Chapter 66

And red with blood they ran. It didn’t even take a week before Alira’s bandits and the Wulfethryth household’s bandits engaged in open conflict on Midriver’s streets. Wraine and I were out of the compound helping Bertrand and Quinn stock up on supplies while we still could before the fighting got too intense.

We had just stepped foot outside one of the butcheries hauling crates of dried meat when we heard arguing nearby. Before long, that arguing turned into screaming and fighting as a band of Alira’s men were run through by a band of Wolves. Alira’s men tried setting up a defensive line, or a shieldwall as Bertrand termed it, but they were outnumbered and surrounded. The Wolves had come to the entertainment district looking for blood and they found it.

That fight gave me a lot of unique insight into how fights went during gang wars. I’ve been in those fights before personally not too long ago but there’s a drastic difference between being in them firsthand and watching them as a third party. When it was me fighting for my life, I didn’t really have the time to think about anything else other than searching for openings and paying attention to my surroundings. By watching the entire thing unfold before my eyes and having Bertrand right next to me teaching me what key points to pay attention to, it was like I was seeing a whole new world regarding combat.

Another major difference between this fight and the ones I’ve been in is that everyone involved in this fight were actual bandits. They weren’t junkies who showed up because they were promised a few coins and a few hits of Belle as payment. They were hardened criminals who have seen their fair share of fights evidenced by the fact that none of them tried running away when the fight started. Alira’s men knew they were surrounded and the only chance they had at living was fighting their way out. Unfortunately for them, it just wasn’t enough.

The Wolves weren’t incompetent either and slowly picked off Alira’s men, one by one. They kept darting in and out, aiming for small wounds that accumulated until Alira’s men exhausted themselves trying to fight off enemies in all directions. Having to fight while being surrounded and outnumbered seems like an impossible task especially when the enemy knows what they’re doing. Imagining myself in their position, I don’t think I’d do any better honestly. The mere presence of someone behind my back would be insanely distracting during a fight like this. Even with just a basic level of teamwork and coordination like The Wolves showed, it would be enough to kill me multiple times over. If Reed and his two guards showed anything near this level, I wouldn’t be alive right now.

Bertrand said the only way to get out of an encirclement this tight is to rally up enough men and throw yourselves at one place to make an opening. It sounds suicidal and that’s because it is. But when the opponent has that many advantages over you, you have to take the risk and gamble your lives. However, Alira’s men didn’t have that one loud voice that could bring them together to attempt a breakthrough. They were just a low level patrol party and trying to set up a defense was already their limit. They were doomed from the start.

Once the last of Alira’s men was finished off, The Wolves didn’t leave immediately and instead started cutting off the heads of the corpses. It was a gruesome sight and seeing them stack the severed heads into a pyramid in the middle of the road was incredibly morbid, but this was war. They were ready and willing to do anything to win this war and I can only respect that. Maybe respect is the wrong word and I should say I understand why they did it instead. After they stripped the bodies of anything valuable, The Wolves left the entertainment district, having won the small skirmish without losing a single person. When they passed by us, one of the men nodded to Bertrand who nodded back before leaving with the rest of his companions.

For the rest of the month, the war in Midriver only ramped up in intensity as small skirmishes involving 50 men or less became commonplace. There were even two large skirmishes that occurred during this past month that each involved around 200 men. These fights were rare because both gangs had to take a few days afterwards to lick their wounds and regroup their men. The bodies that littered the ground after these fights were a horrific sight to see but it didn’t just end there. Alira’s men took those bodies and desecrated them, creating a nightmarish warning for The Wolves.

When Derriv saw that hellscape, he became somber at the loss of lives not because of the bandits who died but at all the civilians who involuntarily got caught up in the mess. Men, women, children, young or old, as long as you were even near the area where the fight happened, your body would likely join with the bandits’ bodies in decorating the street afterwards. Derriv held an emergency meeting at the compound with every member of Candle that night.

Derriv was worried about the fighting spilling over to us and wanted to discuss potential contingencies. Since we were technically neutral in this war as we have some relationship with both sides, we should have been fine, right? But the reality is, the opposite held true instead. Our neutrality towards the war painted a target on our backs as both the First Mistress and the rest of Alira’s cadre aside from Alira himself salivate over our compound. The compound itself isn’t as important to them but rather its location.

The compound being the halfway point between the business district and the heart of the entertainment district makes it an important strategic location. Actually, that’s a massive understatement and it’d be more correct to say it’s the single most important location in this entire war. If The Wolves take the compound, they’ll have an advanced outpost right next to the heart of Alira’s domain. If Alira’s side takes it, they’ll rid themselves of all potential weaknesses and they’ll be able to fully focus their forces on the threat coming from the business district. The First Mistress has openly expressed her intentions of taking our compound to us while Alira hasn’t made his stance clear yet. We find ourselves in the biggest predicament we’ve ever faced before and there’s no easy way forward. Which is why we’re running away.

That’s right, we’re abandoning the compound until either the war ends or the current insane fervor dies down, whichever happens first. It’s a damn shame considering we’ve just spent an entire month’s worth of sweat to get it repaired, but what else can we do? We were able to defend the compound against a ragtag army of about 150 Belle addicts but against the well equipped and experienced men of both Alira and The Wolves? We’ll be the ones getting slaughtered this time and no amount of flying jewelry can save us. Bertrand reckons we can defend against 10 times our number or against about 300 men as long as they don’t have another mage but when those numbers reach 1,000 or more, it’s no longer in the realm of possibility.

When I asked how we’ll get the compound back afterwards from whoever ends up taking it, Derriv only said we’ll figure it out when it happens. When I then asked what we’ll be doing until the war between Alira and The Wolves ends, he said we’ll be traveling around Midriver’s vicinity, taking on quests from the city.

Even though we’ll be leaving the city, we’re not severing the connections we’ve already built within the city. Also, since the Nasaar Kingdom is completely occupied with trying to scrounge up enough bodies to throw at Vansgrieri, the kingdom’s overall security has plummeted and we should be able to travel across the kingdom unnoticed. Derriv already bought a crate filled with fake adventurers’ licenses and we won’t be any different than traveling adventurers. Well, aside from all the murder and robbery.

In fact, we already have a pretty substantial escort mission lined up that’ll take us out of the city for a few months. Farland received a request from the Wellock Trading Company for guards to protect one of their trade caravans that will depart from Midriver in a few days and Derriv already accepted. We’ll be traveling to Ocean’s Rest, the kingdom’s most prosperous port city on the eastern coast, which should keep us occupied at least until sometime next year.

We’ll be paid 2 gold every month until we reach our destination which I thought was a tiny sum compared to the amounts of money we’ve been running into. But Derriv said my sense for money has been distorted with all of the crazy bullshit we’ve been through. With the money we stole from Reed, we had to go to war with one of the most prolific drug dealers in Midriver’s slums. For the money we stole from Jerome, we had to torture and kill one of Itia’s priests who was secretly trafficking orphans right in his goddess’s church.

Looking at it that way, Derriv’s definitely right and my sense of money has been corrupted. Besides, ordinary mercenaries usually earn 5 silver a day for marching under someone’s banner which equates to around 1 gold and 50 silver every month. We’re earning a pretty generous sum and that’s only because Farland vouched for our ability to Mr. Wellock.

With all of that having been said, we leave the compound in three more days. I’ve only been living in the compound for a little over two months now but it has become the only place I can really consider home for the first time in my entire life. I can’t even imagine feeling as comfortable or familiar anywhere else. But at the same time I also realize it’s about the people around me as much as it’s about the location, maybe even more so. Without these people I’ve grown close with, the compound wouldn’t feel the same which is why I’m alright with leaving as long as I can stay with these people.

…

Before I know it, three days have passed and we’re all ready to leave the city. I didn’t realize it because I’ve never seen them before, but we own quite a few horses and wagons in this bandit outfit. I guess all of our wagons were being stored in a large warehouse tucked away in the entertainment district while the horses were kept at a stable on the city’s outskirts. Adding in our outfit’s horses and wagons to the Wellock Company’s trading convoy waiting at the city’s southern gatehouse makes for an impressive sight. Hundreds of strong horses neighing up a storm, dozens of wagons filled with goods or people, and nearly a hundred armed guards including our group. It’s a force to be reckoned with.

When I think no one’s looking at me, I clamber onto the wagon my small party will be traveling in and stash my personal wooden locked chest at the bottom of my belongings. I hope I’ll never have to use what’s inside the box but with the way things are now, I can’t take the chance of dreaming again. After I climb down the wagon, it looks like the rest of the caravan is ready to move out. The massive wooden gate at the end of the street opens wide, almost seeming to welcome us in its open embrace as the leaders of the convoy, Derriv and one of the Wellock Company’s caravan leaders set forth. The rest of the caravan follows right after them, coming alive like a snake slithering through the grass.

Torban’s sitting at the front of our wagon, controlling the two horses pulling us and Bafal’s sitting right next to him, learning how to lead horses from his father. Wraine, Ilya, Mary, Olin, and Paige are sitting inside the wagon, still drowsy due to how early it is. I’m sweating right beside the wagon because Bertrand thought this was a great opportunity to teach me how to march as well as a chance for me to condition my stamina.

He says I’m quick on my feet and I have excellent instincts in a fight, but my body doesn’t last long enough in a fight to make use of all that. When we were running through Midriver’s streets fighting off Reed’s men, he said if he wasn’t there taking care of everyone we came across, I would’ve been dead before the night was over. I take offense to that. I did a shit load of work that night and I remember ending around a dozen men. But to his benefit, Bertrand killed over three dozen. He’s also right in that all the running and fighting exhausted me to the point where if that elven woman didn’t let me rest in her home, I might not have made it back to the compound. I wonder if I’ll ever see her again.

When the trade caravan is past the stone bridge south of the city and we’ve crossed the Lower Jaw River, I take a look back at the city one last time. The early morning sun shining down on Midriver makes me remember just how magnificent the city really is and I remember back to the day we first arrived. A lot has happened since then. I’ve met a lot of wonderful people and I’ve also met a lot of despicable people. I’ve done things I’m not proud of, things that will haunt me for the rest of my days. I’m not the same person I was before coming here and I likely won’t be the same when we come back. But isn’t that just how life goes? I take one last took at Midriver’s beautiful stone walls before turning away and focusing on our new destination: Ocean’s Rest.