Return of the Woodcutter

"What do you mean?" Aito asked, hoping to get a different answer than what he expected. 

"The sect… has taken Sheyla hostage." Ogoro said, clenching his fists. "We were too careless. I… was too careless." 

The siblings hadn't expected Kai to send his men after them. Monitoring them was one thing, but taking action was another. Kai wasn't the sort of man to act for the sake of vengeance. 

Well, they had assassinated him in his past life. However, Kai wasn't aware of it. He had died in his sleep after all. A quick, painless death. No, the ex-CEO's real reason should lie somewhere else. 

As for how the sect captured Sheyla, it was in fact very simple, yet unthinkable to Ogoro at the time—not because he was stupid, he just hadn't expected it.

Kai had positioned his men at the entrance of the red challengers' room, meaning in front of the two candles in the first floor. 

The siblings usually exited their rooms unhindered and met up outside. This time, however, dozens of well-armed men and women had prepared a welcoming party. A party to which they were the guests of honor. 

Ogoro would often go out early, more by habit of organizing his duels than anything else. He fought as hard as he could but surrounded on all sides and taken by surprise, he ultimately got captured. 

Although, judging by the cuts on Ogoro's clothes as well as his minor injuries, Aito guessed it cost the Chosen sect a few men to do so. 

After that, a gagged Ogoro was forced to watch as his sister also suffered an ambush Kai himself was personally overseeing—from behind, of course. 

Sheyla did not fare better than her brother. Just like Ogoro, she ended up gagged, tied to a chair. Other challengers in the Square didn't dare intervene. The sect was powerful. Messing with them would usually end up badly. 

On the first floor, where no moderator stood guard, it hadn't been rare to find corpses in the morning during the first month after the Tower opened. Those corpses had belonged to fools who dared insult, plot against, or pick a fight with sect members. Their deaths weren't necessarily an order of the sect master, though. 

"Aye, I've heard of those incidents," Gwen said, grabbing an unmarked challenger without even looking at her. The sneaky woman was trying to take advantage of Gwen's attention being elsewhere to ascend to the third floor. Gwen threw her away like she was trash then said, "It's unfortunate, but it's part of the Tower. No moderator was placed on the first floor on purpose, to allow such incidents to occur." 

Aito cared little about those. As far as he knew, those didn't concern him. Now, what really concerned him was what Ogoro could say next. Because if he had been captured, how come he was standing in front of him? 

"I… I'll be honest," Ogoro said, looking Aito straight in the eyes. "I was released so that I could bring you on the first floor in exchange for my sister's life." 

Aito frowned, instinctively tightening his grip on the double-edged ax. He had to admit, Ogoro was quite daring. If he thought Aito would lay down his life for Sheyla, he was awfully mistaken. 

"Do you realize what you're asking of me?" He said. 

"This is not what you think," Ogoro replied. "Kai just wants to talk to you. Nothing else."

"What? Did you seriously buy that bullshit?" 

"He promised." Ogoro said, "I've worked for him before. Many times. As far as I know, he's never broken a promise." 

Ogoro's gaze full of hope was like a dagger slowly reaching for Aito's throat. He hated that kind of situation the most because he could relate to it. 

The man simply wished to save his sister. He wished to save a family member. Which, in turn, blinded him to all logical thinking. To the point of being foolish, making irrational decisions.

Aito knew the man standing in front of him would do anything to save his sister. Including taking reckless actions. After all, he himself had done so in the past by trying to win a tournament he had no chances of winning in the first place. Where had it led him to act before thinking things through? 

Nowhere else but in jail. 

Broken. 

Shattered. 

Hopeless. 

'Don't say the words. Do not say them.' Aito thought, praying to all that was holy—not the damn gods of Iris—Ogoro wouldn't utter those words. 

Seeing Aito's unwillingness to accompany him, Ogoro knelt in a dogeza position. Facedown against the ground, he pleaded, "Please, help me." 

'Shit! Fuck! Filona!' Aito cursed internally, then enlarged his repertoire of divine curses because of his frustration, although it made absolutely no sense. 'Belmand! Valinar!'

Normally, he wouldn't be struggling with that kind of situation. Rejecting it was the way to go. The safest option. 

Why should he help Ogoro anyway? 

Because he had helped him train? 

Because of the memory bead? 

To his mind, those were nowhere near enough to put his own life on the line for someone else. 

Yes, he, well, they had dealt with dozens of sect members before. This, however, he felt would be different. Free from the moderators' influence on the first floor, Kai could use his men to their fullest potential. More precisely, surround him with so many of them he wouldn't be able to handle it alone. 

Also, Aito had completely abandoned the idea of risking his life for someone else after what happened on the boat during his time as a fishing slave. Not when he had his say in it, at least. 

Jack had been the sole exception to this rule because he considered the animal trustworthy, a true friend. A rare breed, really. 

No, risking his life for nothing but a foolish ideal again like he had done back then, was out of the question. Fuck that. 

Unless the gains outweighed the losses, meaning that he benefited from doing it, Aito would not budge a single toe from where he stood. 

Out of respect for Ogoro and everything the man had done for him, Aito was holding himself from outright walking away without looking back. 

Aito sighed, then said, "I'd rather not risk my life for someone I barely know." 

Ogoro's body trembled from sorrow at those words. Desperate, and knowing he couldn't simply force Aito to follow him, he pleaded again, "Please, help me. I'll do anything to repay you."

"I'm sorry, but no."

"Please… Sheyla is my only little sister," Ogoro said with a trembling voice as tears started to run down his cheeks. "My only family. I cannot lose her… not again." 

The pitiful appearance of the fearsome warrior in front of him, those words… tugged at Aito's heartstrings. A distant voice from a dusty corner of Aito's past whispered to him, encouraging him to help the pitiful man. 

"Don't you have a family too?" Ogoro asked, lifting his face full of tears, trying to call upon Aito's feelings. 

"I… had," Aito replied with a grim face. 

Fogged by the urgency, Ogoro's mind misinterpreted Aito's answer by a positive one—which a sense, was. 

"Then you must understand what I'm going through!" 

"I do, but you cannot expect me to risk—" Aito started.

"You're just a coward!" Ogoro interrupted. He stood up, his face full of anger and also disappointment. 

Watching from the side, Gwen's brows lifted to express her astonishment. Never would she have thought Ogoro capable of sincerely insulting the man—for some weird reasons—he practically saw as his role model.

"Sheyla was right." Ogoro said, "I have misjudged you, Aito Walker. You're just like the others. A self-centered, petty, cowardly man. Only thinking of yourself!" 

"This is called being cautious."

Ogoro greeted his teeth before saying, "This is called being pathetic! This is just an excuse! Cower all you want behind it. You can pretend it is caution. But it'll remain an excuse. Because you know there is something you can do to save my sister! You are just too scared to take the risks! You have no guts!" 

"Don't talk to me about fear and guts when you barely know me." Aito retorted, "You don't know how I've lived. You don't know what I've been through. How can you judge me when you know nothing!" 

Ogoro looked down, appearing to have given up. "Then why did you save us at that time? Why did you pretend to be what you're not?" 

Aito clicked his tongue, "Did you watch too many animes that your brain fried? I saved you because a bastard god forced me to do it! I've already told you before that you owe me nothing!" 

Both men stayed silent. Both men looked elsewhere. Both men knew they've been in the wrong about each other. 

Gwen simply pretended to ignore them, since it wasn't her place. Instead, she forced the crowd staring at them to advance. 

Finally, Ogoro broke the silence. "Tch, you are right. I don't know you. I never did. The man I thought I knew would never say something so gutless. The man I saw bleed and struggle to gain strength each day is nowhere to be seen. The man who saved us back then was just a mirage. An illusion. A product of my own imagination. I was a fool to believe you would help me." 

Aito looked sideways. Somehow, he felt ashamed. Those words hurt him more than he was willing to admit. 

"But thanks to you, I've finally realized what I should do," Ogoro said, turning around. Before leaving for his own doom, he said, "I hope that you find a heart in this new life of yours." 

"You're going to get yourself killed if you go there alone," Aito said, but no one answered him. The only reply he had was the figure of Ogoro descending towards his own honorable death.