"Thank you for saving me, Young Master!" The woman said as she tried to kneel and kowtow. She was just a merchant, and she was well aware of what such a strong young man meant in this kinda world. He was most probably from a strong sect.
Ezio prevented the woman from kneeling and waved his hand. "It is nothing."
"Are they—" said the woman timidly, and looked at the man on the ground. "—dead?"
"No, sorry I am not comfortable with the idea of killing," Ezio said as he scratched the back of his head.
"If you don't want to sully your hand, I can do it for you. I understand, Young Master." the woman said with disappointment and stood on her leg and left Ezio's embrace. "If Young Master is generous enough to lend me his dagger, I can finish these animals myself." the woman said with hatred burning in her eyes.
"You don't understand. I am not comfortable with killing in general. Not that I don't want to sully my hand." Ezio said helplessly. It was a norm for this world to kill and plunder the weak, he was long settled with that, but he wouldn't want to kill or help someone to kill.
"Young Master, forgive my bluntness but these men tried to kill you." The woman tried to reason with Ezio.
"I know, but still—"
"They r*ped me, they killed my husband, they—" Woman cut Ezio's words and cried as she fell to the ground.
"I am very sorry to hear that, but I will help you as much as I can. You can start a new life." Ezio said sadly. He never wanted to kill anyone as much as now, after all in his opinion rapists were the worst than beasts. But he couldn't. As he was pondering the captain woke up and stared daggers at Ezio.
"You don't know who you are dealing with, are you boy?" he spat with hatred. "We are His Majesty, Xiao Chen's men. If you don't let us go now, you will have a worse fate than this woman."
"What? The Prince Consort?" Ezio didn't believe what he was hearing. Why would the ruler of the country have this kinda thrash people as his underling? He knew Xiao Chen was not a good man, but doing crime openly under his name? He didn't think Xiao Chen was this stupid.
"He is telling the truth. That is another reason why you must kill them. If you let them be, they will bring more men and kill you." Woman said. "My husband and I are merchants from the Red River Kingdom and are one of the allies of the Azure Kingdom. The Prince Consort is not the person that everybody thinks he is."
'Master and the king of the country are friends from old times. The woman from the Red River Kingdom has been tried to be killed by Prince Consort's men. There must be a plot I can't read. What are you planning, Chen?'
"They killed my baby!" The woman said while weeping. "She was only a baby, yet these animals r*ped me in front of her, then killed her."
All of a sudden Ezio's blood drained from his body. He felt a fire starting to burn in his body. He wanted to cut these beasts into pieces. The conflict started to hurt his head. The hand holding the dagger relaxed and the Tenebras Lux stuck to the ground in front of the woman. Ezio held his head as he wanted to unleash his rage on the four men, but before he could do anything, his consciousness pulled to the Mysterious Room. On the pillar at the center, the scroll was shining brightly. Ezio took a closer look and saw the new addition to his race traits.
Race: Human, Elf, Demonic Beast, ?
"I am part beast? I have the genes of a demonic beast in my body?" Ezio asked in disbelief. Then his mother's voice reverberated in his mind. She called him and his father a beast whenever he mentioned either of them.
Why are you showing me this, Room? What are you trying to say? I killed my own kin before? I enjoyed killing the Demonic Beasts in the forest? I did! Yes, I f*cking did! I killed hundreds, thousands of them. I killed for fun, for profit, for anything. I killed my kind, I didn't even think if they were smart or not. Yes, I am f*cking hypocrite, is this your point?
And now? I should kill humans too? Since my hands are already dirty with the blood of my own kind? F*ck you!
Ezio was ejected from the Mysterious Room as he fell onto his knees. He didn't know what he should be doing. Thousands of years old moral codes? Humans in my previous life lived only a few thousand years but creatures in this universe lived for millions of years. Abbot's mindset comes from this education. For millions of years, they killed to prevent future troubles. That easily. And I am comparing that to thousands of years of old rules?
Hahaha! It is funny when I look at it that way. I was naive. So naive. If I killed Tian Huang earlier, if I killed his grandfather I wouldn't be forced into this shit. Now, I don't even know if they will come back to hunt me or not. They may, they may still come after me, because I left a loose end.
While Ezio was struggling in his mind, the screams of the four men reverberated in the forest. He looked at them in shock.
The woman killed them with cold blood, and cut off their manhood with the dagger she removed from the ground. "Thank you, Young Master. I wish you to stay pure for eternity, but in this world, you either kill or be killed." The woman looked at the dagger with tears in her eyes.
"What are you doing?" Ezio started to walk slowly.
"In this world where the law of the jungle rules, if you are merciful to your enemy, you are cruel to yourself. If you let your enemy go, they will come back with more, and stronger."
"Stop!" Ezio said because now the woman brought the dagger to her neck. "You can start anew. I will help you."
"Look at me." The woman said, weeping. "I am broken, beat, and scarred."
"These can be healed. Please stop." Ezio said as he started to cry.
"What do you think, Young Master? If you let them go, and they do the same thing to another woman, how would you feel?" The woman asked as he looked at his eyes. "Or maybe someone let them go at some point in time and brought me to this position?"
Questions stabbed Ezio's heart like a hot knife. What would happen if they did the same thing if I let them go? If I let people like these walk away, and they repeat the same things, wouldn't that make me responsible? Wouldn't that make me as guilty?