Grassland 26 km to the northwest of the settlement.

Every time he saw his wife who walked like a living corpse, Tulla felt like his heart was being crushed to pieces.

This morning mountain bandits came to their settlement. At first, they thought the bandits were only targeting valuables and foodstuffs, but who would have thought that they were slave hunters. The first thing they did after gathering the villagers was to execute elderly and toddlers who were deemed to be hindering their journey.

Tulla and his wife were desperately trying to protect their two-year-old son, but their efforts were in vain. The bandits deliberately killed their crying child right in front of them.

In an instant, the light of life vanished from his wife's eyes, and Tulla could only curse the gods in heaven who were silent when misfortune befell his family and all the villagers.

'I hope Reem and the other kids manage to find a way to survive.'

Tulla prayed inwardly while awaiting an opportunity to seize one of the bandits' weapons.

'I should send my wife first before killing as many of these bastards as possible.'

The life of a slave was much lower than an animal, so Tulla had to make sure his wife avoided that fate.

The bandits took positions in front of and behind the villagers whose wrists were tied and connected, so Tulla could slowly and carefully untie his hands.

"Tulla, use this."

Donda, one of Tulla's colleagues when he was serving in the military, whispered as he handed over a small knife. Donda also pointed out that the knots on his wrist were broken, but he covered them by tightly grasping it.

"Nun will attract some bandits' attention. Then, we will kill them, grab their weapons, and attack the bandits behind while the women run in all directions, so that some of them will escape and catch up with the children who ran to Desolate Land."

Tulla nodded slightly, but inside he felt bitter because his wife's current condition did not allow her to run. So Tulla could only strengthen his resolve to kill his wife and then fought to the death.

Before long, a signal was given that the men were ready to act, but just before they started, a group of people in green clothes suddenly appeared from their left and brandished odd-shaped sticks at the bandits.

Ratatar. . . ratatar. . . ratatar!!

As flames burst out from the odd sticks held by people in green and deafening sounds rang out, the bandits tumbled and fell onto the ground like sandbags. With a neat and coordinated movement, the people in green then separated the bandits from the villagers.

"Tulla who are they?"

Donda, who was standing next to Tulla asked in a half-whispered while his face looked very worried.

"I also do not know."

Tulla replied shortly while his gaze was fixed on the two bandits who managed to escape and spur their horses with all their might. At the same time, a person with a smaller fire stick whistled and pointed at them.

Two people in green immediately stood side by side and pointed their fire sticks towards two bandits who were moving away. Then, a short streak was heard and two bandits in the distance fell to the ground.

"A very powerful and deadly weapon, combined with neat coordination."

Tulla murmured while calculating the best result if he fought against the people in green, and his face instantly turned pale because it was much worse compared to when he had to fight the bandits.

While Tulla was immersed in contemplation, the men in green casually finished off the bandits who were moaning or crawling, regardless of their cries of surrender. It didn't need a smart brain to realize that they were familiar with killing and fighting. In an instant, there were no longer living bandits. Every single of them lay in their own pools of blood.

"Is anyone hurt?"

With a loud but casual voice, the shortest fire stick bearer asked the villagers, who answered by shaking their heads rapidly.

"May we know who the honorable Ser Benefactor is?"

With a respectful tone Tulla asked, and the answer he got was.

"My name is Lieutenant Lambert, I cannot provide any further information without authorization from my superiors, but I can tell you that my unit has orders to hunt down bandits who are attacking a small settlement 20 km southeast of this place."

"Those are our settlements."

"Yes, one of my teams already eliminated six bandits hiding in the settlement and six others hiding in the forest to the west of the settlement. They also found two children named Sith and Ruth who were hidden under the horse stable."

"Ah...!"

A woman shrieked under her breath before walking forward with hasty steps along with a middle-age man.

"Is our child all right?"

"At first they kept crying while calling out to their parents, but the personnel who found them managed to calm them down. So you don't have to worry, Ma'am."

"Praise the gods in heaven, praise the gods in heaven...." said the woman before sobbing on her husband's chest.

"Sun is going to set, and Gray Wolf will be active shortly after. We must return to the settlement as soon as possible."

The residents nodded, while in the distance several flying objects with windmills were approaching fast. The largest flying object was long and had two large windmills on it. While the other was shaped like a dragonfly or wagon, and had a large windmill on top and a small one on its tail.

The residents stuttered and some of them panicked, but Lieutenant Lambert managed to calm them down. Not long after that, the three largest flying objects lined up on the meadow at a distance of 25 meters, while the smaller remained in the air with their noses pointed in all directions as if creating a perimeter of security.

Even though they were a little hesitant at first, the residents were finally willing to enter the flying objects through the back door. Except for a few men who, after picking up the bandits' weapons, rushed over to Lieutenant Lambert.

"We don't mean to deny Ser Benefactor good intentions, but some of the children who managed to escape the bandits possibly moved east. So we have to pick them up first."

"Don't worry, our main unit is looking after them. Right now the most important thing is to return to the settlement as soon as possible."

"We understand."

Tulla and the other men were still suspicious of their helper. However, this suspicion was eased a little because they were allowed to board the flying objects while carrying the weapons they had snatched from the bandits.

"Can we trust them?"

Donda asked in a whisper, and Tulla who was standing next to him answered softly.

"For now we have no other choice."

—

Grassland 500 meters to the east of the settlement.

0415, 31 Jan 2025

"Why is this happening to me?"

Looking up at the evening sun, Private Keane firmly gripped the shortest variant of HK416A5. A posture that would have looked very dignified, if only on his left and right there were not two 3-4 year old children holding the hem of his shirt tightly, one of them even sucked on her thumb.

Private Keane was not an animal lover, let alone a child. He was the type of human who avoided complex and troublesome matters as much as possible.

For example, when his first girlfriend called in the middle of the night to pour out her heart, he didn't hesitate to break up with her right away. While for his second girlfriend he left her because she forcibly asked him to go to the beach on a holiday where he intended to spend all day sleeping.

When he, Corporal Twig, and a colleague found two children hiding under the stables shivering with fear, all he did was give them two MRE candies that happened to be in his pocket.

He did not give the candy out of affection or concern for the two frightened children, but because he did not know what to do while his partner and Corporal Twig desperately tried to calm them down, who without warning started to sob.

Also, the candy he gave was actually candy he didn't eat because he didn't like it.

Miraculously, the two children who had been sobbing immediately stopped crying after they chewed the chocolate candy from Private Keane. They even looked at Private Keane with a happy, innocent, and clear gaze.

After that, the two of them followed Private Keane like a puppy follows its mother. They didn't even mind when Private Keane didn't stretch out his hand to hold their hand. Instead, they both took the initiative to grab the hem of his shirt.

Corporal Twig, who realized that Private Keane was not a human who could be relied on to look after two children, tried to prevent the tragedy that might occur, but the two children cried loudly when he tried to separate them from Private Keane.

Corporal Twig could only give up and stop his intention. As for Private Keane, he wanted to cry but no tears came out.

When Sergeant Heins and the rest of the squad saw Private Keane return with two kids on either side of him, they struggled to hold back their laughter.

However, they then collectively round-up crackers, chocolates, candy, or snack-bars they had for the two kids who clinging tightly to Private Keane.

When he finally heard that the two toddler's parents would return soon, Private Keane immediately took the initiative to go to the landing site.

'Finally, freedom will return to me,' Private Keane muttered as he saw a helicopter formation approaching fast.

"Whoaaaah ...!"

Seeing the two children to his left and right staring at the helicopter in amazement, Private Keane took the initiative to explain, "The flying object is called Hello?"

"Hee-low."

One of the kids repeated Private Keane's words while the brother nodded.

Not long after the three Chinooks landed, a husband and wife came out from one of the Chinooks and immediately ran towards Private Keane, or more precisely towards the two children who were flanking him.

The two children flanking Private Keane were stunned for a moment before running towards their parents, but both of them stopped at the third step, turning around to tightly hug Private Keane's thighs before running back towards their parents.

Both Sith and Ruth's parents kept bowing and thanking Private Keane, while the young soldier couldn't help but feel awkward.

Sith and Ruth then followed their parents to the settlement, on the way the two of them took the time to turn to Private Keane and wave their hands.

For some reason, Private Keane felt a deep longing for his parents when he saw this.

'Mum, Dad… I hope you are doing well on earth.'

*****