trapped in a shadow

Ray helped Melissa by carrying her on his back. With selfish desires in his heart, he wanted to leave that place immediately. Fortunately, right in front of Ray was a large gate leading outside the palace. He realized that he was close to the freedom he desired.

Ray smiled happily at the sight of hope. However, it seemed that the freedom he wanted would not happen at that moment. He realized that there were already several people in black robes standing around the gate who had previously blocked him inside the palace.

He wanted to run in another direction to find another way out, but he and Melissa were already surrounded by the group of strange people in black robes. Even when Ray looked towards the palace windows, he could see some of them there too.

Dozens of people in black robes surrounded Ray and Melissa in the middle of the vast garden.

Ray clearly had no way out at the moment. However, strangely enough, they didn't immediately do anything to Ray. They just stood there as if waiting for something to happen.

"Who are you... Who are all of you! What is this! What do you want from me, you bastards! Why... Why are you doing all of this! What did I do wrong? What did all those people do wrong? Why do you want to kill me? Why did you kill them all?"

Ray's face wrinkled with fear and despair. In the midst of this hopeless situation, all Ray could do was hope for a miracle to happen to him. But Ray knew, there was no such thing as a miracle in any world. Not in this world, nor in Ray's previous world.

Ray himself was someone who didn't believe in miracles. But the hopeless situation he was in, where he was certain to die, made him forget his principles. He destroyed his own character and hoped for something uncertain to happen now.

Come on... There must be something that can help me escape... I'm a hero, right? How can I use my powers? Where are the powers that I can use? I don't even know about the powers that a hero like me has!

Come on, please, magic or any other unbelievable power. I don't care if there are consequences, I just want to escape from here...

While Ray hoped for his powers to awaken at this moment, someone came from the palace door holding a roasted meat in his hand. The person was a crazy man who ate with the corpses around him in the palace dining room.

"What do you... What do you want from me? I have nothing in my life! Do you want to take my worthless life too? You're so greedy."

Ray acted arrogantly, hoping that his arrogance could save him. He thought that if he didn't look like a hero, maybe he could be recruited as part of them and not be killed by them.

"I don't care about that, just answer my questions. Maybe your answer can change my mind? Maybe ehe ehe-he a-ha-ha-hahahahahaaa... This is fun."

Ray thought he still had hope at that moment.

"Alright, what do you want to ask me?"

The crazy man approached Ray slowly. While Ray felt scared of the man getting closer to him. He finally put Melissa down from his back so that he could run more freely if there was no hope in the conversation he was about to have.

"My first question should be easy for you, where is the princess right now?"

The princess? Ray was confused by the question.

"Didn't you already kill her?"

The man wrinkled his face while looking at his other companions.

"Who is responsible for this?"

The other companions of the man immediately pointed to the same person at the same time.

The man approached the person and the person he approached just remained silent. The man gripped the person's neck until he couldn't breathe.

"This is the punishment for the sin you have committed. Thank me, with this I'm sure your sin will be forgiven by 'that person'."

The man said that strange thing while still gripping one of his companions' neck without mercy. But the person whose neck was being gripped smiled happily knowing that his end was near.

"Thank you, Mr. Anderson," the person even thanked the person who was about to kill him.

All his other companions suddenly bowed towards them and said, "Thank you for saving us, Mr. Anderson."

The crazy man called Anderson started to grip the person in his hand even tighter than before. He did it until blood could be seen coming out from between his fingers that were choking his companion. After making sure that the person in his grip was dead, he simply threw the corpse away without any mercy.

"You're right, thank me once again," Anderson said with an arrogant tone.

"Thank you, Mr. Anderson," all his companions praised him.

"That's right, I saved you. It's only right that you repay me for what I did to you. I saved you, and you give everything you have to me.

You poor and helpless people should repay me after I helped you. Because my help is something valuable.

This is the right thing to do, this is something that should happen. Because I am a good savior..."

While Anderson spoke those strange and unclear words, Ray had already run and climbed the palace gate using some holes as footholds. But unfortunately, Anderson knew about it, he even knew from the beginning when Ray started to run.

Anderson had an idea and started to approach the area below where Ray began to climb the gate. Ray, who was in the middle of his journey to the top, wondered what Anderson was doing.

Ray tried not to fall, especially since he was doing something like this for the first time. Fortunately, he had enough time to learn because Anderson gave him time by speaking in an unclear manner.

But now Ray was worried because he was trapped and couldn't move. He could only go up, but he still couldn't maintain his balance well. Moreover, he was actually afraid of heights, making him scared when he realized he was in a high place. Especially if he fell just once, he would get into bigger trouble.

While Ray was confused up there, Anderson looked at Ray with a smile on his face. Just by looking at Ray, he already understood that Ray was inexperienced in doing that. Moreover, he knew that just climbing up the palace gate wouldn't change anything. Anderson could even cast a spell right now and kill Ray from a distance. But he chose to do something else that he wanted to do.

"Ehehehe... This is going to be fun," Anderson laughed while looking at the foolishness Ray was doing. He also laughed at the thought of the fun idea he wanted to do with Ray at that moment.