"Care to repeat that, gentleman?" Father Sefir spoke out, as his teeth gritted and his hands clenched at his side. The once calm expression morphed Into wrath and the trickling sweat disappeared almost as if it was never there.
The words that escaped the mouth of the bandit leader would serve to anger any father in existence, especially such a loving one like Sefir.
"Of course, I see no problem in repeating myself...I want your daughter. Do I need to repeat it a third time or did you hear it right, this time at least?" The words were mocking, enraging the priest even further and then he took a deep breath, for he knew anger would only serve to cloud his thinking.
"Why?" The priest spoke, holding his frightened daughter back, with wrath still very much clear in his gaze yet the bile didn't rise to his voice. "You could have enslaved all of us—just like the tales of your terror tell us, but why her specifically? Why do you only want her?"
The leader of the skull bandits suddenly started laughing, just like a mad man would, and this not only surprised the villagers but the bandits themselves who turned with surprise on their face.
"Oh, holy priest, how much will you play dumb? Not only my tales have roamed this land but yours have did too. Sefir, you're no ordinary priest, you were once a powerful healer in the court of the king. A powerful magician with a certain affinity towards healing, oh don't play the fool. Your daughter is a mana conductor, you know that yourself. They had been eliminated wayback leaving only a few—your wife and your daughter. With your wife dead, that leaves only your daughter. Her body will be a perfect little thing to increase my mana once I ravage her."
The bandit leader spoke with a very high pitch, almost as if he was a poet sharing a tale with a large gathered crowd, and this revelation caused the eyes to turn towards the priest in surprise.
The villagers and Dianne never knew the priest had such a past, frankly they didn't even have any idea about magicians and mana—only having the knowledge, that it was something which nobles got access to when they reached appropriate age.
"Father, is he telling the truth? Am I this 'mana conductor' or something? Does this mean I am from a noble bloodline?" Dianne asked tugging her father's sleeve, with urgency clear from her tone, and her actions erratic after discovering something new which she had no idea about, but she indirectly was a part of.
Sefir bit his bottom lip, and then he sighed, for he knew that the truth would never stay hidden for too long as dictated by the divinity above. "Yes.... The vile man is indeed telling the truth. Your mother's last name was Osled. That's why I never gave you my last name, for I didn't want you to find the real truth ever, that you're a member of Vanlit noble house. I am sorry for never telling you truth, my dear daughter. But I wanted to protect you, for being born as a noble while simultaneously being a mana conductor is nothing but a curse, that's why I hid everything from you! A mana conductor is only considered a biological tool for others to increase their mana capacity and nothing more!! Their potentiality of having a good mana control never gets to surface for its snuffed out by the greedy eyes matching that of the sinful bandit."
And at the last few sentences, the normally kept composure broke as if a dam, letting the tears of guilt leak out. Falling to his knees in front of his daughter, asking forgiveness not through his words but through his actions, and this sight made Dianne blink a few times, she has never seen her father kneel in front of anybody nor in front of any situation.
He was always like a silent pillar of hope and that pillar had lost its strength in front of her, this made her feel special and at the same time extreme guilty for being the prime reason behind her father's tears.
Dianne too knelt down and hugged her father, kissing the top of his head and rubbing soothing circles on his back. "Father....
Don't cry, please. I forgive you father, so please don't weep. You hid certain information from me due to my own good, so how can I be hungry, huh? When a man lies for the another's good, it's far better than the truth which would cause the other man's damnation. So please stand up again, for I am nothing, with you being there as my pillar."
The wisdom in her words and the respect present within her heart, all served to make Sefir shed more of his tears, and then with her support he slowly stood up still hugging her tightly.
"When did you become so mature, my daughter?" Father Sefir asked, with his eyes red from the amount of tears that had escaped due to his guilt and sadness, yet his tone remained joking to alleviate the guilt off from the shoulders of Dianne.
Dianne chuckled at his words, when suddenly the sweet father-daughter moment was interrupted, as a harsh clap reverberated arround the road.
"What a performance! Bravo.... Bravo. The theatrics, the raw dialogues, ufff, take my coins. You two served a better entertainment than a jester serves entertainment to his king." The bandit leader laughed, wiping away an imaginary stray tear from the side of his eyes and then his visage hardened. "Now, if you are done and all, pass the girl to me."
Sefir eyes widened flashing with wrath and without any further words exchanged, he extended his hand out letting the waves of fury inside, flow out through his mana carriers, and then it turned into a ball of fire—the size of a lion crashing towards the leader.
The leader undeterred by this, just rolled his eyes, and with a flick of his wrist, a gust blew the fire into nothingness shocking everyone present. While the other bandits, without any mana, gazed with awe clear from the expression emerging on their face.
Sefir was shocked, even though he was more of a healer, he was still a very strong and well versed magician. So how could the bandit leader possess enough power to extinguish his mana, he could see the mana aura that pervaded around him, and it was quite weak too so how?
Unless.....
"So you guessed it, huh? Artifacts, Father Sefir, you stuck to the old traditions while us new generations found new ways to cultivate strength rather to train ourselves.
Shame, you would be a great partner to have, yet you stand in my way of having your daughter. I can't allow that, can I?"
With the said, the leader of the bandits drew his blade that gleamed with a darkness that only craved blood—a fragment of the original cursed blade of Raktabeej. Then before anyone could react, he disappeared and appeared right in front, letting the sword swing freely.
Imagining the head falling from the body, just like the driver's head did prior.
But the blade didn't meet its mark.
It was caught between two fingers, as Father Sefir fell backwards and the bandit leader was sent flying back like a lightning bolt with a pale look of fright and pain.
The dust cloud that had erupted due to the sudden movements cleared away and a man emerged from within.
It was none other than Siddhant, holding the fragment sword, by the dark blade quite tightly yet it couldn't even breach his skin.
Dianne rushed towards her father, as Sefir looked up and saw who saved him. But this time he didn't curse him, for he knew, only Siddhant could save them.
"Please, Siddhant, protect us." The priest asked, with a clenched jaw forcing the words out of his mouth, even though somewhere in his heart he hated losing to forest dweller.
"You don't have to request. I didn't come here just to hear you lose your pride. It is my duty to safeguard your daughter and that's what I am doing." Siddhant didn't turn his head, so the emotions couldn't be seen, and his voice was always stuck in that same calm tone almost as if he knew wisdom beyond time itself.
It was annoying, highly infuriating too for the priest who had to maintain his silence, for now since he couldn't insult the only one who had the potentiality to guard them all from the strong bandit group in front of them.