Side Story 9 - Man with a Mission

(Soldier that feels grateful to Adam the mage’s POV)

I am a soldier that serves the kingdom of Velodria. I join the kingdom’s military to fight against the Demon Lord’s army, because my village was devastated when they attacked us. The kingdom doesn’t allow commoners with no background to join the army, but it all changed when Silgemuth became the 11th king of Velodria. He reformed the army into a formidable power able to oppose the Demon Lord’s army. Because humans still cannot overcome the racial advantage of the demon, so they decide to summon the hero and train a special group of elites to join his party, called the hero’s party. At first, I doubt the success of such a plan and consider it to be a waste of money and time. However, I was amazed at the achievement of the hero and his party.

One day, while fighting a small group of demons, I got caught by surprise, and we ended up with quite severe injuries. My arm got hacked, and it’s now in a terrible mess. I also caught a fever, and am shaking terribly in the military camp. I thought the army has abandoned me to die here, but then a mage entered the military ward. He looks just like any ordinary soldier, but he treats our injuries quite effectively. I thought he is a cleric, but I heard the cleric is reserved only for emergency and severe cases mostly. I later learned that he’s a mage from the hero’s party. There are other soldiers, which also got our injuries healed by the mage in the hero’s party. We learned that his name is Adam. We are truly grateful to Adam. He said he has a sister, and we have vowed to repay his kindness whenever possible.

The chance came quite soon, but not in the best circumstances. Adam was dismissed from the hero’s party due to bad conduct on the battlefield, and a royal decree was issued to punish his immediate family. At first, I thought that it was a mistake. However, when we were placed under the imperial army chief’s command group, I realized that the order was real, and we are basically tasked with punishing the family of our benefactor. It is of great regret that I couldn’t join him in the battlefield that time because I’m still recovering and deemed not fit for battle, or else I’m going to help encourage him and prevent him from doing that mistake in the battlefield.

I discussed it over with a group of fellow soldiers who also felt gratitude for the mage. We plan to secretly transport the family out of the kingdom or at least go far away from the capital, to avoid the punishment. I heard that the punishment is very severe this time, just to express the sovereign of the kingdom to its subject during times of looming danger. They may put fear into their subjects, but the soldiers need a moral support pillar. The hero and his party of strong warriors and a cleric are especially good, but they are not the people of this world, so we don’t feel a sense of camaraderie.

Anyway, the escape plan is to prepare a cart in the logging route, secure Adam the mage’s family, and bring them across the forest and meet the team in charge of transport. We don’t want to blow our cover, so we need to just keep calm and follow the imperial army’s movement. Those selected to go to the mage’s village will follow the army, while those that are not will take their off-duty time (due to the hero’s celebration) to prepare for the escape at the designated zone. I’m one of those selected to move with the army. I just follow along like usual, as it is my official duty.

When we arrive at the village square, the village head comes out to greet us. The imperial army chief produces the decree, and the imperial lawmaker announces the content to the decree. The village head seems to kind of giving an accommodating feeling to the army. Usually, a village head wouldn’t want their fellow villager to die, and they would show fear in their eyes when such punitive group of soldiers arrives at the village. He pleaded that they use fire to burn instead of stoning the mage’s parents to death because he doesn’t want the villagers to stain their hand with blood and live with the heavy feeling at heart. His request seems quite humane, and the imperial army chief agrees to it.

The village head suggests that the army use the wood sold at the village square for making the fire, but the imperial army chief said that he wouldn’t bear the cost. The village head then offers to cover the cost of the firewood by pilfering from the mage’s home and selling off their daughter, as long as the imperial army chief close an eye and don’t write an incriminating report on him, but instead praise him for his good work in the village. The imperial army chief agreed to it, and this puts our heart at a great moral burden.

Knowing now that the imperial army chief is a corrupt man and the way the village head and the kingdom mistreat our benefactor, we decide to make our move quick and get to them before the army does. Some of us pretend to have a stomachache and request to go to the toilet or the forest. They quickly made their way through once they enter the toilet or forest, and start searching for Adam’s family before the army does.

We were shocked when we saw four youths dragged a woman out of a tailor shop and beat her up when she resisted them. We tried to go in to stop them, but one of the youth announced that the woman is the mother of the convicted mage. The youths rough her up and tried to molest her, but she puts up a good fight and managed to keep her dignity. This doesn’t last long, as not to our surprise, the imperial army chief and other soldiers begin to surround her with their spears and demand her to stop moving.

The imperial lawmaker read out the decree in front of that woman and claimed that she, as the mother of the mage, must take responsibility for his crime. The army then put shackles on her hands and feet, and some of us noticed that the village head took the opportunity when they move to place where there is no villager around to molest and kiss the woman. She resisted and bit his tongue, and the village head retaliates by slashing up her with a knife and tore her clothes. If it’s not for the official army duty, I will strike down this perverted grandpa now on the spot. The imperial army chief is also one thing, abusing his power. The imperial lawmaker seems to put rules at whatever that is convenient for him.

I waited for our leader, Gustov, to come and give our chief a good sounding. If we do it ourselves, we will be deemed as going against our superior, as lately, the royal lawmaker placed many new laws in the military to ensure that the lower rank soldiers never go against their superior. We saw a man coming this way with a furious face. It is not Gustov, but a man of this village. The village head smirked and said something to the chief. The chief then instructs us to stop that man from approaching, and we are allowed to hurt him if he retaliates. The perverted village head then does outrageous things on that woman, making that man furious. That grandpa is extremely lewd, and I felt a sense of anger in my heart, but I have to follow the kingdom’s law and act according to my superior’s instruction.

I purposely obstruct the other soldiers from properly pointing their spears to the man by feigning carelessness. Some also feign weakness and did some dramatic fall on the ground, dragging the others with them. The man managed to give a good punch on the face of the village head, but the chief wouldn’t take any of it and scolded us while lashing at us. He and a few soldiers loyal to him begin to assault the man with spears and drive him to a corner. I then saw the man got pierced by thin sharp bamboos that I believe flew out of the walking stick the village head is using. I believed the village head must have invoked the magical phenomena of the wind to propel the bamboo at such fast speed, as I can only see the man get pierced after the village head raised and drop his walking stick. This old sly fox is actually just pretending to be frail, I said in my heart.

The injured man grabbed and tried to remove the bamboo from his chest, but he cried in agony as he tried to remove one of them. The village head tried to beat up the injured man, but we quickly quell it and take that man into custody, and the imperial lawmaker performs an identity check and after identifying him as the mage’s father, read out the content of the decree and arrests him. Chief doesn’t look happy that we are doing our job efficiently this time, and he gives us a nagging again. The army then proceeds to walk towards the house of the mage in the village, intending to catch the sister too. I pray in my heart that Gustov takes action quickly and that she runs away.

There is a big discussion among the people in the army and the villagers that joined them. It seems that they are discussing between selling the sister or burn her with her parents. I and the others quickly agree that she should be sold, even though it breaks away from the kingdom’s soldier conduct and may invite court-martial, so all of us need to swear to secrecy. This way, at least she can avoid getting killed, and we can redeem her later. The group collectively agreed to the idea that she should be sold, but someone from the villagers suggests that they should have fun with her first before selling her off. I quickly suggest that we shouldn’t, with the excuse that her price will drop drastically if we sell an injured and discarded girl. The villagers argued back that the price is the same small value regardless if she is still pure or not. They also tempt the others by saying that her body is gorgeous and her bosom is so huge that one of them won’t fit one hand alone, the shape is very alluring, and it is very soft to the touch. I bet they never actually touch them before, just pure lies.

I tried to derail the discussion by saying that the money is more important, and the slave dealer is definitely paying more for a pure and beautiful girl. However, the discussion concluded with the majority want to have fun with her, and the chief even said that they could just toss her into the fire if she died during the ordeal. The imperial army is just a bunch of thugs that promote self-righteousness.

While the army is marching towards the house of the so-called convict in order to execute the punishment, Gustov can be seen exiting the house. He is wearing his knight armour, so he’s officially on duty. He talked with the chief, and it seems that the chief is satisfied with the answer Gustov gave. Gustov is seen taking a few men with him and moved away from the house the imperial army is marching to. He tried to do some odd mouth movement, but many times he was interrupted by the soldiers by his side. He seems to be troubled, and when he walked far away, I can hear some kind of whistling sound, but it is very soft and subtle. I noticed the air is very still around us, giving off an eerie quietness that even stifled the sound of moaning and anguish from the two captured people.

It seems that one of us managed to get into contact with the slave dealer, and with chief’s permission, made a promise that the slave dealer that happened to pass the village so that he will come and evaluate the goods, and collect it at the house in the village if they found her.

(Gustov’s POV)

Damn it, the imperial army has arrived so early. I got to get back and distract them. After telling Lillie to run to the east, towards the jungle where we arranged the transport, I got out of the house and used the shortcut to reach the imperial army. I convinced the imperial army chief that I know where Lillie is hiding, and intend to capture her alive. The imperial army chief is skeptical of my claim, so I tell him some white lie that I extort the knowledge out of a villager that he saw her father put her inside a dried well to hide. He seems to accept my claim, and allow four men with two horses to escort me to the location and extract the girl. Although this is little compared to my estimate of at least sixteen men off from the team, this will have to do.

I picked the men that are loyal to the imperial army chief. I made eye contact with some accomplice, and they give me the worried eyes. I signaled with my eyes that the plan has changed, and now we can only rescue the daughter. They will have to adapt to the new plan and change according to the situation. I made sure that my group of men I lead is far enough from the imperial army, and attempt to blow a whistle, but the men beside me interrupted me. They told me excitedly that they are so happy to be the first to enjoy the beautiful body of a young girl. Apparently, they have discussed and agreed to have “fun” with the poor girl before selling her off to a slave dealer that happened to pass by here. These people are the real destroyer of the kingdom, not the mage.

They managed to interrupt me for several good minutes before I can attempt to blow a whistle with my fingers. I am good with this form of whistling with two fingers in my lips, but today it seems I’m not in my best condition. The sound seems odd and subtle, and the wind is blowing in the opposite direction. I noticed that the air is very still near the direction of the imperial army. Things could not have been worse, but I can’t blow my cover here. I pray that Lillie heard it and quickly run to the east now that the number of personnel is at the lowest, and she can reach the forest before the army can reach her with their horse.

(Third party’s POV)

It seems that the village head is aware of the relationship between Claude and Gustov. He noticed Gustov’s attempt to whistle, as he has much life experience and has seen before that form of whistling. He tried to still the air around Gustov and the army, thinking that it will avoid the vibration and therefore can’t transmit the sound. However, it is the wrong method, as the still air around them allows the sound to be heard more clearly as it removed other noises and give emphasis on the external vibration. But this mistake is negated by the Silence skill of the village head. So the village head always thought his theory is right, and never know his mistake, probably his whole life.

(Back to the army that feels grateful to Adam the mage’s POV)

When we are about to reach the intended place, we saw the villagers piled up all the wood at the back of the house. The army intends to carry the two captured mage’s parents and place them on a crucifix while looking out for the mage’s sister. But to my amazement, a young beautiful girl can be seen talking with the mage's parents. A soldier took notice and notified the others. The village head identified her as the mage’s sister.

The imperial army tried to arrest her, and I pretend to put out my spear, but without the intent to cause harm. She managed to avoid capture by putting up a blue mana shield around herself. This is an amazing feat, as mana shield is a very difficult spell to learn, and takes a long time to master. Only several people in the kingdom have the proper mastery and magic disposition to make a full body mana shield. Next, she made something even more mind-boggling. She cast mana shield onto her parents, but they are smaller and takes time to form a complete shield. The villagers seem to know how it works, and they used their sticks and limbs to place it at the location where the sphere will form. When the sphere is completed, it is brittle and weak and falls apart with a hard knock with the stick and spears.

I implore the girl in my heart to just run alone and save herself. But she never gives up, and she formed the spheres again around her parents, this time faster but thinner. The others have grasped the weakness of the cloned mana shield, and they interrupted the mana shield from fully forming by just getting into the path of the sphere. The girl still refuses to give up, and this time, she invoked a red surface that floats around and hit and push the soldiers and villagers out of the way while she cast her mana shield again onto her parents. I secretly aided in pushing away the villagers and soldiers by moving my spear obstructively just right at the border where the mana shield forms near her parents.

It’s a pity that there are too many of the soldiers that are loyal to the imperial army chief or just follow the orders to the letter. The girl tried again and again, and each time she can’t make the mana shield materialize properly around her parents. The chief tried to threaten her with her parents’ life and even shamelessly demand her magical item, but she chooses to continue trying, which is a smart move. There is no point listening to the people that are going to kill her parents anyway. In the end, she tires herself out, and her own mana shield begins to destabilize due to her fatigue and concentration loss, and the mana shield dispersed after ferocious attack by so many soldiers. She got pitifully caught and put into a humiliating posture. My heart sank, as I don’t know how to act in this situation. This is the worst possible outcome for our plan to help save Adam the mage’s family.

We signal among ourselves for our next move. One of our members quickly got up and request for permission to get the slave dealer. The permission was denied, but after giving an excuse that he will get the slave dealer on standby so that she can be sold before her life expires, thus ensuring maximum profit. The greedy and calculative imperial army chief agreed to let him inform the slave dealer early. Meanwhile, the soldiers that are not in cahoots with us are now bullying the poor girl on the ground.

While we contemplate on how to save the girl in this situation, two youth appears and demanded the army to let the girl go. They appear to be just your average youth, but they are clearly confident. They appear to try to reach the young girl but changed to rescue the parents. It’s probably due to not many soldiers that are guarding the parents now because they went over to the girl and bullied her. I pretended to fall and hit the other soldiers down, preventing them from reinforcing the soldiers at the parents’ side. Only the chief and the four villagers are actively repelling the two from successfully taking away the mage’s parents.

The chief is on the verge of getting pushed back, and the other villagers are just like statues under the combination of assaults by the two youths. One uses a wooden pole of medium length and one holds a piece of wood on each of his arms. I and my cohorts continued to do careless falls and stall the army from going over to help. Chief finally snapped and he goes back to his horse while the two youths are beating back the villagers that sided with the chief. When they managed to grab and carry the mage’s parents for some distance, the chief managed to catch up to them and strike them with his spear. Their wooden weapon managed to withstand the chief’s attacks while on horseback, which is great.

Though the chief is always not around when we do military drills, his spear skill on horseback is the real deal. He is known as the jousting champion of Velodria’s annual jousting competition that only nobles participate. His flurry of attacks puts the mage’s parents in the line of fire, and the youth with holds wood piece on his arms blocked them, while the one with the wooden pole managed to hit chief on his chest and on the head. There is also another girl out there holding something like quartz, and she ran and helps the youths. The soldiers have managed to overcome the unnatural obstacles that I and my cohorts made on an impromptu and gave chase to the three youths. One of the youths apparently got pierced by the chief’s spear, the wood probably gave way when he tried to block the chief’s jousting attacks. His condition looks serious, and they ran to the edge of the forest and managed to lose chief that chases them on horseback.

The chief then decides to recall all soldiers back and proceeds with the plans. One group dragged the mage’s parents to the woodpile, and one group dragged the mage’s sister by her hair to the house. The group at the woodpile begins to tie up the mage’s parents to a large wooden pole hammered together in a cross shape each. They found that tying them up is arduous and it slips after they tie them up, so they just hammed a nail directly into their arms and legs. It really hurts my heart that I couldn’t do anything in the wake of such cruelty. The parents of my benefactor have to suffer so much before their humiliating death, just because the incompetent soldiers don’t know how to properly tie them up, and took the easy but lazy way that puts them in so much agony. I just only pray in my heart that our cohort can get the slave dealer to arrive early so that we can get to sell off their daughter to safety before they can brutally humiliate her.

The flames are slow to start, and our benefactor’s parent’s lives are hanging by a thread as they bleed profusely on the stakes. They can’t even move or protest anymore but look at each other as the flames licked their soles and begin consuming them slowly. The villagers looked on with many expressions. Some are happy, believing that they had avenged their fallen sons in the battle with the demons and shout out insults, some are sad, some hide their faces, some wails, some are excited, some just show a normal expression. I wasn’t able to shed any tears, because I had dried all mine when I lose my family to the demons. But this incident has lit a fire in me, one that will not be extinguished as long as this heart continues to beat and this head still on the shoulders.

I heard a girl’s shouting and screaming coming from the house where we burn our benefactor’s parents, where the army drags the mage's sister in earlier. While the rest are mesmerized by the burning spectacle, I made my way to the back of the house. Several of our cohorts gathered at the back, and we saw through the gap in the window a very bad spectacle. They strip the girl naked and touched her inappropriately. The village head takes out a red ring and passes it to his underling villager, it is similar in colour as the red shield the girl wields earlier. They begin to ask her questions, and the underling villager tried invoking magic with the ring on his finger. He fell to the ground immediately with his eyes upturned. The girl quickly gets out of their pinning and kicked around, causing several men to fell down in pain. She managed to grab a knife in the kitchen and pointed it at her pursuers. They backed off a little, but the soldiers stationed outside the house took notice of the commotion. They break in through the back door and brutally beat her down with their weapons, armours, and shields.

Those brutal soldiers laughed and got excited from seeing the sight of a naked beautiful girl. The girl has upturned eyes and has fainted, so the soldiers wanted to start having their fun with her. I whispered to my cohorts outside the house and said that it’s time to get into action. Earlier, we had discussed among ourselves about the possibility of using direct force to save our benefactor’s family. We know that it would incur a court martial with the new laws laid out by the kingdom’s lawmakers. The current court-martial law usually involves one’s family in the punishment list when a soldier is found guilty, and there is no proper trial given, the decision is usually decided by those in highest authority appropriate to their rank in the military, so even the imperial army chief can be a judge in our case. With that in mind, only people who no longer have any family members or close friends can undertake this mission to use force. We have three men here, including me, participating in this mission.

All three of us wear our full body armour and shields, and equipped with swords, and enter the house through the back. The other soldiers thought that we are just too eager to join the fun, and told us to wait outside for them to have their first because they worked for it and first who comes gets her first. We just ignored their words, and before the soldier on top of the girl can begin to put his genitals inside her and claim her maidenhood, I slashed at his neck. Due to our generally low attack, his head didn’t detach from his shoulders, but plenty of blood splutters out and he shouted for help while clutching his neck. His words are broken, so the army outside is not alerted. The other soldiers are stunned, and the villagers just stared at us three.

We acted as if we got impatient from the wait and began venting out our anger at the soldiers and villagers in the house. We cut and slash at them indiscriminately, and try as long as possible to prevent them from alerting the outside army. After I cut down four men from behind, as they are too busy satisfying their lust with the sight of the girl’s naked body, the others begin to retaliate earnestly. Several of them get their weapons ready and fight back, while the villagers carried their fainted one and they all rushed out and alert the army of what’s happening. They are just like a bunch of hyenas, taking any opportunities to oppress the weak, and cower for protection under those stronger than them. The other two also killed their share, and we put up furniture barricade at the front door and the back door.

We cover the girl’s body with a tablecloth we can find, and put her in a corner, out of the line of fire. The army begins showering arrows through the gaps in the windows and door. They also siege the furniture barricade with wooden rams and managed to knock down our defenses. We don’t have any means to deal with ranged attacks, so we waited until the army make a move to break in before we hack and slash at them. We keep shouting random things to distract them, like how the army is so unfair that they don’t share their spoils, or the girl is us to enjoy first, or that we want to secure the girl for the chief to enjoy first. The three of us fight back to back until we got ourselves covered in our blood, the blood of those we slain, arrows, broken weapons, splinters, and dirt. We fight with our life on the line to repay the kindness of our benefactor, and the injustice his family faces. We have no regrets and fatefully accept our fate. We fought until the end, and the army managed to fully restrain us in under fifteen minutes that seem like an eternity to us.

The villagers, just like hyena taking the easy prey, begin to go after the fainted girl again to assault her. One rubs his genitals on her large mammaries, and another rubs his at her feminine bits. I have failed in my mission.

Knock!Knock!Knock!

One of my cohorts in the army has managed to contact the slave dealer, and he has arrived at the location. He managed to convince the army that deals with mage’s daughter to help him get the most money out of the slave dealer in this transaction.

“My my, the goods have been manhandled and broken. The price will drop from one gold crown to five silvers” (Slave dealer)

“No way, stop that you lugs! Get the villagers off her! Sir, she’s still a pure maiden. You can check it yourself.” (soldier A)

The army moves the villagers aside before they can do anything and allows the slave trader to check himself.

“Hmmmmmmm. She’s intact but seems to suffer injuries here and there. The most I can offer is one small gold coin” (Slave dealer)

“Can’t you increase it more? She’s a beauty at that too. There are so many mouths to feed here.” (soldier A)

“Two small gold. Take it or leave it” (Slave dealer)

“Okay, please give us in copper coins change” (soldier A)

The slave dealer puts his suitcase on the floor and invokes a magic incantation. A creature that looks like red slug emerges from the suitcase, and the slave dealer caught it with his hands, pierce his thumb with a small puncher and feed it some of his blood. The slave dealer then cuts the girl’s finger with a blade and feed some of her blood to the creature. The creature begins to shiver incessantly, and the slave dealer releases the creature on the girl’s abdomen. The creature coils around the girl’s body, and opens its mouth wide and sinks its teeth into the area her heart is located.

The girl’s body shudders, and a slave seal is formed on the girl’s heart, with fresh red veins forming on that spot. It looks repulsive, but at least some of our guys can later help redeem her from the slave dealer after the dust has settled. I was harshly beaten, but I smile contentedly as my mission is accomplished, and I have repaid my debt to my benefactor.