I Reject Quests

Two pairs of eyes looked at each other. 

One brown, disinterested, and apathetic.

The other bright crimson, cold but had no trace of anxiousness or nervousness.

*Swish*

A weapon shot out of one's hand.

It was certainly not the spear that flew off.

The young man with crimson eyes had his front wide open while his opponent's spear was just above his chest.

This was an opportunity for X.

X swiftly changed the trajectory of the way his spear was going after making the dagger fly off and struck his opponent.

Rewen watched as the pointed end of the spear approached his chest. He was completely open and had no option to dodge. If he tried to step back, he would be hit before he could do that. If he tried to step beside, he would be hit before he could do that. 

Despite the incoming threat to his life, he was the calmest he had ever been.

Closing his eyes, he didn't make any movements.

*Shhhkk*

The spear pierced his chest. 

"Cough! Hah!" Blood spurted out from his mouth.

When X pulled out the spear, Rewen fell on the floor as fresh blood gathered around his chest.

Time was up.

The temporary power he got from [2x Power Spike] had worn off.

The pain he felt intensified as he felt it hard to keep his consciousness going.

X looked down at his eyes with a cold expression. "Do you think you can go on?"

"I… can't. Cough! Cough!" Rewen admitted. 

He had lost.

There was no way he could recover from this.

X's eyes shined in realization. 'As I thought, he doesn't have any way to heal himself which means the dark aura didn't belong to him. It is certainly mysterious. I have to delve a bit deeper into this.'

"Very well. I'll honor you by staying here until you die." X folded his arms.

"R...Rewen? Are you fine? Use that dark thing!" From the corner, Denny shouted with anxiousness in her voice.

Rewen was not in a position to respond. Bright sunlight fell on his body. The lukewarm heat made him a bit comfortable. 'It looks like the rain has stopped.' 

Seconds ticked by and after every second, he felt himself nearing closer and closer to death. However, he wasn't afraid. In fact, he was even looking forward to it a little. 

'If I say something like - 'Looks like this is it', would it save me?' 

He inwardly smiled, feeling proud of the fact that even in a condition like this, he could make a joke.

'Good thing I said 'goodbye' to the others. Hopefully, they will remember and mourn about my death.'

'Despite everything, my life was a standard one.'

'Now that I think about it, I had a pretty good life… for the most part.'

'To pretend that I didn't would be me forcing myself to look as the victim.'

'There is some unfinished business… for which I'm glad that I don't have to take part.'

"Cough! Cough! Cough!" Violently coughing out blood, Rewen raised his index finger with difficulty and pointed up.

X wasn't sure what that was supposed to mean but he looked up.

And there was nothing. 

As he opened his mouth to question and lowered his head, he saw that Rewen's eyes had already closed. To check if he was dead, he checked the pulse.

He was dead, in every sense of the word.

He had stopped breathing and his pulse had stopped.

His eyes then noticed the hand which Rewen had raised. Subsequently, he also noticed that the index finger was still open.

Following the direction, he saw something which made him gasp.

The remote he had tossed in the air was now in two pieces. The two pieces were close to each other. One of them had a dagger pierced.

X had a time believing what he was seeing. Chills went down his spine and for the first time in decades, he had been so shocked. 

Rewen's objective was never to defeat him.

It had always been protecting Denny.

He didn't do so out of compassion, kindness, or even familial love.

What familial love would he have to a person he met two weeks ago?

'Why would he go this far?' 

X questioned. To him, the fact that Rewen predetermined the outcome was extremely absurd. 

'He knew he would die so why would he do this? What meaning does this have? Now that he is dead, did he think that I would let his cousin go if he destroyed the remote?' 

He simply couldn't comprehend the thought process his enemy had.

Clenching his fist, he got up and turned his eyes to look at the other person in the area who was alive.

Denny's eyes were fixed on Rewen's corpse.

"He is dead."

As soon as the three words entered her ears, Denny raised and shook her head. "That's… not… true. That's not true… at all. H-he can… he can heal himself. Yes. He can heal himself."

Immediately after she said that X picked up the dagger from the remote and threw it towards her.

Denny didn't get the time to react and simply closed her eyes.

Nothing happened.

"Huh?"

Denny was a bit confused for a second, then felt cool on her ankles. Looking at her ankles, she noticed that the shackles that bind her legs were no longer there. 

"I'll give you a minute to come and mourn for his death. After that, you'll die." X proceeded to sit on the sofa.

Denny got up and ran over to Rewen's corpse.

As she got near, she noticed a large hole in his chest and immediately fell on her knees. Having practiced in V-Space thousands of times, she had a very good understanding of the human body. Let alone a Rank 0 Mage, not even a higher-ranked mage could survive after getting his/her chest pierced like this. 

"H-he can heal himself, right?" Denny asked herself in an uncertain tone.

"He couldn't. The Rewen with weird eyes wasn't actually Rewen---"

"Shut up… Shut up… Shut up! SHUT UP!!" 

Denny couldn't hold herself back and started sobbing.

X shrugged. "Live the last sixty seconds of your life as you please." 

The moment he completed his sentence, he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned around and saw a familiar old man wearing a green robe. "Oh? What's up? What are you doing here?"

"Come." The old man said one word and disappeared along with him in thin air.

In the next instant, another person appeared in the building stretching his hand to where X's neck was. Unfortunately for him, X was no longer there.

Squinting his eyes, he surveyed the place. As he was surveying, he soon came across Rewen. His entire body went stiff. Step by step, he slowly approached the corpse. His legs felt a million times heavier.

As Denny sobbed, she felt someone approaching. Initially, she thought that it would be X but when she turned around, she saw a person she never would have thought of seeing. "U-Uncle?"

Even though her Uncle looked younger than he usually looks, she had no doubt that it was indeed her Uncle who is also Rewen's father.

When he came near to his son, he crouched down and grabbed his son's hand. 

The hand had no warmth to it.

Sitting cross-legged without a word, he looked at the peaceful look on his son's face with dead eyes.

Anger, sadness, guilt… his emotions couldn't be expressed in words. He was devastated, to say the least. 

In the eighteen years of Rewen's life, the number of times he had visited his son could be counted with two fingers. Because of the nature of his work, he was involved in busy business throughout the year which made him unable to properly raise his son. Needless to say, he was guilty about the matter.

When he had his second, he decided to turn a new leaf and took up the responsibility of bringing him up along with his wife despite the nature of his work. Since his son was already nineteen and can look after himself, he didn't pay too much attention to him. 

He regrets doing so.

Not saying any word, he carried Rewen's corpse in his arms and proceeded to exit the building.

Deeny wiped off the tears on her eyes and followed him.

The moment he stepped outside, he met dozens of people looking at him.

Tony McBreth was at the front. 

Beside him were Tervon and Yeri.

All three were shocked to see the red-haired young man in his arms,

"He… is dead?" Yeri asked with disbelief. Even though she and Rewen couldn't be considered friends, he was still someone who she frequently met and sometimes, had a small talk with.

Tervon was the same. 

Rewen's father went past everyone and then… disappeared. 

The action caused Tony as well as everyone present on the scene to look at each other in silence and this wasn't the first time they had seen this.