C (13)

"SUBARU!"

Emilia ran over the collapsed Subaru, with Reinhard and Batman not far behind.

Subaru let out one more smile as his eyes closed.

"No worries. He's been healed up now."

Emilia had finished using water magic to heal Subaru. She then brushed his hair as she gave a worried look. She then stood up as she headed over to Batman.

"I think I will be taking him to my place of residence, so that he can better heal."

"I see."

"I'll take you along as well. The person you are trying to see is also there, It'd make things easier for the both of us."

"Alright, then I'll have to accompany you and Subaru."

Batman nodded at this, as Reinhard walked to Emilia.

"I can always take these two into my family's residence if you wish."

"No, I want to personally thank these two. But thank you for the offer."

"I understand."

"What will you do about the girl and old man?"

The three of them glanced over at Felt and Rom who had not moved at all.

"Well, I would have arrested them as my knightly duty. But unfortunately, I am off duty. So I have my hands tied here."

"Hehe, you a terrible knight."

Reinhard merely shrugged his shoulders at this, with a bright smile as usual. The three of them moved to where the other two were. Felt saw them and became nervous about it. Emilia squatted down to her level.

"Is he your family?"

"I-In a sense. I see him as a grandfather figure. He's all I have…"

"Yeah."

Her smile brought some closure to Felt and so she relented. She reached into her pocket and began giving the pendant back.

"Here you go, but if it's so important, make sure you hide it better next time. You don't want it getting stolen again do you?"

"Thank you. But you should really stop your thievery altogether."

"Nah, probably not gonna happen."

Felt gave a bright smile to her last comment, Emilia and Batman could only chuckle at the sight. As Felt was about to hand over the pendant. Reinhard noticed it.

The jewel in the middle of the pendant was glowing bright red.

Reinhard reached out and grabbed Felt's hand.

"Hey! That hurts let go!"

"I don't believe it…"

"...What is your name?"

"F-Felt."

"Your surname? How old are you?"

"I'm an orphan, all right? No surname at all...I think I'm about fifteen."

"...I'm sorry but you're coming with me."

"Like hell I am-!"

Before she could finish her sentence, her body went limp as Reinhard drained her of mana. He caught her before she could collapse and carried her in his arms.

Batman faced him.

"Where are you taking her?"

"...I'm sorry Batman. But things have changed. Please understand."

"...She'll be fine right?"

"Yes. No harm will come to her whatsoever."

"Good, because then you'd answer to me."

"...Of course."

Reinhard gave a wry smile and turned back to face Emilia.

"I must go now. I hope the two of you will take good care of Subaru."

A strong wind blew around them as Reinhard looked up to the bright all seeing moon.

"This may be the last time we can look up at the moon and feel at ease.."

Batman and Emilia looked up as well, as the day in the Loot House, had come to an end.

Batman helped carry Subaru into the carriage. He noticed the large reptilian creature looking at him.

He learned that it was a 'Ground Dragon'. Emilia explained to him earlier that they were common all over and used to pull carriages.

While Batman was interested, he didn't delve any deeper into it.

Emilia motioned him into the carriage as Subaru lay in her lap.

But Batman was then approached by someone. It was a young lady with pink hair and pink eyes. She was wearing what appeared to be a maid outfit. She did a polite bow.

"Dear honored sir. In the place of my master I must thank you and that boy for saving Emilia-sama."

"No thanks are necessary. If you really want to thank someone. Thank that boy there, without him things would have been a lot worse."

She glanced inside to see Subaru in deep sleep while relaxing his head on Emilia's lap.

"Well then good sir. Shall we assume you intend to travel with us?"

"Yes that's right."

"Very well, we shall leave immediately."

She bowed once more as she took the front seat. Batman entered the carriage and sat across from Emilia.

He looked out the window as he thought about something.

Before he took his first step inside the carriage, he caught a glimpse of the pink haired maid looking at him.

It was quick gaze, but a sharp one. One that analyzed every bit of him…

She was scrutinizing him.

"Interesting."

The carriage pulled away, as the group left the capital and onward to their next destination.

The twilight moon shined above a small town east of the capital. A young man and girl were walking hand in hand. They were swaying from side to side.

They were drunk. They had just come back from a friend's engagement party and were headed home for the night.

But as they walked to an alleyway. They bumped into someone.

"Hey! Watch where you're going pal!"

"Yeah, why don't you…"

Before she could finish, she took a look at the person they were slurring words at.

And she was horrified.

The couple held their breaths.

His face was horribly scarred, a brown sack like mask was attached to it, as if by surgery, hidden only by a hood. His left eye was opaque white, while his right was an almost glowing orange.

His right hand had huge syringe-like knives on his fingers, attached to a glove he wore.

He was wearing a brown trench coat, covered in vials and tubes with a strange orange liquid inside. He was quite tall and was looking at them with an emotionless stare.

He took a step towards them...

"Are you scared?"

His low gravelly voice emanating from his scarred face, forced the two to absolute terror. Neither of them said a word.

"Well...your face says it all."

He lunged at them stabbing each of them with one of his syringe fingers. Letting the orange fluid enter their body. He then simply leaned on a wall and watched them.

"What the hell is-!"

Before either of them could react they turned to look at each other.

They saw a mass of teeth, eyes and inhuman screeches.

The couple attacked each other in a panic. The man threw her down and started to punch her, screaming as he did so.

As the man attempted to use his forearms to choke her out, he lost his balance.

She was able to reach out and grab him by the collar, pulling him towards her.

She then sunk her teeth to his throat. She ripped and tore, until she bit off a massive chunk of flesh from his throat.

He fell backwards losing blood at an excessive rate.

He gurgled the blood out of his wound as he tried calling for help.

The woman took off one of her shoes and began beating him to death with it.

By this point, other civilians heard the commotion and stepped out to see what was occurring.

They could not believe the horrible sight in front of them.

The woman noticed the others and stormed them while screaming hysterically.

The neighbors luckily pushed and held her down, as blood and saliva mixed with her tears. She screamed as foam trailed down from her mouth.

"HELP ME! PLEASE! HELP ME! THEY'RE GOING TO KILL ME!"

She screamed and cried, late into the night.

Using the dreadful scene before him to his advantage, the man had escaped into the shadows and ended up in the middle of the town.

He glared at the houses filled with slumbering families.

He cracked a wicked smile as he grabbed a large vial from his chest pocket.

"Let me gift this town with the greatest prize one can receive.."

He then dropped it, the vial shattering as an orange mist began to spread around him.

"...OF BECOMING MY EXPERIMENT."

Scarecrow stood there, watching his Fear Toxin spread further into the unsuspecting town.

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