Shout-out and thanks to Leo_Micado for beta-reading this chapter.
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The girl barely managed to eke out a question before she collapsed due to exhaustion. Markus reverted from his rage-filled stupor and beheld the carnage wrought by his wrath. What were once robust human bodies had now turned into crumpled-up messes of flesh, blood and crushed bones. These were the first men Markus had killed. He'd expected a more visceral reaction, but maybe because of the pumping adrenaline, he felt absolutely nothing. In fact, he felt little sympathy for these dead beasts in human skin. They deserved this for what they were about to do- what they may have been doing even before Markus stumbled upon them.
Markus did not like being violent. He'd been on the receiving end of it for a good part of his childhood. But the world he lived in was not conducive to a person with a non-violent demeanour. Therefore, what happened today was ultimately an eventuality in Markus' opinion - he'd either take a life now or later. Nonetheless, his hands would be stained in blood. He was only thankful that the reason for that was to protect an innocent soul and not to further a selfish agenda.
"Umm, excuse me... ma'am?" Markus said while nudging the unconscious girl with his wand. He cautiously extended his hand towards her neck to check her pulse, when suddenly the girl's eyes flashed open and her arm shot out with malicious intensity. Thankfully, Markus was in the Foundation Establishment realm or he would have suffered from a ruptured jugular vein and eventual death. Markus moved his head back by a centimetre as the small, finger-sized knife that slid out of the inner lining of the girl's sleeve breezed past him.
"Woah! Relax, I am not going to hurt you!" Markus said while leaping a few steps back.
"Who are you? What do you want?" The girl demanded with a feral madness in her eyes, one that was missing when she was... being held down against her will.
"You had this with you all along?" Markus asked while nudging his eyes towards the dagger. "You'd have taken at least one down with you."
"The world isn't a safe place," the girl responded matter-of-factly. "A girl needs to know how to protect herself."
A sudden gust of wind blew through the area, dislodging the girl's torn clothes and revealing excessive skin. Markus coughed before removing his outer coat and throwing it toward the girl. "You should cover yourself. As night is approaching, it will get much colder."
The girl obliged without hesitation and covered herself with the coat, which was one size too large for her.
"Which way are you headed? We're moving Northeast, towards Radiant City. If your destination is along the way, why don't you join us?" Markus offered.
The girl narrowed her eyes and shot out an evaluating glare that unnerved Markus. He felt completely exposed in front of her gaze which was more invasive than an uncontrolled mana sense.
"Why?" The girl asked.
"Why... what?"
"Why are you helping me?"
Markus's eyes widened in dumbfounded shock, "Because... it is the right thing to do."
The girl's jaw dropped in disbelief before she schooled her expression with a knowing smirk. "Well. Thank you, I am grateful for your assistance. I appreciate the ride, but could you please help retrieve my belongings? It should probably be amidst the wreckage a few kilometres that way."
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The 'right' thing. Who decided what was right and what was wrong? It was all subjective. Only those with power could dictate the rules, that was the fact of life.
At this point, Shuri had two options. Test her luck in this unknown forest, or grab the metaphorical hand offered by the boy. She didn't trust him, naturally. But logic dictated that her chance of survival would be higher with him, so she took up his offer. He offered to carry her, as she stumbled multiple times with her still shaking and bruised legs, but she denied it immediately - she didn't feel like being 'handled' right now.
The boy wasn't hard to read, he practically wore his emotions on his sleeves - he wouldn't survive a second in the palace. But Shuri preferred this, as it made her life much easier.
"My name's Markus, by the way," the boy offered. He'd slowed his pace down significantly, probably in consideration towards Shuri's injuries. Shuri looked at the boy who had her luggage hanging over his shoulders and decided not to respond to the question.
"Hmm... I get it. You are suspicious of me. That's okay," the boy- Markus said with a shrug. "But I'd really like to assign you a name in my mind instead of referring to you as just 'girl'," he added with a chuckle, though that diminished when she didn't entertain that sorry excuse towards humour.
The carriage came into view twenty minutes after leaving the location of the attack.
"Master Mage," the driver called out worriedly. "Umm... who might this be?"
"She's..." Markus looked towards Shuri expectantly, but she ignored him once again.
"*cough* This young lady here was ambushed by bandits. Her ride has been totalled, so I offered her a ride to her destination."
The driver sighed and said, "The contract was for a single client. A second passenger changes the deal." He then reached to his side and retrieved a stack of papers, probably a contract.
Markus groaned loudly, "Alright, how much is it?"
"I can cover my share," Shuri interjected.
"No! I can't possibly-"
"It is the least I can do after what you've done for me," Shuri interjected once again. She played towards Markus' inherently kind nature. She didn't want to feel indebted to the boy, not more than she already was.
After some internal debating, that was as clear as day on the boy's transparent face, he relented. And with that decision, and the contracts signed, Shuri ascended the carriage and rested herself closest to the exit. She was feeling drowsy. And though she wanted to remain awake, especially when amidst strange new company, her body was not in the mood to listen. Sleep took her almost immediately.
____
When Shuri woke up, she wasn't in the carriage anymore, instead, she was laying on a plain mattress sized for one person. It wasn't as soft as her bed back in her personal hell, but it was far more comfortable than the barrel she used to hide inside, and the rocking carriage she fell asleep in. But that was all beside the point, "How did I get here?"
At that moment, Shuri heard a series of uniform knocks. Her sight turned clearer and she realised that she was currently in a single bedroom of sorts. Apart from the bed, there was a table, a chair, and a small cupboard, all within a tiny space. The knock was coming from the door on the far side.
"Excuse me, young lady? Young ma'am?" It was Markus' voice. "What do I even call her?" the boy muttered.
"Yes," Shuri answered loud enough for the boy to hear.
"Good, you're awake. We decided to prepone our rest stop and opted to stay at an inn in the nearest village. I had you moved up to the bedroom since you were sound asleep. Do not worry, it was all contactless," the boy assured. He started to speak hurriedly and anxiously, and his voice gradually grew louder. Shuri suppressed her growing headache and stumbled groggily towards the door.
"I'm a mag- Oh! Good morning!" The boy greeted midway through his statement of justification. "I've taken the liberty of moving your things into the cupboard there."
Shuri approached the cupboard and pulled its creaky doors open. She saw her bag placed carefully, untouched. But she was also surprised to see a new pastel yellow dress, following the similar commoner's style she was wearing earlier.
"This-?"
"Oh! I saw that your clothes... Anyways, I felt that you would want to change and freshen up," Markus responded.
Shuri placed the dress against her body and was impressed to see its size matched her.
"I have some experience purchasing clothes for women," Markus added sheepishly.
"Past lovers?" Shuri probed offhandedly, only to see the boy's face redden in embarrassment. He shook his head vehemently. "I was only joking," Shuri added. "Now if you wouldn't mind..." she gestured with her gaze which the boy understood as the queue for him to leave.
"I've ordered breakfast," he said as he left. "Come down before it gets cold."
____
Markus was entranced as the girl descended the staircase garbed in a simple yellow-pastel dress with her long, ethereal, silver hair set neatly into a thick braid. All eyes turned towards her and followed her as she sat on Markus' table. The enrapturing visual continued until the girl's food arrived and was placed before her.
"Slow down, you'll choke," Markus warned while moving the cup of water towards the girl scarfing down food like a hungry beast.
The girl chewed her food thoroughly and gulped down a mouthful of water and released an uncharacteristic sigh of contentment, the first sign of any emotion apart from dour apathy or cautiousness.
"So, what's your plan?" Markus asked. "Back at the wreckage, I didn't see anyone else apart from the driver. Are your parent's okay?"
The girl's hand paused, before she revealed, "I don't have any parents."
Markus hummed in contemplation. All signs indicated that it was a lie. No orphan could produce so much currency as she did yesterday. Most probably, she was a runaway. What was she running away from? Markus had many more questions with the intention of probing the girl's background. But ultimately he decided to go down another path.
"I can empathise," Markus said. "I don't have parents either - I'm an orphan, you see. Though I'm lucky to have a matron who raised me, a Master that guides and cares for me, siblings to support me, and a Junior Sister who worries after me. It wasn't always that peachy. I used to live in the streets as a child; begging, mostly. I won't bore you with the details, but needless to say, I am grateful that all of these people became a part of my life. They saved me from a terrible fate."
Markus noticed a deprecating sneer flash past the girl's face while he was talking about his family - a common sign of a person jaded by the world after experiencing irreconcilable familial hardships of their own.
"What about you? Is there anyone who you care about, or cares about you, waiting at the end of your travels?" Markus inquired nonchalantly.
Seemingly, the previous personal anecdote lubricated the conversation just enough for the girl to lower her guard slightly.
"No," she responded definitively. This was the first time she offered any information about her personal life. It was curt, but Markus was nonetheless impressed with himself for breaking through a barrier.
"What is your objective, then?"
The girl looked directly into Markus' eyes with a steely gaze and said, "Survive."
Markus could feel an overbearing weight on that single word - it carried with it many meanings beyond the explicit. A tense silence took hold of the immediate atmosphere surrounding their table. Although conversations continued nearby, Markus' world turned mute.
He let his thoughts wander as they worked through the many implied meanings of the girl's goal to "survive". Eventually, after a long ten minutes of pause, while the girl continued to fill her stomach, Markus snapped his fingers and asked, "What do you think about joining my Sect?"
The girl choked on the food she was chewing, "Excuse me, what?"
"My Sect," the boy repeated with a dead-serious expression with an expectant glint in his eyes while pointing at the insignia sewn into his coat. "Would you be interested in joining the True World Sect?"
