Chapter 2: Chapter 1: Nightmare in the alley 

A few hours had passed since the commotion in the guild hall. The sun had set and the streets were clear since the margrave had enforced a curfew due to recent band it attacks. Keru was walking on a dark street clear of passers and guards. After walking some distance, a voice broke the sound of his monotonous foot steps.

"So how did showing of as usual feel?" A playful voice asks Keru.

"Kehoda, you know it's annoying dealing with people." Keru immediately curses back at the voice in a disinterested and tired tone.

"Ohh so angry, but it looked like you had fun with your prank." The voice fires back.

"Well, I can't deny that haha" Keru smiles wryly and chuckles.

"By the way, I stuck around a bit after you left, seems like the three kids you saved a few weeks ago look up to you." Asks the voice inquisitively.

Keru remembers the kids near the receptionist desk a few hours ago. He had run into them being attacked by a dozen bandits. After saving them, he pretended to not notice one bandit trying to run away. After, making sure the kids were out of immediate danger he followed the sole remaining bandit and gambled that they would run back to their hideout which ended up paying off. Funnily enough, it could be said that he was able to finish a bounty because those kids were ambushed.

"Uhuh, weird for you to call them kids; I'm not sure, but you should be the same age as me appearance-wise, and I'm only a few years older than them."

"True but fighting-wise you could say their kids. Wouldn't hanging out with them for a bit sound like fun?"

"I'll pass on that, like I said, I get tired talking to others quickly. They'll be fine, probably. Besides, knowing you, you'd get bored after a few hours."

"Hehehe, that's probably right. Anyway, are we gonna be hunting again before we go back to your INTERSTING hobby?"

One word was clearly highlighted through intonation.

"Don't make it sound so weird asshole." Keru says in a uninterested tone.

"I mean isn't it?.. Actually I take that back, it's more sad to be honest." The voice ask mockingly, playful as ever.

"Go fall on your sword and return to your boss, once your there tell her that she's misunderstood the definition of "companion"." The energy of Keru's tone raises somewhat.

"Oh, so scary, almost as scary as the time you decided to brutally kill those defenseless bandits." The voice calls back to an event a few days ago

"This is coming from the person who wanted to torture them first because it sounded like fun." Keru brings up.

"I mean, didn't it?" The voice asks.

"..."

There was silence for a few seconds.

Keru remembered the hideout when he found it. He could immediately tell that the bandits liked to smuggle drugs and sell to slave traders. After putting everyone to sleep and some violent investigation, he found a ledger that said that their last shipment of human "goods" was already months ago which meant he was too late to save them even if he wanted to.

Because of this, Keru almost listened to his friend suggestion to "have fun" with them for a week but ultimately declined due to needing to report what happened and hand the ledger to the nearest town. Instead, he chose to slowly kill each bandit by messily impaling them on a spike.

"Anyway, let's start heading to the gate, it's finally dark out." Ignoring the previous question Keru tries to advance the conversation.

"Dark clothes and traveling at night, you really do your best to look cool haha"

"You have weird definitions of cool." Keru tries his best to be straight man for their comedy duo.

The pair continued walking for a few minutes.

"Hey why don't you two keep us company for a bit." A loud slurred voice was heard.

The pair stop, thinking the statement was addressed to them. They look around but find the main street empty.

"S-sorry, our parents told us to go straight home" A panicked voice responded.

Keru looks at a nearby alley where the softer voice came from and starts walking quietly towards the voices followed closely by his companion.

"Don't be like that, come with us we'll treat you both right." Replied a more feminine but drunk voice.

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"Uhh, p-please, we both have to get home or are parents will get mad."

The duo arrives in front of the alley to see a group of 4 rough looking adults with their backs turned accosting a pair of children. By their equipment, they were adventurers, who with their swaying and slurred speech were likely drunk.

"Aww isn't that cute, don't worry we'll help you get there after you help us have fun some fun first".

The boy and girl, a dwarf and human respectively, who both looked around 10 years old were scared and trying to slowly back away from the adventurers towards the other entrance of the alley.

"Oh, where do you think you're going? We're not done talking. It's not every day we get to meet nice kids like you" A man in chainmail, who appeared to be the voice Keru first heard, began to approach the kids along with a woman who was dressed as a wizard.

The pair of children seem frozen at the sudden closeness of the pair. Then their eyes met Keru who was at the other entrance of the alley behind the group of adventurers. The kids who couldn't speak from fear began pleading for help with their expressions. The face behind Keru's mask smiled without any sincere joy.

Suddenly, the two advancing adventurers fell over. Their two companions we're surprised at first but then began to drunkenly laugh.

"Hahaha those two must have drunk too much, don't worry we'll takeover. Guess they'll just have to watch when they wake up."

"Sucks to be them, their gonna miss a good time."

The remaining pair led by a light skinned woman with a bow on her back, first lightly kicked the fallen pair who had begun to snore. Then they advanced on the children with the man with a dagger at his side smiling.

However, after walking a few steps the two also slumped forward onto the alleyway.

"W-what happened?" ask the girl.

"I-im not sure" answers the boy.

"If you kids don't mind, could you hurry home and forget what you just saw?" A voice echos through the alley.

They hadn't noticed that the Keru had begun walking towards them the moment the first adventurers had fallen.

"Huh?" both children looked confused.

"These guys seemed to be annoying you, and me indirectly. Would it be alright if I talked to them for a bit?" The children still shocked from what had just happened couldn't speak.

"Oh by the way, here have this. Since it looks like these idiots are adventurers like me, think of it as my apology." Keru says as he reaches in his pouch.

He takes the gold coin he received as payment from bounty and offers it to the children. However, they do not get closer and eye him warily.

"Ah, you guys must be scared, well I can't really do anything about that but here. Take your time. I'll just talk to these guys in that side alley" He places the coin a small distance in front of the children then begins to drag the group of adventurers into a side alley in the middle of the main alley.

"You might want leave soon, this could get a bit loud and unpleasant. Again, please try to forget this happened if you could, thanks."

The children nod at this, pick up the coin the quickly run.

"Alright that was a bit expensive but hopefully it'll help them keep quiet for a bit, I'm about to run into some money anyway... Now then"

Keru rummages through one of the snoring adventurers' pockets and find's almost half of what he had given away. After doing, so he calls out to his companion.

"Hey come on out. Help me stuff rags in their mouths and grab their coin pouches, don't really want them screaming too loudly." His companion then appeared from behind him, looking amused.

"Wow such a terrifying smiling face, like with the bandits." His companion appeared behind him saying.

"Still don't know how you can see through my mask but that's a story for another time. For now, let's have some fun."

A soft laugh could be heard behind Keru's smiling mask.

The morning after, a group of iron ranked adventurers were found dead near the entrance of an alley with their coin purses missing and their mouths stuffed with rags. The last people who saw them said that they had left a tavern drunk and were complaining of being banned from a nearby brothel. After further investigation, they were reportedly kicked out for misbehaving and taking liberties with the brothel employees. Further review of their history revealed numerous acts of misconduct leading to fines and suspensions. The group was on their last chance before they would be banned from the guild.

Also, due to the unique circumstances regarding their death, there was an order from both the guildmaster and local margrave to keep the details confidential. When the bodies were first found, they all had dried tears on their face but had no discernible injuries; medical examination showed no internal trauma. What was notable and eerie was that their faces were also frozen, contorted in fear; cause of death was likely linked to this. The city and guild investigators wondered what nightmare the group had seen.

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