The town was enveloped in a solemn atmosphere. Ray and Klan both were sitting with their backs against a burnt wall, gazing at the dead body of Klaude. The expression on his dead face was one of fear and regret. Perhaps, he had feared his death or perhaps he had feared for the well being of others. Maybe the regret was also because of the same.
The soldiers of the town were busily moving about, gathering the dead bodies of the departed. When one of them came to get Klaude, he saw two kids sitting nearby with empty eyes, gazing at the body in front of them. Thinking that someone important to them had died, he said, “We are going to cremate the dead. You should come if someone important to you had died.”
Saying this, he took the bodies away. Ray and Klan both followed him out of town, where the dead bodies of all were gathered. The bodies were gathered together with dry grass, firewood . After oil was scattered on them, the fire was ignited, resulting in a great fire quickly enveloping all of it. Seeing the fire, many broke down in tears, some fell to their knees in sorrow, some prayed for the departed. Among all this, Ray silently shed tears, cursing his fate and hoping that this would have never happened.
The fire kept burning , and after aboit two hours, its intensity started to die down. By this time everyone had gone back, but Ray stayed behind lokking at the ashes being formed by fire. By the time fire had stopped, dusk had come. Ray still showed no signs of moving, and eventually, the world was enveloped in the silence of night. Perhaps the solitude, silence and darkness of night had mended the cracks in his heart somewhat, a small light returned to his eyes which had previously been completely empty, although he continued staring into nothingness. Suddenly, he heard the sounds of someone talking and moving. By the sounds, it would appear that the person was trying to move stealthily although they did not have miluch skill in it.
When ray got up from his spot and moved towards the source, he saw ー
When the Paharu Kingdom’s expansion started to gain momentum Aletis von Raian, crown prince of Raian Kingdom, was very troubled. He saw no hope to stop the Paharu Kingdom’s march of carnage. Until, one day, out of nowhere a dragon came to him. “Do you want to keep your kingdom? Do you want power to rule others? Do you want unquestionable authority?” with these words, the dragon tempted him. Having had his will weakened by constant tension, Aletis accepted the offer. The payment-
Souls of 100,000 people. Although, for the Raian Kingdom this was a quarter of its population, Aletis accepted the deal nonetheless. The time to gather souls was one year. For this, he started gathering bandits from all around the kingdom, and allowed them to plunder, kill, rape and all other atrocities. With only one condition, the witnesses shall not be allowed to live.
Now, the demand has almost been met. And it is time to finish things. The last prey – Border Town.
In the woods separated a little ways from the road leading to the Border town of Raian Kingdom, an army of 5,000 people was present. There was no coordination that one might expect from an army, except that the army was divided into groups of varying sizes. Some were as small as 30 strong, while some were as large as 300 strong. Alas, it was to be expected. After all, this army was a rag tag bunch of bandits.
They had attacked the town last night, and now, they were going to do it again, only this time, it will be a full scale attack rather than a scouting like yesterday. Among all the groups present here, one stood out like a sore thumb. This group which was the smallest, was so small that it considered as a group, was only made up of a pair of men. One of them was a big, muscular bald man, who looked more like a bear. He was wearing a brown leather vest along with blue pants and brown boots. The other was lean and well built with average height, although this one was completely covered in black. Wearing a black hooded overcoat over black pants and boots, he looked as if being assimilated into darkness. And as if that was not enough, his hands were covered in black leather gloves while his face was hidden by a black mask, which only allowed his eyes to peek through.
The lean man was Ron while the bald one was Damian. They were both famous for not allowing their prey to leave alive, and even had a bounty on their head. It was said that when the two of them are together, they could even take on a group of hundred. No one dared to approach them as they talked among each other, though, it was only Damian talking to Ron, who was looking up at the moon sitting on a rock. They had heard the state of the town from the hundred men who had attacked it yesterday. They had used the authority of Royal army to get into the town and then cause chaos when nobody was expecting it. Wearing the dress of Royal army, they had been successful in entering the town rather easily, and after that, they had killed to the best of their abilities, until the guards gathered and they were outnumbered.
The reports they brought back with them were pretty upsetting. Although the town was big, it did not have much in the name of riches. Only having foods and some liquor along with money was all that could be offered by the town. But, the bandits which moved from one place to another, did not have much use of food. When they travel, the separate into their own groups, so there was no need for gathering all the food. Whereas the amount of liquor, from the reports was nowhere near enough to satisfy a group of 5,000 bandits. Since they had been ordered not to leave any witnesses of the army alive, they had no choice but to attack the town. And in such cases, the pillage became a competition for the first come, first served.
It was decided that like yesterday a group of 100 people will infiltrate the city. After infiltration, they would start attacking people so that the attention of guards is distracted. When the guards inside the city are busy dealing with the chaos, some people would kill the guards present at the gates after which all the bandits would move and raze the city. The walls of the town were two floor tall. However, they were only made of mud and bricks, allowing them to be easily scaled.
Ron and Damian were sitting, waiting for their turn to come. Suddenly, Damian had a thought,
"Hey, Ron. Do ya think that kid's still live n' kickin'?"
Ron looked back to the days before he joined the bandit army. Specifically on the days when they were still wandering criminals. When they heard the rumours of a new pioneered land which had very good prospects to be developed as a flourishing agricultural city, they had visited it to take a look. What they saw were people living their daily lives in fields.
When they heard the news that a peddler had come into the city, they decided to extent a hand of salvation to him, freeing him of his duties and worldly desires. On that night, they saw him. A kid who was not even ten years old. Seeing the kid, Damian decided to torture him a little. However, Ron ignored him and decided to leave the kid be. But on Damian's continued pestering, he changed his mind. Looking at the kid, he could see that the kid was not in good condition. There were dark circles under his eyes, and his body was dirty. Probably the kid might not have eaten for days. Ron decided to give the kid his short sword and leave the town. Now that they had come back, he also could not help but think what had happened to the kid.
"Who knows. Let's just leave it and begin."
As soon as Ron said that and got up, the sound of people's cries rang out in the distance. Is seemed that the attack had started. The bandit army started moving on that signal.
