The Runaway Paladin and the Half Fae Duke

The servants held back their screams of surprise with everything they had, not wanting to do anything that might attract attention onto them. However, now that Sien’s sword, which they’d seen swung seemingly indiscriminately towards other servants multiple times, was now unsheathed, their survival instincts were in full gear. The unoccupied space leading to the door suddenly seemed promisingly clear. The servant closest to it hesitated for a moment, but soon took the opportunity, trying to sprint to the door while Sien wasn’t looking. But before he could even see it coming, Sien’s blade slashed his way, leaving a deep, bloody gash in the servant’s back, all but revealing his bones.

 

“Mmm nope, there’s no leaving allowed! You’re all just as guilty as uncle is!”

 

The sideways glance that Sien shot to the other servants made them want to scream from how positively evil it looked to them, but all they could do was try to press themselves even harder against the wall, praying that they would become invisible.

 

The Duke simply sighed at Sien's fearmongering, giving him a tired gaze as he huffed.

 

“Honestly, you’ve always been like this... Throwing little tantrums in your home because one minor thing or another didn’t go right.”

 

“You’re right! I have! Although this one isn’t minor at all. You see-”

 

Sien’s blade, which had still been pointed towards the servant who was now uselessly bleeding out on the floor, returned to its position pointed at the Duke.

 

“-I can’t stand that you said whatever bullshit you liked to Ritt and made him sad. Heck, it’s not that I didn’t expect it, but the fact that you planned anything that included him at all really pisses me the hell off!”

 

“...And so you point your sword at me? Me, who taught you swordsmanship in the first place?”

 

Sien giggled, a more cheeky and natural smile appearing on his face as he looked the Duke up and down.

 

“What, you think I can’t? You may have shown me the ropes 40 years ago, but the swordmaster who protected his nation that you used to be is long gone, uncle.”

 

The Duke placed down his teacup, gazing into its emptiness as he chuckled, and then closed his eyes.

 

“Yes, I suppose you’re very right. This body has aged, unlike yours.”

 

“Right? But in the end, you’re still my uncle and a Duke. My mom would be sad if I killed you, and I’m sure the Emperor would get upset at me again. So~”

 

Sien’s fickle blade pointed towards the scared, huddled together servants, swishing towards them threateningly.

 

“I think it’s about time that I reminded you how menacing I can be! …But I guess you don’t really care about these people’s lives, do you? Well at the very least, I’m sure it’ll be a big inconvenience if I kill off all the people who make your little schemes work. It’d be like cutting off your arms and legs, in a way!”

 

Small shrieks, screams, and sobs of realization flooded the room as the servants realized that they were going to be killed. The Duke’s eyes slowly opened, glaring at Sien disapprovingly, but Sien just smiled back when he didn’t hear a single peep from the Duke saying that he was wrong. He turned towards the servants, his smile widening almost friendlily, although all they saw was the wicked smile of a devil who was about to take their lives away from them.

 

“So who wants to go first and get it out of the way? I’ll let you say your final words~! Just don’t try to bullshit me and say something like ‘you don’t deserve this’ or beg for your lives, because that’s totally not going to work on-”

 

Suddenly there was a knocking sound, and a voice that Sien knew all too well called from the other side of the door.

 

“Sien? Are you in here? One of the maids said she saw you go this way.”

 

Sien’s eager smile faltered for a moment, and his raised sword slowly followed suit. He’d never expected Ritt to come here during such an awful time. He’d already shown Ritt a scene of him killing a maid before, and Ritt had seemed fine, but now that their relationship had grown, Sien felt a bit skittish about showing this kind of bad side of himself to him.

 

The Duke, seeing Sien’s reaction, instantly grabbed onto the opportunity that presented itself, and called out towards the door.

 

“Yes, Sien’s here. Come in, boy!”

 

There was a pause, as if Ritt was surprised to hear the Duke’s voice and was reconsidering, but soon he opened the door and peered inside cautiously. Sien felt his worry and embarrassment growing larger and larger as he watched Ritt’s eyes scan over the room, going from him, to his sword, to the dying man on the floor, and then the cowering servants. He was sure that he’d see Ritt make a new repulsed face like he’d never seen before, and his gut tightened, preparing itself. However, contrary to his expectations, Ritt just blinked a few times and gave a little nod, having seemed to rationalize things just like he had with the maid incident before, and quickly strolled over to Sien’s side.

 

“Sien, we didn’t get to finish dinner earlier, and although it’s embarrassing to say, I’m actually quite hungry now. The food already got cold, but the maids said they could reheat it, so would you like to come back and try to eat with me again?”

 

Knowingly or unknowingly, as Ritt spoke, his hand reached out to gently tug on Sien’s sleeve, as if he were softly trying to persuade him to lower his sword. Sien glanced blankly between Ritt’s neutral face and tugging hand for a while as he processed what was happening, but eventually he just chuckled at how cute it all was, and lowered his sword like it seemed that Ritt wanted him to do.

 

“Yeah, you’re right Ritt, we didn’t really get to eat much, did we? Let’s get out of here before you starve and die.”

 

He sheathed his sword and took Ritt’s hand, shooting his uncle one last smile as if to say ‘You’ve been saved this time’, before leading Ritt towards the door of the room.

 

Ritt, for his part, followed along willingly, but suddenly stopped when they got near the doorway. While Sien had been leading him, his eyes had been darting all around the room again, and had stopped multiple times to observe the almost dead-looking man. Although he’d reasoned that the servant had done something to deserve being killed, just like the maid who’d tried to needle him for information before, Ritt couldn’t help but feel bad for the man who was painfully bleeding out. With the maid, she’d already been dead from the moment her head was cut off, so Ritt didn’t have to feel any guilt. But seeing someone who he could save dying right in front of him made him feel very guilty.

 

Sien looked back inquisitively at Ritt, wondering what was wrong, and when Ritt saw the questioning look on his face, he bowed his head slightly and decided to test just how far Sien was willing to indulge him.

 

“Sien… I know that servant probably did something wrong… But is it alright if I save him?”

 

Looking between Ritt and the dying servant, Sien tilted his head and crumpled his eyebrows, as if he couldn’t understand.

 

“...Why do you want to save him? Or actually, is it even possible? The guy’s just about dead, for sure.”

 

“I just… I feel bad seeing him hurt like that. Slow deaths are painful, and agonizing. I don’t like seeing people in pain.”

 

Ritt recalled his own slower than he would have preferred death. Perhaps he felt a bit of sympathy, having also been killed by the insanely strong Sien, although in a vastly different way. His body would never have allowed him to bleed out like this, but he’d heard many times about how painful an experience it was supposed to be. Maybe it was true that the man deserved to die, but Ritt couldn’t abide seeing such pain if he knew he could stop it.

 

Sien tilted his head to the other side, looking like he was considering a few things as his mouth tugged around his face.

 

“Well, I guess it doesn’t matter if he lives or dies now… Sure, do whatever you wanna do to that thing, Ritt. But do it quick, so we can get back to our dinner; I’m sure the maids have already started heating the food back up.”

 

Ritt, simple as ever, nodded eagerly, now more motivated by not wanting the food to go cold than any guilt he'd previously felt. He let go of Sien’s hand and moved to kneel by the still body of the servant, biting his finger before hovering his hand above the large gash and channeling the magic that was laced into his blood. A bright, painful to look at, searing light flooded out from Ritt’s hand from where he bit it and into the wound, filling the wide open space where everything used to be knitted together, and when the light faded into a shimmer, a large, unnaturally formed scar took its place.

 

“There. Hopefully he won’t die of blood loss now.”

 

Ritt stood up, looking satisfied with his work, and gave a small smile towards Sien as he came back to his side.

 

“Thank you for letting me save that servant, Sien.”

 

“Uhhh yeah, sure thing, Ritt...”

 

Sien looked conflicted for a moment as he looked back and forth between Ritt and the servant on the floor, but seeing how everyone else in the room’s eyes, including the Duke’s, were looking at Ritt was shock and awe, he decided that leaving quickly was for the best, before things got even more out of hand. He was seriously beginning to kick himself for letting Ritt show others how special he was.

 

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AN: Ya know, I've got another 10 chapters all hot 'n ready at patreon.com/user?u=63286737 if you feel like it's worth your while ;P