Chapter 39: Why Kill Beasts When You Can Kill Humans? [Part 4]
Kara and Maxine stared at their big brother blankly. Kara said in a daze, "But... Both of you learnt to hunt right?"
Arnold smiled softly and said, "You saw what happened to me, right? Hunting is too risky."
Kara said with uneasiness, "But big brother Ethan got injured too, didn't he?"
Arnold let out a slight sigh as he said, "That's because he didn't aim for the correct people. If he had killed innocent and harmless people on the other hand, it would've been way easier."
Maxine snarled, "You can't kill innocent people! That's the same as inflicting the conditions we beared due to the death of our father on other people!"
Arnold grinned slightly as he said, "Did anyone show mercy or sympathy on you when dad died?"
Maxine had a shocked expression as he stuttered, "N- No."
Arnold smiled slightly, which made his gold eyes gleam while he said, "Then why are you showing sympathy to others? In this world, no good deed goes unpunished. No one will appreciate it if you stay as a nice person."
Kara said with a desperate expression, "Big brother, but killing people, that's just wrong! We shouldn't do this!"
Arnold smiled as he said, "You respect and idolize knights, right? What do they do? Social service? They kill people. They massacre innocents. But they recieve respect. Killing is not wrong. Getting caught for it, on the other hand, is wrong. Kara, don't be naive. I'll send Maxine to do it. Take care of Ethan."
Kara couldn't say anything. She loved her brothers, and they loved her too. She did not want to say anything that'd make Arnold angry. She imprinted the half baked theory that killing people was okay into her heart, and went towards Ethan.
Arnold told the approximate location of where the bodies should be to Maxine.
Maxine said while slightly shivering, "But... how should I skin them?!"
Arnold grinned and said, "Just look at them like any other animal and skin them properly."
Maxine did what he was told and skinned the bodies of the three men that were scattered over the road and then disposed of them.
It was... not a pleasant experience for him.
He vomited many times, and he was sure that this day would leave a deep mental scar on him.
-----------------------------------
Time passed.
Maxine was no longer the boy who vomited at the sight of human bodies, and talked about justice.
He had become a cold blooded murderer, and the only person he revealed his soft side to was his sister and two brothers.
The famine passed, but the three brothers did not stop murdering people for food. They mainly aimed for men in the start, but now they did not bother whether it was a man, a woman or a child.
All of them were just food for them.
In the start, Maxine and Kara could not touch the meat that they had brought, and only ate the rice and other foodstuff that Ethan robbed from households.
As time passed, they adjusted and started eating that meat too. Except of course, they thought of the meat as a beasts rather than a humans. It helped ease their hearts.
Ethan and Arnold did not mind whose meat it was. They felt no whatsoever guilt or feelings that would weigh over a person after eating a literal human.
Authors note:
This chapter has been rewritten. All comments for it are for the previous version of this chapter. Please wait patiently as I rewrite the next chapters too.
For live updates of chapter rewrite status, join my discord server.