."
"Huh?" The scared person was acting more and more panicked. "He didn't kill her! We did! I was there!" He started laughing. "We had a good time with her, but she just wouldn't shut up and be quiet, so we stabbed her!" He then totally snapped. "But then this... This monster came and killed everyone!"
"You...!" Jaegar was seething with anger.
"But he's stupid for letting me escape! If you won't kill him, I'll do it myself!" The man clumsily drew his sword. He rushed toward the motionless berserker.
Jaegar planned to dash toward him to punch him in the face. But even before he could move from his position, a pillar of rock came from the ground and hit the man in the stomach that sent him flying away from the crowd. Jaegar was surprised and looked at Brittanya.
"You beat me to it." He sighed and had a satisfied look in his face.
"I can't forgive what they did." Anger can still be seen in Brittanya's expression. "All of you here! Did you know about what your comrades did?" They were all still shocked at what she just did. "Answer me!"
"N-no!" The mercenary sitting on the ground answered. "All he said when he came back was that everyone else was killed by some guy. I swear!" The others were nodding in agreement, still unable to talk.
"That better be the truth, or you're next." She was cracking her knuckles.
---
"I'm sorry about the window, madam." Brittanya was bowing down at the old lady. They were talking inside the house.
"There's no need to apologize, young lady." She was smiling at Brittanya. "When we decided to help two youngsters carrying a bloodied person, we knew there were some risks to it." She then lifted Brittanya's face. "What's important is that all of you are safe."
"Thank you so much." Tears were welling in Brittanya's eyes.
The door then opened and Jaegar entered.
"How did it go?" Brittanya quickly asked him.
"I turned over that scum bag to the Knight's Order branch here in Jiputin. They'll think of what to do with him, since the Holy Clergy will also be involved."
"What about him? What will happen to him?" She was concerned about the unconscious man sleeping upstairs.
"Well, the mercenary group admitted that it was their comrades who attacked and killed the priestess. And that their comrades were then killed by a... monster." Jaegar looked up at the direction of where the man was sleeping. "They weren't lying, at least."
---
A few days had passed. Brittanya and Jaegar took on requests from people in Jiputin in order to pay for the repairs of the house that they damaged. During their stay within the city, they heard stories of more frequent monster attacks in other towns and cities. They decided that once they are able to pay for the repairs, they'll head to the City of Dosael.
"Here." Jaegar gave the old lady a bag of gold coins. "That should be enough to finally cover all the repairs. Plus you can buy more food with that."
"This is too much, we can't take this." She was gesturing to give back the money.
"Please take it. It's still not enough for all the trouble we caused." Brittanya pushed back the bag of gold to the old lady.
"Before we leave, we'll talk to him first." Jaegar then headed upstairs. Brittanya followed soon after.
They entered the room where the man was staying and saw him sitting on the side of the bed. He looked up at them.
"Thank you... for everything..." He was expressionless.
"At least we know you didn't kill her." Jaegar was direct to the point.
"Yeah..." He was staring at nothing.
"So, here's the thing. Join us on our journey."
"...What?" He then looked at Jaegar.
"The way you eradicated most of the monsters in this area, including Parent monsters, is unbelievable. I'm on the mission of eliminating all the monsters in our land. I could use your strength."
"Isn't that... impossible?" The man was confused. "And... I'm dangerous... You can't... have me around..."
"Look, who was it that stopped you twice now?" After hearing that, the man finally smiled.
- Writer
