Tar wasn’t stupid. He saw her act weird when she talked about that “pride”, and he felt like he shouldn’t pry into it.

“It’s okay. You don’t have to talk if you don’t want to.”

“Thanks.” But Lya continued. “We had been in his care for a few months from then. Although we travelled a lot, every time Mr Scalp returned to the camps, to big sis and me, we would all smile and forget all the bad things that happened that day. ‘So this is what family feels like?’ I thought.” She sighed. “Why couldn’t have things stayed that way?”

“I never knew she had such thoughts…” Tar thought. The two children sat beside each other in this particular spring night, both wished to go back to a time when they could be, ironically, children. Maybe that was why Tar felt just a little bit closer to Lya now.

“In early May, Mr Scalp lead his army of elite soldiers to defend East Frey. Those grey rats were not strong, but they’ve got numbers. Because the breach near the rivers in East Frey was much more serious, reinforcement was sent there instead to us. We had to wait at least a week for reinforcement.

“Desperate for help, Mr Scalp asked different martial artists in East Frey to join his army. Those martial artists…” She scoffed. “Yeah they’re good at fighting. But they’re arrogant, hot-blooded, and clueless about how large-scale battles work. They were essentially freelance fighters. Even worse than mercenaries. Basically, thugs.

“Still, I’ll give it them. Although there are some conflicts within the army, we managed to defend East Frey. At that time, one of the better martial artists helped out a lot. People called him the White Fox because of his white and thick eyebrows, and his fox-like appearance.”

Tar moved in closer to Lya. He had heard the name the White Fox before.

“The White Fox was quite strong and capable. He even saved Mr Scalp once. We would hear stories of the White Fox from Mr Scalp when he returned from battle. How he’s fortunate and grateful that he had such a reliable person fighting beside him. The White Fox in Mr Scalp’s stories had always been a strong, benevolent figure. The only strange thing was that the White Fox was extremely popular among martial artists, but heavily despised among soldiers.

“Big sis and I asked a soldier why that was the case. It turned out that the White Fox was in it only for the money. That’s still understandable, but every battle he would exaggerate his and his fellow martial artists’ achievements and flaunt how their ‘special’, ‘unique’, ‘family-inherited’ martial arts saved everyone, and used this excuse to demand more money. And if Mr Scalp still didn’t give in, then the White Fox would bring up how he saved his life and how Mr Scalp wouldn’t be here without him!

“At first it was only a handful of bronze coins per battle, but it quickly escalated to silver coins, and then, gold coins. That’s more than five times what the soldiers get from each battle! Tar, if you were Mr Scalp, what would you do?”

“Hmm… On one hand, the White Fox did save me, so he was my benefactor… But on the other hand, he made requests that are difficult to accommodate… I’m not sure…” Tar scratched his head and answered truthfully.

“No, no, no! The answer should be clear! Who cares if he saved your life? He is clearly exploiting that! There’s no need to talk about being good with this kind of trash! Argh… That’s why you and Mr Scalp…”

Lya started to get agitated again, but she calmed down after a sigh.

“We confronted Mr Scalp in one morning. He told us that he only did what he should do, which is to compensate the White Fox well. ‘But why? He’s exploiting you!’ I asked in a fit of rage. But he calmly answered, ‘Well, he did prove himself in the battlefield. He even saved my life! Have I told you about that time he…’ I cut him off. ‘I don’t care! I don’t care! That scum is only in it for the money! He’s not worth your…’ Suddenly, he shouted at me. ‘Lya!’ Big sis and I were both frozen. He never shouted at us. ‘Don’t say a word more. I’ll get angry.’ He said as he walked away. And that was the second to last time we ever talked to him.

“In the evening, the martial artists were missing, leaving only the soldiers behind. We asked the soldiers where the martial artists were and they answered that because of the lack of funding, Mr Scalp couldn’t raise the martial artists’ pay anymore, and so they left. When big sis and I got up and left, a soldier stopped us. ‘Are you trying to find Mr Scalp?’ He asked. We nodded. ‘He’s not here. He went to the inn where they’re staying. He said he would persuade them to rejoin the army. I tried talking him out of it but he wouldn’t listen.’ The soldier walked us to Mr Scalp’s tent and pointed inside. ‘I told him that if he should at least bring a weapon, but he said something like if he had brought his scalpel that would mean he didn’t trust them.’ Mr Scalp’s weapon is a family-inherited scalpel, which is very, very big. Like this big.” Lya said as she stretched her arms wide to show how long the scalpel was.

“Inside the tent was, of course, the scalpel. The soldier said to us, ‘I’m not really supposed to do this, but I’ll, uh, turn a blind eye if you two brats, for God knows what reason, enter Mr Scalp’s tent. I didn’t see nothing.’ He left us alone after that. We knew he was trying to give us a peace of mind by letting us wait for Mr Scalp in his tent.”

Lya’s expression turned cold and gloomy, as if hinting that something inevitable, something terrible would befall her. “We waited and waited… But no one came. Not even until midnight. Big sis told me to go to sleep first and she would wake me up when Mr Scalp came back. I was exhausted so I fell asleep quickly. Suddenly, her scream jolted me awake. Kyu covered her mouth from shock and pointed to the entrance of the tent. What I saw was bloodied figure. His hair was disheveled, and his clothes, tattered. He limped his way into the tent and collapsed onto the floor. It was Mr Scalp.

“While I was still in shock, big sis carried him to the bed. ‘What happened?’ she asked. Mr Scalp didn’t answer and instead shouted, ‘Wine! Give me wine!’ We didn’t know what to do. Our legs were shaking. I think we were more afraid then than seeing the talking corpse in the snowy battlefield.

“Hearing the commotion, a soldier came to check the situation. After seeing Mr Scalp, the soldier immediately grabbed some warm water and a towel. As he was tending to Mr Scalp’s wounds, Mr Scalp grabbed the soldier’s hand and said, ‘Didn’t you hear me? I want wine.’ The soldier looked at the towel, which was soaked to the brim with blood. I think it was at this point he realised that Mr Scalp cannot be saved. The soldier gritted his teeth and nodded, before running outside.

“When he returned, he brought a bottle of wine back. Mr Scalp grabbed the bottle from the soldier and started chugging it down. ‘Hahaha! Dying beside a bottle of good wine! What can be more satisfying that this? Hahaha!’ The more he drank, the more blood gushed out from his wounds. We didn’t dare to stop him. When Mr Scalp finally finished his wine, he turned to big sis and me.

“Go to West Frey and find someone named Ruu Scalp, she’s my big sister. She’ll take care of you two. Tell them that Raa, that’s me, died beside bottle of good wine. Understand?’ Wet with tears, we nodded as hard as we could.

“‘Promise me one thing. Don’t take revenge on the White Fox. Don’t even think about it.’ It’s a difficult request. Big sis and I didn’t respond to him. ‘Please. He saved my life. I don’t need you to forgive him. Just forget about him. Do that for me.’ And that’s when I decided to lie: I nodded. It felt terrible. I never lied to Mr Scalp before, but there is no way that I can allow that scum to live. ‘Thanks. One last thing… Before I die, can I call you my daughters?’ The two of us grabbed onto his arm. It was muscular, strong, and reliable, yet bruised, scarred, and covered in blood. We wiped off our tears and said yes. ‘Thanks, Kyu. Thanks, Lya. I’m proud to have such daughters.’ That was the last thing he said.

“Gradually, his arm went cold. Time felt like it stopped. There were soldiers coming in and out, some wept for him, some bowed, some said a few words to us, but none of that mattered, because Mr Scalp never returned. If only he hadn’t held onto his stupid pride…”

Tar thought back to the time he first met the sisters. “They were shouldering all of that during that time?” Tar couldn’t believe it. He looked at Lya only to see nonchalance returned to her face.

“Well, you can guess what happened after that. Quite funny actually. It didn’t take more than three days for the entire army to collapse.” Lya let out a cold laugh. “Big sis and I fled to West Frey to look for Ms Scalp. Yesterday, we were caught up in some incident. That’s when we heard about Ms Scalp and met her. She, alongside uncle Wren, brought us to the Barn.”