Xander was pissed, he couldn't hear Jared mumble but he heard him whispering to the princess.
"So be it, every man for himself it is then,"
Xander said to himself, he felt a little pity for the two women, but there wasn't anything he could do considering.
Soon everyone were separated and the hall started to empty out. There were only three guards, Xander and Damage left in the hall.
From what Xander gathered after hearing the conversations around him, the wizened men took the other unconscious guy, the kings son and his men took the two women, Jared went with the princess as a special advisor and he's to be led to Tourrin Village.
"This is bullshit! Why do we have to be sent to that cursed village, Captain I don't want to go there!"
"Oh!? Then go tell the king that!"
"I . . Argh! . . If I'm cursed too I'll haunt you every night so that you piss the bed."
"Both of you shut up, let's go."
"Yes captain!"
The soldiers exclaimed as they finished off their gripping and quickly after, led Xander and Damage to a wagon.
After everyone was seated and settled they all set off towards Tourrin Village.
Hearing the discussions between the guards, Xander learnt that Tourrin is an Elvish Village housed within the Tourrin forest.
When he heard the guards talking about the village and about the curse, Xander's medical minded mind, kicked into action hearing the symptoms being discussed and then started thinking to himself,
"Could it be a disease instead?"
Two weeks went by, Xander had heard plenty stories from the guards in detail during that time.
He however never said a word, he'd give a few whistle commands to Damage to be on guard against the others but nothing eventuated.
Xander was given dried meats and water from the guards, however it wasn't even enough for a child so he would snack on rations stashed away on his person, in his backpack or on the rig Damage wore.
It was then that he found out something amazing about the rig Damage wore.
He had packed two chocolate bars and had eaten them both yet when he went to place the wrappers inside that pocket he found two more chocolate bars.
"It's magic! Hahaha! Wait . . so if we were all labeled as useless, did he mean that we didn't have any powers like this?"
Xander pushes that thought to the back of his head and experimented with the other pockets and pouches on Damage's rig.
All of them had the same result.
"Infinite supplies!"
Whatever Xander had put in those pockets prior to coming to this new world would be replenished when taken out. The next thing he did was see if it was only limited to things that were already in the pockets.
He took out a fresh pair of underwear from his backpack, took the two chocolate bars out and placed his underwear in the pocket and zipped it up.
Right after, doing so he unzipped the pocket reached in and pulled out the underwear. He done it several times till he had enough underwear for two whole weeks.
"No chocolate!? Just briefs! So items would be replaced with the newer one."
He replaced the underwear with the chocolate bars, then after resetting the item inside the pocket he removed two each time till he had a stack of twenty and then he shoved them all in.
As he thought, the number of items placed inside would be what could be retrieved.
The next oddity was his own backpack, it wasn't able to duplicate items like Damage's rig but it had infinite space. No matter what he put inside the backpack it would never fill completely but everything was in there.
All the things he had tested with the rig and had duplications of, had been shoved inside the backpack and he still had room to spare.
"This is madness! I'm a walking functioning factory!"
Xander had made thousands of duplicate medications, epinephrine, morphine, pain killers, anaesthetics and first aid kits.
Along with clothing, his water bottle, water purification tablets and sealed rations, even an outdoor survival kit which had a flare gun, flares and a thermal blanket among other things.
"When I get a chance I'll have to test these two out."
Xander says to himself, as he brushed his hands over a certain area. They were two wild bull 9mm handguns, both with muzzle brakes and threaded barrels and tactical grips.
These had been hidden inside the holsters on Damage's rig. Xander had them both added for load bearing purposes and in the likely event that they ran into a bear on their trek, then he could fire a few rounds to scare it off.
The wagon they were on came to a stop and Xander could hear the conversation between the guards happening just outside.
"You two wait here, I'll deliver this man to the village from here on,"
"Huh! But captain,"
"Don't but captain me! Do you want to do it yourself? . . "
" . . . "
"I thought as much. Don't worry, I'm old so I don't have much to look forwards to, as for the both of you, you two are still young, so please take my advice and leave Sirena find a place far from this stupid war."
"But the demons are waging war everywhere."
"Hmph! Says who!? . . I've live for over 170 years, and as soon as King Vvan and his family take the throne the demons chose to attack!? You're truly an idiot if you can't even see the schemes of those in power."
" . . . "
"The kingdom has rotted to core since King Vvan took the throne 150 years ago, both his kids are evil idiots, you shouldn't risk your lives for those fools. Find a place near the demon continent or the country itself if you want to live a longer life, if you have any connections to the Flute continent that would be best since they're neutral by nature."
"So this will be our farewell, whatever you two decide to do, let it be with all your heart."
With that the captain walked towards Xander and got him off the wagon. The pair and the dog walked away leaving the two other guards to their own thoughts.
The trio walked for a good half hour without saying a single word.
"Hero, I'm truly sorry for all of this and of course you especially, this village, haaa! This village is death incarnate and I'm walking you to it haha, but worry not, I'll join you in death as penance for doing this."
" . . . "
"Haha, well it's not like you understand me, you actually have no idea what I'm saying so it doesn't matter much right? Least you won't see the state of the villagers when we get there."
Xander still said nothing in reply, as the guard carried on talking about how the current king of Sirena was a total douche bag and so were his children, how the Vvan family had planned for over 500 years to summoned "heroes" to enslave them and use their abilities to conquer the world and all its inhabitants.
"I wonder, what was your world like?"
"It's peaceful to a certain extent, there are still wars but it's similar to this place, it's filled with ambitious people of power greedy for more things they don't need."
Xander answered to which the guard almost tripped and fell. He ready his sword out of fright and aimed it at Xander.
Damage started growling towards the guard, his hairs stood up and readied an attack pose himself.
"You say you want to die in penance for doing this, but, from the sounds of things it seems like you want to kill me yourself before that."
Xander says. He had heard the sword being unsheathed and by Damages growl, he could tell that the guard was wanting to attack.
"You . . You understand me?"
"Mhm, that's right."
"Listen let's make a deal, you lead me to the village but I'll enter alone, you can go with those two behind us."
Xander pointed in a certain direction, he could hear the other two guards following behind them since they left.
"You've got yourself some loyal men, it seems they don't want to see you die from the curse."
"How did you . . "
"I'm blind, but not deaf, I can hear them just as if I can see them."
" . . . "
"I . . Ah! . . I can't do that. I'm a man of my word, so we'll do this together."
Xander heard the old guard sheathe his sword away then sighed and nodded,
"Call for your men, if you help me then I'll be able to lift the "curse" then the three of you can escape from the clutches of the kingdom together."
"Really!? You can really undo the curse?"
"I'll need more information, but, yes I believe I can because from what I've heard so far it sounds like it's an illness more than a curse."
"An illness? Are you sure?"
"It's my area of expertise, when the three of you had spoken about the curse and it's effects, they sounded like symptoms to an illness from my world."
"Alright hero . . . "
"Xander, my name is Xander Hunt and this is Damage my eye seeing dog."
"Yyanis, I'm just a commoner so I have no family name. Then hero Xander please wait a moment while I call my idiot men over."
"Sure, take your time."
Yyanis left and called out to the the two men who had escorted Xander along the way.
Xander had been with these three for quite a while and soon came to understand why they were tasked with leading him to the village.
It seems that these three were doubtful of the kings intentions from the start so as obstacles that could possibly cause trouble in the future so they needed to be taken care of.
There was no better way than to send them all to their deaths along with Xander in Tourrin Village.
Yyanis knew this well and had told the other two all about it as well as making sure that they could get away from the kingdom and it's stupid war by having them defect or desert the army.
As a military man himself, he was disgusted by the talk of desertion and defection.
However, he changed his mind regarding his previous thoughts when he heard that these men didn't choose to be soldiers, rather they were kidnapped as children and raised to be fodder for the kingdom.
Another part of it was that Xander reminded himself that this was a world based on sword and magic, his thinking, morals and values won't align with the commonsense of this world.
"Hero Xander I've returned,"
"Just Xander will do,"
"So be it, ahem! You two listen up, this here is Xander Hunt and his companion, The eyes of the hero, Damage the dog!"
"Whoa! Two names and a title!"
" . . . "
Settle down. Now then, introduce yourselves!"
"My name is Sann,"
"I go by Gobi,"
"Sann, Gobi, as Yyanis said earlier I am Xander Hunt and this is my guide dog Damage."
"Such a splendid guide, truly worthy of being the eyes of a hero."
"Please I'm no hero, I'm just a kidnapped person that had no use to the king and his plans in the end."
"Ah! Right! . . So is it true what Yyanis said, are able to stave the curse of the village?"
"Mhm, if my conjectures are right I'll be able to cure what ails Tourrin."
Xander told the three of them his conjectures regarding the village.
He started asking further questions trying to form a diagnosis in his mind to verify his thinking.
"It's as I guessed, it's Legionaries disease!"
"Is that the name of the illness?"
"It sounds ferocious!"
"Indeed, are you able to cure this Xander?"
"Yes, well, with all of you helping that is,"
"Whatever you need help with, we'll do so to the best of our abilities."
"But . . May I ask, what will you get out of this?"
"Information and knowledge,"
"Information and knowledge?"
"Well, hopefully I'll be able to find a way home. No matter how hard or small my chances are, if a possibility exists, then I'll take it."
Xander wanted to find a way back to his world and he knew that he would have to start from somewhere.
The princess may have used the village as an excuse just to get him there, but if the villagers are long lived beings then they may have some ideas about how he could leave this world.
"Ok then what do we need to do for you Xander?"
"Three things, first phase will be to gather intelligence. I'll need to know the length of time this has been going on, those that have been affected the longest will be our first priority. Second phase, will be to treat the villagers, all of you will act as my nurses to help administer my treatment to them."
"Finally, the third phase, once we reach the village we'll also have to investigate and isolate the the source of the problem which will be all the villages water sources."
Xander explains to the other three, and as he spoke with them some more he realised that they aren't bad guys, they're just people stuck with a tyrannical dictator for a leader of the country.
Xander started pulling a lot of things out of his backpack. 5 water bottles, 4 ration pouches, 8 chocolate bars and a pouch of dog food and a double bowl.
He fumbled a bit but soon found his bearings as he put the bowl down, emptied the contents of the pouch into one side and then he added some water in the other.
The three guards with him followed what he was doing with their eyes. Soon as he finished he gave a few whistled calls and Damage came over and started eating and drinking.
"Alright you three, take a bottle, spork and pouch each and two bars and mimic what I do."
The men took a bottle, a pouch and two bars each and stared at each other,
"What are these? Is this the medication for the illness?"
"No I think it's like the eyes of hero's food,"
"He wants us to eat that?"
Xander waited for the three men to finish their discussions then added that these are called heat and eat rations from his world.
"We have a lot of work to do when we get to the village, you'll need the extra strength, but because I don't know what the situation will be like there, it's better to eat now then not have any appetite at all after seeing the state of the village."
The men followed Xander's lead and what he did they did. The pouches had a pull tab that heated the meals inside the pouches once the tab is pulled.
He told them to wait for five minutes before opening them and eating.
"These eliminate the need for building a fire and cooking hot meals, so they come in handy for environments that lack wood or a source to make a fire and they're good for people like me who can't see."
The three men ooh'd and ahh'd at Xander's explanation and waited eagerly for the meals to heat up. The pouches started swelling and grew in size.
Xander tells them that when the steam inside starts to leak out it's almost time to eat. The men watched on and the steam coming from the pouches carried a hint of aroma of the pouches contents.