{Authors note again: Now that the story has caught up with the present. It will from now on be in the 3rd person omniscient.}
Amos walked into the ruins of the village. Not a soul in sight. The normally worn and used road is now slowly beginning to be reclaimed by nature. The only sign houses that were ever here were random wooden beams pointed to the sky and random parts of stone houses.
Amos walked down the street. He looked from his left to his right. He then began to think 'Once we killed the sentinel, monsters must have come through. The villagers would be too weak to fight them and would all end up dead.'
With Amos's sharp senses, he could still pick up a subtle scent of blood. Some of the wooden beams were stained a faint red.
He stopped in the middle of the street. He then went on to pull off his mask. He could finally get the full view of his own actions.
He continued to walk. He eventually found himself in what used to be a wheat field. The wheat still remained, but now there were weeds and flowers within the field.
He continued to walk until he was atop a hill. He looked back down at the village. If he had to estimate, he would say there used to be about 50 houses. That would be about 50 families.
So many people. Women, the elderly, children. It's unlikely any of them escaped. And he was the one that condemned them.
Amos then made a promise to himself 'Whatever I do from now on. It must be good. I will no longer raid or steal. I will also do my best to not kill anyone anymore. it's what they would have wanted
He stared at the ruins for a moment longer. He then tossed his mask to the side.
'I will no longer try to appear threatening. Plus my wanted poster probably has the mask in it.'
He then took out bandages. He pulled back the hood and wrapped it around his face. He left only his eyes open. He was already used to breathing through a mask so the bandages didn't affect him much.
He had to do this or else people would still treat him differently due to his scars. In order to begin again he had to cover some of his past still.
When he was finished he tried to create water in his hands with magic so he could see himself. But it didn't work. Amos began to panic. He was worried there was something wrong with his mana. Then he realized he was still wearing the mana-blocking ring. He chuckled to himself before thinking 'Well at least now I know it works.'
He then walked to a stream nearby instead. It was a little stream. Only small fish could live in it. Birds chirped within the trees nearby. Overall it was a very tranquil place.
He peered into the stream looking at his reflection. What he saw didn't look half bad. The bandages did a good job of covering the burns. Only if someone got a good look at him would they be able to see a little bit of the scars.
He sat down by the stream. He pulled a little bit of jerky from one of his dimensional bags. He pulled down the bandages around his mouth and began to eat. While Amos ate he began to think and reassess his situation.
'I currently have my personal dimensional bag and another dimensional bag holding our valuables. Hmf it's funny now that I remember it. Salis was too unreliable and Balgroff was too clumsy so I wound up being the one holding onto the money.'
Now that he started to think about his brothers his mood dampened. Pain wracked his heart. His eyes began to water a little.
'No! I must move on. If I continue to be miserable for the rest of my life then their sacrifice would have been meaningless. And that, I cannot let that happen.'
Amos began to breathe and relax. He went back to assessing his situation.
'If I sell my extra equipment and raiding tools. Combine that with the money I already have. I could probably have around 2 platinum coins. So all in all a lot of money. Should I continue with what we were going to do and get smuggled into another country?
Hmm. My wanted poster probably only has the skull mask on it. And if there is a description it would probably just state me as a thief. So technically speaking I could probably stay here. Yea. I'm gonna stay here. Going to another country could pose a lot of problems.
Now then What am I gonna do from now on though? I will no longer raid or steal. Plus I would prefer something where I don't have to fight other people. Although I said I wanted honest work I'm still not going to become a farmer or factory worker. Hmm. Maybe I could be an adventurer? Where would I start though? I remember hearing the main guild is located in the capital. So I guess I'll go to the capital. Alright then, that settles it. I'll become an adventurer in the capital and fight monsters!'
There was a small twinge in Amos' heart. A small pain, almost longing. Amos had felt it since he woke up. He knew exactly what it was. It was his desire for revenge. His heart wanted him to disregard everything he just thought up and just track down the winged man. The feeling was overwhelming and it felt that if he didn't, his brothers would never rest in peace.
But Amos knew better. He had seen many a brigand do the exact same thing. Their band died and they would seek out revenge. But it never ended well. Either they would die in the attempt or succeed and become an empty husk. Once they succeeded all the drive they had would disappear and they would just end up back at square one.
Amos fought the desire down. Even if his heart desperately wanted it his mind knew better. He quickly got to work to forget about it.
He promptly got up and walked back into the village. He then walked to the front of the village. He chuckled when he saw what he was looking for. It was the village sign.
'No matter how destroyed a village is, the sign always stands.'
It was a joke among brigands because brigands don't destroy the sign and monsters would have no interest in it. So even if a village was destroyed the sign would almost always still stand.
The sign itself said "Black hearth". Now that Amos knew where he was he pulled out a detailed map.
The capital was located in almost the center of the country. This village was in the far west. It would take about 2 weeks to get to the capital.
— 2 weeks later —
Amos currently stood in a little hamlet. The hamlet was only 10 houses. The capital city walls could be seen on the horizon. It would only take 2 hours if you walked.
The hamlet Amos stood in though was more than met the eye. The truth is that this hamlet was a front for the thieves' guild. It was like a little base of operations for them.
Currently, Amos is in the main house. He was in a small living room. On a chair in the corner sat a man. The man wore an ordinary cloth tunic clothes. But his face was anything but ordinary. He had a long scar down his right eye and his eyes were like that of a snake. This man was a smuggler. He smuggled people with questionable occupations into the city and passed the guards. He also forged documents and was part of an illegal slave ring.
"The rate is 5 gold to get in." The man said.
"Fine, when's the next trip" Amos responded.
"Probably only another hour. Just wait in the carriage in the back."
Amos reached into his cloak. The smuggler goes on edge. He also slowly lowers his hand to his pocket.
When Amos pulled out 5 gold the man eased up. Amos chuckled and said "Why so jumpy? Is there a guard behind me?" Amos then over dramatically looked over his shoulder with fake fear in his eyes. The smuggler's face went a little red from embarrassment before he snatched the 5 gold from Amos's hand.
Amos chuckled as he left the room. He walked out the front door and looked into the sky. 'Sun is still up. It'll probably be night when I get into the city.'
Amos just shrugged as he walked to the back of the house and entered the carriage that was sitting there. Within the carriage was an assortment of people. Humans, halflings, and a group of rat-men in the corner.
Amos just plopped down on the first open seat. He closed his eyes as he waited for the time to go by. That is when he remembered. He was still wearing the mana-blocking ring. He shook his head at his own foolishness as he placed the ring in one of his dimensional bags.
By now any magical search for him would have gone cold. And even if it didn't it would soon be impossible for them to continue the search once he entered the city.
This didn't go unnoticed by the other occupants though. One of the sharper rat men noticed him place the ring in his bag. The rat man was only a meter and a half tall(5 feet), but he had sharp eyes and a strong nose. And right now he smelled money!
The rat man stood up. This alerted the other rat men. The rat man walked over to Amos. Now he was only about 1 meter away from him. He pulled out a curved dagger and pointed it at Amos. The rat man then smiled and said.
"Should have hid that bag a little better."
He then put his left hand forward.
"Fork it over."
Up to this point Amos still had his eyes closed. It slightly unnerved the rat-men. But they figured Amos was just scared.
Amos finally opened his eyes. He first looked at the dagger, then into the rat man's eyes. He wasn't the least bit scared. He could tell these rat men were at a far lower level than him, even without using his inspection skill. But he didn't want to hurt them. It was a lose-lose situation. There wasn't a chance in hell he was giving them the bag, but at the same time, he didn't want to hurt them just because of their stupidity.
'Too bad. I'll try my best to not kill them.' Amos thought.
The rest of the people in the carriage moved to the corners of the carriage and looked away. They didn't want to have anything to do with the coming fight.
Amos had yet to say anything, or even make any significant moves. This further unnerved the rat-men. They all tensed up anticipating the fight to come. Before any of them could move though, a voice echoed through the whole carriage.
"Skreek you damn idiot! Did you even notice what he placed within the bag?"
Skreek was the name of the rat man who originally noticed the bag. He slightly turned his head to look at who yelled at him. The one who yelled at him was the only rat man to not get up and back up Skreek. He was the boss of these rat men. He was slightly larger, his fur was darker, and he had a tattoo on his face. The tattoo was of a wraith. Another trademark for a thieves guild member.
Skreek figured that because the boss hadn't moved he didn't care what they were doing. Skreek finally answered "he just put a ring into the bag. Why does it matter."
This only angered the boss. He barked out "You dumbass, that wasn't "just a ring" that was a mana-blocking ring."
After that, the whole carriage went silent. Everybody there understood what a mana-blocking ring meant. Only people with high bounties or people being chased by the kingdom wore one to avoid tracking.
Skreek and the rest of the rat-men took a step back. In their eyes, they were just one wrong move away from death. Skreek wasn't sure what to do. He just pointed a dagger at someone incredibly dangerous. Even their boss was only level 50 and only had a medium-sized bounty. Skreek did the only thing he could think of.
"Uh.. sorry." He said.
He then scampered back to where he was sitting originally. The rest of the rat-men quickly did the same.
Amos was beyond surprised. He expected having to fight them and then find another way into the city.
'Well, that was unexpected. Oh well, all's well that ends well.' Amos thought. He then closed his eyes again and continued to wait.
About 30 minutes later the smuggler finally arrived. He opened the flap of the carriage to do a final check. He noticed the normally rowdy rat-men were currently quiet and looking like they almost pissed themselves. The smuggler was confused for a minute before he remembered the high-level guy with a mana-blocking ring. He laughed as he thought about what probably went down.
The smuggler then went on to move to the front of the carriage. The carriage itself was rather large and long. It was being pulled by 2 huge horses. The horses were tamed monster variants. They had 6 legs and longer than normal faces.
The smuggler hopped up and into the seat. He then picked up the reins and got the carriage moving. It went at a steady pace toward the city.
— 30 minutes later —
The carriage finally reached the city. Its outermost wall stretched into the sky. The stones of the wall were a bright white.
In the distance, there was a magic train pulling into a tunnel that connected to the city wall. The train connected the capital to many other nearby cities.
Amos would have preferred to take a magic train into the city, but unfortunately, the guards were far more thorough when they checked the trains because even nobles would ride them.
So Amos had to opt for second best in carriages. Carriages were mostly only used by commoner merchants so the searches were far more lax making smuggling much more easy and safe.
Amos carriage pulled up to the gate where 10 guards were working. People were having their identities checked, as well as multiple carriages also being searched before entering. The carriage Amos was in came to a stop right in front of the gate. Only one of the guards moved forward. The guards wore simple half-metal plating, with shields on their backs and spears in their hands.
The guard was sweating bullets as he approached the smuggler. Even within the carriage Amos could tell the guard was worried. Amos was curious so he activated [ Heightened Senses ] so he could eavesdrop on the conversation.
Amos could tell the smuggler was nervous because the guard was nervous. The smuggler asked with a fake smile "What's the problem officer."
The guard answered "It's nothing that affects you, but those goddamn peasants are having another fucking protest. And From what I heard this one's supposed to be really big. If it turns violent they might call me over!"
The smuggler breathed a sigh of relief. He thought the guards were onto him. The smuggler put his hand out for a handshake. The guard shook his hand. While they were shaking the smuggler said "Heh sucks to be you." The smuggler now had a genuine grin.
When the guard pulled his hand back he found 10 gold in it. He discreetly slid the coins into one of his pouches.
"Yeah, well fuck you too man." He then waved the smuggler in through the gate. The smuggler chuckled as he whipped the reins. The monster horses neighed as they started to move again.
Although Amos overheard everything he still couldn't see it. He was still stuck in the carriage. But from what he heard he had a good understanding of what had happened. One thing caught his attention though, and that was the protest. And if it was the protest that he was thinking of, then he sure picked a shitty time to come.
The carriage continued into the city. It rocked over the bumpy road. The carriage continued into the slums of the city. Once it went in far enough the smuggler stopped. He walked to the side and then knocked on the side twice. Then everybody walked out of the carriage including Amos.
Amos stared at the slums around him. It wasn't anything nice. Homeless people were everywhere and the smell was nauseating. A little down the street he could see a tavern with the name "Succubus's Secret."
'Wonderful,' Amos thought.
Just as Amos was about to leave, he sensed someone approaching him. He turned around to see the boss of the rat-men. The rat man then gave Amos an offer.
"I apologize for my boys. Sometimes they are as dumb as rocks. Anyway, the reason me and my boys came here was that my brother is a big-time player in the thieves' guild. Hell, He's the right-hand man of the guild master. And the thing is, currently business is booming. So my brother is in need of more hands. Which is where me and my boys come in. So I was thinking. You're a fugitive, the ring makes that obvious. So why don't you join us and work for my brother? You'd be safe from the kingdom as long as you were part of the thieves' guild, and with you being so strong you could get a high position making hand-over-fist amounts of money. So what d'ya think."
Amos thought hard about it. He wouldn't need to worry about his bounty any longer. He would almost be guaranteed to become rich. He could probably find a new family in the guild. All it would take would be to go back to stealing and killing.
"Thanks for the offer, but I already have plans," Amos said.
Amos already made up his mind, no matter what, he would do what was right instead of what was easy.
The rat man was surprised by Amos's answer, but he accepted it. The rat man turned around and began to walk away. His posse walked away with him. As he walked away he raised his hand as a goodbye and said "The proposition still stands. If you ever change your mind just go to the guild and ask for Zilch."
Now Amos was alone again. He looked around the slums.
He then walked over to the smuggler and asked for directions to the main adventurer's guild building.
After a couple of coins, the smuggler told him all he needed to know about the city.
The capital city of the Dragfell kingdom. It was separated by 4 large sturdy walls. The outermost wall Amos already got by. Inside this wall lay the commoner's district and the slums. Then beyond the second wall lay the noble's district. Beyond that lay the perimeter after the third wall. Then last but not least beyond the last and fourth wall is the royal palace.
Amos understood what the first, second, and fourth areas were, but he needed an explanation for the "perimeter." The smuggler then said "Heh those paranoid royals. The thing is the perimeter is practically a no man's land. From what I know there are magic traps, beasts underground, and invisible assassins. That's not even to mention the ballista towers at the top of the walls. All of that was just to act as a perimeter for the royal palace. Although that's mostly just rumors so take it with a grain of salt."
Now that Amos understood the layout of the city he then asked for directions towards the adventurers guild. After a few more coins Amos knew where to go for the adventurers guild. The adventurers guild was near the gate to the nobles district.
Amos grumbled as he finally walked away. Even if it was only a couple of silver coins, he didn't like how much money it took for info.
He walked through the slums and towards the better part of town. Amos was half surprised someone didn't try to mug him going by his luck today. Finally, though he stood in a town square with a water fountain at the center. It was the better part of the commoner district.
Looking around Amos was surprised. Outside of the slums, this city was relatively clean. He then remembered something the smuggler said. He said something along the lines of there's a law that no one can build a factory in the capital.
'Guess the royals don't wanna shit where they eat.'
The thought couldn't help but make Amos grin and chuckle. Anyway Amos got back to what he came for. He began to walk towards the noble district. From what the smuggler said he should just walk towards the noble district gate, and he would know the guild when he saw it.
As Amos got closer to the wall he began to hear something. The sound put him on edge. It reminded him of something else. It reminded him of the mob of dead from his dreams. The wailing scream they did.
As he got closer to the gate the sound got louder. He could tell that people were yelling, chanting even. Although he couldn't make out what the chant was.
When Amos turned one last corner he finally saw everything. It was a mob of people. maybe 5000 people if Amos had to guess. The people themselves just looked like peasants and workers. They were all converging towards the gate for the noble's district. Amos could finally make out what the chant was.
"DOWN WITH THE FACTORIES! DEATH TO THE NOBLES!!!"
In that single moment, Amos immediately knew he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. And he was right. He was currently witnessing a historic moment. It would be known as the capital massacre.