Am I The Villain?

18. Monster

The men in plate armors unsheathed their swords and shakily pointed them at me. Seven, ten, fifteen, twenty. The number of armed men kept pouring into the field and took their positions encircling me. Some of them are still wearing plain shirt, clearly unready of the fight they are suddenly being thrust into. Their pale face are contorted in both fear and hesitation with river of sweat free falling from their forehead.

Some meters in front of me is a stricken man with a disheveled look impatiently shouting commands toward the armed men. In front of his ragged and torn military uniform, held within his hands is a little girl who is barely old enough to read. The man kept shouting "Surround her!", "she did this!", and "you monster" while pointing at me.

Now, I know what you're asking. "Reika, what happened? Didn't the knights help you?" Well, let's turn back the time a bit here.

The knights did help and thanks to them, the journey went faster than expected. We decided to not camp on the way and instead force march our way through the night. I tried to argue that it's a bad idea to force the children to keep going without rest, but the children actually agreed with the knights and told me that they'll be fine. Democracy wins and we kept going.

We arrived at the hastily built refugee encampment by the time the sun has long hid itself and the moon which still hang motionless on the sky shone our way. From afar, stacks of smokes coming from braziers and campfire rises from within, lighting up the night sky in soft orange glow. The camps themselves are shoddily made with fabrics thick enough to prevent water leakage held up by poorly cut wooden poles. There are no beds inside these camps; only sheets of cloth spread on the dirt ground. The scene within the camps are gloomy with wounded survivors trashing in their sleep.

The camp went into an uproar when we arrived. Parents quickly ran out into us to find their children. Some warming reunions were had that night. Unfortunately, the majority of these parents only returned back to the camps while holding back their tears.

The only children left with me were Bella, Gutt, and Allie. Bella and Allie are orphaned adventurers who happen to be in the city during the incident while Gutt's parents haven't returned from their business trip. Now that I think about it, except for these two and the slaves, there are no orphans. Were there even an orphanage in Carina?

The guards took the slaves for questioning and protection. I guess this is for the best. Even if I bought them, I can't look after seven kids. Not to mention, I could loose control at anytime and decide to have a snack. The guards also told me to stay put as they'll report in to the Margrave.

...

I'm sure you can deduce what happens when Loria came out. Now, back to the scene with the guards pointing their weapons at me.

The bag around Loria's eyes are thick and his eyes are dried red, "you think I'm fucking stupid?! You think we don't know that you did this?! We're not fucking retarded!" He shouted in anger with excessive profanity mixed in.

Well, no. I kinda expected this, which is why I hesitated in following the children here in the first place.

I mean, it's pretty obvious. A strange girl suddenly came into the palace, claiming to be lost in the forest. Not a day later, it's revealed she holds knowledge about your palace. On the same night, an inexplainable abhorrent creature appeared and demolished your city. You don't need to be a genius to connect the dots.

"You killed my daughter! She thought of you as friend, you fucking murderer!" He trembled with tears forming around his eyes. "Why did she jump in? She could've lived.." I caught him mumbling under his shaky breaths.