Heaven's Greatest Professor

Chapter 37  Soul Oath

Tifan was under pressure, even though he held the dagger to the throat. He couldn't help it, considering he was up against a devil in human skin who had just killed ten odd people without batting an eye.

Everything was going so well. They had cornered the village, beaten up the few that resisted, and would have gotten away with the loot as well without any bloodshed, but this bastard changed the whole scope of the game.

"So," Warden said. "I feel like you're not very experienced in this taking hostage situation. Aren't you supposed to speak about your demands now?"

Tifan gritted his teeth, pulling the woman to take a couple of steps back. "Take a soul oath," he said, his voice shaking a little. "That you'll not harm me, and I'll let the woman go."

The man was just as unfazed as he was a moment ago, the purple glow receding somewhat from his eyes.

"That seems a reasonable demand for a bandit to have in this predicament," Warden said, nodding. "But no, I won't take a soul oath, and you'd let go of that woman."

"Bastard, I'll kill her, you hear me," Tifan screamed, taking another step back with Kelsa.

"I think you have made that clear," Warden said. "On that note, you're already hurting her. It'd be wise if you put more attention on your weapon when it is held to someone's neck, especially that someone is your only lifeline out of here."

In fact, Tifan had noticed the blood, but his mind registered it as a nuisance compared to the devil, who needed his full attention. He feared a moment of lapse, and the man would appear behind him to behead him. He finally retracted the dagger a little, letting Kelsa breathe properly.

She screamed in plea immediately, "Please..."

"Warden," Xiv spoke his worry. "He's going to kill her."

"No, he won't," Warden said, narrowing his eyes at the bandit. The malevolent purple light spilled out from his eyes again. "Because he knows if he lets go of her, he's dead. If he kills her, he's dead."

Motherfuck, he doesn't care about a bystander at all, Tifan thought in urgency. He should have taken the boy hostage instead, which might have had a better chance of getting a soul oath. He was dead either way if he didn't get a soul oath from the demon.

"So we're in a stalemate here," Warden said again. "Thankfully, I have a perfect solution for this conundrum."

Tifan narrowed his eyes, pretty sure nothing good would come from his mouth. He feared the bastard would just ask him to die for nothing.

"How about you take the soul oath instead?" Warden said.

Tifan shot an incredulous look. He might just kill this woman in spite of himself, even though he didn't like to shed blood if it can be avoided.

"Listen to me, I'll make sense," Warden said. "Suppose I took the oath of leaving you unharmed, but are you sure you'd be safe from me? I can simply appoint someone to hunt you down."

"Take an oath mentioning you won't harm me directly or indirectly," Tifan spat. Surely, he hadn't expected this line of argument.

"That won't be enough either," Warden said. He was just making conjecture, but he supposed all that made sense as he spoke out loud. Weirdly, he was calm during such a situation. What did he really use to do before? "Suppose I train a bunch of kids from this village, who had some grievances over the way some bandits acted. How long do you think it would take them to gain the strength to hunt you down? Again, this is just conjecture, but very much possible. So in all these scenarios, you won't be safe even with getting out of here, unless you know your game really well.

"That leaves us with the solution I mentioned. Set the woman free and take an oath that you'd turn over a new leaf and leave the banditry behind. Then I won't see to your death."

Tifan crackled. "What makes me believe that you'd let me go after I take an oath?" n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

"Good, you're considering it." Warden paused, nodding. "I'll give you my word."

"So I have to believe nothing but your word?" Bandit threw a glare.

"I take my words more seriously than my oaths."

Tifan bit his lips, his hands straining, clutching the weapon for so long even though his Strength was well over 50 points. He couldn't say he had come across such a nerve-wracking situation before.

There were two choices before him, and the bastard taking the oath and letting him go wasn't among them. Each one was worse than the other. First, he kills the woman and the man kills him. In the other, he believed him, let go of the woman and took the oath. The demon might kill him even after that. It was simply his words against a bandit.

Two equally disadvantageous options: in one, two people die, and in the other, only he dies. Death of one is better than the death of two, he guessed, unsure why the suicidal thought crossed his mind.

"I know nobody wants to become a bandit when they grow up," the guy said, still holding the long blade that seemed to emit smoke endlessly. "I'm giving you a second chance at life. It won't be easy, for sure. Nobody in this village will forget you were a bandit, you came to pillage their village, beat their elderly, and molest their women. But—"

"I never molest a woman," Tifan screamed, gritting his teeth at the accusation as if it was unjust.

Warden raised an eyebrow. "Perhaps you do have a redeeming quality," he said. "But then again, I wonder if it's better or worse to threaten an innocent woman than molestation. What do you think?" Tifan unclenched his jaw and let out a deep breath. I'm probably going to regret this, but fuck. . . "Fine," he said, throwing away the dagger.