Confusion… fear… anxiety… These were the feelings of the bystanders Ryuma walked by. All of them stared with apprehension as he walked by. Some kneeling in the process. Ryuma didn't care what they did. He walked straight through the fearful crowd, closer towards the girl hanging from the tree.
Somebody rushed up to him, blocking him from continuing. "Terribly sorry sir. You shouldn't have to see such a disgusting scene. We'll have this cleaned up right away," He said, bowing multiple times.
Ryuma just put his hand up to silence him, never breaking eye contact with the lifeless, swaying corpse on the tree.
His eyes narrowed. The image itself started to bother him. The crease in his brow and scrunch of his face was increasingly getting harder to hide. Was this The Order he wanted to join?
The people around him were confused. It's as though they expected him to destroy them. A reason for which he couldn't find a good reason for, but knew that in their own head, they came up with.
To calm himself, Ryuma inhaled, and exhaled slowly. He summoned the white katana and instantly flew at the hanging girl.
The action caused people to flinch and hide behind their hands. Once they recognized that no harm came to them, they opened their eyes and saw him holding the girl in his arms, beneath the tree. The scene of a priest of The Order holding the girl so soft and carefully invoked wonder amongst the crowd. The white priest garb of the academy would from this day on, be past down the village in legend, as the priest who felt empathy for the surface dweller.
Ryuma caressed her face, before covering her eyes with his hands. He forced her eyelids closed so nobody else would have to witness the light in her eyes no longer present. Ryuma looked around. Everyone was staring at him.
He surveyed the people. "Can somebody tell me who this girl's parents are?" Ryuma asked.
"That would be us,"
There was a couple standing there. A man standing tall with his wife bundled into his chest, crying her heart out.
Ryuma nodded. "I'm sorry this has happened to you. There's nothing more I can do for her,"
The woman cried into her husband's chest. He embraced her with his own tear streaming down his face. Ryuma pulled his katana up towards his face, and put his forehead on it, closing his eyes. He was able to summon it this time. For a second there, his heart was wavering, and he almost lost his purpose.
No… he did lose his purpose and gained a new one.
Ryuma stood there meditating against his katana, until a rock unexpectedly hit him on the side of the head.
"Arghh…" He reeled back in pain, placing his hand on the spot where the most pain was. He felt the warm crimson liquid run down his face and stain his hands in blood.
He turned back and looked at the assailant. It was a small kid who had tears and snot running down his face in buckets.
"IF IT WASN'T FOR YOU DUMB PRIESTS!" He picked up another rock before being grabbed by a villager.
"Kylan! You shouldn't!" The rock was grabbed and thrown to the ground.
Instantly the village leader ran in between them and started prostrating himself. "Please. He's just a boy. Be merciful. If you must punish somebody, let it be me. I should have made sure all the children were inside," The old man begged.
The aching pain was still there, but it wasn't as bad as the initial hit. It wasn't something Ryuma would concern himself with. {That boy was probably close with the girl that died.}
Ryuma walked towards the boy, dropping his katana to the ground. He limped the whole way. Bystanders gasped at Ryuma's actions. Their faces were in horror for the fate of the young boy, yet they still, did nothing. He passed the elder without even acknowledging he was there.
The only thing between him and the boy, was the woman who grabbed the second rock out of his hand. "Please! He's my only boy!" She hugged him tight.
"Move!" Ryuma ordered.
"Please don't take him away from me!" She pleaded.
"I said move!"
The woman looked at him with tears streaming down her own face. With shaking hands, she left the embrace of her son and abandoned him to fate.
Kylan feeling the warmth of his mother having left, had just realized that he was now facing down an adult priest without any support. He fell in fear and tried to back away from him.
As he looked at the kid, his black hair made him envision himself at that same age, terrified of Aiden Conwell.
Ryuma dropped to his knees and pulled the frightened child into a bear crushing hug. "You really cared about that girl, didn't you? You have every right to be mad. Not only did the priest do something so vile and despicable, I just stood by and let it happen,"
Kylan loosened his already tense muscles and wailed. He then grabbed tightly on to Ryuma's clothes and wailed even more.
The bewildered villagers looked at each other befuddled. They were lost as to how to react to this.
"Young man. Are you truly not here to harm us?" The village leader asked.
Ryuma took a deep breath. "No! I'm not with them. And I'm not here to hurt you,"
Another rushed up with hysterics. "Please tell us. If you're a good priest, tell us why is it that the Order does nothing as their priest treat us however, they want. There must be somebody to whom you can talk!"
The villagers looked at him, hopeful for an answer. Looking around, this must mean that everyone here doesn't know.
Ryuma stood up. "I'm going to be honest with you. I no longer have any connection to the Skylands, The Order, or The Edicts. In fact…" Ryuma dumped opened the paper with his bounty on it.
The village leader looked at it and had a look of shock. "This is!"
"This is the bounty on my head. It is sitting at one-hundred thousand gold. If you turn me in right now, you can leave this life, enough to get you all up into the Skylands so you would never have to face such oppression any longer. You can lead a healthy life in warm beds, full stomachs, and protection from the corruption of The Order!"
All of them looked amongst themselves. Some thought about it. The idea that they could all upgrade their lives and would no longer have to deal with any of this. All they had to do was turn in one person. Somebody who was willing to give themselves up. Their children and their children's children would…
"DON'T BULLSHIT ME RYUMA! WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING!" Castor yelled.
"I'm giving you an option," Ryuma said. His eyes were as stoic as could be.
"And you already know the reason I turned that down. I will not give those bastards anything more than what they force from us," Castor said.
"Hold on Castor. Why should you make a selfish decision like that? I say the whole village should decide on this one," A random villager said.
"Yeah. Our children would no longer be oppressed anymore. We can be free," A woman said.
"Free for what. For our children to grow up to do the oppressing?" Castor argued.
"If we're going to live in this sick, twisted world. I'd rather my kin be up there than down here," The man said.
"EVERYONE THAT'S ENOUGH!" The village leader said.
Despite looking so weak before, he managed to quell the arguments with just a command. He turned towards Ryuma once it got quiet. "Boy! You said you were giving us an option. What is the other option?"
Ryuma was surprised at how wise the man was to have caught that. Indeed, there was another option for them to take, but realistically this one was a long shot.
"If you're not going to sell me out to the Skylands, then you're only other option is to bet on me," Ryuma said.
They all looked at each other with even more questions than answers. What could a teenage boy do that could help them?
Ryuma continued. "I'm sure it must have crossed your minds. How a boy barely into adulthood manage to accrue a bounty of one-hundred K. Well before I came down here, the White dragon known as Aeragis had caused major destruction before he left. That dragon, right now, is residing inside me. I'm the shining spirit for the White Dragon Aeragis!" Ryuma said.
More of the villagers gasped. "A shining spirit… taking on The Order!"
"That can't be… is it possible to take them down?"
"I understand that this is a big decision that you all will have to come to grips to. However, while you're deciding please be patient for a little while longer. There's something I must do before anything else,"
"Boy. If you are as true as you say you are, then we will let you accomplish your goal before we come with a decision, but what is it you mean to accomplish?" He asked.
Ryuma looked at him with the coldest eyes he ever had. "I'm going to kill Geneo Taku,"