The sun was up, and there were four carriages filled with food and supplies. Around the carriages were men wearing buttoned cloaks, they looked like they were men not that far from reaching their fifties. Some women brought their child, they embraced, and they had tears in their eyes. The owner of the pub was standing alongside these people, his eyes hardened, fist clenched as he stares at his kid.

“Are we ready?” Gael Jag said.

“Are we?” The Owner said. “I’ve not asked for your name, and I don’t think I will, comrade. And who is this, comrade?”

He pointed his chin at the Wraith who called himself Garm. He wasn’t translucent, and he had flesh.

“I will be coming along with you, I trust that he had spoken about what I intend to do.”

The Owner of the Pub scrutinized Garm, his eyes showed no warmth.

“I do not trust you. None of us here do, but if you truly are going to turn this battle around, then I have no choice but to put my trust in you. All of us here are ready to die for things that we do not understand.”

Garm was a head taller than the Owner of the Pub. Garm stayed expression, his shoulders squared, his eyes firmly locked on the Owner. Behind them was the canvas of the carriage, and around them were the eyes of the warriors heading for their death. Their ears perked up and ready to listen.

“I have not come here seeking anything from you all. I’ve come here for my own personal and selfish reasons. I am using all of you as a tool that I can use to reach that War Maiden and put an end to this farce of life. I will not promise anything. I might even fail badly and your lives spent in vain. So tell me first, are you willing to hand over the life so precious to you for a cause you don’t even understand? Or are you masking this pride of a warrior to excuse yourself from this family of your?”

“You!”

The Owner of the Pub tried to grab the collar of Garm. His hands simply passed through Garm, and he felt a palm push him back.

“Am I not wrong? Please, don’t tell me you love your family or speak as if the life of this country is much worthier than the lives of your family. What are you fighting for in the first place? Isn’t it because the family that you love are living here in this country? Why do you work? Why do you sacrifice your life for? Tell me, can you imagine living your wives, and children for the things you do not understand? Tell me, do you not want to spend your life together with the family that you love? Or are you using this to get away from them?”

“It’s not that, you bastard! And how dare you mock our will!”

“If it is not that then tell me what it is! Let me understand why you are rushing off to die when you have a family that loves you! Or are their tears not enough to soothe your soul? You want to leave your wives as widows and let her grow your children without their fathers? Tell me! I was a man who didn’t have the family that he wanted! I was a man who didn’t have a chance to experience having a happy family for myself! So tell me, why do you all rush to your death? Is the glory of having such glorious death so appealing to you? I don’t understand this mindset, what better joy there is than having a family to soothe your heart? Die for the glory of the nation? What’s the point if you are leaving them alone?”

“You don’t understand.”

“I don’t understand? Perhaps, but I’ve been alive longer than you fools. I’ve lost everything there is to lose and here I am facing the terror of that War Maiden. I still think that family should be first. If you step down right now and live your lives without letting your pride swallow you up. You can still live with your family!”

“Don’t give us that!”

A stone was thrown at Garm. The stone passed through his head, his eyes pointed at the thrower.

“Our husbands did this for the sake of us! Do you think that the Empire will not make it hard for us? Do you think that we wouldn’t cling to the chance of having this nation be ours and not them! Yes, family is important, but because it is important that we cannot allow anyone to own the nation that we have lived for years just to be thrown into the hands of invaders!”

“I see,” Garm said. “There will no convincing such fools like you, fine, if you all wish to die then follow me. If you wish to leave your family alone and can accept that you could never see them again, then fine, bid your farewells, and remember death.”

Garm turned around after pouring his thoughts out to the men. They understood well that they were going to leave them alone, they understood that a part of them wanted to give their life for the sake of their nation. The words spoken by Garm were like daggers, but they resisted, not out of stupidity, but out of pride, and that they may falter.

Garm hopped to one of the carriages, he folded his arms and looked at the distant sky. His gaze then traveled to the people who have come to give their life for the things they didn’t understand. They could have lived happily ever after, they could have spent their life watching their children grow. He felt like it was a waste for them to do.

“You bunch of fools, don’t you understand how precious they are?”

Garm, no, Nolan Salvatore could not help but let fury rise inside his heart.

The man who wanted nothing but a family and a peaceful life hated these people who could throw their family away easily.

He envied them and hated them for the things he didn't have.

karsev

We are chapters away till the end of Book 1.