“We did nothing wrong.” Says a little girl barely reaching my hip with light blond hair and sky blue eyes.

“I didn't hurt you. So why are you hurting me?”

The child start whimpering, as the center on her chest, where the dagger is embedded, start bleeding.

“Why did you hurt mommy?” Says another child even smaller with short black hair and chocolate skin.

“Did I do something bad? Do not hurt mommy, please. Please, make the pain go away.” A straight line across his neck start severely bleeding.

“Was our soup bad?” whispers a child from the Qaes assassin village.

“I am very sorry. I will make new one. Please don't hurt grandpa. Please forgive us.” Pleads the child while crying as the blood start flowing from a wound on her stomach.

Slowly, one by one, more and more children appear. They continue begging me to stop, for the pain to go away.

I am frozen, I can neither blink nor move, not even a finger.

Without being able to do anything I continue to stand as more and more children gather around me. Their voices merge together in one unified one. Begging.

“Please.”

…

I wake up in cold sweat, hyperventilating. Looking around I recognize the room I am renting. Looking at the moons which are visible through the window. Burning hot tears flow through my eyes down my face leaving wet traces down my face.

Maybe I could have saved them. Maybe I could have done something.

But I wasn't able to, or maybe its just something I am telling myself to justify my actions.

The moment I killed everyone in the dining room everyone outside started turning. Qaes will never allow sheep to live without the shepherd. They always inject a fail safe pill inside them.

It was not Demon pills. It would have been much easier if it was Demon pills. They turn inhuman, turning inside-out, creatures of darkness fueled by concentrated amount of dark energy and constant absorption of ambient dark energy.

But it was some variation of rage pill. They still looked human, it looked like they had only one single direct order, to kill the one responsible in the death of shepherd. Rage pills mess up the flow of mana and blood that even children could rip adults apart. It lasts only few minutes. But that is enough to ensure that the body would crumble apart even if they fail their order. One way or another no survivors will be left.

The tears stop flowing. And the wet lines start drying causing the place where the line was to itch.

These nightmares will never end.

There is nothing I will be able to do about it.

There is nothing I can do.

There is nothing I will do.

These things never heal. And they should never heal. I do not deserve healing. Whatever I do now or in future will not change that, it will not erase what I have done.

And in the end of it all, I will become the thing I hunted.

…

The sun rises and I start preparing for the day. I reached Toaan quite quickly, the horses made sure of that. Additional to that there were no issues on the road at all. Dried meat ration made sure that I would wouldn't need to stop for a break or in search of food.

My arrival in Toaan was just in time for the first express ship which would have sailed right after the ice breaks. The first express ship is quite expensive one. You have the risk of the “waking up” dangers in environment, quite a period of time since the last ship traveled, foreign traders willing to pay extra for the first fresh goods since the start of winter, and multiply the whole thing on supply and demand. Which results an astronomical price.

I sold the horses, bought an express ticket, few maps and some supplies for the travel. The weather is still cold therefore I will only change the equipment as soon as I reach port Kamalesh. The map showed that it was right in the center between Northern Kingdom and Qing, at north most part of Desert Alliance. From there on I will travel differently.

Toaan is much bigger and more active than Emeral because river Monah which flows between Qing, Desert Alliance and Northern Kingdom is also the main route of travel for all goods. Why main? Because all the countries ensure the safety of this route. Too much is dependent on the goods that are flowing through the Monah. And safety equals security, and security equal more merchants.

To be frank, I should have already been on the ship which should have sailed yesterday morning. But some “important” Lord ordered that the ship will wait one of his carriages. And there is no one who can stand up against him. Few also as “important” merchants were furious and demanded immediate departure, but Lord has connections with the local Duke. And there it ends.

It doesn't matter that merchants have contracts, it doesn't matter that there are goods that can spoil, it doesn't matter that people can lose money and lives because of few days delay.

Words of Duke is Law on his territory. And anyone who says something against can quickly lose the friendship of the Duke and meet the executioner guillotine.

Strange isn't it, one person having absolute control.

Actually no. This is how this stuff works. We are but cockroaches. And should eat the shit from the asses of our masters.

And the funny thing is that we were the ones that gave them the rein, believing that someone else would be responsible if something fails. But it only created hierarchy which we blindly believed. And with time it became how we see the world, because we believed that there could be no other way. And they in their place gave it to their children, passing the rein to next generation, again and again. And with each iteration they became more ruthless, more detached from people. They started believing that they are special, chosen ones by gods, that a totally different blood flows through their veins. That…

I should stop there…

Anyway, me together with bunch of travelers and merchants had to book an inn and wait for “Master's” carriage. A lot of people didn't plan for that and plainly didn't have money to pay for the inn. They had to sleep outside, sure there is no snow but it is still freezing cold during night, and some of them will not wake up again.

I go down to nearly full pub and have a breakfast in the corner, few sausages and dried piece of bread. Some are grumbling about the duke, some about the lord. But most are just drinking and telling their epic stories. How can they poison themselves so early in the morning, as soon as they wake up.

Unbelievable.

But, maybe I am just the strange, unused to civilian life, to peace. Yeah I totally forgot that. I am civilian, a traveler, nothing more.

A mountain of a man comes to my table. Huge beard, hard but warm eyes.

“Can we sit here with you? Everything else is taken.”

I nod.

“Thank you.”

He gestures to a boy, about 12-13 which resembles him greatly, to sit too, same dark eyes with ginger hair. Polite father, that is quite rare. They put their plates on the table and start eating. Boy looks at my face for several seconds with round eyes and stops when his father pushes him with an elbow.

“Eat. Excuse him. He is still young. He did not mean anything bad. My name is Rudolf and this is my son Tedal.”

“Alan. Not a problem at all. Boy is still young.”

“I am not a boy, I am a man.”

Rudolf start laughing.

“You will be, take your time.” I grin. “But first, you need to be able to carry your father on your shoulders”

Boy wants to say something but then stops. We eat in silence, as soon as we finish the boy resumes looking at my face. I can see that there is something brewing and he can't hold back the question.

“How did you get that scar? I have never seen anything like that. What kind of beast did that?”

It has been so long that I nearly forgot. People haven't mentioned it so far so it slipped my mind. But red-black vertical scar down the right side of my face will ensure that I will never forget what I hunted before. My regeneration can heal nearly anything. Even deep scars will take only few weeks to disappear. But there are things that should not exist in this world.

“Remember, the most dangerous beast are the ones wearing human skin.”

The boys eyes fill with confusion and fear. I smile trying to calm down the boy.

“Be not afraid of them. Fear is their weapon against us. Every beast bleeds. You just need to know were to stab.”

“Sorry about that. He is quite curious one.”

“No. Actually that is very good quality. It will make sure that he stays alive.”

He gives a warm bear-like smile and start ruffling up the boys hair. We talked a bit more while the room was warming up by the rising sun.

A sudden movement started outside, after which I saw few people through the window running around and shouting something. But no one heard it over the chatter inside the inn.

Inn's door slam open and a boy in his teens screams.

“The ship is leaving!” and runs out the moment he finished.

A few seconds of absolute silence and confusion were replaced by people running up the inn to take their belonging, and others running out of inn in the direction of dock.

Me, Rudolf and Tedal stood up and went together with the group leaving the inn. A good hunter always caries the important stuff on him. We started jogging in the direction where the ship was docked. Even from afar we could see that shipcrew were running around the ship.

“Faster Tedal.” said Rudolf.

We moved from jog into sprint. As soon as we came much closer to ship we saw half a dozen people checking papers and letting the people on the ship. Not far from the ship an expensive looking carriage could be seen.

If the harbor wasn't made of stone I am sure that it would crumble under the weight of all people trying to get on the ship. The documents were checked in a half-assed way, therefore we got on the ship quite fast. No one had time, by the looks of it. We along with a lot of others stood on the deck.

When nearly all people got on the ship, men in enchanted armor came out of ship to the deck and went directly to a person looking like a ship captain. Their ever movement told about their arrogance and belief in their utter, unconditional superiority. But the enchantments told me more than that, they are somewhat skilled Enforcers. High status, decent amount of money, some skills and here you go, unstoppable killing machines.

One of them, with a bit more expensive looking armor and enchantment stood in front.

“What are we waiting for? Depart immediately!”

A man in his fifties, with graying hair and a bottle of rum in hand, which should be the ship captain, looked at the lead Enforcer with disdain.

“We are not personal carriage, Sir. We are first express. Your late arrival delayed our schedule. And now, you believe that you can give orders?”

The moment he finished a strong hook met his face. After which the lead Enforcer proceeded to kick the old man lying on floor. Other enforcers looked around while holding their hands on the hilts of their sword, threatening violence to anyone who would intervene.

After nearly dozen of seconds of non-stop kicking and stomping the lead Enforcer stopped. He took a deep breath and spoke.

“Your existence maggot, is allowed only because of benevolence of my Master. You, and everyone you care or know, are alive only because we allow that. You will do as I say or I will personally skin every male in your whole family, and females will be given to my hounds as hump dummies.”

The ship captain was heavily bleeding and more likely unconscious, I wasn't even sure if he heard anything. Lead Enforcer looked at ship crew members which were petrified in fear.

“What are you waiting?!. Depart now!!”

Ship crew started running around frantically to continue what they were doing before. Enforcers turned around and went down the to deck. Some of the ship crew stopped and ran to captain trying to help him in whatever way they can.

Anchor was lifted and ship started moving. A chubby man was running to ship through harbor with several bags on his back screaming for the ship to wait. His legs were barely moving under his weight and weight of his bags. But he wouldn't make it. The ship is already too far.

[So you can kill villagers and children, but standing against an Enforcers is a no.]

[Pathetic.]

[Where is your righteousness now?]

[How are you any different from all those you called scum?]

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”