I wake up in a wagon, a huge pain fills my body the moment I try to get up, I feel weak.
"Boy, you shouldn't get up so early, we found you in the middle of the battlefield, luckily you don't have any injuries, but I imagine the shock was too big for you, that isn't the kind of place for children, what were you doing there? If you tell me the names of those responsible, I guarantee you, they will be punished" Said Robert.
"..."
"Not much a talking person, right? I understand... the traumas of the battle haunt even the veterans, I have been in this business for years and every night I feel like the people I killed are lurking, cursing me for what I did to them."
'It's not like I don't want to target anyone, but I just don't know what he's talking about. I don't remember anything before the battlefield.'
"Here, eat this, you need to regain your strength."
'He passes me some slices of dried meat, the smell is awful, he must be joking about eating this. Without noticing, I make an expression of disgusting.'
"Hey, you know how hard is to get some meat in this place? Besides look at you, you need to eat before starving to death you little brat."
"I know, but this looks so bad."
"Don't wanna hear a thing, I pick up this on the Neywell stock, so you are not going to waste like this."
"Why did you do that? And who is Neywell?"
"Neywell Keso is the mercenary in charge of this company, we all work to him, and I took the food because you need it, besides I only have my ration right now and Neywell is the one who told me to rescue you, so he should be the one feeding you, I doubt he would be mad because of this, but it's easier to apologize than to ask permission."
"You guys are strange, but thanks... I guess."
"You are the one who was sleeping on a battlefield, you are as strange as me then."
I started to eat the food, the taste was horrible, but I eat anyway, because it looked like some precious thing for this old man, in the meantime, I talked to the man, he explained something's to me.
We are in a mercenary company named Belhemert, hired by the Empire, in this world the big cities are independent and work as a Polis with the villages near them (cities independent of states, as if each city were a nation), the Empire was an alliance between the humans in all the big cities to fight against the advance of the non-humans to the land of humans, this war took five years but is already coming to an end, with that, part of the payment to the services of this company was a small village near Lathrium, named Tuska.
Furthermore, with the war coming to an end, there is no need for the mercenary company anymore, everyone got paid during the war and the company will now disassemble, some of them will keep fighting as adventurers, joining the empire, the guard of Lathrium, or even coming to Tuska, as the reward came to the old man, he has free access to change some functions of the village and accept however he wants, even without the villager's consent. The old man in the wagon tells me also his name is Robert Gardwald, he is the second in command at the company.
We are in the border of the lands, so the trip took weeks, in the meanwhile I was presented to some of the company, but most of the time I keep myself at that wagon, there was not much to see there, was the same thing every day as we keep getting close to Lathrium.
Until the day we arrive, the city was huge with walls of the size of giants, it extends to the sky as I pass by the city gate, there were multiple towers in the wall and in certain parts of the city, the company has a lot of people, something like 500 soldiers, but we looked like a small pack when compared to the people in Lathrium, they flooded every corner, the city was big, but not big enough for that amount of people, the noise there was so huge, yet with all this walls and towers, the city only had a few guards in patrol and even less to be seen in the walls. The street was large, but with so many merchants on both sides of the road, became hard to pass with the wagons, yet we manage to pass by the crowd and went to the warehouse.
--Robert Gardwald Point of View--
"Why does the kid never leave the wagon?" Said Neywell.
"I think he is traumatized by what he saw on the battlefield."
"In these past couple weeks has he talked about why he was placed there?"
"Every time I asked, he said that he doesn't remember a thing before the battlefield, not even his name, maybe it's just his mind keeping him safe from the reality of what happened."
"And about his parents, any ideas?"
"A kid of this age, abandoned in a place like that, so close to the borders where there is no protection, he must be one of those people who live isolated from the cities, and all these villages near the borders were pillaged and burned to the ground in the last year after the major retreat of the Imperial Army, so the family of the child is dead by now."
"Yet here we are, you keep him in your wagon while walked like a simple soldier during all these weeks, and also give all your share of the hunting meet to him, spent your free time with him while he barely talked to you back, you are a good person Robert, there are few like you in this company, but you already did your part, now leave him in the street and keep going."
"I can't do that, he will probably die without me."
"He will die anyway, he had all the rest and food a man could ask, yet he is getting thinner every day, his body is giving up already, so should you too."
"I can't do that Sir."
"You know Robert, this world doesn't deserve good people like you, if you continue acting like this, you will die to pay the price, good actions always have a high cost, and I am not even talking about money."