After cleaning and treating the wound. The red haired man went on looking for the brown hair kid. He went on looking everywhere yet found no trace of him. The only thing that he found by someone else was he travelled alone to the village and went off back. He even won the bet but never took the money. When someone followed him, he just said to just use it for the village and went off saying nothing else.
The red hair thought to himself ‘Gambling… No, I meant betting and that skin tone… are you even trying to hide your identity anymore? Only one person is stupid enough to bet on most random things and walk away knowing he will win.’ as he sighs. ‘I really have no idea what is on his mind. I guess he is showing me that he trusts me…’
‘Well I already knew’ said Ananke as he smiled.
The direction he went off to was the capital. Ananke could easily have caught up to him if he had sprinted towards there but he decided to let it go and stayed behind at the village for now.
Meanwhile at the guard camp, the leader gathered up all of the five members from the group in charge of the kid into the camp.
He walked in front of the members repeatedly as he looked through their reports and stories that they wrote of what went on without giving them much time to discuss it among themself. The tension raised in the air with every turn of the page. The members were ready for the group who was in charge of the kid to face punishment or even lay off for the mess and drama they caused.
The leader sighs “So which one of you is responsible for the cause of that?”
All of them had their eyes looking down at the floor from guilt except for one.
He gave them all drill punishment for not reporting it instantly and the one with no guilt, even further severe punishment.
After a few minutes, a man with dark, tired eyes, stopped in the middle of it all and walked up to the commander questioning why he was being treated differently.
The leader asked that man “Why were you the only one who hit him?"
“I thought he was faking it as he woke up before and playing games on us to make a fool of us and to not face questioning. The other members poke him a few times to reassure him but seeing no reaction he hit him a little harder to see if he was faking it or not” said the man
The leader rubs his eyes as he tried to cool down his anger
“And what gave you the right to do that?”
“For the suspicion of—”
“I am not asking about the cause but the right, He was unconscious or not, He was not proven guilty. never was. On top HE was wounded. I specifically told you guys to treat his injuries. Not to cause more! You really think what you did was morally right?” said the commander with rage in his voice.
“It was for the better of—”
“Is that why you still have a smile on your face?”
The commander noticed him having a grin on his face as he tried to suppress it.
“Get back in the line right now!.”
“But I did nothing wrong or different from others. I am facing injustice by being treated differently.”
“You are the only one hot tempted feeling no guilt after the only one who hit him when he was unconscious and now you dare to stand up here and find excuses instead of admitting them?”
The leader took on the paper which had listed the members name and he struck out the name of his from the paper.
Seeing him being steadfast and not backing off, the leader said “You will no longer be part of this group. Get out. You will be released from duties after we reach back to town”
The man angrily dashed out of the camp.
Another member was sure that was going to get fired for the mess he caused when escorting the kid to the village with that man as the kid was grabbed around in. He waited for his name to be cut off.
He checked the report once more as the four of them remained doing push ups as punishment.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
The leader said “Anthenee!”
Anthenee was the name of the man who escorted the kid in the village with that man who just got fired. He looked weak and ordinary looking and had two small orange bouncing balls tied to a string to his right side near his sword belt at which the leader glanced for a moment.
“Yes sir!” as he stood up straight.
“Good work, and you all can stop now” said the leader as he walked out of the room.
This confused him more as he was sure he would be kicked out with the other man.
He soon followed the leader and questioned him why was he not listed off and was instead complemented. The leader told him to ease up and relax.
“Do you want to be listed off?” said the leader as he cracked a smile which was followed by questioning him “Tell me why you should be listed off?”
“I wrote in the report of how I was the one with him, who carried him on the shoulder. You must have heard of the report of the drama that went on in the village.”
The leader calmly replied “And your report is incorrect… You see, I went on and talked to the village guards on the entrance about it and they told me about how one of them explained the reasoning and the other one was ready to throw fist. You diffused the situation and are the reason why the fight did not break out between us and the village guards. I wonder who convinced him to leave him at the tavern. You took the burden to go with him even when you were endangering yourself while being lower ranked than him and even successfully handled it.”
The leader smiled as he said “It's kind of funny how his report said he was cuffed in the room yet he was roaming freely. I wonder what happened to the key as it is missing…”
The keys and cuffs were no longer there. Anthenee when walking out the tavern put the keys on the table with this woman named Rhina with a slight gesture hiding from the other man but in Rhina’s eyes, it was almost like it was the decision of the soldiers. [He acted like it was decision of soldiers so that people don't think ill of soldiers for the actions of a fool]
“You know, you always looked weak, unmotivated, lazy and that carefree smile of yours. As if you had no will to work and were just trying to complete your time in the military. I had not much expectation from you and even thought of changing you with someone else… But time after time, you have proven yourself. And now once again. I doubt anyone would be able to handle that situation from the unit as well as you did.”
The leader smiled as he said “I would rather have a person who caused injustice and feel guilty about it than a new person who will cause injustice someday and may never feel guilty.”
The Anthenee looked with confusion.
The leader instantly replied “Don’t get me wrong, you did not cause any injustice. I just wanted to say that statement for a long time… I am not letting you go. Your own kindness worked against you” as he laughs.
He stood up and put his hand on Anthenee's shoulders.
“You are now promoted to the group leader”
“This is a punishment isn't it?” Anthenee replied as he sighs.
“You act dumb but I guess you are smarter and observant than most of us…” commented the leader but Anthenee just replied “Nothing like that. I just got lucky”
“Lucky huh? I am sure you can become awakened with ease from luck such as that” as the leader laughed “I hope you work hard and manage the team as I expect you to.”
“Yes Sir!”
“Well then I guess I still have some work to do” said the leader as he was walking off somewhere, he paused and asked “but before that… Anthenee, What is your dream?”
“To retire at age of 25” said Anthenee.”
The leader said "Aren't you 24 already…” asked the leader with confusion.
“I am. I just keep on increasing it by one till I retire.” replied Anthenee.
The leader let out a laugh as he said “I guess that can… be a dream. I wish you luck in this dream of yours” as the leader walked off.
As for the other man who was listed off, he was a tavern drinking and complaining while mumbling to himself about how the world failed him.
“I would had been the leader soon if it wasn't for that stupid kid.” He laid his head on the table babbling about his misery to himself and heard the people at the tavern talking about the rumors of a mad hero.
Someone from another table talked about “Did you guys hear about the mad hero?”
“Who hasn't, he came here just a few hours ago carrying the injured kid, the same one who fought against that adventurer.”
“Yea I saw that kid injured badly and that tavern owner told the hero to lay him down in the first room upstairs. He hasn't woken up since, I bet he can not even move a muscle from how bad he looked."
Upon hearing this, the man suddenly got an idea for his revenge.
He tried to rent the room next to the kid but it was already taken by someone.
Rhina said “If you want, there is a room fr—” but cut off by the man saying “Forget it, I will find another way” rudely.
Rhina thought to herself “But… there are no other places where he can stay…”
It striked midnight and soon the people started going back home leaving the tavern empty.
A man walked up behind the tavern as he looked towards the windows of the room where the kid rested.
He put on a cloak that covered his face and pulled out a rope with a hook at its one end and a blade that was hidden in between his clothes.
Behind the tavern struck the moonlight and had three wooden crates, stacked up one on two and other junk in the shadows.
The man scaled the window and picked up the rope ready to throw it up
“Blame it on yourself. You are the reason why I had to go this far. I am not in the wrong, the world is. It's your fault for existing and coming out of that void."
