While Ki, Rashida and the numbers got back to the horse drawn funeral carriage and went on their way towards the next location, the guard captain made his way home very quickly in the previously abandoned carriage.
Since the men at the gate had switched, they did not notice his unusual change of driver of the carriage as his old friend had been the one to drive previously.
He continued on his way into the city and arrived at his home, he woke up his wife and daughter from their deep slumber.
Although awoken by him, they still had lingering effects of what had been given to them to sleep deeply during the night.
Confused and disoriented as they were, the guard captain explained to his wife and daughter about the danger they were in briefly and that they had to pack up their lives and leave very quickly and tell nobody where they are going.
His daughter and wife had already long integrated into the city and complained about the fact that they could not just up and leave everything behind in a single night.
However after some further explaining about the seriousness and what had happened to himself and the possibility of his wife and daughter being under the influence of a drug or poison to make them sleep deeply, they became frightened.
He briefly explained that a mysterious benefactor had saved him and warned him to leave immediately.
He also explained that he had been given an address that they must go to and stay in during this time until they are contacted so that they will not be found by those who had plotted against them.
Many hours of packing and taking the families wealth and valuables with them, they loaded it into the carriage and journeyed towards Wolfden City.
Meanwhile the next day in a small town area, a retired army veteran was settling down there enjoying the fruits of his long life of servitude to those within the Capital.
Many years had passed since he had retired and moved away from the Capital, having no family of his own he had nobody to pass on his wealth to but he did have a close relationship with his brother and their family.
Whenever they had financial issues, he would help them out when he could since he still had some money to spare and he was not spending his earnings so frivolously.
He would be able to live a long life without worries and recover from the mental and physical scars left on him during his time being deployed to the borders, towards places that had been identified to be gathering rebels or members of the sects or organisations unaffiliated with the Martial Alliance.
He had to endure everything and often questioned his own morality after completing many of his superiors orders one after another.
Not every task was said to of been humane and showed how ruthless the people above could often be, if someone was suspected then he would have to follow orders even if those orders were to round up the men, women, children and elderly within a village and perform an execution to set a warning for others or simply because they were being suspected of being rebels.
In order to protect their interests, the people on the top gave orders from a distant place while he and those around him had to carry out the tasks.
Those that questioned their superiors and spoke righteously to stop these actions were given punishment or even worse were killed.
The leaders would not have their plans fail because of insubordination, even if they could of been wrong.
In their minds, they were ridding the world of evil or sending a message to others not to become corrupted.
Others in a high position may of just used the operation as a way to gain more credit and recognition from their superiors, eager for success they quickly put some clues together which lead to an innocent village and sent down the orders early.
After the operation was completed, more evidence may have cleared their names but to protect themselves they must have buried everything that would tarnish their achievements and honour.
After dealing with the stress from all of the problems from above and below himself while struggling to survive in that environment, he had to also deal with his wife cheating on him and running away with another man.
After a long time of loneliness and constant life and death struggles, he reached the Unrestrained Realm and rose in the ranks.
However since he was a late bloomer compared to those within large clans or sects, his future was limited.
Those above made use of every opportunity to make use of him whenever they could, tired and worn out by them he could only retire once he had reached his seventies.
Even if his Unrestrained Realm body allowed him to be healthier than others, there was a limit to how much he could achieve after being put through so much pressure from those above.
He was always being deployed to different locations so he was unable to find another women to share his life with and the previous betrayal had wounded his heart.
He would no longer be able to give another woman a chance with him because he feared that while he was in a distant place and at war, his other half may become lonely like his previous partner and become tempted by the idea of starting anew with another person.
The small town was a nice place to settle down in and the money earned helped to buy a decently sized home for himself, he also helped pay for his brothers families home generously since they had followed him from the Capital.
Although he did not know why they would give up on that rich and cultured lifestyle within the Capital, he figured that they must have their own troubles so did not ask until they started asking for money for to pay off their debts.
Apparently they had made some poor investments that had fallen through resulting in them losing their money and having to sell all of their property in the Capital.
Usually they were too proud to tell anyone but the after lending money the debts continued to increase the longer they could not pay it off.
Since they could not pay it off without also selling their new property that had been bought with his help, they requested his help.
After paying off the debts, the next requests were for help in setting up a new business venture within the town they had settled in.
They were practically using him to survive but once they were comfortable, their greed and ambitions could not be contained.
Taking advantage of his kindness, they continued to open a business that then failed because they failed to properly research the local products and the needs of the townspeople.
After many times helping them out and not knowing about various business related matters, he had no choice but to reduce his support after their continued failures.
The relationship between them all became a little more distant than before but he was still willing to treat them all as his family.
They had never treated him poorly or spoken badly about him so he did not really have that much of a problem with them all besides the fact that they were always asking for favours.
Lately they had visited his home more often and become more integrated with his life, even cooking him meals and tidy after him.
Since he lives on his own in a slightly big enough home suitable for a small family, the addition of his brother, his wife, son, daughter in law and the two grandchildren was something that was always welcomed into his home.
He enjoyed that he could be surrounded by those he cared for and not be inside his home all alone with his thoughts all day everyday.
Perhaps he would be able to live to over a hundred years old if he took good care of his body so he would be able to see his brother pass on from old age and watch as the next generation of the family are born and raised.