Two days later, they reached the academy; Emma was waiting for him. She saw him entering. Emotions welled up in her heart. She saw him growing up, struggling, crying; all she did was just watch, and she couldn’t even give a hug of comfort. Not wasting any time, she ran toward him.

He was looking around, his eyes trying to find her. Then his gaze stilled on her; a wide smile appeared on his face. He recognised her even though he had never seen her before. He ran toward her, then the land tumbled, clouds rumbled, then big Bombbbbbbb!!!....

— —

In the vast darkness.

A soft chuckle echoed.

’’They’re not leaving you alone. How pity they can be; they destroyed the whole world, just erase you..., but it’s fine.’’

’’I will send you somewhere they won’t reach, or even if they did..., they won’t dare to mess around.’’

"Let me give you something..., also you don’t need those memories. It is only going to make you desperate to meet your family; you won’t be able to live even this life. Also, this is just my mark on you, hump; you’re not using it anyway.... because of this they want to erase you, though it is protecting you from truly dying.. sigh≈ but it’s just a suffering for you.

And this girl sent her with you..., because of reincarnation, your..... fate."

"What they say in your language, The fate is Bitch, hahahaha..."

Live, my Victor; I’m waiting for you.

— —

In the middle of the night, everything is illuminated in a bright orange-yellow light. The village around him is burning; he can feel the strong heat of the fire over his skin.

With the crackling sound of the fire burning, he heard distant screams of the villagers and laughter of the bandits.

But, ignoring that, he kept running. Soon, he would be out of this village, leaving this troublesome situation behind.

But today was really unlucky for him, just breaking his thoughts. He heard another voice, and this one was coming from the front and was closer, much closer.

"Let me go!.. Let me.. go! Mama!.. Sob! Help...papa!"

In front of him, the man with a wide, broad back and a big, fatty body, carrying a crying girl on his shoulder. The girl appeared to be the same age as him or maybe younger. She was hitting her fists on his back, while screaming for help.

Why the hell is a bandit taking a 12-year-old little girl to the forest?

Other bandits grouped every survivor in one place; he thought they would sell them in slave markets, probably.

But, this one...

Victor’s legs didn’t stop; he kept moving.

"Sigh,"Why does this have to happen when I’m crossing through here... I’m sure some protagonists would rise from this village.

His hand moved to his side, grabbing the hilt.

The good thing is, he always carried a weapon with him. Probably every person with even a little bit of a brain would do that, of course, some overpowered oldies aside. If they exist. No, I’m sure they do exist.

Victor tightened his grip on the dagger’s hilt as he drew it from the old brown sheath that was hanging at his waist. Unlike the sheath, the dagger was new, sharp silver reflecting the light of the fire behind him like a mirror.

He was already running toward the bandit, so he tried not to make any sound. And that girl’s shouts and screams helped him to hide that little bit of sound that his footsteps made over dry grass.

The FBI is here; surrender or else. He wanted to say it, but he didn’t.

When he reached the range of the bandit. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

He strengthened the weapon in his hand and thrust the dagger in his butt. "Stab!"

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!"

"Thud!"

The man in agony came down to his knees. The girl fell to the ground.

"EhhhAhhhhH!!!..."

"Splash!"

Ripping apart his butt, Victor immediately stabbed the back of his neck; the dagger came out from the front with a lot of blood, ending the bandit’s suffering with his life.

Victor stepped back. He let out an exhausted breath. "Few!";

he was really tired mentally.

Placing the dagger back in the sheath, he looked at the girl who was sitting on the ground and looking at him with wide open eyes. She had already stopped crying, just frozen in place. She had sky-blue hair and deep blue-ocean-like eyes, which had drops of tears at the corners.

She was definitely not a simple villager; he had never seen anyone before with blue hair and eyes, not in this village, nor in his.

He approached the girl. "Are you okay?’’ he tried to ask as softly as can. But just as he stepped closer and asked, the girl came out of her daze. She looked left and right before beginning to cry again. "My Mama!., papa... they burned them sob!... they burned my mama pap... they.... screaming!... sob!’’

Now, Victor was frozen. He didn’t know what to do; he knew she was feeling worse, but how would he make her feel better? And they don’t have time. What if someone else came here from bandits?

He doesn’t want to risk his life for no reason. Yeah, they’re the worst people, but he wasn’t in that position yet where he could start fighting for good and evil, and start deciding who has to live or die.

Right now, like any other animal— survival comes first; he can think about morals and other stuff when he’s strong enough.

After a little hesitation, he spoke. "Um... it will stop hurting soon.. It’s stopped hurting me...

"Wah!. sob!..wah! "

ah?! Sorry.’’ Startled, he said when he saw the girl started crying louder.

He really isn’t good at comforting someone.

"Hey, hey! He bent down and gently grabbed her arm and spoke softly. "Let’s leave first... before more bad guys come... you don’t want to be caught by them, right?’’

"Sob!. sob.." The girl nodded.

"Good, you are so brave..." He helped her to stand up, then held her wrist. "Run with me. If you get tired, tell me, okay.’’

The sobbing girl nodded.

"Yeah, you’re so brave.., "

He dragged her with him, while making sure not to run too fast, so she kept up with him and didn’t fall or anything.

—-

Soon, they left the village far behind; from here he couldn’t see the red-orange light of the fire. Only trees and plants were around them.

They slowed down. Victor looked at the girl, still sobbing quietly, pressing her voice.

All the way, Victor praised her; he knew how she would be feeling after losing her parents. The thought that she is alone in the world would be the one scariest thing she is facing right now.

He tried to comfort her with some praises, and tried to bring the idea in her mind that surviving alone is not impossible. He knows there would be a lot of fear in her heart about what would happen to her now; even if it’s on a subconscious level, he tried to break that fear.

"hic!. up!.. hic!.., sob! sob!" But she continued to cry.

He didn’t try to make her stop crying; in his last life, he heard from someone that crying after something really bad happened is a good thing.

He wasn’t so sure how true this is. He didn’t remember if he felt better after crying. It’s been a quiet while since he cried; when was the last time I cried?

"sho!" Victor slapped the planet’s leaf away from his face.

Yeah, around seven or eight years ago when I first killed that guy.

He cried because he was scared, not because he felt bad after killing that guy.

That bastard tried to steal my bread... Seriously, he would be in hell for trying to steal from a poor child. fucking evil monster. It’s a good thing to kill that evil guy, so society would improve, and happiness would spread everywhere. I did a good thing. It should have earned me lots of good karma.. um right?

But looking at the situation he was in. looks like the good karma isn’t working.