Chapter 258: Time for War

"Alright, let's do this!" Sera shouted in excitement and pulled back her bow with an arrow already nocked on the string.

"Whoah there lady," a soldier put a hand on her bow. "Wait for the signal first, it's not the time yet. You will get plenty of opportunities to shoot later."

Sera lowered her weapon, puzzled. "What do you mean? The monsters are right there, I can shoot them from this distance, no problem!"

The soldier shook his head in disapproval. "How many arrows do you have? Why risk shooting and missing at this distance when you can just wait until the monsters are closer and distracted?"

"Haha," Sera laughed triumphantly and pulled five full quivers out of her Space Pouch. "I thought about it, and I brought more than two hundred arrows! What can you say about this, huh?!" She looked at him expecting him to turn away in embarrassment.

And he did, just not for the right reasons.

"Oh, wow… Lucky you. I only got fifty here, that's all they gave us…" The guy rubbed his nose and pretended not to care. He was a little jealous on the inside though.

"But even if you had a thousand arrows, could you even shoot that many? And if you could, then what? Let's say each arrow takes one life, which it probably won't…" the soldier continued.

"What are you getting at?"

"Oh nothing, it's just that there are over half a million Goblins… if my information is up to date."

"Half a million?!" the girls exclaimed at the same time, with Elly being the quietest among them.

The soldier guy grinned at their surprise, but then quickly pretended it was no big deal and simply shrugged. "That's just the Goblins. The bigger monsters won't go down just by a single arrow, and there are hundreds of thousands of them…"

"Wait, you said before the Goblins would be distracted, why is that? What did you mean?" Xilia suddenly asked after being unable to come up with a satisfying answer by herself.

The soldier looked at her in surprise, and then seeing the other two look at him with questioning gazes as well, he realized they truly didn't know. He took a step torward the edge of the wall and pointed down at the machicolations.

"See for yourself."

And they did. Through the holes, they could clearly see the wooden houses and dirty, sickly, old people. Cripples and dying elderly were huddled together around small fires even though it was summer. Their skinny bodies were cold even though the sun shone at full power.

It was the slums just outside Auralba.

"By Innos, those people…"

Realization suddenly hit them, and especially Elly, her eyes opened wide. "We need to save them! The monsters, they…"

"And then what?" The soldier looked her in the eyes.

"We can bring them inside and help them, and then…"

The guy shook his head and gestured with his hand. "Look around, the city was long since been full. People have been sleeping on the streets for days now. They are starving already, and those are the people that can still work."

Elly looked at him in disbelief, and even Sera and Xilia frowned at the thought. "We are just going to ignore them? We're just going to watch them die? That's so cruel!" Tears started forming in her eyes.

Silence prevailed on that piece of the wall, and even the warriors adjacent to them turned somber.

The soldier made a long sigh and took off his helmet. His hair was greasy and unkempt, he had rough stubble on his chin, and dark circles rested below his eyes.

"You think I like this? Look at me! I haven't slept in two days because some people can't keep their fingers to themselves! Yesterday I witnessed a girl being violated and we had to execute the man in broad daylight!" The soldiers squeezed the words through gritted teeth, and his fingers balled into a fist.

"Day before that an old man died, stabbed through the heart for a handful of meat! I knew that man for my entire life, he had a food stall, best damn duck in the Kingdom!" Barely keeping himself together the soldier shook while reliving the memory.

His eyes burned with such righteous fury, and his eyes glowed with hate and helplessness, it seemed almost as if he tried to crush the world for being unfair.

"Every day, every fucking day someone dies, is robbed, or beaten just for the heck of it. And you know why? Because there are too many people. Too many motherfucking people, and never enough guards! We can barely keep the peace from unraveling into total chaos and anarchy."

He was tired! So tired of clueless people with grand ideals who knew nothing of the world. How could everyone be saved? It was impossible!

"Those people outside, as tragic as it is, are waiting to die! They knew monsters were coming, and guess what? They stayed! They have nowhere to go and nobody to help them. At least they will delay the monsters for a moment and allow us to better protect those that can still be saved…"

The soldier's voice became quieter until only a murmur remained, "Just wait for the fucking signal…" Then he put his helmet back on and turned quiet. He placed the bow on the ground and sat beside it with his back to the wall and head resting on his knees.

About ten minutes later, the monsters moved. Soon after the screams of people were heard, immediately drowned out by the screeches of the monsters.

Elly curled into a ball as she wept and the other two closed their eyes with grim expressions. They each had their own thoughts… Especially Sera, she just realized that war was not as fun as she had imagined. Actually, it wasn't fun at all!

Booooo!

A powerful sound of a horn resounded along the wall, and the soldier lifted his head and stood up.

"Time for war..."