An Englishman in Castle Aincrad

Floor 20 - Chapter 2 - On a Knife's Edge

The not so small group continued to trek through the forest, few words spoken between the various subgroups, other than to inform each other of their plans. Agil's group had broken away early on into the trek, taking a somewhat less direct route, but one that was less of a trek through the dense foliage. About half way through the journey, the group had reached a fork in the path - the northern most branch took the group through a large group of Shrewmen, and it had been decided by way of Rock, Paper, Scissors that Fuurinkazen would take that path, their larger numbers working in their favour against the cunning mobs.

Meanwhile, their group had taken the southern flank. On paper, this was the fastest path to the dungeon, but in practice... the sheer density of the foliage made for awkward navigation at best, and required a number of course changes to avoid the wild masses that would slow them to a standstill. Eventually though, they had reached the last waypoint that Argo had reported to them.

''The dungeon isn't far.'' Sanya called to the group following her, refusing to turn to face them. He wasn't sure he could blame her for that one - one person staring daggers into the back of your head is unpleasant enough, but nearly ten of them... it was a sign that you were never recovering from whatever mistake or action had led you into that situation.

In one hand, Jet had taken to twirling his blade around, almost as if it were an oversized pen in his hand. He didn't doubt that almost everyone had noticed his silence on the matter... he did doubt how much they cared though.

Koharu was still stood beside him, but she was equally silent unless spoken to, and no one was willing to break the uneasy silence. Phillia and Rain stood behind them, and he was fairly sure that he was the second highest person in Rain's bad books right about now - only below Sanya, and she'd betrayed everyone! Phillia was quiet, and he couldn't really tell what the treasure hunter was thinking, other than how much he'd fucked up by doing this...

Unable to face the friends he considered his found family, he walked on ahead, no one stopping him as he did so, and began to walk next "Guess we're both persona non grata right now, huh?" He snorted. "Suppose I can take solace in knowing I did the right thing, eh?" He rolled his eyes, and he was almost certain that even he didn't believe that. It would've been so much easier just to leave Sanya to the mercy of the crowd, and carry on looking for Lind and Shivata themselves - but it wouldn't have been the right course of action in his mind. He'd often reminded himself of the mantra he'd tried to live by: Never cruel, never cowardly... and never eat pears. He'd failed on the latter statement, mind you, but he suspected that was the least important of the three tenets by far.

Leaving Sanya to face mob justice would've been both cruel and cowardly in his eyes.

Sanya replied, her voice quiet and soft in tone, almost as if she didn't want to be heard. "I am grateful, you understand. I don't doubt that my days of freedom are over, but..."

"You didn't want your days to be over, though. I get it, don't worry." He finished her statement for her.

"I made the wrong decision, I understand. But I couldn't let anyone get hurt because of me..."

"Eh, define wrong." He shrugged again.

"I-I don't understand the question?" She looked towards him with a look of confusion.

"Humans don't deal with absolutes very well. Much less morally. From a moral perspective, you sacrificed yourself for others... I'd say that was an understandable call, even the right call, perhaps."

"I find myself unable to agree with that assessment." She spat, though whether that vitriol was aimed towards him, or herself, he couldn't tell.

''Maybe.'' He answered noncommittally, before carrying on. ''But you put everyone else ahead of yourself, even though it's made you into a pariah. Not the actions of a villain, I don't think. An anti-hero, maybe, but...''