My Ultimate Blacksmith System-Chapter 62: An Executioner or a Knight

With the orc dead, I turned around to see the princess dutifully examining the villagers chained to the wall.

While she was crouched down examining them, I walked over to one of the chained villagers with my katana in my hand.

It was an old man. He weakly raised his head and I in turn raised my katana.

"Hey, what are you doing?!"

SLASH!

My katana sliced through the chains holding the old man, freeing him. Hearing a shout, I turned to the princess. A look of panic was on her face.

"What?" I asked.

Her face looked completely flustered.

"Umm... just be careful swinging that thing."

"I'm just freeing them."

She frowned.

"And by the way, what was that thing earlier?"

I raised an eyebrow, confused about whatever it was that she was referring to.

"What thing?"

"You know that whole thing about you not being able to lose me or whatever." She folded her arms and averted her gaze.

I shrugged.

"I can't lose you…"

Her face flushed slightly.

"Because you're my hostage. You're the only security I have against those nobles and your father."

STOMP!

"Idiot, then you shouldn't have said it like that, and don't call me princess while you're saying such things."

I raised an eyebrow.

"Don't you like being a princess?"

"Idiot! That's not it. Are you completely dense?"

She is quite mouthy for a hostage. I'll start tuning her out from now on.

"Whatever, let's just free the villagers," she sighed.

The princess and I continued to free the hostages without saying a word. They were all packed in this cramped space and chained to the wall.

"How many of them are there?" the princess asked.

"I count 45, 4 halves and 2 quarters."

The princess looked at me incredulously.

"What?"

"Some of them are missing limbs."

She looked at me in bewilderment and shook her head. We continued to free them and I took the liberty of escorting a select few out of the room. The princess realized what I was doing but still she didn't say a word.

After a few minutes, the only ones left in the room were the ones too injured to even heal. They were the ones that the orcs had begun feasting on. They were half eaten so to speak.

"Is it time?" One of them asked.

It was a priest, it looked like. He lay on the ground, his intestines lying in piles around him, and yet he had a bright smile on his face and spoke calmly. There were six others like him, half eaten and barely breathing.

"Come closer, I can't raise my voice too much," he beckoned to me.

Without hesitation, I stepped closer to him and knelt down so I could hear what he had to say.

He chuckled slightly at the sight of me.

"You aren't bothered by the sight of me? You barely showed any reaction at all."

"What is there to be bothered by?" I asked.

He chuckled again, this time too much, and ended up coughing up blood. After he stopped coughing, he finally spoke once again.

"I just wanted to pray to the goddess for myself and the others here with me. Will you grant me a few minutes?"

"I…"

"Take as long as you need."

I was about to speak, but then the princess interrupted. She was standing at the furthest end of the room, clearly bothered by the grotesque sight in front of her.

"Thank you," the priest nodded, and a single tear rolled down his face.

While the priest prayed, I took a step back and stood beside the princess.

"Let me take care of them," the princess muttered.

"You mean kill them?"

She shot me a glare.

"You…"

"Don't mistake it. That's what we're doing. Whether we're taking their life to end their suffering or just for the pleasure of it, it's still murder."

The princess's mouth opened and closed a few times as if she wanted to retort something, but nothing came out.

"Your hands are trembling. If you mess up, then it means they'll suffer unnecessarily," I said.

"I'm their princess, it's my duty."

"Your duty is to give them hope and all that crap. Give them the illusion that their shitty life will get better."

She said nothing and only continued to stare at the ground. She seemed like the stubborn type.

Sighing to myself, I stepped in front of her and lifted her chin, forcing her to look into my eyes. Her eyes were glossy as if she were holding back tears.

"Even princesses need executioners"

For a brief moment, we stared into each other's eyes as if we were being drawn into one another. The two of us were polar opposites, but it felt as if we were being pulled together. Like a magnetism that grew stronger the longer we were together.

Soon, a small smile appeared on her lips.

"A princess needs a knight," she corrected.

"I'm not fit for such a role."

"Agreed."

She let out a soft, girlish giggle. It was the first time I had heard her laugh since her kidnapping. She was a lot cuter when she was laughing.

"Well, if you insist, I'll allow you to do it," she finally relented.

I waited until the priest had finished praying before I stepped forward. The moment I stepped forward, the priest retrieved something from his pocket. It was a strange item. It looked like a gem carved in the shape of a goddess.

"Take care of this, will you? Make sure it doesn't end up in the wrong hands." He said (While putting it in the wrong hands. If this junk isn't valuable to me then I'll sell it.)

Suddenly his face turned serious. He whispered something to me. "Two hands should never touch this item at once."

His final words left me with questions, but he refused to elaborate. Sighing to myself, I pulled the katana from my inventory, and in one fluid swing, he was decapitated.

I made sure the cut was clean so he didn't feel a thing. I then proceeded to do the same to the others who were severely injured.

We then escorted the other 45 villagers outside the building. Our job was done. While the princess stayed with them, I went to retrieve the other villagers hiding in the forest.

The old woman paid me with a small bag of gold and practically broke down in tears when she saw that not all her people were killed. Not knowing how to react, I stood awkwardly as she clung to me. The princess seemed amused by my dilemma and made no effort to hide her teasing smile.

The two of us then watched, along with Tyrah and Tierra, the villagers' tearful reunion.

As I watched them, I held the item the priest had given me in my hand, fiddling with it. Suddenly, the princess's eyes caught sight of it, and her mouth opened in shock.

"That's a carving of the goddess of love. Let me see it," she said, grabbing onto the item tightly in my hand, but I held it firmly.

"Hey, leave it. It's nothing but junk."

"No, wait, you can't. If it is what I think it is, then it belongs to the Church."

Suddenly, as the two of us fought over the item, the strange artifact began to emit a bright pink light before enveloping both of us.