Chapter 74

In the middle of the night, Zeth approached the edge of town, Astrys by his side. She carried a large barrel she’d used to transport the goods to base in her arms, the only thing preventing her from holding more being that she couldn’t fit more in her arms.

“Alright,” he said, “stay there so your aura doesn’t affect anyone. I’ll go ahead and start giving this stuff out.”

After grabbing a handful of random food items from the barrel, he snuck ahead out into the streets, creeping up to the nearest house he could find. He’d specifically gone over to the smallest, poorest guild housing, hoping to help people who wouldn’t have as much money saved and would be hit the hardest from the lost wages. So ideally, he’d actually be helping people as he dumped off his stolen goods.

With his heartbeat thudding in his ears, Zeth crouched by the house, listening for any signs of movement within. Hearing none, he left a small bundle of smoked meat and dried fruit by the doorstep. He adjusted his cloak and mask, hoping they’d be enough to shield him from any prying eyes in the quiet, moonlit streets.

But as he turned to leave, he spotted the window of the house he stood at slowly light up—it looked like someone was approaching with a candle. He darted away, hoping they wouldn’t spot him flee as he ran over behind another house. Staying there for a moment, he listened as the door opened, followed by a bit of silence, then some soft, sleepy grumblings, and the door closed once again. He peered around the corner of the wall he hid behind to ensure nobody was out there, and it looked like they’d headed back inside.

Close call. They must’ve heard him approach, or seen a glimpse of him through a window. More carefully this time, he approached the next house, crouching below the windows and being sure to make no noise as he stepped down the cobblestone road. This time, he managed to leave another bundle of food behind without alerting any attention.

He went down the street, handing out individual meals worth of food at each doorstep. Since the houses were all perfectly identical, Zeth was able to build up a routine taking the same movements each time to ensure nobody detected him.

Once he ran out, he went back over to Astrys and they moved to another location, he refilled his arms with food, and went out again, dropping off the presents on each person’s doorstep. He went house by house, leaving each one with a little more to get by on. But as he did this time, Zeth saw in the distance as a light appeared around the street corner, and the shining white armor of the Inquisitors came walking in his direction, lanterns on their belts.

He dashed off to hide in the alley between two houses, hoping the cover of dark would keep him safe as the Inquisitors passed. But as he hid, he heard the sounds of their walking pause for a moment, and they muttered between themselves for a moment.

One of them shouted out in that same artificial voice they all had, “This town is under curfew. Anyone caught out past midnight will be taken in for questioning.”

They continued walking in his direction. Maybe they’d seen a glimpse of Zeth, but hopefully they didn’t have any suspicion it was actually him.

As they came closer, he heard their voices as they made conversation.

“...think you saw?” one of them was asking.

“Some sort of movement. Likely nothing,” the other responded.

“Do you believe there is a Blood Mage here? Or multiple, as some witnesses have claimed?”

“The only evidence we have is stories others have told us. There is nothing else we have found, and even the anecdotes of the townspeople are vague. They speak of hooded figures and strange magic—any could be mistaken.”

“There is the adventurer woman from out of town. She spoke more confidently than the others, and had far more information.”

“We are investigating it. If we find nothing in this guild’s mines or offices, it may be necessary to do a scan of the area. If the number of individuals with the Wicked Skill are within normal ranges, then we will leave.”

“What of the dead mayor?”

“It could be that a political rival had him assassinated and blamed a nonexistent criminal. Or perhaps there was once a Blood Mage around, but they died. Whatever the reason, it would be pointless for the number of Inquisitors that are currently here to remain if there is no evidence that we are necessary.”

Their voices faded out as the two walked past, not noticing Zeth crouched in the darkness. He let out a breath.

Once they were long gone and he saw no more light, Zeth continued giving out the rest of his food, then moved on to the next area like usual. It seemed like the Inquisitors were eager to get out of here after spending so much effort and finding no hard evidence. He was surprised they’d actually taken up his request to search the guild offices, though perhaps that just meant they were on their last resort of just looking at every single place they could think of, and if they found nothing, they’d leave.

As far as he could tell, it was a win-win either way. Either they found no evidence and left, and Zeth was rid of one hazard, or they did

find something and arrested the whole guild, and he was rid of the other. It seemed like the Inquisitors may not have been much more than a temporary problem after all.

Zeth continued, refilling and swapping to new areas over and over as Astrys kept careful watch over him from afar. When Astrys’s container ran out, he had her go off and refill it, coming back to get him some more, until eventually, they ran out of food down in his lair, with enough left for him to get by but not so much that he’d never be able to store it all.

He ran out handfuls of this last food until eventually, he emptied it out, with his last delivery to make in hand. So he went out, placing it all on the doorsteps like usual. And eventually, he got to his final handful, walking up the street to the house on the very end, where he’d finish his little errand.

As he walked up to the house, Zeth nodded to himself. He’d had some close calls, but it seemed like he could be cautiously optimistic about not getting caught here. And once morning came and the food was taken, rumors may spread about who might’ve done it, but Zeth highly doubted the Blood Mages in charge of catching him would piece this together with the slaughter of the bandits. And even if they did, it would be much better than them finding rats burrowing in and out of the ground near his base with scraps of meat in hand, leading them straight to him.

He crept up to the door and left the package on the doorstep where he’d left all the others. But as he did it this one final time, he felt something strange about this last house. The floorboards felt…soft. Like they had some give.

Just then, he heard a loud snap, and he sank downward, stumbling as one of the wooden boards he stood on cracked in half. He hurriedly stopped back, off of the doorstep, and stayed perfectly still, hoping the person inside was in a deep enough sleep that they wouldn’t awake from the sudden noise.

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But as he stared tensely at the windows, he saw a glow fading in, coming closer and closer to the door.

Instantly, he turned and started sprinting away from the house, glancing back and forth as he searched for somewhere to hide. But it was too late, and the sound of the door flying open rang out across the silent streets.

“What the…” he heard a female voice mutter. “Is this…dried meat?”

Zeth, still running away from the house and hoping the woman would be too distracted by the food on her doorstep to notice him, looked out down the street as he moved, seeing the silhouette of Astrys appear from the treeline and begin heading right for him. She sprinted at top speed in his direction, practically cracking the cobblestones below her heels from the pressure of her steps.

Only, she wasn’t heading in Zeth’s direction. She was heading past him, right for the woman standing on her doorstep. His eyes widened as he saw her coming closer, and he frantically shook his head back and forth, holding up a hand to gesture as heavily as he could, Stop!

Thankfully, she understood what he was communicating and slowed to a stop in front of him.

Just then,a dim light shone out across the street. Zeth glanced back to see the woman holding up a candle to see out further into the dark, barely illuminating him and Astrys.

He froze, looking away and hoping against hope she’d just go out inside. But she seemed to recognize what she was looking at—especially Astrys, who was facing to stare right at the house.

A terrified “Eep!” escaped the woman’s lips as Zeth heard her stumble back in fear.

“She noticed us,” Astrys said in a low tone. “Shall I kill her?”

“No,” Zeth responded.

“But—”

“No,” he said more forcefully. “She’s innocent. Just walk away.”

He began slowly walking off into the dark neighborhood, hoping even harder now that this woman would be smart and remain in the safety of her home. Do not come after us, he was begging in his mind. And this time, it seemed like his hope came true. No footsteps chased after him.

Astrys hesitantly turned and began heading back to follow him as well, slowly leaving the light of the woman’s candle.

“Th-thank you!” the woman shouted out as Zeth left her sight.

After that, he and Astrys returned to base, moving the rest of the food into his storage and securing it well to ensure no rodents could get in.

“Alright,” he said once they were done, yawning widely, “seems like it’s getting late.”

“Do I need to do any more before sleeping?” Astrys asked.

“No, you’re fine,” he responded. “But, uh, do you wanna explain why you were trying to kill that lady back in town?”

“Hm?” She looked at Zeth, confused. “I suppose my own question would be why you didn’t want me to kill her.”

“She was innocent. She had no ill intent toward us.”

“But you said you wanted me to protect you. Her knowledge of your presence in town could lead to harm.”

“She didn’t see my face or anything, so it’s fine. Besides, even then, she wasn’t trying to hurt me. She hadn’t done anything to deserve death.”

Astrys frowned. “Hm. I did not realize humans would value the lives of other humans so much.”

“Why wouldn’t you assume that?”

“Demons…do not speak about humans as though your lives are valuable. Perhaps it was foolish of me, but I did not realize you would feel differently about yourselves.”

“Do you not feel the same way? It’s not right to kill someone without reason.”

“That is true; I do not believe in killing another demon without having a reason to. But a human…Regardless, I respect your decision to avoid killing your own. But do not expect me to cry over the corpse of a human. I do not know that I could muster so much emotion about a being that has been presented to me all my life as worthless.”

“...Uh huh. Yeah, well, as long as you treat human lives with respect, it’s fine. Just, in the future, never try to kill someone who I’m not trying to kill. Not unless I ask you to.”

“Understood.”

The conversation unsettled Zeth, but he understood where she was coming from. If he learned tomorrow that pigs actually lived rich, full lives behind closed doors and he never knew, he’d certainly avoid killing them in the future, but he hadn’t been raised to value the life of a meat animal on the same level as a human. He’d logically understand that he shouldn’t kill them, but mustering up emotion might be difficult.

Really, he constantly felt himself wondering if these normal social interactions he had with Astrys were being influenced by the way her fear aura constantly permeated his mind. He’d become excellent at controlling himself while experiencing it, but it was always there, and when there were moments like these, where he felt a bit creeped out by something she did while understanding logically that she hadn’t done anything wrong, he wondered if that was him or the fear talking. He doubted it influenced him all that much, but it had to do something

, right?

Astrys went to the corner of the main room opposite the one where Zeth slept, but he called out to stop her. “Hey, hold on.”

“Hm?” she looked back at him.

“Do you mind sleeping over here for tonight, near me?”

Astrys stared at Zeth for a moment, completely silent, before eventually answering, “Why would you like for me to do that?”

“I’ve got this Skill unlocked that I think I’m gonna purchase called Friend of the Unhallowed. It’s supposed to reduce the effect your fear aura has on me, up to the point of completely erasing it at max Rank, but the main reason I want it is that it’s a profit Skill. So, basically, I just wanna Rank it up really quickly. And I think your aura has a greater effect the closer you are, right? So if you sleep near me, I can just Rank it up overnight.”

“Ah. Right. That sounds like a useful Skill.”

“Yeah, we’ll see. The auras don’t really do much to me unless they catch me off-guard, but it’ll be nice to finally have this tingling sensation out of my head.”

“I do not believe my aura simply does not affect you, unless you have some other Skill I am not aware of.”

Zeth shrugged. “Well, regardless, I just wanna Rank up the Skill. So you can sleep wherever, just closer than the whole opposite side of the room.”

She nodded, walking over to the other corner, so instead of being diagonally opposite each other, they now shared one wall in the square room.

“Alright, cool. That was all.”

As Astrys lay down, Zeth got settled on the pile of hay he slept on, closed his eyes, and reached inward to look over his list of Skills. Seemed like Friend of the Unhallowed would be best, especially if the Inquisitors weren’t going to be as much of a problem. He certainly felt like getting some more Skill Points would be helpful, so taking a profit Skill would be perfect.

[You have purchased Blood Magus Skill: Friend of the Unhallowed.

-7 Skill Points. You have 4 Skill Points.]

The moment he purchased the Skill, Zeth got another notification.

[Friend of the Unhallowed’s Rank has increased to 1.

+1 Skill Point. You have 8 Skill Points.]

Woah.

The difference was instant and extreme. Apparently, Astrys’s fear aura was powerful enough to Rank the Skill up in mere seconds, but the simple minus ten percent that came from the Skill made an absurd difference. He realized how much of a mental weight had been on him until now.

It wasn’t like he’d been completely mentally suppressed or anything—most of Zeth’s mental faculties remained untouched—but anything and everything regarding Astrys suddenly felt far clearer. Like he’d been looking at her through a veil this whole time with a bunch of scary drawings painted onto it, and had assumed that those drawings had been true parts of her this whole time. And now that veil was lifted, and Zeth got the distinct impression that he hadn’t quite been seeing Astrys as a person as much as he should have been. He felt a little guilty for how he’d treated her when she first arrived.

But this was only the first Rank of the Skill. Surely this shock had just come from the first Rank because he hadn’t been expecting it, right? He couldn’t imagine he was still seeing her in such an incorrect way.

But the sudden drop in fear relaxed Zeth, and in the late night, that extreme sense of relaxation that hadn’t been afforded to him ever since he’d summoned her was very, very soothing. With his eyes already closed, Zeth quickly drifted off to sleep.

And as yet more System notifications entered his mind while he was unconscious, Zeth dreamed about Skill Rank-ups.

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