Chapter 35.

Raphtalia

Rifana seemed to be sleeping peacefully, her breathing was regular and calm and she had a gentle look on her face. It should have reassured Raphtalia that everything was going to be okay, that her friend would recover but the truth put a stop to that. Mr Adrian had fed Rifana some sort of paste-like substance that he said would help her get the nutrients she needed after being starved for days but he had also told he that it contained something to help her get some proper rest.

Raphtalia made sure that she was comfortable in the disc that Mr Adrian had decided to keep around even while they weren't travelling and she was using a part of it as a bed for Rifana. She knew from personal experience that it was warm and comfortable but she still made sure to keep an eye on her friend. It was probably not necessary. Her wounds had been healed, Mr Adrian had managed to get her to level 15 to boost her growth so that whatever small injuries remained would be healed and she had been given a lot of food that Rifana had eaten listlessly without saying a word. She should probably be learning magic like Isis was or cheering up the other two children they had rescued like Trystan was but she found her mind wandering to Rifana constantly.

She hoped that their hopes would turn out to be true. Raphtalia was pretty sure that Mr Adrian would be okay with taking them home since their village was pretty close by.

She took a deep breath, let it out and then turned her mind to the book in her hand. It was difficult to decipher, the words seemed to shift and change, she understood the letters and the words that they formed but there was something still missing.

After another series of attempts she found her mind wandering and looked over at Isis who was carefully reading over each word, her focus scarcely wavering. Raphtalia considered asking her for some help but dismissed the idea, it would be wrong to interrupt her while she was working, instead, she put the book down, took another look at Rifana and looked at Trystan and the two new children who had joined their group.

Alvin and Razieh were two children from the same village. Razieh had lost her parents a few years ago and Alvin's parents had taken her in, so they were siblings in all but blood. Thankfully both of them had been bought less than a day ago and so had not been hurt very badly by that man. It made her feel strange to see the angel-winged boy and the two children play with an orange coloured ball that Mr Adrian had pulled out of the Legendary Sword.

A part of that was because she knew that Trystan was much, much stronger and faster than them but mostly it was because she remembered playing with Rifana, Keel and all the others. When she saw them playing she couldn't help but wonder where everyone else was. Raphtalia felt furious at the realization that most of them were likely still enslaved, being tormented by their masters, and worse, it made her feel guilty. None of them were lucky enough to be rescued by a Hero.

Raphtalia looked down at Rifana who looked so small, so peaceful and wondered if this was Rifana's luck not her own. Hadn't it been her who had wished for a hero to save them? Maybe she had been saved so that Mr Adrian could save Rifana.

Raphtalia looked in the opposite direction from where Trystan and the others were playing. She knew that somewhere there Mr Adrian was talking to Rabier. He had offered to let her come with him as long as she didn't interfere when he was interrogating the man.

He had offered to let her kill Rabier. Raphtalia had reflexively refused and he had simply nodded before promising that Rabier would be dead by the end of the day. Then he had walked off seemingly empty-handed but she knew that Rabier had been floating above them on a second disc.

When she focused she could almost imagine that she could hear that voice screaming at her to stop smiling, to cry. She could hear his laughter after Raphtalia had forgotten how to smile, see his cruel visage when he had seen her cower away from him when he had selected her to be his toy for the day.

"Raphtalia!" she heard and then blinked away the tears in her eyes before turning to look at Isis who had been tugging at her hand.

The silver-haired girl looked at her with a worried look in her eye before asking, "Are you okay? Should I call father here?"

Raphtalia shook her head, she wasn't sure if her voice would work right but it didn't reassure Isis who spoke again.

"Are you sure?" she asked, hesitant and unsure and Raphtalia felt her guilt surge at watching the normally confident girl struggling to help her.

"I'm fine," she said, trying to inject some strength into her voice. Raphtalia winced internally at how unconvincing her voice sounded.

"I'll call father," she said firmly, her hand letting go of Raphtalia's and raising it to the sky, preparing to chant.

"No," said Raphtalia, "I-I just-" she trailed away, unsure of what to say.

Isis lowered her hand but the uncertain look reappeared on her face before she lit up and said, "You can go speak to father! He asked you if you wanted to come right? So you can go to him."

The transformed filolial pointed in a different direction from what she had thought Adrian had gone and said, "He's pretty close in that direction, just keep going straight ahead."

"I don't need to speak-" said Raphtalia and then cut herself off.

It was true she didn't need to speak to him right now. He would return soon enough. What Raphtalia needed to do was see Rabier. She needed to know why he had hurt her, hurt Rifana and the others.

She swallowed the fear that came up and ignored her shaking arms, instead, she turned to Isis and asked, "Where is he exactly?"

Isis smiled, happy to help, and pointed in the right direction. Raphtalia took at a look at the setting sun, oriented herself and then started to walk.

Raphtalia headed into the sparsely forested woods, the fading light from the sun sufficient to guide her. She didn't worry about monsters, Adrian was sure to have taken care of them, so she just walked carefully, taking care not to stumble over the uneven terrain. Her high level making it easy to walk the distance.

When she had been walking for a minute or two a floating sword flew towards her before it started to guide her in a slightly different direction then what she had been taking. Raphtalia felt a surge of gratitude toward the Sword Hero who was watching over her even now and followed the floating blade.

When she found Mr Adrian it was with him staring at a horribly wounded man whose clothes had been dyed with blood. The man was leaning against a tree, pinned to the ground by two swords embedded in his legs, his wounds shut only because the wounds had been burned until they stopped bleeding. She could tell that he had managed to urinate all over himself, the smell was telling. His arms were bound behind his back and there were two swords, two explosive swords, floating near his head while another five floated around the man. Ready to kill him.

Raphtalia couldn't believe that this was the same man who invaded her mind when she slept. She hated this man, hated him in a way she had never imagined she could hate. More than the waves or the knights who had destroyed her village, more than the monster who killed mama and her hate she had always known that he was strong. Too strong to fight or stop.

He wasn't strong now.

Rabier had not even noticed her even though Mr Adrian had nodded at her before raising a finger to his lips. His sword had guided her to come at an angle that Rabier would not be able to easily see her from. The nobleman was rambling away a terrified look on his face as Mr Adrian asked him question after question. He didn't stop and the one time he hesitated the Curse Seal that Mr Adrian must have branded him with activated and he screamed.

He didn't stop talking after that.

Raphtalia barely heard what the man was saying, she heard the sounds but it was like the words were beyond her comprehension, all she could do was stare at the broken, bleeding remnant of her tormentor. Of Rifana's tormentor.

She didn't know when she had reached for one of the floating swords. She didn't know when she had stepped fully into view of the fat man but suddenly she was in front of him, the massive sword held in her hand like it was weightless. Raphtalia could hear him say something but the words were meaningless so she didn't answer.

It was like reality had skipped a beat. One moment he was cowering and the next he was cut in half and she had blood splattered over her face. He was dead she knew that but she swung her blade again and again, less as a sword and more like a hammer.

She didn't know how long it had been when she came back to herself but she was looking at a bloody lump in front of her and was crying as Mr Adrian held her.

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Adrian

It was surprising how travel in a wooden disc-like shape that was flying by the virtue of magical swords that he controlled telekinetically had become normal. After helping Raphtalia clean up he had returned the exhausted girl to camp, absorbed Rabier, cleaned up the scene and then had started to move towards the town that Alvin and Razieh had lived at prior to their abduction by the slave hunters.

Adrian should have felt happy he had made a simple discovery after absorbing Rabier that would ensure that he would reach level fifty within the next day or in the worst case it would take him two days or so. Turns out that he could absorb a whole monster as long as it wasn't too big and then use Dismantle while it was in the item box to break it down and then absorb it.

He had verified it a dozen times over since then and the results were confirmed. Every possible variation that a monster could provide was unlocked by this simple procedure. Adrian felt like a fool for not having discovered this before it would have guaranteed that he would be at level 50 by now with Portal available for use given that most of his hunting time had been used for butchering his slain prey but he was happy enough that with this new discovery he could hunt efficiently while travelling over monster-infested areas.

It was a simple process. Kill monsters using a long-range attack, use Dash to get to them, absorb and then move on until all monsters are consumed and then return to the carrier which he had kept moving in the correct direction in the process and repeat. The only problem was that dismantling took a bit of time and the SP cost to this procedure was high enough that Adrian was actually taking SP potions but other than that it was perfect. Adrian had already

reached level 44 in the five hours of their travel towards the Seatto Region and Cal Mira.

But the image of Raphtalia after she had finished ravaging Rabier was stuck in his mind.

Every other member of his group of misfits was asleep at the moment. Rifana, Raphtalia and Trystan in his filolial form in one bundle while Isis slept at his side and Alvin and Razieh were tangled up in the same bed space. They looked peaceful but he was feeling rather guilty about how satisfied he was about her butchering the man.

Listening to Rabier for three hours had been horrific. The man had been determined to live and figuring out that Adrian was the sword hero had changed his rambles into boasts about how he had done everything he had for God and that Adrian must have come to bless him and aid him.

Adrian had swallowed his fury at that thought and let the man have his delusions, he had assumed, correctly, that Rabier would be more willing to answer in that case, but after that piece of trash offered him a demi-human to entertain himself with...Adrian had lost control which had ended up with the scum's legs being burned horrifically.

The smell had been horrible and Adrian had found himself stunned at how far he had been willing to go but the unrepentant noble had only declared Adrian a heretic and had clamped up...for the next minute before the punishment from the Curse Seal opened up his mouth again.

He had learned a lot about the King, the nobles, about Mirellia and even about the Wave but if there was one piece of information that had underscored that he had been right about killing Rabier, right about leaving his party and the capital it was that the destruction of the Seatto Region had been hastily organized by the Church and Aultcray after the wave had struck.

Lord Seatto had not fallen during the wave he had been killed afterwards. His successors were imprisoned or killed, the lesser noble houses destroyed or relocated, if they swore loyalty, and the people of the region hunted down or enslaved. It was why he feared that Alvin and Razieh were going to be horrified at finding what was going to be their ruined homes. He would go anyway, if there was a chance that their family was there then they deserved an opportunity to find them.

Rabier had been proud of his King and the Church. Proud to serve God. The relish in his voice as he spoke of Demi-humans put to the sword had been the main reason that he had not stopped Raphtalia from killing him as she had. Rabier had deserved it for orchestrating genocide and there was nothing more fitting than a child he had tormented taking vengeance for her fellows.

He just hoped that his impulsive decision had not destroyed Raphtalia. It had taken no more than a second after Rabier had been butchered for him to doubt his decision. The blade she had used had been one of his projections, he had guided her strikes, he could have stopped it but in his rage at Rabier, his utter horror at just how many people the Pope and Aultcray had murdered he had felt like it was right for Raphtalia to have a chance at killing that piece of trash.

And he still believed that Rabier deserved to die. As did that Pope and Aultrcray. That was something even his flawed mind could grasp. Genocide was unforgivable.

But he shouldn't have lost control and let the burden of his fury fall on Raphtalia.

He sighed and looked at the girl who was sleeping peacefully. Maybe one day he would be smart enough to stop failing her. For now, all he could do was damage control.

Adrian promised to himself that he would be better, wiser. It was more important than it had even been before and it would become more so the greater his power soared.