9 years old.

It's been 4 years now since I was brought to this world and I couldn't help but try to remember the bits of the story that I had read.

All I could remember was the main character's name and that he fell off of a cliff.

I began to wonder who truly had the worse luck, as at least I didn't lose a family and a suffer such a great fall.

Though I doubt Arthur had to live with bandits and kill innocent people.

Could everyone do what I've done, or am I a terrible person as well?

Am I no better than the bandits I travel with, am still traveling with after 4 years.

I was currently resting in a tree one leg propped up and the other dangling down the side as I watched the bandits drink and eat around the campfire.

I guess I was a bandit now too.

In these years I could add over 20 adventurers to my list of kills and probably more than double that amount in civilians.

Admittedly I've grown numb to the pain that once shit through my heart every time I cut one of them down.

At the beginning I was able to pass it off as a mercy compared to what the others in the crew would do to them.

But now I could no longer hide behind that notion.

When my blade sunk into the flesh of our victims, no longer did a hopeful voice in my head ring out that I was helping them.

I knew.

I knew I was killing them purely to be able to live even just one day longer.

And I was okay with that.

Because one more day of living, meant one day closer of being able to rid the world of these bandits once and for all.

My foot was nudged from below, breaking my thoughts.

"Mal, come patch up Beedy. He caught in arrow in that last fight." Marco had come to get me to treat Beedy and I just gave a quick nod before rolling backwards off the tree to flip to my feet.

I followed Marco to heal Beedy and then went to my own private tent that they had finally gave me once I reached the 3 year mark with the bandits.

Thankfully the last battle was filled with nothing but men and male adventurers, there were no women to send to early grave.

We had been moving more carefully the last few months as whispers of high ranking adventurers and soldiers were looking around Cam City.

It was also getting closer to my time to retaliate against the bandits.

These past few years were not spent idly after all.

I had made the farm land around more thicker and more intricate once I learned I could manipulate the surrounding.

I wondered if this was my mindscape and with defenses in place it could prevent mind attacks.

Are there even mind attacks in this ?

That I didn't know, but I didn't want to find out the hard way.

Walls sprung up around the crops that surrounded the farm, moats with ever burning fire stayed lit.

The crops were set into a maze as well as the pastures for the cattle.

The house reinforced and littered with traps, I had no clue whether this could repel anyone from my mind, but I felt just a little safer.

Tonight was the night, I thought as I sharpened my blade.

As grew older and slew more adventurers, I had obtained a new sword and books on magic.

I knew now that the mysterious letters that bestowed my powers had done me a great service.

Usually healer, or emitters, aren't known for their fighting capabilities and they never have another elemental affinity.

I studied more in the book and found that I could learn the lightning mana that I had based my fire techniques on.

Though it mattered little as my proficiency with healing had gotten to the point that the damage the fire did was almost negligible.

The reason I had decided that tonight would be the night I got revenge, was because the wagons we had taken were filled with booze and gold.

I had snuck paralytic poisons into the barrels.

The poison was found through a series of trial and error, where I would ingest it to feel the effects and then purge it with a combination of fire and healing mana.

Not the brightest of ideas, but I damn sure wasn't going to use on the women and it was too risky to use it on a bandit.

So guinea pig Mal I was.

The poison was slow acting especially as diluted as it was by the barrels of alcohol.

I imagine it just felt like they were getting drunk, but it's not like I cared.

You see the paralytic didn't get rid of pain like an anesthetic, no rather it enhanced the sense while your body couldn't move.

As if the nerves had been cut from the body, leaving the afflicted raging from inside the statuesque body.

Eventually it happened, I began hearing the party dying down and bodies hitting the floor of the stony cave.

I peaked out of my tent to find everyone frozen on the ground in various states.

Some clutching their mugs still, others lighting a pipe, or taking a bite of some food.

They were all similarly frozen with eyes shooting about in the darkness.

I crept about the camp and entered Clause's tent first.

He was the strongest of the mages and the one I feared might could fight off the effects of the paralytic before it took hold with mana.

My worries were eased when I saw him a similar state, clutching a now empty mug.

His eyes looked relived when he saw me as they bounced around.

Oh how I wish the face didn't freeze as well became even the sparse emotions the gave off sent a shudder of joy down my spine.

I wasn't a bloodthirsty killer or a sadistic psychopath, at least I hoped I wasn't.

But seeing the same fear that he and the other bandits had carved into women of all ages even sometimes young girls if they were "ripe" enough as they called it.

My smile grew dark as I approached slowly and I drew my blade.

A double edged bastard sword that stretched 3 feet in length.

It was quite heavy for my small frame, but when reinforced with mana it held no difference.

I creeped forward slowly allowing Claude to further sink in despair as my sword approached.

I let the tip drag across the skin of his foot, splitting the flesh as it passed over.

The tip trailed up his leg to his torso and eventually his face.

Tears fell from his eyes as he looked at me pleadingly but I just knelt down allowing the tip of the blade to pierce his chest slightly from putting my weight in it slightly.

"Your times come, Clause.

And you'll accept it, just like all those girls did when you all took them.

I can only hope there truly is a hell or place of torment for bastards like you, though I suppose after living with you all for so long I may be destined for it as well.

Good night."

I said at last and forced the blade into his chest and twisted.

His blood began to bubble out and pour from both of the entrance and exit wounds.

I wrenched my blade out of his chest with squelch and wiped the blade on his shirt.

Stepping out of the tent with my blade to my side once more I looked out at the frozen bandits who all trained their eyes on me with varying emotions and I smiled.

I wonder if I could truly deny my sadistic side, as just the sight of my smile seemed to make the bandits shiver despite their paralysis and I barked a short laugh.

"Ha Ha! Guys don't worry, Clause is just taking s really long nap.

Here… Let me put you all to sleep as well.

Good night."

I finished with a whisper and began stalking my way to next closest bandit and it just so happened to be Beedy.

The man I had healed not 30 minutes prior.

Each bandit was killed in different ways depending on their dark indulgence of choice, meaning most of them got crushed genitals before being bled out.

Beaters, had their limbs cut off slowly before stabbed in the chest.

That was the one thing that I kept the same for each of them.

While this was a sort of revenge for the women I had killed to save them from the cruelty of these bandits.

This revenge was also for me, and that singular stab through the chest and into the heart was my signature.

I had made it to Tezar who had been sleeping underneath the tree I was originally sitting in, his eyes now wide and furious with anger as he watched me approach.

I grinned my grin, and watched as the fury built more and more.

I brought my blade to rest on his chest.

"Thanks for teaching me how the world works Tezar.

Now I can work towards ridding it of scum like you."

I powered mana into my fist and it lit up in a fiery ball coating my fist.

I gazed at it and saw the shock in Tezar's eyes and smirked.

"Yes, Tezar.

I have the power over fire along with my healing.

And I've been saving it's first kill for you."

As I finished my fire coated hand plunged into the center of his chest and I could smell his flesh and blood burning from the heat.

The smell was strong but I didn't falter as I left my hand in for a brief few moments until I heard the pounding of footsteps.

I quickly ran through my memory and knew that I had killed everyone in the camp.

Every single one of the bandits had met their death by my sword, so I stood there puzzled as I burned away the remaining blood from my fist.

Eventually a swarm if 20 people arrived and all of them were either mages of higher fire than my own dark orange, or clad in metal armor of knights.

"Who are you?" A man with short brown hair and glasses stepped forward, he had a thin rapier like blade on his back.

"Malcius." I replied and a smile blossomed on his face as he stepped closer, but dropped when I backed away.

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Sorry for stopping but we were already at 1700 words.

Will upload again soonish I suspect.