Chapter 107: Everyday Life (1/2)
Sally had watched the squad of the hand leave the village and felt the gazes upon her heavily. For once it didn’t seem the people watching her were after the money she hid in her heavy coats. ‘I hope they come back alive...’ she thought as she turned to grab her drink that had been untouched for a while. She had left the mercenaries to interrogate the two people they had found spying on them and returned to the inn as soon as they were done.
The innkeeper was acting a little tense now after the squad was through but if it weren’t for the constant bad feeling she had inside of this village, she would’ve attributed that to simply being in contact with a shadow squad. ‘I need to get the hell out of here...’ she thought and finished the drink.
A couple hours later a group of villagers burst into the inn, some of them looking at her but they didn’t seem too concerned by the woman. She was a couple dozen levels higher than anybody in the room but if they would gang up on her it would prove to be a difficult fight. She read the mood and respectfully left towards the top floor and her room, mostly to not end up in a fight.
What the group downstairs didn’t know was that Sally had exceptional hearing, coming from her second more stealthy class. Standing still near the stairway, she strained her ears and listened in, if only to be able to flee should the need arise.
“...they have entered the main hall.” one of the men said in a hushed but aggravated voice, clearly not handling the stress as well as he should be.
“So? Many have done the same and so far nobody has returned. Trust in the Father.” Sally found herself a little surprised at the innkeeper’s words. Except for a little tension she hadn’t felt anything from him. A good actor. She wasn’t quite sure who this father was supposed to be but it was quite clear that this village was the reason for all the missing adventurers who went to investigate the other village.
Sally wondered how the empire had even been notified about the missing people in the first place but shelved that thought for now. She was in danger for sure and the only reason the people likely hadn’t looked for her already was the bigger threat of the shadow squad.
“Yes we know but nobody has entered the same way… they broke the barrier Hollum!” the last part would’ve even been heard by someone without enhanced hearing. It was the same man speaking but more voices skipped over each other now, trying to get their opinions in.
“It was a mistake, a big mistake… I’m gonna leave. You do whatever you want.” one of them said and stormed towards the door but was stopped by one of his fellows.
“Don’t get cold feet now, we’ve been in this together Karl.” somebody else said but then the room fell quiet as Sally heard the door open and someone step in. A quiet step. She could feel shivers form on her back and her skills activated as she waited on the top of the staircase.
“Welcome back. So have you found the...” the innkeeper started but was interrupted by the sound of someone humming. Sally stepped back one step and then two as she listened to the eerie tune, the sound of a blade cutting through flesh and blood dripping on the ground was quickly added, finally followed by the presumably falling corpses that hit the floor. Not a single word was uttered by any of the people downstairs until the humming stopped. Sally had her hand on the handle of her sword when the same humming voice came from below.
“No need to be afraid officer.” it was one of the mercenaries and Sally found herself unable to let go of her sword. Concentrating on it she finally released her tense hand and released the buffs she had cast upon herself. ‘No stupid moves now or you’re dead...’ the thought came to her mind as she steeled herself and walked downstairs slowly.
All seven people including the innkeeper were laying on the floor of the building, dead and bleeding, coloring the brown wood in a dark shade of red. One of the mercenaries was standing in the middle of the room, clad in her dark armor, her face covered in a mask that showed a white smile. The woman was staring towards the ceiling and turned towards Sally as soon as she set foot into the room. She readied all her resolve and all her skills to react in an instant should the mercenary find a reason to attack her.
“Relax.” came the word from the door as another one of them entered. The woman who had presumably found the spies and was constantly eating. It didn’t look as silly anymore now that Sally faced her, clad in black full plate armor with a horned helmet and covered in blood. “We found and killed the responsible. Turns out most of them were from this village. You got all of them?” she asked towards the masked mercenary.
“Seven. There should be five more.” she said and walked towards the door, vanishing before Sally’s eyes.
“Good hunt.” the other woman said and looked at the scene before her, the look on her face unreadable below her helmet. She then walked to each corpse and closed their eyes, a weird gesture. Sally’s eyebrows lifted as the first corpse vanished and then the second one. All of them vanished before the woman walked out the back door. No other words had been spoken and Sally found her curiosity win over as she followed behind the woman.
A couple dozen meters behind the inn, right at the start of a field the mercenary stopped and started digging with the shovel she had gotten from god knows where. ‘Graves...’ Sally thought as she watched the woman dig seven graves for the people who were killed.
“Here you are.” a new voice joined the solemn scene as the mercenary team leader walked up to Sally who turned to look at her. “Would you please come with me to discuss the report.” the woman said and Sally found herself nodding along, following behind as the sound of shoveling continued behind her.
Ilea finished the last grave and summoned the corpses from her necklace to fill the spaces. She felt a slight disturbance in her sphere but continued. “You think they deserve that?” Eve asked as she appeared a couple meters away from her. “After what they’ve done.”
“Maybe not, but we don’t have to become them.” Ilea answered, getting a slight chuckle from Eve.
“I have murdered them all in cold blood. And you would have done the same had I not asked for it.” Ilea stayed quiet, knowing that there was some truth to what her team mate said. Still she refused to give in completely. Foolish maybe but something inside of her didn’t want to let go. Eve scoffed but didn’t leave, instead watching the woman work as she closed up the graves with earth. Three metal spheres hovered into her sphere and expanded into plates, closing the last four graves in one move. A gesture one could interpret in different ways but Ilea knew Kyrian meant well.
“You stopped something before it got dangerous then. Thank you.” the official said and got a pouch from her coat.
“It was plenty dangerous for everybody who died already.” Eve said in a cold voice.
“O… of course, I’m sorry… I meant for the empire itself.” the official tried to salvage her comments but Ilea was quite sure Eve was having none of that. She was enjoying a meal from Keyla and looked on as Claire counted the gold. Eve had simply handed Ilea her pack when she realized that she had a storage item, grumbling about unnecessary weight she had been carrying all this time.
Claire took a while to finish up with the official and Ilea had managed to try most of the different beverages stored in the inn and its cellar. Luckily there was no further blood magic related finds in said cellar. There would be an investigator sent by the empire to determine the involvement of the village in the killings but the shadow squad had already cleaned up rather well. The evidence combined with some last minute confessions made for a compelling argument though Ilea still had some qualms about being the vigilante murderer she had become.
It didn't bother her nearly as much anymore as the first time she had killed and it would bother her less and less, she was sure of it. 'I'll have to visit a priest or something...' she thought as she emptied the last bit of the best mead she could find in the cellar.
“Ilea we're leaving!” Eve shouted from above and a blink later the squad was back together, ready to go onto their third mission together. It had taken a total of five hours to finish up everything in the village and they left in a rather solemn atmosphere. The girl turned out to be related to some of the people in the village who had believed her to be missing in the nearby forest. Eve made quite sure to mention that she would check in on them and if any harm would come to the girl the whole village would be razed.