Chapter 6

You decided avenging your family is more important than anything else. You can’t risk losing your chance of vengeance due to misplaced kindness to someone who intends to betray you. You draw your sword and take a few steps back, then charge at the door with your shoulder. The door succumbs with a loud crash, you bolt in and as soon as you see the farmer, you plunge your sword through his chest. You push back the body while pulling your sword out, looks like the unsuspecting farmer is about to investigate the crashing noise before meeting your sword. But something is amidst, where’s Dimi? Has she already on her way to notify Duke Melios of your presence? You hurry to the front door and just as you open up, you saw Dimi is standing outside about to enter. She is shocked by your sudden appearance. In a heartbeat, you plunge your sword toward her chest. Before she submits to the cold void, she takes one final look at you. She looks painful, terrified, and confused before her final breath cedes into darkness. You pull your sword out while pushing her, that innocent look on her face is enough to send a heavy shiver down your spine. If she's not going to notify Duke Melios of your presence, then what is she doing? What are they trying to tie up and kill?

Then you caught series of clucking from the ground, it's two hens flapping their wings frantically while their feet are tied up. Are they...... Trying to slaughter those hens to honor your arrival......? They are not trying to betray you after all! Such an acute turn of events struck such a massive concussion to your heart that you feel the ground is swirling around you and your legs and arms are trembling in guilt. Collapsed under the weight of remorse, you drop the sword and down on your knees, you try to muster every droplet of focus to resist the urge to throw up. As you slowly regain your composure, you realize your action is irreversible and there's no point in regretting the non-negatable. You have a vengeance to honor and a long journey ahead of you. You can't allow your emotional weakness to stop you from avenging your loved ones. "What's done is done...... Rather I do wrong than be wronged……" You mutter to yourself. You sheath your sword, grab the hens, and go back inside the house to scavenge whatever you can find to survive the journey. Then you grab a pack mule from a nearby corral and pack all the necessary items on it before you set off for Psilus Mountain leaving the two guiltless corpses behind.

You travel upstream along the Blessen River for several hours before your stomach is growling from starvation. You decided to stop for a rest, you tie your mule near a tree and intend to slaughter the hens for lunch. You draw your sword and just as you are about to slaughter the hens, you hear a long, miserable shriek. You turn your head around trying to locate its origin. There it’s again! The long and painful shriek sounded like some sort of bird of prey. You follow the shriek and discover a juvenile golden eagle lying on the ground shivering. A golden eagle is a majestic creature known for its courage. While fully grown, it can spawn a wing as long as two and a half meters with royal golden plumage and can soar at the height of 11,000 meters. It has inconceivably sharp eyesight and it’s able to spot a prey from such altitude. It'll swoop down with such incredible speed that almost nothing can escape its talons. During ancient times, your ancestors worship the golden eagles and depict it in their totem. Over the course of time, such depiction evolves into a coat of arm that signifies the Aetum family. Looks like the golden eagle in front of you had suffered some hardships during its maiden flight and had been besieged by cold and starvation alike. You are holding a hen, that's what the eagle feed on. What should you do? Do you honor the last vestige of your family by giving the delicious hen to the eagle? Or do you honor yourself instead and ignore the eagle?

Save the eagle - skip to Warrior Chapter 13

Ignore the eagle - skip to Warrior Chapter 14