Responsibility

The Armory had been cleared out. Only Xilian remained, kneeling where he was and trembling with dread.

Nunn Soflova.

A mysterious man steeped in legend. According to the former mayor, Nunn had already been living in White Cliff Town when he was a child.

Now the former mayor had retired and grown frail and sickly, but Nunn was still full of life.

No one knew Nunn's true age. From scraps of conversation among the townspeople, Xilian had managed to guess that Nunn was at least a hundred years old.

Ordinary people did not live that long, much less remain such formidable fighters.

Nunn was no ordinary man.

As the townspeople so often made clear when they spoke of him.

Nunn Soflova was White Cliff Town's only Torchbearer and its only Transcendent.

"Raise your head, Xilian."

At the cold voice, Xilian lifted his head before he could stop himself. A longsword with a crossguard hovered inches away.

Nunn studied Xilian's cheeks, brow, and eyes, as though inspecting a piece of merchandise.

"How did you survive that night?"

"Just as you taught me. I built a fire, lit the Soul Marrow, and fought the Demons that came out of the darkness."

Despite all the ridiculous nonsense running through his head, Xilian answered calmly.

"I kept fighting until dawn."

"When I found you, you were unconscious and covered in wounds."

"It was a hard fight, teacher."

Nunn went straight to the heart of the matter. "During that night of fighting, did the Grey Fog touch you?"

Xilian's heart, which he had only just managed to steady, tightened again.

So it had come down to this after all.

Nunn was not really asking about the Grey Fog. He suspected Xilian had been tainted by Chaos.

Xilian took a deep breath, and a childhood memory rose from deep within his mind.

He had not been training under Nunn for long when a drunk, emboldened by liquor, climbed onto the high wall to show off his ridiculous manliness.

By the time Nunn tied him up, the man had sobered up.

He wept and begged Nunn for mercy, insisting the Grey Fog had never touched him. He had only taken a stroll along the wall.

Nunn did not believe him and insisted on beheading him. Young Xilian thought his teacher was too bloodthirsty and cold, and pleaded for the drunkard's life.

"He looks normal. He doesn't have claws or extra eyes."

To Xilian's surprise, the usually ruthless Nunn granted his request and spared the townsman. Xilian felt rather proud of himself for saving an innocent man.

But the next time Xilian saw him, the man's hands had twisted into hideous claws. His face had collapsed into a warped ruin, and teeth jutted out so unevenly that he could no longer close his mouth.

Fortunately, the corrupted townsman had hurt no one. After Xilian's plea, Nunn had secretly kept watch over him. Once the man had fully turned into a Demon, Nunn dragged him back to White Cliff Town's square.

"Do you see, Xilian? This is what makes Chaos so terrifying."

Nunn's words had cut themselves into Xilian's soul.

"In this cruel world, pointless mercy only gets everyone hurt."

If Nunn had not secretly followed the townsman, there was no telling how many lives he would have taken after becoming a Demon.

"You have to take responsibility for your choices."

With those words of warning, Nunn placed a sword in Xilian's hand.

Xilian understood what he had to do. Sadly, he spoke the townsman's name.

"I'm sorry, Bell."

Xilian had allowed Bell's corruption to run its course. It was only right that he end it.

Xilian still remembered that day.

He had felt no unease or fear. No stir of emotion at all.

Calmly, Xilian drove the sword into Bell's chest, killing his first person—or perhaps his first Demon—with his own hands.

It had been like slaughtering livestock.

And from that moment, it was as though a sealed door had opened.

Something terrible had begun to spread through Xilian's mind...

"Why have you been quiet for so long this time? Trying to invent a lie good enough to fool me?"

Nunn gently brought the sword against Xilian's neck.

"No." Xilian shook his head. "I was just thinking about something."

"What?"

"I was thinking that if I turned into a Demon, I might tear Tim's throat out in the night. Or rip Mick into four pieces."

Though he spoke of something gruesome, Xilian wore a self-mocking smile.

"It wouldn't matter much if those two bastards died. But what about Ava? She's so adorable. She wouldn't be nearly as lovely with an arm bitten off."

Nunn said nothing. He simply listened.

"I don't want a future like that, so I won't cling to life at any cost."

Xilian's tone turned solemn, almost as if he were imitating Nunn.

"Teacher, I did fight the Demons until dawn. But before daybreak, I lost my torch and Soul Marrow. The thick Grey Fog surrounded me. I could feel my body freezing, and I even..."

Xilian looked Nunn in the eye and continued. "I even saw the Demons take your shape and stride toward me."

"And then?"

Nunn was exceptionally patient with Xilian. Had it been anyone else, their head would probably have come off the moment they mentioned being surrounded by the Grey Fog.

No...

Xilian gripped the blanket beneath him. If anyone else had spent the night in the Wilderness, Nunn would simply have assumed they were dead. He would not have gone to such lengths to find them and bring them back before dark.

"Then I broke free of the cold and hacked that Demon's face apart... And dawn came."

Xilian searched his memory, then looked down at his left palm. The molten-gold Ouroboros Mark had vanished without a trace, as though it had been a hallucination that night.

After calling a few happier memories to mind, Xilian worked up his courage and asked cautiously,

"What are you going to do to me now? Cut off my head?"

When Xilian chose to tell Nunn everything, he had been ready to die.

Nunn put away his sword and unlocked the shackles.

"I'm glad you were honest, and that you have a sense of responsibility at your core."

Nunn's words left Xilian staring. He stammered,

"But... the Grey Fog surrounded me. Wasn't I tainted by Chaos? I thought you'd..."

"All the evidence shows that you have no signs of Chaos corruption."

Nunn sat down in a nearby chair and leaned to one side, propping up his head with a hand. His gaze was full of bewilderment.

"I can't sense Chaos on you. You showed no signs of corruption during the two days you were unconscious. Even after all that time in the sun, you're only a little sunburned."

Nunn sighed. "Maybe you really are a lucky kid, born with resistance to Chaos. It was the same when I first found you."

His teacher's words brought back the past. Xilian had no memory of how Nunn had found him; everything he knew came from Nunn and the townspeople.

According to them, Nunn had found him amid a field of corpses—the remains of a traveling party that had met disaster in the night. Xilian was its only survivor.

The bodies had been rotting for some time, which meant Xilian had spent at least several days and nights in the Wilderness.

Nunn had intended to give the young Xilian a quick death. But when he found no trace of Chaos corruption, he wrestled with the decision before bringing Xilian home.

"Resistance to Chaos?" Xilian asked doubtfully. "Do people like that really exist?"

"I don't know. Perhaps there's a great deal I haven't seen."

Nunn lit a cigarette and drew on it deeply.

He lived almost like an ascetic, with no property or family. He patrolled the high wall day and night. Cigarettes were perhaps his only indulgence.

"You knew from the start that I was fine," Xilian said quietly. "Then why did you..."

"I wanted to be sure of your convictions," Nunn replied. "Some people grow brave in the face of death and show their finest selves. Others give in to cowardice and become base and pitiful."

Xilian lowered his head and asked softly, "What if I'd tried to save my own skin just now?"

"Nothing would have happened. I'd only have been disappointed in you."

Nunn then asked, "Are you disappointed in me, Xilian?"

"Why would I be?"

"I went straight back to White Cliff Town that night. I didn't look for you."

Xilian could not help laughing. "Teacher, do you care what I think of you now?"

There was no hauteur in Nunn's voice, only sincerity. "My student hasn't disappointed me. Naturally, I don't want to disappoint my student."

"How could you? We both take our responsibilities seriously. We know what's at stake," Xilian said with feeling. "Besides, you did come back for me, didn't you?"

Just before Xilian lost consciousness, a familiar figure had broken through the ash and strode toward him.

He had thought it was a dying hallucination. Now he was certain Nunn had come and carried him back to White Cliff Town.

"Mm..."

Nunn said nothing more. At times he watched Xilian; at others, his gaze went unfocused. Xilian could not tell what he was thinking.

Only after a long while did Nunn slowly rise and speak.

"Focus on recovering. You won't have to join the night patrols for the next week."

With that, Nunn turned and left as briskly as he had arrived.

Xilian finally breathed a sigh of relief, then considered how strangely Nunn had behaved.

Nunn was a teacher whose severity bordered on inhuman. He constantly spoke of responsibility and held the Soflova Brothers to the highest standards. Admirably, he bound himself by the same iron rules.

Nunn rarely showed personal feelings.

But today was different. Xilian had never seen his teacher look so perplexed. Even years ago, when the Demons broke through the old wall and Nunn held the breach alone until dawn, he had shown nothing so plainly.

Perhaps, in Nunn's life, fighting enemies was the easiest thing of all, as natural as eating and drinking.

"Xilian!"

The cheerful shout broke Xilian's train of thought. Tim and Mick came in and ran toward him excitedly. Ava slipped past them and reached him first.

Ava threw her arms around Xilian, showing her affection without a trace of restraint. Tim and Mick piled on too, until all four were tangled together.

"Ow, ow, ow!"

Laughter drowned out Xilian's cries.