Silence had always been the purview of the intelligent. In Bandiv, there was a saying; it was better to remain silent and allow people sow the seed of doubt towards your intelligence than it was to speak and grow the tree of confirmation towards your stupidity.

  Valdan had often liked the saying. Even the unintelligent could display some level of intelligence in silence. After all the ability to identify your own stupidity and mask it with silence was, in itself, a form of intelligence.

  The adventurer, Jaderd, was proving to possess intelligence.

  “What is going on here?” Valdan asked, repeating a question he had asked only moments ago.

  Jaderd remained silent. All it did was provoke Valdan more. His anger boiled within him, burning away at his patience. Worse, it was using his patience as kindle, burning brighter.

  In no mood to deal with a seemingly intelligent man in the present context, Valdan pressed the point of his sword calmly against Jaderd’s neck. It drew a trickle of blood that slowly caressed the adventurer’s neck as it crawled down his throat.

  Jaderd showed no reaction to it. He did not even grimace.

  “Understand this,” Valdan said in his most quiet voice, one he used when he was angry and wanted to calm himself, “I do not have time for anything prolonged. I have a task, and it is my duty to complete it before the sun comes up.”

  Jaderd remained silent, met Valdan’s gaze, undaunted.

  At the edge of Valdan’s vision, his interface continued to inform him of his fluctuating mana conditions.

  “Alright,” he said, making a quick decision even if it was one fueled by his anger. “Here’s what’s going to happen. I have no love for those who possess the [Cannibal] title. Your dead friend possessed it, and I am certain that you do, too.”

  “I do not,” Jaderd said with certainty, like a man willing to be burned for being a murderer but not imprisoned for being a rapist.

  “Hard to believe considering your partner,” Valdan said. “But it matters too little. I will count to four. If you have given me no pleasing answer, you will die.”

  Jaderd gave him a flat look. “Will Valdan, a [Knight of the Crown], really continue to violate the king’s law?”

  The question stabbed a hole in Valdan’s chest and he could not stop the snarl that slipped from his lips.

  Jaderd did not miss it. The confident smile that touched his lips was all the indication Valdan needed to know that the adventurer had realized what had happened. Jaderd knew that he had hit a spot.

  So he pressed forward gesturing at the corpse lying in the grass. “You killed my companion, in some cases, that is understandable. But I am a man unarmed.” He raised his hands slowly to emphasize the absence of a weapon. “And you have a sword to my neck. I surrender.” He met Valdan’s gaze. “Knowing this, will you really kill me? Is your reputation for honor false?”

  Valdan’s lips tightened. Not many people knew about the [Knights of the Crown]. The knights bearing the title weren’t necessarily a secret, they just appeared rarely enough that they were easy to forget or go unnoticed. Only those within the capital city remembered the title very easily.

  But here was an adventurer who not only was aware of the title, but he was also aware of the fame that came with the title. The [Knights of the Crown] were above reproach because their honor was above reproach.

  Valdan’s grip on the hilt of his sword tightened. It made his hold stiff, unadvisable for anyone about to get into a sword fight.

  “One…” It was all he could say. It was all the control he had.

  Jaderd’s brows furrowed in mild confusion. He took a step back, but Valdan moved in tandem so that the tip of his sword remained against the man’s neck.

  “You will not take my life,” Jaderd said with certainty. “Especially now that you know I am not a [Cannibal].”

  “You sound so very confident,” Valdan said.

  Jaderd kept his gaze. “Because I am. I know what you are, and what you are is honorable, [Knight of the Crown].”

  Valdan nodded very slowly even as his anger mixed with pain at the constant use of the title.

  “And you’re willing to bet your life on it?” he asked, then added into the silence that followed, “Two…”

  The tip of his sword moved slightly as Jaderd swallowed. “It is not a bet, Sir Valdan.”

  “I see you’re a gambling man.” Valdan pressed the point of his sword a little deeper, not enough to cause harm but enough to draw a little more blood. “Three… you’ve got one more statement before I have to respond. Use it wisely.”

  Jaderd inhaled deeply then let it out. He closed his eyes. “Those who bear the title of [Knight of the Crown] share in the king’s honor. There is no man more honorable than the man who currently sits upon the throne.” He opened his eyes and fixed them on Valdan with newfound determination. “It is known.”

  Once upon a time, while Valdan had been sparring with Aiden, he had commented on how Aiden was too uptight for a boy his age and how he should take a piece of advice from someone who knew—himself—and loosen up.

  Recalling what Aiden had said to him at the time, Valdan now posed the same words to the fool standing in front of him.

  “You know nothing. Fo—”

  “Wait!” Jaderd practically screamed into the night.

  His voice startled the air and Valdan heard slight movement somewhere in the distance, possibly an animal startled by the man’s voice. Still, the man’s scream had its benefit. It had stopped Valdan from discovering if he would’ve stabbed him through the neck.

  “Speak,” Valdan commanded.

  “This town hides bodies and sacrifices them to a creature hidden out here in the woods,” Jaderd said, surprisingly maintaining his composure.

  Valdan had lived on the streets long enough to know that someone capable of still being composed in the adventurer’s position had not surrendered. Jaderd still had plans of escape running through his head.

  Cataloging the observation somewhere in his mind, Valdan’s gaze moved to the heap of corpses on the ground before returning to the adventurer. The heap had not been there a moment ago until Jaderd’s companion had touched it.

  Illusion, Valdan thought. It was one possibility as to how it had appeared out of nowhere.

  The bodies were still clean, not rotting.

  “And you kill them before the sacrifice?” he asked, his anger growing very slowly. Now that he was getting answers, it wasn’t growing as quickly as it had been mere moments ago.

  “No,” Jaderd corrected. “The creature kills them and then we retrieve the bodies.”

  Valdan frowned. It didn’t make much sense. The bodies were too clean for their owners to have been killed by a creature. Or was their cleanliness only another illusion. They didn’t smell like corpses after all. They smelled like nothing.

  “How does the creature kill them?” he asked. If there was a demon lurking around, it was his duty as a capable human being to kill it. To do that, he needed to know all that he could.

  Jaderd shook his head, the action clear in the darkness of the night. “I don’t know.”

  “Jepat’s shit,” Valdan snapped.

  Jaderd waved his hands in the air frantically, as if the action would serve as a reminder that he was still a man who had surrendered. “I’m serious,” he said quickly. “All I know is that the only injury on them is a clean insertion in the back of the head.”

  Valdan thought about it, then walked to the side. With his sword against Jaderd’s neck, he forced the adventurer to move, guiding him in the direction of the corpses.

  “Show me,” he ordered when Jaderd was next to the pile.

  The adventurer hesitated for a moment before bending down and turning one of the corpse’s head to the side. Once he was done, he stood back up.

  There wasn’t enough light to see with, and with his [perception] stat’s level, it wasn’t the easiest thing to see. But Valdan was able to make out the hole in the person’s neck. It was as wide as his smallest finger.

  If his very lacking medical knowledge was to be trusted, the insertion was located at the proper position designed to leave a normal human paralyzed.

  Does it suck out their brains? He wondered. He would’ve consulted his knowledge of demons from the holy book, but he was not one for religion. His knowledge of his holy book was not even half as trustworthy as his knowledge of medicine.

  And his knowledge of medicine was infinitesimal.

  Melvet spoke of the holy book every now and again, and while he had smiles to give her and paid attention, Valdan would be lying if he claimed to remember anything she said when she was done. His smiles and attention had always been more for the sound of her voice and the intent on her face than her actual words.

  “What were you supposed to do with the body, tonight?” he asked. “Did you have another for the creature?”

  Jaderd shook his head. “We were to move the bodies. We got confirmation from one of your people that they were getting close to this area.”

  A frown creased Valdan’s brows. “Confirmation?”

  Jaderd smirked a little, as if he had been unable to help himself. “Not all subjects of the crown are as honorable as the [Knights of the Crown],” he said with a knowing look. “The king should be more careful about the people he employs.”

  A traitor. Valdan was sad to know that he wasn’t really surprised. Only one of the summoned was destined to save Nastild from the [Demon King]. With all of them being nothing but children, he couldn’t say that he was surprised to find some with no honor.

  They were just children, after all.

  Still, it did not mean that he would give the man the comfort and satisfaction of dropping that bit of information.

  “Careful,” Valdan warned. “That you are alive now does not mean that your life no longer hangs in the balance.”

  Jaderd’s smile disappeared from his face abruptly.

  “Good.” Valdan let out a gentle breath, hoping it would dispel his anger. It did not. “Now, I don’t care what you were going to do with the body. I care only to know who gave you this piece of information and where this creature is.”

  Jaderd shook his head. “No idea who the first one is, just got orders from the village chief.”

  Valdan paused. “The village chief?”

  What the hell is going on?

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  “You didn’t know?” Jaderd asked. His lips twitched in another smile, but he held his satisfaction back.

  “I did not,” Valdan admitted. “Who else knows about this? How many people are in on it?”

  Jaderd shrugged. “Most of the town? In truth, those who are not in on it are at least aware of it. It’s something of an open secret at this point really.”

  That was horrible. A town of cannibals that weren’t even cannibals for the sake of survival. They hunted their prey, killed them and ate them. Or, more accurately, sacrificed them to a demon and ate them.

  “Careful.” Jaderd’s words came out in panic and Valdan realized he’d almost skewered the man in his anger. “I haven’t suddenly stopped surrendering. And I’m cooperating.”

  Valdan stilled his blade, controlled his anger.

  “Here’s what’s going to happen,” he said.

  “I’m listening,” Jaderd was quick to reply. “Just say the word.”

  “First, you’re going to tell me where this creature is,” Valdan said. If he was feeling the demonic mana from here, then it was either very powerful or not very far away.

  Jaderd nodded. “There’s a cave within the forest. It’s not very far from here.”

  “Good.” Valdan nudged him with the end of his sword. “Lead the way.”

  Jaderd swallowed heavily. It was so heavy that Valdan heard the sound.

  “Are you scared?” he asked the adventurer.

  “Only a fool would not be scared of a monster an entire town makes sacrifices to,” Jaderd said without hesitation. “I am a lot of things, Sir Valdan. But a fool is not one of them.”

  Valdan nodded, not caring and nudged him some more. “Lead, Jaderd the not foolish.”

  He was already getting tired of the man. A person who helped another commit murder when not under duress was as evil as the murderer in his books. Jaderd was no better than the [Cannibals] he thought he was above.

  Without any further resistance, Jaderd obeyed and led.

  As they walked through the forest, Valdan could not help but notice the absence of noise. The entire forest was too silent. Even the rustling of leaves from the branches of trees did not stain the air. No birds chirped. No animals scurried around.

  It was night, Valdan understood this. Animals would be asleep. But that was not enough excuse. Not all the animals in a forest slept. And even if they all slept, there was a silence that came with life even if it was life asleep.

  This forest had none of it. It was dead silent.

  They walked in silence for what seemed like almost half an hour. Jaderd led him around trees and beneath fallen trees. They moved through thick brushes and around patches of grass that had no place being in a forest this thick.

  Valdan’s attention sharpened when Jaderd led them into a patch of the forest that was eerily too thick with plant life. If a fight broke out here, it would be a thing of difficulty to swing a sword like the one he owned around.

  As worrying as it was, Valdan couldn’t bring himself to be too bothered by it. He was a [Knight]. If he didn’t have a weapon to swing, he could always crush the skull of his enemies with his fist.

  The [Unarmed Combat] skill in his repertoire was not there for fancy.

  Jaderd did not try anything untoward within the patch of thick plants and trees. Instead, he led until they returned to the properly full part of the forest with enough space between trees to swing a sword properly.

  That surprised Valdan. He’d expected the adventurer to try something.

  In the night light, or absence of light, Valdan could barely make out much in details. He could see the trees but if asked he could not say in confidence what color they were. Brown would be the color of his choice, maybe black. But most trees he knew were brown. And in the darkness of the night almost everything was black.

  “Watch your steps,” Jaderd said in a quiet voice.

  Valdan always watched his steps but now he moved more silently.

  Jaderd stopped suddenly and looked around. Standing behind him, Valdan had no idea what expression the man had on his face.

  “What are you doing?” he asked.

  “Calculating,” Jaderd said, voice still quiet. “And please keep your voice as low as you can make it.”

  Valdan was speaking in a low voice already. But he could go lower. So, he did.

  “What are you calculating?” he asked in a whisper.

  “The distance between us and the cave,” Jaderd answered. “I cannot remember the last time we fed the creature. I’m very certain it’s hungry.”

  Valdan didn’t really care. “What does that have to do with anything?”

  “Well,” Jaderd replied cautiously. “If we get too close and it hears and or smells us, it might come to us before we get to it. We do not want that.” He looked back at Valdan. “Right?”

  Valdan nodded. “Right.”

  “Good. Now please tell me you have the [Stealth] skill.” Jaderd did not look hopeful. “I know all you [Knights] are all about honor and charging in headfirst. I’m sure sneaking in is probably beneath you. I can only imagine how much more a [Knight of the Crown].”

  Hearing Jaderd say the title so casually grated against Valdan’s nerves. But he refused to bring himself to stop the man. Control was an important part of being a human being. You controlled your emotions, not the other way around.

  Also, he’d been a street urchin before finding his way to the palace and the title of a [Knight]. He’d done a lot of sneaking around.

  “I have the [Stealth] skill,” he answered.

  “Good,” Jaderd said, returning his attention to the path before them. “Use it. We will need it to get close enough.”

  “Got it.”

  Valdan thought about the skill but did not activate it.

  “Ready?” Jaderd asked.

  “I am, but is there a reason you aren’t using yours?”

  Jaderd bristled, stiffening suddenly. Valdan couldn’t help the smile that crossed his lips. People rarely paid attention to a lot of things so there were people who didn’t really know this. One of the weaknesses of the [Stealth] skill was in the movement of the wind.

  The skill worked to mask your smell as well as the sound you made. At the lowest level and mastery, it hid you from the normal human being if they weren’t paying attention but not from an animal that wasn’t paying attention.

  As the mastery and levels increased, so did the amount it masked. Soon even a normal person paying attention would neither hear nor smell you coming. Simple animals, too. But you needed to keep raising it until it also had the same effect on those with their own interface.

  However, the higher a person’s perception, the higher your [Stealth] skill needed to be for it to hide you from them. Still, that was not the weakness. The weakness was in the wind. [Stealth] masked your smell and sound to almost imperceptible degrees, but you did not suddenly cease to exist.

  You remained a physical form that made a path through the breeze.

  “Would you be kind enough to use yours first?” Valdan asked as the gentle breeze of the forest night carried Jaderd’s scent to his nose.

  The fool smelled of alcohol and mutton.

  “I’ve always hated knights,” Jaderd muttered under his breath. Then he acted.

  Valdan saw the slight glow of light as it gathered around one of Jaderd’s hand and moved. His body carried him, reacting from years of combat experience. He did not hesitate. Honor did not make him dally.

  His sword arm moved in a blur and Jaderd’s voice pierced the quiet forest air as he roared in pain. Valdan did not hear the sound of the man’s severed hand hit the grass. Still, he saw it. Its glow died gently as life left it.

  Jaderd fell to the ground in pain, but rather than grasp the arm the hand had been severed from as most people would, he held out his other hand.

  Valdan moved once more. He ducked to the side and thrust his sword forward. Not knowing whether the man was trying to blind him or cause him harm, he only hoped he would be faster.

  He was.

  For the second time in a handful of heartbeats, Jaderd roared in pain as light gathering to a hand died out once more.

  Valdan had not severed the second hand. Instead, he had stabbed his sword through it so that an inch of it came out from the other side of the hand.

  Jaderd cried out. His body twitched as if there was something he wanted to do but could not. Valdan assumed his body was looking for a hand to use and cradle a hand. Unfortunately, it had none.

  With all the noise the adventurer had made, Valdan cast his attention to their surroundings while he kept an eye on Jaderd.

  He heard nothing.

  “You took my hand,” Jaderd sobbed, twitching in a very confusing manner.

  “Hands,” Valdan corrected perhaps too harshly. “I took your hands. Be happy I have not taken your head.”

  With a simple move, he withdrew his sword from Jaderd’s second hand. Jaderd barely concealed the shout that left his lips when it happened. Free from the sword, he fell on his side trying and failing to cradle his bloody wrist where there was no hand with the hand that had a hole in it.

  “You’ll pay for this, you bastard,” Jaderd swore between sobs. “I’ll gut you like a fucking corpse.”

  He turned his head to look at Valdan. Even in the darkness around them, Valdan could see his determination. His certainty.

  Jaderd smiled through his pain. “That’s if the demon doesn’t get you first.”

  That got a frown out of Valdan. Up until now, Jaderd had been calling it a creature. Valdan had only come to the conclusion that whatever the creature was, it had to be a demon because of the effect that the demonic mana had had on his own mana.

  “Have you all learnt nothing from history,” Valdan muttered in disgust. “The church taught you everything you needed to know, yet you willingly consort with demons.”

  “Demon,” Jaderd corrected, an imitated mockery of Valdan’s earlier correction. “And that Demon will make sure you don’t see the sun.”

  “Neither will you,” Valdan said.

  Jaderd smirked and raised his hand, exposing his wrist. “I am marked. It knows that I am not food.”

  As he had said, there was a mark on his wrist. A crescent moon with an arrowhead sticking out from its top.

  “We all are,” Jaderd said.

  Valdan wondered just how many people ‘all’ referred to.

  “And if you survive,” Jaderd added. “Then I’ll find you, [Knight of the Crown]. And I’ll show the entire kingdom that your kind is capable of death.”

  Valdan already knew that [Knights of the Crown] were capable of death. No one had to disillusion him of it. However, there was something that bothered him.

  Even as he kept his attention on his surroundings, he asked Jaderd a simple question. “You talk too much for a man about to die.”

  Jaderd snorted, growing accustomed to his pain. “I said I’m marked.”

  “I heard that.” Valdan did not ignore the adventurer. “The demon will not kill you, but I’m also here.”

  The man snorted. “I’m all but incapacitated, bleeding out. I am no threat to you.” he smirked. “You will not kill me.”

  Valdan gritted his teeth as annoyance bubbled up once more. Jaderd continued to spit in the face of honor. He believed that simply because he was currently not a threat that he would not be killed.

  A man with no honor held another man so firmly to their honor that he believed that he would not die. A part of Valdan was beginning to understand why Aiden did the things he did without batting an eye.

  Anyone who knew Aiden would not be this confident in Jaderd’s current position. He would be held by the chains of fear. He would beg for his life and the life of those he loved. Not because Aiden would choose to terrify but because who Aiden was could be simply terrifying.

  Valdan took a step closer to the man and the man’s eyes narrowed on him. He could see a touch of doubt in those eyes.

  If Valdan let him live, he would be a man who he would have to look over his shoulder because of for a while. Because unlike most knights, Valdan never dismissed an enemy that was still alive as harmless. He could not allow himself to do such a thing. The enemy would plague his thoughts, and he would always be alert.

  His eyes moved to Jaderd’s wrist where he’d severed the man’s hand. It was still bleeding out. If he didn’t kill him, the blood loss might. But the adventurer could also have a sufficient enough potion to solve that problem.

  Honor dictated that he let the man live. Truthfully, the man was no longer a threat, and Valdan had a bigger threat to deal with. But common sense told him to end the man’s life. You did not leave an enemy alive, all it did was create a problem to deal with in the future.

  Valdan frowned. His knuckles tightened around the hilt of his sword. He met Jaderd’s eyes and Jaderd met his.

  Honor, he thought as the world stilled between them. The honor of the king.

  Once upon a time he’d believed King Brandis to be the most honorable man in Bandiv. Now, he did not know what to believe.

  Honor.

  With the things that had happened to him in the last handful of days, the word tasted bad in his mind.

  “Honor.” His voice came out low, a slight murmur. As he’d expected, it tasted bad in his mouth too.

  Where was the honor in what had happened to him? Even the King had acknowledged that it had been wrong, regardless of his reasons.

  You do not uphold honor because someone else has asked you to, he told himself. You are not a knight because of your loyalty to the king.

  A knight was the most honorable title there was. At least that was how the stories went. There were myths and histories. Ancient Orders lost in ancient civilizations. Those had been his motivations.

  He held honor to his chest because he chose to.

  When he felt his foot step back, Valdan knew that he had made up his mind. A young girl had once used honor the wrong way, but she had not been wrong in her description.

  Honor did not bend. Not even to common sense.

  Valdan did not sheathe his sword as he turned and walked away, leaving Jaderd laughing on the ground.

  “I told you!” the adventurer barked after him. “I know you! You are bound to it!” He laughed manically into the night. “Ruled by it!”

  Jaderd was mocking him, and Valdan did his best to hold himself together as he moved through the trees. The man was either mocking him or drawing the attention of the demon.

  Or both.

  So Valdan moved quietly with a frown on his face and a slight anger towards himself. He did not have to deal with the demon now. He only had to remember this place. Then, once the sun was up, he could return with Sir Thompfer, Aiden, and whoever else wished to help. Hopefully, the princess would’ve found them.

  As he moved deeper into the forest, slashing quick marks along the barks of trees with his sword as Jaderd’s voice faded into the distance, Valdan could not help but feel a pang in his chest.

  All [Knights of the Crown] were meant to be bound by honor. It was what set them above everyone else.

  Valdan smiled sadly at the thought. It was something he had always told himself.

  And you still tell yourself that, he thought in self-mockery.

  It was rich coming from him. Stupid, perhaps.

  If [Knights of the Crown] were bound to honor, what did that make him?

  He had just spared the life of a man that was sure to be a threat in the future. The reality of what he had done weighed heavier on him with every tree he passed, every grass he stepped on, every slash of his sword that marked his path. Even now, he could feel the itch, the daring urge to look over his shoulder.

  He had had every reason to kill the man, but he had not. He had blamed it on honor, but what if it hadn’t really been honor. What if it had simply been fear. Fear of doing something different, of doing something without a code to guide him.

  A code all [Knights of the Crown] knew and were guided by.

  So, it begged the question. Now that he was no longer a [Knight of the Crown], was he still bound to honor…

  … or had he simply become a slave to it?

  Plagued as his mind was with his unhealthy self-doubt, his instincts were not dull. His feet came to an immediate stop, and he crouched into a ready position. He’d heard something and it had captured his attention.

  He waited, silent as the dead, and listened.

  When the sound came again, it was unmistakable.

  It was a low and slow hiss of something serpentine.

  Inhaling a slow breath, Valdan prepared himself for what would come next. It seemed that Jaderd was right about one thing.

  The demon had found him.

  …

  The blood had since dried. It was not comfortable, but it was still more comfortable than it had been when it had been wet.

  But that was the least of Aiden’s worries.

  It had taken almost half an hour to sneak his way through the town and around the buildings. Almost half an hour to get to where he was now.

  So, armed with nothing but the swords at his waist and improvised enchanted items in the way of small rocks and broken items he could find around with the help of [Unarmed Engrave], Aiden stood at his destination.

  The edge of the forest.

  If he was lucky, he could be done and cleaned up by sunrise. Finding Ted would hopefully not be a time-consuming task.

  For now, he had a matter that piqued his interest.

  It was time, it seemed, to hunt down a demon.