Benefit of the Doubt

"Are you a cultivator!?" Jonah shouts with an air of uncertainty. No maybe he's just dreaming right now. How can Sarah be a cultivator!?

Sarah looks at Jonah with shock and worry in her eyes. She realised she had just exposed herself of her identity as a cultivator.

But then Sarah looked on the floor. There was wilted hair and mangled flesh everywhere on the carriage floor.

How was she going to explain this...

Sarah decided to sit there quietly. Not answering Jonah's question as she had shell-shocked expression while looking at the mangeled flesh.

She just didn't want to be bored...

And it led to this.

Jonah noticed the shock on Sarah's face as she sat down on her side of the carriage. Then he looked back down on the floor where all of the flesh and blood were sitting.

How was he going to solve this...

There was a lot of thinking between Sarah and Jonah. One was thinking about how to explain this to the other, while the other was trying to think of a way to solve this situation.

Jonah eventually looked up to Sarah's wet eyes. He wanted to help her. He didn't want to see this expression on Sarah's face.

"Alright. Have you told anyone about this yet?" Jonah asked.

"N-no! I haven't. I didn't know who to tell this about." Sarah stuttured.

Sarah looked at Jonah "Please tell me what to do! I didn't know this could happen! How do I even explain this to Damian?" Sarah asked in a pleading voice.

Jonah pinched his chin in though. This was the issue over here. How were they going to explain this.

First of all it was going to be really difficult to clean this carriage. Also Sarah had bloodstains everywhere on her. How in the hell were they going to deal with this?

Sarah looked at Jonah in worry. Her eyes were trembling from the uncertainty of the situation.

She almost lost her face! She was so close to looking like a monster!

Well, unfortunately she didn't know there was nothing to be worried about. This was natural when people go up in cultivation.

Normally people increased their cultivation stage slowly in the Law Tempering Realm. Feeling the essence was a new thing for them and also allowing the essence to change your body structure took a certain courage to that.

The cultivator had to have complete trust in themselves when absorbing the essence and letting it rechange their vein and body structure.

But they usually would not see their flesh and hair fall off from their head when they are cultivating. Their flesh would just get pushed out as a black sludge called impurities at every cultivation stage.

But in Sarah's case the impurities were eliminated as soon as they were created. The system wanted to make the cultivation journey as smooth as possible for Sarah when she was cultivating.

Now it's job was to make it smooth not quick. If Sarah decided to speed up her cultivation then it was up to her to face the consequences.

Also her cultivation was already one of the fastest in existence as she had a Divine Inheritence. Just finishing the tasks set out by the Divine Inheritence can give her cultivation ungodly speeds!

Then why did the Cultivating Seductress allow Sarah to increase her cultivation stage in an through the Seduction Store?

Because there would be times where it would be necessary for her to increase her cultivation in that manner to survive.

In a life or death situation her cultivation would be one of the requirements to survive.

But the system still tried it's best to allow Sarah to reach the Law Accumulation Realm as soon as possible anyway through quests and quest rewards.

Then why did the system not tell her about this?

Well it was programmed by the Cultivating Seductress to allow this to happen the first time.

It was necessary for Sarah to know the pain of taking the quick path.

Sarah's emotions were going in all directions. From worry to calm, from joy to melancholy, from anger to helplessness.

She was feeling a lot of emotions from this painful experience.

But Sarah eventually looke inside herself. She looked at the things she had gone through the past. And she asked 'How bad is this compared to before?'

Sarah was in a carriage towards Alron. For the first time she was free from Morrowl with her brother's help. And she also found a lot of men that didn't have a foul stench coming from them constantly.

Objectively her life was much better. Just this little bit of pain for that was easily worth it.

Sarah started to calm down.

She started to think deeply about her situation.

She placed her cupped her palm on her face and tried to figure out a solution.

Jonah eventually answered "I think we should first try to find a believable excuse for all of..." Jonah waved his arms at the floor "...this." Jonah finished.

"Then how do we go about it?" Sarah asked.

They have just been going back and forth constantly asking questions.

Jonah didn't know how to solve this problem. And Sarah was just as helpless as him.

Eventually they both came to a decision.

"I think we should call your brother." Jonah said.

Sarah nodded her head "Yes, I think that's right. We need to stop the carriages so we can start cleaning this up and only Damian could do that. Also he always has an answer for such situations! So we should call him." Sarah said, pointing her finger in the air as if this was all her idea.

Jonah nodded accepting Sarah's reasoning. They needed to stop the carriage and only Damian could give the excuse for that. Also he's Sarah's brother. Jonah was sure Damian would figure it out.

Sarah and Jonah discussed a bit more before he stepped out. Leaving the carriage and returning back on the forest road.

Jonah looked ahead of him at the front carriage. He saw Damian walking side by side with his colleagues sometimes making them laugh, and sometime making them nod in seriousness.

Damian's natural charisman was flowing everywhere around them. Making the warriors feel a sense of respect and camaraderie towards Damian.

Jonah looked and walked up to Damian.'This will work.' Jonah siked himself up in his mind as he built some sort of courage to go up to Damian.

Jonah relaxed once he reached and everyone immediately threw a look at him.

Some were looking with shock, while some were looking with indifference.

This guy actually came up to them first?

What, did an immortal suddenly grace him?

They looked with open jaws towards Jonah as he walked towards Damian. Keeping quite as he projected his cold facade from over the years.

Jonah walked with a sense confidence and indifference in his gait as he finally reached Damian.

"The miss is calling you sir." Jonah said with absolute coldness in his voice as he pointed at the middle carriage with his thumb above his shoulder. Urging Damian to go and have a look.

"Is it something important?" Damian asked. He knew that Sarah would usually ask for him to just have a chat or two on the trip.

She got easily bored so he tried his best to make some time for her while at the same time trying to make time for the warriors. It was somewhat stressful but he could handle it.

Jonah's gaze flickered for an instant as he heard what Damian said.

'Did he not care about Sarah? Did I make a mistake coming here?' Jonah thought in his mind. Hoping he wasn't making a bad decision right now.

Jonah nodded at Damian and pointed his head towards Sarah's carriage. Leading Damian along with him.

Damian felt a bit annoyed by Jonah's behaviour but he kept himself under control. He knew that something serious must have happened for Jonah to act this disrespectful.

Well at least he hoped cause he was giving the benefit of the doubt towards Jonah.

They both sauntered off towards the carriage after Damian told the warriors that he was going to go and see what was up with his sister.

Damian had a relaxed look on his face as he came up to the carriage.

He touched the handle and twisted it. Opening the door.

What he was met with was a scene out of a gang fight in Morrowl.

Blood everywhere with hair caking it. Sarah's weeping figure covered with blood as she sat on the seats with a calmed expression. But the messy hair gave a opposite meaning compared to her expression.

Damian looked at this frozen for a moment.

Before he had unbelievable rage in his eyes as he gazed at Jonah.

He was furious about Jonah and he couldn't trust him for a second!

All benefit of the doubt went out the window.