Chapter 9: Chapter 8: The Gray Caravan

"I miss abusing my powers" Keru internally sighs and muses in his mind

"You'll manage, besides give me a break. I haven't got to have fun on my own for so long" His friend replies inside his head.

"Yeah, yeah, hold on, I've got to talk someone" Disinterestedly thinks back.

"Sure, sure, get in touch when you get here. I've got lots of fun stories to tell" His friend ends the conversation with a playful tone as always.

"Oi, you got crud in yer ear? Pay the toll or piss off"

While Keru's friend was having a fun party in the Capital. Keru himself was having a similarly eventful but more troublesome encounter traveling towards the Capital.

As Keru ponders for a moment, the group of 5 fairly well-equipped bandits in front of him were starting to lose their patience. Usually, he would have simply put them to sleep the moment they approached him. Unfortunately, due to how his power worked, since his friend was absent, he would have to answer the backlash himself. He was normally able to abuse this easily since his friend (when willing) could attach himself to Keru's shadow and sleep. However, since this was not the case, his next sleep would be extended by an extra second for each second he put someone else to sleep. Consequently, in this scenario when faced with multiple opponents of what he assessed was lower quality, Keru felt that using his bloodline would not be efficient.

"The more you wait the higher the fee gets y'know! Pay it now, and we don't have to break yer face like the last folk that came around. Left a kid cryin in a pool of his pa's own blood. Almost let'em get across the bridge o'there before we dragged him back and broke his legs and drowned him in the river. " Warns one of the more arrogant looking bandits trying to intimidate Keru.

"Uhuh..." Keru, who himself had some "passing" knowledge in the fields of cruelty and sadism could have been able to tell with some examination that the pieces of garbage in front of him were more barkers than biters. The glint in their eyes was that of garden variety greed rather than the darker emotions and/or indifference which were needed to paint such a creative and vivid picture as the bandit had just described.

Then again, Keru would have been able to tell... If he had not already calmly gotten off his horse, smoothly drawn his steel warpick, and gracefully smashed the blunt hammer-end into the jaw of the bandit who had just spoken to him.

The other four were stunned by the sudden violence leading to them giving enough time for Keru to use the spike of the warpick to puncture a hole in the heads of two of the other bandits.

The two remaining bandits shake off some of their surprise and tackle Keru to the ground.

"DAMMIT IT, FARK'EM. HE WHAMMED BARTEL AND THE OTHERS"

Said bandit Bartel was still lying on the ground motionless with numerous bloody teeth scattered around him. Funnily enough, for better or for worse, he was still alive unlike the other two whose head contents were leaking out in a puddle next to them through the new hole they had each received in their skulls.

One of the remaining two bandits is able to mount onto Keru on the ground and begins to land punches at Keru's face. Meanwhile the other in the duo begins stomping and kicking at Keru's head. All the while Keru was not defending himself, opting to instead throw back punches at the bandit on top of him. In retrospect, it would have been better if the bandits had taken their time and used their weapons. However, after the brutal deaths of their companions, the two bandits were caught up in Keru's intense emotions and all three members of this fight's eyes were filled with blind rage. Most experienced knights or soldiers would be able to tell that the goal of the two sides was to inflict pain and vent their anger at each other rather than survive.

After a few seconds of bloody melee, Keru's mask shatters revealing his bloody tanned face and black hair. Keru grabs some of the fragments of the mask and tosses it into the eyes of the bandit stomping him which makes the bandit flinch. Using this short opening, Keru bucks his hips, causing the bandit on top to fall forward onto him. With the bandit's face now only a few inches from his own, Keru smiles and proceeds to jam his thumbs into the eye sockets of the bandit.

"GRAGHHH!" The bandit screams in pain as Keru continues to grab and then rip the bandit's eyes out.

"SHIT" The other bandit yells as he realizes what happened to his companion who stumbled back off Keru in pain.

The only uninjured bandit moves to finally grab a weapon to kill their supposed victim but he's too late. Shadowy tendrils appear at his feet and grab it as he moves towards Keru causing the bandit to stumble and fall. The bandit eats dirt and as he looks up, he proceeds to see and eat a knee hitting his face. Luckily for him, he did not have to experience the pain of a broken nose for long as Keru decided to tackle and place the bandit in a rear-naked chokehold until he lost consciousness.

After the bandit had passed out, Keru stood up and retrieved his warpick. After doing so, he quickly and repeatedly bashed the head of the bandit he had just strangled. He breathes heavily wiping the blood and sweat of his face. Steadying himself, he looks at toothless and eyeless bandits who are living but incapacitated on the ground.

A few minutes pass and the two bandits are bound and placed next to the corpses of their comrades.

CRACK!!!

The sound of the shattered knees of the two still living rope-tied bandits after being hit by Keru's warpick.

"AGH!!" The bandits both let out a cry.

"What did you idiots say about drowning someone in a river?" Keru asks sarcastically.

"We didn't do it! We was just jokin, that's all" replies the eyeless bandit as he clutches his knees.

"Unes, Wah Rlly dint du nutin" adds the toothless one.

"Yup, this is a pretty funny joke too"

WHAM!!! WHAM!!! WHAM!!! WHAM!!!

Keru moves on to the pairs' elbows.

"UGH!! FARK PLEASE! JUST WANTED TO GET SOME MONEY" pleads the eyeless bandit.

"Uhuh, me too. Probably the same as everyone else you met and robbed. Money won't really do you any good now though honestly" The reply from Keru is nonchalant and disinterested, almost as if he was talking about what he had eaten for breakfast.

"...Hmm, but you know what? I like your idea" Keru remarks after stomping on the toothless bandit's face.

"Arghh, Wuh?" Comes the pained reply.

"You know, the one you talked about. In fact, I think I'll try that drowning idea you talked about right now" Keru says as he begins to drag the two bandits in the direction of the river nearby.

"Wait hold on!" Yells the eyeless bandit.

"HUUULP!" A jumbled cry for help is screamed by the toothless one.

Despite them continuously trying to resist verbally and physically, Keru pays them no heed and continues to bring his test subjects to the river to experiment with their idea on.

"It was their idea after all, they deserve to be part of it when it's first being done" Keru justifies in his head.

After getting to the riverbank, he gets ready to toss them inside. He plans to repeatedly bring them to the brink of drowning the pull them back to shore.

"Hey! What the hell are you doing!"

Suddenly, a voice calls out to him, and a fragrant sweet scent is circulating in the air. Keru looks up and on the bridge a few meters above him sees an older human woman with long gray hair in an adventurer guild employee uniform flanked by two cloaked figures wearing ornately designed silver masks.

"HULP US PLEASE"!

"Help, this asshole just attacked us out of nowhere! We're travelers trying to get to town."

Keru almost laughs at the two men's quick wit and ability to fabricate a story.

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"Huh, didn't know travelers could ask other travelers for a toll fee while threatening them with weapons" He replies to the two bandits with an amused tone.

The old woman looks at the two bandits then looks at the bloody and unmasked Keru suspiciously, waiting for him to elaborate on his answer.

Keru looks at the old lady and examines her well-kept and decorated guild uniform. He pauses for a moment to think and gather his thoughts.

"She looks pretty high-up, definitely at least a head receptionist. I should probably keep it polite and clean" Keru observes and summarizes.

"Good afternoon, Ma'am, I'm a silver ranked adventurer from Pav, I was on my way to the Capital at the request of Guildmaster Ukko. On the way here, I was stopped by a group of five people, they turned out to be bandits and tried to rob me and I retaliated in kind." Keru further adds while changing his tone to a distinctly more polite one.

The old guild employee changes her expression slightly after hearing Keru's answer though she still looks at him warily.

"...What's your name kid?" she finally asks after some silence.

"Miru Ma'am, silver ranked adventurer, I just got promoted."

"What's your business in the Capital"

"Hmm... I don't actually know if this is confidential, doesn't sound like it but I should probably try keep it a bit more tight-lipped" Keru makes the internal decision after some slight regret of not asking enough questions.

"I'm supposed to help out their guildmaster with a problem they're having"

"Which is?"

"Sorry about this Ma'am, but I don't know if I can actually tell that to you. The guild master didn't actually say if I was allowed to disclose the details of the request. I have to talk to the Capital's guild master first to confirm whether I can share information"

The old woman thinks for a few seconds.

"Alright kid, you have probably your guild tag with you right?"

"Huh, probably should have opened the conversation with my guild tag" Keru realizes that there was a more efficient way to have started their encounter.

"Yes Ma'am" Keru reveals his silver guild tag which was on a necklace tucked inside his gambeson.

"Alright then, come along, let's talk on the way. Bring along those two, if there are others, bring them too" The woman nods and signals for him to follow.

"Sure thing Ma'am, can I know your name?"

The woman looks to Keru with an amused expression.

"I'm Kamila, the guildmaster of adventurer guild in the Capital. I've been wondering about Ukko's latest silver, looks like your just as he said. "

"Yes Ma'am" Keru nods, though curious about what Ukko told the lady in front of him, it really wasn't the time.

"Close Wounds" Keru casts a healing spell at the eyeless and toothless bandits to prevent them from bleeding out.

WHAM

He then goes ahead and knocks the two bandits unconscious. Grabbing hold onto them, he begins to follow the trio while dragging along the bandits.

"Hold on, I just realized something... That smell that came when they arrived is familiar." Keru's internal conversation ponder this new information.

Keru pauses for a moment, he had originally thought that it was from the guildmaster, but the scent was surprisingly stronger from her two companions.

Looking at the duo of cloaked figures, he examines their figure. Their flesh is fully covered, similar to his own mask, their heavily decorated and inscribed masks didn't reveal any skin.

"Maybe I'm not an expert on this, but they don't look like guild employees." He quietly remarks to himself.

Thinking on this, they go and retrieve the corpses of the three other bandits. When they arrive, the guildmaster turns to him.

"Kid, would it be fine if you gave us these corpses? You can have any valuables they have on them."

"Sure thing Ma'am, no problem"

"Corpses? Why though?" Keru thinks as he rummages the pockets of the deceased.

While he's doing so, a sound is clearly heard. The sweet fragrance that Keru was focused on becomes even stronger

Ding, Ding, Ding

"Huh, I miss that sound. Won't be able to mess with the guild hall anymore... Wait." Keru finally realizes.

"Ah, looks like everyone else is here." The guildmaster remarks.

Keru turned his head and the question that was bothering him in his mind was answered. He remembered an excerpt he had read in a book while he was in the royal academy.

"Far in the frozen tundra of the north, there is a century old fledgling kingdom with only one city that stands in solitude. Its sole capital is home to numerous powerful entities that would cause many to flee in fear. Many conquerors and crusaders have tried to besiege this place, only to fall to the freezing blizzards and mindless guardians that surround it.

After nearly 50 years of this occurring, many of the nearby kingdoms have decided to tolerate or ignore its existence due to their passive but unyielding nature. It was only until the past decade that there were shockwaves in every royal court that this kingdom had begun sending out roaming caravans and emissaries to trade with their surroundings. Bringing rare jewels, metals, and magic scrolls, their arrival would always be marked by a sweet fragrance. This fragrance is the scent of a flower known as gray jasmine; it is a flower of a small blooming shrub that grows often near locations such as gravesites.

The caravans of this kingdom have become famous throughout the continent. They are seen as official traders and diplomats of their nation and are an object of fear. They are the known as the merchants of death, the hands of Asphodel, the envoys of the dead, or more simply the gray caravan. "

Keru, frozen in shock after his realization, has only one thought on his mind.

(It's the kingdom of the f*cking Dead)

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