Chapter 89 – Personal Determination

The city of Lugenstan’s alarms went off. The bell that is located rightly at the middle of the city sounded out. Various soldiers went out of their stations. They all gathered in the walls as the bells rang up loudly. The Fighters Guild fighters became wary as the loud sound signifies a raid.

Everyone then gathered in the fighter’s guild. The Guild got locked down, fortified to every corner in order for it to take anything that the ‘raiders’ might take.

The fighters armed themselves up to the teeth. Every brave men and woman readied themselves for a fight that will soon happen. The barbarians have shown themselves out of the sands as if they just appeared suddenly without anyone noticing.

A fort was built up just outside the city. A fortified fort that acts as the base of command for the barbarians, the guards suspects that during the night when the visibility was low, the barbarians carried out pre-built parts they hauled with their mounts and use the pre-built parts to assemble them.

With the parts already readied, it was easy for the barbarians to the completely make a fort. All they need was the cover of the night and the time to do it. They succeeded and under the nose of the city, a fort got built. It was an unprecedented surprise.

The barbarians also have quite an army just near their fort, about a thousand strong, the amount of bone and fur armored barbarians carrying bone spears, tusk swords, raw iron shields, was astonishing in its own right. How they got near without being spotted by the scouts is the result of the barbarians taming a sand whale. They entered the mouth of the sand whale and made the sand whale take them near to the city undetected by having the sand whale swim under the sands of Trapolstan.

Using this method the barbarians got closed without letting any scouts see them. With the season being fall and the winds gusty than usual, the barbarians made use of the sand storm that is created when the fall wind blows. The barbarians are masters of hunting, so them being able to sneak undetected is nothing unusual.

The City’s commander who is leading the forces inside Lugenstan made this conclusion the moment he saw the fort and the sand whale side by side. The barbarians were enough of a threat as they are, but with the tamed sand whale on their side, that can be used to ram the city wall’s gate or completely bypass the wall by diving under. Lugenstan City is now in a position where they might have to fight the barbarians without getting help from other cities or nations.

The situation is dire for the city. And whether the city will last the barbarian’s attack is left unknown. If it was the normal dumb barbarians then the city would have nothing to fear. But with the barbarians belonging to the Al-Goraz faction, the City of Lugenstan has to bare its fangs to survive the onslaught of his barbarians.

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The barbarians are near the gates. Ramiel understands that the city will be casted in flames before long. He wanted to escape the city if possible, but with the city locked tight, and no one, not even an ant could be allowed out, Ramiel has no choice but to survive the chaos until he has a chance to escape the place.

Ramiel has always been a person who thinks for himself. ‘Cowardly’ it may be, but inside Ramiel’s head, the city is nothing to him. He was only here to live quietly, but with that ‘quietness’ disturbed, he has no reason to be in the city.

He only worked for the Guild because it would benefit him. He would get money, food, and some extra profit to bring. He was never that attached to the city. He already got the spells, and he also got the ‘memento’ that Eziel made for him.

A bracer he wears on his right arm that would allow him to deploy a hidden blade. He got the idea from a game he used to play back in his world. He liked the blade and thanked Eziel for it. Ramiel thinks that he is quite the good liar for thanking Eziel with a straight face that he will use it in the honor of the guild.

He never wanted to be part of anything troublesome. Ramiel thinks that way of thinking is normal, and he prefers to live with his own rights. Back in the Town of Tal, he ate raw organs because he was left without choice, he didn’t want to eat them, but with the outside littered with monsters he has no choice, it would be different if the world wasn’t a crap sack place, then he would be at least picking fruits in the forest and not eating raw almost rotten organs. Also, he only worked in the Inn because he had no choice in the matter and because it pays. In Tinople city, he was there because someone brought him there, he went mad in that city and after getting his sanity back somehow back, and he only helped the rebels so he can escape.

It has nothing to do with him.

In fact, he was never given a choice if he wanted to be in this world in the first place.

So Ramiel thinking a way out the moment the siege started is nothing unusual.

He knows that it is cowardly to do so. But the way he sees it, there was no one that can force him to think otherwise. He was never that upright to think ‘this city has done things for me! I must pay it back and protect’ and somehow protect the city, risking his life in the process.

Sure he has the means to fight, but it doesn’t mean that he would that lucky to survive a war. Ramiel knows he is not a damn hero, and unlike a certain someone who can take armies down, Ramiel is nothing but a recluse human being, who was sheltered with a good life who suddenly found himself in a cruel world where he was forced to survive.

He isn’t that optimistic to somehow not whine about his situation. He is only human, and as a human, he can complain, grumble, protest, fear, and think of preserving his life. It would far too abnormal for him not do so, and he isn’t going to transform into someone who is strong willed just because of the situation he is in.

That is why as Ramiel stands among the fighter’s guild members who are getting aroused by the speech that the Guild Master is making, Ramiel thought of how to play his cards, how to survive, and how to escape if things go south for the City.

For now, he will work as what he was hired to do so, a healer for the guild. But the moment the city falls or the Fighter’s guild gets defeated, Ramiel would think for himself and run away.

Fearing for one’s life is normal. Ramiel believes that.