The Gambler

A Mage

The panic is still washing over Elara, clutching onto Hiro for dear life. Hiro embraces her, but can't wrap his mind around any of this. It was almost as if the person who just did that, wasn't him. He continues to picture the fact that he just killed a man. Though, he is fighting it by seeing that he did save Elara. Hiro glances back up to see the other three men continuing to fight, though they are now quite outnumbered. It's three to six, and one archer in the back continues to fire but miss. 
"I need to go help them." Hiro says as he stands. Upon standing, the cards that are in the man's forehead, all remove themselves and end up swirling around Hiro again. Blood splattering all around. The carriage is becoming painted with streaks of blood. Hiro walks towards the men, and all of them stop.
"Where's Astrall?" One of the assailants asks.
"The man that was supposed to take the Princess?" Hiro asks, his monotone voice takes the Royal Guard by surprise.
"Recruit?" Jefald says, surprised.
"He is no longer with us, unfortunately." Hiro stops, his trench coat and long hair flapping with the wind being created by the cards.
"You-" The original man who asked the question begins.
"What is a mage like you doing with the Royal Guard of the nasty Elves?" Another man asks, sheathing his sword at his hip. The Royal Guard men do not drop their swords.
"What's it matter?" Hiro responds, the cards stop once more.
"Join me. I'll pay you much more than these rats. Human Hybrid mages are very hard to come across these days. At least the ones that aren't fighting in the New Colony." He says, opening up his arms.
"That's called Racism." Hiro says, sternly.
"What?" The man has obviously no idea what that means. Before the man can even react a card appears in front of his eyes, still dripping the blood of his comrade. He puts his hands up, and swallows. The gulp can be heard echoing through the forest.
"Leave. At once." Hiro says.
"We have orders too, you know." The man responds, never looking away from the card an inch from his eyes.
"I don't think I asked." The card pushes slowly against the bridge of the man's nose. It draws just a little tiny spec of blood and the other men begin to charge towards Hiro, but stop in their tracks when they each have a card at their throats.
"With the simplest thought, all of you will cease to exist just as your friend behind me." Hiro says, "Leave now." He adds. Simultaneously, all the men begin to back away; all but one. Once they get a far enough distance from the cards that held them captive, they begin running. The main man that offered Hiro a job, and has the card pressed against the bridge of his nose stays right where he is.
"I don't abandon missions." He says, his voice shaky while trying to remain calm.
"You would rather die?" Hiro asks.
"Yes."
"Do you have a family?"
"No."
"Friends?"
"You just killed him." Hiro stops and thinks.
"Let's just go, Kid. You did great." Jefald says, patting his right hand on Hiro's right shoulder as he walks by. Taj and Yie follow and walk into the carriage. Jefald helps the princess in and they shut the door. Hiro glances towards the front of the carriage to see the man who was once guiding the horses is laying in a pool of his own blood.
"You killed him?" Hiro motions towards the man.
"No. My archer did."
"Are you the leader?"
"Yes."
"Then take responsibility for the actions of the men you command."
"I killed him." The man is sweating, and has a tear slowly sliding down the left side of his face.
"They want you to leave."
"You don't?"
"I don't believe you deserve to leave. Being as you did this, I am sure you've done much worse and many more times."
"I have."
"Are you trying to die?"
"Yes."
"Too bad." Hiro says as he spins away from the man. The card removes itself from the man's face, and all the cards go into Hiro's trench coat right pocket.
"Why?" The man asks as he collapses to the floor. Hiro stops and turns to him, "Sometimes living to make up for those you harmed, is a much worse sentence than death." Hiro walks back to the carriage and closes the eyes of the man laying in a pool of his own blood. When he looks at the man, he keeps seeing his mother lying on the floor.
"I'm sorry." He says as he gets into the carriage.
"Someone needs to drive." Jefald says.
"Got it, Captain." Yie says as he gets out quickly and the horses begin to move. As they move forward through the forest, Hiro sees the man on his knees, crying.

"You're a mage." Jefald says, not looking at Hiro.
"Yes." Hiro responds, of course he didn't know either.
"I knew you had magic, I didn't know it was something like that." Elara says.
"You knew he was a mage?" Jefald asks, glancing at Elara.
"Yes, but I thought he just had a little magic in him, that's all I sensed."
"Are you of Royal Blood?" Jefald asks, now looking at Hiro.
"He's from the New Colony. There are no Magic Lineage there." Elara responds.
"You're not an Elf, Dwarf, or Merfolk. So, you must be a hybrid as Pure Human's can't use magic."
"Tell me about your parents." Jefald adds.
"I never knew my father." Hiro begins, "My mother was a human, and a kind human. She always cared and loved for me. I was a busy kid. Always had some project or thing going on. I was always out of the house, but always came home to food ready and a warm bed. When I was 16, I made a design that ended up being purchased by a powerful company. To which, made me rich. I had over 800million Yen. I moved out, bought my own place, and never even spoke to my mother. At 18, I was introduced to the world of gambling. I started strong. I was up over 300 million in just a few months. Then, it started the spiral. I became addicted to the high of winning, addicted to the feeling it gave me. I started by losing all my profits. Was down over 300million. Then 500, then 800, then over 1 billion yen. To the point where I was borrowing money from everyone, even my closest friends. I lost it all. Lost my house, my cars, and lots of other personal belongings. I called my mother, and she let me come back home. She still loved and cared for me, even though I was no longer the person I once was. She loved me until the day she was killed, then her true feelings showed." Hiro feels a tear falling down his cheek, and quickly wipes it off. The image of his mother on the ground continues to run through his mind.
"I don't know a lot of what you just said, as we Elves are not as advanced in technological things as the New Colony Humans, but I understand it I think. You became addicted to Gambling after being rich, and lost everything. Just for your mother to still help even though you abandoned her. Then she was killed because of you." Jefald says, "Sounds like you're not a good person." He adds before looking back out the window.
"Yeah. I'm not." Hiro looks out the opposite window. Elara has tears streaming down her face, but just wipes them off and looks out the same window as Jefald.