Ch 30: Consequences of naivety.

We were now going with the Redhawk squad, we exited the forest and had got on the road, I couldn't contain my excitement and wanted to ask them a bunch of questions, I wanted to talk to Cedric as he was the most comfortable I felt talking to.

"Hey Cedric, what is the town like?"

"Hm, what is it like? Well, it's pretty lively that's for sure, it's where the baron lives in too, he lives in the mansion that's near the middle by the way, there are also walls separating the rich and the rest of the people with an outer layer to protect the city and an inner layer for the rich, although the amount of poor people is not very high as many try to improve their lives by becoming adventurers or slayers but many of them die as they were unprepared for it, some may become traders once they amass some wealth and live more safely and some will continue risking their lives."

"Wow, that's amazing, anyways now that I think about it, there was a mountain that had a huge cut on it, did someone cause it?"

"Ah, that was done because of an S-Rank slayer, who was practicing his strongest technique there, the cut on the mountain had caused an earthquake to occur lately and the slayer was fined for the damages, although it didn't matter as the insane amounts of money he makes is enough to buy his way through anything, wait do you even know about money and social standing now that I think of it?"

"Yeah I know about it."

"How so?"

"That's a secret."

Really don't wanna tell him about my previous life, sounds like too much of a pain and would take way too long, hopefully he'll drop it.

"Well if you wouldn't tell me that's fine, after all everyone has something to hide."

He looked off to the distance as he said that, it was pretty weird, I wonder why he did that?

"Hey, do you humans evolve by the way?"

"Yeah we do, in fact, the members of this party all evolved into high humans."

Huh, that's awesome, I assume that means they also have some affinities.

Suddenly after talking with them for a while, the red hawk from that time I saw them had appeared and landed on Cedric, now that I think about it I didn't see it the entire time I was with them, the hawk looks like it was communicating with Cedric, I wanted go know what the hawk was telling him as I had started getting a bad feeling.

I wait for cedric to stop focusing with his hawk then I ask him about it.

"Hey Cedric what did the hawk tell you?"

"It was just the hawk returning after reporting to the guild."

"Report? What report?"

"About our mission, just to inform them that we had completed it."

Cedric scratched his nose as he was talking with me, he was also slightly sweating and looked uncomfortable.

This was discomforting me, his proclamation of reporting to the guild made me feel uncomfortable, and a fundamental fact that was so important yet I had somehow not thought about it dawned on me, I wasn't human anymore.

Upon realizing this fact everything seemed a hundred times more frightening, what did he mean by report to the guild? Was it just a lie or maybe he actually reported me?! No, I don't want to believe it, I want to believe that they are good people that want to help, but this is extremely suspicious, it'd be stupid to ignore all these signs, if I turn out to be correct and realize that it was a mistake at least I'd be able to salvage the situation, and if I turn out to be wrong and it was all just needless anxiety, then I would have found some nice people.

Please be nice, please for the love of god just be some selfless heroes.

These thoughts were getting bigger and bigger in my head, until I couldn't take it anymore, I decided to use light techniques to see ahead to see what is in the town to make sure of my convictions, upon using light techniques, what I was greeted with was the sight of a cage with symbols scratched onto it in midair, there were knights standing by it waiting for something, I knew what they were waiting for, they were waiting for me.

I couldn't believe it, how could I have been so stupid?! They feed me a little and offer some nice words and I would shake my tail like a dog?! This is an outrage, I could just escape with my sister now, but I'm so angry that it's not an option.

"Cedric!"

"What is it?"

"You tricked me! You were trying to sell me to those knights! How could you! I trusted you, you were the first people to be nice to me and you mean to tell me it was just a facade?!"

"W-what? I-I don't know what you're talking about."

He was being fidgety now and his teammates had gotten alarmed and look at him, their hands were going for their weapons.

"Oh don't you act stupid, I saw what was in the town ahead, knights waiting next to strange cages, to capture us!"

"Listen Rai, I actually do think that you're nice, I am doing this for both of us, if you go quietly with them, then you can find a noble that will make you live an easy life, think, you don't have to be out here, struggling just to survive, and you can eat all the good food you want, doing this will benefit us both! So please understand."

"I'd rather die than submit and live under someone and you know what? it's also my fault for being so trusting of random people I've just met."

I laugh as I tell him, his teammates were now extremely alarmed confusion appeared on their faces as they start thinking that I figured out their plan, my sister had gotten beside me, she was confused about what was going on.

"thinking back on it, that was absolutely moronic, but I was feeling lonely having not interacted with a human being, so I wasn't thinking completely straight, but now, I can see the graveness of my mistake, I didn't just endanger myself, I also endangered my sister, and I will never repeat this mistake."

I had steeled my heart, all this anger had helped me in steeling my will to know what we were going to do.

"Cedric, you are my enemy now, and you do know what happens to enemies right?"

He shouts something to his friends and they get alarmed and ready to fight, everything broke down, if I wasn't so stupid I wouldn't have done these mistakes, but this is no time to be regretting the past, after all this is our fate.

I face them, they were now in a formation that separated them, but kept them close enough for them to interfere if I attack, it was a fantastic strategy if your opponent used techniques and melee attacks, but after all this was my first time fighting humans, we were both standing off there, waiting for the other to make the first move, they knew that they couldn't run, as they would get attacked from behind by me, so they had to face me as a team, but they did not want to initiate combat, I didn't want to fight all five of them at once, so I wanted them to act first, but it looks like I'll have to shoot first.

I decide to take Cedric and the bird out, since just seeing Cedric made me angry, and I wanted him out of here.

I rush towards him while using body strengthening to boost myself, the girl who was called lea tries to stop me as she was closest to Cedric, but they didn't plan for me being this strong, I had opportunity to strike him down, but before I could take off his head I hesitated, I couldn't kill him and had redirected my attack to his chest, it was shallow and had mostly been absorbed by his armor, damn it,it looks like my resolve wasn't as strong as I thought, I just can't kill a human, Cedric was surprised that I hadn't killed him, and so tried to counter with his sword, he had hit my side with his sword, the wound was shallow and was just a scratch thanks to my high defensive abilities after evolving, he tried to follow it up with a fireball but Nozomi had intervened at that moment with a triple wind slice from her claws that cut off his arm, he was shocked and overwhelmed with pain that the fireball he formed had dissipated in midair, his teammates shout for him and Alexander runs towards him, until he was stopped by Aaron who tells him something.

The red hawk had gotten angry that his master and friend had gotten injured and tries to attack Nozomi, I was still pretty shocked by seeing Cedrics arm getting cut off, but seeing my sister in danger kicked me back into action, I dash towards her to protect her from the hawk but then Aaron and Lea stop me from getting closer to her, this was bad, she was outnumbered and they were of similar strength to her, if my hesitation caused her death I'd never forgive myself, and so with the fear of death and loss looming over me, the last shreds of hesitation were destroyed and I face my enemies with the intent to kill.