It has been a few weeks since Valdel spoke with s.h.i.+n, and all this time he still couldn"t come to terms with what he learned. His feelings were artificial? His raison d"etre was nothing more than a sham?! Valdel was unsure what to feel at the moment. He was thinking about all this while he was hunting down some a.s.sa.s.sins that were able to sneak into town. The increase of a.s.sa.s.sins trying to enter New Grenton has been an ongoing problem and Valdel was the one who volunteered to deal with the situation.
He wanted to do this to distract himself from the truth that has been weighing down on him. But aside from that, he found it weird that a.s.sa.s.sins were not only trying to kill Iselv but the merchant called Harold as well. Who were the ones hiring these a.s.sa.s.sins, also why do the a.s.sa.s.sins keep on accepting this job knowing how high the mortality rate is. Surely they know by now how strong the people in New Grenton were.
While he was thinking about all this Valdel pushed the truth about heroes in the back of his mind. It was at that moment he remembered the advice s.h.i.+n gave him.
"Well, I guess doing that is better than doing nothing at all."
...
While Valdel was tracking down another a.s.sa.s.sin, Kuro, Rachel, Natasha, Zwei, and even Nika who were with him felt worried about him. Valdel who usually smiles all the time in front of children didn"t even greet them as he pa.s.sed them by. He would also usually preach about Justice to any evil-doer he sees, but now he just kills the a.s.sa.s.sins without even a dialogue.
Even Ren would banter a bit with his enemies before eliminating them. It was the same thing today as Valdel found the a.s.sa.s.sin and tried to kill him without speaking, but then the a.s.sa.s.sin showed that he had two hostages present.
When Kuro and the other girls saw this they suddenly tensed up. Based on the speed on which he moved his hands, they weren"t fast enough to stop him before he kills the hostages. They needed to think of a plan to somehow get the hostages away. The a.s.sa.s.sin seeing that his hostage play was working, decided to slowly head for the exit, but then he saw Valdel moved.
The a.s.sa.s.sin wasn"t expecting Valdel to move, but he still unconsciously tried to kill the hostages. The moment he was about to slice their necks he saw that his fingers were already rolling on the floor. The a.s.sa.s.sin tried to move away but Valdel was too fast and pierced the a.s.sa.s.sin"s heart, killing him.
Zwei and Nika were already aware that Valdel would do that, but seeing him implement it was another thing. Rachel tried to calm down the hostages, while Natasha could no longer hold it in. Natasha walked in front of Valdel and then without any warning slapped him. Natasha slapped Valdel so hard the sound of the slap echoed throughout the room.
Kuro and the others who saw Natasha slapping Valdel were stunned into silence.
"What are you doing?!" Natasha asked Valdel while glaring at him.
Valdel who was slapped by Natasha looked at her confused as to why he was slapped.
"I killed the a.s.sa.s.sin and saved the hostages..." Valdel answered still confused as to what was happening.
"Huh? Did I hear you say that you saved them? The way you handle the situation can"t be called saving! You recklessly charged in, one mistake and the lives of these people would"ve been forfeited."
"The enemy is dead and the hostages are safe isn"t that enough?" When the girls heard Valdel"s answer they felt a myriad of emotions. Only Nika and Zwei understood what was truly happening and they couldn"t do anything about it.
"What happened to you Valdel? How come you changed so much?"
"Enough of this farce, I don"t have time for this." Hearing this kind of answer coming from Valdel"s mouth made everyone present that knew him, feel weird. That was the kind of line you would expect Ren to say but not justice-loving Valdel. He was then about to leave, but Natasha blocked his path.
Seeing everyone looking at him weirdly, Valdel was having second thoughts about what he was doing.
"I"m pretty sure that"s what Ren would"ve said in this situation. But why are they still trying to stop me? Well, I"ll think about that later, for now, the next thing he would"ve done if they challenged him like this was..."
Valdel looked at Natasha with a frown, he wanted to release some bloodl.u.s.t to scare her, but Valdel just couldn"t. He was never one that could control his bloodl.u.s.t like Ren, and he could only feel like that when face to face with great evil. So instead of using bloodl.u.s.t, Valdel decided to use his mana instead.
"Zwei, provide me with your mana so that I can produce a greater impact." Valdel spoke to Zwei through their mental link.
"Master are you sure that acting like Ren will help with your current situation?"
"We"ll worry about that later, for now just please do as I say."
"Very well master..."
Valdel coupled with Zwei"s mana surged out of his body. Natasha who was near him somehow felt that Valdel"s mana was bearing down her. Valdel then glared at her, his look plus the scary amount of mana that he was emitting made Natasha feel a bit threatened.
Seeing Natasha"s forehead sweating Valdel knew that what he was doing was convincing enough. He then decided to end it in a way that he feels will be the most Ren like.
"I"m going to give you one last chance, move aside or I"ll make you move." Natasha unconsciously made way for Valdel who pa.s.sed by her. The moment she realized what she had done, Natasha gnashed her teeth and clenched her fist. Seeing Valdel leave Kuro followed after.
...
"I did it!" Valdel did a fist pump in his mind.
"Master, I don"t think this is what s.h.i.+n meant when he said if you want to be truly free how about following Ren"s example."