Volume 2, Legend of a Hero 6: At a Loss, the Hero who must Sacrifice Others or Himself (1/2)

Volume 2, Legend of a Hero Chapter 6: At a Loss, the Hero who must Sacrifice Others or Himself

Translator: Doza

Gēge, I’ve failed… The mother and her daughter were both blown into bits and pieces.

If I had succeeded in saving them, would that mother have been the same as all those mothers I’ve rescued in the past, thanking me with a smile and saying that I was like an angel?

In that moment, if I had paid more attention, maybe I could have discovered that the detonator was not with that crook.

Today, I am not an angel. I brought death unto that mother… I am a grim reaper.

Today, I switched to searching in the west, although I was quite doubtful that the werewolf would dare to appear in the west. The western side was not only not the slums, there were also many rooftops that one could not carelessly step upon. It was certainly not a territory suited for a rampaging werewolf to stay in.

Therefore, the chances of finding the werewolf in the west were slim. However, since I had accepted this request, I had to search everywhere, no matter the place.

I repeatedly traveled back and forth between the rooftop and the ground, paying close attention to the dark alleys. The moment I saw indications of a fight in the alley, a flicker of hope would ignite. However, upon taking a closer look at the situation, I would lose hope again. It would only be a group of youths trying show off their superiority through fighting.

After losing hope several times, I nearly wanted to step in and let these bored youths understand the preciousness of life.

I searched for a long time before I sat down on a bench along a street to rest. I pulled out my pocket watch and saw that it was already midnight. However, I had not even found a single strand of beast fur. It looked like it was yet another fruitless night.

Sigh! X, the task you have given me is really rather difficult. Even though I do not want to disappoint you, it looks like I do not have much choice. Furthermore, you do not even own a cell phone nor do you reply to the emails I send. Tell me, how am I supposed to contact you?

I myself was already considered a very conservative vampire. However, X was even more conservative than I was. Although this allowed us to connect over similar interests, it was such a big hassle when wanting to contact the other party.

“Hey! Handsome, would you have any interest in dancing with me at the pub?”

I raised my head, but while I was preparing to decline, I recognized the other person and blurted out, “Melody?”

Melody was still wearing those clothes she called her “female butler” uniform, except that her collar buttons were opened all the way down to her chest, her gold-rimmed spectacles had disappeared, and her hair was restored to its usual loosely hanging style. She looked at me with an appreciative expression, especially at the sides of my pants, and then complimented me, “You’re really very sexy today, Mr. Butler!”

“You are also very modest today.” I glanced at her clothes, and added on with a smile that was not quite a smile, “If you buttoned up two more buttons, you would be very modest indeed.”

She sat down beside me deftly, and then lazily leaned back on the bench, saying, “What’s wrong, you still haven’t found him?”

I shook my head.

“You wouldn’t have been able to find him right from the start.” Melody scrutinized her violet fingernails as she said, “What kind of person is the young master? Even he couldn’t find him. Did you think that by randomly looking around like a headless housefly, you would bump into him?”

I could not refute that. However, I had no choice but to search for him.

Melody looked at me, and then said, “Suit yourself, if you want to search then go and search! In any case, the young master doesn’t mind. I don’t need to be a busybody.”

I smiled faintly and asked, “Is the test shoot going well?”

The moment I asked this question, Melody’s eyes started sparkling and she exclaimed, “Great…”

That great? Then perhaps being a model is truly suitable for the young master.

“He’s really a great man!”

“… A great man?” What is this supposed to mean?

“That’s right!” Melody said excitedly, “That photographer, Ji Luo Chu, is really good-looking. He also has the air of a gentleman from the olden days, yet is very fashionable. I haven’t met such a wonderful man for such a long time!”

If I remember correctly, Melody seems to like First Wind a lot? If she knew that the young master believes Ji Luo Chu is First Wind, it would definitely be very interesting.

“At first, I wanted to look for him and the young master to go to the pub to party together. Then I can embrace one on my left and hug one on my right. It would be awesome! It’s a pity he had something come in at the last minute and left first, and after that even the young master ran off. So boring!” Melody sighed heavily, her entire body limp against the bench.

However, she straightened her body right after and shouted spiritedly, “Let’s go!”

“Go?” I blinked, and asked confusedly, “Go where?”

“To look for the werewolf!” Melody said as though it was a matter of fact. “Tonight, I will accompany you to look for the werewolf. Some other day, you will have to accompany me to have fun at a pub!”

I was rather surprised as I asked, “Did you not want Ji Luo Chu and the young master to go?”

Melody stood up, and loomed above me. She slowly said, “Embrace one on my left, hug one on my right, and add on a butler to open up a path. Wouldn’t that be even more impressive?”

I smiled rather speechlessly. Then, Melody pulled me up, and after that we jumped onto a wall together.

“You want to search in the western district?” Standing on the wall, Melody glanced at me and asked, “Should we search together or split up to search?”

“Let us search together!”

Splitting up to search would be more efficient, but however more efficient we would be, we could not be more efficient than the young master and several tens of thousands of surveillance cameras. As opposed to being constantly disappointed alone, it was better to have a companion by my side.

After searching several alleys in succession, we discovered there seemed to be a big uproar close by. There were “genuine” screams, and seemingly plenty of them. From the skies both near and far came the sounds of a helicopter’s rotor blades and the ear-piercing sirens of police cars.

“It really has not been peaceful lately,” I sighed lightly.

However, Melody laughed and teasingly said, “Then I know how long you haven’t been paying attention to the screams in the streets! It has probably been around five years? For the past few years, the streets haven’t been peaceful at all. Otherwise, even if the city is large, it wouldn’t need four heroes and a whole crowd of policemen, right?”

I took several steps in the direction the noises came from, but from behind me, I heard Melody’s warning, “Butler, don’t go over there. Since you don’t like to fight, then you wouldn’t want to be drawn into the center of the incident, right?”

I hesitated briefly. Then, I took out my cell phone and dialed Mr. Bramble’s number. Following that, I queried, “Mr. Bramble, may I ask if you are able to see what the big uproar in the western district is about?”

“First Wind has engaged criminals there and seems to be facing some difficulty. But it’s too far away, so the young master does not intend to head over.” Mr. Bramble finished his simple explanation.

After thanking Mr. Bramble, I ended the call and told Melody, “I think we do not have to worry. First Wind is already there…”

Melody cried out, “First Wind?”

Hearing this exclamation, I had a somewhat uneasy feeling, and incidentally remembered something. That is, Melody likes First Wind a lot, and last time, she failed in getting his autograph.

When my thoughts reached this point, I did not need to think any further. That was because Melody was already pulling my hand and rushing ahead.

I could only smile a forced smile and nothing else, but I did not really mind. Since the young master would not be heading over, then even if the situation worsened, I would not intervene. As for whether Melody would step in, that was her decision.

After jumping over a few walls, we stepped onto a rooftop.

The moment we set foot on it, I noticed a symbol belonging to a non-human drawn on the water tower. In addition, I had an inkling that that symbol seemed to belong to someone whom we should not provoke. Frowning, I said, “We should change locations. This place seems to be the territory of a very powerful non-human.”

Melody glanced at the symbol and replied, “It’s fine, I’m acquainted with this fellow.”

I nodded and did not pay any more attention to this issue. Instead, I turned my attention to the situation below. On my first look, I almost thought that I was watching a war film. In that genre of movies, captives were often hung up in a row, just like they were now.

On the middle floor of one of the buildings, around the fifth floor, the entire wall was a stretch of French windows. Behind the windows was a row of people who had been hung up. Men, women, young, and old, there were all kinds of people. Their clothes were considerably mundane. They appeared as if they had been captured after school or work, or even during an after-meal walk.

The only similarity they shared was the expression of terror on their faces. That was due to the three masked criminals carrying guns standing behind them.

Below, First Wind stood in front of the building motionlessly. Everyone else, including the policemen, were all standing far away. The policemen had even formed a cordon, preventing all citizens from getting any closer.

This scene was really familiar. It was practically identical to the previous scene in which the mother and daughter were hung from the rooftop. The only difference was that all four heroes had been present in that incident, but this time, only First Wind was here.

Not long ago, the young master said that the reason for their actions during that incident was to hunt heroes. Can it be that this time, they intend to kill First Wind?

Melody’s indolent voice sounded beside my ear. “Humans! They’re really getting more and more skilled at tormenting their own kind!”

At this moment, the sound of a broadcaster came from the street. “Mr. First Wind, you had better not move… But even if you move, it doesn’t matter. It will merely cost a human life.”

“What the heck are they thinking of doing?” Melody frowned and said with uncertainty, “Are they trying to divert attention once again to go conduct some jewel robbery? This trick shouldn’t work a second time, right?”

“They are not diverting attention, they want to…”

Before the four words “hunt and kill heroes” had even left my mouth, I heard four gunshots. Immediately after that, First Wind’s body slowly crumpled to the ground, and bright red blood slowly flowed out around him…

It worked? I was shocked. Has First Wind really been killed?

Once more, sound came from the broadcaster. “You’re really disobedient! Mr. First Wind, don’t think that I didn’t see you sneakily avoid getting a fatal wound. You moved four times in total. Well then…”

At this moment, First Wind clambered up and yelled, “Stop!”

However, the burly men holding the guns were already opening fire. Four gunshots rang out in total, each killing a student, an elderly, and two women. Blood sprayed onto the French windows, and four flowers of blood bloomed. They had not even had time to scream. Their bodies merely twitched lightly for a while, and then they did not give any further reaction.

First Wind swayed twice. He lifted his head to look at the French windows. I could not see his expression, but I could clearly imagine it… It will definitely be one of grief and anger, right?

At this moment, the voice rang out again. “Please don’t move! We still have twelve hostages in our hands…”

“Sniper rifle? They actually used a sniper rifle to shoot the good man that I want!”

This voice was really close to me. I turned my head and saw Melody’s whole face twitching. She turned her head too and roared at me, “Charles Endelis!”

I did a double take. I had never thought that she would actually address me by my full name. Melody rarely even used “Charles.” Does she not normally address me as the butler?

“I’ll leave the two snipers on the left to you,” Melody said fiercely. “Get rid of them. If not, I’ll get rid of you!”

After she finished speaking, she immediately took a flying leap onto another building. If I had seen correctly, that was in the direction of another two snipers.

Kill two humans, and I can eat my fill in passing; or be killed by Melody. This seems to be an extremely-easy-to-decide multiple-choice question that I have rarely been given in recent days!

I immediately leaped toward the left. When the snipers had fired just now, I was able to pinpoint their locations. The first person was on the rooftop of the building beside us. I leaped across and as I passed the first sniper, I made a clean slash across his neck with my claws. Then, I sped toward the second sniper.

I stepped onto another building and saw the second sniper. I was very lucky; this one was a female. Most women are cleaner than men. To a vampire, because they had to embrace their food while eating and put their mouth on the neck of their food for a period of time, being cleaner was always better.

However, the shrieks of women were always so ear-piercing that I would be unable to resist frowning.

Still, this woman seemed to have undergone training. When I stood behind her and was about to hug her, she noticed me and violently thrust the stock of her gun backwards. However, I deflected it with my hand, and then I embraced her. From beginning to end, she did not let out any screams. Although she did struggle much more than others, compared to the ear-piercing screams, struggling was not hard to deal with.

When I sank my fangs into her neck, I realized that she was really clean. She had not even sprayed on any perfume… It has been so long since I have had such a good meal.

After a long while, I released the food in my hands and supported her as she slowly slipped to the ground. Then, I lifted up my head and saw Melody. She looked down and licked her lips as she said, “That looks very delicious. Those on my side were all stinking men. I lost my appetite just by smelling that terrible odor.”

I took out a handkerchief and gently dabbed the blood stains at the corners of my mouth. I asked offhandedly, “How is First Wind?”

The moment Melody heard me, her enthusiasm faltered as she said, “He lost too much blood and fell unconscious. Later on, Dragon Peace showed up and carried him away.”

I froze, and then inquired further, “Then the hostages?”

Melody mimicked the position taken when firing a gun. Seeing this, my heart sank and I muttered, “All dead?”

“That’s right!” Melody said bitterly, “Yet another idiotic man. The four shots he endured were all for nothing. Right from the start, he shouldn’t have cared about those hostages!”

Allow heroes to disregard the people? I could not help but silently think. If it could be done, then he would not be a hero anymore.

I looked at the scene before my eyes. The place below us seemed to have exploded. The police cordon had long since stopped functioning. The police and paramedics in white had already rushed into the building. Media reporters and citizens were crowded around outside. Everyone wanted to move up to take a look.

But when they actually carried out the corpses covered with white cloths, everyone quieted down. One, two… five, six… In the end, they carried out fifteen corpses in total.

“They were all innocent!” I said with a sigh.

Melody said coldly, “There are no innocent people in this world.”

I looked at Melody. She was looking below as she continued, “Those people, they enjoyed the benefits brought about by the heroes. Naturally, they would have to bear the losses too. Since when can one only have the good but not the bad?”

“Perhaps they would rather not have heroes.”

For the first time, I started questioning the existence of heroes. After all, this was the real world and not a movie. When fifteen people died just like this, they would not get up again after the director yelled cut. Furthermore, the reason for their deaths was merely that they were used to threaten the hero to stay still.

Melody abruptly asked, “Do you know how much the existence of heroes has lowered the major crime rates?”

I paused and shook my head.

Melody extended the five fingers on her right hand and said, “The reports from every media company are different, but all of them will have at least fifty percent correspondence. If we change to counting the number of adult lives, that would be ten less deaths every day at the bare minimum. In the past five years, how many fewer deaths have there been? Do you dare to say that these fifteen people are not among those who could have died? Even if they weren’t, then what about their relatives and friends?”