He suddenly opened his eyes and began to pant heavily. He felt strength in his arms and legs, as if he had returned to his former peak. He looked at his hands and found no traces of blood or wounds.
"W-what?… Didn't I die just a moment ago?"
He was taken aback, and his heart began to beat a little faster. He looked around with some anxiety, but he saw nothing, heard nothing, felt nothing; even the mana was unusually calm, far calmer than it should have been.
"W-what on the gods is going on?"
He sat up straight and looked outside, where the rain had stopped falling, but the bloody scene outside made him remember everything—
the death of the goddess Ilthara, the rain of blood, and the death of his wife, Margret.
"Ha… haaaah… haaaaaa…"
He clasped his hands to his head, his veins bulging all over his body, screaming in agony, in anguish, in grief, and with a newfound rage—a sense of betrayal, shock and vulnerability that drove him to the brink of madness.
But suddenly, a buzzing sound began in his mind, followed by a distorted, mechanical voice that sounded like a broken tape.
[Buzz…]
[Buzz…]
[Warning…]
[The host is experiencing a mental breakdown…]
[Emergency procedures are being carried out.]
Athtar's emotions suddenly began to calm, and the mana around him began to envelop him, but even as the system settled, there was just enough left to keep Athtar from losing his mind, so he began to weep silently there.
"Damn it… damn it…"
Clutching the rock in his fist, he slowly recalled his wife Margret, their life together, their love, the moment of their wedding, and also the sight of her head being severed before his eyes, as she pleaded with him to save her.
Minutes passed, then hours, and finally Athtar calmed down a little.
He looked up, his eyes brimming with hatred and resentment—the gaze of a man who wouldn't mind destroying the world that had robbed him of everything, and who wouldn't even hesitate to do so.
Nevertheless, Athtar could not ignore that blue, window-like thing that floated intermittently before his face. He had tried to ignore it before because he was not in a position to investigate it, but now that he had regained a little clarity of mind, he began to ponder this blue screen.
He tried touching it first, but it was impenetrable and untouchable; when he thought of it disappearing, it vanished, and when he thought of it appearing, it appeared. He didn't need to speak aloud; a mere thought was enough to activate this thing.
"What sort of technology is this? It doesn't seem to be from our era… Is it some ancient, lost technology? And what use is it, anyway? I reckon this thing is what saved me from death, since there's nothing else unusual about my body apart from it… And who put it inside me, anyway?"
He tried to think logically, but no matter how hard he tried, this system was beyond his comprehension by any measure.
[Warning…]
[Please load the Consciousness Fragment…]
The system also seemed to be malfunctioning; so far, the blue screen had been displaying only this sentence, set against a red bar, leading Athtar to believe that what was needed to properly reboot the system was a Consciousness Fragment. But what exactly was this Consciousness Fragment, and how would he find it? These were all logical thoughts that Athtar pondered in silence as he stared at the system screen.
When he tried to change the screen to something else, nothing happened; there was nothing but that cold screen. Athtar therefore concluded that the screen would evolve once the Consciousness Fragment had been loaded into it, and that it was of no use for the time being.
He finally decided to get up; he also needed to get away from the royal palace and the Kingdom of Kaivan for a while, so that he could prepare for his revenge.
[Warning…]
[Danger nearby…]
The screen suddenly alerted Athtar to a nearby danger in his mind, but it was far too late, for as soon as Athtar had finished reading the notification, he too sensed the presence of a nearby threat.
Athtar looked ahead coldly and stepped forward towards the cave entrance to see who the uninvited visitors were, only to find five formidable knights approaching the cave.
Athtar was furious, and his aura surged with some violence, causing the wind to stir slightly around him; the aura appeared somewhat violet in colour.
[Warning…]
[Emergency Quest]
[Successfully escape the knights and stay alive until nightfall]
[Mission Difficulty: Difficult]
[Reward: Location of a Consciousness Fragment]
As Athtar watched the notifications appear one after the other on the screen before him, his aura dimmed slightly. He wasn't stupid enough to rush headlong into a fight against people stronger than him; he was merely a novice in both the Body Path and the Magic Path. Only recently had he been discussing with Margret which path to take and how to begin his training, but what had happened had happened.
He let out a cold sigh, then began to walk calmly out of the cave. The knights were far away and wouldn't notice him as long as they weren't seriously searching for him—and that was how it seemed from the conversation he could hear.
"The traitor's husband is said to have fled south. Will he sneak into the Kingdom of Seiya? Or the Kingdom of Kanori…"
"If he reaches Kanori, it'll be the end of him. The king's sister is married to one of the senior advisers there…"
"The Kingdom of Seiya worries us too. They won't be foolish enough to let him run free, especially since the king has circulated pictures of him and the others…"
These words caught Athtar's attention sharply; he wasn't the only one being hunted, was he? Had something happened with the king? Some sort of plan to get rid of certain enemies? But Athtar was certain that, even if the king hated the Jones family, there was no reason to kill Margret, as she was from the royal House of Philip. Athtar continued to ponder, but only felt more confused.
Athtar slowly walked away whilst the knights continued their discussion, but unfortunately, he stepped on a small twig, causing a noise that made the knights wary as they turned towards him.
"Who's there?! Show yourself!"
When the knights turned round, there was no one in sight; a moment later, a rabbit appeared, scampering away from them. The knights chuckled a little, teased one another, and carried on their way.
As for Athtar, who had been hiding behind a tree trunk, he breathed a sigh of relief and quickly continued on his way in silence, heading in the opposite direction to the kingdom.
[Notification…]
[No imminent danger…]
[Host is in good condition.]
The system's repeated notifications began to annoy Athtar slightly, so he thought about making the screen disappear, and it vanished just as he'd imagined. After that, the notifications stopped appearing. He breathed a sigh of relief that he could silence this screen that spoke to his mind out of the blue; otherwise, he would have gone mad before long if this had continued.
It was dawn on a new day. Athtar reckoned he'd probably been dead for over four hours, or that the system had taken all that time to save him from death and heal him; he didn't bother to think about it too much at the moment.
If this screen was some sort of divine blessing that Athtar had prayed so fervently for before his death, he would gladly accept it. He could only link the appearance of this strange thing to his final prayer to the gods, although it seemed that one of them had died; Athtar did not know which one, as the kingdom had five churches.
"What a time… for one of the gods to die…"
Athtar continued on his way, and when he reached the edge of the forest, he came across a band of five highwaymen on the road, surrounding a small cart drawn by a single horse.
The two people who had been in the cart had got out, and Athtar could tell from the elaborate clothes of the brown-haired girl that she was someone of importance.
Let's rewind a little.
The girl, who looked to be about sixteen, was kneeling on the ground, her body trembling with fear. Beside her knelt a maid with dark blue hair and spectacles, holding her close to ease her anxiety a little.
The portly driver lay unconscious to one side, whilst the last servant, wielding a sword, was fighting to protect the two girls from three highwaymen who were threatening them, preventing them from escaping.
The elderly servant could do little; he was defeated by two of the young men, one of whom was a Body Path practitioner, and spells of a lower level had little effect on him.
"Hahahaha, just give up right here…"
The bandit leader landed a critical blow, and with it came a spark of flame that set the wound alight and brought the servant to his knees; then, with a final kick to the face, the servant fell unconscious in turn.
The girl screamed his name, but the sword pressed against her throat silenced her completely.
"Right then… won't you tell me your father's name? We're in a hurry, as you know, and time is of the essence…"
said the bandit leader coldly, standing before the two trembling girls.
"I won't tell you a thing! If you want to kill me… then do so… I refuse to live with the shame of betraying my father and my kingdom…"
"Oh, what lovely sentiments. If I were your father, I'd be truly proud… It's a pity I'm not—a pity for you…"
He suddenly swept his sword past her, sending her brown hair flying into the air, but instead of blood spurting from her body, her expensive, embroidered dress was slashed at the shoulders, sliding down to leave the girl in her white slip, which barely covered the curves of her breasts—which turned out to be rather full for her age.
The girl screamed in embarrassment as she covered her chest, her face flushed red, and tears welled up in her eyes as she glared at the bandit leader with hatred. She was a girl who had been spoilt by her father and had learnt nothing of the ways of magic or the body; she was used to living amongst people who always protected her. Now, she wished she'd listened to her father and learnt at least a little.
"Right, my patience has its limits… Next time I won't be so kind; my sword will pierce your chest."
The bandit leader pointed at the girl coldly, but her silence and defiant gaze infuriated him, and he raised his sword, saying "Right, so that's your answer, is it?"
But before he could bring his sword down on the girl, Athtar appeared from a distance, pointing his sword at the bandit leader. What looked like a ball of air gathered and shot towards the bandit leader, who noticed it and quickly dodged it before it struck him.
"Who are you, then? One of her guards?"
Athtar's clothes made him look like a knight, as they were the same ones he'd been wearing since his training, but he paid no heed to that and continued walking towards his opponent, attacking him.
The bandit leader noticed that Athtar seemed like a novice, so he smiled and dodged him slightly, causing Athtar to come to a halt in front of the two girls.
"Are you both all right?"
He asked coldly, and the girl replied with a slight nod whilst trying to cover as much of her body as she could with her hands. Her face was flushed with embarrassment at the situation she found herself in; no one but her maids had ever seen her body before, and now she was exposed to a large number of men. That was embarrassing enough, not to mention the life-or-death situation she found herself in.
Once Athtar was reassured that she was all right—and her maid had given him a slight nod—he turned his gaze back to the bandit leader, who seemed to be ignoring Athtar completely.
"Are you finished? Let's begin, then…"
The bandit leader rushed towards Athtar, but Athtar successfully dodged him and swung his sword at him; however, the other man parried the blow and spun round completely, pointing his sword at Athtar's heart.
Athtar crouched down, placing his sword across his body to deflect the thrust upwards, then stepped back after setting a trap beneath his opponent's feet.
The bandit leader was slightly taken by surprise and felt his foot sinking into the dirt; when he looked up, he found Athtar attacking him. Unable to escape as he was trapped, he defended himself with his sword, but this was not enough, for Athtar succeeded in stabbing him in the side, causing him to cry out in intense pain.
The bandits grew alarmed by this turn of events; they left the two girls and attacked Athtar together at once.
[Warning…]
[Emergency Mission…]
[Save the girl… and escort her safely home.]
[Reward: Unlock the Body Path.]
Notifications suddenly flooded Athtar's mind, but the screen did not appear as he expected; it felt as though a buzzing sound was touching his very soul. He ignored the notifications and focused on the fight.
The fight against the bandits was easy, and he had no trouble facing all four of them at once.
The only worrying opponent was the man with the Body Path, but because Athtar had trained to deal with them before, he did not struggle as much as the old servant had.
Athtar possessed the Magic Path, albeit as a novice, but he was more adept at using it than either the old servant or the bandit leader, so he had plenty of tricks up his sleeve to defeat the bandits.
After taking down all four of them, he turned his gaze towards their leader, who stood there trembling slightly; mere common bandits were no match for Athtar, who had trained as one of the knights of the mighty Kingdom of Kaivan.
The bandit leader was no fool; as soon as he realised victory was impossible, he turned and fled.
Athtar sighed softly, wiped the sweat from his brow, then looked towards the girl who was still kneeling, covering her chest, a slightly bashful expression on her face.
"Do you need any help?"
He asked calmly as he sheathed his sword, but the girl shook her head in refusal. Her maid helped her to her feet, and the girl clutched her brown dress above her chest, trying to cover at least what lay beneath.
"I—I thank you most sincerely for your noble gesture in helping me during this crisis…"
said the girl humbly, bowing slightly.
"There's no need…"
She raised her head towards him; her eyes sparkled slightly, then she looked away as she said,
"Are you going to carry on on your way?"
Athtar seemed to think for a moment, but after a second he replied coolly, "That man might come back to catch up with you, so I'll at least accompany you to the next town…"
That was his reply as he turned to go to the four men, then tied them together, not forgetting to search all their belongings and take everything of value.
[Warning…!!]
[A group of horsemen is approaching…]
Athtar was startled as he looked towards the end of the road, where a group of twenty horsemen from the Kingdom of Kaivan appeared, riding impassively towards the cart.
.
.
.
To Be Continued.