The Path of Ruin

The old nobleman drew back the sword, which was clearly trembling in his hand. He looked disappointed while trying to hide his fear. It was clear that he would prefer a knight or anyone who knew how to fight to the skinny, fifteen-year-old slave in front of him.

His eyes quickly shifted to the large bag Kael had slung over his shoulder.

"Hey, what's in the bag?"

Kael cursed his luck inwardly, but answered the man softly.

"I'm a slave working in the greenhouse on the palace grounds, sir, and inside my bag are a few bowls of medicine and poison I've prepared for when I encounter the creatures."

The old nobleman's eyebrows rose slightly.

"What kind of medicine?"

"Narcotics, anesthetics, and poisons that I've overdosed on, as well as antiseptics in case I'm injured."

The man looked genuinely surprised.

"You're a bit clever for a slave, huh? Have you ever met one of those... creatures that people turn into?"

'Aaahh... I wish I had no restrictions...'

"Three, sir. I killed one."

This time the man seemed genuinely surprised. His eyes went back to the mark on Kael's neck, the mark that told him he was a slave. He couldn't see anything strange about the mark. So... there was no possibility that the slave in front of him was lying.

But... how could this frail boy have survived three creatures and even killed one of them? He knew the creatures were not extremely dangerous. His own knight had easily taken down two of them at once before they had to part ways because he had to run. And yet, this skinny boy...?

"Do you... have a blessing or a curse?"

That was the first thing that came to mind. But when Kael shook his head from side to side, his confusion only increased.

"No, sir. Like I said, I'm just a botanist. And any medicine overdosed is a poison."

The nobleman thought for a moment. The boy before him... perhaps he was not as useless as he thought.

"How is the palace? Tell me what you saw until now."

Kael remembered the scene he had seen in the corridors. Squinting slightly, he answered calmly.

"The corpses of men and creatures litter the halls. As a slave, I beg your pardon as I don't know exactly what happened... but it doesn't look good."

The noble's expression suddenly soured. He cursed several times as his focus shifted away from Kael.

"The fucking Empire... Damn it! We shouldn't have let that man into the palace!"

As he continued to mutter to himself, Kael quickly realized that everything he had been thinking was true. The Empire was really behind it all, it was all happening because of that man he had seen in the morning.

But there were still things he didn't understand.

The palace was not full of powerless people. Knights, soldiers, more... The Kingdom of Arcanoa may not have been a big kingdom, yes... but this was a fully furnished palace. So what if a few of the people turned into creatures? Even the King himself was a strong man to begin with, it should have been impossible for the palace to get like this.

He paused for a moment.

Although... why had he thought that only 'a few' people had turned into creatures? If a large number had turned, especially important people like knights and soldiers... Then it was quite easy for the situation to come to this.

"Hey, slave! Step aside!"

At the old nobleman's words, he suddenly came to his senses and quickly stepped back. The old nobleman finally came out of the wardrobe where he had been hiding, shook himself off, and sighed lightly.

"Do you have any food with you?"

Kael shook his head from side to side. The old noble swore again. He didn't seem to have any intention of leaving this room.

But then... suddenly, a deep silence fell over the room. The old nobleman and Kael looked at each other, and then both of their eyes slowly turned towards the door of the room.

The old nobleman swallowed. Without taking his eyes off the door, he spoke in a whisper. He turned back to the wardrobe from which he had emerged.

"Hey, check the hallway. If there's a creature, get it out of here."

Kael wanted to turn toward him and stare blankly at his face. He was... just leading him to his death! He was telling him to feed the creature, to literally take it away from him by sacrificing his life!

He swallowed, realizing he was frozen in place. His legs were not moving.

He turned towards the old nobleman and he looked at him without saying anything. There was no compassion in his eyes as if he didn't even see Kael as a human being.

'Why should he...'

It made sense that someone who had lived as a noble until this age would see slaves simply as 'tools'. In the eyes of the other man, Kael was like a pebble they could throw away to distract those nearby.

"Go on, go!"

He felt the mark on his neck burn as he stayed where he was. A nobleman was giving him orders, after all, not a normal person. The pain of disobeying orders was much more severe.

'Damn it... Damn it!'

His legs finally moved. As the pain from the mark on his neck slowly disappeared, he approached the door. But he didn't stop there. No, he still hadn't given up. So he took out from his bag a poison so thick that it could easily kill a normal human being, dipped it into the metal of his knife just enough to soak into it, and let it sit. Finally, he rewrapped the poison, put it back in his bag, and looked at his knife.

The blade that had resembled the color of normal metal was now slightly... darkened. It was no longer a normal knife.

Kael swallowed again. Clutching the knife tightly in his left hand, he reached for the door handle and looked behind him.

The old nobleman was nowhere to be seen, and the door of the wardrobe he had just left was closed.

Kael clicked his tongue, turned around, and took a deep breath.

'If I stay here, I will die from my restraint, and if I go outside, I will be chased by the creatures and most likely die again.'

He felt like laughing, because it was really funny. He 'had' to throw himself to his death with just one word from a human being.

'Well, whatever happens... here we go...'

He braced himself, turned the door handle silently, and opened the door as quietly as possible. He looked to his right and then quickly to his left. There was nothing but corpses and blood in the wide corridors of the palace. It looked clean.

'Huh, am I lucky?'

He went out with calm steps, closing the door to the room again as quietly as possible. Now... he was in the corridors again. But he had no idea where he was supposed to go.

He got as close to the wall as he could, slowly making his way along the corridor. After only a few seconds, a window caught his attention.

'I wonder what it's like outside...'

He approached the window cautiously. There were still no creatures in the corridors. It seemed he was really lucky... and so, he reached the window.

He looked out, not showing his whole body. He really wondered what was happening. But with what he saw... he literally froze.

'This... This... What the hell is this...'

The greenhouse was quiet and empty when he woke up. He couldn't see anything until he reached the window of the room full of servants' clothes. But the place he was looking at now, the place he would have reached if he hadn't broken the glass and jumped in, but had kept walking for another minute...

A great battle had raged outside. He could see more bodies, more blood than even the palace corridors contained. It was literally a massacre.

But the massacre was already over. There was no one fighting now, only... the victors of that battle.

There were almost twenty of these tall creatures, maybe more. Some of them just wandered around the garden as if on patrol... All were slow, their steps too heavy. A few were crouched over the corpses on the ground, not caring who or what they were... they were eating them.

But they weren't the important thing, Kael couldn't even focus on them. He wouldn't have been so surprised if he had only seen them.

There were three other creatures in the garden. Unlike the human-turned-creatures, they were not extremely tall, but not short either. Yet the main difference was definitely their bodies.

These three creatures... looked like werewolves. But they were not exactly 'werewolves'. Their whole bodies were completely covered with hair, like fur. They had huge claws, claws that were out of proportion to their bodies. The clothes they were wearing before were torn to a great extent because their bodies had expanded, emphasizing their frightening bodies even more. They seemed to have a slight hunchback, which made them look strange. Their faces looked like human faces, just like the weaker ones. If it weren't for their red eyes and dark skin, they would definitely look like ugly humans.

On top of that... underneath these creatures, the cause of the massacre outside, there were not only normal people.

There were knights on the ground. Knights whose armor was shattered, crushed... 'knights' whose organs were scattered here and there, obviously having a painful and agonizing end.

These creatures could kill knights! Knights with blessings, knights who were the most powerful people Kael had ever seen!

'No way...'

Kael looked at the scene in front of him with genuine shock.

'Are there... any of these inside the palace?'

If so, it would explain much more easily why the palace was in such a state. There were only three of them outside, if there were more inside the palace... with the other creatures, it would all be over in no time at all.

But Kael couldn't stay in his thoughts for long. Because the next second, all those red glows in the garden suddenly turned towards him. Every one of the creatures outside, including the three furry creatures that looked like werewolves, were looking in Kael's direction... no matter how far away they were.