Chapter 40: Good Deeds, Evil Deeds

This was the first time since we had become soldiers that we walked the city streets in civilian clothes. Playful children and stumbling drunks brushed past us, and no one gave us a second glance. From the shabby houses on both sides of the street, the cries of wives being beaten by their rough husbands could be heard from time to time, making the whole street lively. Oh, don’t worry about the beaten women. I had known for a long time that women who were truly badly beaten did not dare to make any sound. At times like this, the men’s rudeness and the women’s cries were just an effective way of showing that the couple’s feelings were stable and deep.

Fred and I had completely blended into this street. The people working or chatting around us took us for two young tourists, not knowing that their masters were watching them with friendly and curious eyes.

“Kill her, the ill-omened creature that brings bad luck!” A savage voice rang out. Following it came a chorus of approval.

“That’s right, kill him.”

“It was this evil creature that brought the war.”

“Hang this source of our misfortune…”

……

A private trial? That was not allowed. My friend frowned. Although he was still walking with an elegant gait, he had clearly quickened his pace.

I followed him around the street corner, and the sight before me startled me.

This was far more than an ordinary riot caused by a simple conflict. Nearly two hundred people had gathered around a small square, pointing at a figure lying in the center, cursing loudly with spittle flying. The target of their fury had blood flowing from the corner of her mouth, lying on the steps barely alive, her hands groping around without stopping. Not far from her, several meddlesome men held a wooden stick, tapping it on the ground from time to time to make a sound, drawing her hand toward it, then tossing the stick to a companion, causing the crowd to burst into laughter.

This poor woman being tormented and insulted had a slender figure and a very pretty face. The reason she had stirred up such a mad commotion among so many people was entirely because of her race. Her long pointed ears and jet-black skin fully revealed her origin to us: she was a Dark Elf—a ruler of the dark and sinful cities deep underground, a dangerous race that plotted assassinations, poisonings, and subversion schemes, ignored life, and pursued slaughter. That was why she had lost her sight in the sunlight, to the point that she had no ability to resist the shouting mob.

More than one report stated that when a surface-dweller’s life fell into the hands of a group of Dark Elves, the best outcome was death. But this unavoidable gift was always delayed until the very end. Before that, they had plenty of time and methods to make you know what terror meant. The Dark Elves’ favorite targets to kill were Elves’ children around a hundred years old, and torturing these distant relatives’ offspring always brought them satisfaction. Likewise, when surface-dwellers caught a Dark Elf, the most common measure was to execute them on the spot, without trial.

Even though I knew all this—even though I knew that even if she were handed over to our judicial system, this young female Elf would hardly escape the death penalty—what I saw before me still made me feel uncomfortable. The cruelty, discrimination, spite, and indifference that a group of idle people showed toward a woman who had lost her sight and any ability to protect herself under the sun made me very uncomfortable. I very much wanted to stop all this, but I could not erase the hatred of one race for another. No matter how disgusted I was, I still could not deny my own hostility toward this race.

I looked at Fred. His expression was also complicated. No doubt he, too, was trapped in this helpless contradiction at the moment.

“Mommy, tell them not to hit this big sister… waaah… she brought Lisa out of that very, very dark hole. Those uncles are really mean, but this big sister is a good person, don’t hit her…” Beside us, a young, tender voice came, but was immediately swallowed up in the noisy crowd.

“Kill her!” Beside us, a middle-aged woman covered her child’s mouth in fear, took the lead in shouting, and as she shouted, she threw an egg at the young female Elf.

The egg burst open on her head, a splash of white and yolk staining her light purple hair.

Following the woman’s lead, eggs and tomatoes rained down on the Elf like hail. She could not resist, and could only curl up her body, letting the citizens’ anger pour down on her.

I could hear, amid the noisy crowd, the quiet sobbing of a child.

“Don’t do this, Mommy, don’t…” the child screamed sharply, but her mother still thought it was not enough. She rushed out of the crowd and spat fiercely in the face of the female Elf. Her action stirred up the crowd’s frenzy again. People cheered and vented on the female Elf in even more shocking ways. This had nothing to do with racial hatred anymore. This was a release—a twisted release from weak lives that had struggled in the flames of war for a long time, taking it out on an even weaker life. This was madness.

Suddenly, I felt Fred’s anger.

It was not the elegant anger of a noble, but the anger of a simple young man. If racial hatred could be understood, then when an alien race had saved her own child’s life, why were there still people who showed no gratitude at all, but instead betrayed her, insulted her, and hurt her even more wildly?

I could understand. The mother did this because she was afraid of becoming an outcast in her neighbors’ eyes, of being scorned by others in the long years to come. She had to prove her innocence in a more violent way, to become part of that safe majority. I could understand all these feelings, but my friend could not. In his firm and simple way of thinking, right was right, and wrong was wrong. Even if he had to face the whole world, he would still hold to his own truth.

This was something Fred absolutely could not understand.

“Kill her!” At this moment, the crowd’s frenzy could no longer be contained. The mob surged toward the Elf who had no ability to fight back. Fred and I struggled desperately, trying to stop this frantic current, but we were swallowed up in the surging tide of people. It looked as if this beautiful and kind alien girl was about to lose her life because of the color of her skin…

“Stop!” A gentle and beautiful voice rang out in the crowd. It was not loud, yet it strangely reached everyone’s ears, carrying an irresistible friendly and solemn power that made everyone present have to obey.

A wanderer wrapped in a large gray cloak stepped out of the crowd with that low shout. He handed his staff to the fallen Elf, helped her walk into the shade of a tree nearby to reduce the harm of sunlight to her eyes, then took out a handkerchief and wiped the filth from her face. Until he felt that his work was done, nodded with satisfaction, and turned around, not one person had stepped forward to interrupt his act of defying the crowd.

“Why do you want to kill her?” the young traveler asked.

“She killed many people. She deserves to die.” The first person to recover began to turn their anger toward this stranger.

“Is that so?” The traveler walked toward the crowd. Somehow, the people he approached all voluntarily made way for him, holding a certain special awe for this brave young man.

He walked up to the girl who had been crying for the Elf.

“Your name is Lisa, right?” His voice was warm and kind, dispelling all the panic the child felt toward a stranger. The child nodded, indicating that he was right.

“Can you tell us what this big sister did?”

“Last night, Lisa went to the woods outside the city to pick fruit. Then a bunch of creepy black uncles came, and they took me to a very dark cave. I was cold, so big sister gave me clothes; I was hungry, so big sister gave me fruit. Later… later big sister brought me home, later… later…” The child pouted and could not help crying again.

“Later your mother found out, and then everyone found out, and they bullied big sister, right?”

The child nodded hard. “Mommy said big sister is a bad person, and wouldn’t let me say that big sister was the one who brought me home. But I know big sister is a good person.”

The wanderer stroked the girl’s head and said seriously, “Uncle knows big sister is a good person, and Lisa is a good child too.”

He picked up the child, turned to the mother, and said.

“She saved your child, and this is how you treat her!” At this moment, his voice turned cold and merciless, as if carrying the chilling air seeping out from the realm of the dead.

“I… I…” The mother was panicked and helpless, not knowing what to do.

“You should all be ashamed!” The young traveler did not pursue the mother’s fault, but spoke loudly to everyone. “You know full well that this Elf is innocent, yet you still want to kill her, to kill a life that is far kinder and braver than you. You are not even as courageous as a child. At least she dares to tell the truth, dares to stop you when you are committing a crime.”

“But she’s a Dark Elf.” The crowd’s arrogance had clearly dropped a great deal, but someone still spoke in objection.

“Oh? Because she’s a Dark Elf, she has to die, is that it? Then for her, because you are a human, it would also be correct for you to die? Very good, very logical…” The traveler’s left hand drew two gleaming daggers from his waist, causing a stir among the crowd.

“You deserve to die, and she deserves to die. You are a fully healthy man; she is an injured woman who cannot see. Come, take the daggers, and in one-on-one combat, gloriously kill your enemy. Come on! Prove your courage and your justice!” he roared angrily.

The man who had spoken backed away. Every Dark Elf was a born warrior and Mage. Even though she was covered in wounds and could not see, no ordinary person had the courage to face such an opponent in a life-or-death fight.

The traveler sheathed his daggers with contempt, making no effort to hide his scorn. “Coward. If there weren’t so many people here, and if she couldn’t resist at all, would you still have said that so loudly? No race is born to be hated, and no race is born with the right to hate others. Moreover, especially in the face of death, every race is equal. You should cherish the lives of others just as you cherish your own life.”

“They bring bad luck—plague, war, death. So much chaos was brought by them. They are ill-omened creatures.” Another voice sounded.

The corner of the traveler’s mouth curled up strangely. “They are ill-omened creatures? Then what about you? Are you auspicious creatures?” He put the child down on the ground, suddenly flashed to the side of the man who had shouted, took out a palm made of human bone from his chest, and shoved it into the man’s hand.

“Ah…” The man screamed, threw the bones on the ground, and fled far away. The surrounding crowd also scattered, moving far away from the white bone palm.

“Disgusting? Scared? Afraid of plague? This is human bone—your own bone. You hate your own bodies, and you still have the right to talk about others? Don’t be so stupidly self-righteous! What brings war is people’s own ambition and greed. What does that have to do with other races?” The traveler picked up the broken bone from the ground again.

Hearing this final angry statement, I suddenly felt a strange fear in my heart, and I wavered. A strange force oppressed my thoughts, making me want only to leave this place as soon as possible, but I found it very difficult even to take a step. Fred gripped my hand hard and whispered to me, “Relax, it’s just a simple curse of fear.”

Only a short while later, the effect of this spell faded. But judging from the expressions of the crowd, it had clearly worked very well. The common folk, who did not understand magic, believed that they had been moved and shaken by the traveler’s noble character. So they timidly admitted their faults and drifted away one after another. The traveler led the child over to the Dark Elf and made her say to her rescuer, “Thank you.”

“Lisa is good. Listen to your mother, and don’t run around anymore.” The Dark Elf touched Lisa’s little face with both hands and quietly reminded her. Her eyes were swollen and tears kept flowing, blood still hung at the corner of her mouth, but there was a smile on her face.

When Lisa’s mother heard her words, she shuffled over nervously and whispered, “I’m sorry.” Then she took little Lisa’s hand and walked away quickly.

The square, once noisy and chaotic, now only had me, Fred, the blind Dark Elf, and the mysterious traveler left. Fred stepped forward and asked the traveler, “Do you need help, sir? This young lady needs treatment. I can help.”

“Of course, Fred.” The traveler suddenly changed from his serious and solemn manner, shouted loudly, and clapped his hands excitedly. “You’re actually here too! Long time no see. There were too many people just now, and I didn’t see you. With you here, that’s great—I was just worrying about what to do. I don’t know how to heal wounds at all. Hey! Jeff, you’re here too! I’m so happy to see you!”

Before our astonishment, the traveler threw back the hood of his big cloak, revealing a head of silvery-white, shining hair. His face startled Fred and me. Then, uncontrollably, we shouted with excitement. The three of us hugged each other, almost forgetting the wounded Dark Elf who needed treatment.

Please forgive our loss of composure. That mysterious traveler was Poirot Jonas—the student of Verona, the Sage of Tides; a born Necromantic Warlock; a magic envoy in training; a young man marked by the God of Death; a silver-haired, beautiful womanizer; a faithful believer in magic…

Most importantly, he was our friend Poirot.