After the festival, Torin and Aleric both returned to their room. For them, it had been a great day. But Torin felt a thread of confusion in his heart ; during the festival, and all through the night while they were enjoying themselves, they hadn't seen any patrol team of soldiers at all. Had something happened to them, or was it just his own tension?
Torin always slept on the ground beside Aleric's bed. He laid out his bedding next to it.
Aleric was already lying on the bed, watching Torin make his bed. After a few minutes, Torin settled down. There was only a single oil lamp in the room. Their village had no magic equipment, it was too costly, and the government never helped them.
Aleric, still lying on the bed, asked, "Torin… you're here because you miss your parents, right?"
Silence filled the room. Aleric could hear Torin's heart beating fast. Torin answered without hiding anything. "Before they left, they told me to wait. I was only fourteen at the time. But they never returned. Maybe I'm still holding on to that promise."
Aleric turned on his side and looked toward where Torin lay. Moonlight slipped through the window, enough for him to see Torin's outline. "Why don't you take everyone with you and come to my territory?"
Torin sighed. "They won't listen to me. They've been here for countless years. For them, this is their ancestral land. Why would they leave?"
Aleric sighed. "Torin, I'm going to leave soon. I was going to leave today, but seeing everyone here sick or injured, I stayed to heal them…"
Torin felt a pang of sadness. He had grown close to Aleric in these days. His voice was heavy as he said, "Aleric, thank you so much for helping them. Those children… many of them lost their parents in the war. You made them happy. They'll never forget you, not in their whole lives. You're always welcome in our village."
Aleric sighed. "Let's go to the forest tomorrow morning. I'll get some more beasts to gift the village, so they can eat meat for a few more days after I leave."
Torin nodded and chuckled softly. "Then I'll thank you for your help tomorrow."
Aleric and Torin both fell into deep sleep. The whole village had been happy that day, so everyone slipped into a deep slumber for the night.
The next morning, Aleric and Torin left for the forest to get more beasts for the village. Today, Aleric was going to leave. They didn't tell the elders or the children. They didn't want to see them sad.
They searched the forest and found many beasts such as boars, deer, rabbits, and even some wild cows. They killed them and stored the meat in a temporary space pouch that Aleric had selected for Torin to use. Torin always carried the beasts with him in normal times, because they didn't have money to buy this kind of equipment.
Aleric and Torin laughed through the whole journey. The food they collected would be enough for the whole village for at least a month or two. And with that space pouch, the meat wouldn't rot at all. It would stay exactly as fresh as when it was hunted.
But the moment they entered the village, their bodies froze in horror. Torin ran ahead. The village was burned. Elders lay injured in many places. The younger children were severely hurt, some of them unconscious.
Those the same age as Torin were all badly wounded some with broken arms, some missing limbs.
An elder woman, when she saw them returning from the hunt, cried out, "Run! Run, Torin, run with him! The soldiers are here…"
Another elder said, "Aleric, take Torin with you. They won't let us leave, but at least you two should get away."
Aleric was still trying to process what had happened when Torin grabbed the person in front of him . It was the boy who had been washing boar meat yesterday. "David! What happened here? Why did they attack you for no reason?"
David looked at Aleric, then said, "Last night, when we were celebrating, they saw us with Aleric… they reported to their superiors. Today they came asking where he is. But we refused. Aleric is our savior. He saved many of us with medicine and food. How could we…"
At that moment, a deranged laugh came from the road ahead.
"Hahaha, so the rat that ran out a moment ago has returned to his hole? Boy, now come with us…"
It was a middle-aged man, level 40, the commander of the patrolling team. With him were around a hundred soldiers, levels 30 to 38.
Aleric's face darkened. He took out his medicine pouch and handed it to Torin. Torin caught it and understood immediately. He took out the medicine and started treating the severely injured first.
The commander saw everything, his face twisting in anger. "You! Didn't I tell you to come with us to the empire?"
At that moment another soldier stepped out from behind the commander. "How dare you ignore our commander like that? Do you think you have four heads on your shoulders?"
Aleric asked through gritted teeth, "Are you the ones who attacked them?"
The commander sneered. They were kobolds by nature, creatures as ugly as rabid dogs. Kobolds were low-level beasts, short and wiry with scaled, mottled skin, snouts full of yellow teeth, and eyes that gleamed with cruelty. They didn't have human forms. They were among the lowest tier of beastkin.
The kobold commander sneered, "So what if we injured them? They dared to keep a human in the village. How dare they? Do they think we won't kill them? It's their good fortune we didn't kill them then and there."
Aleric's expression twisted into a strange smile. Then he started laughing. "Hahaha, good! Good that you're the ones who attacked them."
Everyone looked at him in confusion, even the villagers, then he continued,
"So I don't need to find you one by one and kill you."
Without delay, he drew his personal sword from his space pouch. The blade was rough and sharp, made of pure black iron, capable of cutting through even level 90 beings. These soldiers were nothing in front of it.
He moved with the precise steps of Valerius footwork, cutting through one head after another with his level 50 strength. Using his level and the four forms of Valerius swordsmanship, he could fight even level 55 opponents. These idiots were mere ants to him.
The commander's whole body froze. He hadn't realized until now how strong his opponent was. He joined the assault, but it changed nothing.
In just a few minutes of relentless strikes, Aleric had killed all the kobold soldiers. Only the commander remained.
The commander's sword shattered in a direct clash. He fell to the ground, begging for mercy. "Please, please forgive me. I won't tell anyone you were here, I won't leak the information… please let me live."
But in his mind, he was planning to kill this bastard a thousand times over. He grabbed a handful of sand from the ground and threw it at Aleric but when he looked up, Aleric was already gone. He spun around, searching, when a sharp blade pierced his heart. With a choked scream, the level 40 kobold commander died without ever seeing how his opponent moved.
The villagers all looked at Aleric with utmost respect. The people who had devastated their village were dead. Children started clapping and jumping in happiness. They hated those soldiers to their core.
Torin finished the first aid and came to Aleric, who was sitting on the ground, lost in thought.
Torin offered him a glass of water and sat beside him. "What are you thinking?"
Aleric took the glass, drank, and answered, "This all happened because of me. If I hadn't been here in the first place, none of this would have happened…"
Before he could continue, Torin slapped him hard on the back. Aleric yelped, "Ah! Ow ow! Torin, what are you doing?!"
Torin shouted at him, "Are you an idiot? Look at the villagers. Look how happy they are to have you here. And those bastards always came to bully us."
Aleric looked around. The elders and children all had smiles on their faces. The young people looked at him with reverence.
Aleric said, "Why don't you come with me to my territory? I can't change the laws of the Imperium, but with my power and my family's influence, I can keep you safe."
Everyone looked at each other. Then an elder said, "Aleric is right. Those soldiers won't let us live after this. And these children… they should grow up in peace, not like this."
Everyone nodded. After a few minutes of discussion, they decided to leave the village with Aleric. The children, adults, and elders all became hopeful.
Torin returned to his house to pack. Aleric had a few space bags in his pouch and gave them to the villagers. They put all their belongings inside.
After a few hours, they all left the village together, ready to cross the forest and enter human territory.
Torin looked back at his village for the last time. He remembered the promise he made to his parents, but now he couldn't keep it. Maybe his parents would have wanted him to leave. His eyes filled with tears as he stared at the village, when he felt a hand on his right shoulder. He turned to see Aleric smiling at him.
The journey took two days.
Aleric led the front, sword ready, cutting a path through the snowy forest and watching for beasts. Torin guarded the rear, claws out, making sure no one fell behind. Between them walked the villagers ; elders, mothers, children quiet but determined.
When snow wolves attacked, Aleric killed three in seconds and the rest fled. That night they camped under pines, sharing dried meat and water. By noon the next day the forest ended and the desert began.
The sun was brutal. Sand burned their feet and the wind stung their eyes. Aleric took out dried meat and sips of water from his space pouch, drinking last. Torin carried tired children on his back and pressed water into the elders' hands. "Just a little more," they both said. "The border is close."
By evening they saw lights. The border village of the Valerius Archduchy. The gates opened when the guards recognized Aleric.
Meanwhile, the Beast Empire found the patrol's corpses and the burned, empty village. They followed the trail through the forest to the desert's edge, but they were a day too late. The wind had already erased the villagers' tracks, and the group was safe inside Valerius territory.