Chapter 86: After The Battle

"Stop! That's enough!"

Upon hearing the female knight's voice, Azrael immediately comes back to his senses. After that, Azrael immediately stops applying force to the chain before he finally relaxes his body.

He then hears the running footsteps of the two people from behind. Still kneeling on top of the broad back of an unconscious man, Azrael turns his head to see the female and male knights coming to his location.

"Thank goodness you stopped. You are about to kill him. We need him alive for investigation."

"I can believe that you took down this rampaging monster. But I think you are the real monster here," he mutters the latter sentence under his breath.

"Lower your voice, Luke. Be grateful that he saves the day and avoid any further destruction to the city."

"I-I am very sorry, captain."

Once Azrael gets up, he lets go of the golden chain and glances at Mors's body with a serious face. He then stares at his palms and thinks to himself. He could have killed him if he did not stop. The knight's words linger in his mind. Azrael might be the real monster here.

What is happening to me?

Upon living in this world, Azrael admits to himself that he has a fair share of body count in his hands. But he knows that this case is different.

Before, he killed those assassins in the dungeon because he had a deal with Claire. In addition, at that time, all in his mind was to survive, and in order to survive, he had to get stronger.

In order to get stronger, he had to gain more abilities in his arsenal. So those people happened to possess abilities he might need. That was how he justified himself for killing them.

In the hero's case, Azrael was just too drowned in gaining more power at that time, and he even started considering himself becoming a true monster if it was not for his memories. Moreover, it was the choice of those humans to explore a potentially dangerous place, and he just gave them the full dungeon experience.

He cemented that mindset by killing most of the people around the dungeon as he thought it was necessary. He barely felt regret or remorse after committing such atrocities, but he did not know whether it was on him or under the influence of the second awakening.

But ever since he met other people and found love with Alina, Azrael felt that he found his humanity as it was slowly taking over his monster side. Before he realized it, he had never killed anybody again since then.

Even in the fight that occurs this day, Azrael has not taken the life of any of his opponents. They just happen to perish because they are caught by their own team's attack.

Azrael actually does not want to kill Mors, as he finds an actual reason not to do so. It is true that he caused a massive amount of destruction in the city or did horrible things in the past, but Azrael decides to leave the judgement to the authorities.

However, the heat of the battle puts a slight effect on his mentality, and his monstrous side subconsciously slips in at the last seconds. He unknowingly becomes bloodlusted for a moment, and he is even delighting in pleasure from the act, a sadist.

He does not realize that he has unintentionally developed a killing intent on Mors. If it were not for outside interference, Azrael would have gone for the kill. He knows he acts differently than his usual self.

"Looks like the reinforcements are here," Luke notes.

"But they are too late. For now, tell them to help with the cleanup as well as conducting rescue operations for the civilians."

"Yes, ma'am."

With that, Luke rushes to the newly arrived knight to convey Alicia's orders. After that, Alicia is left behind with Azrael, and she does not know how to approach him, but she decides to do it professionally.

"Mister, I don't know who you are, but you save the city from further destruction. So, on behalf of the knights, I really appreciate your help in stopping this man." Putting her hand on her breastplate, he expresses her words of gratitude to Azrael. "Not to mention that you saved everyone here. May I ask for your name? Just for the report."

"My name...? It is Azrael. I am a yellow-ranked adventurer."

"Just yellow ranked?!"

Alicia cannot believe the person who defeated the man that not even the empire's top-ranking adventurers can stand against is ranked that low. She thinks that it is impossible for a person this powerful to be left unrecognized. She has not even heard anything about him until she witnessed what he is capable of.

She has many questions in her mind, but she decides to do it later. She then immediately regains her composure and clears up her throat.

"Ahem. Mr. Azrael, right? My name is Alicia Colkrave, by the way, a knight captain in the imperial capital."

Alicia deliberately introduces herself by revealing her full name. Her long name is a dead giveaway of her noble background. By hiding her real identity, people would treat her by her profession, not by her blood.

Only a few noble knights practice that, and they are usually the ones who are honest with their job of protecting the civilians from harm. The few true nobles who maintain the integrity of the knights.

"We have some questions we would like to ask. If it's okay with you, can you come with me for our investigation?"

"Why would I do that?"

"From what I have gathered so far, it seems like these people have business with you. So we hope that you can provide us with information to help the case. We might even help you in some way."

"These men indeed wanted to capture me for the reasons I have no idea of. We just happened to cross paths with them in the dungeon the other day."

Azrael goes silent for a few seconds as he repeatedly taps one foot on the road before he makes his decision.

"Alright, I'll come with you."

"We are grateful for your cooperation, mister."

"But before that, let me take a stop somewhere."

◆◇◆◇◆◇

After walking a few blocks from the site alongside the knight captain, Azrael and Alina arrive at the inn he is staying in. Upon looking around, they find a few knights in the vicinity and notice roughly a dozen men with their hands tied up.

Wanting to know what happened here, Alicia approaches a knight to inquire. Azrael follows her behind.

"What happened here?"

"Oh, Captain Colkrave!" The man then clears his throat. "According to the reports, amidst the chaos caused by the explosion, some men forcefully tried to get into this inn. Fortunately, there are adventurers and mercenaries staying in this inn, and they reprimanded some of them before they could cause harm."

"I see. Do you know what their purpose in this particular inn is?"

"Although it is still unclear, it was alleged that they wanted to capture one of the tenants here."

"Thanks for the reports. You can go back to your work."

After taking a bow, the knight walks back to continue his work. Alicia then remembers that they are going here, so she theorizes that Azrael might be related to this, given that he was the target of Mors. She turns to Azrael to ask him about it.

"Mr. Azrael, may I ask if you know why these men were here?"

"I think I know why. This is where I am staying along with my partymate. I recognized one of them. I think I saw him with Mors in the dungeon."

"Perhaps they were here to abduct that person as well."

"I won't know unless I check on her."

The two then go inside the inn. On his lead, Azrael ascends to the second before they enter a room. There, he sees Alina sitting on the couch, who is patiently waiting for him.

"I'm back, Alina."

"You're back!"

Alina jumps out of her seat and launches herself toward Azrael before she wraps her arms around her, giving him a warm embrace. When Azrael is going to embrace her back, Alina realizes that there is another person behind him, a knight at that. She gets so excited that she forgets to magically check the surroundings.

Azrael and Alina are not fans of cuddling in public space, and Alina considers herself a socially timid person. Embarrassed and flustered, Alina slowly removes her arms around him.

"I'm glad you came back safe and sound, Azrael."

"I promised you, didn't I?"

"So may I ask who is this?" As she says that, Alina shifts her eyes at Alicia.

"My name is Alicia Colkrave, the knight captain of the Imperial City Patrol for this district."

"A knight captain? My name is Alina. Is she there for a reason?"

"Yeah," Azrael nods. "She is going to take me somewhere for investigation regarding the events that happened this day, so I came here to tell you."

"I want to come with you, Azrael, if it's allowed."

"Sure you can," Alicia confirms with a nod. "I know that you want to end this quickly, so let's go to my post as quickly as possible."