Sinful Pride - Volume 1 Chapter 25 An Unsatisfying Ending

“Lia!” Keita barked from a distance. “Comprehend Languages! Now!” he said in a haste.

“Um… Oh… Yeah…” Lia responded in a haze and started chanting.

The magic circle with all kind of patterns shined in front of her staff as she chanted the Spell and soon Keita was able to speak and understand Orcish.

“I came for your leaders head!” he shouted to the Orcs that were still silent. “And I am not leaving without it!”

He checked his blade. It was broken in half but it was more than enough to cleave an Orcs head off.

‘Unqualified weapon…’ he thought the words that came out of his mouth just a few moments ago. ‘What the hell happened to me?’

The Orcs were arguing in front of the fort. Their leader spit on their traditions and ran. That was a matter they couldn’t just ignore. Then again, no one had any ideas of how to resolve this matter. What kind of responsibility should they take for someone who was unqualified to be their leader? They couldn’t just select another leader to fight the human(?) in single combat nor could they ignore his demands. All of the Orc-chiefs were silent. Their enemy already gave a solution to their predicament but they were hesitant. One of them must sacrifice his life to appease their God and reward their enemy.

An Orc with bandages all over his chest stepped out. Keita recognized him as the one he threw an axe at, shortly before he fought the Orc-warchief Gorgash. He was young but he understood and cherished their traditions. The wolf pelt on his head indicated that he was from the Wolf tribe. He walked forward right in front of Keita, towering over him. He put his hand to his chest, showing respect to his enemy.

“I will ta…”

“I will take Wrath’s place!” another Orc said before he could finish.

The new Orc had a giant full blade on his back. He pulled the young Orc back and put his hands gently to his shoulders.

“You are the one who will unite the Orcs under a common banner. I will not allow you throw your life away in such a place.” the Orc with the full blade said.

“Uncle, you…” the young Orc replied.

“It’s fine, I will feast with your father in the next life.”

Keita was silent during the exchange of words.

‘Would I be able to do the same when a person important to me is about to die?’ he thought. He didn’t think he could. For all his words and promises of heroism, in the end he was a coward. He let himself be consumed in order to win.

“I will take back proof of killing you with me. Your head or your weapon, which would you like for me to leave behind?” Keita said. This was the most he could do, after witnessing these two Orcs.

The two of them looked at Keita stupefied. Without a moments hesitation, the older Orc took out his full blade and gave it to the younger on, pushing him away in the process. The younger Orc, looked at him with teary eyes. He hugged the blade he received and bowed his head to the Orc before running back to the rest of the horde.

“That was a good choice.” Keita said while using Shroud to what remained of his blade. “You have my respect.”

The Orc knelled, signaling he was ready. It looked at Keita full of hatred and malice.

‘Well I guess that’s all there is to it.’ he thought as he chopped the Orc’s head. It was only natural to hate the person who kills you.

Keita took the head and put it inside a leather sack. He looked at the Orcs one last time.They were silent. The young Orc was looking towards him with tears in his eyes. Tears that did not conceal his bottomless rage.

‘That’s all there is to it…’ he repeated. He made his way to the party where he was met with fearful eyes.

“You…” Anne started to say but didn’t finish. She didn’t really know what to say at this time.

“Sorry, Nao. Can you help me stand. I feel like I’m going to faint. Don’t let the Orcs see…” Keita said as his knees gave out. Nao took him by the arm and supported him.

“You did well” he said as he hid Keita behind Lia and Koba.

“Koba can you heal me? It hurts everywhere…” Keita said as his voice became even smaller.

“Are you sure I can even heal you?” Koba asked.

“Yeah… Right now I am human.” responded Keita. He felt his heart rate rising. He had no idea how he could explain all this. What would he even say?

“Wait! I don’t care if you can be healed or not. I want a clear answer right now!” Anne shouted. “Just now, that magic power that you had was a Demon’s. Even your appearance changed. You…” she took a pause. “Are you a Demon?”

Keita didn’t answer. He couldn’t really. At this moment he wasn’t even sure. He just kept staring at the ground. No one moved and no one said anything. Everyone looked at Keita for answers but he didn’t raise his head.

“Now, now” surprisingly it was Reika that came to his rescue. “We can find out later. Right now the sun is going down and there is no town or village in the area. We need to find a good place to camp somewhere away from here.” her voice was the regular cheerful one, that seemed to wash over all of Keita’s exhaustion.

“I agree.” Lia said.

They looked at each other nodding their heads one by one. Only Keita didn’t respond. Nao who was still holding him, felt him suddenly getting heavier.

“He passed out…” he said.

Silence…

“Pft!” Reika covered her mouth to contain her laughter.

“Hahah!” Slowly the rest started laughing expect Anne who seemed confused.

She took a deep breath to calm down.

“What the hell…” she said.

Koba started healing him immediately and the party finally started to head home.

* * *

There was darkness everywhere. Keita couldn’t see or hear anything. He shouted but no sound was made.

“You are nothing.” He heard a voice behind him.

When he turned around, he was stabbed in the stomach. His insides were on fire and he could smell his own flesh being burned.

“You are just trash.” the voice said.

When Keita lifted his head, he was met with a form that was all too familiar to him. It was Pride. The Demon who he used to be was right in front of him, watching him with eyes that radiated blood l.u.s.t.

He jumped from his bed covered in cold sweat. He looked around. He was sleeping in the middle of the woods. The others were asleep, all expect Nao who was sitting by the fire. He seemed startled.

“You up?” he whispered.

Keita nodded and wiped the sweat off his forehead.

“Get some more sleep. It will be morning soon.” Nao said.

Keita looked at the sky. It was still dark but the stars and moon were sparkling in a beautiful black sea.

“Aren’t you going to ask?” he said to Nao without averting his eyes from the sky.

“Are you a Demon?” Nao asked.

“No.” Keita answered. “I am human.”

“Hmm…” Nao made a sound fainting interest.

“Aren’t you curious?” Keita asked. He could not understand this man no matter how much he tried.

“Reika told you where we are from right? I learned it’s better not to ask such things from a young age. I don’t really care which are you to be honest. Only if you are an enemy or an ally.” Nao responded.

“And which am I?” Keita asked.

“You are a weird guy but I don’t think you are an enemy. As long as you don’t do anything to hurt Reika, I don’t see any reason for that to change.” Nao responded.

‘As I thought, I can’t understand him…’ Keita thought and got up.

“I’m going to take a walk, clear my mind.” he said as he got deeper into the woods.

Keita felt like being alone was for the best. The dream he had scared him. Just thinking that he and Pride could be different people made him shudder. Of course, he knew that it wasn’t the case.

He came to a clearing with a small pond. After checking that there was no one around he took off his clothes to wash himself. He went inside the water with some difficulty. His body hurt all over and his head was killing him. He tried to relax as much as he could. He stared at his stomach scar that he received back at Atestari. What foolishness came over him to hunt twenty Orcs?

“Which one are you?”

Keita was startled at the sudden voice that came from behind him.

“An assassin’s Skill?” he asked Anne. “I couldn’t feel your magic power.”

“I asked you first.” She said. She was fully armored and had her sword drawn.

Keita understood that she had some kind of grudge or at least a reason to hate Demons. He got out from the pond. Anne’s eyebrows twitched as he was n.a.k.e.d but didn’t show any signs of pulling back.

“I am human.” said Keita as he pulled up his pants.

“You think I will just believe you?”

“Then how would you like me to answer?”

“Don’t play games with me!” Anne shouted. “You had a Demon’s magic power. Explain how you can be human while having a Demon’s magic power or I will kill you!” she pointed her sword at Keita, ready to attack.

Keita didn’t move. His sword was just next to him to the ground. It would be easy to pick it up to defend himself but he didn’t do such a thing.

“I…” he took a pause to think if what he was about to say was really what he wanted.

‘F.u.c.k it’ he thought.

“I have no idea.” he said.

Anne’s eyes were bloodshot with killing intent. She charged towards Keita with her blade in front of her, going right for his heart.

Keita closed his eyes and didn’t move.

Blood dripped from the blade as it struck.

“Why didn’t you move?” Anne asked.

“I don’t know. That’s just the decision I made…” Keita answered.

Anne removed the blade and pulled back.

“Don’t think that means I trust you.” she said as she walked back to the camp.

Keita just smiled as she left.

‘F.u.c.k, that hurts!’ he thought as he clenched his wound.

‘I knew that she was going to stop before she hurt me, but she actually hit all the way to the bone!’

He turned around just in case Anne came back, so as not to see him in the verge of tears. As he was restraining himself from screaming he felt a source of magic power come closer to him.

“Did you enjoy the show?” he asked.

“Yes, we all did.” Reika responded with a smile that seemed to hide nothing.

“What was there to enjoy? You couldn’t even hear anything, hiding in that bush.” Keita said as he pointed at the other’s hiding spot.

They all woke up and hid themselves in order to see what would happened between Anne and Keita. Of course, Keita was able to sense them the a few moments after Anne appeared.

“Well, I don’t know about that…” Reika said. “Half-elves have better hearing than humans.”

Keita looked at her as her expression sifted.

“Pride.”