After the group left Lapis City, they made their way to the Royal Capital of the Empire.
However, before they could get to the city, they had to make a few stops. It was a three-week journey by foot, so they stopped by a small town named Hillcrest to rest up and resupply.
Alex had rented out three rooms at the local Inn for everyone to get settled in; obviously, he had his own room, and the girls all shared. Knowing they were going to be in town, Alex didn't want to rest, so he headed towards the local guild for a job.
"Hello, are there any jobs available? I'm a D-Rank Guild Member." Alex said as he showed his badge to the guy behind the desk.
He was an older man with his fair share of combat scars. If Alex had to guess, the man was either a former soldier or a former guild member himself, and despite being of old age, he looked like he could still put up a fight in any situation.
"Well, good morning to you; you're Alex Blackwood, correct? The old man asked.
"Yes, sir, I came here looking for any quick work; don't plan on being in town long." Alex responded.
"Let me see what we have available; it's been tough to get jobs recently." The old man said.
"Why?" Alex asked.
Normally, guilds would receive tons of jobs, so he had never heard of a guild that struggled to get jobs.
"Well, we've been having an issue as of late; we're a small town, and most of our top guild members are C-rank because of this. Truth be told, our guild only has 12 members. With 8 D ranks and 4 C ranks, we used to have a B-rank member, but he decided to take advantage of his strength and take charge of the town. He and some goons he recruited pretty much run the place; every week we have all of the citizens pay him; if we don't, he does something to punish us."
The old man had a nasty look on his face when he said that last sentence.
"What does he do?" Alex asked.
"Well, he does something to either hurt us or someone we love; last week we had a small shop owner just down the street miss his payment, and as a result, they took all of his wares and said next time they'd come for his daughter." The old man said the last part with disdain on his face. Alex had a feeling that this wasn't the first time they threatened someone with that.
Alex clenched his fists and asked the man "Where are they?"
"They set up shop in town hall; nobody is allowed near it, though." the old man explained.
"Listen, I'll take care of this; you won't have to worry about these bastards again." Alex said as he walked out.
"Wait! Young Man!" The old man yelled out to stop him, but it was too late.
As soon as Alex walked outside, three guys were in front of him, all with weapons drawn.
"Ah, so you're the guy who brought in all those hot chicks into town, huh? Well, I must thank you for your generous donation." The guy in the middle said.
"Yeah, those black-haired beauties looked mighty fine, but that brown-haired girl just has that innocent look on her that gets me going." Another of them said.
Yeah, I can't wait to—" the last guy was saying before he suddenly spurted up blood from his mouth.
"What the fuck?!" one of the men yelled out.
As the man who spurted out blood collapsed, the men looked at Alex. He was now holding a long sword that none of them recognized. However, that wasn't the thing that scared them. As they looked into Alex's face, it was almost as if they couldn't see his facial features except for his purple eyes staring at them, as if they were looking directly into their souls.
Soon a lightning crackle was heard around town, followed by another one.
"What the hell was that?" a man said inside the town hall.
This man was large and muscular; he had a cooked chicken leg in one hand and a whiskey bottle in the other.
The man walked outside the town hall with his six other goons, who were in there with him.
"Who the fuck are you?" The man said this while looking at Alex. It was then that he noticed three bodies by Alex's feet, all motionless.
"You killed my men? Well, I'll be damned. I guess it's time to show you what I do to people who fight back!"
After he said that, he charged at Alex, but Alex swiftly dodged him. In a pure battle of strength, Alex was at a disadvantage, so he knew he had to approach this differently. Lucky for him, he wasn't alone.
Soon a torrent of water flew by the two and hit two goons watching the fight. Then two separate lightning strikes hit the remaining goons.
The man looked around and saw Alex behind him, backed up by his mother, sister, and two maids, all staring at the man with their weapons at the ready.
"Wow, look at you, all these fine women around you; well, I promise to take care of all of them once I rip your intestines out of your stomach in front of all of them to see!" the man yelled.
The man charged Alex, but his attack once again missed, and this time he felt a cut on the back of his ankle.
The man turned around and tried to charge him again; however, he realized he couldn't move his foot.
"Why can't I run?" the man yelled out.
"Because I just cut your achilles tendon, you won't be able to use that leg for a long time." Alex explained.
Alex then walked up to the man, who quickly fell to one knee after losing all of his strength in his other leg. The man tried punching Alex, but Alex easily dodged and delivered another cut under the man's arm near his armpit. The man quickly found out he couldn't lift that arm either.
"What are you doing to me?" he yelled out.
"Im making you suffer, that's all." Alex stated.
"Wha-"
The man never had a chance to say his final words as Alex put his sword right through the man's chest, killing him instantly.
Alex turned around and said "What are all of you doing here?"
Anna answered "We heard the lightning, and since there's no storm in sight, that meant only one thing."
"So we decided to come save you." Raven said.
"First, I appreciate the assist, but secondly, I had it handled." Alex said.
"Sure you did, young master." Kaede joked.
"I could never lose to scum like that; I would've been fine!" Alex retorted.
Alex, while debating with his family, was interrupted by the man who was at the guild hall.
"Thank you, young man. We tried to fight against him before, but we lost three of our guild members, but you quickly killed him. Thank you so much!" The man said.
Soon Alex heard applause; it turns out the entire town was watching him fight the goons. Alex noticed each of the town members smiling, and some even crying tears of joy after the fight. Soon the rest of the guild members came to congratulate Alex too, as they soon put everything in the town hall the goons stole and gave it to their rightful owners. However, the owner of the restaurant in town had a different idea in mind.
A woman in her mid-40s yelled out "Feast for everyone!"
Soon, the entire town experienced its first bit of joy in months.
That night, everyone in the town came out to celebrate, along with their guests of honor, Alex and his family.
Alex, Kaede, and Eve even helped out in the kitchen to prepare ingredients for the food, despite some of the chefs protests.
As Alex was resting on a bench, watching everyone prepare for the feast, he was approached by a young girl, who had to be thirteen at most. She had long blonde hair and green eyes.
"Thank you for what you did; my father was in a lot of trouble with them, and they all would look at me creepily. You saved not just me but my father; thank you!"
Alex could only say, "You're welcome" to the girl. He didn't expect this kind of treatment despite brutally killing a man in town, even if he was a monster.
"They are treating me like a hero when Im supposed to be the villain...whatever it's fine for now. Besides, who knows what the future may hold? I actually wonder who the hero actually is, not like the goddesses ever told me. I just wish I knew what I had to do in order to become the "villain" they want me to be; besides, according to them, I wasn't even the main villain anyway. So what's my objective here?"
As Alex contemplated his recent actions and his possible future, in the crowd of the celebration, there was a figure amongst the shadows. They had a hood on so as not to reveal their face.
"Target sighted."
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