Demon's Virtue-Chapter 22: Three of Swords

When the Imp looked over the plants that he was hiding behind, he soon managed to properly assess the situation. The Children seemed to all be exhaustedly sleeping inside of the Carriage, and the Man and Woman were sitting outside around a fire, the woman trying to properly aid her wounds while the man was looking at the two cards in his hands.

But it seemed like the Woman wasn't exactly happy about this either, because she was simply scowling at the ecstatic man constantly. "Could you maybe help me? It's hard to do this myself..." She said with a frown, and the man just shook his head without hesitation.

"No thanks, I'm really not good at any of that." He replied, continuing to stare at the cards with an ecstatic expression. "But listen, the combination of these two cards is just... Insane! I always had a good Agility and Dexterity stat Value, seems like fate wanted me to become the perfect thief after all, huh~?" The man said with a grin, and due to how loud he was speaking, one of the children in the carriage apparently woke up and tried to go outside to see what was going on.

"Huh? Brat, get back to sleep, the adults are talking." The man said with a scowl, but once more the woman wasn't happy about what he was saying.

"Don't talk to the children like that! They didn't do anything!" The Woman told him, but the man simply glared back at her while one of the two cards he was holding began to glow, slowly turning into what seemed to be four different small blades, each connected to connected to four rings on the man's hand through thin threads.

But what was interesting was that the four blades weren't hanging down like the Imp would have expected them to, but instead they were floating in the air, as if the strings were just supposed to make sure they couldn't fly off.

"Shut it." The man said with a frown while one of the four blades moved in front of the woman's face, while the others just surrounded her head, spinning slowly around it.

Startled, the child that was still standing in the doorway of the carriage stepped back inside and shut the door behind it, and the Imp saw something there that seemed relatively familiar from the room that he and Avalin were staying in before.

A small board of wood was hanging next to the door, seemingly able to be held in front of the door by two hooks so that it couldn't be opened from one side. The children were annoying, and if he managed to put the plank in front of the door, none of them could escape and suddenly take the child that the Imp himself was looking for with them. But for that to work, the Imp needed to find the right moment to kill the man. The woman wouldn't be an issue, but the man was someone that the Imp didn't want to live anymore.

Luckily, the man seemed to be getting more tired by the moment, and might be falling asleep soon, so that was a good enough time. Well, at the very least that's what the Imp was thinking before, but the man apparently had another idea.

Slowly, he used the four blades to rip the woman's clothes up, not caring for the injuries he was giving her through that. "Wh-What are you doing?!" She asked, slowly holding her arms in front of her body to hide her exposed chest, although just doing that seemed to hurt a fair bit due to the injuries that the Imp gave her.

"Come on, just having a little bit of fun~." Gard said with a smile on his face, continuing to cut the woman's clothes up until all of them dropped off of her body, before she dropped onto her back out of fear. "G-Gard, stop it!" She yelled, but the man didn't listen to her in the slightest.

Although, the Imp did notice something else that was going on, which the man apparently didn't pay any attention to. Starting from the rings on his hands, the man had red lines running across his arm, as if he was bleeding.

It didn't seem like it was a good thing in the slightest, but the rest of the man's body didn't seem to be in a peak condition either. He seemed histerical, his legs were shaking, and he had dark rings under his eyes that weren't there when the Imp saw him before.

But because it seemed like this was a really good time to start with what the Imp was planning, he quickly rushed through the bushes toward the carriage, hurrying to climb up the small step in front of the door to reach the wooden plank, and then swiftly managed to grab it and placed it in front of the door.

And then, with his dagger in his hand, the Imp slowly turned around toward the man and the woman, both of which where making quite a lot of sound. The woman sounded as if she was in a lot of pain, while the man seemed to have a lot of fun.

But then, all of a sudden, the man seemed to be getting angry and was yelling at the woman as well.

She continued to scream in fear, but then, she suddenly went silent, and the man began to try to figure out what just happened. "I-I didn't hurt her, she did it to herself, she, she shouldn't have..." The man muttered quietly as he slowly continued moving around like before, while the Imp approached him from behind.

He was a real idiot, wasn't he? This man got basically completely undressed, and he so easily exposed his back to his enemy. So obviously it was not hard for the Imp to slowly step up to him and stab his dagger through the back of his neck.

It was pretty hard to penetrate all the way through even then, but it did a fair amount of damage to the man, more than the Imp ever managed to do.

[Critical Attack against Gard Henson]

[Gard Henson -2314 Damage]

The man's body tensed up immediately in response to that attack, and the four blades slowly moved toward the Imp, although the moment one of them actually touched the monster's skin, it fell to dust. And the Imp didn't even feel anything in response to that, it was only comparable to blowing on your skin. But nonetheless, the Imp was pretty happy about this. The weapon that the man used to attack the Imp before was laying on the other side of the fire, and the weapon that seemed even more threatening to him was now useless.

And so, the Imp had no qualms about continuing to attack. Although, it only took three or four more blows to actually finish the man off, and soon, other notifications appeared in front of the Imp.

[Lethal Damage done to Gard Henson]

[You Leveled Up!]

[You Leveled Up!]

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...

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[You Leveled Up!]

[You have 29 Unused Stat Points]

[You killed another Card Owner, and have taken his card into your ownership yourself. You are now the Owner of the Three of Swords]

[1/14 Cards of the Suit of Swords acquired]

[2/56 Cards of the Minor Arcana acquired]

[Aptitude with the Air Element increased]

[Beginner Air Magic Skill Learned]

With a deep frown, the Imp quickly cut through the notifications, making the blood that was covering the dagger fly off in the same direction.

And then, after hauling the man's body off of the woman's, the Imp took a proper look at what was now in front of him. First, there was the card that he had before, the Ace of Cups, as well as the new card that was laying next to the other one, the Three of Swords.

After picking them both up, the Imp took a look at what was around him, and what he could use for later, swiftly noticing his own bag from before. The meat inside was starting to smell weird at this point, so the Imp chose not to take that with him. After all, he had two new fresh sources of meat now, the two men that he killed before, and maybe a few of the children as well, depending on how everything went.

So, instead the Imp just took all of the shiny things out of the bag and placed it to the side for now until he found another good bag to use.

But for now, the Imp wanted to take a look at the Woman. And when he looked, he immediately scowled in response. There was a cut in her neck, and even if she still seemed to be alive for now, it didn't seem like she would live for a long time like this.

Then again, did he really need her? There were a lot of children in the carriage, so wouldn't it make more sense to ask them? The Tiny creature in the basket was supposed to be a child as well, and it made sense that a child was able to best take care of another child. They were the same, after all.

So, with little hesitation, the Imp took his dagger and swiftly pushed it through the woman's forehead.

[Lethal Damage done to Jasmin Howards]

[You Leveled Up!]

[You Leveled Up!]

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...

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[You Leveled Up!]

[You have 35 Unused Stat Points]

Once more, the Imp slashed through the notifications with his Dagger, and then, he had to take care of something else.

Swiftly, he went back to the door of the Carriage and opened it up, slowly stepping into the space. It seemed like only one of the children was awake at the moment though, and the Imp was able to move surprisingly quietly, something that he himself didn't even expect, considering how clumsy he used to be.

But even if the Imp was seen by one of the children, it just stayed quiet, out of pure, simple fear of the monster in front of it. Slowly the Imp grabbed the basket with the small child in it and confirmed that it really was the one he was looking for, and swiftly picked it up with his hand, before staring back at that one child.

It seemed to be one of the tallest and strongest ones, so the Imp figured it would be a good idea to have it help him, and the Imp then swiftly pointed his dagger at it to make it do what he wanted.

"Out." The Imp whispered, so that only the child could hear him, and it slowly stood up and made its way out of the carriage. When the Imp put the board back onto the door, he placed the basket in his hand down next to him and then looked at the child in front of him.

That child was simply staring forward at the two dead, naked bodies in front of him, and immediately fell to its knees and threw up. However, the Imp wanted it to do something else.