Slam!

  Just then, the door of the room burst open, and the manor’s guards rushed in. Seeing the manor mistress and her son in that state, they grew furious and shouted at Sharv:

  “Catch that bastard!”

  “Don’t let him escape!”

  “If you value your life, surrender now!”

  Seeing this, Sharv mumbled something under his breath, then casually grabbed Adarsh’s head with his hand and coldly told Atikansha.

  “Tell them to leave this place… or else he dies.”

  Atikansha did not hesitate even for a moment, and repeated exactly what he said:

  “Listen, all of you! Leave this place!”

  The guards were stunned.

  “B-But manor mistress…”

  “W-we can't...what about you and young master's sa...”

  “Didn’t you hear what I said? LEAVE THIS PLACE RIGHT NOW!!!”

  Hearing Atikansha’s furious voice, the guards shuddered. They had never seen the manor mistress so enraged.

  “...If anything happens then, please call us, manor mistress...”

  Saying this, the guards withdrew. Sharv released Adarsh’s head, then looked up at the ceiling from where Adarsh had descended.

  With a single leap, he entered the secret passage in the ceiling and disappeared from there.

  “Huff! Huff!...Sob! Sob!”

  Atikansha kept crying until the end, then she finally hugged her son's body which felt into the group.

  He was still breathing, and that made her felt relieved. If he wasn't alive then what was the reason for her to live?

  And from here on she decided, never to help any stranger for money or anything!

  ***

  “By the way you don’t look like someone who lives in the mountains…”

  Anvi commented, looking at Varsha’s clothes.

  Varsha was wearing a sari, with just a shawl draped over it. It didn’t match the clothing of mountain dwellers at all.

  In the mountains, people wore thick garments, most of the time, because the cold was so intense there. Saris were rare, very rare and mostly women dressed like men to adapt to the climate.

  Glancing down at her attire, Varsha replied.

  “Ahh...No, I do belong to here only. It’s just that for the past few years, I had been living in the Northern Plains, because of some work. But my birthplace and home are in the mountains.”

  “Northern Plains?”

  Hearing this, Anvi’s eyes sparkled with excitement. She was a mountain girl, who had spent most of her life here.

  She had often seen traders coming from the Northern Plains, and overheard their conversations about the place.

  About its fertile lands, its people, their food, their way of life… She had always found it fascinating. But she had never managed to leave the mountains herself.

  Her heart longed to go to the Northern Plains. Life in the mountains was filled with hardship even in daily survival, but in the Plains, people lived in peace and comfort.

  And beyond that—Most of the Indian Subcontinent's greatest martial artists resided in the Northern Plains. Being a martial artist herself, she deeply desired to meet and fight such masters.

  ‘But…’

  Her thoughts shifted to the wounds on her body. They had been given to her by that old man, another powerful martial artist.

  ‘If there are others like him, then surviving against them will be impossible…’

  There was only one solution.

  ‘I must become stronger… A true martial artist…’

  “But there’s one thing I still don’t understand…”

  Anvi furrowed her brows at Varsha’s words.

  “What don’t you understand?”

  “…While I was coming from the Plains, some bandits attacked me on the way. But… how did your brother, Sharv, know about me? How did he know I was there, and that I was a physician?”

  Hearing this, Anvi shifted uncomfortably. Seeing her reaction, Varsha pressed further:

  “Do you know something about this?”

  “No. I don’t. But maybe… it’s just coincidence? My brother was looking for a physician, and perhaps he guessed one might be among those bandits?”

  “…”

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  Varsha said nothing.

  Meanwhile, Anvi herself fell into thought. She knew the truth about her brother’s condition.

  But she decided not to tell Varsha. First, because Sharv had forbidden her from ever speaking about it.

  And second, because even if she did tell anyone, who would believe her?After all…

  ‘Who would ever believe that a boy can see, hear, and speak with spirits?’

  ***

  Sharv sat at a small shop, in the outer part of the village. He seemed to be waiting for someone.

  Nearby, a few young girls stole glances at him shyly, but Sharv paid no attention. After some time, he sensed something, and asked in a low voice:

  “Did you find the cave?”

  In reply, he heard a faint voice, almost as if hearing a whisper.

  ‘Yes, I found the cave.’

  “Where is it? This cave?”

  ‘Right behind this village, you’ll find it. The path is quite rough, so no one ever goes there.’

  “…Humm”

  ‘I’ve kept my promise. Now you must keep yours.’

  “Yes, yes… Don’t worry. You want me to kill this shopkeeper, right?”

  ‘Yes!!!’

  “Alright then.”

  Sharv rose from his chair and began walking toward the shopkeeper.

  Before reaching him, he turned his head once more toward the place from where that voice had come. Though no one else could hear it, nor see the source, Sharv could see, hear, and speak with it.

  For in truth, the voice belonged to the spirit of a woman, with whom Sharv had been conversing.

  That woman’s spirit had been wandering the mountains, when she encountered Sharv.

  At first, she couldn’t believe that a human was able to perceive her. But then, the words from Sharv’s lips made her heart tremble:

  “You are a wandering spirit, aren’t you?”

  ‘…’

  “I can see spirits. So don’t worry. Just tell me what you want. I know you’re wandering because you have some unfinished business… or because you want revenge.”

  The spirit asked him,

  ‘…How do you know?’

  “How do I know?...That doesn’t matter. I’ll make you an offer, if you do something for me, I’ll fulfill your final wish. What do you say?”

  ‘!!!’

  Her final wish… The spirit had been waiting for this moment for so long.

  In her life, when this shopkeeper had raped and murdered her, she had lost everything. And when her family accused him, he used his money to hire some goons, and killed some of her other innocent family member too.

  Watching justice slip away, her surviving members, relatives abandoned all hope and left the land forever.

  But she remained.

  Trapped.

  Wandering the valleys of the mountains.

  For days and nights.

  Alone.

  The most painful part was that she could see the shopkeeper every day; laughing, smiling, living freely.

  Yet she could do nothing to him because she was powerless. The man who had destroyed her life… she could not even touch him.

  What kind of existence was this? A life without peace, even after death? Around 4-5 years had passed like this, in torment.

  But then, she met Sharv. And after hearing his words.

  For the first time in countless years, she saw a glimmer of hope. It felt to her as if God himself had finally come to grant her justice.

  Sharv went to the shop owner, into the kitchen of the restaurant. He opened the door and stepped inside.

  Inside, several cooks were busy preparing food for the customers, and behind them stood a fat, middle-aged man who was keeping a watchful eye on them.

  ‘There he is! The shop owner!’

  The woman’s spirit shouted loudly into Sharv’s ears. Sharv looked at the man, and the man also saw Sharv entering and said:

  “Boy, leave this place. This is not a place for customers. Only staffs are allowed.”

  Sharv didn’t reply to that, instead he picked up a hot frying pan. The shop owner couldn’t understand what this boy was trying to do.

  But then...

  Bam!

  “Ugh!!!”

  Sharv crossed the distance between them in an instant, and

  Tak!

  Smacked the hot pan across the shop owner’s cheek.

  Thud!

  The shop owner collapsed to the ground.

  All the cooks who were present stopped cooking and, with stunned expressions, turned to look at the owner.

  But no one said anything. And then...

  “He-he struck the owner!”

  “T-that speed… how fast was that boy?!”

  “Does that mean this kid is a martial artist?”

  All those cooks were ordinary people, and to them, crossing a martial artist was as good as courting death.

  “Ahhh!”

  “Run!!”

  All the cooks ran away through the back door, leaving only Sharv and the fallen shop owner.

  “W-what are you doing? Why did you hit me?”

  The shop owner cried out loudly, clutching his scalded cheek.

  Sharv went and locked both the front and back doors of the kitchen, and closed any open window that was in the kitchen.

  “I have no personal grudge with you... It's just that…I’m just doing my part of the aggreement...”

  Tak! Tak! Tak! Tak! Tak! Tak!

  Sharv kept striking the man’s face with the hot pan until his face turned completely red. The man was half-dead, unable to even stand.

  Then he realized that Sharv had stopped hitting him.

  He heard Sharv’s footsteps. He thought Sharv was leaving, and a sigh of relief escaped his lips.

  However, he heard Sharv’s voice again:

  “Don’t worry, there’s still a lot left.”

  When the man looked at Sharv, he saw a long iron rod, red-hot from the fire, in one hand, and a knife in the other.

  ‘!!!!!!!!!!!!’

  Seeing this, his hair stood on end.

  He thought it would be better to die a quick death rather than endure this torture.

  But fate did not allow it, because Sharv stood before him.

  “P-please… have mercy…”

  The man begged one last time, but Sharv lifted his face and said:

  “I'm not the one who can give you any mercy... I'm just doing my work here. If you to beg for mercy, then why don't you ask from Avantika instead? She's standing right here, in front of you.”

  ‘!?’

  ‘Avantika…’

  The moment he heard that name, all color drained from the man’s face. The scene from that day flashed back in his mind.

  On that day when he had forced that girl, and then killed her.

  He remembered how she begged her for mercy but he didn't listened. And like an animal devoured her, to fulfill his lust.

  And now he's here in this situation, he's feeling regretful and guilt for what he did, but it's already too late.

  Poke!

  “AGHHHHHHH!”

  Sharv shoved the red-hot iron rod into his eye. The man screamed in unbearable agony.

  Slip!

  He pulled the rod out.

  “AHH!!!!”

  Drip!

  Fresh blood flowed out from it's hole.

  He shop owner clutched his ruined eye, seeing all this made the spirit overjoyed.

  Poke!

  Sharv then drove the rod it into his other eye as well. He shouted very loudly, that even some people started to gather and mummur outside.

  But all the doors and windows were locked, so they couldn't come in.

  “AGHH!!!.. PLEASE! I beg you... Stop this please...”

  The man felt pain as if his very soul was being torn apart.

  ‘Yes! Excellent! Now peel off his skin! Cut him into pieces and feed him to the dogs!’

  The spirit, no, Avantika’s spirit was urging Sharv to do everything, and Sharv did it with cruel delight.

  Slip!

  He pulled the rod back from his socket and the man was panting in agony, but Sharv didn't stopped.

  ‘Should I add spices in his ruined eyes too?...’

  Sharv sighed, and abandoned his thought and decided to do just as the spirit is saying.

  He picked up the knife and began cutting the flesh off the man’s body. So much blood poured out that the entire kitchen floor was soaked in it.

  Blood dripped onto Sharv’s lips; feeling its taste, his lips trembled slightly. Soon a cold, eerie smile formed on his lip as he lick the blood off.

  ***

  After some time, the deed was complete. The man’s body and flesh were separated, chopped into pieces.

  “Eat this.”

  Sharv sitting in the outermost area of the village far away from people's eyes, fed those pieces to a pack of dogs.

  “Hey, hey! Calm down, everyone will get some.”

  The dogs devoured the flesh eagerly.

  For one last time, Avantika’s spirit appeared before Sharv’s eyes. There was a smile on her face, but also tears streaming down her eyes.

  After so many years, her final wish had been fulfilled. Now, at last, she could rest.

  Once the dogs finished eating the last piece of flesh...

  Srrrrr!

  With a strange sound, Avantika’s spirit scattered into the air like grains of sand in the wind.

  As she departed, she spoke to Sharv one last time:

  ‘Thank you...’

  And then she disappeared.

  Sharv then got up from his seat and started walking away while mumbling.

  “Now let's go and see that cave.”