Chapter 27: Mercenaries

Forest, Jade Empire

They all raised their eyebrows at Kai’s extreme change of expressions.

“You actually know them?” Brad questioned in disbelief.

What do they want with them? Are they here to harm them? Help them?

Kai rapidly jumped to his feet and created distance between him and them. His eyes narrowed slightly as he exuded an aura of caution.

“Why do you want to know?”, he answered with a question of his own.

“Calm down Kai”, Melissa assured in a soothing tone. “We are not searching for them with ill-intentions, we were sent to help them.”

Sent?

“... who are you all?”

“Ah!”, Mike shouted in realization as he slapped his knee. “Haha! We haven’t even told him who we are yet.”

Brad smiled in the same realization.

“That’s right. Normally we would announce ourselves first but we unknowingly skipped that part and went straight to the names. Better late than never, Kai, we are mercenaries.”

“Mercenaries?”

Mercenaries… I should’ve expected it in a world with bandits.

“That’s right. More accurately we’re known as the Raging Tempests.”

“... but what does that have to do with them?”

“Ah, you’ve been raised in an isolated environment since you were young so you wouldn’t know anything about mercenaries, would you?”, Brad concluded with a nod.

“Let me explain”, Melissa offered. “As mercenaries we take on jobs, more commonly known as missions, for a living. The missions are made by other people and placed on display for mercenaries like us to pick and choose from.”

Her definition of mercenaries fell under what Kai already understood but he nodded and continued to listen, in case she stated anything foreign.

“However, we did not take on a typical mission recently. About a week ago, we came across this middle-aged couple while we were in Adiple City.”

“Adiple City?”, Kai couldn’t help but question.

“Sorry, I keep forgetting that you wouldn’t know”, Melissa apologized. “Adiple City is relatively close to here, about a few days on foot, maybe two days by horse.”

He nodded in acknowledgement.

“So we encountered this middle-aged couple there. They were desperately trying to have their mission approved by the local mercenary headquarters but they were constantly being rejected.”

Mercenary headquarters?.. I’ll ask later…

“Once they were kicked out, we asked the receptionist why they were being rejected and she told us they didn’t have enough money.”

Brad sighed.

“Although we are proud of our profession”, he added, “it’s sad to see our kind turn away people who are in need of help, just because they lack the money to pay for it.”

“But there’s no way around it because we need money to survive too”, Roger sighed in turn.

“Then why did you all take the job?”, Kai asked.

“Right, you guys should save your comments for later otherwise I’ll never finish explaining”, Melissa suggested.

Brad and Roger tilted their heads apologetically.

“So as I was saying, we figured out that they were being rejected because of money but we were still curious on their situation. We asked the receptionist for more information and she told us they were the only adult survivors of a raided village.”

“That is actually a common occurrence in this world but what really hit home for a few of us is when she mentioned their desired mission. Normally the goal of the mission for folks like them would be revenge, the slaughter of the bandits that took everything away from them, but to our surprise it wasn’t that. Their desired mission was to rescue the children of their village, who were captured by the bandits.”

“Once we heard what they wanted, we immediately rushed out to find them. We caught up with them and asked them if they wanted to hire us. They were hesitant at first but we reassured them that we really just wanted to help regardless of the money and they were happy to accept.”

“After that, we hunted the bandits down. We scoured the city for information and within the day we were pointed to this part of the forest. Actually, we were starting to doubt this piece of information because we found and attacked some bandits a few days ago but didn’t find any signs of the children. We were just about to give up and leave the forest but then we met you. The rest is as you know.”

“See I told you guys we should’ve wait a bit longer”, Jaden reminded as placed his hands by his hips and stuck his chest out in pride.

“Haha, yes, yes, you’re always right Jaden”, Roger surrendered.

“Good thing we listened to Jaden otherwise we would’ve ruined our perfect mission streak”, Mike laughed loudly.

“But then again this doesn’t count since it wasn’t official, right?”, Jerome corrected.

“You boys need to stop getting sidetracked”, Tina calmly lectured. She turned her attention to Kai. “As you can see Kai, we really don’t mean harm. If they are your friends, we can help save them. Will you let us?”

Kai stared intensely at Tina’s sincerity. She exuded a gentle aura that tempered his caution as he weighed his next move.

… It seems that they do want to help. If it’s through this method then my plans to rescue them will occur sooner as well.

“Thank you for your help. I will tell you everything that I know”, Kai answered after his moment of pause.

“That’s great!”, Jaden excitedly whooped.

“Shh”, Melissa calmed his son while smiling at his enthusiasm. “Let him tell us his story.”

“Heh… sorry”, he apologized to Kai. “Go on please.”

“It’s alright”, he excused. “I am not part of their village as you may have known from my name not being mentioned in their rescue list. As a baby I was, in fact, found in the middle of an ocean…”

He continued to unfold the course of his life, explaining their relation to him. He narrated the tale of his childhood as a slave of the bandits which included Cindy’s unfortunate tragedy. Finally, he arrived to his fallout and altercations between the bandits. He described his first, and second, altercation with the bandit child, Austin, then his first fight against a Baron, Mian.

As he narrated his tale, he deliberately emphasized the names and strengths of the bandit’s that he knew, hoping they would take note of them.

He carried on by explaining the Boss’s intention on keeping him as their weapon, then described the rogue bandits who had their own intentions and mistakenly handed him an opportunity to escape. Wrapping up his story, he described his fleeing from the pursuing bandits and a Baron bear, his miraculous survival from the torrential waterfall, then his year in the forest.

He decided against disclosing his following encounter with the other bandits as he did not find the information necessary and was still ashamed of his inability to restrain from killing.

“Wow…” Brad uttered once Kai concluded his narration. “You’ve been through a lot.”

“More than any five year old should’ve gone through”, Tina added in sympathy.

“I’m amazed you’re still alive…”, Roger commented with awe.

“I can’t believe you fought a Baron when you were an Initial Novice. No wonder you were so adept when facing me”, Melissa assumed.

“Ah! Didn’t we come across a waterfall yesterday?”, Jaden cried out.

Melissa’s eyes widened as she recollected the memory of the mentioned waterfall.

“Kai, could it be the same waterfall you fell from?”

“It should be”, he confirmed with a nod. “I haven’t found any additional waterfalls during my year in this section of the forest. I never strayed too far in fear that I would lose my way back to them.”

“If that is the waterfall, how the hell did you survive that fall?”, Brad gaped as he recalled its tremendous height. He turned to his sister. “Not even you could’ve survived that fall, could you?”

“Maybe if I wrapped myself with Qi… I can’t be too sure. It would definitely be very dangerous, that’s for certain. As a Novice, I can’t imagine how you could’ve survived that fall.”

Even I would like to know the answer to that.

“I’m not sure how I survived”, he answered honestly.

“Maybe it’s the world giving you break for everything you’ve been through”, Jaden innocently assumed.

“Maybe…”, Melissa pondered, while smiling at her son’s pure thoughts. “Whatever the case is, it really is a miracle that you survived and there’s no need to think too hard about it.”

“Miracles aside, you sound really strong young man”, Mike commended loudly. “How about we have a little spar?”

“Are you crazy?”, Tina scolded. “What are you doing picking on a little child?”

“But he’s technically fought two Baron’s now, including Melissa, and survived. Why don’t I get a chance to feel his strength?”

“You thoughtless brut, give the boy a break”, Jerome berated. “Also, we should be using this time to think of a solid plan to rescue his friends.”

Mike intended to defend himself again but went silent as he thought of Jerome’s sound logic.

“... Okay, you’re right”, he admitted after a short pause. “So what should we do?”

Jerome turned his head to Kai.

Is he not blind?...

Before he could ask, Jerome began to speak.

“Kai, can you tell us, to the best of your knowledge, the details of the bandit’s home? That way we can come up with a plan of attack.”

He nodded in approval of the idea and at Jerome’s intellect. If none of them bothered to devise a strategy and planned to run in blind, he would have been sorely worried about their chances of success.

The rest of the afternoon flew by as they debated on the most optimal method of offense. From the placement of the spiked walls to the specific location of each house, they did not finalize their decision until the sky darkened.

“Alright it’s decided, tomorrow we will meet up with Kai’s friends, inform them of our plans, and revise it if necessary”, Melissa concluded.

They all nodded in agreement as Mike’s stomach released a mighty rumble.

“Phew, I’m starving. Let’s make some dinner.”

As soon as the words escaped his lips, a strong alluring scent filled his and everyone else’s nostrils. They turned their heads and surprisingly saw Tina promptly walking over to them with freshly made bear meat skewers in her hands.

“You all must have been really focused”, she deduced with a knowing smile. “I left and started to prepare dinner an hour ago.”

“You-

Brad began to say as he stood up. He kissed her on the cheek and pulled her in for a brief hug.

“-are the best wife in the entire world”, he finished, a loving smile plastered across his face.

“Of course”, she agreed with a playful mock arrogance.

When they finished their meals and had their fill, they laid back on the soft grass in satisfaction. After a moment of relaxation, everyone dispersed but Tina reached over and softly placed her hand on Kai’s shoulder. He turned and tilted his head in curiosity.

“Sorry Kai but I can’t hold this in any longer”, Tina coyly began. “Will you please let me cut your hair?”

My hair?

He raised his eyebrows and ran his fingers through his hair. His fingers were caught several times in miniscule hair knots before finally running through to the end, touching his shoulders.

It’s quite long…

Having solely set his mind on growing stronger in the past year, he completely ignored the state of his physical appearance. He glanced closely at his body for the first time in a long time. His poorly maintained hair aside, his clothes were terribly tattered and his nails were unsightly long.

It seems Jaden wasn’t completely unwarranted when he assumed I was a beast.

“I will have to impose on you”, Kai modestly accepted Tina’s request.

Tina smiled brightly at his consent. She raised the hems of her dress and revealed an ankle strap that held two miniature knives. Retrieving one of them, she walked behind Kai, held the ends of his hair, and started to expertly shear them.

“You know”, she spoke after a while of silent shearing, “for a six year old, the way you talk is oddly mature.”

“... Is it? I learned from Teresa”, he partially lied.

“She must be a very bright young lady then.”

“She is”, he confirmed.

The rest of the hair shearing session passed in silence until she clapped her hands.

“Done!”, she announced with a sense of accomplishment. “Not too bad if I say so myself.”

Running his fingers through his hair once more, he noticed she formed a side-swept fringe on his forehead that stopped right above his eyes; the rest of his hair was relatively shorter.

“Do you like it?”, she asked expectantly.

He slightly twisted his head back and forth.

“It’s more comfortable and doesn’t cover my vision as often”, he commented logically without much care for its fashionable appearance. “Thank you.”

“You’re very welcome”, she smiled. “Now you should get some sleep so you’ll have energy tomorrow morning. You can sleep with Melissa and Jaden in that tent over there.”

She pointed at the rightmost tent. He turned to see it and realized that everyone were nowhere to be seen. Assuming they all returned to their respective tents, he faced Tina and nodded in acknowledgement.

“Then, I’ll leave you in their care. Good night”, she parted with a wave before heading to her own tent.

He waved back and gradually walked to Melissa and Jaden’s tent. Stepping a few feet away from the flap, he turned in time to see Tina’s figure disappearing into the tent. He immediately turned, walked away from his intended tent, and approached the borders of the grass field.

That one is perfect.

Gazing at the trees, he found one with a favorable branch. He channeled Essence to his feet and leapt into the air before gracefully landing upon it. He sat down with his legs extended, closed his eyes, and began his usual routine of cultivating.