"Listen, my boy, there are all kinds of people in the world."
Looking at the young Argus following his every motion, Arthur smiles as he swings his sword down; his motion, although appearing to be lacking in force, holds so much power to it that the air is cleaved apart from the path of his sword.
"All kinds of people?"
Hearing his father telling something, the young Argus attentively shifts his attention from copying the towering swordsman's move to listening to his words, a trace of curiosity apparent on his youthful face, making his father sure that he is about to get entranced by his words again.
"… no need to take this old man's rambling all too seriously, my son, I'm just telling you so that you can get used to it earlier… listen, in this world, while there are all kinds of people that you will encounter, most, if not all people, will fall under two categories…"
The Ever-Burning Sword Dragon paused for a while, watching the young child beside him continue swinging the sword in his hand while listening to each of the words he said.
"People who are willing to kill at even the smallest reason they can find, and people who are willing to spare at even the smallest reason they can find…"
"Hmm?? Father, which one of them are you?"
With his words being interrupted, Arthur couldn't help but pause on his practice as he heard his son's question, the young boy showing such a look of innocence while staring at him, making him laugh in amusement as he replies.
"I can only say that your father is not a bad person, but not a good person as well!!"
Those were his replies before the two of them continued to practice, the old guiding the young, each swing of the sword getting sharper and sharper, proving the young man's talent with such cold weapons, a talent that always makes his father proud.
Looking down on the fist now covered with blood, Argus couldn't help but smile wryly as he had come to understand the statement his father answered with back then.
'Not a bad person, but not a good person as well, huh…'
Those were the words he had received as a reply back then, and as a child, he wasn't all too knowledgeable to understand the meaning of such words, and yet now, he becomes all too aware of what that answer truly means.
'I have killed, for my own reasons…'
It wasn't really all too surprising to him as the world they live in is a place just a little bit more forgiving than the dog-eat-dog cultivation world that he managed to survived and thrive in during his previous life, and that is a lot, with the cultivation world being a place where betrayals from closest companions are events that happens all too frequently in a daily basis all for the sake of even just the smallest of rewards for doing so.
This doesn't really make him feel different towards the fact that he respects the ashen-gray haired swordsman, not only as his father, but also as a person, one who, despite having the stain of blood in his hand, still strives to be the greatest person he can be instead of just falling into the endless trap of slaughter that he can possibly commit.
"M-monster…" snapping out of his daze, Argus noticed the terrified look on all of the bandits' eyes, their gaze, not towards him but rather on the person, or rather, the remains of the person kneeling right in front of him.
With blood oozing out from a stump where the head once was, a headless body kneels, the cut that took its owner's life way too clean for an action made by the hand alone, making the remaining bandits wonder whether this cloaked young man truly has no mana at all.
Meanwhile, hearing what they just called him, Argus couldn't help but feel a bit irritated, in quite the disbelief that people like this would be the ones calling him a monster, especially given the things that they had previously planned to do to the group of young travelers.
"I don't really want to hear those words coming from your mouths…"
He muttered before his figure disappeared once again, now no longer in the mood to play around and test his current strength as he now has a grasp of the difference between himself and these bandits, and this difference could not be clearer to him than how clear it currently is.
'With my current strength, the academy's trial won't be a problem at all…'
He thought to himself as he put more effort into eliminating his opponents, the air around him started to swirl as he breathed in, a peculiar sense of comforting warmth and coolness washing through his body as he did so.
As he circulates this peculiar feeling, something clicked within his body, almost as if there was something released out of its lock, a process that made him smile as all of a sudden, his surroundings appeared to be more vivid, livelier than before.
'Spirit Energy…'
Gone was the peculiar feeling of comfort, and in place of it something that is both familiar and new to him, familiar in a way that it is just as comfortable as the previous mixture of warmth and coolness, and new in the fact that he never had control over anything like this before.
Knowing that, despite the difference between himself and these people, it is still not the time to get distracted, Argus decided to leave it for now and check it later, directing his attention to the remaining bandits once again, their numbers still significantly more than the young travelers behind him, already starting to take steps back every time he pushes forward.
"R-RUN!!!"
From the back of the group, the leader lies, his screaming voice resounding all across the area as he starts scuttling in fear, the danger that this young man presents now fully sinking in, making not only him, but also his subordinates, well aware that fighting this person won't end well for them.
Seeing them sprint towards the opposite direction, all struggling to create more and more distance from him, Argus couldn't help but feel a bit baffled, wondering where their previous momentum had gone.
Knowing that there's no point to killing all of them, though, the young man merely watches as they scramble to different directions, no longer caring about them the moment that each of their figures completely disappears from his sight.
'They don't seem to have a lot of useful things on them, besides, killing another one might just scare these young people more…'
He thought as he took a gaze at the young travelers behind him, the expression on their faces was one that was filled with shock and surprise, one that was due to finding out that the one they thought was the weakest among their group was actually in a league far above their own.
"I've done my part; it's about time that I get moving. I've held the end of the deal, Gustav; everything from here on is all up to yourselves."
Argus said as his figure disappears from everyone's sight, his speed, beyond anything that these young travelers had ever witnessed in their lives, made them wonder just what sort of powerful family this young man came from.