"Here, sign this oath, or I will kill you."
Seeing the oath suddenly thrown at her, Ivy was surprised.
Because, in her entire life, this was the first time such a thing happened in front of her.
She and her sister were war children from a city that was destroyed after the expansion of the Empire.
Because of that, their life was hard.
With their stomach empty, with nobody to rely on.
Therefore, they were always together.
Because they did not have anybody to rely on.
Until the point when an orphanage accepted them.
And they have learned something from all those times they have lived.
In this world, the strong always ate the weak.
This was what they had learned.
And thanks to the blessings they got after they had applied to the church with the orphanage, they were on the stronger side of the world.
After some point, they got out of the orphanage and became an adult who could support themselves.
Coupled with their strong poison attribute, it was very easy for them to rise to the ranks of adventurers.
And after that, everything went their own way, with an organization specialized in commissions to kill, giving an opportunity to have a job to them.
And the target they were aiming for was a young adventurer who was a rising star and a hot topic in the guild.
'Flash Swordsman.'
This was what they were calling him.
However, they thought those rumors were a bit absurd.
Since, how come such a talented person was living as an adventurer instead of applying for an academy or many other things that would go with his career, right?
But, now, she wished they had paid a lot more attention to that.
Since that adventure, they had underestimated just decimated the attackers they hired for the commission in seconds.
After that, he even killed the man who had become a Djinn, which they could have never been able to do so.
Which meant only one thing.
That boy was a lot stronger than them.
And, there was one another thing she had learned.
If you see someone who is talented way above others, either you need to crush them or you need to lick their boots.
And the boy over here.
He was the most talented bot she had ever seen, though she hadn't seen much.
'I want to live. I don't want to die.'
Looking at her sister, who was on the verge of collapsing, she thought.
"I don't have much time. Move now."
Seeing those ruthless brown eyes looking at her and them sister like they were about to move, she knew she didn't have much time left. (N1)
"Okay."
Deciding to let that go, she grabbed the oath he had thrown at her.
'What is this?'
And the details of the oath were nothing that he was expecting.
'It is somehow humane?'
Looking at the contents inside the oath, she swallowed her salvia and put her blood in hers.
Just like that, Callius got another worker (slave) underneath his wings.
*******
While all of those were happening, there was a young elven girl who was going through some weird changes both mentally and physically.
With her hand holding the dagger which she had used to stab the man in front of her who threatened her with her life.
The dagger was coated with blood all over.
The dagger that she used for the first kill of her life.
'I killed a person. I killed him. I killed him. I killed him. I killed him. I killed him. What am I going to do now?'
In her head, a lot of thoughts were going over and over again.
And soon, her eyes locked on the man that was lying on the ground.
"Burgh-"
And then she started vomiting the things that were inside her stomach.
The things Callius prepared for her while traveling….
You could see some meat pieces on the ground, filled with gastric juice that was covering it.
"Burgh-"
And the vomit went longer and longer until she finished all the contents inside her stomach.
The blood that was spilled to the ground from the wound that she had made…
Those eyes that lost the life in it….
The body that slowly started losing its color….
The smell of blood filling her nose….
The look that man gave her when her dagger stabbed him in his heart….
Those were the things that were inside her mind.
"He is no longer there."
Looking at her own hands, the thing she saw was blood.
However, there was one thing that differentiated her from other people that would go through this process.
That little feeling of comfort she felt under her subconscious.
Although she was not aware of that feeling right now, deep inside her heart, there was a feeling that she should normally have never felt before.
"But, I needed to kill him. Else he was going to kill me."
With those mumbles, she tried to justify herself.
But inside her heart, she knew that it was all meaningless.
"But I still killed him."
And just at that moment, she remembered something.
A voice of someone who was the target of her revenge.
'My daughter…. In this world, nobody can stay as innocent as a child. At some point, everyone will sin. The thing that differs is how you will cope with the guilt. Will you let it drown you, or will you be able to overcome it? This is what differentiates strong people from weak.'
The words of her mother echoed in her mind.
'If you want revenge, you need to get stronger first.'
And the words of the young man she had followed here.
'I need to get stronger. Stronger like him.'
At that point, she realized what Callius was trying to do.
'He left the kill to me on purpose. To let me understand the price to pay.'
Understanding the reason why Callius did not kill the man in front of her, she swallowed the feeling of puking that came over her mouth while ignoring the knot in her heart.
'If I need to have my revenge, I need to live with this feeling.'
Thinking like that, she turned her attention to the boy that was slowly walking towards her.
'Maybe, he might not be that bad….'
-----------------------A/N----------------------------
N1: Since Callius had used his disguise skill, his eyes were brown. I wanted to clarify this.
