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72.95% Dagger / Chapter 89: See-neaking In

Bab 89: See-neaking In

It was already pass sunset and the full moon was shining down from above; nevertheless, Allen and Edwin was still awake, trekking up a mountain.

They already exited the Monarch Forest a few hours ago. After getting out, they proceeded to climb up the mountain at Allen's lead.

'Where are we even going?', Edwin thought.

At some point, Allen stopped walking and took out a compass. It was the same compass that he tampered with before they entered Monarch Forest. Edwin saw the compass and made him think why Allen kept taking it out.

Before they even started to climb up the mountain, Allen have been taking in and out the compass for many times.

Unlike yesterday, the compass needle started moving and pointed to a certain direction up the mountain. Allen placed it away in his satchel and continued to stride towards the direction where the needle pointed.

Some time later, the two of them arrived near a pit on the mountain. On the pit, was an encampment of some sort.

"There are actually people living on the mountain?" Edwin remarked, "Isn't this pass dangerous?"

However, Allen shook his head then pointed to something near the settlement. Edwin looked over and saw that it was a coach, but he felt that it was a bit familiar.

"Could it be?", Edwin turned his gaze to Allen.

"Yes, it's that same carriage.", Allen nodded and took out his compass again. The tip of its needle pointing towards the carriage.

"The people camped in there are pirates. The driver of the carriage we rode on is also a pirate.", Allen added.

"How did you know?", Edwin asked.

"The accent of the driver was suspicious. It seems like he was forcing to copy the accent of the townsfolk. If he didn't come from the neighboring country the east, then he's a pirate.", Allen said.

He added, "So I hid a special kind of metal that I could track on the book that I was reading... and my hunch about that man was right."

"What are we going to do now then?", Edwin asked curiously.

"No, what are you going to do?", Allen returned back the question.

"Me? Wait... I'm going to take care of them myself?", Edwin asked in surprise.

"You still didn't answer my question. Again, what are you going to do?", Allen repeated the question.

"I'm going to... kill them all?", Edwin replied. A tinge of hesitation appeared on his face.

"And why is that?", Allen asked.

"Because... they killed innocent people?", Edwin said.

"Alright, but what if there are also some innocent pirates in that camp?", Allen asked again.

"How can that be possible? Pirates being innocent?", Edwin was baffled.

"Some of them were probably forced under certain circumstances. Yes, they have sinned in some ways such as stealing and possibly murdered others to make a living, but is that reason enough to end their lives?", Allen questioned.

'Should I answer yes or no?', Edwin thought. In the end, he couldn't answer back anything.

"We live in a world where morality is one of the basis of what the majority will think of you. Killing is wrong, but there is always a reason for everything that we will do.", Allen said.

"Edwin?" Allen turned his head to Edwin, "Have you killed somebody?"

"No." He shook he his head. As far as he could remember, he hasn't killed a single sentient being yet. Even the elves were only severely injured.

"I will capture them, but what will I do to the ones who did heinous acts?", Edwin asked.

"Leave them to me. Try to restrain all of them first.", Allen said. Afterwards, he gave the boy a black robe and sent him on his way.

***

The camp didn't have any walls surrounding it, letting Edwin easily enter its perimeter. He noticed at one glance the nicely built shanties, as if the settlement was a permanent one.

He heard noises of cheering as well as laughing as he got closer to the center. In the center of the settlement, a large bonfire was burning; surrounding it were celebrating people. He didn't head straight to that location because there were too many of them.

Allen took his satchel where most of his equipment were and only carried his twin daggers with him so that he would be challenged.

He kept travelling around the camp discreetly until he found the place that he was searching for, which was a rather large house. The house was bigger in size and even had some decorations on it compared to the rest of the buildings around it, but it was near the bonfire where there the crowd was having a party of some sort.

Edwin guessed the building was the home of the leader of the settlement.

Still under the cover of darkness, Edwin made a detour around the center, avoiding the torches or any source of light that could expose him until he arrived at the back of the leader's house.

"Hey you! Stop right there!", a voice said behind him.

Edwin was caught off guard, and he cursed within his mind, 'Damn it, I should've checked the area first.' He was sure that all of the men were celebrating, but he was caught by a patrol.

"Why aren't you kneeling? Go kneel!", the voice said again.

He slowly started to get into a kneeling position; however, he was also getting ready to take out his twin daggers from his sleeves at the same time. As he was about to fully get into a kneeling position, he swiftly got his daggers out and injected it with internal energy while turning around towards the voice.

Turning around, he only saw a seemingly drunk man who was talking to a training dummy from the other side of the path.

"You piece of **** how dare you not respond! Eat this.", the man lifted up his sword in a bid to attack the dummy, but he suddenly slipped midway and fell on his back towards the ground while the sword swirled on the air above him.

As the man was about to stand up again, the butt of the sword accurately hit his head and knocked him out.

Edwin: "..."

After that, he checked the backdoor and figured out that it was unlocked. He carefully entered through it and closed it.

He was now in a small hallway lit up by torches. He probed the rooms that was connected to the hallway until he found the bedroom.

Going inside the bedroom, he surveyed around until he finally walked towards a wardrobe and hid in it.

Time passed and the sounds of celebration faded. Edwin almost took a nap, but his tiredness was cleared off when he heard footsteps coming towards the room.

Through the little holes on the wardrobe, he spotted a big man whose physique could be mistaken for a barbarian, and beside him was a woman; then something happened next.

Edwin's mouth widened as he witnessed everything, from the up to bottom to the both of them going up to the bed. He covered his eyes, calmed himself down, and swallowed his saliva.

Afterwards, he heard the sounds of moaning, making his face twitch repeatedly.

"Harder, harder.", the woman's voice said. After Edwin heard that, even louder moans echoed throughout the room; this time making his hands shudder.

Then he started hearing the sound of the bed creaking loudly for many times. Edwin unconsciously slapped his forehead in distress.

"Huh, who's that?", the man said. He went out of bed and grabbed his sword from underneath.

Afterwards, he approached the wardrobe. When he was in front of the wardrobe, he pierced his sword through it and slashed it apart.

When the wardrobe collapsed, only pieces of wood and clothes remained, all of which got torn apart, but there wasn't anything else.

"I could've sworn I heard something", the man said.

In a split-second, Edwin appeared behind the man and knocked him out by the back of his head. The man dropped to the ground with a thud.

Edwin seemed to be slightly panting and sweating although he didn't waste a lot of internal energy.

"Ummm... kid, don't you want to come up here? I can give you... you know.", the woman shyly said to Edwin, as if she didn't see how the man was easily beaten by him.

Edwin quickly threw the dagger with its handle aimed towards the woman's head, which knocked her out. That's when he started to pant heavier, but he tried stabilized his breathing and it went back to normal a few seconds later.

After which, he stiffly walked towards the bed to retrieve his dagger and tied the man with the rope he found in another room, while he wrapped the woman around the blanket first then tied her up. He also covered their mouths with cloth in case they would attempt to call for help once they woke up.

'I did not see anything!' Edwin breathe in large amounts of air.

"Next targets, the assistants." He said and he left the house.


PERTIMBANGAN PENCIPTA
Celestially_Mortal Celestially_Mortal

A bit late.

Bab 90: Monarch Walls

Night passed and the sun was beginning to shine from the edge of the horizon.

From the encampment, a black-robed figure was waving its right hand towards Allen.

...

"That took long enough.", Allen approached the figure, which was none other than Edwin.

"I tied up everybody here. It was a breeze, they were drunk so it was an easy job.", Edwin replied with fervor as he guided Allen through the encampment.

After walking for some time, the both of them reached the center of the camp where the already extinguished bonfire was. Beside it was numerous people tied up by ropes, either by groups, pairs, or alone.

There weren't just men, there were also women who were wrapped around by blankets, and even minors too.

When Allen saw the women who looked like burritos, he turned his head to Edwin.

As if knowing what kind of look Allen was giving even with a blank face, he looked away and said, "I swear... I didn't do anything."

After a pause, Edwin coughed to ease the awkwardness and asked, "What are we going to do to these pirates?"

"Leave it to me.", Allen said as he went closer to a man. He removed the cloth covering his mouth; after which, the man made heavy breaths as he said, "I-It's you two!"

"How are the horses? Are they still being fed nicely? Or were you the one who fed on them?", Allen pulled up the man's hair, forcing him to look straightly towards him.

The man was the driver of the coach that Allen and Edwin rode on.

"What do you want?", the man asked with fear and an eastern accent.

"Who is the one here that committed the most grievious crimes?", Allen untied the man and made him stand up.

The man nervously scanned around the area until he pointed at the leader of the settlement, "He's the leader here, and also committed a lot of crimes like..."

Allen interjected mid-way and said, "No need to state them."

He loosened his gripped on the coach's hair, "Edwin, guard this fellow. I'm going to have a little talk with this man." Allen carried up the tied man and dragged him towards his house.

There was a bit of fear on the man's face; however, he mostly felt anger right now as he kept resisting Allen's pull. 

Before Allen went inside the house, he said to Edwin with his back facing him, "And whatever you hear, don't get bothered by it."

Not even a minute had passed, the most painful cries could be heard, but immediately stopped; however, it started again and this time, the yells were even louder.

A commotion started within the camp, as the time passed and the shouts of pain became even louder, more than half of the people outside started to cry, most of which were women and most of them comprised of kids.

The kids started to heavily tear up, the cloth wrapped on the mouth of a particular kid loosened and he cried out to Edwin, "Please, don't do that to me, I beg you! I promise that I will never do anything bad again mister!"

More kids started to weep as they said the same words under the cloths.

The door of the house opened again, and Allen walked out of it. He stared at the kids who suddenly started to beg for mercy.

"Why is everyone crying?", Allen asked.

"I think that man's shouts scared them.", Edwin replied.

"Oh, I only cut a single finger of his and he already started to cry loudly as if I'm going to pluck out his eyeballs.", Allen said.

Everybody in the area heard it and slightly calmed down. However, some of them were still nervous or became even more so.

"Why are you even afraid? I'm not going to harm all of you.", Allen said.

He approached the already trembling carriage driver and said to him, "So you should only tell me the ones who did brutal acts. If I found out that you're lying, I'm going to do all the things I did to the ones whom you pointed at, understand?"

"Y-Yes!", the driver nodded. The guy in front of him didn't show any flicker from his eyes nor from his face, making him scared even more.

...

The sun was already up on the sky when Allen walked out of the house again. Almost everybody in the area looked at him with fear on their eyes.

There were some people missing in the location, of which all of them were dragged inside the house.

"What are we going to do to the rest?", Edwin asked.

Allen looked over to the crowd to ponder for some time and replied, "They will be returned to the town."

A majority of the pirates either inwardly or outwardly rejoiced due to Allen's decision; however, some of them became even more depressed.

"Escort them back to West Rising, if I found out you did something else to them, you know what will come for you.", Allen eyed the coach driver.

"I-I will.", the driver replied.

"Come on, let's leave.", Allen said to Edwin.

"But what about the...", Edwin didn't finish his sentence and only pointed towards the house.

In response, Allen searched for something inside his satchel, and took out a burning torch, which was none other than the Magical Burning Torch.

He ignited the building from where he walked out on fire and didn't leave the camp until it was fully bruned to the ground.

It was after this encounter that a short-lived story of two men spread throughout the surrounding areas, one swiftly capturing everybody like an eagle catching its sleeping meal in the dark; and another one who showed no emotions at all, yet under that face was a tiger that pieced apart its meals.

The both of them swiftly climbed down the small mountain. Edwin already returned the black robe that Allen gave to him before they exited the camp.

"Did you really kill those people?" Edwin looked back at the camp.

"No." Allen answered. In his mind, killing them won't change anything. Instead, after he made sure that the pirates were disabled, he hid them in the basement of the building. He gave them enough food and water to be rationed amongst them until they could find the way out from that dark cellar.

Of course, the resources he gave them was limited and would only last for a few days even if it was split up as few as possible. But he knew with the characters of the pirates, the chance for that to happen was the same as the possibility for pears to grow from apple trees.

Burning the house was only just for show so the other surviving pirates would think twice if they would want to come back into their usual businesses.

"Allen, are you sure that man will really return those people back to West Rising?", Edwin asked.

"No, I'm sure that some of them will try to make that driver submit.", Allen said.

"Then why did you let him lead?", Edwin asked.

"Even though they might go back to being pirates, I'm sure that they won't dare do it again in this location, specially after what I did to the ones who have commited the worst crimes.", Allen replied.

"But they'll become a problem for others in the future.", Edwin said.

"Only for others. Don't concern yourself to other people's problem if it won't be fruitful..", Allen said.

'Your so selfish.' Edwin always disliked these types of people, in fact, he wanted to help the remaining pirates to return to the town, but Allen's presence prevented him from doing it.

Edwin didn't answer back to Allen's statement and tried to change the topic to what place they were heading to next.

Allen stopped walking and pointed to the ends of the mountain range, "To one of the best places for alchemists in the kingdom."

***

A few days of travelling passed; from afar, Allen and Edwin spotted a wall so tall that the latter was amazed by it.

"The wall of East Gate City is so tall!", Edwin marveled at the sight of the magnificent walls of steel.

Its height was extremely tall, as if it was a mountain made of iron. It reflected the sun's rays, and because of that, the land around the structure was charred as black as charcoal.

With its enormous size, the walls could seemingly block giants without effort.

"That's not the walls of the East Gate City, we still have a long way to go there. This is just a stop.", Allen replied.

After a pause, he added, "That wall is called Monarch Walls, it surrounds two towns, one city, and the Aeoshun Observatory."  

Allen's sentence made Edwin felt even more amazed, but also confused at the same time. He asked Allen what's the reason to why the wall was built.

Allen: "I don't know, based on some books that I have read; the wall has been existing before a community nor the observatory was established within it. Actually, it was written that it was possibly even older than the Trigurniburg Kingdom itself."

For one, hearing the Monarch Walls' ancient background would think it's not being used anymore, but on its top were soldiers; not just ordinary guards, but were full-fledged soldiers of the kingdom stationed on it. Even with its age, the said structure was still usable; actually, it was still very tough even if its lower part was starting to rust due to the passage of time.

A guard isn't at the same level as a soldier. The former could mostly be found in normal communities or unimportant locations, but the latter could only be seen in core locations such as regional capitals and some other significant places.

In addition, unlike normal guards the soldiers were as strong as mages, and the elites were as powerful as adepts.

Even by a normal observing person, one could realize the importance that the government placed onto the said architecture.


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