A blue haird young man with an unremarkable appearance gazed silently at the pile of corpses in front of him with an unreadable expression, before turning his head towards the one responsible for this massacre...
'Is this how we achieve our freedom... Runar?'
The young man's expression flashed with a glimmer of anger for a split second.
'Is this what you tell yourself to justify your actions!?'
But before the anger could grow he quickly suppressed it.
He was responsible for this too after all.
'If only I hadn't agreed to his offer… If only I hadn't freed him from that cell then maybe...'
Gritting his teeth Rei looked back at the dead guards before him.
'Then... then maybe these people would have lived.'
Doubt... although all the other prisoners around him had expressions full of hope and determination, Rei couldn't help but feel doubtful.
It was hypocritical of him to feel anger towards Runar's decisions, and that was because he had freed him himself knowing Runar was planning to kill someone, and yet even while knowing that could happen Rei decided to help Runar kill Kane and Warden.
Rei planned to kill to survive too… so what right has he to judge Runar for his actions?
Of course Rei could say that he was hoping of only killing Kane and Warden and that he had no intentions of killing the other guards... but so what?
Some guards died because of his decisions anyway, and regardless of his intentions, he still participated in this plan knowing full well that this could happen.
'Was that the right decision?'
Rei's expression distorted in a grimace as he saw the face of the corpse glaring at him as if blaming him for its demise, while the face of another corpse was silently screaming eternally and pleading for mercy when it realized that it was stabbed in the back...
Rei didn't know these guards and he didn't really care about them, but he still felt a pang of guilt clawing at his heart just by looking at their corpses.
Still before his doubt and guilt could fester he quickly grabbed it and strangled it too without hesitation.
'I can't afford to be doubtful, what's done can't be undone.'
'If I didn't help kill these guards the dragon was gonna kill all of us anyway.'
'Instead of dying with them I need to kill them to survive.'
He was a coward...he couldn't even participate in the fight, and the other prisoners didn't even pay him attention as if they forgot about his existence in the midst of the battle in the dark chamber...
Seriously, hewould have found how much being unnoticeable is helping him funny if not for the situation.
Sighing, Rei threw one last glance at the corpses before finally turning his head and following Runar and the other prisoners.
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- 15 minutes later.
It took the prisoners half the usual time to reach their destination since they were moving swiftly.
And unexpectedly they didn't go to where Kane is immediately, but instead they were in the mines to prepare for their plan.
"And this should be most of it done..."
Rei said as he finished carving a map of the prison on a stone with the soul fragment he held in his hand.
Runar held a soul fragment in his hand too, so that he can see what Rei was carving, and his eyes widened when he did see it.
"This is way too detailed! when… the hell did you manage to carve all this!?"
Rei chuckled at Runar's surprised reaction.
"What? thought I would really just mine aimlessly here for half of the past week without scheming anything?"
"I was memorizing and mapping out every nook and cranny I could see or know about in this damned prison."
Runar raised an eyebrow.
"Ah... so that's why you weren't mining much when we were working here together…I was wondering why you didn't manage to get any fragments these past few days... so that's why."
Rei nodded.
"Exactly, and although I couldn't map out all the castle like most of the upper floor I still managed to get a rough image of most of it from some guards after a little bit of... persuasion let's say."
Not being convinced at all Runar narrowed his eyes and said with a scoff.
"You bribed them didn't you?"
Rei grinned.
"Maybe..."
Runar sighed.
"Whatever, regardless, good work... anyway did you find out where Kane is?"
At Runar's question Rei turned serious and nodded as he pointed at the location on the map with his fragment.
"Yeah, after gathering information from a specific loose-tongue guard I managed to locate where he usually stays at night... It's in this room in the second floor."
After looking at the location Rei pointed at with an intense gaze as if trying to memorize it, Runar nodded then asked.
"Alright, will go immediately… are you ready for your part?"
Steeling his resolve Rei stood up and hid the soul fragment in his pocket before raising an eyebrow and asking.
"I'm ready… But what about you? my task is just checking the situation outside, while you have to lure him here… can you really do it? "
Runar smiled fearlessly and tried to answer.
"Oh, about tha–"
But Thomson interrupted them before Runar could and said with a confident tone while holding his sword.
"We definitely can... because I will be going with Runar too."
Rei raised an eyebrow.
"Oh? so both of you will be going huh… guess that's better but, still, are you guys sure you can do it? you guys are of the Mundane rank while Kane is…a Nascent right?"
Runar nodded.
"Yeah it's fine, besides your role is just as dangerous you know? once you go out you might find the dragon and die immediately."
Rei shrugged.
"True, but I don't plan to fight at least… I'm just going to check the situation outside and come back as soon as i could."
Runar turned serious and said with a tone full of determination.
"Alright, let's not waste anymore time then."
Both Rei and Thomson nodded, before Runar did a quick motivation speech to rally up the other prisoners, which Rei immediately frwoned at, but didn't say anything about it.
The speech was about defeating the corrupt guards and how with the prisoners help they would reclaim their freedom and things like that... honestly Rei couldn't be bothered to remember it because he knew it was mostly lies.
He only rememberd some words like... "We will put an end to this injustice!" or "With your help will reclaim our rightful Freedom!" and things like that.
It was inspirational, noble and full of hope and determination that the prisoners couldn't help but be motivated... some of them even shed tears... Runar's appearance with the rusty armor and sword, his nobel face and confident tone... it was as if a virtuous hero have descended to save these hopeless prisoners... it even affected Rei a bit... even if it's a little.
But obviously Rei was no fool.
He didn't believe any of the words that came out of Runar's mouth the moment he started his speech for even a second.
Rei have seen who Runar truly is after all... he saw his lies, his schemes and how truly ruthless and cold he actually is... Rei could never forget how Runar have killed that first guard so mechanically... how he have orchestrated the massacre to kill the other guards, with no remorse... as if it was just a necessary sacrifice in his eyes.
Rei honestly felt like puking at the hypocrisy but even if he felt guilt he ignored it... he pushed his guilt away because he couldn't afford to have it from now on...
'Even if everything Runar said was a lie he was right about one thing and it's that I should be ready to kill to survive.'
Rei's eyes flashed with determination as he thought of that before suddenly realizing.
'Wait... did that speech actually affect me!?'
'No way!'
He sighed.
'Let's not think about it...'
After the short speech he gave Runar and Thomson wore helmets on top of the armor they took from the dead guards.
And after saying some last words about the plan one final time the three of them started moving...
Towards where Kane is at.
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