The cold southern wind rolled over the grass hills near the infamous White Forest. It made its way from Alexandria and unrelentingly moved towards Ansdrovean Kingdom’s first line of defence; the city of Yikensworth. To those that travelled in a similar direction, the wind provided shivers, remainding them of the nighttime suffering they must endure. Huddled together they sought out the fleeting warmth under the starry cold night.

Despite the close proximity to danger they slept without reservation and with as much sound as the night would allow. Their companion, a large armored being sat atop the hill, wrapped in his cap to avoid the cold he scouted the lands before settling his gaze once more on his sleeping companions under the hills shadow. He repeated the process multiple times in that night until the sounds of one’s awakening caught his gaze.

“Achoo,” the cold wind was unforgiving to the larger one of the huddled figures. Slowly sitting up the woman looked around and gatered her bearings before walking towards the only figure she recognized under the moonlight. Hiking up the hill with her blanket tightly wrapped around her she sat beside him, supporting her back to his as she gazed at the forest opposite his direction. For a while the remained silent, the woman draped the woolen blanket closer to herself when the next wave of winds made their way over the hill.

“Aaa-Aa-Achoo” The woman wiped the fluids from her nose on the outside of her blanket as she drew it even closer around herself.

“For now, you should sleep.” Drac said.

“Too cold for that,” she replied sickly. “How long untill we reach the city?”

“A day,” Drac looked over at the three figures of the children nuzzling against eachother. “If they are willing to walk for the whole day.”

“Hmph,” Brair smiled as she buried her head deeper in her blanket. “And if they can’t, you’ll just carry us all again, huh.”

“No, just them,” Drac turned his head to look at her. “Even in your sleep you walked till here; you won’t have any problems walking the whole day.”

“How did I know where to go? I don’t remember that at all.” Brair said with a hint of anger. “Or is it that you’re lying about not carrying me here.”

“I just supported you here; you walked on your own,”

“Save it, alright” Brair said. “Save it for some other damsel you meet. I’m not so dumb nor as weak as you made me out to be.”

“…I’m sorry-”

“Why should you apologize?” Brair held up her hands, a tired smile plastered over her face. “You saved my life and carried us all over here.”

“…”

*Sigh* “Forget it, that’s just my bruised pride talking.” Brair fiddled with her hands as she hugged her knees. “Y’know when I first met you I thought you were some sort of rich boy who ran away from home. I thought; ‘He must be one of those runaway nobles son out to prove his worth. He must’ve trained since young with all kinds of things that we can only dream of ever getting.’ It explained your strength and that expensive armor.” Brair lightly banged at his Pauldron. Drac remained silent, waiting for her to finish her piece.

“Then I met your niece,” Brair lightly laughed but then continued in a solemn tone. “Imagine my surprise, I was wrong about you…Then I thought you must be the loving uncle and she was a snobby stuck up noble or something, always relying on you to get things done. But then she showed off her powers, I couldn’t even do something as simple as catching her…I was jealous to be honest. I shouldn’t have y’know, I didn’t have the resources or the trainers that she must’ve had…*sigh*Still…I could deal with all that, being wrong, being so, so weak. But then you had to play the chi…chivalrous man and carry me all through the night and day. I’m not so useless that I have to burden you, slow you down like luggage. You should’ve woken me.”

“…We were deep in the forest, in dangerous territory, so we had to get out quickly.” Drac said. “You weren’t luggage, I don’t risk my life over something so small. I carried you because I owe you…a debt….If I had awoken you then you would’ve slowed me down…then you would’ve been luggage and I would’ve left you.”

“Glad to know you have my back.” Brair said. “You’ve saved my life, so consider the debt repayed big guy.”

“No,” Drac said.

“What? I am removing your debt. What do you mean no?”

Drac turned to her. “Sins weigh heavier than good deeds.”

“You saved my life-”

“How’s your injury?”

*Sigh*

Looking down under the blanket she examined the bandages around her torso and stomach, huddling in the blanket afterwards.

“Did you pray for the wolf too?” She huffed, smirking. “I heard from Luvrit that you did that for the creatures in the forest.”

“No.”

“Why is that?”

“That was an insult to nature,” Drac said.

“Could you please say more than a few words?” Brair was exasperated.

“…From my knowledge the world is divided into two types of creatures, those affiliated with compassion and those with the lack of it….Not good and evil…not light and dark.” Drac looked up once more. “There are many people with the wrong idea of the meaning of that text thanks to the Seinaru Kingdom.”

“You can read the book?”

“Yes, after…” Drac suddenly stopped and coughed before continuing. “I can read the text, it tells a different story than what the Seinars are taught and teaching.”

“So what does the text tell you?” Brair rested her head on her knees after scooting aside to get a better look at the man.

“Beasts who show compassion have a certain air about them, the way they walk or interact with others. Beasts born with light attribute are usually compassionate by nature, if they defy their own nature their appearances change, from light fur to black, fair skin to hard and scarred.”

“But that thing looked completely the same as any other light beast.” Brair pointed out confusedly.

“It was eating humans.” Drac slowly spoke. “…The human blood prevented it from changing; drinking human blood sustained its appearance and allowed it to catch more humans off guard, easy prey. That’s why it’s an insult to nature, a hypocritical beast who defied nature. But that beasts was much weaker compared to other light attribute beasts…it was slowly dying. You defy nature and nature will find a way to repay you.”

“After its attack I thought all light attribute creatures were evil, turns out only some of them are.” Briar sighed, and then asked in a slightly annoyed voice, “How do you know this?”

“How did you know light attribute creatures help humans?”Drac ignored her.

“Mmmm, When I was a kid my village was attacked by some passingby bandits.” Brair said. “I was out playing in the nearby quarry when I heard some of them coming my way. So I did what any kid would do and I ran into the large forest nearby. At that time I didn’t know that monsters lived there, my village was pretty far away from the forest and since the monsters didn’t come so far out to the village there weren’t any stories warning us about them either. So I got lost pretty easily and accidently stumbled on some goblins, they were eating away at a dead deer or something, I can’t remember. I tried to run away, deeper into the forest, can you believe it. Needless to say they soon cornered me, see I got a scar from that time.”

Brair extended her arm to show a long scar running from her elbow to her wrist.

“But just when I thought I was about to die a white…horse came out. It had large horns that fanned out, like a stag except they were bigger.” Brair frowned. “It drove off the goblins, I think they feared it and actually led me back out of the forest. I wanted it to come with me to fight off the bandits but when I turned around it was gone.”

“It must’ve had other kids to save,” Drac said.

“Yeah,” Brair nodded. “Wait. Ha-Ha. Did you just joke?”

“Not my doing.”

“Sure, big guy, sure. Funny thing actually, is that when I got back to my village was practically unharmed, except of a broken wall that is. My old man was fuming that aunt’s house got destroyed even though she wasn’t. When I asked her she said that a passingby knight carrying a child scared away the bandits. Ha, can you imagine what sort of man would be stupid enough to carry around a child? Who would believe that, right? Sometimes I think that that was auntie’s way of making like interesting. Hmmm Drac?”

Drac ignored her and resumed his original position, which allowed him clear view of the sky. Brair silently thanked the beast that saved her life before standing up and stretching.

“I’m awake now so go get some sleep too,” she said cheerfully.

“…I’m fine.”

“Suit yourself,” Brair wrapped herself in her blanket once more and sat down. Drac didn’t try to raise the previous topic again, understanding it as her way to deal with her hurt pride. The two sat in silence, back-to-back; observing their surroundings till the sun shone its first light. Drac slowly stood up and woke up the kids to continue on with their trip to Yikensworth. Drac and Brair took the lead while the children, still groggy from waking up so early, followed closely behind.

Boredom soon caught up to the less able and they talked up a storm, asking the mercenaries about their life details to which the smaller merc answered with enthusiasm. Learning that a village girl like her could become a mercenary with hard work and passion made the girls very happy, incensing their curiosity. Drac acknowledged the restored youths they had rescued two nights prior, which caught the attention of Mina.

“Mr. Drac,” the little girl asked, “how did you become a mercenary?”

“I asked and they gave it to me.”

“Really?” the boy showed curiosity. “Brair says you have to go through a small test before getting your…necklace.”

“It’s a metal plate, Zach,”Brair sideways glanced at Drac. “though an exchange of money is also required. Drac?”

“Yes?”

“How much did you pay as entrance fee?”

“A few gold coins”

“What!?” everyone yelled.

“Why did you even want to be a merc?” Brair asked waving her hands. “Damn man, you got the money so why’d you take up something like this?”

“Information,” Drac answered after observing the incredulous looks on the children, walking side-by-side with him now.

“Oh, so that’s what you want.” Brair smacked her hands in understanding.

“Umm, what is he talking about?” Rina asked

“It’s uhhh,” Brair tried to form up some words. “Well you see other than being a mercenary guild, it doubles as…like a large library….It’s a large place with books and-Anyway, the guild houses many records and books of monsters an adventurer might have seen or maybe fought. But that much is only available to a few types of nobles and all mercenary above five strike ranks, the Full strikers.”

“Wow,” Rina said surprised.

“But that’s almost impossible to achieve,” the boy dismissed. “There are only two five strike mercenary groups in the whole kingdom and both of them have the backing of major noble houses.”

“We are here.” Drac said as they reached the top of a hill. Making their way down to slop to the other hill they passed by the cattle grazing and alerted the old farmer and his farmhand of their presence. The farmhand was sent to alert the chief of the little village while the shepherd waited for them. Of course none of these actions were initiated from verbal commands.

Coming up to the top of the hill Drac found the chief of the village waiting to greet him and like before a small portion of the village Asphil stood beside him. Some of the younger onlookers were gazing the civilians in the company of the adventurers, their confusion mirrored on their leaders face. Nonetheless, like a professional leader he masked his emotions with a smile and ushered the mercenaries and the unknown kids to his home.

It was déjà vu when they mercenaries took up positions in the meeting room. Only difference now was that instead of the other members of the group the young kids had taken up the seats. After sitting in uncomfortable silence the sound of the door creaking shut told of the chief’s entrance.

“It is good to see you, sir and madam,” the Chief nodded at both of the mercenaries, but ignored the children sitting near them. “I, uh, do not see the rest of your troupe…are they-”

“We came here on our own, no need to tax everyone, yeah?” Brair said, eyeing the mass of people supposedly strolling outside the window.

“Of course” the Chief smiled as he nodded.

“You have something of his.” Brair pointed at Drac standing behind her. “We came back, so hold up your end of the bargain.”

“Yes, yes” The Chief was startled by Brair’s outburst but quickly recovered his fallen mask and bowed. “But…isn’t there something else that you must do first.”

Unlike their previous conversation the man seemed much more courageous in his manner dangerously bordering on reckless. Briar, in another of her outbursts, stood up from her seat and demanded some unpleasant action from the old man. Whether she understood what was going on or not didn’t seem to matter as she did as she pleased. Under the influence of anger she grabbed the chief by his shirt and lifted his up.

“That’s enough.” Drac warned. His loud voice made everyone flinch, except for the person it was intended for. Nevertheless she lowered the old man to the ground and in a fit of coughs he distanced himself to the other side of the room.

“I would at least like to see my sword.” Drac said.

“Yes, Yes. Please follow me.” The Chief motioned for Drac to follow. He exited the room with the old man and didn’t miss the mean remarks Brair made of the little man. Looking down at the old man, who only reached half his height, Drac saw that even the old man’s mask, made from years of experience, had slight cracks leaking out his true intentions.

The man was living like any other in a world filled with hostilities, trying to take care of himself like everyone else. However, he had grown shoulders large enough to carry the worries and responsibilities of the other villagers under his leadership. His life was nearing its end, Drac could see it, but still he did what he could; groveling at mercenaries, the lowest of the fighters and behaving like the nobles, the lowest of the royalty.

“Admirable,” Drac said as they entered the room where his sword was placed against the wall.

“Yes, it was very had to move that large…uh-sword over here. Do not worry I had it scrubbed and chiseled yesterday so I should be just as new.”

“Not that. You,” Drac replaced his sword with the other one still caked in some blood.

“…You are most gracious.” The old bowed towards Drac. In turn he placed a hand on the old man’s shoulder and moved him upright; a confused look replaced his mask of smiles.

“I apologize for my companion, on the bright side...this won't anyworse than what you can imagine." Drac placed his other sword against the wall before leaving. "But i promise to pay you one more visit before leaving this region, If you can clean the other one as well."

The old man followed the warrior and spoke at lenght of his gratefullness as he waited in the hallway while Drac collected the red haired woman. Easily surpassing the height of a normal villager the odd warrior looked out of place in the shining sunlight, as children ran past him playing their own games while the mothers ran after their young ones.

The chief walked over to close the door and returned to look out the window from the meeting room. Except his lonsome company was disturbed by the three young children the warrior had brought along. Sitting like statues their dead stares amplified awkward situation he had found himself in.

“Who are you?” He asked roughly.