Chapter 6 - First drop of blood

When Thales regained his consciousness, Clyde was strangling his throat and holding him in mid-air.

He struggled and tried to clutch at the hands of Clyde that were around his neck, still, none of his strength seemed to make any difference.

He desperately opened his mouth wider but wasn't able to breathe in even a little air.

His feet were kicking nonstop.

His head began to faint.

In his ears, all the sounds came to him like they were from across a thick layer of cloth. Carina was crying out loud, Ryan shrunk himself in the wall and trembled, Kelly was sitting dumbfounded in front of his wall hole, mumbling something.

Clint and Ned were angrily screaming while they rushed to him fearlessly. One of them clung tightly on Clyde's thigh while the other punched Clyde's stomach with his small hand.

Clint was sent flying backward. He knocked down the water tank and spilled the water all over the small yard.

Ned was fiercely kicked. He screamed then fell onto the ground, unable to stand up.

Thales didn't have the time and the mood to be amazed at Ned's courage or Kelly and Ryan's cowardice (as he did predict what Clint would do) He stubbornly scratched Clyde's hands from the frontal side to the behind of his neck with his fingernails.

He wanted to break free, he wanted to breathe in some air.

Suddenly, his fingernails hooked onto something on the back of Clyde's right hand, like it was pulling out the inside of a hollow wound.

Tires didn't hesitate. With his face had been choked to red, he desperately thrust his fingernails into it.

"Argh!"

Clyde uttered a heart-wrenching scream, loosened the iron-grip hands and fiercely tossed Thales onto the wall.

A dizzy head along with a sore throat were only what Thales could felt. Leaning against the wall, he could not help but started coughing.

Clyde clutched his right hand. Upon it the pierced wound which was caused by Yara's knife had begun to bleed again.

"d.a.m.n you Yara Surrey! d.a.m.n you little imps!"

Trying to endure his pain, Clyde roared while the wrath and drunkenness in his mind had risen at the same time.

"Snapped!"

Clyde instantly turned to his back, only to see that the 17th house's Anson were crawling to escape to the door. But since it was kicked opened by Clyde recently, the door couldn't support his weight and got broken apart.

"Hah ha, do you want to flee?"

Clyde ginned, leaped to the kid and grabbed Anson's left leg.

"No, I don't want to!"

Anson cried, hung upside down by Clyde.

"Hey little imp, have you ever hammered hot iron? Have you? No? Hah ha, never mind, let me teach you!"

Thales painfully managed to stand up. But he was only there in time to see Clyde, holding Anson's left leg in his hands, swung the child over and smashed his head against the wall behind his back.

Thales could only instinctively dodge to the side.

The sound of something being crushed came over to his head, like that time when Thales heard a vendor of Ellek fruits and vegetables broke open a melon.

That's right, it's the vendor whom they stole the Highmoon G.o.ddess statue from.

Carina's cry became a harsh scream.

Thales froze there, he couldn't close his eyes in time.

The red and white liquid splas.h.i.+ng on Thales's face were both warm and cold.

As Ned stood up from the ground and saw it all, he cried out loud and stumblingly ran toward the dog hole that led to the 17th House.

Clyde opened his mouth, took in a deep breath and had a look of enamored as if what he inhaled wasn't the air but some top grade black pine wine. The devil-in-human-skin then turned his head, dropped the rest of Anson's body, and angrily grinned at Ned's direction.

At that moment, what Thales was thinking about was that Ned, that little small and agile kid, would surely have gotten through the dog hole before Clyde could grab him.

Get to the other side, everything will be fine.

Get to the other side, it will be safe.

Get to the other side.

Get to it.

Alas, get to it.

But before half of Ned's body could make it, Clyde had already grabbed Ned's legs.

"Aren't you the kid who doesn't even have "payment" money?"

Clyde guffawed: "Then what use do you have?"

Ned cried out loud while he was dragged out of the hole by Clyde.

"Cry more, your cry doesn't sound tragic enough hah ha - Unfortunately, it's a pity that the water tank is broken - well, you can't play catching fish now."

Clyde shook his head to drive out the dizziness caused by alcohol in his brain, looked at Clint who just awakened and the water tank beside him, mumbling.

"Let make it simple."

While Ned was crying and kicking, Clyde threw him to the ground, then lifted his right foot above the center of the six-year-old beggar's back, and severely trampled upon it.

"Don't--!"

"Smashed! Cracked!"

What came at the same time of Thales's piercing roar was a heart-breaking crisped sound.

Everything in front of Thales's eyes went blurred.

"Smashed!"

That was Clyde's second kick.

"Smashed!"

The third kick.

Clint screamed, with the greatest strength of his life he grabbed a sharp fragment of the tank and rushed to Clyde.

Clyde just guffawed and kicked the fragment out of Clint's hand, then grabbed the burlap collar of Clint's s.h.i.+rt and also lifted him up.

So it turns out, I cannot do anything.

Thales lowered his head.

In the corner, Anson's body was still silently but horrifyingly twitching. Ned lied face down on the ground, motionless.

I thought I was protecting these children.

But I cannot do anything.

Cannot do anything.

Clint continued to angrily scream and kick Clyde, while the latter's increasingly high-pitched laughter sounded worsen and worsen.

"You little imp, scream, scream for me hah ha, I like to hear your scream the most. Maybe if it made my mood better, I will let you go."

Thales's vision became cloudy, a familiar scene came back to his brain.

"The deviant behavior, which is what we call human's behaviors that are contrary to social norms. While most people are used to call it crime, but we must know that crime is only a very small part of the deviant behavior - What we should concern about isn't the behavior itself, but the signification and the a.n.a.lysis of this behavior at social level and collective level. Durkheim, one of the first scholars who proposal social norms study very early, also looked at deviant behavior from the angle of functionalism -"

"There is a viewpoint, that the law enforcement and punishment of deviants is one of the basic means by which the authority shapes the people and the social structure -"

That was a memory fragment from Thales' past lives which he recovered just a moment ago.

"Devil! You devil!"

Just then, the sound of Clint angrily screaming and kicking at the other side had dispersed the cloudy vision of Thales.

"Yes! I am a devil!" Clyde ridiculed, "Say, how will a devil mold you?"

Thales took a deep breath.

You d.a.m.n b.a.s.t.a.r.d.

His mind had never been so clear.

He knew what to do.

He should do it.

He clenched his teeth and rushed to the corner.

He knew.

Thales grabbed the stone slab at the corner and fiercely lifted it, then thrust his hand into a hidden hole behind it.

Hurry up.

Hurry up and let me reach to it.

"Fine, looking at you being so brave, I will leave you tills the end."

Clyde's laughs made his mouth deformed. He fiercely dragged Clint's right thigh until the latter's lips turned pale, until -

"Ka- Krank!"

- until it dislocated.

Clyde then threw Clint down, and even severely stepped on the leg which has been dislocated.

The sound of Clint trying to suppress but still couldn't bear the miserable pain spread to Thales's, making him fasten the searching speed.

Clyde left the small yard and walked toward the shabby house.

From the half collapsed roof, the fallen bright moonlight s.h.i.+ned onto the grinning face of Clyde.

Ryan held his arms tightly while his eyes stared at the floor under his feet, trying his best to shrink his body a little deeper into the wall hole.

Kelly tremblingly got out of the wall hole. He wanted to pull Carina with him, who already cried herself hoa.r.s.e, so they could run away together.

But Carina seemed to be scared to the point of being petrified. She could only quietly sob and still didn't move.

Kelly didn't even dare to look at other side where Clint was. He kept praying while pulling Carina.

Suddenly, Carina looked up sharply and bleated like a little lost lamb.

Kelly realized something. Just as he turned around, he saw the grinning face of Clyde.

He could only felt his crotch started to get moist.

Caught it!

Thales finally grabbed what he wanted and fiercely pulled it out for a strike.

And then.

And then?

And then his right arm was grabbed by a delightful Clyde from behind his back.

"Do you think I would forget about you? Imp? I know that you are the most cunning, the most treacherous one out of these little jerks! Hah ha!" Clyde slowly clenched the grip and smiled proudly.

Please don't.

Thales, feeling the tightening pain on his right arm, struggled to turn his body around as he wanted to stab Clyde with the object on his left hand.

"Oh!" Clyde looked like he just discovered some kind of treasure while his body dodged Thales's thrust.

Then, from the boy's left hand, he took out that object.

"A hand - dagger! Hah ha! Imp, you actually want to use a dagger to stab with me? Hah ha ha ha ha, how are you going to do it? Poke my thigh?"

Clyde pulled Thales up with one hand, laughing like a maniac.

No!

Don't!

Tires desperately thought, the dagger, the sheathless dagger that he had stolen from the Sunset bar.

That was their last hope.

"Oh wow!"

Clyde was surprised to see what was behind Thales.

There lied a coin, the one that was also dropped out when he pulled out his dagger.

"Look at what I found?"

"A piece of silver coin?"

"Hah ha ha, so it really is you d.a.m.n little imp! You have a silver coin hidden!"

Thales wanted to struggle with his left hand, but truly, the strength of a seven-year-old child was not enough. He could only futilely try to land some hit on the tinplate-stomach of Clyde.

That silver coin was a gift from the n.o.blewoman in Red Square District. Thales wanted to say that he didn't lie about it.

The copper coins, which the goose feather lady really gave him only twelve pieces.

The silver coins, one piece.

Tiles thought desperately.

But everything will end here.

I failed.

"As the price for daring to lie to me -"

Clyde ignored Thales's painfulness punches and kicks. He just grinned, poked the silver coin with the dagger, flung it in mid-air and caught it on the other side of the blade.

That's the kingdom's Meredith silver coin, full weight, which is rare even now. Its facade is engraved with the head of King Meredith the Third - one of the few virtuous monarchs in the Stella Kingdom's history and even the history of both the East and West continents - as well as a motto in archaic patterns.

A king does not regard of his bloodline as respects, but a bloodline shall take the king as its honors.

This line of words, Thales didn't understand any of it at all. Its true meaning was what he got after Thales boldly asked the n.o.blewomen for the answer.

Hah ah, Thales silently thought, I even want to learn to recognize words, learn to read, learn the knowledge and wisdom of this world.

But in the end.

Clyde used the dagger to hold up the silver coin and danced the blade around for a few slashes. He nodded, very satisfied with his knife skills, which seemed like it didn't go backward.

He then dragged Thales out of the house for a few steps and tossed the coin into the bonfire in the yard.

"As for the price of lying - I will reward you with this silver coin."

Tiles looked at the gradually darkening silver coin in the flame. He suddenly realized what Clyde was going to do and kicked him more and more frantically.

It was at this moment, Thales suddenly noticed cripple Ryan on the side of his eyes, that coward Ryan, who had always been timid, was s.h.i.+vering behind Clyde with a held up piece of rock.

Don't.

Thales woefully thought.

Ryan had never fought around too much.

That piece of rock.

Was too small.

Too small.

"Pound!"

Ryan's strength was not enough, the piece of rock only hit the back of Clyde's neck.

But enough to draw Clyde's attention.

"Run! Ryan!"

"Run!"

Thales, and on the other side painfully hugging his broken right leg, Clint, shouted aloud!

But Ryan was a cripple. His leg was broken by a bad-tempered thief while begging, and after a lack of medical treatment, the beggar became a cripple.

Ryan retreated in a panicked manner. He turned around and ran limply.

Thales was dragged along with Clyde when he chased after the cripple kid.

Ryan was quickly caught up.

Clyde was so angry that he stared laughing instead.

"Hey cripple!" Clyde opened his mouth, panting like wild boar, "That hit just now felt really good."

"p.a.w.ned!"

He kicked Ryan onto the ground while the latter's eyes were full of fear and regret.

"I--"

Didn't wait for the extreme frightened Ryan to finish his words, Clyde held up the dagger in his hand and severely thrust it into

Ryan's right wrist!

"Argh ah ah ah -"

Ryan's screams were deafening, which made even Thales trembled a bit.

"Aren't you a cripple? One Broken leg!" Clyde shouted frantically: "Then we should make your body balanced again!"

Clyde pulled out the dagger and had a more intense smile on his face.

Dumped Thales falling on the ground, he turned his concentration to Ryan.

Only to saw him fiercely hit Ryan's stomach with his knee, raised the dagger against the wrist that he had just pierced, and.

Like sawing a piece of wood.

Started.

Cutting.

Thales painfully closed his eyes.

"No! No! No! No! That! Ah!"

Ryan screams had become continuously disordered wails.

Clint's roars were next to the ears.

Thales didn't try to see the still weeping Carina or the silent Kelly anymore.

I beg of you, just end it all quickly.

Just end it all.

Until Ryan disorderly wailing turned into painful moaning, Thales who was already stunned felt that his collar was seized by Clyde again.

A burning air hit him.

Thales opened wide his eyes, only to see that in front of him was the dagger which held a silver coin on it.

The fire-blackened silver coin.

"Open your mouth." Clyde coldly and relentlessly said.

Next to them, Ryan was holding his b.l.o.o.d.y right hand with his eyes no longer had any feelings. He just laid there on his side, moping while his body trembled from time to time.

His right hand only had a little flesh left to connect it to the wrist.

Thales turned his gaze back and looked at Clyde coldly.

"Not willing?"

Clyde shook his head, guffawed: "Then the eye is ok too."

Finished his words, he held up the dagger, along with the fire-blackened silver coin on it, pointed it closer to Thales' eyes.

The burnt to black King Meredith was getting closer and closer to his eyes.

That line of engraved motto was also clearer.

A king does not regard of his bloodline as respects.

But a bloodline shall take the king as its honors.

Then at the moment it was closed enough to be stamped on his eye.

"Argh!"

Thales angrily roared. With a sudden and fierce move, he bit the little finger of Clyde's hand that was holding the dagger!

It was so painful that Clyde had to utter a hiss. His body leaned backward while the silver coin fell off from the dagger onto the exposed chest of Thales.

A hot feeling hit him from the chest!

"Argh no!"

A severe burning sensation! Even a sharp pain!

Thales couldn't stand being burnt by the silver coin for longer. He released the teeth biting Clyde and reached for the silver coin on his chest with his hand.

"b.a.s.t.a.r.d!" Clyde stared at his b.l.o.o.d.y little finger while his anger thrived.

"Then keep it as your souvenir!"

He knocked down the boy with a punch, then suddenly jumped on top of Thales, overwhelmed him and pressed the fire-blackened coin against his chest using the dagger.

"Sizzle -" It was like the sound of fast-cooling iron.

It was just that the cooling material was flesh and blood.

"Ah ah ah ah ah--"

Thales angrily screamed. Along with the internal-flame and burnt-to-the-bone heat, came a burst of burnt smell.

His whole body muscle began to feel the burning pain again.

Clyde pressed the silver coin and held it there for five seconds, then stared at Thales's painfully distorted face before he finally felt relieved and loosened Thales.

As soon as Thales broke free, he didn't mind the burning heat and instantly plucked out the silver coin that had already stuck onto his chest, along with a piece of skin and blood.

Carrying the burnt flesh and blood that was plucked out by Thales on it, the silver coin tumbled to the ground and jingled.

Thales's blood also dropped on to the ground and quickly dried up.

Lying on the ground, he couldn't restrain his tears from flowing out nonstop.

d.a.m.n it, isn't he clearly an adult?

Why, why I can't help but want to cry?

"Pity, swallowing or pressing it on the eyelids should have been better."

Clyde carefully picked up the silver coin and continued to throw it into the bonfire. "Never mind, let's come for another round."

Thales fiercely closed his eyes, the burning sensation on the chest didn't seem to diminish but increased, becoming hotter and hotter.

There seemed to be a surge of strength.

Which was acc.u.mulating.

Just letting me, letting me, letting me slit Clyde's throat would be fine. He silently prayed within the bottom of his heart.

When Thales opened his eyes again, he stared at Clyde coldly.

Clyde looked at those lifeless eyes and suddenly felt a bit boring.

"Hey, kid, don't want to play with me?" He kicked Thales.

Still, Thales only looked at him coldly.

Come on, he thought, this time, be it my eyelids or nose.

It's up to you.

I can transmigrate here but still cannot do anything no matter what right?

Clyde looked at Thales' eyes to confirm the indifferent within them.

He hate that kind of indifference, when he was collecting the "black account", the most annoying thing was the debtor with those eyes. It means that no matter how he tortured them, he still couldn't collect whatever money they owned.

Boring. Clyde spitted and fiercely thought that his taste was ruined.

Wasted too much time.

But when he turned around and saw the other two begging children in the wall holes, his eyes were bright again.

Under Carina's cries and Kelly's glances in fear, Clyde's hand reached out to one of the holes of the sixth house, to the only girl who was also the youngest.

Thales's pupil instantly focused, Clint looked at this scene in dismay, and even Ryan also putted aside his severed hand to raise his head.

Don't.

Don't!

That was Carina.

That was their youngest child.

That kid!

The burning sensation in his chest became hotter and hotter, his body's muscles felt like they were burning as well.

Carina could only scream with cries.

She was only four years old.

b.a.s.t.a.r.d.

How dare you!

"Carina!"

"Devil! Come for me here!"

"You dare! You cannot!"

Thales, Clint and even Ryan, holding his hand, all frantically rushed to Clyde, but were swept to the corner by only one of his leg.

"You must not hurt her!"

At this moment, a figure tightly blocked the front of the wall hole.

It was Kelly, who was just scared to run back to his hole.

At this point, he bravely charged, wanting to protect Carina.

But Thales just woefully shook his head.

No, you are not enough.

Kelly's small fist was easily grabbed by Clyde.

"Don't disrupt the rest of this entertained performance." Clyde guffawed, and without any hesitation, without any waver, without any obstruction, slit Kelly's throat.

Kelly widened his eyes as if he didn't believe what was happening in front of him.

Thales froze and collapsed onto the ground, Ryan began to have some kind of mental disorder and seemed to cry and laugh at the same time, and Clint, he could only severely hammered the ground.

Clyde kicked down Kelly, who had a damaged trachea with his arteries spurting blood and couldn't make a sound anymore.

Carina cried more and more fiercely.

"Don't touch me! I am a very good girl! I don't have typhoid fever! I don't have it!"

Clyde grasped Carina's hair and pulled out the crying girl like a pet from the hole in the wall.

He then extended his dagger and picked up the silver from the bonfire.

"b.a.s.t.a.r.d! You d.a.m.n b.a.s.t.a.r.d!"

Thales closed his eyes and roared with all his strength.

He hates himself.

Hate this d.a.m.n world.

Then.

Then he looked at Clyde.

Under the desperate girl's frantically struggling, for the second time with a dagger, Clyde pressed the blackened silver coin on the face of Carina.

Next to his ears were the sounds of weeping children.

Carina's cries weren't even coherent anymore.

How could this be?

Thales lay on the ground like a dead corpse as if he had given up all hope. Being motionless, his gray eyes were full of darkening desperations.

Only on his chest, on that burned place, a burst of burning sensation came to him.

Clyde daggers plucked out the silver coin from the girl's face, making her screamed aloud.

He gasped and looked around, suddenly feeling a bit bored.

Quickly get it done with this place, then go to find other little imps.

Wait, I do all this by myself, it is not very good for the Brotherhood isn't it?

Clyde's drunkenness began to fade away.

Who care, since Rick and his thugs didn't show up, there must be no problem.

He closed his eyes and shook his head.

And then he thought about using both hands on the girl's neck along with the pierced hand that was already firmly gripping it.

Huh?

Clyde suddenly wondered when he raised his left hand, the hand that had just held the dagger which pressed the silver coin on the girl's face.

The dagger?

He didn't think much about it.

Clyde continued to raise his left hand and put it on Carina's neck.

Just then, Thales, lying on the ground being desperate, seemed to have touched an object with his right hand which made him slightly fluttered.

The dagger?

He also didn't think much about it.

Thales tremblingly got up, hiding his hand behind him

Everything happened just like that.

In Clint's eyes, he saw a moment ago still on the ground and terrified Thales, suddenly leaped forward.

"Go die!"

The seven-year-old transmigrator, who crossed over two worlds, who has two crazy lives, toward Clyde's neck, thrust his dagger, and twisted.

"Annoying!"

Clyde had long seen his movement and heartlessly sent a backhand elbow.

Thales was elbowed by the impatient Clyde and flew backward.

"Smashed!"

Thales's head knocked on the edge of a hole, making his eyes full of dazzling stars, but he still tenaciously raised his head and looked at his own hand.

There, holding the dagger stolen from the Sunset bar.

The tip of its blade was stained with blood.

Everything seemed to go quite at that moment.

Clyde froze there for a while, lowered his head in surprise and looked at Thales who was sent flying backward and continuously coughing on the ground.

Clyde's surprised eyes didn't last long as he was aware of what happened to his body.

He abruptly loosened Carina, and then, unbelievably and tremblingly, reached out his hands to touch the neck of him.

The warm, moist and thick feel in his hands spread down to the clavicle, then quickly flowed down to the chest, the abdomen.

In Clyde's eyes, that d.a.m.n little imp - Thales, struggled but steadily and slowly rose from the ground, still holding the dagger which was slightly trembling together with his right hand.

But this time it was a stable trembling.

At that moment, Clyde was a bit nervous.

Both of his hands casually fluttered on his neck, fearfully pressed on the hole on his neck that was spurting fresh blood.

But both the s.h.i.+vering hands and chin seemed to oppose to his intentions, the blood from the arteries, a bright paint-like red, was spewing out, unstoppable.

Clyde clenched his teeth, only to feel that his legs have gone limp for a bit, so he took a step back.

But this step made him lost all the strength in his body and fell down onto the ground, no longer can crawl up.

The burning sensation on his chest continued, but Thales raised his head, and then under the horrified and shocking glances of Carina and Clint, under the laughs with indistinguishable emotion of Ryan, he apathetically but steadfastly looked at Clyde.

He spoke out word by word.

"Go to h.e.l.l."

"No p.e.n.i.s useless waste."

Clyde clenched his teeth tighter while his anger thrived again.

But unlike before, everything that came with his wrath was his vision getting dim, blurred, far, and small, all falling apart.

His eyes protruded which made them seemed to be out of the skull socket, staring at Thales.

Then, with his slightly s.h.i.+vering hand, the pierced one by Yara, he tried to point to the direction of Thales and hoa.r.s.ely opened his mouth.

"d.a.m.n - little imp -"

With a b.l.o.o.d.y hand he swept over the cold face of Thales.

These were the "b.l.o.o.d.y Ax" Clyde Rhode's last words in the world of Elor.

End of chapter VI