"Captain?" Rafael cried as he and Zaxo are being tied together by the soldiers of Syldenn. They are being carried to a caravan by the horses, so they will be held by the City of Syldenn as prisoners or slaves, depending on their ability to work.
Zaxo, the fifth infantry captain whose face is almost entirely destroyed after his troupe, was ambushed by Syldenn's army. It was an utter defeat for him. He was entrusted to lead his troop towards victory in finishing what they thought the remaining soldiers of Syldenn. Zaxo is the smartest among all the captains of each of the ten infantry assigned to defend the Lumiere City from Syldenn. Thinking that their victory is near, they recklessly jumped into the battlefield as if there's no tomorrow. Zaxo, even as an excellent general, was no exception; he was too overwhelmed by the idea that he could finally go home and see his family. Zaxo was a general, but he was no god. Zaxo was brilliant, but he's not perfect.
His tears purled along his grotesque and unrecognizable face. He screeched, he screeched with all his remaining strength, he wept his heart out. "I'm sorry!" He shouted, "I'm deeply sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry" He kept shouting over and over. Along with his shout is a roaring thunder, and suddenly, the rain started to pour. The raindrops suddenly clamoured the deathly silence enveloping the battlefield, or so to say, the unfortunate town filled with dead bodies. The skies witnessed the brutal decimation of soldiers who only wished for peace but was entranced by the spell of the unconcealable truth- war.
A soldier heard Zaxo's wails. He plunged the foot of his spear into Zaxo's mouth and shouted, "Say a word or this spear of mine will pounce your throat." He said. Zaxo groaned as the soldier's spear is still stuck into his throat. He groaned and moaned until he exhausted his remaining bit of energy and fainted.
*****
After three hours of travel, Syldenn's soldiers and their captives have entered the City of Syldenn inside the North Wood District. A man with a fancy and luxury coat with half of his face concealed by a fan appeared in front. This man is from the well-known nobel Oscar family, whose wealth is acquired through slave trading. "Are these all?" He said.
The captain of the infantry stepped in front, "As requested by the councils, half of these captives, in particular, 128 out of 256 soldiers who are personally chosen by me Babaro, captain of the 12th infantry of ambush unit." He bowed. "These half will be used by the capital. The remaining 128 will be sold to you under slave-trade law. Is that clear Count Narses?"
He smiled viciously and said, "Fair enough."
"Good, these seven carriages are loaded with soldiers near their death, however, most of them are Charlanders, do not underestimate them, they are always strong enough to escape so keep them under strict curtailment, but, please try not to kill them."
The count bowed and replied, "Understood." He raised his fan and shouted, "Men! Take all these carriages!" In response to his command, several armed soldiers appeared and started to move.
*****
As soon as he slowly blinked his eyes open, a tall, bulky man appeared in front of him, "So you're awake now eh?"
It seems that the man in front of him is Barbaro, the group captain who ambushed them, he thought. After Barbaro brought 128 soldiers to the capital of the North Wood District, he and his team identified each of the soldiers. They reported it to the District Mayor, which will be passed to the councils of the King to decide what task should be given to the captives. Barbaro recognized Zaxo Revend and proposed an idea to the Mayor. Although he and his team lost, he acknowledges Zaxo's skills, and so he recommended to the Mayor that the council assign Zaxo a special mission fitting his abilities. He believes that Zaxo can be helpful to Syldenn.
Right now, Zaxo is hung upside down with his hands tied on his back. He was unconscious for three days, but even so, some guards, even Barbaro, are consistently healing and beating him up.
"Zaxo Revend. The captain of the fifth infantry, supposed to be the strategist among all the other ten captains," He paused for a moment as he stares at Zaxo's disordered face, "Seeing you here, you don't look like a smart one. I mean you basically led your team to death."
Zaxo slowly lifted his head up, and with his very little strength, he said, "J-just k-kill mm-me."
Barbaro pulled his hair and stared at his unrecognizable face covered by rolls of bandages. "Too early for that don't you think? Wouldn't you want to visit your wife and daughter at least? What's her name again?" Barbaro acted as if he thinks as he rubbed his chin with a sneering look on his face, "Hmmm, oh I remembered, her name is Stella, right?" Zaxo, who doesn't have minuscule energy nor a necro left in him, suddenly raged like a beast who arose from death as he screamed in anger and wriggled his body after he heard his daughter's name. "Goddamn it! You evil bastards! Don't even think about laying your hands on my daughter or I'll kill you! I'll fucking kill you all! I swear that!"
However, Barbaro seems to be somewhat unfazed as he still kept on teasing Zaxo. Well, it's his speciality. Barbaro is a banter. "Oh god, if I have a daughter as cute as her, I would definitely do anything to keep me alive and raise her myself. Who knows, if her father is not around, someone might y'know?" He leaned closer to Zaxo's eyes and smiled malevolently, "Rape her! Hahahahahahahahha!" He laughed wickedly.
"No! No! Please! Arghh! You spawn of evils! What have my family ever done to you, monsters!" He said as he moved his hanging body around, aiming to hit Barbaro, standing beside him.
Barbaro was slightly hit, and because of that, he was irritated, and he hit Zaxo even harder in return. "Arghh!!" Zaxo screamed in pain, "Arghh!! Please, please, anything but my family, you can do anything you want to me," He started crying, his voice is slowly cracking as he sobbed, pleading the man in power standing in front of him."Please, I'm willing to do anything for you, just keep my family alive, I don't want them to suffer because of me."
"Oh, I've been waiting for you to say that. Now we're talking." Barbaro smirked. Zaxo then fell from the ceiling as Barbaro cut the rope that kept him hanging.
"Good news for you, the councils recognized your ability and they proposed a task for you. Well, it's a pretty simple task, you just have to betray Lumiere City in exchange for you, and your family's freedom. Pretty easy eh?"
*Vander's POV*
"And after that, I've been assigned to different missions here and there under a new identity, Leon Licht. I've even beheaded a few soldiers as a gift to Barbaro and other superiors. You see, I can't betray the councils and my other superiors who has my family's lives." Leon explained as Sylve and I comprehensively listening to Leon's narrative.
"If you've been killed here, do you think that they will still keep their promise to you?" Sylve asked.
"Before I left the Northwood district to carry out my mission here, they let me meet my family. I was surprised to see that they actually fulfilled their part of the deal. My family's life is somehow better as they have been moved to Northwood District. A coin gold along with a few silver coins a month and a proper house to live in. It's way better than the life I could give them as a charlander, no, even as a captain of Lumiere City. You see Sylve, you'll never understand." Leon bowed his head as tears slowly flow from his eyes down to his chins. Everything, in this small and dark prison, me, Sylve, and two of the guards beside us felt Leon's agony, we may not have a hint of sympathy for him within our hearts as a citizen of Lumiere City, but as a fellow human, we understand the life he's been living. "Patriotism? Loyalty?" Leon smirked, "At the end of the day, none of that matters when you're on the verge of dying. None of those will save you, will give you the life you've been wanting. Regardless of how evil I am in front of you, I don't care. I'm willing to sacrifice everything I have for the sake of my family."
Sylve lowered her head, but she stood up and tapped Leon's shoulders a few moments later. "I don't really want to do this but you deserve to know this." Sylve explained very carefully, "Remember the time when I asked you about your plans? Why did you join this guild?" She then grabbed something from a pocket inside her shirt. "You answered, you're doing everything for your family. I got suspicious since I wasn't unsure about you and your origins, everything seems to be a mystery for me that I decided to investigate about your background and your family. Well, I wasn't able to find anything about you but I managed to find your family. I had a lot of connections that I managed to sneak inside the Northwood District and personally investigated since I got even more suspicious about you." Sylve then stopped talking momentarily as she stared at the photo card she's holding. "I managed to find your family, I even took a picture of them." She then reached a photocard she's holding towards Leon, "Here you can take a look for yourself."
Leon's expression changed; his eyes widened, and his hands on top of the table clenched, "W-who? W-ho are these two children beside them?" Leon bit his lips hard, so hard that it started to bleed.
Sylve sighed, "The child that your wife is holding is your wife's five-year old son."
"W-what?" Leon smashed the table with both of his fists and cried, "H-how! This is impossible! five years ago? I was there, I was definitely there! I even saw my wife! She's perfectly fine! They live very comfortably!" Leon rushed to Sylve as he attacked her using his head. "Leon! Stop!" Luckily, I managed to stop Leon from using my hands.
Leon fell with his knees on the ground, "It can't be, my wife would never do that!"
"That's exactly what I thought," Sylve replied. "So I decided to continue investigating and to my surprise, she was raped by a soldier."
Leon kept on crying and shouting, "Wuaaaahhhhh!!!! Arghhhh!!" He threw his body everywhere, and he kept on banging his head to the wall, and blood started to drip everywhere from his body. "W-what about the other child beside my daughter?"
"At first, I thought it is also your wife's child, but I found it odd that the child that your wife is carrying in that photo as well as your daughter's, are just three months apart." Sylve sighed, "I continued investigating and found something even worse." Sylve shook his head.
Leon suddenly rose up and rushed closer to Sylve. With blood all over his face, he shouted, "Sylve!" Sylve refused to speak, "Tell me! tell me Sylve! What happened to my daughter!"
Leon went so close to Sylve that he almost hurt her, but the two soldiers behind us pushed him away. Sylve's tears started to drop, "Y-you daughter." She composed herself as she wiped her tears and began talking straight, "She served a noble, she worked as a sex slave for Narses Oscar's family. The child that your daughter Stella is carrying is her own child. Both your wife and daughter have been used by nobilities. To make matters even worse, the authorities are no longer providing them necessities as they promised and now, they've been running on the streets as beggars." Sylve crouched in front of Leon and touched him, "I was unsure what to tell you at first because my investigations are still lacking, but hearing your story, everything came to pieces."
Even I was shocked about what I heard. "Arghhh I can't help this anymore, Leon! We're running out of time, let's save the drama for later." I stood up in front of Leon, who is still weeping as he nearly crumpled the photo card Sylve gave to him and offered him my hands, "Knowing this, Leon, wouldn't you want revenge?" I said with my eyes staring at his.
Leon, I'm angry, no I'm furious. Not because of what they've done, but because of what they've made Leon done.
"Leon, stand up, let's make them regret the things they did to you."