Date: Third Night of the Journey
Location: Forest Trail to Narshia – Guild Detour Completed
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We ran into bandits.
Nothing new. A sloppy group — barely worth the bounty they carried.
We captured most alive.
But three died.
Leander killed them.
It wasn't planned. It wasn't even excessive.
But the moment his blade stopped moving, something in him didn't.
He didn't speak the whole way to the nearest guild outpost. Not when we turned in the bounties. Not during supper. Not even when Anna teased him about "getting all serious."
I took the first night watch. Leander volunteered to join.
For a while, we just sat. Crickets sang somewhere out of reach. The fire barely moved.
Then he asked.
> "Was I wrong to kill them?"
I didn't look at him right away. Just listened.
> "I didn't mean to. I mean… maybe I did. They were going to kill that merchant. But… I didn't want to kill them. And I still did."
He stared at his hands like they weren't his anymore.
> "I could've stopped. But I didn't. And I keep asking… was it because I couldn't… or because I wouldn't?"
I looked up.
And I gave him the answer he already knew, but needed to hear from someone else.
> "It wasn't that you couldn't stop.
It's that you shouldn't have."
He blinked. Quiet.
> "They were going to take lives, Leander. Not out of desperation. Not for survival.
But for coin. For sport."
> "You didn't kill them out of rage. You killed them because you had to."
"That is war. And you know it."
He clenched his fists. Not angry. Just… hollow.
> "So what now?" he asked. "Do I just get used to it?"
> "No," I said. "You carry it. But don't let it stop you."
I looked straight at him then.
> "You're a good man, Leander.
But if you try to protect everything, you won't save anything."
> "Good men try to stand for everyone.
Better men choose what to stand against."
> "So don't stay a 'good' man.
Be a better one."
Silence followed. Not heavy. Not broken.
Just still.
He nodded once, slow. Not in agreement. In understanding.
> "...Thanks, Commander."
I didn't answer.
We went back to watching the trees.
---
Observation of the Day:
> Celene didn't flinch at the blood.
Her hands trembled when we first set camp… but not after the fight.
She watched the dead like they were facts.
When she smiles, it's always just slightly off — a beat too slow, a note too sharp.
> She's used to death.
And pretending she isn't.