Aeren stared at the girl who had asked about him and clearly knew who he was. He watched her for a few seconds as she worked on the body she had killed, using her mana to heal the wound and hide what she had done.
She was concealing the wound with her mana. Within seconds, the wound closed, and she looked at Aeren again.
"I came here for someone else's freedom," Aeren said, still looking at her.
The girl glared at him, looked at Aeren's wanted poster, then at the real Aeren standing opposite his own poster. She turned her head to the guards traveling around the area, but no one paid attention to this particular spot.
She began to doubt the meaning of this poster and shook her head, looking at Aeren again.
"You promised me something, right? Don't forget that."
She said those words and left him there. The body dropped to the ground.
Aeren noticed the body but ignored it, staring at his own poster. He saw his bounty: 1000 gold coins. A few people came and looked at Aeren's poster and others, but they didn't suspect him.
A few minutes later, as he was about to leave, he heard a child's voice.
"Is this you, uncle?"
Aeren looked down at the child. He appeared chubby and came up to Aeren's leg height. The child was looking at the poster, which was higher than his height, but he could still see it and had even recognized Aeren.
Aeren looked at the child and thought, This child has quite a future, but it's a shame.
Keeping his eyes on the child, Aeren said, "Yeah, that's me."
The child looked at Aeren again, then at the poster. He glanced at bounty hunters who were also staring at the poster and listening to their conversation, but no one reacted yet. They were all patiently waiting for the right moment.
"Are you a bad guy, uncle?"
Aeren looked at the child, who was staring at him with big eyes. He had seen many children in his life and spoken to them. They always asked if he was bad or good.
But no one had ever asked what "bad" and "good" meant. Even when they did ask about good and bad, they never truly understood.
Good and bad had no real meaning in this world. What you wanted to see and wanted to believe—that was what truly defined bad and good.
So Aeren looked at him and asked, "What do you think is bad?"
All the bounty hunters and even guards had circled Aeren, but he was asking questions to the child. The child saw their surroundings—he saw the people who had surrounded them. He didn't cry, just watched the scene around him.
"If you do bad things, you're bad. If you do good things, you're good. Like if you kill people or take things from people, those are bad things. Good things are helping others and protecting your family and people you love."
The child looked at Aeren and said those words while everyone listened to their conversation, though they hadn't done anything yet.
Aeren nodded. In common sense, it was right. But was it really right?
"What if people kill another person for their family? Or what if people steal from others to protect their family or friends? Are they good or bad?"
The child hadn't thought of it like this and didn't know the answer, so he looked at the others who had circled both of them.
But how could they answer? There was no answer. The world had no answer for good and bad. But someone stepped forward: "He's good for his family and loved ones, but he's a criminal to the world."
Aeren stared at the man. "Exactly. There is no one good and bad." Aeren crouched and grabbed the child's hands, saying, "There are no good and no bad people. There are only people who want to see this as good and this as bad. If you don't like someone, you'll think he's bad, but to others he's good. Don't judge people as good and bad, because all human beings are the same—puppets."
Aeren looked around, paused briefly, and continued, "Some people have seen some things, others haven't seen them. This is the difference between humans. They're all the same puppets you see in every corner of every place. They behave differently because of their knowledge. That's why you feel they're different, but all humans are the same puppets playing around with you."
As Aeren finished his sentence, the child's hands were still in his grasp. In one swift motion, he twisted the child's neck and threw the body toward the crowd.
Everyone saw this and began to fear Aeren.
But one person stepped forward. "You monster!" he screamed and shot an arrow, but Aeren dodged it.
The hunters stared at Aeren, but no one wanted to fight him in close combat. Aeren looked at several people and waited for others to attack him, but no one did.
Aeren began slashing at them. Several people lost their heads, and body parts separated from their bodies.
"AHHAHAHHHAHHHH... My leggggggggg!"
"AHHHH my han... d!"
"He cut me in half!"
All the hunters started running away from Aeren. He didn't follow them and let them leave. Aeren also departed from that place.
As he walked down the road with everyone running, Aeren didn't care about any of them and vanished into thin air.
"AHHHHA... My child... sobbb..." The child's mother saw her child's body and started crying and screaming, looking around. "Who... sobb... di... d... this... to... my chi... ld?"
Others around were also screaming and crying for their husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, and girlfriends. They all sought vengeance and wanted to kill whoever had murdered their family, friends, and loved ones.
But they had no power to fight. That's why they were crying.
"I'll kill him..." Roan saw this too. He knew who had done all this. He could hear their screams, heard his own screams in theirs, and began thinking about his family.
Roan had always wanted to see this, but now he doubted whether he really wanted to witness such things.
Seeing this scene, Roan added one more name to his list: Aeren.
Roan wanted to kill Aeren and avenge these families, friends, and loved ones.