PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

Gerard tried to fight, but Desmond had positioned himself behind Gerard before putting the rope around his neck and dragging him with a force that was impossible to resist, Gerard also tried to scream, but his throat was on the verge of breaking from the pressure of the string and made no sound.

Even so, Gerard kept fighting, clinging as hard as he could to the rope around his neck scratching his throat until he bled in an attempt to hold the rope, but Desmond didn’t care.

When Desmond finished dragging Gerard up to the entrance bars, Desmond took one end of the rope and ran it over the top of the bars using a horizontal bar for support, and began to pull the rope from the outside; hanging Gerard there from the other side of the cell.

At this point the lack of oxygen had already nullified whatever force Gerard could muster as his consciousness faded into oblivion with each passing second as his body convulsed occasionally; even in his last moments Gerard never came to understand why Desmond had murdered him and his only regret was having come to hide in the town where this demon lived.

Oblivious to the last thoughts of a dying man, Desmond ripped off one of Gerard’s jacket sleeves, and when Gerard finally died Desmond used it to replace the rope, using the piece of cloth as a rope and tying it to the top end of the bars, Desmond arranges the scene to make it look like a suicide.

Sure, the cover-up wasn’t bulletproof, but Desmond knew better than many how little Gerard’s death would matter to the military, in all likelihood the military would classify the incident as suicide without even conducting an autopsy.

Having finished his work Desmond stared at Gerard’s corpse for a moment before speaking out loud into space: “Disappointed?”

A small ripple in the air where the light was distorted revealed Kyuru who had secretly followed Desmond from the beginning using a strange form of invisibility through light manipulation; an ability the fairy had used in the past to follow Claire.

.....

Kyuru at this moment had a confused and sad expression on her face as she looked at Desmond, but she still managed to answer.

“I don’t understand, you were better, you had control ... no, you are in control, you did not kill him on impulse, so why did you do it?”

Desmond, who did not dare to look the fairy in the eye, replied: “It is a warning, for others like him, the military will classify this as a suicide... but there will be rumors, there always are, and with the right interest and money, those rumors can reach very far; far enough for people like him to think twice before coming to this city ”

Kyuru looked at Desmond for a second and then directed his gaze to Gerard’s corpse as he said, “Did you do that, just to give a warning?”

In response Desmond only nodded slowly, Kyuru, on the other hand, could not believe the current scenario, after the conversation she had with Desmond a few hours ago she had thought that things would improve in the short term and Desmond would find a way to improve on his own; but she never imagined that just a couple of hours later she would see Desmond murder someone else in cold blood ... all just to give a warning.

“What you said a couple of hours ago made me realize something, I was never a good person, I always had this violence and cruelty inside of me, long before I lost my parents, but before or after I never exercised it alone on impulse; there was always a plan... a motive, it was never to satisfy my sadistic desires and I don’t want it to be that way.

You were right, I need to find something that brings me peace, I cannot let my whole life be guided only by my most primitive desires and let blood and corruption dirty what is pure in my life ... but this is different, his death is me useful, there is a reason, by killing him I can help prevent others like him from coming here ... others like him trying to harm what is pure in this place ”

Only then did Kyuru realize how naive she had been, she believed that by helping Desmond numb his impulses he would stop the violence, but forgot for a moment that violence was part of Desmond’s nature; for Desmond, it was never about his hatred or his revulsion towards Gerard ... for Desmond, violence was only a means to an end and calming his impulses only made Desmond even better at applying violence when it was useful.

Hence Desmond found a way to use Gerard as a warning to prevent other criminals or psychopaths from trying to use Green Seed Town as a refuge, which might seem like an exaggerated measure on Desmond’s part, but this was not entirely true.

Due to the uncertainty of the war and the extra effort made by the military in certain regions of the country, several cities had begun to have problems staying safe from all kinds of criminals and gangs who took advantage of the lack of military personnel.

Likewise, some gangs or criminal entities took the opportunity to expand their influence, it was only a matter of time before gangs or other criminals in the nearby city of Kars turned their attention to the not-so-small town of Green Seed Town.

A warning like Gerard would imply that the military presence was still strong and the presence of criminal scum was not taken kindly; Especially if someone like Desmond was encouraging such rumors on purpose.

The problem was that Kyuru hadn’t thought that far, she had only thought that Desmond needed to calm down and she help him with it; Desmond, on the other hand, as he gained clarity, began to think about the implications of having criminals running south ... which led to the current situation.

“Are you disappointed?” This was Desmond’s second time to ask that question, but there was an added weight in his words and nervousness that couldn’t be hidden from someone like Kyuru.

In response to the question, Kyuru looked Desmond in the eye for a moment, and for the second time today she focused her whole being on feeling the essence of the person in front of her, there she found darkness, vast darkness tinged with Desmond′s sins but underneath all that darkness she still saw that warm light that prompted Desmond to save her in the past and that light was all she needed; at the end of the day as long as that light existed inside Desmond, nothing else mattered to her.

In fact, as the being of nature that she was, Kyuru didn’t mind death much, for her bloodshed was just another part of the nature of life, the only reason she cared about this particular death was because of the possible implications it had for Desmond; but at this point, she had concluded that Desmond hadn’t changed at all since the day she met him... the only real difference is that now she knew him better.

Still, Kyuru couldn’t leave Desmond without a real answer so she floated up to Desmond and after sitting on her shoulders replied:

“I’m not disappointed, just surprised, I don’t like what happened here but I don’t feel sorry for that man either when he was still alive feeling his mind is one of the most nauseating things I’ve ever felt so his death doesn’t sadden me; As for you ... you are still the same man I know, tomorrow you will get up earlier than anyone to receive the girls and me with a smile and a hearty breakfast and you will continue to shower us with pampering and love ... this act of cruelty will not define how I see you ... but I will have to eat a lot of honey to recover from the trauma ”

Finishing on a playful note the fairy sitting on Desmond’s shoulder smiled as she flapped her adorable bare feet, as to her shameless request for more honey; Desmond said nothing, but it was certain that by tomorrow the fairy would have several jars of honey to enjoy until she was satisfied.

And with the same silence with which he arrived, Desmond left leaving nothing but the corpse hanging from Gerard, no guard noticed neither his arrival nor his departure and he simply vanished into the shadows under the moonlight.