The Reward Of Defiance

Elish looked at the six soldiers in front of him with a calm demeanor so intense that it caused the very atmosphere to tremble.

He wasn't intent on killing them. If they retreated, he would have no reason to go out of his way to take their lives.

Nothing good would come out of starting an unnecessary conflict, after all.

"Huiwy wyei dhget nowur," the soldier whose sword had just broken said to him, still pointing the broken blade at him.

The disrespect irked Elish, causing him to instantly leak out a small frown.

'Even if the rest can be spared, at least this one has to die.' Even though he was a monarch, he wasn't immune to the ego that superior beings possessed when dealing with those they deemed inferior.

His mercy, it seemed, had been taken for granted by the ignorant man who didn't seem to fear for his life.

Such foolishness was beyond Elish's comprehension.

As Elish walked closer to the soldier, the armored man began to panic. In this frenzied state, the lanky soldier raised his sword against his opponent, but he easily evaded it.

It wasn't like the blade could in any way harm him, but it just looked so filthy.

The ease at which Elish was able to dodge the soldier's blade was only the least dispairing thing to consider in their brief exchange.

"Guowun dwiw suybk!" The soldier swung his blade more times, but Elish's cold stare as he watched such pathetic movements remained.

When he couldn't take any more, he leaked out a sigh and took a step forward.

Like a hush of the wind, Elish swiftly appeared behind the struggling soldier, and as soon as he did, his neck twisted.

"Weak."

The corpse of the soldier fell to the ground in a heavy thud, and Elish gazed at his body to observe the man's last expression.

Etched on his face was the sublime display of fear.

"Too late for you," Elish muttered to the fallen one, not that he could hear him.

"Ahayyw aywiw mksos wuwus wwsbu," the remaining soldiers ranted as they saw this sight.

They stared at each other with disbelief and he could sense embers of fear rising within them as well.

'What a bother,' Elish thought to himself.

He couldn't even understand these people. If he could, then perhaps he would have told them he wasn't interested in any further conflict.

Ah, but would that really be the ebst approach?

'They've already seen my face, haven't they? Would I have to change my identity just for these people? I could also use 'that', but it's better I hold off on doing anything spectacular yet.

In any case, it was annoying that he had to consider so many approaches in order to reach a compromise, rather than simply dealing with things in a more straightforward fashion.

'Maybe I should try something.' Elish reasoned as he stared at the five soldiers who seemed to have gotten over their fear and now seemed furious at him for killing their comrade.

If only he could understand them, then perhaps he would have been able to understand some of their dissatisfaction.

"I only need one."

~WHOOSH!~

Moving swiftly once again, he vanished and then instantly appeared behind all of the soldiers.

In one fell swoop, he struck down four of the five, leaving one alive—the one with the bronze armor.

~THUD!~

All their bodies collapsed at the same time, save for the lone survivor, whose paralyzed body stood in front of Elish.

'He seems to be of higher rank compared to the rest. He's clearly the best choice.'

Before the shivering soldier could respond to any of the madness that was occuring around him, or the bearer of chaos that was now in front of him, Elish grabbed his head with his hand.

His cold palm pressed against the man's dirty hair, but Elish seemed to have grown desensitized to the filth of the humans he had come to encounter.

'That feature should still be available, right?'

In order to adapt to any situation, Elish had devised means by which he would get by. One of such means for adaptation was [Memory Collection].

He could access memories of people and learn from their life experiences. Some information would be lost in the process, as a seiving mechanism, but the most relevant ones remained.

'To be honest, I was a little skeptical about adding this before…' Elish's thoughts trailed as he calmly observed the helpless man under his grip.

As a Monarch, he knew what all gods and men didn't. Even his siblings didn't know as much as he did in certain departments. However, due to the current situation, he was missing out on a lot of information.

That made him glad he included this feature. Thanks to it, he could start filling the blanks.

'And this one will be a good start to that.'

It wasn't the life of the man in particular that Elish was interested in, but the current state of the world, the language he spoke, and whatever information he possessed.

However, since this feature didn't have any option for selecting which memories he could take and which ones he couldn't, he had to access all his memories from start to finish.

'Overly mundane and repetitive data will be glossed over, but that still leaves a lot of unneccessary information I won't require. Still… it's better than nothing.'

Since he was a soldier, this man had to be fairly aware of matters in the land. That would make all of this worth it.

"Let us begin."

********

Elish learned a lot from the soldier, a lot of which disappointed him.

"Even though he was the highest ranked among the rest, it seemed his rank was too low to possess any relevant data."

It wasn't all terrible, though. Thanks to the few things he glossed through, Elish now felt less ostracized in the present world.

'There's still quite a few memories I'm yet to analyze, but I'll sort out the rest later.' Right now, he had to focus on the girl he just saved.

Once he settled on that thought, Elish twisted the neck of the soldier and disposed of his body by flinging it away.

To him, he was nothing more than a useless lump of meat.

"Now then…" Elish walked toward the brutally bruised girl, his eyes fixed on her deatures as his face maintained absolute lull.

Her ears were pointed and long, a feature exclusive to Elves and Fairies. However, she was not in possession of wings, which would make her an Elf.

But Elish still had a strong impression that she was a fairy.

'Even though I just saved her, she looks frightened of me.'

Who could blame her? Elish had just singlehandedly killed five soldiers effortlessly. The same soldiers who were too much for her to handle.

The natural state of a being who was facing a more powerful being is fear, and the fallen Monarch recognized that, hence he took no offense at her ingratitude.

'She was really injured. Should I heal her? Hmm… that would be good.' Elish began to stretch his hands toward her.

"G-grrrr!" She immediately growled, showing her intentions to bite him as she did to the other soldier.

"Pfft. Haha!" Elish found that cute and laughed.

She was like a wild beast, yet this being had a charming side to her that made the contrast all the more amusing.

The assumed Fairy seemed surprised at his reaction, but not as surprised as he was. After all, this would be the first time he would genuinely laugh in this new body.

It felt… strange.

Once again, Elish stretched his hand toward her. She initially wanted to bite but found herself hesitating to carry out the act.

"Smart choice," Elish mused to himself. So this wild beast did have some modicum of intelligence.

His hands glowed, and her body reponded by brimming with light. At that moment, a miracle occured—for the second time.

The Fairy's body began to heal, with all the wounds she had closing, and the parts which were injured glowing more than the rest.

"Hm?" Elish noticed something from behind the healing girl.

The brightest illumination throughout her body was coming from her back. His eyes widened at the realization.

'The brighter the light, the more severe the injury is. So that's how it is…'

This girl was indeed a Fairy, as he suspected.

'They cut off her wings, huh? That's quite a tragedy.'

Elish wasn't really angry at them for doing what they did. They were too low for his wrath, and their actions fell under the evils that occured in the world irrespective of the time and place.

It was all inconseqenttial.

"A-ah…" The fairy girl noticed his gaze on her back, and she looked away in downright shame.

For fairies, losing their wings had to be the most humiliating thing they could ever imagine. Death and defilement would be much better compared to it.

'I can understand her pain…'

Elish wondered how it had happened, what led to it. The cruelty was certainly not foreign or repulsive to him, but he found it a little curious.

After a few seconds, Elish was done with healing her. She hesitated, but finally, she looked at him and struggled to open her mouth.

"T-Thank y-you," she stuttered.

"You're welcome," Elish replied casually, not particularly moved by her gratitude as it was only a matter of course.

It seemed she wasn't letting her fear cloud her judgment any longer.

The Fairy suddenly leaked out surprise, most likely because he understood her. He had the appearance of a human after all, and she had just spoken in fairy tongue.

"Y-You understand my words?" She stuttered, questioning herself even more than him.

"I do," Elish once again gave a curt response.

Now that he had healed her, perhaps it was time to indulge in his curiosity a little.

'I will have her to explain the reason behind the eyes she gave.'

That was the sole reason he saved her.

He would have his answer even if it meant he would drain the memory from her, though he suspected it wouldn't have to come to that.

"Tell me about—"

Before Elish could complete his query, he noticed a presence, forcing him to postpone his plans..

"Looks like we have an intruder," He whispered, not particularly speaking to the girl.

Almost as soon as he uttered those words, someone appeared from the lush and thick greenery that surrounded the clearing.

Emerging from the forest's embrace was a robust, well-built man. He looked older than the soldiers Elish had just killed and was wearing a more distinguished armor compared to them. It had a bronze color, but with silver designs on it.

"A higher rank I suppose," Elish said to himself, quickly recognizing how he was reverting to his habit of talking aloud.

The blond man paused as he approached them. He looked at the dead bodies around him, even the leader of the bunch whom Elish had saved for last.

"Hmm…" Closing his eyes for a moment, as though in deliberation, the man's lips moved a little. The wrinkles on his forehead crinkled slightly too.

After a few seconds of this silence, he finally opened his eyes and rested his gaze on Elish and the Fairy.

His expression remained the same, despite the corpses around him. He looked calm, stern, and resolved, with his eyes bleeding nothing for the dead ones.

Elish could tell this was a man who had witnessed countless deaths and was aware of his own strength.

A survivor.

"You over there…" The man finally spoke, his gruff tone accompanied by an aura so heavy one could choke on it.

His gaze, like a hawk, never faltered for even a moment as his lips moved once more.

"... Did you do this?"

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[A/N]

Thank you for reading this far. The story is currently moving slowly, but it'll pick up in pace soon.

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Cheers!