One's True Self

At first, Nejiko thought about rushing to Liam's house, but then she stopped herself because there was a chance that she would miss her son, as there was more than one route leading to Liam's house from the tavern.

She was troubled with the choice of going to look for her son or wait for him here. "It would be better if he went to the hideout with others, but what if he didn't. What if he came here and didn't find me. No, I can't go, I must wait for him." Her eyes were glued in the direction of Liam's house, unknowingly her heel kept tapping as if it wanted to go looking for Leo.

After some time she saw Leo frantically running to her, he was breathing heavily, his clothes were drenched with sweat, the panic was written all over his face. She ran up to him and embraced him tightly. "Thank god you are okay, or else I wouldn't know what to do."

Her expression already told him that she knew about the pirates. "Mom, Liam's dad told me to hurry to the hideout." Leo quickly informed her.

"Yes, I know." She held his hand. "Let's hurry up."

But, today luck wasn't on their side. They were stopped by the loud scream around the corner, a pirate came out and spotted them.

It was the first time Leo saw the pirate in real, it was nothing like manga or anime, no, you can't even compare. Blood dripping down the sword set off an alarm in his mind, the murderous aura coming from him almost made him wet his pants. His mind was screaming, "Run. Run as fast as possible". But, fear already gripped him, his body went frozen still.

"No. No. How could I be so unlucky?" Leo found himself in the worst possible scenario. He was hoping pirates coming to be the good type, but obviously, it didn't look like that, instead, it seemed as if this pirate enjoyed killing.

Fear took over him, the fight word didn't even come to him. In his previous life, he was even scared of the school bullies, and now the unrestrained killer himself was walking to him.

"I shouldn't have come here to inform her, I should have gone to the hideout by myself. Why did I even worry for her? I have been with her for just a few months. How could I be so stupid?" At this moment Leo cared only about himself. He even blamed Nejiko, he felt like he was in this situation because of her.

Just then a random unwanted thought popped into his mind. "Ahh. So this is the moment many novels talked about: Only in the moment of life and death, you will come to know your true self. I didn't know I was such a low life." But after a moment he denied it. "No. No. I am not. She is almost a stranger to me, why should I care for her?"

He thought about abandoning her and running by himself, and he was sure if he did that Nejiko would do her utmost to stop this pirate from chasing him. One thought in his mind told him to take advantage of that, and another one was telling him, in that way you will become the one you hated the most. When he read novels, like most people, he loved heroes, and hated selfish scummy characters who cared only about themselves, they did not even bat an eye when they had to sacrifice their families to achieve their goal. He didn't mind if he didn't become a Hero, but he never ever wanted to be the kind he hated.

But the other thought was suppressing the righteous thought. "What's so good about being good? Could you even eat that? Just make use of her, and try to save yourself. Only she thinks of you as her son, and are you her son? No. That's right, she is just a stranger, no family of yours. So you don't have to worry about being a low-life scum. It's just natural to want to save yourself. Anyway, you are just a kid, who didn't even have the strength to tussle a chicken, what use you would be staying here. Just run."

Two thoughts continued fighting each other. One was saying, "Nejiko is your mother, be with her, protect her." Another one was saying, "She is just a stranger, make use of her."

"Fuck, there are so few people in the town," Pirate said in an annoyed voice. He impatiently walked to them, when he saw Nejiko his annoyed face loosened a bit. Even though you could not compare Nejiko to a nation toppling beauty, but she was at least a town toppling beauty.

Pirate jerked his sword to get rid of the blood, and then he sheathed his sword. He sized her up. He couldn't help but exclaim, "What a beauty!!" Pirate licked his lips.

When he looked at Leo, his expression returned to that of annoyance, he remembered three brats who spotted them and informed the town. He did not like kids at all, he hated them to the bones. "Fuck those three little bastards, if not for them we would have caught every single person in this shithole town." He clenched his teeth in anger. "If I ever caught those three bastards, I will surely enjoy seeing them wailing in pain." He glared at Leo as if what those three kids owed him, he would take that from him.

His murderous gaze made Leo terrified, he unconsciously stepped back. Now he was sure that he was going to die today, this pirate would never let him off. "Shit. All this is because of her. I shouldn't have come here, this is all her fault." Fear of losing his life was starting to give way to his selfish thoughts. He started blaming her inwardly.

As for Nejiko, she was also terrified, but not for herself, but for her son. She was only thinking, how she could save him. When she saw how the pirate's gaze scared her son, she hid him behind her. There wasn't a hint of fear in her eyes, there was only a determination to save her son. She stared into the pirate's eyes and asked, "What do you want?"

Her back made him feel safe. Leo started feeling guilty about how he was just thinking about abandoning her. "No. No. What are you doing? Don't ever try to protect me." He was screaming inside, he felt like scum. He hated, hated, and hated this feeling. He did not like it at all. "Just abandon me, save yourself. Only then I can be free of this feeling, only then I will not feel bad about abandoning you."

Pirate creepily grinned at her. He again sized her up, and then his eyes stopped fixed on her breasts. "You asked me, what do I want?" He paused for a moment and looked into her eyes lecherously. "Ohh. I want so much from you."

She understood his meaning. "As long as you don't touch my son, anything will be okay." Her voice was firm, she did not care as long as she could keep her son safe.

Pirate frowned. "I don't think you have a choice here." But then he thought for a moment and changed his mind. "Okay, as long as you know what's better, your son will live." He was giving her hope, only then he could take that away. "That would be an interesting scene." A wicked smile crept onto his face.

Just then a group of rough men came to them, their clothes were covered with blood, and obviously, it wasn't theirs, it was the blood of innocent people of this town. "Captain, here you are. We were searching for you everywhere, and you are having a good time with the beauty." One of the pirates said.

"Captain, we haven't got a taste of women for such a long time, because of those fucking marines. Could you be kind enough to live her alive after you are done? We also want to enjoy her, such beauty is rare." Vice-captain, Crook, asked. Other pirates looked at the Captain with expectation.

"You are right, she is a bit rare kind. I will try to control myself." Dirk was reluctant but he did not show it. "I will sacrifice my enjoyment for the crew." He made an expression as if he was sacrificing something great. He had a habit of killing women during sex.

Hearing this everyone's expression brightened. "That's our captain."

"That's why we respect you so much."

"He cares so much about us." Pirates started praising him, and Dirk liked this.

They were talking about Nejiko, but nobody even thought of her opinion, for them everything was already set in stone. Their talk made her despair, she wanted to kill herself before anyone could even touch her, but when she thought of her son, she gathered herself.

"We will come to the woman part later, but first we should fill ourselves. I think everyone's hungry."

"You are right captain, first we should fill ourselves, and then we will fill her with our love." All the pirates laughed at Crook's lewd joke.

"That was a good one, vice-captain." One of the pirates said.

"Yes, I know." Crook made a gesture as if he just made some great statement.

Dirk looked past Nejiko, at the tavern. "Is that yours?"

"Yes."

"That's good." He softly caressed her cheeks and looked at her as if he couldn't wait to eat her. "We are hungry men here, better prepare food for us immediately, unless you want us to taste you first."

"Yes. Yes. I will." She held Leo's hand and hurriedly went into the tavern. She didn't want to stay in their sight for even a moment, even though she was fully dressed she felt naked in front of them.

Dirk smiled at her hurried escape, it felt like a rabbit trying to hide from the starving wolf. He liked this feeling. "Boys let's go in. Today, we are finally getting some rest from those fucking marines. Today we will enjoy ourselves to the fullest. It's a shame we only have one woman."

"It's okay, captain. The beauty of this one is enough to make up for the numbers. What do say, boys?" Crook looked at others.

"Yes captain, there're is no need of other women. We will turn this innocent and pure-looking beauty into whore today." One of the pirates excitedly yelled.

"Killing and fucking are the best joys of our pirate life," Crook said with a wicked grin.

"Yeah, that's right." They started wickedly laughing at this.

In the kitchen, Nejiko heard them clearly, her body shivered at their words. But when she looked at her son's terrified face, she gathered herself. She hugged him tightly. "It's okay Leo, don't be afraid, as long as I am here no one will hurt you." She slowly patted on his back.

"Everything is okay, as long as I can keep my son safe." She thought inwardly and comforted herself. Tears were doing their utmost to come out, but she stopped them, she didn't want Leo to worry, she wanted to make him feel safe, so there wasn't a place for tears in her eyes, there was only a strong determination to save her son.