Cause of Effect Pt. 1

I wasn't planning on escaping, but the Darkened Path paid for all my crimes in gold to bail me out. For killing the previous Emperor, and everyone accused me of doing it twice, they know how to do their job well and better than the Thieves' Guild.

"Don't worry, former Grand Leader. We still got your back. Why didn't you tell us you were contracted to kill the new Emperor?" The woman in the Darkened Path's leather armour appeared before me, but the linings were purple to show her rank as the second in command, "You did it twice too, you know? So impressive! You never came back for winters and you never told us anything about it, I thought you retired?"

"It's… hard to explain."

"Tell us, please."

"You all are my family. I supposed I must. After all, I am The Father here, well previously…."

"The Grand Leader went mad, he had become corrupt with all the gold and power, and used it all on gambling and wine, and women."

"I see…"

"So, we overthrew him and we never had a leader anymore, we killed the bastard. We need you. And it seems you covered your tracks well, it took us a while to find you, we never did until we knew you assassinated the new Emperor."

"Look, I will explain everything, after that I am done with all of this adventuring! No more Thieves' Guild, no more assassinations, no more saving the world and whatnot, and no more leading some group again! I had it!"

I explained everything to them, but they badly needed my help even if they already understood my cause and side of my story.

Yet, it is a fact they are persistent in asking for my help to track down a bunch of cultists that façades in the Academia itself. I refused angrily.

I do not want to partake anymore of this.

If I have to, I will tell everyone about my side of the story in the entire continent of Arcadia since I am already taking accountability for the premature death of the Emperor. My crimes were already paid in fines and not even bribery.

Maybe this time I will just work as a city guard, since, after all this time, I never told anyone the truth and got married to a woman I desired. She works as a bar maiden at a tavern of the Hunter's Guild. All I do nowadays is hunt for animals outside of the local town. This woman makes the best mead and wine and takes care of cats. Her name is Pratha. I've charmed her a couple of times and find it amusing to see her giggly reactions. Since then, I have married her and worked as a local city guard.

That is until, well,… wyverns are starting to come back to life. It is a new issue. A lot of rumour is going on around that cultists are bringing wyverns back to life.

And some half dragon, half Norseman. What they call a Draconian race that dates back to the time of Vlad the Impaler, from what I've been studying back in college, is trying to save the world.

He came up to me with his big knight in shining armour that was never rusty and broken enough to show how much he fought for the cause of slaying wyverns.

"I used to be an adventurer like you," I said to him with an awful glare, "Until I went on one knee to the ground, and proposed to someone."

He was boastful about his power too. If only he knew what I did to save the world for the better. However, turning down the contract to kill the cultists back many winters ago was a good idea. Let someone else handle the wyverns summoned by the cultist to end the world. It's not my problem. I already did my part.

This draconian was so young and full of inspiration. Then, I saw something in him… it felt nostalgic as if I was looking at my old self… he's… he is my reincarnation!

There is this infernal deity that the cultists were worshipping, you see. It is an elder dragon with four limbs on the ground and six wings at the top. While wyverns are just two-legged lesser dragons with wings as arms.

There are other subtypes of dragons, such as the Lung, which flies without wings with small limbs like a long serpent, drakes, which are small dragons without wings but have four limbs, and so on. Wyverns are interesting. There are many races of wyverns. There is the bird wyvern, the dragon wyvern, the elder wyvern, elemental wyvern. Though funny enough, the bird wyverns looked like velociraptors since the first man had risen from the mud back when Voltaire told me about dinosaurs as the most ancient era before technology.

The brute wyvern looks like some T-Rex from that one dinosaur film I watched with my phone. The last time I used it was when Voltaire gave it to me. I still owe him, but I hate him.

However, I knew my soul was at risk of infernal damnation, so I went to find the draconian hero to confront him. But I will never make another vampire spawn like this draconian child repeats the cycle. I must end Voltaire's legacy and not carry the weight to pass on like a mantle for generations.

But do I really have to? Is there a way to cure my vampirism? Will I have to be cursed like this for all eternity?

I don't want to bother the draconian kid with his silver-plated armour that has his own problems saving the world. I've done my part.

So, I went to the college of Arcadia once more to study vampirism after being given the opportunity to vacation. This is not a vacation for me. It will be stressful work, worse than a guard that I fancy because it's better to stay behind the walls safely and do nothing than have to go adventuring that might get me killed.

Trust me, I've been almost killed multiple times by too many bandits and wolves out in the wild. Not to mention the little goblins that raped that one fighter as the little cleric child watch traumatized. Gladly that one resentful yet quiet and intimidating slayer killed them all ruthlessly.

Though, as I was adventuring in Academia. There was a slave trader who was selling animal-kin humans. This one person in green and white with a sword bought the raccoon-kin little girl for silver. I was disgusted about how you could sell children as slaves.

I just hope he's doing it to save her.