"We observed a soldiers' camp right by the nearby hill!"
It was a simple sentence. A sentence uttered with a voice that wasn't etched with any emotion but fear. And a single look at the man behind the voice quickly proved it wasn't the words that made him so scared, but Leon's presence instead.
'That was quick,' Leon thought, closing his eyes for a second.
"I guess it's time for me to fulfill my end of the bargain," he muttered with his eyes closed. Leon then took a deep breath before pushing himself up and off the bed.
'For how annoying it is, this timing couldn't be any better,' he thought as he glanced past the girl's shocked face. Yet, before his eyes could move on towards the doors and the man standing right outside the building, Leon could see Sarah's face turning still.
And then, the fear that he managed to quell during the short time he had to interact with her, returned in full force.
Leon moved past the girl and approached the man standing by the doors. "Show me," he ordered, leaving the girl behind without even a single word of farewell.
"No!" Sarah suddenly screamed out, rushing forth... only to stumble at her feet and fall down on all fours. Yet, rather than remaining on the floor, she crawled forward, using her momentum to stand up in her move and then leap right at Leon's legs. "Don't g..." she attempted to protest, only for a look of extreme confusion to blossom on her face.
"I'm sorry?" Leon stood still, enjoying the soft warmth of the girl's arms and chest wrapped around his legs.
His mind was in shambles, unable to piece together the puzzle of what was going on.
'Just how is this girl capable of taking me by a surprise over and over again?' he thought, stunned by the unexpected way the events unfolded.
"I-..." Sarah opened up her mouth only to close them back down right away. She then averted her face before slowly relaxing her arms and allowing them to fall by her sides as she leaned back and sat down on the floor. "I'm sorry, it's nothing," she then said, refusing to look up at Leon's confused face.
"Let's just leave it at it," Leon rolled his eyes, opting not to think about the girl too much.
She was an interesting fellow... but there was no place for her within the plans that Leon groomed in his head for his own future.
'In a world like this, a village chick would only find death and ruin outside of her home,' he thought, judging the situation through the perspective of the middle ages from his homeworld. 'And half of this world's population is likely a female so there is no point getting stuck over a random girl that has traits I dig,' he decided before moving out of the house and following after the man who interrupted his rest.
"Tell me more about the camp," he ordered once they distanced themselves from Leon's temporary house.
"It a bannered one," the villager replied. "If they came here to raid the village..." he then added only to shake his head and then cut his sentence short.
"How many soldiers are there in the camp?" Leon asked, fighting off the desire to scold the villager right away. 'What's with those people, all using some sort of cryptic speech?' he complained in his thoughts.
"It's a bannered camp so at least an entire unit," the villager replied, unknowingly causing Leon to tighten his fists.
"Numbers," Leon said, going against his very own idea of keeping his ignorance under wraps. "I don't care about units, banners, divisions, or armies. How many soldiers can I expect there to be in the camp?"
Between revealing the degree of his ignorance to some random villager and potentially setting off to fight an entire army of soldiers... Leon didn't need to think long to figure out which was the worse.
"At least a hundred," the villager replied, sending Leon a weird look. "Maybe two hundred?" he then added, only to shake his head. "The times are weird. I can't say for sure," he then added, squirming down when faced with Leon's cold gaze.
"Thank you," Leon said coldly, his voice devoid of any gratitude.
"I never heard someone thank the other in a manner that would make others think they are scolding them instead," another voice reached Leon's ears only for the village elder to show up.
Rather than approaching them, the elder simply waited by the edge of the village that faced the hill where the camp reportedly was. And with a single look, Leon could tell just how anxious the old man was.
'A hundred or two soldiers,' he thought only to glance over his shoulder at the village behind. 'For a village this size...' he shook his head. 'It doesn't make any fucking sense,' he realized.
Even at its prime, the village could house at most three hundred locals. It was a generous count that Leon based on the total number of buildings, including those that now turned into smoldering ruins.
"Maybe their presence is unrelated to this village?" Leon then suggested, allowing his thoughts to slip out through his mouth in a moment of carelessness. "It just doesn't make sense for a lord to send so many soldiers against this tiny village," he then added, pressured to reveal the logic behind his suggestion by the inquiring looks of the villager and the village elder.
"That, I cannot answer," the elder said, hanging his head low before shaking it to the sides. The old man then raised his head and looked at Leon. "What are you going to do? Are you going to leave us alone?" he asked, a melting pot of several different emotions flashing in his eyes.
"Do you want me to leave?" Leon countered, curious about the man's intention.
'Now that the soldiers are here, they are either scared it's the second phase of the raid... or they expect those soldiers to scare me off, I guess,' he thought, leisurely looking down, along the line of his nose, at the elder.
"N-no..." the village elder muttered in response, averting his eyes when faced with Leon's glance.
"Okay then, let's drop the pretense and speak honestly for now," Leon then announced in a cold voice, turning himself fully towards the elder. "I came here and I saved you from the raiders. In exchange I only asked for lodging, food, and drinks," he stated while crossing his hand over his chest. "Oh, and the girl you sent to serve me," he added only to lean his head over to the side. "I only wanted to ask her some questions about this place. Contrary to what you clearly believe in, I never had any intention of laying my hands on her."
Leon turned silent after he recounted the entire situation.
The village elder only got to gulp down his saliva after hearing Leon's words.
"I do believe the lives of your fellow villagers and the innocence of their mothers, sisters and daughters are worth well more than the things I asked for," Leon spoke up again. "And now, to stay true to my decision to keep this place safe, I'm going to confront those soldiers," he stated only to bring his hand up and point his finger at the elder. "And five minutes after I depart, you are going to bring me one of the swords the raiders used."
"Huh?" the elder shook, taken aback by Leon's orders. He then looked up at the bloodmancer's face... Only for terror to show up on his own when Leon's cold gaze seemingly pierced straight through his soul. "I-I understand..." the elder then replied, lowering his head as a sign of submission.
Leon turned his head away from the elder and towards the camp that he could see the outline of by the nearby hill. He then took a step forward only to suddenly stop and turn his head towards the elder.
"And just in case you dare to backstab me, I need you to remember one thing," he said, a vicious smile of confidence blossoming on his lips. "No matter how great the soldiers over there are, they will never be able to stop me from decimating every last villager if that were to be my desire," he announced coldly before turning his face back in the direction of the camp and walking off.