Chapter 29 First impressions
POV change to a guard of a carriage transporting nobility
It was supposed to be an easy job. We were supporting a high lady of nobility in a carriage along with some merchants and their goods. No one was meant to know about the high lady traveling so she was transported with the merchants and with the weaker lesser-known guards that I am sadly apart of.
But the easy job was anything but when the adventurers hired by the merchants attacked us when we were on the road going through the green leaf forest a day and a half away from green leaf city (Amazing names I come up with) when the adventurers attacked us without warning as a bandit group came out from the forest.
Gerald the only regular guard to Lady Sophie and the strongest among us were targeted first. He was stabbed in the back, would have been the base of his skull if not for his inhuman reflexes. With our strongest down, surrounded and outnumbered 3 to 1 I was prepared to die, but I would be damned if I wasn't going to go down fighting. What I was not prepared for was for every one of the bandits and adventures to start yelling in anger only to run in the direction of an emerging figure coming out from the forest.
Once the figure emerged from the tree I could see it was a skinny albino boy around the age of 14. He had porcelain skin and snow-white hair with crimson eyes. He wore a long black trench coat down to his knees. On his left shoulder was a white horizontal pole with a black and purple bird perched on it. But what caught my attention the most was the way he moved, it was with contained finesse and power like he did not wish to stand out and yet had years of training.
The group of bandits and 'adventures' run-up to the boy yelling obscene things at him at the top of their lungs for some unknown reason. I rush over to help the boy but it looks like he will not need it. The bird on his shoulder disappears from its perch as the boy punches his fist through the leading thug's chest. The next one gets ripped in half by the boy's bare hand. Not to waste an opportunity I and the remaining guards attacked the thugs from behind.
With our superior gear, teamwork, skill and without the element of surprise the thugs went down quickly, but when the thugs began to lose their intense interest in the boy they started to put up more of a fight. Now that the thugs have broken out of the weird trance they were under they started to push us back again, one thug roared as his skin toke on a metal shine as he attacked the boy.
I didn't get to see the rest as I had an opponent of my own. I traded blows of an adventure that was meant to be working with us, his name was Toby, we shared drinks at the last tavern. But here he was trying his hardest to kill me [What a despicable thing greed is.]
Our fight went on as we traded blows. People died around us but I did not have the leverage to find out what was happening around me as I fought for my life. I fought for what felt like hours although it was probably only a couple of minutes at most. I tried my best but Toby was skilled and I found myself on the floor without a weapon, my vision tunnels into Toby's face as I think about what I have done with my life or more specifically what I haven't done.
Toby's blade is about to penetrate my neck and end my life. [I don't want to die! I want to live! I still haven't told Amy how I feel about her! I…] Just as the blade touched my neck, the boy appeared in front of me, grabbed Toby's sword hand, stopping his blade in its tracks as he used a fine needle looking blade to slit his throat and pierce Toby's eye in one swift motion.
"Well, that's the last of them, You ok mate?" The boy says in a carefree voice as he helps me up.
"Yes thank you for saving us, and for saving me." I bow my head in respect to the boy as the birds land on its perch on the boys left shoulder. Before we could continue our conversation I hear a cry from one of the young Lady who we were transporting. My head whipped around to the direction of the carriage looking for danger, But I only see the two noblewomen who were in the carriage. The younger one of 13 was the one to cry out in alarm at the scene while her older sibling of 15 looked a little pale.
"So you got any food? I have been dying for something that actually has a flavor for ages now." The boy does not seem to notice or care about the noble girls in front of us.
"Wha…?"
"Thank you for helping us, young man, of course, we can give you some food. My name is Selena eldest daughter of the Heartstone family, may I ask for your name?" Selena the older sister introduced herself as she held out her hand for the boy to kiss, her face still pale.
The boy looked at her hand confused for a second before taking it in his own and shaking it. What is he doing?! Does he not know simple etiquette for meeting a noble lady? Normally it would be my job to teach him forcefully no matter how much I hated acting arrogant, but the boy did just save all of our lives, slaughter a group of thugs and save my life so I decided not to do anything.
Selena's face became even more pale as the boy's bloody hand took her own and shook it, I look at the remaining guards but they seem to have the same sediment that I do. "Nice to meet yeh Selena, my name is Jacob, now about that food."
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POV MC Before meeting the Guards
I walk in a random direction until I find a road. On the way I change my appearance to an albino boy around the age of 14, my reasoning is that I will stand out so much that if I want to escape anywhere I only need to change my self slightly, also I like the look. I then make a long trench coat down to the knees and long sleeves that cover my hands. I fill the trench coat with small pockets and knife holders on the inside of the coat. I then make a bone horizontal pole for Shade to stand on while I walk.
I eventually find a road but there are people on it, I also sense people around with malicious intent so I wait and watch, debating what to do. Once the group of carriages reached the point where the bandits were hiding, some of the group joined forces with the bandits. With my empathy I could sense the feeling of betrayal from the others [Well I was thinking of either just going to let them kill each other than eat them all, or help the merchant group so they can give me information and food, but betrayal pisses me off, so the second option it is.]
It was easy to kill the dipshits I used empathy to make the thugs angry at me, although it will not last long, but they left the guards alone as they rushed me. I then just killed them all, with relative ease but I made sure to hide most of my strength. One person's skin seemed to turn in to iron but I just used a thin bone blade to pierce his eye. The rest of the battle was wrapped up quickly and finished with me saving a young man on the floor.
"Well, that's the last of them, You ok mate?" I say in a carefree voice. [This man was prepared to die just now but he was not happy about it, life debt for me yay.]
"Yes thank you for saving us, and for saving me." He bows his head as Shade lands back on my shoulder from when she left as I was fighting. Before we could continue our conversation I hear a cry from a young Lady coming out of the carriage. I casually look around to see two noblewomen. The younger one of 13 was the one to cry out in alarm at the scene while her older sibling of 15 looked a little pale. [ Pretty, probably trouble, thinking back to my past I shiver at the unpleasantness. I harden my emotions, love is a lie anyway, just chemicals in the brain to encourage breeding glorified by society for entertainment and meaningfulness in their lives. They have nice clothes so are properly wealthy. Most importantly I bet they have nice food.]
"So you got any food? I have been dying for something that actually has a flavor for ages now." I ask no longer paying the girls any attention.
"Wha…?"
"Thank you for helping us, young man, of course, we can give you some food. My name is Selena, eldest daughter of the Heartstone family, may I ask for your name?" Selena the older sister introduced herself as she held out her hand palm facing down and fingers bent, her face still pale.
I looked at her hand confused for a second before taking it in my own and shaking it. Selena's face becomes even paler, [Did I do something wrong?] "Nice to meet yeh Selena, my name is Jacob, now about that food." Letting go of her hand I step back and look at her expectantly, but she just stares at her hand blankly. [Is it the blood on her hand from when I shook her hand? Well I did just rip a guy in half so what do they expect, sigh but first impressions and all that.]
"Oh sorry about that" I put my hand in one of my many pockets and pretend to get a handkerchief as I make one from Spider silk, I take it out and take her hand again as I clean it. "There we go" It was at this time that Shade decided to change perches on to Selena's head and start to sing. Which is a shame because her singing is fucking awful, like a tortured cat and nails down a blackboard being an eargasm in comparison awful.
Startled Selena trips into me so I catch her as any gentleman would, while shouting "Shade shut up you fucking whore you sound like shit!" true gentleman like I know. Selena looks between horrified and wanting laugh as she pushes herself off me as she turns and walks away. I refrain from using empathy because I want to practice my human interactions as I have little experience in the matter, but I think I may have somehow done something wrong [Well it's confirmed, I am fucking amazing at first impressions.]
"So, was the food a lie or can we start eating?"