I'm sorry, Aleria, but... I can't do something like that. Don't blame me for that, you should have known that it was totally impossible for someone like me to accomplish what you wanted to do.

But could he just give up like that? The answer was obvious. He wouldn't let his life be taken so easily.

So the simplest thing would be to become as powerful as he could, so that he could take as many of those sons of bitches with him when he died.

He had to become strong, so that when desperate times came, he could endure them.

He has to become strong, so that he could protect those who were kind to him.

But above all: live a comfortable life!

If he wanted to avoid living a miserable life, the only thing he needed was to be strong.

At this very moment, in the kingdoms, sectarians, traitors and incompetents who would be responsible for the worst acts in their darkest hours were working in silence to bring about the fall of the kingdoms, while many armies were under the yoke of incapable and complacent leaders.

All this while he had his ass in the mud and his guts, these dirty bastards had probably lived a life far too comfortable and opulent, and that was unacceptable!

Was he going to let them live a comfortable and luxurious life? Not a chance. Whenever he could, saying hello to them and stealing their stuff before throwing them on a battlefield seemed like a good idea to him. He didn't know what to do for the moment, but to create a better destiny, it seemed like a very appropriate first step. And then it would be a good opportunity to improve his lifestyle.

Except that for the moment he was as weak as a virgin and innocent girl before the sword of Excalibur. Focusing again on his surroundings, the fat priest finished his speeches and the group was ready to be evacuated to go somewhere else.

Is it too late to apologize? Shit, if only I had known, I would have stayed quiet and silent.

When he set foot outside the huge building, a warm, humid wind enveloped him, taking familiar smells with him. His eyes quickly became accustomed to the sudden change of light, from the dark interior of the building to a clear, clear sky illuminated by a great orange sun, while in the sky the great celestial rings made of asteroids, ice and dust stretched from the high orbit around the planet.

The moon Elos was high in the sky and looked like a pearly pink pearl, while Nadras was further away displaying a blue crescent moon. Its dark side was illuminated by many small lights.

Yvelmore seemed to be a planet larger than the Earth. The gravity here was a little stronger than on Earth, the continents were really big, but especially the days and years were longer than the standard Earth cycle, since the days here lasted about 27 hours while the year had 429 days. Too bad the summers were hot enough to turn his ass into popcorn, and the winters were as cold and icy as his ex-girlfriend's heart.

With so many days in the year, different nations, kingdoms and empires had different calendars, and each had so many holidays that it was almost impossible to remember them all. The celebrations were as much religious as they were popular, there were days dedicated to Gods, Saints, Spirits, but also to seasons, heroes, harvest days, and so on.

His favorite celebrations were the festival of beer, and the days dedicated to the goddess of love! In any case, people here took every occasion as an excuse to celebrate something, and he found it quite enjoyable.

Controlling his wandering thoughts as he walked with the group of Earthlings, he could see many tall stone buildings as five-storey buildings surrounded the invocation hall. The buildings were typical of the Gothic architecture that dominated the late Middle Ages in Europe, they extended over several different alleys.

Not far from there was the public square, and many people were gathered around the square to attend judgments where several future convicts stood. An executioner carried out the orders of a judge, striking his hammer on a large iron nail and driving it into a large wooden post, nailing the ear of a boy just out of childhood. Who knew what crime the unfortunate boy might have committed? Probably just a small theft of food from a merchant's stall, judging by his scrawny appearance.

The heart of Mars was filled with pity for this poor boy who had probably tried to survive but whose main crime had been to be born in unjust living circumstances.

A number of people on the streets and in the public square turned around to look at the Earthlings. The gaze of some of them expressed disgust, fear and hatred, mumbling swearwords and insults against them almost like curses. Mars did not know exactly what had happened, but the rumors he had heard about the time of the first groups of Earthmen summoned made it easy for him to guess the kind of acts that could bring such looks to a man.

Others ignored them, pretending that their group had never existed.

But the majority of them performed gestures of prayer and blessing to their attention. Occasionally children were carried in the arms or on the backs of their parents, with bright eyes, as if they had seen something inspiring.

A child dressed in filthy rags crept between the few guards to take a close look at them, and addressed them, calling them "Heroes from the other world" and asking the group to protect his older brother and sister, then finally gave up, his eyes filled with tears, when he realized that he was getting no response from the group of silent zombies.

The large, wide alleyway they were walking through was crowded and the noise of fighting and screaming came constantly from the merchants in the stores and stalls on the street. Many had their best smile, the kind of smiling face that was the equivalent of having the word "profiteer" engraved on their faces, and even when these guys were just peacefully negotiating, their words sounded like curses.

The stalls gathered all kinds of goods produced in the Varrimar Kingdom as well as others from the trade routes that connected it to the various provinces of the neighboring Empire. Quality furs to protect oneself from the cold of the nascent winter, poor quality armor disguised by various artifices in high quality armor, weapons of all kinds, but especially bad ones, minerals and various types of crystals with strange optical properties, artifacts, or at least objects that their sellers tried to pass off as such to the most gullible, various medicinal herbs, some of which seemed dubious when it came to claiming what they were supposed to cure, various sculptures of gods and various saints, horses, tame beasts, and sometimes a few slaves.

The smell of herbs, tobacco, meat pies, spices, and a few other bad smells, such as sweat, feces, urine, vomit, and all sorts of odors that can exist in a city of this size, floated in the air, assaulting the nose. Sometimes you could see a few drunks being thrown out of roadside taverns. A watchful eye would notice a few suspicious people sneaking through the crowd, probably taking a break from their unsavory activities, frightened by the squad of armed soldiers escorting the group of Earthlings to another place, momentarily convinced that it was less profitable to rob merchants and people of a good condition than to clog their lungs in a mine.

In the taverns, off-duty soldiers, craftsmen, carters and other exhausted workers were rounded up, finding a form of rest while they got drunk on black beer as if the ban on hop growing was to be published the next day, while some seemed to be negotiating with girls of joy, dressed in puffy dresses, their waists tightened by their corset, and their eyelids darkened by the thick layer of black make-up. Their cheap perfume, for those of them who had this luxury, could be smelled from where Mars was.
The smile on their lips became resplendent as they made their deals with men, who were also smiling at the prospect of a well-deserved moment of pleasure.

Watching this spectacle, it was almost as if the war taking place far from the walls did not exist.

Yet Mars knew this very well...

The fact that in less than two months most of these people were going to die when this city would be transformed into ruins.