The Blood-Hunter

3. Freedom

"You monster... You killed them, you--", Before she could end her sentence, I appeared next to her grabbing her by her shoulder.

"But why are you smiling so relieved when looking at their corpses?"

She instantly grabbed her mouth realizing the truth and started laughing, "I see... I myself am a monster too..."

She then fell to her knees making her silk-like golden hair cover her beautiful face and sapphire blue eyes.

I then suddenly started patting her head as I looked at her, trying to comfort her, "You aren't a monster. You're just happy that all the pain will stop now and that you finally free again. If someone is a monster than it is me."

She the raised her head and looked at me.

"No... You just protected yourself."

"Yeah..."

Let's call it that... Even through I'm sure that I would've killed them anyway to satisfy my hunger.

But she doesn't need to know that.

"Since when were you here?", I asked her, deciding my next action depending on her answer.

"I just arrived after seeing you standing before the Bosses corpse."

"Hm... I see... Well, I hope you won't tell anybody."

"I-I won't! I promise!"

"I see. Thank you."

The girl suddenly turned her head away.

"Is everything okay?

"Y-Yes!"

"Well... Then how about we leave this place?", I said, offering my hand to help her.

"Yeah...", She responded as she grabbed my hand.

As I looked back, one thought traveled through my mind.

I think I will avoid killing as much as possible, it somehow leaves a bitter aftertaste.

Or maybe that's just the last bit of my humanity clinging to me.

With that I escorted the woman out of the Gate arriving back at our home country, Avalon.

"It still feels pretty weird that the Avalon guild has the same name as the country they're in...", I said as I looked at all the posters of the guild.

"Well, they gained the permission to do so after saving the city from a broken Gate."

"Whatever. I think I'll go home for now; I have to go the player facility tomorrow and register myself as Player after all... But what was it name again?"

"Yggdrasil."

"Ah! Thank you.", I responded as I stopped a cab, keeping my eyes closed to not cause a stir.

"Will we really part ways already?", She suddenly asked me as she looked at me.

"Yeah... I'm sorry. But promise me something."

"What is it?"

"Enjoy your life to its fullest and take care of yourself."

The woman suddenly started crying, "I will..."

I then went inside the cab and drove away.

Hm... I was lucky that its night, the debuff effect of the sun sure doesn't sound that fun...

After a short while I finally arrived at my home, a little house at the outer end of the city. It wasn't much, but more than enough. As I walked towards the entrance, I noticed a letter in my mailbox. I grabbed it while taking my keys out, proceeding to open the door, only to stop mid-way as I read the sender's name, Yggdrasil.