A moment of epiphany, as you are standing near corpses of your allies can give you that for sure. The building that you are left inside of burning down in ashes. Everyone was killed or slowly roasting alive, unable to stand up due to their wounds. Aida was dead, she was stabbed through the chest and beheaded by the knight we have ended up encountering just the day before. Aida had earlier demonstrated being able to manifest a long tail while in her human form. She used it to pickpocket strangers for food, but it seems her considerate action has let us get caught red handed.

Apparently the knights assumed we were demons, they followed us as we entered a food place, a knight wearing jet black armor announced to us to give up and surrender.

I caught a glimpse of Aida’s temper that time, she was billowing like crazy, steam coming from her body, I knew she would transform if I didn’t do something. I told her to calm down and placed my hand upon her shoulder, but one of the knights shouted at me “Don’t move!” and shot an arrow at my chest.

The arrow knocked me away, Aida’s eyes opened wide in anger, the knights were surprised too.

There, where the arrows hit my chest, the area turned to swirling dust that now was patching itself together.

“They are demons! Kill them!” The knight who shot at me shouted.

There were about a dozen knights. They attacked simultaneously with their swords raised.

“I WILL NOT LET YOU HURT HIM!” Aida billowed as she transformed herself into a huge dragon, emerging from the building. She flew out and proceeded to chomp one of the knights before throwing him far away. He will most likely not survive the fall.

“Kill those two, I will handle the dragon!” The black knight shouted out. Apparently he was their leader for the knights followed his orders completely and accurately.

Sariu who was with us, proceeded to take off her bracelet, an aura of darkness emanated from her, stopping the arrows that flew at her. The glass inside the store broke from the pressure she was giving to the air.

She looked as if she was in trance, this must be what she told me before, her Supremacy, something that marked her as a witch. It sure felt powerful because when a knight jumped at her with a raised sword she proceeded to pulverize him with a motion of her hand. I don’t know why, but I could see some kind of darkness spreading from her, almost like tentacles, but with bladed ends.

I am not sure if the knights saw them though. They ran towards her even when those dark tentacles were in plain view and ended up being brutally killed by them.

Four knights down, but there were seven more to go.

Suddenly, a dragon fell towards the building; her head crashing through the window, a black knight emerged and proceeded to stab her in the heart. With her last breath she sent a blast of flames at him, but he just stood his ground, but his helmet got knocked off, I could see his face, now the right half received severe burns but from the left side I could tell he was a handsome man with straight nose, black eyes, a small goatee, and angry black eyes.

Not minding his injuries he proceeded to behead Aida, her huge head now lay motionlessly still.

“Captain, she is using some strange magic, she might be a witch!”

“We can’t see how she does it, but she already killed four of us!”

“Captain, help!”

One knight was there laying on the ground, about to be stabbed by the dark substance extending from her hand like a twisted blade.

She slashed at him, but her slash was blocked by a black sword.

“I see, so a sword coated in mana still works” The black knight muttered before proceeding to kick Sariu away, knocking her out.

This was bad. If he kills her, I will die as well. I had to prevent him from doing this. My body can take it, now I can’t be killed by a mere sword!

With bravado of a madman, I jumped in front of the black knight.

“A brave effort” The black knight proceeded to stab me through the gut. “But a futile one.”

What is going on, unlike the other times when I got physically hurt, but didn’t feel anything, this time was different. The pain, it was spreading throughout my body.

“I will not let you kill her…” I uttered with pain, my mouth filled with blood.

“Mr. Finnerman!” Sariu screamed in horror, she no longer was lost in her mind, her trance-like state was broken, now she was looking at me with horrified expression.

“A truly brave act, I will give you that.” The black knight proceeded to pull the sword out of my chest. My body fell on the floor, now helpless as the blood was leaking out uncontrollably.

“As a form of respect I shall give you a peaceful and painless death, any last words?” black knight asked politely.

“Who the hell do you think you are!?” I screamed with pain filling my lungs, they felt as if they were on fire.

“I am Knight of Night, Second captain of the Kingdom of Kizilalem, Larat Lemuri.” Then he proceeded to stab me in the throat. “May your death be peaceful.”

As my body lay there, I couldn’t move, but I felt the life draining away, but somehow I wasn’t dying yet. The knight took his sword and proceeded to approach the witch, who was helplessly backed into a corner.

“I see, so the demons have conspired to rescue you, how fortunate I was the one to discover this, but leaving you alive for execution is no longer an option.” He slashed her across her body. “Now die.”

She fell on the ground with a thud, her body now slowly losing blood, she was no longer moving.

The black knight proceeded to exit the store, but not before knocking over a lamp, setting the place completely on fire. Then he and his knights left he place, carrying the bodies of their wounded and killed comrades, leaving us there to die.

This was the epiphany I felt, here, while everything was burning. Why, out of all places to die, I had to be brutally killed in such a way? The fact that I was still conscious proved to me the cruelty of the god who had so seamlessly arranged this.

“Mr. Fin-ner-man” Sariu helplessly uttered, her body was close to me. Her hand took a hold of mine, my eyes now looked at her face. There, instead of her scared expression was a smile. “Thank you” she whispered, before her eyes closed and her head slumped back.

I see. The reason I didn’t die even when I was fatally wounded was due to the contract I made with her, forbidding me from dying, or at least slowing it down. But now her eyes closed, I could no longer feel a pulse.

“Oh OOO!” I tried to say something, but my damaged throat prevented any words from forming. Then I felt my heart stop with a thump. I see now, now that she is dead, by the rule of the contract; it was time for me to be dead.

My last breath left my body and my head fell on the floor, motionless, with empty horror filled eyes.

I woke up with a scream.

“AAAAAH!” I looked at the place I was at.

It was morning.

“Do you have to be so loud, Nur Finnerman? It is just a morning, that is all there is to It.” said Aida. For some reason she was very close, no, extremely close. I remember now, that morning, she wrapped me in her wings for warmth.

But being snuggled by a dragon in human form was rather….Comfortable, surprisingly so. It felt like sleeping in a warm blanket.

“No fair! Why can he sleep in your wing, but I can’t?” Sariu asked.

“Because you are you, and he is him. That is all there is to it.” Aida said with a smug expression. “You were acting so strange yesterday, but I am glad you calmed down after I wrapped my wing around you.”

So, it seems she did it as a way to comfort me, that was rather considerate of her.

With Sariu looking displeased, I proceeded to stand up. The last time we were here, on top of the roof. Waking up here after falling asleep, I remember now. Aida resorted to theft with her tail, due to the fact that we, meaning me, had money shortages. I took out my wallet. After the heavy meal course the other day, I was left with only twelve bronze coins, not enough for three people, one of which is a gluttonous dragon.

“It seems we are short on money.” Aida looked over my shoulder. “Then I have a perfect suggestion. I can…”

“You will not use your tail in order to shoplift strangers.” I said bluntly.

“How did you know I was going to say that?” She looked very surprised.

I had to play it cool, not arouse any suspicion. “You have your tail manifested in human form, I am pretty sure that is a conclusion anyone would come to after seeing it.”

“Wow” Sariu was surprised by the case I was making, trying to pretend I just deduced Aida’s plan instead of seeing first-hand what that disaster for an idea will lead to.

“But if I don’t do that, what can we do? We can’t fly out of here, you told me there are too many knights around and that they will spot and shoot me for sure.”

Right, I did warn her not to fly or turn to her real form unless it was an emergency, so flying on her back from here was out of question. Even if we do succeed in flying high, the knights in the kingdom will shoot her down with ballista, and they do a great job of it considering the state I found Aida in.

Right now we need to keep low profile.

“I have a plan, we will get a job!” I said with a grin.

“WHAT???” Both Aida and Sariu said simultaneously.

Now I was there, smiling awkwardly at the absurdity of my misfortune, but if getting a job in the kingdom filled with humans meant being able to get out of this city, then it was well worth it.