Chapter 13 The Hero's Story

Harry had been surprised when Shalltear let out a terrified "A-another one?!"when he was about to assign a punishment. She had hurriedly covered her mouth and apologized over and over, saying something along the lines of "Of course I deserve something harsher for what I've done!"

What did she mean, he had already punished her? He hadn't done anything of the sort, he would surely recall it. Asking her to look at him, he used silent legilimency to take a peek at the superficial thoughts she was having, but even then he didn't understand what had happened. What about his order for silence could be considered a punishment?

When he asked her about whatever he had supposedly assigned, she refused to comment on it, her thoughts shifting to a "maybe that was just a pre-punishment and shouldn't be considered as one?" which, again, didn't tell him anything about what had happened.

"Shalltear" he said after thinking a possible solution for his dilemma "Your punishment will be to sleep until I allow you to wake up" The vampire seemed very relieved at his statement, nodding once in acceptance.

The rooms of the Guild members were designed as a presidential suite; with a large bathroom, a bar, a piano room, a master bedroom, a guest bedroom, a kitchen for a personal chef, a dressing room,and many other really unnecessary rooms.

Harry took a surprised Shalltear to his guest bedroom, telling her to stand close to the bed. He had been about to ask her to lay down, but the vampire was already blushing, fidgeting with the buttons of her neck as if ready to rip them open. It was better if he didn't give her more ideas.

"[R.I.P]" Harry said pointing at her direction, magic surrounding the affected area for a moment before the white-light of the capsule disappeared.

It was a high-level spell that, once cast, made all the desired targets go into a state of intense drowsiness; where even intense pain would not stop the effects from taking hold. Once the victim(s) closed their eyes, they were rendered permanently catatonic until the effect of the spell wore off, though there were means of staving off its effects for a brief period of time. The only surefire way to stop [R.I.P.] was for the caster to be defeated before the target succumbs to their urge, thus making the allotted time frame incredibly short.

Using his wand to levitate the suddenly snoring vampire, he placed her gently on the bed before using legilimency again, this time going directly into her mind. There was a thin layer protecting her deeper thoughts and memories, something Harry attributed to her resistance over mind-control, but it was still easy for someone like him to bypass her natural defense.

Her thoughts seemed to be organized in different sections, because he found himself standing in a circular room with a dark marble floor that looked almost like standing water, candles emitting a cool blue light in the stone wall, and seven handle-less doors around him. It actually reminded him strongly of the Department of Mysteries.

He decided to take a peek at each one until he found the one containing memories, so he opened one door at random, closing it harshly almost immediately as he felt his face blush.

Well, that one was for fantasies. He brought a hand to massage his brows, trying to dispel the image that seemed to be carved on his corneas. He really shouldn't judge, it wasn't her fault but Peroroncino's, that perverted bird-brain had been her creator after all.

Focus, focus… he admonished himself, mentally marking that door as "checked", he moved towards the one at the right, watching the image for a moment before closing it softly. This one was filled with mist, whispers of conversations coming at random in a way similar to the murmurs of the Veil of Death. Harry recognized the voices as his own and the other Guild members, so he supposed these were the snippets she remembered from the time before the activation of the runes.

He advanced like that, moving towards the right as he passed through the doors that held dreams, incomplete ideas, nightmares, before finally reaching the one holding past events. Getting directly to the night when they had captured the Black Scripture, he skipped superficially the memories until he found one where she was seemingly surrounded, with the other guardians in the room with her.

By the time the memory ended, Harry wanted to face-palm, groaning in frustration. The weapon, the quite literally bloody weapon! So the order for silence had hurt her instead of protecting her as it was supposed to.

What could he do to fix it? He would have to explain what happened; maybe show the memory so it was easier to understand, for them to see it hadn't been anyone's fault but his own. Then again, maybe it would be worse for them to see him get hurt again in the memory? Ugh, decisions, decisions…

Getting out of Shalltear's mind, he woke her up, ignoring the disappointed face she seemed to be directing at her untouched dress, and told her to wait in his office. He had been thinking about calling for a reunion, so he could explain everything only once, but Cocytus was probably busy with the Lizardmen, Demiurge was out in a mission, and the twins were trying to control the sudden invasion of Devil's snare that was threatening to consume the whole greenhouse they had created.

Sighing, he used [Thought Projection], a type of Magic which allows its user to create a psychic copy of hisbody. This Magic can work even over great distances, allowing the user to essentially be in two places at once, but the copy was intangible like a hologram, used merely for communication and observation. After all, you could only create one copy.

In the end, Harry decided to simply tell them the punishment had already been completed, remove his order for silence, and tell them to get over it. He said so personally to Albedo, Shalltear, and Pandora, and sent the Projection for the guardians he didn't want to disturb. The hologram would wait for a very short moment (even when he said it wasn't really that urgent, they didn't seem to want to make him wait) to deliver the same message he had told the seemed to understand, and Demiurge looked quite impressed at the "punishment", actually complimenting him on it, which made Harry feel even guiltier.

Once finished he ended the spell, since it consumed MP regularly for as long as it was active, and sat down in his bedroom looking at nothing in particular. He hadn't meant to do something so harsh to Shalltear, he felt like he should compensate her somehow…

He couldn't think of anything appropriate at the moment though, so he let the matter rest as he went back to the hotel he and Shizu were resting at, wanting to distract himself with other matters. He and the automaton went out, in a self-appointed mission of exploration, walking without clear destination under the night sky.

After a while, they crossed paths with some bandits that were assaulting a simple looking cart, taking the goods that were in there. He could see an adult female restrained at the side by two goons as the others attacked a man that was already on the floor.

"Let's knock them out" he said to Shizu, bothered that his peaceful walk had been interrupted. The bandits were neutralized in a matter of seconds, so Harry focused on the injuries the married pair had. The woman was alright, but the man had broken ribs that could end up puncturing his organs, so he used one of the blue potions Nfirea had given him to heal the bleeding man. Harry knew it was against the law, but didn't really care since it was improbable they would actually kick him out of the Adventurer's ranks, being Adamantite and all.

The pair was grateful for their intervention, recognizing them as adventurers due to the plates that hang from their necks. The man tried to offer the goods he was carrying in compensation, some sort of black powder named "Lailah Powder", but Harry refused to take any, like the good hero he was trying to act as.

Exchanging farewells, he sent one of his assassins to follow them, just to make sure they arrived safely at their intended destination. After that, he asked Shizu to wake up whoever was the likely leader, since Harry wanted to make sure they got all of them before taking them to nearest city for judgment.

Using legilimency again (he seemed to be doing that a lot lately) he was surprised to discover that these were only a small part of the mercenary group that had a hand in most thievery and kidnapping of the zone, doing unspeakable things to the women that were unfortunate enough to take this path.

Thinking they may get away in the corrupt judicial system, he decided to simply kill the lot and be done with it; they didn't even deserve the effort that would take to bring them to Nazarik's prison.

He killed them in a single hit, once he had explained to Shizu the direction they would need to take to arrive at the mercenaries' main base, so she could start to analyze and watch out for traps and any guards that may be in the zone.

Cleaning the sword in the clothes of the last rapist, he returned it to its holster and nodded to Shizu, starting to run through a narrow path infested with sharp branches. They continued like that for a while before Shizu started to reduce her speed, Harry following her by mere reflex until she actually explained "There are traps in this zone, bear-traps, dug-holes and other irregularities"

Nodding in understanding, he paid close attention to the ground, sidestepping the traps without losing any speed. Soon enough, the groups of trees began to become increasingly scarce and eventually disappeared completely as they arrived at a grassland with some rocks protruding on the ground. They had reached the plains of Katche.

At the heart of a flower-shaped basin was a large hole dug into the surface. A faint light could be seen escaping the hole, giving the image that the interior probably was a gentle slope that continued down.

The two structures on either side of the entrance to the cave were roughly handmade, two wooden barricades that were little more than just a group of trunks tied with ropes. Two guards were stationed behind them, probably meant to cover them from arrows while they gave the alarm. The guards had hung some bells around their shoulders, so even if a surprise attack on them succeeded, the loud ringing would alert the bandits inside.

It fitted with the information he got from the "leader" of the small group, so he knew this was the only exit of the tunnels that conformed the mercenaries' base, known as the Death-Spreading Brigade, with 70-something people in its band. Deeming it unimportant whether they rang the alarm or not, he and Shizu ran directly towards them, killing them easily, the bells ringing as they continued to descend to the well-enlighten tunnels.

They killed without much thinking, Harry using his swords while Shizu used her extending hammer, advancing quite fast towards the lowest part of the tunnel until they encountered a single man standing in the middle of the path, positioned to attack with a single sword in hand.

The man's body was thin but not skinny, with hard muscles that were tempered by experience rather than by training. His hair was cut without much care, messy, and uneven just like the traces of beard on his brown eyes stared keenly forward, and the corner of his mouth was curled up in the beginning of a sneer. He was equipped with a chainmail, a leather pouch tied on his waist.

From the memories he had seen, Harry identified this man as Brain Unglaus, someone that was supposedly almost on pair with Gazef in terms of fighting skills.

"Shizu, go ahead. The main objective is to save those women, but don't let any mercenaries get out" he said to the pleiade as they got closer to the standing man "I'll take care of this one."

Without reducing their speed, Shizu changed from running on the ground to running on the top part of the wall, at the same time Harry threw a rock at Brain's head,forcing his enemy to dodge and give space for Shizu to pass through.

The man seemed surprised that one of his enemies had gotten away, but made sure not to show his back to Harry as he took a stance again.

"For being only two intruders, you seem to have had a lot of fun. I guess it was to be expected from adamantite adventurers" Brain greeted him with a savage grin on his face, looking absolutely confident in his fighting ability. Well, Gazef was supposedly the strongest man in the country, so Harry could understand it.

"Brain Unglaus, what is a man like you doing here?" Harry asked curiously. It would be a pity, but if the man shared the view of these mercenaries, he was going to bring him to Neuronist. The man had a natural talent he could use for research after all.

Brain just relaxed his shoulders, tightening his grip on the hilt of his katana. "That's none of your concern James." He said putting emphasis in his alias name, meaning he knew of his adventurer's persona "Forget about that, I'm ready. I can wait for you if you're not, how about it?" the warrior said with a smirk.

"Confident. Then, if I defeat you, you will answer my question yes?" Harry said calmly as he positioned his swords in front of him. Brain raised his blade, levelling its tip at him.

"Chestooo!" As he shouted, Brain brought his katana down with a forceful swing. Filled with a power that could split an armored warrior bodily in two, racing through the air like a hurricane. Harry didn't bother to block, simply sidestepping the attack.

"…huh?" Brain frowned as he stared at Harry with narrowed eyes before breaking from his stupor, tightening the grip on the katana's hilt once more.

Harry simply quirked an eyebrow at him, surprised at the small pause in the battle before it resumed, his swords blocking easily the single katana. He didn't really get why Brain felt weaker than Clementine, until he remembered the wonder of Martial arts.

"Are you not going to use martial arts?"

A warrior needed to anticipate all sorts of circumstances; he had seen adventurers learn various martial arts, and incorporate them all into their own strengths as they tried to prepare to the bizarre battle conditions they were prone to. That being the case, what about Brain?

"Hmph, I won't need martial arts for a brat like you" Brain responded as he put distance between them and lowered his stance, returning his katana to its sheath. The warrior seemed ready to do whatever he was planning to, so Harry closed the distance once again, blocking the katana that tried to cut off his neck and giving his own blow that cut cleanly through Brain's shoulder.

The warrior let out a sharp cry of pain, jumping backwards with a shocked expression, panting heavily as he let out a whisper of "...Im-impossible..." with a pale face.

"I would suggest you start using Martial Arts, otherwise you don't really stand a chance" Brain couldn't defeat him even with their use, but Harry wanted to motivate the warrior to use his full strength. The answer of his foe was to let out an enraged"You damn monster—!" as he used the unharmed arm to try to strike at Harry's ankles, swinging down with his katana as he used his body weight to further hasten the blow.

Harry simply jumped to avoid it, using his sword to lightly poke the forearm grasping the katana, which resulted in the hilt being released from Brain's hands, sliding in the ground until it hit the wall harmlessly.

Brain's line of sight did not move, staring at his weapon in shock before he began to pant with a panicked face, sweating and trembling.

"Could it be that you can't use martial arts?" Harry asked sincerely, considering that with Brain's natural talents, maybe the warrior hadn't felt the need to learn them. Brain simply gasped, but remained otherwise silent, trying to move to retrieve the katana. Harry didn't let him recover it though, stepping in front of him with his swords ready to continue the battle.

The man in front of him simply panted, looking incredulously and fearfully at him.

"...I… trained so hard…"

"…so this is where we stop then. Answer my question, why are you here?" Harry pointed his sword at the defeated enemy, putting the other one back at its holster.

The warrior let out a humorless laugh, whispering "I'm an idiot…everything, all is meaningless" his broken sentences weren't very enlightening.

"That's not an answer. If you would rather not give it just say so and I'll finish this"

Brain cried out; not a warrior's call to battle, but a child's weeping, and turned around to try to run away, but Harry yanked him backwards grasping the back of the chainmail, kicking him lightly in the stomach so the warrior rolled a couple of times on the ground, coughing once the movement stopped.

"Is the answer really that bad? If so, we have nothing to talk about" Harry said harshly as he slowly advanced closer, his sword pointed at the defenseless enemy. He wasn't going to strike him, but it may be enough to make him cooperate.

Looking like a wounded, caged animal, Brain tried to stand up but failed, so he moved backwards still sitting until his back hit the wall.

"I'll tell you! I don't understand why it's so important but I'll talk, just, just don't…"

Stopping at a reasonable distance, he listened attentively to the tale, verifying the truth of the words since Harry was meeting the warrior's wary gaze.

Not an adventurer because Brain had wanted to fight humans, training to beat Gazef one day. Not with the Nobles because they wouldn't ask for such service often enough… so he chose to become a mercenary. All this because he had wanted wipe away his earlier defeat at the hands of the Captain-warrior.

The man in front of him was neither good nor evil. If Harry had to classify him, he would give him a -50 in the Karma scale. Letting out a soft sigh, he kicked the katana towards Brain, telling him to leave this ridiculous path. He watched him run hastily towards the entrance, the back unprotected as he advanced with all the speed his legs could muster.

If Harry found him again in a similar situation, he would take it as a signal that the man really wanted to meet Neuronist. Jogging towards the end of the cave, he found Shizu with a small group of women that looked relieved, their nightmare finally over. The bodies of the other mercenaries were distributed all over the space.

Guiding the kidnapped women towards the exit, the first thing Harry saw were the first rays of sun illuminating the clear sky. Sighing, he was glad the day was finally over.

AUTHOR NOTE:

Sup?

Brain is actually strong, but he's way too focused on the "kill at one strike" strategy rather than "play with them until they die" thingy Clementine had. Neither could kill Harry, but the crazy bitch at least had a more imaginative arsenal of martial arts for this very reason haha. And yes, Harry helped a couple of drug dealers xD

School's been good, nothing I can't handle. You know, my way of writing is weird, kinda like write the idea or initiate drafts even if those won't happen quite yet. When inspiration comes, I write and just make it fit afterwards.

Dunno if this is a good thing or bad, but it means I already have half of the next Children-guardians! omake. Hope to get it ready next week.

Feel free to do whatever, I'd suggest the fav, follow, kudo, and comment sections~

See ya later!