Terence

"So Mr.Vilard saved me from those bad men! They were going to burn me but he took care of them and took me near a castle and got me the fruit!"

"Wow that's...amazing darling"

Though Terence was acting very relieved, he and his men were anything but. In what world would you see a wagon full of human soldiers escorted by what would be considered a very VERY lethal group of monsters?

The fact that Vilard could use magic better than anyone in the group even though he was only a warrior said a lot about their skills. The only one with any practical fighting skills was the knight, who was very tired and the other soldiers were either dead or hurt.

Terence had no idea what was going on but he believed that he shouldn't say anything about them until they were at least out of the forest, then maybe he could get some answers.

Skeletons generally weren't the brightest. They could understand language just fine but their actions were generally extremely hostile to any living being since they were the reincarnation of vengeful spirits that would be used by necromancers to do their dirty deeds.

Yet, there were three skeletons right in front of them that had not attacked them so far, far too long for it to be a trap that was set up to lure them in. Though Terence did appreciate their strength, it was still very nerve-racking to be near monsters that could kill you with a single movement, all of the soldiers knew this.

They didn't have much of a choice on their part since it was either die by bandits, monsters or let these guys escort them out of the forest. The correct decision was pretty obvious.

"Will they kill us when they finally stop?"

One of the recruits was shaking violently in the wagon. Though everyone was on edge, he was completely shaken up and clutched his chipped sword in case of a fight.

Undead emitted an unnatural fear that would cause most rookies that aren't used to the feeling the shake and tremble, though it noticeably subsides when you experience and witness death firsthand. Once you are numb to death, you don't fear it.

However, this "aura" is almost identical to what a Magic Knight would emit. Due to their strength and bloodlust on the battlefield, many of them could be confused for the undead when wearing their armor because of the death that constantly surrounds them.

This was what was occurring in the trainee, an undiluted fear of the walking embodiments of death that were somehow guiding them out of the grasps of death itself.

The knight clasped the trainee's shoulder.

"Don't worry about it. If they wanted to kill us, they would've done it already. No reason to have so many extra steps, but worst comes to worst I'll buy us time to escape."

"Sir!?"

"Just saying I trust'em, nothing much"

The wagon rumbled again as they hit the rough roads in the forest. Almost all of the equipment they had on them was completely new, making it very expensive. 

Though with everything said, Terence had a massive fortune himself but never found any foreign mercenaries that were willing to work in his city. The state was full of bandits, terrorists, some alleyways even had undead pop out from a necromancer's random experiment. 

Then there was the forest. The forest was bound for the next demon lord to rise as soon as the hero did. The last battle against the demon lord killed most of Terence's men and drove everyone else away.

They had passed the bodies of their comrades that had been sent out to clear the way earlier. Though sad, there would be time to mourn when they themselves weren't subject to the same fate that their late comrades were.

As they traveled onwards, the skeletons kept on hitting things aside. Be it small trees, rocks, or monsters, they kept on getting tossed aside like they were nothing at all. It was terrifying to witness, but in the end, it was great that they weren't on the receiving end of their swords.

The tree's started to clear as they started to return back to civilization and out of the dreaded forest. The trees were gradually replaced with open fields and the pathways started to turn into stacked stone instead of dirt. The lights of the city shined brightly as they started to finally reach home.

However, despite home being right in front of them, none of them were "safe" since they could have just been lured back home to watch the skeletons slaughter the entire city. This could just be a whole new method of torture for them, one could never be too sure.

However, to the relief of everyone, the skeletons turned to the sides of the road and stopped there as the wagon kept on going. Finally, everybody breathed a sigh of relief as there was finally no danger.

However, the only one who wasn't exactly happy was Caroline, who crawled to the very back of the wagon and called out to the skeleton.

"bye-bye Mr. Vilard! I hope we can meet again!"

All Vilard offered was a wave in return before the three skeletons once again headed back into the forest. Their skeletal horses kicking of dirt and dust as they went.

---

"Someone please tell me what happened there!"

Terence and the soldiers that survived that whole ordeal were back in his palace and were sat around the round meeting table. He had put Caroline to bed after he finally convinced her that she would see "Mr.Skeleton" again if she slept, which finally did the trick to Terence's dismay. Now her hero was literally a skeleton, his wife would be turning in her grave if she found out.

They had dismissed the recruits temporarily to go back to their families and just relax, because from everything that had happened in that forest they had experienced horrors that were completely unimaginable to someone of their age. 

Now there were just the experienced soldiers and the knight that were discussing what the hell had happened during that short period of time.

The knight coughed before speaking.

"Well, for starters, we know that we were extremely unprepared when entering that forest. It was only supposed to be a routine inspection but it ended up costing the lives of many young recruits which should not have happened."

The soldiers nodded, many with expressions of sorrow and regret. They had trained those recruits, yet they had barely come into adulthood before being brutally slaughtered.

Terence cut through the silence.

"I'm sure it's very clear, but the attack by the "bandits" wasn't random. It was a coordinated attack and assassination attempt, if anyone is at fault it would be me. According to my daughter, they had an employer that told them to get rid of us though they used the term "family bloodline" instead, so it is a possibility that they are aiming for the king's vassals instead of just me"

One of the soldiers perked up at this, he was the one that was about to sacrifice himself to the deadly poison before the skeleton cut in and did it himself.

"We received word from the neighboring vassal that there was also an assassination attempt on them a week ago. The bandits had also said similar things, could it perhaps be a ploy to cause a revolution?"

Terrence nodded

"Perhaps it is. However, unless we have hard evidence we are not allowed to report this to the king. Now, we must go onto the more pressing issue of, what the hell were those skeletons!?"

The soldiers around the table stayed silent, even the knight, who had put input into every conversation they had was quiet.

"Those things just came out of nowhere! They are a much larger problem than the bandits if they were to turn hostile, but the problem is that they weren't hostile like they should've been at all!"

Some monsters out in the wild had been reported to have passive behaviors but those cases were extremely rare. However, it was widely accepted that it was impossible for the undead to not be hostile because they are set to hate everything that isn't living if they occur naturally. If a necromancer raises them, they only have partial control over them, their hatred of the living isn't one of the things that they can control. If there was such a necromancer that could control that, they would have been snatched away by some distant country and made a valuable asset since they could build up an organized army.

"So, what I want to know now is how did the skeleton speak to us as well as comprehend everything we said and how did it somehow retain its intelligence and humanity?"

The men all shrugged, they had no idea as well. The skeletons were a complete mystery that they really had no idea what to do about. On one hand, it would be extremely dangerous to let them roam around and, if they happened to turn hostile, desecrate the entire city until stronger adventurers arrived and put them down. On the other hand, if they never turned hostile then there really wasn't a reason to send an adventurer's party to the forest to kill them. If they were killing all the monsters then that would be less work for everybody here/

Terence looked left and right between everybody there.

"Don't let any of the other kingdoms officials get word of this. This must stay between us unless we are to lose a possibly important asset in those damned woods. I want each of you to accompany groups of adventurers that go patrol near that forest and stop them from killing the skeletons. Money will always shut their mouths, so just promise them extra pay in turn of keeping their mouths shut. We'll find out what's going on within the week and determine how to move forward from there, am I clear?"

The soldiers at the table all nodded.

"Alright then, dismissed."

The soldiers started leaving the table and most of them headed out the door. However, as the knight was about to leave Terence stopped him.

"Wait, I need to ask you a few questions."

The knight raised an eyebrow but complied nonetheless.

"What do you need my lord?"

"Other than their raw strength, how strong was the skeleton in terms of actual fighting power when compared to knights?"

The knight sighed and thought about it for a moment. Breathing in, he finally had a conclusion.

"It was extremely skilled. It wasn't just hitting things randomly but was instead using the technique that my teacher's had used when we were trained as knights. It was also using weird hits that kept on setting me off balance, but it kept on pulling its punches. It definitely didn't want to hurt me, it was I who had challenged and attacked it first."

Terence sighed but nodded

"So it was stronger than you?"

"Yes. Based on magic power and strength, it may have been set as a C tier monster but when coupled with those techniques, it is at least a B- or even a B tier. That's all I have to say about it, it could have killed me in one strike if it wanted, even though I was weakened I would likely not be able to beat it if I was completely healed"

"Alright, that's all I needed to know. You can leave now."

"Yes sir"

The knight also headed out the door to probably go and get a good night's rest like the rest of the soldiers. They had fought the hardest and stayed alive throughout that whole ordeal, after all, they deserved it.

However, as of now, all Terence could think about was how he was going to protect his daughter. When the bandits said they were aiming for her because of her bloodline it meant that they were both at a higher risk now that they knew for sure some big shot was out there to get at them instead of a one-off attempt at an assassination.

"What the hell do I do...."

---

And there's chapter 15. This one's a bit short but we'll go back to the main characters tomorrow so it'll probably be longer. Paypal still isn't accepting my postal code so instead, if you want to support me please leave a comment!

W.O.V