…
"Teacher, can I come to your office?"
"Why?"
"Why not?"
"You do realize that's one of the most secure places in the kingdom, right? And that almost no one will ever get in?"
"So what?"
"Sorry, can't do."
"Come on.."
"If you want to go inside, then get stronger quicker." Her tone turned ice cold; this time, she wasn't accepting any further opposition.
She continued on her way. Dante gritted his teeth as he looked at his hands; even he didn't know why he was so obsessed. After she disappeared, he looked at the air.
"Hey, I know you're listening; do something." He started talking alone, to himself.
"Fucking come out!"
His murmurs changed to shouts. Anyone who saw this scene would think that he had gone mad, and they were unfortunately right.
However, after that shout, he didn't make a sound.
Dante's eyes had, at some point, turned slightly purple, and his whole demeanor changed. The previously angry face and eyes full of fury were now as calm as a lake. His presence was so calm that it was almost frightening.
He started walking toward the academy's entrance; his way of walking was oddly mesmerizing to the other students. They all looked at him, finding a sort of otherworldly charm in him.
His originally swaying, attached long hairs, considered ordinary by others, now looked mesmerizing.
Yet no one dared approach him. He was considered a pariah by everyone, including the seniors.
Dante just walked and walked until he reached the heavily guarded entrance; no one looked at him when he crossed it.
…
When he left the academy, it was pretty late in the afternoon; now it was nighttime. He seemed lost but was, in fact, researching something.
More precisely, someone
He was in the slums, and there were corpses of famished adults on the side of the muddy road. They were all black, a common practice to prevent plagues from spreading.
Further down the road, there were even more corpses, but this time, there were also kid corpses...
This didn't faze him; he just walked forward without even looking. Sometimes, when he saw someone sleeping on the rocky pavement, he would put his hand on their body without waking up.
His eyes would move as if he were reading something only he could see before standing up and continuing this behavior for a long time.
As he was heading up further and further in the dark alley, he saw a small girl being silenced by a piece of cloth on her mouth. Two old men with gray hair and dirt-covered faces were holding her in place.
The girl was struggling for her life; she looked about seven-eight years old, and her face was covered in snot, tears, and dirt.
Her hair was as dark as the night, and her eyes were a slight green mixed with blue. She looked slightly malnourished.
Both men were smiling as if they had won a prize.
"Fucking little shit. Stop struggling!"
*slap!*
"Can't you be like your whore of a mother!? Since that fucker died, your family should pay his debt, no? That bitch killed herself when we gave her a contract with a noble to be his mistress. Imagine all that money we could have won!"
"You're going to pay for your parents, haha! I'm sure there are some nobles out there willing to buy you for a hefty price, hehe."
*splash*
As they were trying to capture the poor little girl, they heard a slight splashing sound from someone stepping in a water puddle.
When they looked at who it was, they saw a kid looking at them before continuing his way down the slums. Totally uncaring about what was happening.
"Hey! Go catch that kid! He's going to call the guards."
When he said that, his partner started running and chasing Dante.
He easily caught up to him and was about to grab him by the shoulder. However, just as he made contact, he saw a blur before him and a huge amount of pain.
His hand had been cleanly cut off by something.
"Arrggh!!"
The old man fell to his knees as he grabbed his hand. He then felt something touch his head, and before he could understand it, he died.
In his cranium was a dagger. It had to be known that the upper part of the skull was fragile, so it didn't take a lot of effort.
"I wasn't planning on making this scenario my problem, but it seems that this world's human intellect is lower than I thought." With that said, he easily took back his dagger with a long sigh.
When the other man saw this scene, his flight or fight instincts immediately kicked in, and he started fleeing quickly.
"Skull, his leg."
The old man heard this weird sentence before he fell to the ground; an intense pain filled his mind. When he looked at his leg, a huge gash could be seen.
"Eurgghh." His cry was a lot quieter compared to the others. His adrenaline had probably kicked in and was alleviating the pain.
"Please let me go! I didn't do anything to you! Have mercy…" He didn't even try to struggle and put his head on the ground in a bowing position.
Dante's left eye turned a bright red as the left side of his face smiled. "I'm pretty sure that sweetheart over there said the exact same thing. Yet you didn't do anything, hmm. Isn't this unfair?"
"Alright, alright, stop crying. Oof, imagine being such a grown man yet crying like a little girl. Hmm, I'm in a mood right now."
When he said that, he started pacing around with his hand on his chin. After a second or two, his smile got wider and creepier.
"Alright, I've chosen to be lenient this time. Let's play a game. You see your friend over there. I want you to gob his brain."
The man raised his head slowly; he was hesitating.
"Hmm, not fun. I guess I will just kill you then!"
"Alright, alright, I will do it; please spare me."
"Good boy!" Dante, seeing this, crouched in front of the crippled man and patted his head like a pet.
"What's your name again?"
"It's B-Blaze Te—"
"Ok, ok, don't care; come on, Glaze."
He started crawling toward the corpse, and when he arrived before it, his insides were feeling weird, as if he were about to vomit.
On the dead man's skull, there was an opening and a fracture made by the pressure of the knife. He put his extremely shaky hands toward the gap and tried to open it; he failed for a while.
Just when he thought he had finally succeeded in opening it, his head hit the dead man's head and was crushed and splattered everywhere on the ground as a rock the size of a baseball fell on his head.
"I don't have time for your mess; stop interfering."
"Come on, he made me think of Sylphie! I couldn't just let that little kid get sold to a pig."
"…"
After seemingly talking to himself, he stood up and walked toward the still weak and shocked little girl.
"Why are you here?"
She didn't respond. Seeing this, he slowly cast a fire spell before her eyes.
"Ah!" She backed off and almost fell, but was quickly caught by the hand.
"A-ah, thank you for saving me." As if finally having reached her right state of mind, she bowed her head and thanked him.
"I was looking for food... I've been hiding since my parents died. I'm hungry because I was tired of eating the burned bodies on the side of the road.
"As you can see, I got caught by these bad guys."
Dante didn't seem to listen to her at all. As he looked at the red runes before his eyes, a slight smile appeared on his face.