Chapter 429: A Darkness (1/2)

Veran looked through every trail, tree, and grove to find what the Seika asked of him. However, it was no easy feat to look around when a voice told you to kill your best friend.

'He will betray you,' the voice whispered when Veran looked at Kaza, who was climbing a tree for a vantage point. 'You need to eat him before he eats you.'

”That's a weird one,” muttered Veran in amusement. At first, he thought that the voice was his own and that he was a vile and rotten man. Then, however, a past incident proved otherwise. Something was whispering within him, and Veran called it Void.

Void would tell him to commit heinous crimes and sometimes even push him into doing them. However, something else helped him resist the voice, and he believed that thing was Kaza's presence.

”There is a carriage ahead,” Kaza reported before jumping down. ”I believe they are merchants with a broken carriage. Let's go there and help.”

”Kaza, the Seika gave us but a few hours to find some abnormality,” Veran sighed tiredly. ”A merchant can handle it themselves; we are better off without wasting our time.”

”The Seika is an eccentric man, and we can't even be sure that there is anything in the forest,” Kaza dusted himself. ”We are wasting our time anyway doing nothing. So we might as well help these poor people.”

Veran would have thought they were goody two shoes, only seeking to impress the world or themselves if anyone else said this. However, Kaza's kindness touched him before, and it wasn't like that. It was a genuine kindness, and he would die to protect it from being defiled.

Veran nodded with a smile and followed after the blond head into the woods. Finally, they found the road that the merchants took and came close to the accident site.

As they arrived, they found a few wounded people and a giant carriage with a broken wheel. The merchants seemed to have a few wounded mercenaries, and they were confused about what to do.

”Hello, we are here!” Kaza called out as he ran over toward the group. His bright smile made everyone at ease, and the merchants let down their guard.

Veran stared at the group from afar, making them nervous. Then, finally, he could hear their story, and it was something like this: ”We have chosen a different path because we were short on time, and our greed brought danger. Who would have thought?!”

Of course, they didn't say that. That was what Veran thought of these idiotic merchants. People were all the same, greedy beyond reason. And when things turn south? They run to the closest good person they can see, like Kaza.

As Kaza began helping the merchants, Veran stood afar and watched him use his ability to restore the carriage's wheels. They were short on time, but here they were.

'The Seika will be disappointed,' Veran thought, and that was expected of him. They didn't find any traces even though they had been looking for so long.

There were exceptions to rules, but the Seika wasn't one of them. He spoke of pretty ideals like abandoning titles and whatever, but he didn't even have a name other than his title.

'What a hypocrite?'

Veran asked around about his story, and it involved some pretty insane things. In the span of a few months, the Seika rose from a slave into a city's lord. His story made things seem easy as if rising from weakness is a given.

It reminded Veran of heroic tales of the past, and that's why he hated the Seika. Stories lie, and so does their lord. However, Veran could forgive him for one reason: the man can Void shut up, and it allowed Veran to sleep.

'The Seika is disgusting. Kill him. Kill him in his sleep. Kill these people. Rape those women. Kill. Kill. Kill.'

”Disgusting,” Veran sneered. Of course, Void and Kaza were the exact opposite, but Veran had to admit that he was similar to Void, not to Kaza.

Then, the smell grew stronger. It was always there, usually, but this time it was stronger than ever before. Veran frowned as he looked at the group, but it didn't come from them. Instead, it came from the forest.

Veran walked into the forest, his fist tightening around the dagger. The smell first appeared after he killed a group of bandits, but it rarely got stronger like now.