Berserk: The Prophet

Thrandt was taken aback, but the footsteps behind him forced him to quickly end the man's life with his scimitar. Without thinking twice, Thrandt, his eyes bloodshot, drew his scimitar and killed the man.

"Pfft"

"Ha..." The man stared wide-eyed at Seranti's face, and with resentment and regret, he breathed his last, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth.

Seranti frantically pulled his hood up over his head, his blood-stained hands trembling in the cold wind for some reason, as the sound of footsteps followed.

"You succeeded?! Landis!!"

"As expected of you, Shadow of Assassination! It seems you are destined to be the next King of Assassination!"

"Hahaha, this guy is the Grand Master of the Griffin Knights... The King of Assassins, Dilis, was killed by this man..."

...The Griffin Knights?

Seranti seemed lost in thought, his hood slightly torn, and all he wanted was to leave as quickly as possible.

"Hey? Landis, aren't you going to cut off his head and take it back for the reward?"

“…Boring.” Seranti ignored them and walked away on his own.

"Eh... as indifferent as ever."

In any case, the news that the Grand Master of the Griffin Knights had died at the hands of 'Shadow of Assassination' Landis had spread throughout the entire Blade of Punishment's intelligence network.

.........

Thrandt put on a new hood and followed the two women's trail. The two women couldn't have gone far; they must have hidden in this town. Thrandt bribed the city guards to find out about the two women and then rode his horse around the town in the direction they had gone.

"Damn it...to have contracted such a bizarre disease, go to hell!!"

An unpleasant sound rang out from the corner of the tavern, the sounds of punches and kicks making Seranti's ears inexplicably irritated. Since he couldn't find anyone for the time being, he might as well go and see what was going on. Maybe he could hide in the tavern. Seranti dismounted and tied his horse to the side of the street where city patrols were stationed.

When Seranti arrived, the group was already preparing to leave. The girl on the ground was coughing and barely breathing, covered only by a tattered cloth. Her pointed ears were exposed to the air, and her snow-white legs were covered in patches of bruises. It looked like there wasn't a single good spot on her body.

Pointy ears!!

Seranti's pupils constricted sharply, and his heart pounded with anxiety. He rushed over, and no matter what, seeing his fellow pointed-eared people in such a miserable state among humans still tugged at his heartstrings.

"Hey, are you okay?"

Seranti held the girl's body in his right arm. She had been tortured beyond recognition, her face swollen and bruised, a far cry from her noble appearance. The air was thick with the salty smell of blood... This girl, like himself, was a half-elf.

"Huh? Do you know her?" Several men approached with ill intent.

"How about it? We'll let you go for a thousand dinars, hehehe..."

Several burly men clearly had their eyes on Seranthi's money bag, and their eager expressions suggested they were certain that Seranthi, being alone, wouldn't dare to do anything to them.

In this situation, with such an incident occurring in the back alley of the tavern, it was obvious what had happened. Seranti's gloomy emerald eyes flashed with intense killing intent. This dark and chilling event reminded him of his dark past. He decisively drew the assassin's throwing knife from his waist and choked two of them, killing them on the spot. The curved blade at his waist flashed coldly and slashed open the throats of several people.

"Ho..."

Several burly men whose throats had been slashed open by the curved blades died on the ground, their eyes wide open, before they could even see Seranti's bizarre swordsmanship.

"A bunch of disgusting bastards..."

Suppressing his nausea, Seranti shook off the bloodstains on his blade and sheathed it. He then draped the robe he carried in his luggage over the naked girl. The tattered straw mat was unusable. He picked up the girl and left the filthy place.

The girl seemed to have sobered up a bit, watching Thranduil mutter incoherently, tears streaming down her face, as if she wanted to say that she didn't deserve him doing this, that he had gotten himself into big trouble.

"You're too weak, don't talk."

Seranti carried her and rode to an inn in the south of the city. Their half-elf identities could not be easily revealed in the human world, as this would bring about their deaths.

The warm house was much better than outside, and Seranti only revealed his appearance after closing the doors and windows tightly.

"Are you... an elf?"

A glimmer of light appeared in the girl's weak and swollen eyes. She reached out as if to grasp him and asked, sensing that her days were numbered. If she could see her mother's clan before she died, it would be a blessing.

"...I am just a half-elf, like you."

Seranti half-squatted down beside the girl, took her slender hand in his. It was so cold that Seranti covered her left hand with his own to warm it.

"Ah...you're...just like me."

The girl's tears slid onto the pillow. She tried to move her almost numb right hand. Seranti noticed her attempt to move her right hand and pulled it out from under the covers. What Seranti saw filled him with deep surprise, fear, hatred, and heartache.

Only her index finger was still intact. Her right arm had been broken by the thugs, twisted and hanging there like a lump of soft flesh. There were even several whip marks on her arm, which was covered in bruises and a piece of skin had been torn off. Just looking at it made Seranti tremble all over. Those beasts!

Seranti gritted his teeth, his heart aching as he looked at his half-elf companion, whose fate was far more miserable than his own. The girl's twisted fingers were still tightly clutching a blue gem, and she tried her best to open her palm to offer it to Seranti.

“This… was left to me by my mother… It was originally a necklace, but they accidentally stole it… All that’s left is this…” The girl was speaking to Seran with almost all her might.

“If you…in the Noldor Forest, you see my mother, please…give it to her, and tell…tell her…” The girl suddenly convulsed, her left hand gripping Thranduil’s hand tightly as she tried to finish her sentence.

"...Stop talking, you're dying..."

Seranti's hands suddenly trembled as he tried to stop the girl from speaking with all her might; this was probably the girl's last bit of strength.

"I'm sorry... I couldn't... protect... myself... like she said..." After saying the last sentence, the girl's deep green eyes glazed over, and she fell silent.