Lucen stared at the severed head. His blade lowered, breath steady... But his heart wasn’t.
The look in Rugar’s eyes before the end... It wasn’t hate, it was so sort of release. That was not the face an evil villain should have as he died, it wasn’t the face he was expecting to see... While Lucen was still processing what had happened, the sound of the system rang in his ears.
[Level Up]
[Passive Skill: Gun Kata (Rank Up)]
(Novice) → (Interdiate)
Lucen felt the minor increase in his stats upon leveling up. He had once again grown stronger, but he felt no satisfaction on leveling up at this point.
Lucen stood there, unmoving, deep in thought. The feeling of the power from level-up already fading, but the heaviness in his chest refused to go. He hadn’t killed Rugar to level up, to gain power, but the system did not care for such things.
He looked at the head of his fallen enemy. Rugar was indeed a b*stard of a man, but for so reason, the man Lucen saw at the end was soone Lucen couldn’t hate.
***
Seeing their leader had fallen, the other bandits lost the will to resist and simply surrendered. Once they were sure that they had killed or captured every bandit, they released the villagers trapped in cages.
Milos had watched it all, from behind the trees, frozen, useless, and terrified. He was in awe at the way Lucen fought, a child younger than him, fighting a giant of a man with a weapon that was triple Lucen’s size, yet he fought against them without backing down.
Every step Lucen took brought him closer to Velmira’s embrace, but he didn’t cower like Milos did. No, he instead pushed forward, never backing down as if Varkun himself had possessed him. In the end, it was the child who had defeated the giant.
’And all I was doing was watching from afar, and I couldn’t even breathe. How pathetic...’
Milos felt ashad by his own inadequacies, but when he saw that the fighting was over and the villagers were being released, his legs moved on their own. He was running as fast as he could towards familiar figures he had spotted in the distance.
"Mom! Dad!"
"Milos!"
The two middle-aged people who heard Milos’s voice ran towards their son and hugged him. They clung to each other, crying so hard their knees nearly gave in.
While they were having their mont, another group of people approached the family of three.
"Milos, what about my Sandy? Where is she?"
"My boy Niel, is he hiding sowhere?"
"Sandra, oh my little girl Sandra, is she okay?"
"Burt, is he alive? Please tell he’s alive. Please..."
One after another, desperate parents ca to Milos, voices trembling, eyes red and pleading. They had seen him last with their children. He was their only hope of seeing their children again.
"All of them are fine, they’re back in the village with other soldiers."
The second they heard the news, the group of parents felt so relieved that their legs gave in and they fell to the ground sobbing.
"Thank you, Milos, because of you our children are alive."
Milos forced a smile, his heart twisting. They thanked Milos, but in his mind, he was not soone who should be thanked, as he had only fled without doing anything. He was a powerless person, a cowardly person who had fled without looking back.
The one they should be thanking was the boy who looked like he stepped out of a fairy tale, defeating a giant man towering over all, saving everyone with a sword in his hand. It was at that mont that his inner voice spoke to him.
’I want to be like him.’
***
Once everything was cleaned up, Harlik stood behind Lucen, who was still looking at Rugar’s corpse.
’It’s not like this is the first ti he killed soone, then why is he acting like this?...’
Harlik thought about it for a few seconds and rembered the look on Rugar’s face as he was about to die.
’I see, so that’s what it was.’ A knowing smile appeared on Harlik’s face as he waited for Lucen.
After such a battle, the wind was blowing ever so gently, the sll of blood and smoke was all around, but the light of the sun shining down on them so warmly made the scene a little less horrific.
Lucen sighed and placed the Crimson Lord Mk. IV back in its sheath, which was made to withstand its heat and help cool it down.
"Harlik, a few n and I will guide the civilians back to the village. You stay here and a few others to interrogate the bandits, and see what information you can get. Also, pick a few n to scout the area. I have a bad feeling about this entire thing."
"As you command, little leader."
***
When Lucen’s group arrived back in the village, the first thing Lucen noticed was that Renz and the others who stayed behind were playing with the children.
It wasn’t even a few hours before they left, but those scared little children who were cowering in fear were now smiling so happily.
’I guess it was the right decision to make the energetic Renz stay behind.’ Lucen thought to himself. Seeing this scene, the heaviness in his chest had lessened, and Lucen found himself smiling ever so slightly.
When the parents saw their children playing so happily, they ran towards them while screaming their nas. The children stopped playing and saw their parents running, and they also ca running towards them.
The group of parents and children hugged each other so tightly as if they wanted to rge with one another. They laughed in joy, even as tears stread down their cheeks. It was the children who then comforted their parents, by saying such simple things like.
"Don’t cry, mommy."
This just made the parents cry even harder.
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