"So, try to die quickly, will you?"
The moment the man spoke, Raze's instincts screamed from every direction. He leapt aside just as fire erupted where he had been standing but before he could feel relieved, the ground beneath where he landed exploded as well.
He barely managed to twist his body at the last instant, the blast throwing him backward. Ellara, who had been clinging to him, was flung off his back and hit the ground hard.
Her body trembled uncontrollably.
'Tsk… she's already lost it.'
Raze thought grimly.
There was no clear way out of this but giving up wasn't an option. He drew his sword and held it firmly in front of him, his gaze locked onto the man.
"Oh? So you want to fight, huh?" The man sneered. "Fine. I'll entertain you."
In an instant, countless fireballs formed in the sky, blazing as they shot straight toward Raze.
Raze didn't retreat.
He lunged forward instead, sword steady, charging straight at the mage.
'Mages in this world rely almost entirely on magic… their physical bodies are weak. If I can get close to him… then maybe I can—'
He dodged one fireball after another, his aura reinforcing his physique just enough to keep him alive but the moment he closed in, the mage's lips curved into a smug grin.
A translucent shield snapped into existence.
Raze's sword slammed into it and in that same instant, a fist drove straight into his abdomen from inside the shield.
He couldn't react as the punch landed cleanly.
All the air was knocked out of his lungs as his body was sent flying backward before he crashed into a tree, the trunk shattering on impact as wooden splinters pierced into his flesh.
"Did I forget to mention…" The man said casually, his smirk widening, "…that I'm a first-class warrior on top of being an expert-rank mage?"
He rolled his shoulder lightly.
"That bitch from before might have damaged my core a bit but even she couldn't do anything to my aura."
Raze barely heard him as his ears rang violently and his vision swam red before an immense amount of pain flooded every inch of his body from that single blow.
As a child, he had read stories about heroes and about how they defeated enemies far stronger than themselves through sheer will and conviction.
But unfortunately for Raze… he wasn't a hero. If anything, he was just a kid raised as a tool, forged in darkness and trained to capture something even darker.
'Should I just give up?'
The thought surfaced quietly but not because of the pain as pain meant nothing to him. He had endured far worse from his childhood as his mother had made sure of that. He had been trained to withstand torture, to survive being broken and to survive leaking information if he were ever captured by residents of this world during the mission.
Pain had never been his breaking point. So if he gave up now… It would be for a very different reason.
He wanted to give up because the situation was simply hopeless.
He had barely taken his first steps on the path of both mage and warrior, and no amount of physical training could bridge a gap of four entire ranks. It wasn't arrogance or fear, it was just reality.
'And more importantly… What did he even have to lose?'
'What was there in his life anyway?'
He knew better than anyone how pointless struggling could be. Even if he somehow survived, he would still be nothing more than a puppet, his fate chained to the whims of those who had created him, at least death would be freedom… Freedom from orders, from missions, from the restrictions put on him by the Empire and from that cold woman who called herself his mother.
'What could be better for a slave than freedom?'
Maybe, just maybe, if gods truly existed, he could ask them what he had done to deserve a life like this.
So he stopped struggling and didn't fight back.
And yet… his sword refused to fall from his hand.
Even now, his fingers wouldn't loosen their grip as the sheer instinct, carved into his bones since childhood, held it in place.
Never let go of your weapon.
He lifted his head slowly as he saw Ellara was still on the ground, crying through the pain, her body trembling uncontrollably while Lyla stood frozen, staring at him with despair written across her face.
Meanwhile, the mage walked toward him at an unhurried pace, boredom etched into his expression.
"That's all?" He said lazily. "Was that really the best you could do?"
"Tch… and here I thought you would be different. From the way you reacted to my arrival, so calm compared to the other two, I thought you were special. Guess I was wrong as one punch was all it took."
Raze didn't react.
He didn't care about the insults. He was going to die anyway, so what was the point of getting angry over a few words?
"Tsk. All you spoiled noble brats are the same." The man continued, his voice dripping with contempt. "Raised in comfort, thinking you have seen hardship, walking around like you own the world, acting as if your lives are some great tragedy when you have never even tasted real suffering."
"You have never known what it's like to survive on the streets without parents."
"How could you?" He sneered. "How could spoiled brats like you ever understand that kind of despair, when your oh-so-lovely parents handed you everything the moment you asked?"
His voice shook, not with rage directed at Raze, Ellara or Lyla specifically but with a deep, festering hatred for nobles as a whole as if every word was from a lifetime of resentment.
Raze bit his lip.
Luxury…
Parents…
Love…
'Since when had he ever received any of that from his mother?'
His life had been worse than a slave's since the moment he was born. The woman who gave birth to him had hated him from the start and the Emperor had branded him with a slave seal for the sake of a mission. From that day onward, his fate had never been his own.
Every time he tried to love someone, they were taken away from him and now this man stood here, telling him he had lived a good life.
For some reason… that thought ignited something ugly inside Raze.
He had truly wanted to give up but those words dragged out memories he had sealed away for years.
His own screams and the faces of those who had cared for him only to be killed because of him.
Julie, his first maid, who treated him like a little brother, Ron, his swordsmanship instructor, who had acted like an elder brother, Sebastian, the butler who had cared for him more than his own life and all of them were killed by his mother because of him.
And then there were Luna, John, Will, Maya, Gretta, Kyle, and Lena, people who had died trying to protect him, people who had had no obligation to do so.
'If I die here… won't their deaths be for nothing?'
That thought struck deeper than any blow and something hardened inside him.
Raze didn't want to survive but perhaps… surviving was his punishment. To live on, carrying the weight of everyone who had died for him.
Dying without trying meant running away from that burden. So he stabbed his sword into the ground and forced his trembling body to stand upright.
'No.'
'I won't die without trying my best.'