A Hero With/Out Time

Chapter 2: My Mistake. (Part 3)

The morning after the Hero and her party led the town guards in a surprise attack on the bandit camp. Just before dawn they snuck into the forest and within the hour had them all apprehended. The bandits had been caught off guard but that didn't mean they weren't prepared, what they weren't ready for was the strength of the Hero. Despite having even more numbers than we had been told and far greater equipment for that matter it was near useless. As soon as the fight started Ardent and the Hero unleashed their magic. An enormous beam of light lit up the forest which could be seen clearly from the town. I wasn't sure what the spell did but it practically ended the fight right there. Only the stronger bandits were able to move after and even they didn't take long to put down.

Of course this all came from third hand knowledge. Why? Because I wasn't there. Why the hell would a person like me be there? Even with the Hero there had been a small number of casualties on the Guards side. If I had gone too that could have easily been me. The most I could do would be offer them some refreshments at the end, or maybe patch up their equipment. Nope, I wanted to stay as far away as possible in peaceful safety. I already died twice to them and didn't want that to be a third.

The result was we left later than usual because of the aftermath but not so late that I couldn't make up for the time. I was finally back on the west road and smoothly driving the carriage towards the border. Which thinking about it... I was driving to die somewhere else. I sighed and held the reigns tighter. Pina turned to me with a chirp feeling the tension.

"I'm fine girl, just keep moving, you're doing great. We'll rest soon," I rubbed the birds back.

I pulled the carriage over for lunch as I usually did and opened the door for the Hero. Her reaction wasn't what I expected. The bright eyed girl was downcast and while she would usually take the time to breathe in the outside air, she just slopped down into a seat instead. The others looked like usual, though Ronalt was mildly concerned. Despite my curiosity it wasn't my place to pry and I began to prepare lunch. Disappointingly my food couldn't lift the gloom from her expression.

As they ate I saw to Pina and looked at their weapons to care for. While they had been cleaned, the Hero's sword had traces of blood as did Marley's hammer. It was expected. A natural cause to the fight, however staring at the Hero's pure white sword, the slight blemish ached into my heart.

"Rain, can we speak?" Ardent's voice came from behind me and I set down the Hero's sword.

"Is there something you need?" I turned around.

"I heard you had some capability as an apothecary, might you be able to make anything to revitalise the heart?" We were quite some distance from the others but even so Ardent's words were spoken softly.

"Is this for the Hero?" There were quite a few things I could make. Most were like energy drinks, others affected the mind, and some I knew of were illegal.

"Well yes," he nodded with a complicated smile.

"Can I ask what happened?"

Ardent paused and stared at me briefly as if trying to pry out my intentions. Finally he sighed, "Rain have you killed anyone before?"

"Not that I can remember," I answered simply.

"Do you have any qualms about it?"

"Well that depends. Is it deserving? Is it in self-defence or is it simply murder? Depending on which changes how I feel about it but all in all it's not something that we can always prevent."