INTRO SONG: Kono Sekai e Moeru

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"Advance!", Gerhard commanded as the entire 55 strong men line of infantry straggled forward, totally out of step and spaced far too close together to effectively wield their swords.

It has already been 2 hours since Gerhard decided to begin his punitive force training and was given 6 squads of a total of 66 men, basically half the garrison tasked with defending this entire region. The six survivors were promoted to Denarion due to their increased experience level to which Gerhard promptly issued them with squads of their own, the garrison having suffered crippling losses of officers since the beginning of the raiding season. As the line advanced, a squad situated behind it kept a constant rain of arrows pelting down, containing only the best marksmen who ran forwards after the line was too far ahead to be supported to which they would begin firing again.

To the side, Gerhard stood resplendent in his new uniform of the Rosenheim army, a red tunic with white trim reaching down towards his knees over which a new silver breastplate contained an outline of a small rose etched in gold situated over the heart, the colour for an officer whilst bronze were for the regular troops. However, the main difference between his armour and that of other officers is that an eagle was grasping the stalk of the rose, the personal heraldry of Sir Ernst Rommer and although feeling a tad uncomfortable under the weight of the new equipment, Gerhard maintained a stoic look as he drilled the men, making mental notes on what needs to be done to correct and bring the force into fighting efficiency. Although this form of fighting wasn't his specialty, he did take Classical Military History lessons from his time at the Hauptkadettenanstalt seriously and understood such methods of warfare. It didn’t mean however that it was translating into any practical usefulness at this moment.

He wasn't the only one taking notes as Lydia watched him from an inconspicuous distance, completely intrigued by the man that seemed to defy what it meant to be a player in Royal Road. She had never met someone who treated NPCs like real human beings and the almost archaic gentlemanly act he conveys to every person he meets… felt like it was completely natural for him. Like he was born to it. If it was a real role-player there would be mistakes from time to time in the acting of such an out of fashion character, like occasionally computer slang interspersed with their speech without thought but Gerhard was the epitome of a noble gentlemen. To which it meant to Lydia only one thing. He is rich in real life. I am sorry readers but that is just the way she is… please forgive her materialistic attitude.

After calling a halt to the formation training, Gerhard then proceeded to have the squads practice fighting in close quarters combat in small rooms, running through doorways and judging distance in an enclosed space. Although this was not raising their levels as truthfully… Gerhard didn't even know what it meant, it was instilling in them the necessary instincts to survive in such situations, as well as providing them clear directions on what to do if they were separated from the force. He was subconsciously teaching them the initiative and adaptability soldiers were required to exhibit from the German way of war…

Nevertheless, he called a halt to the proceedings and after speaking to the quartermaster for a few minutes, decided to disappear into town with Lydia following close at his heels.

"So what are we doing now? Going to hunt more mobs?", she asked with glee.

"Hmm? No no, I am looking for some young boys"

"Eh…EHHHHHHHHH!?? YOU YOU YOU ARE INTO SHOTA?!!"

"? Shota? I never heard of that before but I need some drummers who are small enough to not present a target for the enemy"

"Oooooh, phew thank goodness", Lydia exhaled in relief before she continued, "But why do you need drummers?"

Gerhard didn't seem to be listening as he was humming a strange tune to himself, tapping his leg with his finger as he walked until he reached an old run down building, grass and weeds breaking through the surface of the old footpaths. There was a young woman busy hanging the laundry around the side of the building to which Gerhard called, "Good afternoon Fräulein . I take it this is the orphanage?"

The NPC turned towards him and nodded woodenly, to which Gerhard felt that something was wrong. And then it was when he finally noticed it… there was no sound of laughter or playing normally associated with children and he strode quickly to the woman, before he asked gently, "What happened?"

The poor girl turned out to be a mute but she pointed towards the forest that was outside the walls and also pointed towards her basket as she began to weep. Gerhard understood it that they went out into the forest to gather fruit or something similar to which a quest bubble appeared in front of him to confirm it.

Tring!

The Lost Boys

The children of the orphanage went out to gather mushrooms for dinner yesterday and have yet to return. The guards are unwilling to venture out into the forest because of continuous heavy losses patrolling that section of the woods. Find them, and bring them home.

Difficulty Level: D

Quest Reward: Unknown

Without a hint of hesitation, Gerhard responded, "I accept, madam. I will return them safely to you… although I may need to borrow some of them", he averted his eyes slightly as he said that.

"Eh? We are actually going to do it? But the quest rewards..", Lydia looked at the condition of the building and the ragged clothes of the NPC before she continued onwards, "..will probably be not worth it. You might only get a few copper coins even, if it is a level D quest"

"…."

"What? What did I say?"

"You seem to be mistaken about something. I have never done what I do to be rewarded or recognised. I do them because someone must. It may be meaningless to others…incomprehensible even… but someone is crying for help in front of me..and I will NEVER, ever be stopped from helping them... again", Gerhard said with a distant look in his eyes, as if he was mentally somewhere else.

Lydia was about to say something but she saw a look of pain that briefly flickered over his face before it became the usual graceful and composed appearance that seemed to signify who he was most of the time. She decided to take note of this moment before she realised that he had already wandered ahead towards the village gate as she ran after him shouting, "WAIT FOR ME!"

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In a small clearing in the forest, at least thirty human bandits were laughing as one of their prisoners; a boy barely ten years old was being kicked in the stomach whilst trying to perform an outrageous request of not making any sound… or one of his friends would lose a finger. The bandits soon escalated this by taking a knife and slowly pressing the point down into the boy's thigh until it pierced the skin… and went further in. All he could do was press his lips tightly shut together, his teeth biting down so hard on his upper lips that blood started to trickle down from it, as he tried to hold down the scream that was threatening to escape his throat. That was until he heard a commotion going on at the back of the group, before it turned into yells of alarm as the boy lifted open his eyes to see a scene of intense fighting whirling its way towards him.

A tall man was hacking his way through the men like they were nothing but wheat, every chop and swing of his axe tearing a life away in wild abandon. One of the bandits ran towards the warrior from a blind spot, only to have his spear haft grasped tightly by a handgrip as strong as an iron vice and pulled towards the backhand swing of his double headed axe. Blood gush forth like a fountain from where the bandit's head use to be, the men shouting in panic whilst the children screamed in terror. All the boy could do was watch this, tired beyond belief as he lay there with head turned to the side and he smiled thinking, 'we are saved! Finally..'

The bandits were starting to lose discipline as their numbers rapidly dwindled, another combine attack of 3 spearmen saw a single whirl of the warrior's battleaxe cutting all the spearheads off before he picked up one of the now unarmed bandits with a single hand and swung him into the other two. As they crumpled to the ground, he then took a running leap and landed feet first on their prone bodies, a shockwave rippling out from under their now deceased corpses like an earthquake. Seeing this, the courage of the bandits failed and only 7 remained to flee in all directions, leaving behind their prisoners and all their equipment.

The boy raised his head to see the giant slowly approaching him, kicking aside the dead bodies of the bandits like it was nothing but meat. The man stood before him and the boy weakly said, "Thank you for savi-…", the gratitude froze on his lips as the red armoured giant lifted his axe up high and began to swing it down.

The world seemed to travel in slow motion as the young child realised that he was going to die, that he will no longer be able to have fun with his friends again, play his lute, eat the muffins Sister Angelica makes every Saturday afternoon… it was over. All he did was closed his eyes peacefully and accepted that death had come for him. That was until he was jolted aside and rolled around the ground in the arms of some man, causing him to open his eyes wildly in shock. Before him, with the boy's body cradled in the man's arms like an infant was a beautiful man who was gazing down at him with strong warm eyes.

"Don’t accept death so easily, little one. You are too young to act like an old man", the angel smiled.

All the boy did was nodded shyly as he was brought to a woman standing by the edge of the clearing, huffing and puffing as she complained, "Gerhard, please tell me before you decide to go running off following the claims of some mad bandit we happened to run into…oh… THERE, THERE, THERE HE IS! THE RED WARRIOR!"

Gerhard ignored her as he commanded, "Lydia. Take the children away and run. NOW!", as he made sure she carefully took the boy into her arms.

"BUT, BUT, don’t you know who that is?!! THAT is Eric the Red! A walking natural disaster! He is known infamously for making it seem like a monsoon of blood has arrived in any region he has travelled through! A SUPER infamous player killer on the continent where thousands have died by his hand! He must be level 300 or more by now!!"

"…It doesn’t matter. I don't think he will let us leave here without a fight", he glanced over his shoulder as the man strode almost casually towards them but in truth, Gerhard can see the giant's movement were tensed, like a spring loaded ready to uncoil and launch at them.

"So run Lydia. I will try to hold him off", turning his back to her he then strode towards his foe with determination.

Lydia just looked at him in astonishment before finally taking heed of his words and ran back towards the way they came, making sure the children were trailing after her.

"Will the angel be alright?", the boy asked in worry which surprised Lydia who glanced down at the NPC.

An NPC worried about a human… it can't be possible however she replied anyway, "Don't worry, if any not so sane man can pull off some sort of miracle… perhaps he could", although privately she knew that the difference in levels was going to see him dead one way or another.

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Gerhard rolled his shoulders to stretch the muscles before tilting his head from side to side as though readying for a fencing match however he knew that there would be no peaceful resolution unless it ended in the peace of death. Already he knew from the aura exuding from his foe that the giant was a formidable warrior, the gaze from that full faced Sutton style helm showing no hint of emotion as he strode towards Gerhard with increasingly longer strides to shorten the distance. The air seemed to filled with blood lust and Gerhard dodged to the side, the tree behind him exploding into tinder as the axe cleaved right through it.

"!!!"

If it wasn't for his instincts, he would have been dead by now. The speed of the swing, the pure unrivalled power behind it… Gerhard knew just one strike could end him instantly as he danced agilely around the warrior attempting to strike at a blind spot. With a speed that belied the size of his body, the giant sidestepped Gerhard's sword thrust before spinning around bringing his axe in an arc towards Gerhard's midsection.

Gerhard tucked his knees towards his chest and rolled forwards, the axe blade whistling perilously close past his blonde head as he righted himself up and spun to face Eric, only to have a powerful kick connecting into his abdomen. Gerhard spewed blood as his HP was shaved by a quarter, hurled backwards by the force and into some thorny bushes, almost having the stunned debuff flashing in the corner of his eye. He rolled quickly aside as the giant stomped into the ground where Gerhard used to be but he was still caught in the shockwave and flung aside rolling roughly along the clearing's ground.

Slowly he staggered to his feet with his sword held at the ready however his mind was rattled and before he knew it images of a different war began to flash all around him, the air smelt like ashes, the sky was burning, the woods was filled with screeching and terror with the distant *clank* *clank* of tank tracks crushing trees as they rumbled towards him. In the background he can see his family home burning… the body of his father nailed spread eagle on their family's large main door with bayonets whilst through a window in an upper floor he can see his mother and sister running, being chased by Russians as the women spun around and fired old hunting rifles at them. Suddenly his mother and sister pitched backwards violently as the sound of rapid firing machine guns echoed out from his home.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!", Gerhard roared as he charged towards Eric who halted almost in surprise.

To Gerhard, Eric was just a Russian commissar smiling and laughing as he strode out of the von Natzmer's home with a pipe in his mouth… his father's pipe that that bastard was smoking with. Gerhard snarled as he closed the distance to the giant in almost an instant before cracking the underside of Eric's jaw with his forehead. It only lightly stunned him however Gerhard hadn’t finished, slamming the tip of his sword through the top of Eric's boot and rooting him to the ground.

For his efforts, Gerhard was backhanded in the face with the full force of Eric's 300+ level, knocking him sailing through the air before crashing into the bandits cooking fires, overturning the boiling stew in the process and finally crushing a tent. Lying there, HP close to nothing, Gerhard gazed up into the sky and realised what a foolish mistake he had made before chuckling bloodily to himself, the red liquid pouring from his lips.

'Haaaa, it feels like a long time coming', Gerhard thought to himself as he reached with a trembling hand towards the sky, the image of him and his wife from happier times appearing before his eyes.

"Ich komme nach Hause" , He muttered.

However, Eric heard those German words and stilled, axe poised to do the finishing blow as Gerhard turned his head towards him, "Kamerad , please make it quick", he requested.

But to Gerhard's surprise the giant uttered, "Ka.. kamerad…", before he disappeared suddenly from his eyes like a scene from a log-out sequence.

'What happened?', he thought as he slowly blacked out, only to see Lydia running out of the bushes towards him as darkness enveloped him.

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Eric opened his eyes as the nurse leaned over him, slowly wiping his body with a wet clothe as he was brought back into the real world for his daily sustenance. He stared coldly at the woman, the look frightening the nurse but nevertheless she persevered with her duty whilst another nurse spoon fed him. Eric could only take in the food reluctantly as he had no choice, paralysed from the neck down as he was. If one were to zoom out and take in the whole scene, it would be immediately apparent that Eric was located in a hospital, a military one at that since the doctors and nurses had uniforms under their gowns or coats.

"How is he?", a doctor asked.

"Stubborn as usual", the nurse commented, "but nothing we can't handle".

"Ok, tell me if he needs to be sedated again. Or you can just log him back into Royal Road", the doctor suggested as he looked through the files of his next patient.

As the nurses moved on to the next patient, Eric could hear them whispering.

"Its too bad that happened to him"

"Yes, Afghanistan has taken a major toll on us"

"But still… why is he so withdrawn like that?"

"…he is the only survivor of his squad.."

Eric tried to drown their gossiping out but found that only tears of rage were racing down his cheeks, totally helpless and unable to wipe them away since he was wounded all those years ago in that dusty god forsaken place. Only his rage sustains him now… but THAT man… felt so similar that it struck some sort of discord in his heart. All Eric knew was that the next time he met him…. He would kill him.

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Ending Song: Gentle Light