Chapter 12 - A weapon in hand

I swiftly left the building that I had used for hiding and spying. I did not want to waste too much time, as that could mean them splitting up and disappearing from his sight.

The chances of them being allies were greater than the chance of them being enemies. That's why I wanted to present myself to them while they were all together. 

The reason for this is that a form of trust will be easier built when there's the opportunity to strike while they're all together.

Building trust between each individual would be more complicated than trying it with a group. 

A group can be considered as an individual too, because at the end of the day, everyone will try to convince one another of their own thoughts until one thought comes out supreme! 

In contrast, when going from individual to individual, I'll probably have to deal with each of them and that was a great inconvenience to myself. So in short, it's a decision of wanting to deal with multiple personalities at one single strike. But before that, I decided to do something more.

At first, I swiftly and sneakily explored the nearby buildings. However, I wasn't able to find any of the items I wanted. 

Every building was empty, filled with nothing but a few furniture and grass straws. Because of this, I decided to waste no more time and headed straight towards where I was certain there would be enough bowls for everyone to use.

After exiting the last building which was near the center, a sharp glare of light entered the corner. Something was reflecting the light from above, and because any form of light was easy to see in this dimly lit cave, it wouldn't be difficult for anyone to pinpoint its exact location.

This reflected light was so easy to spot, to the point that it was even annoying to the eyes. I walked up to see what was causing the reflection, and couldn't help but wonder why no one had done anything about it.

It makes sense for those children to not have cared about it, since they might have just taken it with a light heart, presumably thinking that it was just another bright thing that was annoying. 

But what about those soldiers? Surely, they must know that anything reflective can be used as a tool of resistance against them, right? There are so many good reflective things! A small pool of water, a mirror, a weapon! That's right! As long as it's solid, I can use it as a weapon!

"Please be a weapon! Please be a weapon…" I mumbled to myself as I edged closer to the center, not too far from where the children were.

'No wonder I didn't see it before…" I mumbled again. 

The glare of light was being obstructed by poles used for hanging torches. I wasn't able to see the glare of light from above and the certain angles that I had been looking from earlier, all because of these kinds of obstructions.

'Good thing I looked around… Hmm… I thought that it was the soldiers who relighted the torches earlier, but now that there are no soldiers here, who will keep these up?'

As I pondered, again, another thought crossed my mind, 'Could it be that magic might be an influence? After all, a torchlight shouldn't be burning more than a day, should it? It has been so long…'

My train of thought came to a sudden halt as the source of the glaring light became visible to me.

A sword! 

I imagined it as the sword of an unlucky person who was unlucky enough to have dropped it!

I wasn't too happy about finding it. Instead of a sword, I had wanted something smaller. However, after thinking about it, I realized that it was too much for me to be so wishful. 

None of the soldiers I had encountered had daggers or any of that sort. So, it'd be a miracle if I did find something that I like.

But, what about water?

Water was one of my expectations too. The only thing that there is so far is food. Although it was soup, if I and the others are planning to survive for at least two days, water is very essential.

Unfortunately…

I was neither happy nor disappointed. The fact that I found a sword was more than enough. After all, it would really help in the offensive parts. The problem, however, is that a sword would easily expose me. 

I can not carry the sword with me. It would only mean suicide if I carried this dangerous thing! 

When having a sword amongst people like me, disarray and chaos will be evident, due to the sense of power that the sword gives to a defenseless person!

While a group of soldiers would pass by, I'll be either killed or tortured, because with a sword, I can triumph over those with fists but will die against those with swords!

Although I was contemplating the worst scenarios, I still decided to take the sword that was right in front of me. I guessed there was a way I could make use of it without being flashy about it, after all.

After picking up the sword, I slowly backed away as I did not want to reveal myself to the others.. not yet. I wanted to pick the sagely route when approaching them instead of a tyrannical one!

While backing away, I noticed that the gleam from the sword had drawn the attention of one of the children. I had figured that much would happen since the glare was way too much of an attention seeker. 

One slight adjustment of the sword's position should be enough to draw someone's attention, so me bringing the sword with me naturally meant exposing myself!!

I did not panic though, as my thoughts were already two steps ahead of the obvious. Before the child could turn her head in my direction, I directed the glaring light toward her eyes.

The girl was momentarily blinded and could not notice me as she was forced to close her eyes all of a sudden because of the glaring brightness. In that short moment, I rushed into hiding and successfully escaped with the sword!