“This is money for the time I took care of you?"

*Shake* *Shake*

He shook his head.

"I can't accept this. What I did was my job and I have been compensated fairly for it. Also, the time I spent at the orphanage talking care of you was one of the happiest times of my life.

Alas...

"Headmaster!"

"Say no more. Take this money back; you'll need it more in these hard times."

"No."

"No!

Do you really think I'll take this money from you? You are insulting me."

The middle aged man’s voice became deep and threatening.

"No it's not that headmaster."

"What is it then? Spit it out before I completely lose my temper."

“First we are sorry if we have upset you."

"Yeah we really are sorry."

Another one of the four chipped in. He was a bulky bald man.

"As I was saying...

We are sorry for the confusion.

Actually we were giving you this money for also another thing.

*Sigh*

You see we only recently became part of the city guards and by recently I mean yesterday."

"Yesterday!"

"Yes yesterday. The city guard is recruiting able bodied young men to keep the peace of the city. The nobles seem to have been concerned about the possibility of a riot from the people."

"It figures. The mood of the city is very bad and there is bound for crime to rise in these hard times. From what I saw a lot of families who came into the city for shelter don't have anything besides the clothes on their back. The church has tried feeding them but it's not enough.

The numbers of mouths that are needed to be fed are more than it's provided."

"It is as you say. The nobles did this to protect their wealth and property first. The part about protecting the order of the city is just a half-truth.

Anyway as I was saying there is another reason why we gave you that money.

*Clench*

Today we received an order that some of the city guards had to join the soldiers to the top of the wall to fight against those creatures."

"What!?

The city guard is being ordered to man the walls? In this situation the city will turn into hell for normal people and...

Wait doesn’t tell me..."

"Yes it's exactly what you're thinking. The four of us are going to fight against those creatures.

It's to be expected. We as the new recruits were bound to be chosen instead of the others. Now I'm even starting to suspect that this was their plan all along."

"No you can't go. Even if you are young and strong that doesn't matter in a war. You can die from any reason; a stray arrow, an infected wound, falling from the wall and many other things. You definitely can't go."

"That's the problem.

We can't refuse because if we did we would be punished as in accordance with military law."

"Decapitation?

Those motherfu*king bastards toying with the life's of the commoners like they please.

No, you are still young and have your whole life before you, so you have to survive

Promise me."

*Sniffle* *sniffle*

The four young men started to tear up. They tried to hold their tears but they couldn't be stopped. They rubbed their eyes repeatedly to stop the tears but they only gave themselves red eyes.

"What's the matter with you?

Why are four grown men crying so hard in broad daylight in front of my door?

*Sigh*

I understand that you may be afraid for your life but you shouldn't show it on the outside."

“It’s not our lives we are afraid for but our families.

You may not know because it's been more than 7 years since we last saw each other but all of us have been married and some of us even have children.

We are afraid, afraid that if we fall in battle what is going to happen to our families.

Gal has a 2 year old son and Fal has a 1 year old daughter. Not long ago during a drunken celebration of the birthday of Fal's daughter had they decided to marry the two of them together when they come of age. We all were happy for them and this happened.

With the situation as is we don't know if we'll be alive for their next birthday."

*Sniffle*

"It's as Hal says Headmaster. This money is in case we die. We hope that you will take care of our families as much as you can...

*Slap*

"Shut your mouth. You will not die and you will see your families again.

You just have to have faith in our Lord."

The middle aged man then did a triangle in front of his chest with his right hands big finger.

The four of them also did the same.

"It's not that we don't have faith in our Lord but our fates have been decided before we were born and can't be changed. We can only accept the outcome.

We only hope that the Lord with watch over our families."