Blade, for caution's sake

As much as you wanted to flex your power upon these arrogant fools, the cautious part of your brain wins out. For now, it may be better to play it safe and lay low, since you're definitely in no shape to be contending against Gods just yet. While it's unlikely they realized that you've escaped the seal, that's no reason to be tempting fate. Pulling your ornate sword out of your scabbard, you walk forward in the most dramatic fashion you can. If you were going to be the center of attention, you might as well play it up and make yourself seem like a true hero. Ignoring Alice's look of shock, you push past the crowd and stand before the masked men. You recall that heroes always denounce their foes before the fighting actually starts, so you steal one of the White Lily's lines that she said to you in the past: "Your evil deeds end here, villain!" As soon as that line leaves your mouth, you feel your body physically cringe in embarrassment, but judging from the gasps of awe from the villagers behind you, it seems like they bought the act.

"And who the hell are you? You think you can- HURGH!" before the leader of the masked men can finish speaking, your sword is already impaled in his chest. After all, unlike a real hero, you have no obligation to let your foe finish his monologue. By channeling the essence of your magic through your body, you can dramatically enhance your muscles and reflexes, allowing you to leap forth at speeds far faster than he can anticipate. With a strangled breath, he weakly tries to aim his hand at you, but you just pull the sword out, giving him a kick in the process, sending him crumpling to the ground. Shock is a powerful tool, and you're not surprised to see the two underlings stunned by how easily their leader went down. Before they can recover their wits, you take them down as well with a well placed slash each, enough to ensure that they aren't dead, since you have many questions for them later. In less than a minute, all three threats were neutralized, quite impressively, if you do so say yourself.

The mood, however, was not as elated as you would've hoped. Certainly, the young man about to get his face immolated was very thankful for your help, gripping your hand and shaking it repeatedly. But most of the other villagers' emotions seemed to range from cautious optimism to downright fear. The elder runs up to you, eyes wide: "what have you...what have you done!!" Clutching his head in his hands, he looks at the three masked men, the leader who is very much dead and the underlings squirming in pain. "They'll come for us with furious vengeance! Do you have any idea how fierce their wrath shall be? This village shall be left in ruin, all because of you!" Talk about not being grateful, you think to yourself. But you were hardly expecting a rational response from a senile old git who can't even comprehend the arcane arts.

While you were humoring the idea of showing off with your magic anyway just to show them exactly how powerful you truly were, the young man Larion and Alice runs to your defense. "Mr. Runhar, please, you know as well as anyone here that this couldn't continue. If someone didn't stand up to them, they'll bleed us dry!" Alice says, resolutely. You're pleasantly surprised by the determination you see in her eyes. Perhaps in the future she'll amount to something more than just a hunter.

"Yeah elder. He just saved my life, we should be thanking him for his bravery instead," Lorian said, as his sister, and you can tell it's his sister from this distance, runs up and hugs him, before turning and hugging you as well.

"Oh thank you so much, dear hero, if you weren't here, my poor brother would've..." she says as she sobs into your chest. A tad over dramatic for your taste, but you're satisfied seeing that at least some people agree you've done the right thing. Interestingly, from the corner of your eye, you see Alice standing awkwardly watching the hug unfold, as though she isn't sure how to act.

Finally, you manage to extract yourself from the hug, and turn to face the elder. Brimming with confidence, you say "fear not my good sir, I am more than capable of handling those foul fiends should they have the guts to return here. In fact, I intend to take the fight to them!" You could barely keep a straight face as you said it, as you resisted your urge to giggle as best you could. How those classic heroes managed to say such embarrassing things so stoically is a true miracle indeed.

"Yeah Mr. Runhar, did you see those moves Crow pulled," Alice chimes in, surreptitiously placing a hand on your shoulder. "If we work together, I'm sure we can overcome this. And with this..." she says, gesturing to all the money that won't be collected anymore, "we can have a celebration! I think everyone needs a break after what's happened, especially you sir. I know you care for the village and it's people more than anyone."

Begrudgingly, you can see the elder being swayed by the younger folk, and he reluctantly agrees. He turns to you, and points at the two injured men on the ground: "since you started this whole mess, you can deal with these two however you want. Sparing them is hardly going to appease the Order, so do as you like." Having said his piece, he walks off, ready to redistribute all the money back to their rightful owners. Lorian takes his sister to thank you one last time, before no doubt going off to talk to their friends about how awesome you were, so you hoped. This left just you, Alice, and a corpse near the front of the town square. How romantic.

"Honestly, that was incredible! And to think you were on the verge of collapse earlier today," Alice says, her eyes shining once again with energy. "How did you move so fast? Are all swordsmen like this? Did you learn from the capital? Can you teach me?" You thought you've gotten used her rapid fire questions, but evidently she received a power up by watching you because she's coming at you even faster than before.

"One at a time, one at a time," you repeat with your arms up, trying to fend her off. "First, we need to deal with these two," you point to the two injured men. "Feel like lending a hand?"

Alice wrinkles her nose in distaste, but then sighs in resignation. "If that's what it takes, then it's a small price to pay," she says, helping you haul those two to a nearby, empty warehouse. "Gotta say, I enjoy handling animals a lot more than humans."

Once they're safely secured and restrained, you turn and tell her: "why don't you head up and meet with your family. You were thinking of organization a celebration right? I'll be right there, as soon as I ask these guys some questions." Normally, you wouldn't even be asking this, but some part of you deep within feels that it's wrong for an innocent girl like her to witness what you're about to do. Mental domination is a powerful tool, but requires the victim to be scared and have weak willpower, which in turn requires certain...preparation.

She blinks, not understanding at first, before her eyes widen and the realization hits. "Ah, oh...yes...I think I will." Of course, as you'd expected, there's a certain part of her that's afraid. Her fear is entirely reasonable, given that you're about intentionally inflict terrible pain on some people, but it still stings at you nonetheless. She slowly backs away, before turning and leaving quickly, and you shut the door of the warehouse behind her after she's gone. Best that no one hears what you're about to do. Right as you're about to begin however, the door opens again, and you feel someone give you hug from behind. From the obvious lack of breasts, you can already imagine who it is. A low whisper tickles your ear: "thank you, truly, for everything you've done." As fast as she came, she was gone, the door slowly creaking shut.

Rubbing your right ear where she whispered, you feel that perhaps she's more courageous than you'd initially anticipated. Cracking your knuckles with renewed vigor, you get down to work. Unpleasant work, but necessary work.