“We took down the other half of the riders, Captain. We should clear up the remains and regroup with everyone.”
“Yes, we should. We also should extinguish the fires of shit as well.”
Everyone’s eyes were getting red, so that they couldn’t use that anymore. In any case, they soon found everyone where they had left them, but some people suffered some grave injuries… two of them had lost an arm thanks to the charge of the enemies, while ten of them had their legs severely damaged.
After that and confirming the kids’ safety, they went to extinguish the fires. It took two hours for all the smoke to disappear, so the enemies should have had plenty of time to move away from the area. Still, Heirina knew that the battle wasn’t over.
“How many corpses did you find, Zelos?”
“Sixty infantry and thirty-five riders. We got rid of almost half of their forces.”
Heirina held her chin while thinking about that… for all intentions and purposes, that had been one hell of a victory, but it would be hard to imagine that the enemies would give up now. Perhaps they would and cut their losses since it would be hard to connect them to those who had planned the whole thing.
“We will have to find a way to alert the villages around those guys. Even with their forces, they can still cause a lot of damage. We have to split into four groups and then head to the villages around us.”
“Hold up. We can’t move in the darkness if there is a risk of being ambushed. Besides, they have been moving since yesterday without a real break, and their morale is also low. While causing some damage to the territory would be a problem for us, their true goal was this town.”
Heirina considered Zelos’s words for a moment. Truth be told, she was too exhausted to think clearly.
“Young miss, you should take a break along with the others. We can at least guard the town until morning. You deserve the rest.”
That was the blacksmith who sold Zelos the dark sword, and everyone seemed to agree with him. Heirina felt bad for that since, as unrealistic as that was, she truly wanted everyone to have survived the attack and remained unscathed.
“We will rest then, thank you for your hard work and bravery, everyone.”
“I have to wake up early tomorrow too to work. Hopefully, those bastards have truly run away with the tails between their legs.”
Everyone was exhausted, so they were amazed that Zelos was actually planning that. In the end, they soon split and then went to sleep for a couple of hours. As it turned out, Zelos ended up oversleeping and only got up when it was six in the morning. He soon went outside to help the old man farmer.
“Hey, are you seriously thinking of working after last night? I can handle this for a while longer.”
“It is all right, I will just help a bit until the others decide to look for the remaining enemies.”
“About that, it seems that some people saw the trails of them heading west after sunrise.”
Those were some good news, but they still had to confirm things in the other farms. Since Zelos didn’t try to work with his stuff, he was a lot lighter and finished the job earlier, even though he started later. Then he went to look for Heirina and then found her on the training grounds ready to leave with Edea to confirm where the enemies had retreated.
“Where are you planning to go? If anything, they will be hidden in the hills. If you don’t cross that part and take the wider route, you two could become a target for them.”
“We will just make sure that they retreat up to that point.”
Zelos looked at both of them and Edea nodded as well. They were light and were pretty good riders too, so going alone would make things easier for them instead of calling Zelos and Irlan. In the end, Zelos didn’t try to stop them and soon they left.
After he saw them leaving the town, Zelos recalled that he didn’t eat anything yet, so he soon went to grab a bit in the usual restaurant. The place was closed though… since the smell of smoke was still in pretty much all the buildings. Only the rain would be able to get rid of the smell of smoke as soon as possible.
“Hey, Zelos. What are you doing here? Looking for a place to have lunch? Why don’t you come to eat with us?”
“... That is weird. What are you plotting?”
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“What do you mean by that? I just asked you a few questions and invited you to have lunch at my home?”
“After trying to dilute the surprise of your invitation with two other questions. It almost feels like you have second intentions with this…”
“Was it that obvious?”
“People tend to talk a lot or ask a lot of questions to distract from their intentions and actions.”
“Well, I swear that I have no bad intentions, but I can’t explain it either.”
“Then I have even fewer reasons to accept the invitation. I am going to drink some milk at the farm. That will be more than enough.”
“Come on, help a friend out. You are terrible at hiding things or lying, so I can’t tell you anything else.”
“You can’t tell that since I never lied in front of you guys. Anyway, even if you weren’t being suspicious, you know that I wouldn’t accept it.”
“That is true… it is a bit troublesome, but I guess this is for the best.”
Zelos raised his eyebrows while looking at Irlan. He felt that he shouldn’t dig in further into that matter, but Zelos also felt that it was better than to keep that question on the back of his mind. Fortunately, Irlan decided to come clean to make things easier for him.
“The truth is, my sister saw you in action last night, so she wanted to become your friend. She doesn’t have many since she is impertinent, is your age, and also has a smart mouth.”
“Also? Are you implying that I have one as well?”
“Do you want to hear me lying?”
“Maybe I do.”
“You two are very similar… but she is a lot more childish. Anyway, if you see her around, try to be nice to her. She will be a bit bothersome, but she won’t mean anything bad by it.”
Before Zelos could say that he wanted to stay away from trouble, Irlan left. He didn’t recall hearing Irlan saying that he had a little sister, but she probably was at the wine cellar on the previous night. It was hard to imagine how she saw anything in that situation.
Zelos decided to head to the farm, have lunch, and resume his work. In any case, thanks to Irlan’s words, he became much more aware of the eyes on him as he was walking. He saw a lot of kids looking at him with interest, some adults, too. The only difference was that the adults saw the bodies that Zelos had attacked and how he used them against the enemies as well. They had never seen something like that so close.
When Zelos finished his work for the day, he went to Heirina’s house to confirm if she had returned with Edea. He had to wait for two hours before that had happened and it looked like they confirmed their guess. Once she jumped from her horse, Heirina gave her explanation.
“All of their footsteps lead to the hills. We can’t confirm anything else… aside from the fact that the enemies will have to look for allies in other areas.”
“You still think that they won’t give up after this?”
“We Didn’t receive any news about the front lines yet… but while I sent a message to the next village to send a raven, I can guess that things will last for a while. The best moment to attack again will be when we drop our guard.”
Before leaving earlier, Heirina tried to check the bodies of the enemies for anything that could connect them to anyone, but Edea didn’t recognize any of them… the issue would be different with the bandits that did the scout work, but they obviously wouldn’t find their bodies where they left them.
Three days later, the group received a message from Hei. The letter said that Kaitrine found him around the same time the raven about the situation had arrived there, so he didn’t have to send some warriors right now. However, the situation was getting complicated as the people on the front lines began to face trouble. Considering the location and situation, the enemies began to march south since they lost their chance to establish their foundation in enemy territory with the failure of the attack. Heirina called the others to talk about that.
“It seems that the battle will continue so that the enemies will wait for another chance. We will have to stay on alert here.”
“The spy or possible spies will keep causing a lot of trouble. How do you plan to get rid of them?
“I have been thinking about that… even Dad thought about that for a while, but these guys are good. That is their bread and butter, after all. Unfortunately, we don’t have any idea how to get rid of them. So, instead of getting rid of them, we will use them in our favor.”
“How devious. So, this is the real you.”
“You got that right. Don’t get on my bad side unless you want to suffer. Anyway, we need to prepare for another confrontation or help Dad if something happens. We might have to move as soon as something happens, so keep your schedules flexible for that.”
That was a bit troublesome for Zelos since he liked his routine in the town. Thanks to routine after the battle and the things that happened afterward, he realized something. The dark sword was truly cursed… for some reason, it had the power to absorb blood from the enemies, but at the same time, it didn’t have a single mark on it. Blood has a lot of iron, so perhaps it could repair the weapon or harden it. That wasn’t all; and Zelos also felt the weapon getting a bit heavier… so he decided to experiment with it and let the weapon absorb his blood when he trained a lot and hurt his hands. So far, he didn’t notice any differences, but it was bound to happen.
“I need to learn how to fight while riding a horse, too, but the range of my sword is a problem since most of those who fight mounted use spears, lances, or glaives. If all else fails, they can target my horse and dismount me.”
Considering that Zelos was planning to get used to more heavy weapons and carry even more iron balls, perhaps using horses wouldn’t be a good idea. They would tire faster in any situation, and on the battlefields, that would be a real danger to him.
In the end, he decided to keep doing his usual training instead. It was hard to imagine that one day, he would be able to run faster than a horse by relying on his trait alone, but the charging technique still had room for improvement, so it was fine.
In the next few days, nothing happened, so the people in the town began to return to their usual routines. However, Heirina only felt worried since all that was very suspicious. Exactly one week after the battle, Kaitrine returned, and she looked exhausted. It looked like she didn’t stop to rest many times, and she also pushed her horse a fair bit.
