Dagger

Allen and Kate returned to the Three Heads Tavern. The former"s injuries were now all gone, as if he"s been cleansed off it.

They entered through the back door of the tavern and saw Mr. Sanchez sitting on one of the customer seats of the tavern.

The tavern owner looked at both Allen and Kate and asked, "Have you found where is the treasure?"

Kate nodded and went to the table where the map was placed; she pointed at a particular point in the woods.

Mr. Sanchez looked at where was Kate pointing and nodded.

"Should we recover the treasure?", Kate asked.

"No, it"s better that we shouldn"t.", Mr. Sanchez said.

"Then... what about the necromancer?", Kate asked.

"He"s dead.", Mr. Sanchez emotionlessly said.

Kate didn"t seem to be surprised and looked at Mr. Sanchez.

Mr. Sanchez noticed her gaze and he said, "I"m  not the one who killed him."

The girl kept quiet afterwards. Mr. Sanchez then looked at Allen, who was bowing his head down. Probably due to fear or something else?

"Hmm... I didn"t get to ask you your name yet.", Mr. Sanchez asked.

Allen raised his his head and met Mr. Sanchez"s gaze, "My name"s... Allen."

After a pause the tavern owner said, "Show me what you"ve learned." Mr. Sanchez then reverted his gaze from Allen then to Kate. 

The girl, as if knowing what the tavern owner was thinking, took out her dagger and attacked Allen.

"Huh?", Allen retreated as he dodged almost every attack of Kate, those he couldn"t dodge were blocked by his dagger.

In a few moments, Allen reached the wall of the tavern, now nowhere to go, the boy charged at the incoming Kate.

Kate suddenly sidestepped out of Allen"s way and tripped the boy with her feet which made him fall flat on the floor.

She immediately sat on top of Allen and pointed the tip of the dagger at his throat.

"That"s enough.", Mr. Sanchez concluded. "Surviving Kate"s barrage of attacks in several seconds is already a feat."

"I wasn"t even trying.", Kate helped Allen to stand back up. After which, Mr. Sanchez handed a pouch of bronze coins to the latter.

"There are 200 bronze coins inside the pouch as payment for helping.", Mr. Sanchez said.

Allen took hold of the pouch and felt estatic, he didn"t hold this much wealth before, but then frowned and thought of something.

"Hmph, what is it, it"s not enough?", Mr. Sanchez snorted.

The boy realized that Mr. Sanchez thought that he was disappointed with the amount, "No, no! I was frowning because my brother would suspect where did I get so much money in a short time."

"Oh, just tell him you got a job here in the tavern, and you won"t technically even be lying to him too.", Mr. Sanchez said.

After a pause, he said, "Alright, pack up your clothes then give them back to me."

"Okay.", Allen went upstairs to change clothes.

After the boy was now upstairs, Kate asked, "So, we"re really not going to get the treasure?"

"No.", Mr. Sanchez shook his and thought, "After all, that kid took it already."

"Hais, he better not sell anything to it... if he wants to keep his humanity."

***

Several minutes later, Allen reached the outskirts of the family house.

He was recalling what happened after the battle in the woods.

***

An hour or so ago...

After the array was accidentally turned on, it sent some sort of magic towards Allen and healed all of his injuries, even his broken bones were healed back to tip-top shape.

Afterwards, the kid sat up and looked around his surroundings, he was surprised and at the same time frightened to see that the ground around him was glowing.

He immediately stood up and tried to escape, however, there was some sort of invisible shield placed around in the middle of the array, forcing him to stay within it.

As he was trying to find other ways on how to escape, he saw an orb float up from the middle and shot out a beam of light towards his forehead.

When the beam of light entered his forehead, he felt excrutiating pain on his head, it was as if his head was being split apart. He grasped his head with the both of his hands and kneeled to the ground, however afterwards, he started to roll on the ground while gritting his teeth.

"Painful... it"s too!", Allen messily thought. Afterwards, several unknown bits of information appeared within his mind.

-bzzt-

An electrical sound could then be heard and the array finally stopped glowing and the orb in the middle was gone, along with the pain that Allen felt.

"Huff... huff... it"s finally gone.", Allen muttered. He thought that he was going to die! He already escaped the half-death state from a necromancer apprentice"s hands then he felt that he was going to die over the ground that he was standing on for several minutes.

He then remembered about the bits of information that entered his mind during the painful process.

Suddenly, he accidentally entered a half-sleep state and he felt that his consciousness was pulled somewhere else.

Everything around him was white, except for a dagger in front of him.

"This..."

***

Back at the present...

Allen was now holding the same dagger he saw in his consciousness. The bits of information that he got were dagger special skills, but there were only a three of them.

"Sell me something... come on, if the price is enough, the power is all yours.", an enticing voice in his head said.

"This again...", Allen thought. He read about this voice in his head on the books. It was none other than a devil.

He also saw read about the consequences of making a trade with a devil, such as losing your soul or becoming it"s slave, however, those evil beings would still do the end part of their deal.

In addition, these creatures could grasp right timing like when one was in despair, they would appear in that person"s thoughts. But of course, they would only make a deal with powerful beings. However, why would it appear within his thoughts? Allen speculated that the devil"s consciousness was just connected to the dagger.

-poof-

The dagger in Allen"s hands disappeared and returned back to his consciousness; the kid then felt fatigue spreading all over his body, the weapon was only summon on the outside world for almost a second and his energy was almost depleted already.

"Come on, sell me something? Anything!?"

Allen ignored the devil"s enticement, finally it stopped talking after seeing the kid can"t be persuaded... yet again.

Afterwards, the kid finally arrived at the family house.

As he was about to go up the stairs, he saw his father holding a candle with a cup looking at him.

"Where have you been?", Marco looked at Allen"s pouch. "Give me that pouch."

"But..."

"Hmph, give me!"

Allen could only give him the pouch of 200 bronze coins.

"This is a bit heavy. How much money is in this?", Marco asked.

"Two hundred bronze coins, father.", Allen answered.

Marco couldn"t help but smile when he heard the amount of money, "You"re such a good son. Well then, I"m going to my friend tonight to play."

Obviously, his definition of "play" is gamble.

"Father, can I get some bronze coins to get some food for William?", Allen asked.

"Oh?", Marco plunged his hand into the pouch. "Here, catch."

He threw the money at Allen, the latter caught the it and saw that it was only one bronze coin.

"Father, this... but..."

"Shut up, learn how to save up your money.", Marco went downstairs and exited the house.

The kid looked blankly at the 1 bronze coin on his hand. He doesn"t know what kind of emotion would he show. Happiness? Sadness? Or perhaps anger?

He just dejectedly pocketed the bronze coin and entered William"s room to check on him.

Under the moonlight, he looked at his little brother who was still holding the same book while asleep.

Allen smiled and left the room and went towards his bedroom. His room only consisted of a bed, drawer, and a window, compared to William"s bedroom, it was a grade or two below.

He placed the bronze coin on top of the drawer and lied down on his bed.

"What a horrible night.", Allen closed his eyes and started sleeping.

***

Next morning...

"Big brother, wake up! Let"s have breakfast together!", Warren shook Allen as he tried to wake him up.

"Ehh... who? What?", Allen mindlessly asked out.

"I said... let"s go eat breakfast!", Warren emphasized every words.

"I don"t want to mi"lady, Sir Nomnom commanded me to go get water first!", Allen blurted out without thinking; after which, he turned his back at Warren.

"You dare call me a lady?!", Warren angrily asked.

"Madam, don"t be angry, your voice might crack up.", Allen sleepily blurted out again without opening his eyes.

"Hmph!", Warren"s eyes, as if, suddenly was on fire, like an angry feudal lord who just judged a convict to die. The nine year old kid backed off, when he reached the walls of the bedroom, he ran straight to Allen"s bed. When he was about to hit the bed, he jumped up and aimed his elbow at his big brother"s stomach.

"Gahhh...", Allen shouted as he was shocked by the pain. However, before he could continue shouting for more than a second, Warren already used his hands to punch Allen"s face repeatedly.

Sigh... what a marvelous pair of true siblings.

...

Allen and Warren were walking downstairs to go to eat in the kitchen.

"Erm... I"m sorry for calling you a lady.", Allen said as he held his stomach and face in pain. Surprisingly, he got a blackeye!

"Hmph!", Warren snorted in anger and ignored his big brother.

Allen couldn"t help but inwardly cry, "I was too tired that time, I returned back pa.s.s midnight, and before that, I experienced being beaten half to death."

However, he obviously won"t tell what really happened to his little brother or else something bad would happen to him.

"Why do big brothers always take the burden of the younger siblings.", Allen inwardly cried again.