The tourniquet managed to stop the bleeding, and I bandaged the wound with the arrow still inside. I had to be careful that it wouldn't make the injury any greater than it should have been. I observed everyone in the guild office with Sumia closing the guild office temporarily.
"Thank you so much, for saving our lives," John thanked me.
Still, I couldn't help myself but be disappointed that the casualty rate was quite high for my liking. Four people died. Three fathers and one mother. So, from the previous 12 people working force, now had gone down to a mere 8 people. In total, there were only three men left, and five women left. The rest were children.
I was not a professional, but I knew 8 people wouldn't be enough to work in the field. No way 8 people would be able to maintain such a vast agricultural landscape with just their hands. I also didn't have any money to get a piece of advanced agricultural equipment.
Still, I wouldn't even think of that. People were poisoned all over the place with the nerve gas and smoke and this guild building was the only place to stay. Sawyer had left early in the morning with my machine gun to take another bounty. We need a budget for medical equipment.
Plus, I wouldn't dare to remove the debris that the people had in their bodies without any sterile equipment. So far, no one was too serious so I could delay the operation. However, at the moment, I really wanted to remove the arrow from my foot.
"Alfie, thanks for the assist last night, without you, the village won't be standing anymore," Sumia said.
"Well, what village?" I commented on all of the burned houses outside. These people had lost it all. I wouldn't even say that a village used to stand there due to the lack of houses left. Now these people must migrate into another occupation besides farming.
What those bandits were targeting? Sawyer and I? I found it to be highly likely, but why would they leave the guild office as the only building standing? It looked like there was something that they were looking for in the guild office. The only thing that I knew in the guild office was...
"Sumia, do you happen to have a bounty on your head?" I asked her.
"What bounty???" Sumia immediately changed her tone. He glared at me with suspicion and put her hand on the handle of her sword that was kept on its scabbard.
"Why would those bandits? Or mercenaries come towards us?" I asked her.
"The money? Are they coming for the money?" Sumia gave me an idea.
"What money?"
"The guild money," Sumia said.
"Huh?" It made total sense though. The guild seemed to have a limitless amount of resources to pay us.
"Yes, the guild money. There is around 10,000,000 Arleum in the backroom. If that many bandits came, that should be the only reasonable explanation," Sumia said.
So, there were like 10,000,000$ in the backroom of the guild office? It made total sense then. They could hire a bunch of mercenaries to raid a guild office and steal all of the money. If that was the case, why the security in the village was so slim then?
"Shouldn't someone be guarding it?" I asked Sumia.
"Yes, if this country is sending us soldiers, I'll appreciate it. However, Lobus never paid our taxes to the landlord, so there is no security guarantee. The abandoned mansion where you two are staying is one of the pieces of evidence why the landlord left," Sumia said.
"Because the bastard couldn't finish the house?"
"Because he couldn't stay safe in this village. Before the landlord left, the village was hopeful, to say, at least. Farmers were working, hunters were hunting, and taxes were rolling, but once Lobus became the village chief, it all went to shit," Sumia commented.
"How so?"
"There has been an increased rate of bandit attacks once he became the village chief. Of course, being the sneaky snake he is, he maintains his innocence. Eventually, the landlord had enough and declared this village off-limit," Sumia explained.
"Off-limit?"
"Like, the imperium would no longer be responsible for this village. No more soldiers, no more road maintenance, no more comfort for us," Sumia said.
"So, is this the territory of Imperium?"
"De facto, not de jure, since there is no village chief nor landlord," Sumia said.
I got two conclusions. One, the village had no chance with lobus from the get-go. Second, without the help of Imperium Kingdom, I really doubted that it would be easy to rebuild this village from scratch. Lastly, we really need a self-defense force to prevent situations like last night from ever happening again.
"Help! Help!"
A woman waved her hand in my direction. I must go, she needed my help. I walked towards the woman who was laying down on the floor of the guild office. I sat down right next to the woman.
"Yes, ma'am, anything wrong?" I looked at her general sign. The breathing was like a flute. She was gasping for air. "Does this happen all the time? Or just this once."
"All the time." She gasped for air. "Unexpectedly."
Oh, an asthma attack. Well, there was a salbutamol inhaler on the first-aid bag, if I wasn't wrong. I grabbed the inhaler and put it in her mouth. "Ok, ma'am, please breathe in the air from this tube, alright? Then I want you to hold your breath until I told you to let it out."
The woman nodded as I pressed the inhaler. She held her breath. I counted ten seconds and I told her to let her breath go. I then set the timer for one minute on my watch. After that, I did the same thing with her for the second time. I did the same thing for over 10 minutes.
"Feeling better, yet?" I asked after giving
The woman nodded. I stopped the treatment and put the inhaler back into the first-aid bag. It should be enough for now. I doubted the healer of the village would be able to heal a disease caused by an immune reaction like this.
I returned to the chair where I sat down to look at the patients in the guild office. It was lucky that nobody died under my care. Most of them had respiratory problems from breathing the smoke. They only needed fresh air, at least, for now. The fire outside had been put out by the remaining healthy residents alongside Sawyer early in the morning.
I feared that I would run out of medical supplies, sooner or later. At least, ten people were injured by the fire. Sure, the small first-degree burn only required a bioplacenton and bandage wrapped around it. The third-degree? I had to graft the skin from his leg, but I simply didn't have the equipment.
For now, I would only cover the wound while waiting for further medical equipment from the money that I'd purchase from the vending machine. There was no full-body burn, though. Sawyer managed to rescue all of them in time.
I was worried for bloody everything, especially the burn victims. They were at risk of infections and dehydration. Right now, the only thing that I could do was to give them as much drinking water as I could. I only reserved the IV bag for the most injured.
Sumia got off easily if I had to say. She didn't have any lasting injury, but still, the nerve gas got almost everyone. Suddenly, as I waited, someone opened the guild door. I knew who it was, it must have been Sawyer.
"SAWYER! FINALLY!" I walked toward the door, but only to find out that it wasn't Sawyer.
Instead, it was a woman of my age, way shorter than I do, had yellow blonde hair, and was carrying a big leather backpack on her back. I didn't know her, obviously, but who was she? I had never seen her before.
"I beg your pardon?" The woman said.
"Sorry, I just mistook you for someone else," I said as I scratched my head.
"That voice? Ilya???" Sumia came from behind me and moved my body.
"Sumia, be gentle, there's an arrow on my leg," I said as I held on to my leg, as the pain from the arrow came from moving my leg too sudden.
"Sumia!" Ilya hugged Sumia.
What was the relationship between these two women? One was a former knight, but who was the other? She didn't strike as the knight-type, even if she carried a sword on her hip. The moment she entered the room, she immediately gasped and put her leather backpack on the ground.
"Oh my god..."
"See, without you, this is kind of expected," Sumia said.
"...?" I mumbled without saying anything.
"You handled all of this?" Ilya asked.
"Well, no. Ask the person that greeted you first, he is a healer, too," Sumia said.
"Wait, you are the healer???" I commented.