Unresolved Issues [Private;Training;Sloth]

Those words had been sticking in Alek's head ever since the boy had said them a few days ago, running to and fro like an unwanted houseguest that had long since overstayed their welcome. What right did he have to say those things? he had asked to speak about his past multiple times, and every single time it'd come up he'd just blanked the boy, but maybe that was the wrong way to deal with this.

 After all, since he had done that, the boy now thought that he was just some base psychopath who liked to kill innocents for no real reason. He was angry at that little conclusion, angry to the degree where he was actively going out of his way to punish people like the bandits that he had killed last night. 

Thankfully nobody had seen the bodies or the women that he had freed, so the camp had no idea about what he had done - He could only imagine how Yaku was going to deal with something like that. There was something about that guy that made him feel slightly annoyed. 

Oh, Alek liked him, don't get him wrong. He was a good man at heart and it truly seemed like he cared for their little group, but there was something else about the man that he couldn't quite put his finger on. It was easy to understand that the man didn't like conflict, given the setting that he had grown up in he could only imagine the kind of back-story that he had to have to not be a fight hungry maniac. 

But, it was more than that. He was angry about other people not living up to his impossible standards. Alek knew very little about the rukh, you have to understand, so he had no idea about the concept of black rukh. 

Even when Dyn had mentioned that the scumbag who had attacked innocent women had been influenced by black rukh, he didn't know what that meant. If it hadn't been for the scenario that they were in at the time, he would have asked exactly what he was on about, but they hadn't had time for that back then. 

Now... now they had time to deal with it, and he wished that they didn't. He hated being left on the outside, made to feel ignorant. That was even why he hadn't been able to ask the question; he could just imagine them laughing at him, making him out to be some sort of collosal idiot just because he didn't know something. 

Oh, sorry guys, I guess the world isn't going to give out the same integral knowledge of bullshit to everyone. He gritted his teeth as he fired his bow, the arrow piercing into the apple that he had been pointing at, before flying backwards and hitting the tree limb just behind it, sending a large amount of juice spraying around the area. 

That was a good shot... but he had to be better. good was not good enough, he had to be great, he had to be able to wow people with every last one of his skills. Otherwise, he was no better than a measly beta, and if he was a beta then it was only one step away from being a slave again. He couldn't let that happen, and so he loaded his second arrow, not bothering to aim and instead firing from the hip. 

However, bizarrely enough, that shot was even more accurate, shooting through the apple stalk and knocking it from the tree to the ground, where it bounced and rolled. Unfortunately for him, it was bruised. Not that it was inedible, as he proved by bending over, picking it up and taking a good, strong bite out of it. In fact, it still tasted surprisingly good considering the context, but he didn't feel like he could quite enjoy it. 

He was... furious, and fury had outreached the rest of his emotions. He couldn't feel happy about the taste, he couldn't feel relieved that he had done the job properly, he couldn't even feel proud that he had done so on his second try. 

All he could think about was the words that he had said. They left a bad taste in his mouth, like he'd swallowed something bitter. Somehow, the fact that they were the same race made this even worse. The fact that the man had to have seen other people suffer under the hands of people who only wanted to use other people to get a profit, and yet the man acted as if everything was right with them and that he was a baseless sociopath because he wanted to be able to protect other people. Sure, he killed them, but didn't he know that if he hadn't killed them he'd have just continued his journey onwards as a violent sociopath, just hurting everyone? 

No... no, of course he didn't notice that. All he noticed was that Alek was doing something that might, in any other circumstances, be considered wrong. He had said they were going to kill him anyway, and yet because he got a sense of satisfaction out of the man's death, it was immediately wrong? The man doth protest too much, he was like one of those priests who preached against sins of the flesh and yet indulged in alter boys. 

"Oh, I can't enjoy it? they make people suffer, and yet I'm the bad guy for stopping them? What a fucking joke."