2 Chapter 2: Bouquet of purple hyacinths

ious look on his face. "My lord! No, you misunderstand!" Thom pleaded.

"Silence, criminal!" Eirwyn demanded.

"But... sire... That man is a demon, look at his skin!" one of the guards exclaimed.

The prince took a longer look at Vincent, squinting his eyes. Eirwyn realised Vincent was a demon, his eyes widened as he pointed his sword towards Vincent, "Your demonic tricks won't work on me!" the prince said.

Vincent sighed, and began thinking for a solution, the reasonable thing to do was to raise his fists to defend himself, but this would only serve as an invitation. "Please, hear me out, I didn't actually do anything," Vincent replied with a sigh.

"Lies!" cried Thom, "This demon killed my family!".

The prince turned to face Vincent with a wry look on his face, "You disgust me, demon!" the prince said.

"There is no need for violence!" Vincent argued.

Within a second Eirwyn charged for the man with his blade, Vincent barely dodged that hit, "Holy blade!" the prince called out, his blade began glowing a vibrant yellow, seemingly growing to thrice its size.

"PREPARE TO DIE!" he called out.

"Stop it! Let me say some-" Vincent's felt this skin begin to burn as the blade almost touched his forehead.

Shiu was watching the battle unfold, "Should I help that Vincent guy?... to be fair he did stop me from dying... but he'd be pissed if I got in the way of his pacifist act."

Shiu was left with little time to think, as she heard footsteps running up to her, turning to look, it was Thom wielding a rock he must have found on the ground, charging at her. With one swift kick to his side, he keeled over and rolled into a ball of pain.

"You should check this man's house," Shiu said, looking at the guards.

Two of the five men accompanying the prince slowly walked up to the house, they approached the old, door. First, they looked through the window, but some form of black dust was coating the inside of the glass. Opening the door the men were greeted by an awful odour and an even worse image. A corpse laid on the floor, charred, a bag laying in a pool of blood lay in the corner of the room, minutes later the two men were seen carrying two children, severely bruised and bloodied, back to the group.

"Was this you doing?!" one of the guards demanded, a second guard placed a hand on his shoulder, "If it was, they wouldn't be alive now," he said.

Shiu turned back to the battlefield, the sight shook, Vincent was missing an arm, thick blood pooled under him, his demonic regeneration wasn't fast enough, he was standing slumped over.

"You must be a weak one!" the prince taunted Vincent, who was now just trying to dodge the incoming attacks.

"What an idiot... If he doesn't start attacking soon he'll die..." Shiu though to herself. Shiu began considering intervening.

Thom grabbed Shiu's leg, and bashed it with the rock, causing her to yelp, this caught Vincent's attention, he looked up, seeing that Shiu swiftly took care of Thom, kicking him across the battlefield, however, Vincent also saw the two children, at this point Vincent fell to his knees... this is the result of his over thinking, he could have avoided this, but he was too busy looking for a perfect solution. The prince turned back to see what caused this change in his opponent, he was also shocked by what he saw.

"Did you do this!?" the prince roared at Thom, who just laughed with a sad look on his face, "It had to be done," he replied.

The prince stepped forward towards the man lying in front of the building where Shiu and Vincent were locked. "You did this to your own family!" Eirwyn roared, he raised his blade high, his sword getting even bigger and brighter, "Crusader's guillotine!" the prince cried

Shiu was seemingly satisfied, "So you managed to get away without dirtying your hands, nice one." she thought to herself thinking about Vincent.

As Eirwyn brought his blade down on the murderer, he was stopped by two bloodied arms grabbing his from behind, it was Vincent, "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!" the prince demanded, "Stop this... there doesn't have to be any more bloodshed!" Vincent cried.

"Slaughtering this murderer is righteous, he doesn't deserve to be considered human!" the prince argued.

"Killing him won't undo what he did," Vincent argued.

"We can't let filth like him live in our country!" Eirwyn argued, trying to bring the sword down.

"Killing him won't stop others from murdering, you'll just be adding to the pile of bodies!" Vincent pleaded.

The prince was too stubborn to admit it, but he saw Vincent's logic.

The glow of the blade faded, holy magic is totally dependent on faith, once you lose faith in what you fight for, be it righteous or not, the magic will disappear, in contrast, demonic magic is based around emotions.

Dropping his blade to the floor the prince pushed the Vincent aside and walked back to his men, as he was giving them orders Thom made one more attempt on his life, and before any of his guards could react, Thom was inches away from the prince, wielding his dropped sword.

Thom's arm bent by two hundred degrees in the wrong direction, his blade flew out of his hand, The guards apprehended the man and together with the wounded children they made their way back to the capital of the humans,

"Sire, what about that demon?" a guard asked.

"What demon?" Eirwyn asked, "The delirious farmer must have been imagining things."

The guard nodded and walked back to the others.

Vincent and Shiu were further down the road after the prince walked off with Thom, Vincent and Shiu ran away before they could be potentially arrested or executed. "

Can all beastmen run this fast?!" Vincent asked, through gasps and pants.

"Even dwarves can run faster than that..." Shiu replied.

"We are going to have to get you in shape!" she added.

"What do you mean!?" Vincent demanded.

"Well, I kind of owe you my life and I can't have you getting killed over being a pacifist right now..." Shiu replied with a nonchalant look on her face.

Meanwhile, in a distant town...

The man sat in this small room, his curtains blocking out most light. The rays of light illuminating pieces of dust in the air.

"So, are you taking the job?" the voice asked from the corner of the room, a man wearing a long black cloak and top hat stood pressed against the wall.

"You want me to take out a demon, a demon lord no less?" The sitting man asked, he had a goatee and brown hat, resembling a fedora, and leather armour under a dark coat.

"I don't know..." the bearded man said, his voice sounded concerned.

"Alright, that's no problem, I thought you might need the money, but I guess-" the man's speech was interrupted by the bearded man, "I'll do it," he said.

"Alright, he goes by Vincent, he's not too tough so you can probably take him out easily." the grey-skinned man grinned, before melting away into the wall, leaving behind a heavy black mist where he once stood and seeping from the wall.

With a sigh, the man opened his drawer and from it, he took out a pistol and dagger. "I wouldn't take a job as risky usually..." The man said to himself.

Standing up the man picked up his bag and his bag of saved up gold. Opening the door and stepping outside the man was surprised to see someone, it was a fellow hitman. He wore a green shirt, over which he had leather straps holding potions and pouches. Covering his mouth was a large, thick puffy scarf, coloured white. His trousers were also white, at his thigh, he had a leather belt with a dagger attached. He was an inch or two shorter than the man. His hair was snow white, fading to dark green towards his roots. "Hey, I hear you got a big job coming up!" the man said in a sarcastic tone.

"What do you want, Phyl?" the man asked, his eyes uninterested, yet focused.

"Come on, Rogue, we're pals right?" Phyl asked in an equally sarcastic tone, closing his eyes as he spoke to be dramatic.

"I'm busy... I got a job-" Rogue was interrupted by Phyl who said "I know, I'm here to tell you that you're not his only hitman, so don't get in my way.", He spoke with a serious expression, before walking away.

Once he was out of sight, Rogue made his way downstairs, passing the innkeeper, he was dressed plainly, writing names in and out of a large leather-bound book. "I'll be leaving now, here is the pay," Rogue said, handing over one gold coin and sliding it over to the man.

The innkeeper looked at the coin, "Sorry, sir. But that's only about half of..." the innkeeper stopped talking when he saw Rogue reach for his weapon.

"S-sorry, my mistake, it seems everything has been paid for." the terrified innkeeper said quickly. "Don't make that mistake again, old man," Rogue warned before leaving the inn and making his way up the cobblestone path, what he didn't realise was the fact that he was being tracked by Phyl.

"To think that I'd stoop as low as to work as a hitman... " Rogue said out loud, his frustration building up, he needed to get that money, and he needed to live long enough to deliver it... It matters not how he does any of it.

"I consider it a fair profession," Phyl replied, the fact he was following Rogue, wasn't even a surprise at this point. "Of course you would," Rogue said in return with a smirk.

"Would it kill you to be a little less stuck up?" Phyl asked, a playful grin on his face.

"I don't know about you but I don't enjoy being a murderer..." Rogue replied.

"Sure, sure. And that's why you're a paid murderer, full time." Phyl said with a chuckle.

"You know it's not like that, I need the money," Rogue said plainly.

"Oh, how could I forget, is that parasite still sucking your wallet dry?" Phyl asked, his facial expression shifted to a more angry one.

Rogue remained silent.

"You know, I could take care of her for you..." Phyl hummed.

Rogue stopped walking, turned around planting his clenched fist perfectly in the centre of Phyl's face. Phyl's face rippled slightly at the shock, Almost instantly, Rogue pulled his fist back, as he moved back, he began to stumble and eventually he fell flat to his back, using his hand to cover up the gaping wound in his lower torso, the blood pooled slowly, but it was thin, pouring out fast, soon blood started to seep from his mouth as well.

Judging by the burning sensation, the blade was poisoned. "Phyl... wh- what... did you do?!" Rogue demanded.

"Consider this a favour, you won't have to kill anybody else, now," Phyl said with a smirk as he wiped the blood running from his nose with his sleeve.

"It's not a strong poison, but it should do," Phyl said as he made his way away from the bleeding man whom he kicked into the bushes at the side of the road.

"Ph..yl..." Rogue said as he extended his hand towards the distant figure of Phyl in the distance.

Rogue's vision faded to black.

"Looks like this is it, looks like I've finally run outta' luck..." Rogue said to himself, his voice echoing in the void he found himself in.

"I'm sorry... I messed up... who will take care of you now?" Rogue said.

The image of Rogue's daughter appeared before him, his wife, passed away a few years ago, and his daughter was afflicted with a terrible plague... The treatment was expensive and was ultimately temporary.

"At first, we had enough savings to pay for the medicine... but eventually I had to run three, four jobs. It turns out you make a hell of a lot more money doing things some people fear..." Rogue thought.

Vincent and Shiu looked at the pale man laying at the side of the road.

"Are you alright?" Vincent asked, shaking Rogue's unmoving body.

"He's bleeding," Shiu commented, pointing at this had covered in dried blood.

Vincent grabbed the man by the arm and slowly pulled him out of the bush, slowly dragging him onto the road he laid the man on his back to heal the man's wounds.

Vincent used his nail to scratch a circle around the wound, covering the wound with his palm vincent began pumping large amounts of mana into it. A crimson light illuminated the area, as the grass began to wilt, turning grey with a small radius.

The wound closed, but the man was still pale and had a high fever, Vincent pulled out a small glowing vial.

"What's that?" Shiu asked.

"It's a type of plankton, it glows when moved," Vincent replied.

Cutting a small wound in the man's torso with his nail, Vincent used some sort of magic to pick up a few droplets of blood and levitate them into the vial, at first it began glowing a vibrant red, but soon it turned black.

"He was poisoned," Vincent exclaimed.

"Can't you just..." Shiu made a 'magic' hand motion "...magic it away?" she asked.

"No, I don't have the supplied," Vincent replied.

Vincent noticed rising smoke in the distance, "Look, there must be a town over there, let's carry him there." he proposed.

"Alright... go ahead," Shiu said.

"...I will..." Vincent said, he turned to the man and slowly picked him up, carrying him over his shoulder, as if he was a sack of potatoes.

Panting and taking frequent brakes Vincent eventually made it about two hundred meters before collapsing to the floor. "I'm actually starting to feel bad for you now..." Shiu said kneeling down next to the gasping Vincent.

"Fine, I'll help you out. But you owe me." Shiu said.

"Deal!" Vincent said, released.

Shiu picked both Vincent and Rogue up over he shoulders and began walking swiftly towards the village from which Rogue stayed the night before.