Chapter 2: Escape!

The next day, Zaban wakes up in his bed, snuggling his pillow, and sees Corporal Ezof on the ceiling staring at Zaban with an intimidating look in his eyes then Ezof jumps off the ceiling and continues to stare at Zaban, snarling.

"Uhm, good morning sir-"

"In the General's office. Now," Corporal Ezof commanded, cutting Zuban off.

Zaban nods before getting off the bed and walking to the General's office with Corporal Ezof gripping his large stick tight and following Zaban.

"Did I do something wrong, sir?" Zaban asked but Corporal Ezof ignored him and just kept staring at him, coldly saying, "Keep it walking, maggot."

Zaban just shrugged and kept on walking down the halls as he sees every soldier lined up on the walls and saluting, #3 specifically staring at Zaban the hardest with veins popping out of his head.

Zaban lifts an eyebrow at the soldiers lined up before he begins to open the office door as Corporal Ezof aggressively shuts the door behind them.

"Ma'am, sorry for the wait. May we take a seat please?" Ezof said, saluting while Zaban is just yawning, still half asleep before Ezof pokes him in the thigh to salute as well, half-assing it of course.

"Sit," the general says, having the chair turned back against him.

Zaban and Ezof nod before Zaban starts to sweat and approaches the chair, hesitantly taking a seat. "Wait no, that's my chair," Corporal Ezof says before Zuban gets up.

"Sorry sir, where do I sit then?"

Corporal Ezof goes into the closet to take out a small toddler chair, not even going past Zaban's knees. "This is your chair. Sit," Corporal Ezof commanded, before taking a seat on his chair.

"But this chair is too small. I think I'll accidentally break it or something."

"General Hosteller order you to sit."

"But-"

"Sit. Down."

Zaban sighs before embarrassingly taking a seat in the small chair, crossing his arms.

General Hosteller can be seen crossing her legs. "I heard you wanted to leave the Riversia one day, correct?" she says.

"I have no idea what you're talking about- Yeah, I said it..." Zaban says, unable to ever lie to such an intimidating presence in front of him. Corporal Ezof's eye twitches repeatedly after hearing that but the General just snickers.

"Well then, be my guest. Go ahead and leave."

"...Really? Just like that? See! I knew you were cool-"

The General quickly turns to face Zaban and grabs him by the collar to cut him off, staring into Zaban's gold eyes with her grey cold eyes, blue lipstick, and a blonde short ponytail. Zaban sweats more but still has a nonchalant facial expression.

The general looks directly into his eyes, not even blinking once. "No dumbfuck. You can't leave this village and never will," General Hosteller says. "As soon as your mother gave birth to you in this village, you are obligated to stay here and remain safe behind the walls even die to protect this village with your life, understood?"

Zaban and Hosteller continue to stare at each other as silence fills the room while Corporal Ezof clenches his stick firmly, itching to just hit Zaban but remaining calm-ish.

"So, we're just here to just eat, train, sleep, and repeat? Every day? We can't even-"

"I'll be happily fine telling Osei that you're considering betraying us."

"Betray you? How am I betraying anyone?"

"Escaping the village, #4. You are to not leave this village, you know this."

Zaban remains speechless and sighs before Hosteller lets go of his collar and pushes him back into his seat. "Consider yourself lucky that I didn't tell him, lord knows what would happen if I did. You're one of our best soldiers, #4," Hosteller says as Zaban quickly realizes Hosteller is trying to make him guilty and not falling for it.

"It'll be a shame to see you as an escapist and I'll have to send many after you to kill you for treason, you don't want that?" She says.

Zaban continues to ignore her words, knowing what game she is trying to play. "Yeah yeah, I don't. I'm sorry, ma'am," he says. Hosteller grins while staring into Zaban's eyes, "Hmm..." she says before shrugging and sitting back down.

"Good. You are dismissed. Corporal remain here, I'll like to have a word with you."

"Yes ma'am," Corporal Ezof said as Zaban rolled his eyes and walked out the door, staring at the ground and thinking to himself about Hosteller's words.

"You have some nerve, #4."

Zaban stopped and looked back to see #3 standing in the same position the entire time, staring aggressively at Zaban.

"Did you seriously stand there the entire time while I was talking to the general?"

"Of course. I must stand here in case any assassins are coming to take out Hosteller."

"There's been zero assassination attempts dude-"

#3 cuts Zaban off by revealing he had a knife hiding behind his back before immediately trying to stab his head but fortunately Zaban was able to grab his arm and hold the knife back, almost touching his nose.

#3 attempts to try to overpower Zaban but only slowly gains the upper hand, nearly equal. #3 clenches the knife firmly and says, "Think about betraying Riversia again and I'll make sure you get an immediate death penalty, got it?"

Zaban just stared into his eyes with no emotion while still holding off the knife, sweating a bit.

#3 gives back the same stare but doesn't sweat, only just tilts his head and says, "Good." Stopping his assault and putting his knife up, walking off before stopping midway. "Get ready #4. We're doing cardio today, I expect you to train two times as hard," #3 says, continuing his walking.

Zaban remains speechless as he walks off in the same direction after #3 is seen out of sight. "Why the hell does he always equip a knife on him? He's a weirdo..." Zaban scoffs before looking back at the door then goes back to walking.

"I'm leaving this damn village today... I need to have a super duper plan to get out..." Zaban says in his mind, thinking of multiple mathematical equations on how he can escape while he goes off to do training.

Meanwhile, back in the office, Hosteller just closes her eyes and sighs, calming herself down as Ezof, still twitching his eye, looks at her awkwardly.

"Are you upset at #4, ma'am?" Ezof asked. Hosteller just shook her head, "It's part of the reason but not mainly," Hosteller responded. Hosteller begins putting her hands together and starts thinking to herself, "Corporal. #4 will escape this village," she said.

"Pardon me?"

"Solider #4 is going to desert this village. I see it in his eyes. My words did nothing to him."

"How so? He appears to be intimidated by you."

"Intimidated maybe but his eyes... Holds no guilt. As if I was staring into a dragon... I see it. His betrayal will soon happen."

"He can try but we have stationed guards who never move from their post at the gates, then we got soldiers all around him. We have night patrollers scouting the city every night so there's no way he could ever dream of escaping. He'll be a fool," Ezof said confidently, grinning and even snickering at the thought of anyone even attempting to try to sneak out.

"Ezof. He's #4 in our ranking of performance. He's nearly a master of his craft and since he's the only one who is proficient in the bare-knuckle, it says a lot about him," Hosteller says, pushing away from the table and getting off her seat. "Besides, there are ways to escape a village like this. With excellent planning, you can escape anything no matter how impossible. All it takes is an opportunity," Hosteller says.

"Well... If he did ever escape, what do you expect me to do?" Ezof said in an annoyed tone before having a rapier aimed at his nose, pinning him to his chair as Ezof immediately rolls his lips into his mouth.

Hosteller places her boot on his knee and lends in, forcing Ezof to lend back further until the chair stops, making him sweat and pant.

"The Village head will explode in frenzy and get extremely paranoid. If the news spread out that #4 even ATTEMPTED to escape even if he failed or not. He would start to question my, no, our position and either give us immediate execution or worse. Osei is VERY unpredictable," Hosteller says, lending forward slower.

Ezof gulfs and says, "So... so what do you want me-"

"I want you to find #4 and make sure he never leaves. If he does escape, and keep this between you and me and with the others in the position of their ranks, make DAMN sure you bring him back as fast as he left, understood?" Hosteller said as Ezof just nodded, fearfully saying, "Got it! Bring him back! Understood!"

Hosteller glares at Ezof in the eyes, lending forward just to see how he'll react but Ezof just closes his eyes as she sighs and unsheathes her rapier. "Please, for our lives and sake. Keep an eye on him," she says as Ezof nods.

Ezof fixes himself and dusts his pants off. "Trust me, he'll never even escape. I always keep close surveillance over our troops," he says.

Meanwhile, Zaban just sits outside with his comrades before just standing up and walking out.

"Wait a minute, where are you going?" one soldier said, with a #106 number on it.

"I'm using the bathroom."

"And why are you using the bathroom?"

"To pee."

"And where do you need to pee?"

"In... The bathroom?"

"Why?"

Zaban sweats profusely, scratching the back of his head. "To... Pee?" he says as #106 glares at him, scanning Zaban all over.

"Don't think I don't know what you're doing, #4..."

Zaban immediately would take initiative to clench his fist and-

"You're going to use the bathroom on a nearby tree, aren't you? Everyone knows you use the bathroom only to shower. Nasty fuck."

Zaban looks around, making a confused expression on his face. "Ugh... Damn, you caught me..."

"Don't worry, your secret is safe with me. Just clean up after yourself, ew. Pissing on trees like a dog... Imagine," #106 says before walking off as Zaban just nods and walks off, grinning maliciously.

"My unplanned plan worked on him! Heh! I'm such an evil genius," Zaban said in his mind while legitimately walking out of the barracks with zero resistance at all.

"Now that worked, I will do stage two of my unplanned plan..." Zaban whispers to himself while hiding behind a wall, staring at the top of the wall to see the two guards as he wields a rock in his right hand.

"If I throw this rock... They will probably get hit and get knocked unconscious thus distracting the other guard to try to aid him then I'll just walk past... But if I miss, my plan still goes well as they'll be distracted by the rock and I'll walk through... If they notice me... I'll run and there's no way they'll get me that fast... If they do catch me, I'll beat them up and steal their uniforms to blend in and walk out..." Zaban continues this in his mind, not even understanding what he is even saying but he just wants to sound smarter. After a while he grins, "This plan... Can't be stopped!" Zaban said before throwing the rock, hitting the wall next to the guards.

"You hear that?" guard #1 says.

"Probably another rock. Kids love to throw rocks up here to get a reaction out of us or sometimes people throw them to try to escape. Just ignore it," Guard #2 says.

"Oh. Never mind then," Guard #1 says, just ignoring the rock.

Zaban stares at his actual planned plan fail before his eyes. "What... They just... Don't respond to it... Fuck it! I'll have to run for it," Zaban says as he stands up and stares at the two guards before he starts speed walking.

"Yo? Is that a guy trying to escape?" guard #1 says.

Guard #2 just lifts an eyebrow, "Y-Yo?"

"Yeah, what?"

"What does that word mean? Yo?"

"You know... Yo? My way of saying hello or you know, catch people's attention."

"Why don't you just say hey then?"

"I just want to be unique."

"That's not unique, that's just weird."

"Unique technically means weird."

The two guards start to debate about this for a couple of minutes as Zaban just starts to walk regularly to the gate and starts to leave out.

"HEY! YOU!" Guard #2 says as Zaban stops, clenching his fist.

"What sounds more intimidating, 'Yo' or 'Hey'?" Guard #1 says. Zaban gives it time to think before answering the question saying, "Definitely 'Hey' depending on the tone." Zaban then begins walking out of the village with ease as the guards go back to debate.

Guard #1 grumbles as Guard #2 pats his back and snickers, "Told you."

While the guards continue their debate, Zaban just walks outside in shock at how beautiful the trees are, how green the grass is, how... Different everything is compared in Riversia Village... Zaban walks even deeper into the forest, losing sight of Riversia Village and now... everything he wanted, now he has the freedom to do what he wants... To be an adventurer!

. . .

"Ok! What do I do now?" Zaban says with a smile on his face, completely lost.