Spirit Soul

Guard Dirk\'s changed behavior was extremely weird and noticeable.

To the Jars, it felt as if he was worried about something, now that Gaby had regained her eyesight.

She had officially declared that she would search for evidence of Dirk\'s crimes.

Gaby would start digging through past records and wanted to find out the reason for Dirk to abandon his position.

Without a doubt, Gaby was certain to find the truth behind what had happened three years ago.

As such, it was clear that he had not divulged the true details of what had happened.

But, most town people didn\'t realize this.

They had been too occupied with the Lohars\' arrival and the \'trouble\' they were creating.

The so-called trouble was in fact Guard Dirk\'s doing.

He was sneakily adding fuel to the fire by angering the citizens against the Lohars and the Guild.

It didn\'t take him much effort to do so.

The pain caused by the Blood Nasgas attack three years before was still fresh in their minds.

And now, they were supposed to protect those that had been abducted by the Nasga race too?

Adding a few rumors, guard Dirk was able to gain more followers in his pursuit to revolt against the Guild inside the town.

Nevertheless, his group was still too weak to do anything against them.

He had to be mindful of certain individuals like the adventurers Felix, Johana as well as the town\'s Guildmaster, Gaby, and a few more Aldras that couldn\'t be taken lightly.

Because of that, guard Dirk wanted to enrage the townspeople as much as possible.

He wanted the two groups to fight and planted seeds of discord in the minds of gullible citizens.

His mind was filled with nothing else than protecting his reputation.

He was so engrossed in safeguarding his secret that he had forgotten his earlier plans.

After suffering humiliation, he had begun to live a quiet life.

For a long time, he had dreamt of living a simple life with Milli and Nina. After all, he had done everything for them.

Fueled with the determination to push the town in a war, he was looking for something that would be the final nail in the coffin.

The citizens were already on tenterhooks and all he needed was a little spark to blow up the fire.

With that in mind, Guard Dirk had already prepared something he hoped would be enough to devastate the Lohars\' morale.

His devious plan was going to make them forget their gratitude towards the Guild.

Dirk was not at all capable of fighting against the Guild by himself.

Thus, using the Lohars was the best he could do without actively doing something.

He would just be pulling strings like a puppeteer and make the citizens dance to his tune.

They would do the dirty work while he merely watched a nuisance and an ant-like existence named \'Gaby\' who had been bothering him for quite some time.

Unfortunately, he had to wait for the perfect timing to achieve this.

He had already made a mistake by leaving evidence of his past wrongdoings.

Dirk knew that Gaby would hunt down everything and find proof to incriminate him.

Thus, he didn\'t want a repeat of the previous mistake.

This was the most difficult but Dirk was determined to see it through. When he got wind of his targets leaving the house they had spent several times in, Dirk set his plan in motion.

The other citizens were oblivious to his grand scheming.

They were only focused on procuring more information.

Nothing was supposed to go wrong this time.

Even if he was worried about the scarcity of time he had, his mind was eerily calm.

When Gaby and Selene had left the Jars\' house they immediately walked towards the district that had been freed for the Lohars to reside.

Within no time, they had reached it and stood facing a few Lohars.

The news of a noble visiting them spread soon and all of them left their houses to greet Selene.

Looking around, she spotted an elevation to be seen and to see everyone.

Dirk and a few other guards were hiding after taking cover on a rooftop that was one street ahead.

They couldn\'t hear Selene, but from the commotion caused by the Lohars it was evident how important the noble girl was to them.

Even without doing anything but show the golden seal of chivalry that she possessed, she had been accepted as noble.

Not a single Lohar doubted her status or credibility.

The guards found this weird, but couldn\'t waste time bothering about it. One of the archers impatiently knocked an arrow on the bowstring which he was gripping tightly.

"Should I shoot her right now?"

Shaking his head, Dirk answered in negative as he mumbled,

"If we shoot and kill her now, they will notice that it was not the Guild that attacked her. It would be weird for Gaby to stay next to Selene when the Guild had ordered Selene to be assassinated, right?

Furthermore, Gaby was publicly seen helping Selene reach home when she was unconscious during the rescue mission. Let\'s hold our horses...I would rather wait instead of failing miserably!"

Even though Dirk was the most nervous and impatient to kill Selene, he knew he had to take it slow. By killing Selene he wanted to enrage the Lohars. Her death would create a chain reaction that was supposed to cause a revolt against the town, and highly likely even the Guild.

But, he was also aware that he had to pay attention to what he was doing.

The archer next to him was someone he had known for a long time. But, this friend was even more thirsty for blood than anyone else.

Only because of Dirk was that friend able to join the guards after being forced to suppress his desire to kill.

Other than that friend, there were a few other people Dirk had long since taken control over.

Thus, he had a team to work with him but he could not rely on fate.

Though they were more or like his subordinates, he wasn\'t sure how they would react if things went awry.

Nevertheless, there were still more than enough guards he had to be careful of.

They were sincere in their duty to protect the town by all means.

He had only managed to change the minds of a few by creating all kinds of baseless rumors.

Dirk didn\'t know how he could come so far, but now he was finally close enough to his end goal.

If his plan succeeded, he would be able to drop the pretense and act however he pleased.

There was only a small obstacle in his way, preventing him from doing that.

But, both Selene and Gaby\'s death would open up the path to everything he had ever wanted.

Waiting until Selene\'s short address to the crowd of Lohars was not difficult.

Only, silently following them afterward could be said to have been more problematic.

His plan took a hit when both of his targets used a small alley to walk through as it was a shortcut.

In minutes, Selene and Gaby disappeared from Dirk\'s sight, causing him to curse out.

Now, he had to act quickly, and wait for them at the end of the alley.

Dirk did not like changes in his plan and this fact annoyed him.

He grit his teeth as a sudden feeling of unease spread through him.

A moment later, the discomfort only increased further.

One of the scouts he had sent out to pay attention to the city walls and news of the Guild returned to them.

The young man notified Dirk about something, which caused his gaze to turn ice-cold as he spits out.

"Fuck! Archers, don\'t hold back..just kill the former slav-..no, it\'s now noble Lohar, the moment you see her!"

This caused the three archers next to him to stare at him in shock as one of them blurted out.

"But wh-..."

Suddenly, the middle-aged man who had spoken was unable to even utter a word.

The energy in his body began to leave him rapidly.

His eyes could barely look down as he noticed that a shortsword had been pierced through his throat.

Blood trickled down the dark blue shining blade that was stuck in the middle-aged man\'s throat as he collapsed on the rooftop.

Dirk merely held the dying man to break his fall.

With a sinister smile, he let go of the shortsword as he muttered,

"Thanks for your bow...you piece of shit!"

Dirk\'s mood was souring by the minute.

It had reached sub-zero as the bad news continued to bombard him.

Everything was going downhill and his plan had gone for a toss. This resulted in Dirk being extremely angry and impatient.

With his plan having been destroyed, he had to switch to plan B though it was flawed!

Thus, he wasted no time listening to someone\'s useless questions.

With a flick of his wrist, Dirk killed the blabbering nuisance that was right next to him.

After that, he grasped the middle-aged man\'s peak ranked bow and quiver.

Looking at the other two, he coldly asked,

"Do you guys have a problem too?"

With the quiver attached to his belt, Dirk used his free hand to grasp the shortsword.

Using brute force, he ripped it out of the middle-aged man\'s throat mercilessly. This sudden pull caused a small fountain of blood to spurt out of the large wound.

Only a moment later, Dirk took a deep breath.

Taking hold of the middle-aged man\'s clothes, he methodically wiped the blood off the blade. After checking the blade to see if it was clean, he kicked the now dead man from the rooftop.

His corpse landed on the ground with a thud, which made the other two archers shake their heads, as Dirk said.

"If not, focus on killing the noble of the Lohar race!! The little girl has to die, by all means!"

Feeling how everything was slowly turning into a disadvantage, Dirk felt restless.

He realized that his odds to come out of the given situation unscathed were low.

Dirk sensed that either he himself or the ones around him would be injured.

This realization just made him angrier as his facade was falling off way before he had planned.

His killing intent leaked from him in a large amount, sweeping through the body of the two other archers. One look at him told them they could either die right now or attack the black furred Lohar.

They felt bad for Selene, but they held their lives above everything else.

Thus, their fear overwhelmed them, making them act almost instinctively.

Pulling back the bowstring, on which an arrow was nocked, they were fully prepared to attack.

Their eyes were glued to the alley, waiting for the moment Selene and Gaby would emerge out of the narrow alley.

Less than a minute passed, but this short minute was enough for Dirk and the two other archers to feel like an eternity had passed.

Nevertheless, the time they had been waiting for finally arrived. The three of them were able to see a shadow appearing out of the alley.

Not sure whether it was Selene, Gaby, or someone else, they decided to wait until they could be certain. But, they were distracted upon hearing a loud, startled cry right behind them.

Someone found the corpse of the middle-aged man Dirk had killed.

This unexpected shriek forced Dirk to react as he shouted "SHOOT!!"

Obeying the given command, the two archers released the arrow that shot at the shadow.

Dirk peered at the shadow intently and believed that the arrows had hit the bullseye.

This reassured him that they had just shot Selene.

However, instead of trusting the ability of his subordinate, Dirk utilized the bow in his hand to shoot the third arrow. It flew through the air, piercing straight into the heart of his target.

Seeing this, Dirk revealed a vile smile as he turned towards the two other archers. Then, he let go of the bow, and unsheathed the short sword once again.

"Thanks for your hard work… Now, die for me!!"