Beam punched him in frustration, his fist making contact with the rchant's nose and sending him clattering into the wall. Judas hurried over to him in alarm, but Greeves held his hand up for him to stop, as he staggered back to his feet, clutching his battered face. But the anger had still not faded from his eyes.
"You don't get it boy," he said quietly, as Beam stood there, breathing heavily. "I'll tell you what I believe in – why I've killed as much as I have. I believe in . ! Fucking . Yeah, you talk of slavery and that?
Where do you think I crawled up from? Mm? You think you can stay a pure little uncut gem whilst going through that, eh? Naw. Naw. Fuck that.
The weak get trampled on, that's just how it goes."
"I managed," Beam said. He already knew that Greeves had guessed he was a slave.
But Greeves shook his head. "Nah. You didn't. No fucker without a sea of darkness has eyes like yours. You have the sa belief as , and yet you stand there, judging ? If you were in the sa position, you'd have done the sa fucking thing.
My little way out of slavery, do you know what that was? Do you know what that golden opportunity that the gods shone light on looked like? It looked like that," he said, pointing at the knife Beam was clutching. "A knife to my master's neck. He begged for his death, just like I did to you. Only, my choice was weightier.
I knew it was either kill him as he asked to, or waste away the rest of my life as a slave. You fucking know what I did."
Beam grit his teeth.
"If you were in that sa position, would you not have slid that blade across his throat too? The fucker was begging for it. He got overwheld by the weight of his own darkness. Begged his bastard slave to end his life. Would you run away from that?"
"No…" Beam said quietly. "I wouldn't have."
"Hah. There you go then. You're just as capable of the sa evils as ," Greeves said.
"Yet I have not yet committed them," Beam said.
"No, but if you wish to climb higher, then I bet you you're gonna need to. You wanna get strong? What happens when so washed up knight challenges you? Could you cut him down without remorse? No? Then your hesitation will get you killed," Greeves said.
"Maybe you've got a point. But I still can't agree with you preying on the weak," Beam said.
Greeves let out a long sigh at that. "Fuck, my nose hurts," he complained, as he pulled his knocked over chair back upright and sat back down on it. Beam cald down a little too, as he saw Greeves' anger fade. Finally, Greeves spoke again. "Y'know, watching you, that's about the only part I've fallen to regretting."
"What do you an?" Beam asked.
"Well, y'know, as you were fighting that thing, I saw it dancing about – yer own darkness. Your own rage. Your own self-belief. All the sa shit I've had bubbling inside of ," Greeves said. Beam started to speak, but Greeves held up a hand to pause him. "Nah, I'm not saying we're exactly alike.
Just that I could see a bit of myself in you. And you know, I've been getting pissed off with stagnation. Five years I've been sat in this sa village. Aye, I'm top dog here – but that was never the goal. I wanted to be a city dog. I wanted to make even nobles kneel."
Beam remained silent as Greeves collected his thoughts before continuing.
"See, devouring the weak, I thought that was the only way to feed myself and get strong… But it hasn't made any stronger. It's not quality nutrition. Aye, it gets coin, but it doesn't nourish . Doesn't make sleep well. Despite what you might think, I'm not a purebred evil bastard. It's not like I don't think about what I've done.
I just thought it was necessary – thought that was just how it goes… But now I'm thinking, maybe it should be the strong that I devour, eh?"
"The strong?" Beam repeated with a raised eyebrow. "That's what you got from it?"
"C'mon now, spare your scorn. For a devil like , that's a big insight. In fact, you should be applauding . I've made up my mind to slowly phase myself away from all this low level business. I'm gonna challenge a proper rchant. I'm gonna sink my teeth into them, and I'm gonna devour them," Greeves said.
Beam sighed. "I don't know how you think this makes up for what you've done."
"Pah, fuck all that. If you judge so harshly, you should just co find to cut down. If you don't have the balls to do it, then I'm out, running free. N' I figure, if I challenge one of these dirty rchants – so bastards even more rotten than I am – and I eat them up, doesn't that make sothing of a hero, mm? Don't I sort of pay for my sins?" Greeves said.
Beam looked at Judas. "Is he serious?"
Judas shrugged, a thoroughly confused look on his face, but he said nothing, apparently daring not to.
"What? You looking down on that too? Hah, you're hard to please kid. I thought, given your age, you'd be able to relate to that kind of delusion, y'know? Doesn't every kid wanna be a hero? See to , the difference between a hero and a villain is just a matter of timing," Greeves flashed a grin.
"Well, what do you say, do you want in?"
"In on what, even?" Beam said.
Greeves shrugged. "In on whatever. I'm serious about it, you know. I want to see just how far I can go before I get any older. And when the ti cos, when I've got the enemy cornered, might be I'll send our little lad here in to strike the heroic blow, what do you think?"
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