The Path of Ruin

If, like Tharon, he could feel exactly what his blessing was, he was going to have a difficult time.

If not, everything was fine. But the alternative... It was something he didn\'t want to deal with.

"A reward... you say?"

The old man\'s words echoed in his ears. And then the next.

"Do you want to become a dog of the Empire to gain power?"

Kael waited a moment, his eyes narrowed.

What was his purpose? What did he want to get stronger for?

The answer was simple. To kill the man who killed his mother. To crush him... To make him suffer in front of everyone. And making sure that nothing could stop him while doing so.

But this man was now under the Empire. So... if he really joined the Empire, he would be part of perhaps the greatest power in the world, which also protected the man he wanted to kill.

Was that still a problem?

Actually... no, it wasn\'t.

All he had to do was achieve absolute power. After that, it didn\'t matter if he lived or died. He just needed the power to fulfill his wish.

So... the answer was obvious.

"Yes, if necessary... I will be the dog."

He saw the old man\'s lips curl even higher in response to his answer.

And then... the world suddenly blurred.

He simply blinked his eyes, nothing more. But the next second... the old man was right in front of him. Not even half a meter between them.

In a normal moment, Kael would have jumped. But he had prepared himself for everything from the very beginning... so, doing his best to remain unresponsive, he raised his head coldly upwards, towards the man\'s eyes.

He looked into the man\'s dark green eyes without compromising himself.

And he asked with the same expression.

"Can\'t I?"

The old man narrowed his eyes. A tiny glint seemed to dance in his dark green irises.

"No one said you can\'t. On the contrary..."

He put his hand on Kael\'s shoulder.

Kael waited for a pressure, for his world to blur again. But... nothing happened. The old man across from him just patted his shoulders softly, maintaining his smile.

"I\'m just... surprised, it\'s not every day I come across bearers like you."

And that was that.

The old man removed his hand from his shoulder and turned away as if nothing had happened, his previous sternness completely gone.

He looked down at Tharon\'s head on the ground before disappearing back into the soldiers. As if... something didn\'t sit well with him.

"Take care of the boy, he\'s coming with us to the capital. And also deal with the town."

The man in black, standing at the man\'s beck and call, spoke in a booming voice.

Honestly... things went a bit differently than Kael expected.

After the old man disappeared, the soldiers quickly got to work. Since the threat was gone, they first entered the town, took Tharon\'s body, and carried it out of the town. Then they gathered the survivors in the town and formed a team to help the wounded.

And this was exactly the point that surprised Kael. He had expected the soldiers to completely ignore the town. Not... to help.

But they were doing quite well, contrary to his exceptions.

It took forty minutes to collect all the wounded, dead bodies, and survivors in the town. Securing the buildings from collapsing, on the other hand, took about an hour.

Of course, Kael didn\'t just sit idle during this whole process. Despite the constant eyes watching what he was doing, he too tried to help the town a bit.

While doing this, he even discovered that Laen hadn\'t died. Despite having a whole roof fall on him and being just a normal person, he actually had survived.

Still, Kael didn\'t pay much attention to him. He wasn\'t sure what he should do with him.

The man had been training him for almost two months, teaching him to fight and about the world. And the purpose of this was to use him in the future. However... if Kael could achieve what was in his mind smoothly, this purpose of Laen\'s would completely disappear.

No matter how much what he taught Kael was useful, he wouldn\'t have anything left to himself. In short... while he tried to use Kael, instead, he would end up being used himself.

\'Although... I don\'t really need to care.\'

That\'s what Kael eventually thought.

Yes. Laen was... insignificant. This town and everyone in it were insignificant. They were just paving the way for the steps he took for the future, nothing more.

So, even though he helped them, his focus wasn\'t really on the town. Instead... after a short while, he turned back to the man in black who was following him like a vulture waiting for him to die.

"I wonder..."

The man raised his eyebrows and turned to him. Kael continued.

"What exactly is the Empire like?"

"Oh..."

The man paused for a moment. His eyes briefly drifted to the sky, and after a short pause... he simply answered.

"If you meant what you said in front of the general, it\'s exactly the kind of place you\'re looking for."

Kael\'s brow furrowed. But not seeing this reaction, the man continued quickly, as if he had already been expecting it.

"The Empire is a place where power speaks. It\'s a country that values power more than anything else. If you were a normal human, you wouldn\'t be so lucky, but you are a bearer. That\'s why you\'re so much more important than a normal soldier. So... the Empire will want to raise you, even if you do nothing. In short, it will try to make you strong."

He paused for a moment. His eyes narrowed slightly and this time, he added a serious tone to his words.

"At least, as long as it makes sure you don\'t stand against it."

\'Interesting... but understandable.\'

Raising his enemy with his own hands would be something he wouldn\'t want to do, of course. It should have been the same for the Empire.

Kael didn\'t feel the need to ask any more questions. But he also realized that the man in black still hadn\'t left his side.

Stranger still... he seemed to be willing to answer any question he asked, rather than trying to brush him off.

\'He\'s strange...\'

Still, he wasn\'t bad, apparently.

Well... from what he had seen so far, he could easily say that he was a better person than Laen.

\'At least if he has nothing to hide...\'

*******

After the business in the town was settled, the soldiers gathered the survivors in an open field.

Kael had seen almost everyone in the crowd at least once. So many faces were familiar. So he could also more or less recognize the people he couldn\'t see.

For example... the woman he had met the first day he entered the mercenary building was nowhere to be seen. But most of the children from the orphanage must be alive because he could see that they were together.

Still, he didn\'t put much effort into it. Instead he watched as the man in black, whom he was pretty sure was a subordinate rather than a soldier under the man everyone referred to as the general, made his way to the front of the crowd and coughed to clear his throat.

He really wondered what they were going to say to the townspeople.

"Greetings, Greenveil Town and its people! I am Hakon, commander in chief of General Loukan\'s private unit!"

Kael paused for a moment when he heard this. He had noticed a detail he had never paid attention to until now. And it was not the man\'s name or rank. On the contrary...

\'This town... had a name?\'

"First of all, the Empire apologizes for your unfortunate accident. We were here to apprehend a notorious criminal and prevent a much greater loss and destruction, and we have accomplished our mission!"

\'A notorious criminal, huh...\'

He knew nothing about Tharon, but would there really have been greater loss and destruction if they had not come after him?

He was... not sure.

It made more sense to think that they were trying to pull the wool over the eyes of the townspeople.

"But don\'t worry! After the fall of the Kingdom of Arcanoa, as the new owner of these lands, the Empire, will make up for all these losses. We will send someone to build new homes, and we will send aid to the families of all those who have unfortunately lost their lives!"

They sounded like angels of goodness if they actually did what they said in that speech...

But Kael was not one to fall for it.

And... the speech went on like that.

Hakon didn\'t just apologize for the state of the town. Since no one had come to the town since the fall of the kingdom, and now that they were here, he talked about some of the changes that were coming.

These were largely about trade, taxation, quality of life, and more.

But perhaps the most important thing was... the thing called \'school\'.

When Kael first heard what the man said about a \'school\', he wondered if something was wrong with his ears. But... he had heard everything correctly.

For all children over a certain age, the Empire allowed and even provided aid for their parents to pay a certain amount of money each year to send their children to a nearby large city to attend a school for their education.

This \'school\' was advertised as a place where they could learn to read and write, gain knowledge about life, and more. In short, it was a place where children could actually learn useful things about life.

It sounded too good to be true... in fact, Kael preferred not to believe it.

But why would Hakon lie about it?

"That\'s all we have to say, thank you for listening to us! And we apologize again for the loss and destruction we have caused!"

And this was the end of the speech.