Chapter 11 - Fear

Lydie accompanied Karato to his new dorm room, where he could keep his luggage and freshen up before going out again.

'How long have you been up for this job?' Karato asked her

'Me? Um ever since Michinaki saved our town. Our town is far to the north of this fortress, during the outbreak our town was completely wiped out leaving just a handful of survivors, I was among them. We took refuge in the old town's temple and locked the doors, children, elderly and men everyone banded together to save ourselves from the attacks, cowering in the constant howls of the demons. When the ghouls barged in and all hopes of survival were lost, I tried to fend off the demons as much as I could, but I was heavily outnumbered. They pressed me to the ground and were about to land the final blow on me. In that desperate moment Michinaki dropped from the top of the building with a flaming sword on his hand and quickly dispatched off the ghouls with ease. I owe him my life and since I cannot give up my life yet, I joined him into his conquest. When I joined it was only Michinaki and Gamuran, since then our numbers multiplied quite a lot and we also came a lot closer to the answers we were looking for.'

'He seems like a good man.'

'Yes, he is strict with his principles but we all love him. I do not know what your goals are Karato, but I can assure you, we all are heading to the same direction.'

Karato scratched his head while keeping his bag down on the ground.

'Um- I do not know what my goal is.' He said.

'We are all common people in the end, confused and directionless. Michinaki delivered me direction, a path that I can devote my life and my powers to. I believe you will find a path for yourself pretty soon.'

'I hope you are right. What do you know about the ghouls? Do you have any personal experience or encounter with them?'

Lydie moved inside the room and jumped up on the chair.

'Sit down, I will tell you what I know.'

Karato engaged in a conversation with her.

'I was never a fan of exploring outside my boundaries, but there was this one time that I actually went out of my way to catch a ghoul. It devoured an infant whole, right before my eyes and that turned some switch inside me, I forgot everything about the world, I did not care if I had to destroy the town to kill that ghoul. I chased the ghoul down to the end of the town, when I finally caught up to it on a dead end, I realized that the ghoul feared me. It had fear, and it felt good to see fear in its body, I wanted it to die like a coward, I wanted that thing to beg for it's petty, insignificant life before I kill it. But when I recollected my senses, I realized that it was the first time I had seen a ghoul so scared. They are supposed to be mindless and fear was not something that bothered them. Yet that ghoul running in fear and trembling till the moment I killed it had something to do with us.'

'Us?'

'Yes, Us. The ghouls fear us! They do not fear anything else, magic does not scare them, death does not scare them but coming in contact with a curse makes them sweat there pants.

'That- does make some sense. I had a similar experience before back in my town. What do you think they are scared of?'

'I don't know. I speculated a lot of things and when I said what happened to Michinaki, he scoffed and said that even he would be scared to death if an angry dwarf chased him to his death.'

Karato giggled a bit.

'But, even though I did not get an answer, I did not fret too much about it. Anyways, I am going to let you settle up in here for some time and catch you later in the lunch area, freshen up, use whatever you want in here, the whole fortress is ours.'

Karato freshened up and while he was changing his clothes, he closed he looked for any unhealed scars on his body. He found no other scar but one that he had received on a duel many years ago.

6 years ago

Karato had started his training under master Ichibei, the most renowned and experienced sword master in the town. Ichibei was fairly impressed by Karato's skills and realized that he already had the perfect form of sword play. He was deemed worthy of being the Ichibei's successor and was promised a job in the dojo, to pay of his daily monetary needs. He left the drama club and joined the dojo full time, but it was not seen in good view by the master of the drama club as Karato was the main attraction of his shows. Soon people stopped watching and paying for the plays and after that one day, no one had come to watch their show. This persisted for a long time, the constant loss of audience brought the drama club master to his knees, he went broke and could not pay any of his other actors, resulting in them leaving him. Drunk and broken, the master bumped into Karato one afternoon.

'Karato? Where are- where have you been? Hhuh? Come back son! Please I have lost everything, the people left me, my wife left me. The drama club is in shambles, I had to sell everything away to pay my bills after you left.' The master cried.

Although Karato felt remorse, he did not intend to go back into the drama club, instead Karato suggested the master.

'I cannot go back, I have a job now, they pay me well. I would recommend you to find a different work or maybe recruit someone else and do other shows.'

'How much do they pay you? Huh? I will pay you double that once you come back to me, we don't need anyone, just you and me together! Within months we will get the drama club back to it's feet. How about this? I will make you my partner, fifty-fifty all the earnings.'

Karato was already determined to work under master Ichibei and learn new techniques of swordplay from him, while working in the dojo.

'I cannot, this is my life now. I am happy in my current job, it's much better than what I used to do in the drama club, this life suits me. '

Karato was eating sweet buns, he offered one to the master and spoke. 'I should go now. My break is almost over.'

He walked away, leaving the master in total distress. The master cried out of pain, the loss of his club was too much for him. Soon the visuals on his face changed from pain and sorrow to anger. Deep hatred ran through his veins.

He turned around and looked at karato walking through the market and crossing the small bridge.

'You will pay now, boy.' The master said out of spite and followed Karato.