Father's Burden

Half an hour later.

Draven sneaks stealthily through the forest around the bandits' camp.

He can get a good look at the place from afar and saw more than fifty armed men.

But due to having to sneak through the trees to keep his presence hidden, he can't get close to grab one of the bandits.

He waits for an opportunity, but the more time passes, the more worried about Arthur he becomes.

"I shouldn't have left my son alone…"

"But I can't simply slaughter these people…"

"I can't teach him to solve problems like this…"

"He has to be better than that, better than those shitty nobles… better than me!"

Draven always found raising Arthur very easy, probably because Aria led his upbringing until a few years ago when he started training his son.

Arthur always managed to hide his dark side very well, acting like a good boy.

But now things have changed, and Draven is finding it very difficult to continue raising Arthur the way he wants and conveying his morals to his son.

While he wonders about that, he hears a noise nearby and becomes alert.

"What?" He realizes that that noise is not from a person but an animal, a small squirrel that runs by him.

Draven has an idea and quickly catches the squirrel, which is no match for his super agility.

"I'm sorry for this," Draven mentally apologizes to the poor squirrel before throwing the creature into a tree closer to the bandits' camp.

The small creature tries to hold on to a branch of the tree, but the branch breaks and it falls to the ground.

Due to its weight, the squirrel does not suffer severe damage and quickly runs back to the forest scared.

But just as Draven planned, a bandit hears the noise and sees the squirrel fleeing.

"Hey!!!" The hungry bandit wastes no time before entering the forest after the squirrel.

He thinks he's very lucky, but Draven is already in position and hits the man on the head with a light slap.

The bandit faints instantly without figuring out what happened. Then Draven quickly throws the unconscious man on his shoulders and returns to where Arthur was.

He goes away from the area around the camp so as not to be seen and also does not run very fast so as not to create noise within the forest.

After about ten minutes, he gets very close to the place where Arthur should be watching the ten bandits.

But to Draven's surprise, he no longer hears the voices of the ten bandits and does not see the light of their torches on the trail.

"Something happened???" He immediately becomes worried about his son's safety.

The idea of Arthur getting hurt because he was an irresponsible father almost makes Draven panic.

So he runs towards the place where his son was quickly.

But to his surprise again, and now the biggest shock he's ever felt in his whole life, the scene that unfolds before his eyes leaves him speechless.

Draven finds several pieces of bloodied bodies on the ground, creating a macabre trail that gets bigger and bigger until it reaches…

"Arthur???" Draven exclaims when he sees his son at the end of the trail of human pieces, his clothes and whole body covered in fresh blood and entrails.

Arthur is sitting next to the trail, relaxing with his back against a tree, not caring about all the dirt and blood on his clothes.

"Father?" He speaks in a calm tone without even opening his eyes.

Draven can't handle that situation, he really panics.

In his long life, he has seen a lot of shit in the world; he has seen all kinds of brutal battles and even crueler scenes outside of battle…

He has seen people do many kinds of wickedness, he has seen pure and embodied evil…

But nothing has struck him as deeply as that scene in front of his eyes.

He can't recognize those pieces of meat and destroyed bones as humans…

There is so much blood, guts, and organs everywhere… the smell of blood is mixed with urine and shit, creating an extremely sordid environment.

And at the center of it all is Arthur, his son, the same cute and gentle boy who a few years ago was the sweetest child Draven had ever seen.

How is it possible that such a pure and beautiful creature has done something so bizarre and evil?

Of course, Draven was noticing the changes in Arthur, but to see his son go from a hot-blooded youth who punched three drunks in a bar to defend his girlfriend to this…

"What kind of person can do something like this..." He looks at Arthur's calm expression. "And stay so calm?!?!?"

Draven is so shocked that he can't say anything.

A strange silence takes over the atmosphere, and Arthur speaks first. "Are you disgusted by your own son?"

"What happened here?!" Draven refuses to believe that Arthur did that. "Tell me it wasn't yo-"

"It was me," Arthur quickly responds, his tone still calm and his eyes closed.

"No, no, no..." Draven shakes his head. "Did they attack you? What happened?? How did things end up like this???"

Still with his eyes closed, Arthur pulls someone from beside him and throws him in the middle of the trail, in front of Draven.

That is the spearman, still holding the last spark of life within him. But what's left of his body can't hold on much longer.

He is missing several limbs, organs, and even one of his eyes has been ripped out.

Thanks to Liam's experiences, and the knowledge of anatomy that Arthur obtained from Aria's books, he took every part of the spearman's body that he could without killing the man.

Draven sees that piece of bloodied man on the ground, blood leaking from dozens of holes, including from his still good eye... tears of blood.

"K-k-kill m-me, p-please..." The spearman can barely speak properly; blood leaks from his mouth as he pleads.

Draven can't help but feel sorry for the man and pierces his heart with his sword, killing him on the spot.

"It's okay; I had already taken all the information from him anyway," Arthur casually comments. "You can trust this information; he wouldn't lie to me after all we've been through…"

Draven becomes sad and angry when he hears his son talking about the horrible things he did to that man in such a calm and cold manner.

"What the hell is happening to you???" He yells.

"To me?" Arthur asks sarcastically. "I want to know what's happening to you???"

"What??" Draven is confused.

Arthur sighs. "I've always seen you as my hero, the protector of our family… you said you kept all the villains away from us and the people in the village…"

"I still do that!" Draven exclaims.

"No!" Arthur also exclaims. "Look at you, sneaking through the bushes and stroking that guy's head… you're trying to resolve this peacefully."

"And what's wrong with that??" Draven asks. "I can prevent them from hurting the villagers without a massacre!"

"Tsk…" Arthur shakes his head. "You weren't here… you didn't hear what these guys were saying… their cruel and sadistic intentions towards the villagers…"

"But you know they weren't going to be able to do such things," Draven approaches Arthur. "We were going to stop them!"

"No, father," Arthur continues speaking in a calm and cold tone, which makes Draven even more upset.

"You might even make them leave, but how long would it take for them to get to another village?" Arthur asks, making Draven wonder about that.

"Without anyone to protect them, these bandits would do all kinds of sordid things… people like this are like a plague,"

"They don't deserve to live to continue causing pain to others; evil needs to be cut off at the root, only then will it be effective. Only then can we really protect life."

Draven hears Arthur's words and wonders why his son thinks such things.

"This has nothing to do with killing to save..." Draven comments and points to the mutilated body of the lancer on the ground.

"I have killed more people than you can imagine to save even more people, but this..." Draven speaks in a depressive tone. "This is not right... you enjoyed it; you enjoyed what you did to these guys!!"

Arthur finally opens his eyes, which are now in the lightest and coldest shade of blue so far.

He casts his cold gaze directly into Draven's eyes, and a glimmer of sadness can be seen by his father.

"Do you think this is my idea of fun?" Arthur asks, upset. "Then you don't know me at all!"

Draven feels disappointed in himself. He can still see his sweet little boy in Arthur's cold eyes, but he doesn't understand how things ended up this way.

"I don't understand..." He murmurs. "What you tell me is one thing, but what I see here is another."

Arthur gets closer to his father and touches his shoulder. "Do you really think I wanted to be here, covered in blood and shit?"

Before Draven can speak, Arthur continues. "No way! I wanted to be at home, playing with little Eve near the fireplace... eating Mom's delicious food... and talking to my dad about girls."

Draven really wants to believe in his son, but he can't ignore the bloody scene around him.

"So explain to me, Arthur, explain to me how you can be that lovable boy and do such monstrous things???"

"It's simple," He smiles gently. "I save my lovely side for my family and friends, I can give them all my love..."

Then his eyes shine coldly. "But for people like these bandits... not people anymore, but just a scourge... I give them the hell they deserve."

"Son..." Draven still can't understand how there can be so much light and darkness within someone at the same time.

He believes that the world is not black and white but rather gray; however, the light and darkness within Arthur seem too intense to share the same space.

Arthur understands how it is only possible because he had two lives, and the first one is still within him.

And he would like to be able to tell it to his father, but he fears that Draven will only see him as an aberration of fate.

"Father..." He squeezes Draven's shoulder. "I'm not asking you to accept this side of me... just don't reject my good side either..."

Draven feels ashamed to have to hear such a thing from his son.

He gets emotional and hugs Arthur tightly. "I never thought of rejecting you, foolish child!"

Arthur is caught off guard by that hug, but he is happy that his father does not hate him.

"What should I do, Arthur?" Draven asks. "How should I deal with such an... unusual situation?"

Arthur wonders about that. "I know it can be difficult now, but just try not to think about it…"

"You want me to ignore your monst-" Draven stops before calling his son a monster. "This thing."

Arthur shakes his head. "Not ignore; on the contrary, I want you to let me do what you can't... let me help you take care of the people who are important to us... let me dirty my hands when you don't want to dirty yours."

"But what kind of proposition is that?" Draven is shocked again.

All this situation makes him very tense and confused, and he doesn't like the direction things are taking.