Alley fight: Galana

Galana really didn't know what to do. She hated nobles to the bone and wanted them all to die. She had suffered from them for long enough. At the same time though, she still had a hard time seeing that guy as one of them. He was just an idiot with a big name.

Killing him could very well save her but she felt that not only was it unlike her but her parents would shrivel their roots in disappointment. It felt more like something a despicable noble would do than what the proud daughter of a death-seeker would do.

She couldn't make the choice and had no time to think it through. She said they were threatening him to leave all the doors open. If he died than fine, she would be saved from the other one as well, if he lived than she would still be in trouble but wouldn't have to live with the guilt.

"Why are they threatening me, what do they want?"

Damn it, why was he suddenly clever enough to ask that?

"They want to kill you, can you not guess even that with all those blades out?"

"Why do they want to kill me though?"

That annoying idiot! Because of your money of course! What else? Sure, it was mostly because of her, but, she didn't ask them to do it, they were just a bunch of moronic thugs. Just go and die already! Or not, maybe.

"Is it really the time for that! Do something!"

The young master chose to fight them, slid his hand in his bag and retrieved the new spear from it. As expected, the thugs in front cheered when they understood it was a magic bag.

"It's a magic bag!"

"We found ourselves a true treasure!"

"Wonder what else might be inside."

Galana knew the answer, so much gold you could drown in it.

"You should probably stand back then."

"Huh? Oh, right, of course."

She was not paying attention at all, she had even forgotten what they were about to do because of how febrile she was right now. What would follow could possibly change her future forever.

She moved behind him like he asked and the fight started almost instantly. As his spear hit the first man in the chest, she thought that it would probably be very easy to drive the dagger in his back now since he didn't expect it at all.

If he died now, no one would know aside from those thugs and even then, only a couple of other people knew who he actually was. She felt like her chances of escaping the consequences of this crime were high. Even if she got caught, it would probably not be worse than what would happen to her when she would fail to pay back that stupid debt.

She was literally a step away from freedom. All she had to do was move a little bit forward, get the knife out and drive it in his back. So easy.

As she was thinking that, Emp blocked a sword hit with his spear. Now was the perfect time! She reached for the dagger and slid it out of its scabbard but then, out of nowhere, Emp got one of the two magic swords in his hand and sliced the belly of the man open. A foul mess burst out of it but the poor man didn't have the chance to worry about it since the blade plunged into his chest.

What just happened? Thought Galana. Everything had frozen, no one dared move. From where she was, she could see the tip of the blade sprouting out of the man's back. Was he dead?

Emp put his other hand on the shoulder of the guy and looked straight into his eyes as he pulled his sword back out. A stream of blood and fleshy bits got removed from his chest and Galana even saw a bone poke out of the wound.

Her entire body shook as the sight sent all her emotions into a swirling mess. She had never seen something as disgusting as this.

"What is... what the fuck am I doing?"

Emp had just killed a guy and he didn't even flinch.

The other dirty men were starting to panic as well.

"He's got a magic sword too!"

"The fuck do we do?"

"We just be careful, can't let him go free with Joe's death."

"He's only one of them too."

Galana was still trembling as she saw Emp get the shield out and run straight at them. It only took him two steps before he rammed into one of them. They were surprised he got there so quick and just mindlessly beat on his shield to force him back.

Instead of backing away, he pushed one with the shield and with a slash of his sword sent the knife of another spinning. Before he could understand what was going on, his throat was sliced open and he had died.

The other three lost all the remaining will to fight they had and ran. They had no hope of being able to avenge their two dead friends anymore. The small guy in front of them was too dangerous, at least they could still live if they ran.

He did not stop them and she watched petrified as the young master Muracier looked once more at the two dead men. Then, he turned towards her. Of course he would win easily, what was she thinking. It didn't even cross her mind that he was a Muracier. He was born to lead entire armies into killing things for the emperor. Why would five random thugs ever be able to kill him?

"Galana, are you alright? Did you get hurt somehow?"

He had utterly crushed her and he didn't even notice. He was more like a death-seeker than a noble. Dumb, full of dirt and as strong as a monster. He was as violent as one too, the whole alley was so messy. That poor guy's chest had almost been entirely turned inside out and it was all her fault. She couldn't get her eyes away from it.

"Galana?"

What was it he asked again? Ho right.

"Yes. Yes, I'm fine."

"Are you sure? Just tell me if you are not, I will ask the mage to patch you up as well when we get there."

That small idiot, once again worried about her. As if any of those thugs could have possibly went past him to harm her. He had no idea, he was worrying for her even if it was all because of her.

"I am glad you thought of getting that dagger out but you do not need it anymore, you should just put it away."

Her eyes left the corpse to look at her own hands. The dagger was still in her grip, just to remind her of what she had almost done. She had wanted to commit a murder and she was so close to doing it too. If that guy had not died when he did, maybe it would all be different now.

She still did not know what to think, was this a happy thing or not? In the end, she wasn't a murderer, death was too scary. So many times more scary than she had thought. She couldn't do it. She did not wish to look at that weapon again, she felt too much shame when she did. Was it shameful because she couldn't do it or shameful because she had thought of doing it? She sheathed it back with trembling hands, it took her three tries.

If only he had not given her that weapon she would be just fine right now and none of this would have happened. Yes, it was all his fault! It was because of this idiot who did not understand anything at all.

That was why she hated idiocy almost as much as she hated nobility. Not only did it bring trouble to everyone, that thing was like a contagious plague. Now, she hated herself too for being so stupid she though for even a split second she could ever get away with the murder of the son of the great general himself. He was probably the fourth most important person in the whole empire and she had been there wondering if she should try her luck with stabbing him in the back, with a dagger he had bought for her himself, from her friend who happened to be almost in his family, no less.

This was without a single shadow of a doubt the most retarded thing that ever crossed her mind. She looked upward at the sky, barely visible between the roofs of the buildings bordering the alley, unable to look at the corpses any longer. This was such a huge failure she wished she could somehow disappear right now and go hide in her bed.

Sure go ahead, back-stab the son of the great general, turn your back on not only the empire as a whole but also all the friends you have left. Brilliant! The roots of not only her parents but every single one of her ancestors would have shriveled so much that all their trees would have fell.

And this was all assuming she could even achieve to finish him. He just drove back five guys alone, killing two in the process. Sure, try to kill him. Anyone saying they wished to attempt to defeat a Muracier alone would be laughed at, there was no way it would ever happen. For the love of all gods, he had managed to kill a woodland horror by himself!

She could have cried right now if not for the fact that she was much more angry than anything else.

Galana felt so bad she believed she would throw up, partly because of what she did but also, the first corpse was too much. She would have nightmare plaguing her for weeks because of it.

Not knowing Emp wasn't a reason to wish for him to die. Him being a noble wasn't one either, because, for one, he didn't feel like a noble but, mostly, because Palonia liked him. She should have understood that earlier. Palonia disliked nobles as well but had a good opinion of the Muraciers.

She was so focused in her attempt to unmask him that she had not considered the possibility that maybe he wore no mask at all. Everyone agreed the Muraciers were the kind of people who worked hard and trained all day with the only goal of protecting the empire. Dishonesty, politics and elegance had no use in a fight, she had just witnessed it for herself. They were not like the rest, if they had been as two faced as the other nobles, they would have sat on the imperial throne long before her birth.

She had wanted to betray the one noble who would never even think of betraying anyone. Feeling almost as dejected as when her life turned into a nightmare, she looked downward again and her eyes met the gaze of Emp. He was standing right in front of her. Had he understood what had crossed her mind yet, what she had almost done? Her grandmother gave her an enormous opportunity on a silver platter and she not only trampled on it but smashed it on the head of a wolf as well.

"Are you back on our side?"

That choice of words, he definitely knew. Was he giving her one last chance to redeem herself. Was he trying to ask her if she was back on his own team or if she still wanted to kill him? It took all her remaining will to nod once, she would never think of doing such a stupid thing again.

"What do we do with those two?" He asked, immediately leaving the rest to the past.

Galana tried to regain enough control over herself to answer but the whole sentence came out as a broken mess.

"I don't, know... I've never seen... I, I've never... a dead person before. I've never seen... someone die."

And she never wanted to see such a thing again. It was too gruesome for her. She could watch a beast getting chopped into small pieces no problem but seeing the life of another human being leave him was too much. The thought of what it would feel like to have her chest pierced by that scary blade, she could almost feel it as if it was real, the agonizing pain punishing her mind over and over.

"Should we just leave them here?" Asked the noble.

Focus on something else, that was all she had to do. How about trying to remember all the lines of her favorite book one by one, that would work. While she tried to remember the first line of the book, she answered him in a mechanical way.

"Maybe... anyway if the other three are stupid enough to go find the guards they'll be in for the surprise of their lives when they... Wait, what happened to your arm!"

What she was about to tell him completely vanished from her mind with the half remembered sentence when she saw a huge cut on his arm. The cut ran along his whole arm and was dripping blood everywhere like a roof after the rain.

If he died from blood loss now, it would be because of her and she would be a dead girl. That and she would feel guilty for the rest of her life.

"The guy there cut me with his knife when I took out the sword."

"But it's bleeding so much! Why Didn't you say anything! We should hurry to the mage's place, quick!"

He wasn't that far anymore, he would fix his arm and all would be like nothing ever happened. Then, she would be able to start it all over, she would not waste the second chance he gave her! No more calling him an idiot, no more screaming and no more secret insults. She would just do her best for the remainder of the day, get her pay and not screw up again. She could focus on that, yes, lets focus on fixing his arm to forget the corpse.

"Why are you so concerned with my arm? It's not that bad."

What was that? A revenge for what she had screamed at him earlier? Was this really the time and place to do this? There was a shiver inducing puddle of blood building up at his feet and that idiot was trying to get revenge for a perfectly understandable suspicion!

"Idiot! Just move."

Damn it, she had already fucked it up again! She ran out of the alley so he wouldn't see her face as she screamed mentally at herself.