-Vol 6: Dusk of An Era-

-Revenge()-

“As expected, you already know about my life-preserving measure.” It wasn’t a question or inquiry; rather, a statement. A statement Trixi made as if she confirmed one of her suspicions. Realizing this, Kenshin narrowed his eyes, concentrating his willpower into her, “Explain yourself.” He said coldly without much emotion on his face. Behind him, the zombie, too, took a stance, ready to engage in case of something sudden.

“Please, don’t be agitated. I had no other intention when I said it. It’s just that your aura seems quite familiar to a person I am acquainted with, and thus I made a bold judgment. Your words just proved me right.” Although she tried to remain calm, her voice still broke midway as her whole body filled with cold sweat. For a second, she felt like she was staring into the eyes of a ferocious beast.

‘No, not a beast, a demon. It's like being stared down by a demon.’ Trixi corrected herself. She thought her willpower was already strong enough due to sticking with this lady and experiencing many horrific things, but she was still caught unprepared when Kenshin stared with his willpower. She realized that no amount of preparation would be enough to deal with a truly powerful individual, especially one on the level of this man sitting in front of her. Her eyes were red as she dry heaved to calm her heart down from the aftereffects of intense fear, ‘even Yuri wasn’t this fearsome when he showed me his ability for the first time!’ she thought, thinking about her friend.

Unaware of her internal debate, Kenshin was caught up in what she revealed just now, especially that aura being similar to someone thing. He was unsure what she meant by it, his first thought went to having the system. But after much deliberation, he discarded that thought. Only someone with a system could recognize another one with a system, at least that’s what the old man said before he vanished. Then what left was two things, one, being a contractor of a dungeon or having their race changed to something else.

“Really? How similar is my aura to this friend of yours?” he pressed on, he wanted to know what she was talking about. No matter which part she reveals, it would be beneficial to him.

Trixi’s eyes flickered as she weighed her options. Initially, she dropped a hint because she wanted to exchange the information for her freedom, but now she wasn’t sure of pushing the limits of this demon of a man. That one stare had broken all her reservations and made her give up on many ideas she had initially.

No doubt, Trixi was a brilliant girl with intelligence comparable to those geniuses. The lady of the house valued her great for that reason only. In fact, she had resolved many troublesome situations with her careful planning and genius ideas. Even then, she was defeated with just a stare from Kenshin.

This was an advantage of having absolute power. Kenshin might not be the strongest in the world, but he sure as hell strongest ever person that this girl had ever met. And in front of such absolute strength, all her careful calculations and planning crumbled like a house made of cards in front of a storm.

“Ita like this, this friend of mine is very unique. When he was a child, he ate a suspicious-looking apple-like fruit. Since then, his body had undergone tremendous mutations. Although he still looks like a human, he could make scales appear all over his body, and those scales have a strong interference ability, able to disable all electronics devices around a hundred-meter radius. Not only that, those scales on his body can nullify most of magic based skills and disrupt forces making him nearly invincible.” Trixi held nothing back and revealed everything about this acquaintance of hers. In fact, she didn’t even think twice before doing so. This made Kenshin frown discreetly.

‘I was right indeed, it’s the aura of a half-ling, like me… but what kind of species has such formidable defense? He really sounds almost invincible…’ with suspicions confirmed, there was no use for him to stick around here. Especially when hunters and his friends were risking their lives while fighting against dreadful creatures. After fixing his glare on the squirming girl who had lost all her cool demeanor from before, Kenshin snorted in derision.

“So, what do you want?” thus, he asked directly. There was a certain amount of risk involved in letting her go. Since she had seen his face already and even know who he was, if she makes this matter public, he would be in a lot of trouble. On the other hand, he didn’t feel like killing a girl who had yet to show her hostility towards him, albeit openly.

Thus he was in a serious dilemma now.

Kill her or let her go?

“In all these years, the only thing I desire was revenge. I have no other motives, now that my revenge has finished. I will return to my mother’s village and stay there forever.” Trixi said calmly, although Kenshinw was able to feel a bit of melancholy in her words.

“It would have been no problem if you are a simple servant of the house… but you seem to have a lot of knowledge about my matters. It will be hard for me to let you go alive, especially when you have seen me killing so many important people here.” Kenshin frowned and said coldly with a straight face.

“I understand, that’s why I will use the last trick in my book to buy my life,” the girl was still unperturbed, even though Kenshin had made his intention clear of killing her, she was still calm enough to come up with another solution. He had to give it, this girl was extremely dangerous as an enemy. More than three times, his instincts compelled him to kill her for good, but if humans followed their instincts always, they would be no different than animals.

“That is?” intrigued, he asked her. She didn’t verbally answered him but fumbled around her neck and pulled out a chain to which a locket was attached. Kenshin narrowed his eyes as the zombie took a stance to intercept at a moment’s notice.

“I can use this pen drive and publicize all the things this Kawakuchi family had done until now. I am pretty sure once the things in this Pendrive was made known, this Kawakuchi family would be labeled as a traitor to mankind faster they can spell ‘betray,’” Trixi said with so much confidence that Kenshin’s heart began to sway.

Narrowing his eyes, he started to contemplate his actions. Then he looked at her and said: “the computer is there I believe…” his meaning was clear as day to the smart girl. With a nod, she sat down on the chair and connected the Pendrive to the USB port. After a few minutes later, she got up and stood respectfully before Kenshin.

“I have left it for uploading. It will take some time, but now no one can stop these files from circulating throughout the world.”

Then she looked at Kenshin expectantly. Seeing her like this, Kenshin sighed. She had kept her side of the bargain, now its time for his. But before that, he flashed an empty 20 ml bottle from his pocket and gave it to her, “fill that bottle with your blood.”

Narrowing her eyes, Trixi asked cautiously, “what for?”

“I want to donate your blood, got a problem with that?” Kenshin snapped at her, he was getting impatient as each second he wastes here means some hunter might die in the battlefield. Although he didn’t care about the life of every tom dick and harry, without these hunters, Mito won’t be a safe place. No matter what, those hunters must survive.

“Fill it!” Kenshin growled.

“Y, yes,” with a tremble, she cut her palm with the sword and let the blood flow into the bottle while feeling complex in her heart. At this moment, she was feeling a quagmire of emotions, from elation to satisfaction to freedom to relief and finally vexed. Albeit, the last emotion was largely centered around Kenshin and her powerlessness to stop it.