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3.33% Strongest Nova: Path of Vengeance / Chapter 12: Census

Chương 12: Census

The crowd couldn't help but feel a little happy when they heard that the Mayor was going to revert his order and make it so that they didn't have to work on the farm anymore.

"Well… if you're going to change it then… we don't really have any reason to be angry, I suppose," one of the people said.

"Yes," another woman said. "So… can we go back?"

The others looked at him curiously as well.

The mayor shook his head. "I'm sorry, but not yet. While it is true that I will revert your situation, it will take some time for me to do so," the mayor said. "As you might know, we are low on food supply this year. There are rations in the mansion that I can hand out in the worst-case scenario, but we still need people to grow the food for now."

"But—"

"I know, I know," the mayor said. "I will do my best to find ones that actually deserve to be here. Please, just give me 3 more months. I promise you, you will immediately start seeing the changes."

"What do you plan on doing exactly?" one of the people asked.

"Well… I think I should start with a census. It's been years since we have taken one, so I think it's about time to take a census again and hopefully find ones that we can replace you with," the Mayor said. "Of course, I can't guarantee that all of you will be changed since some of you should be Dulls too, and as you know, if there is a place here, Dulls will have to work here."

A few people in the crowd immediately lost their smiles. The rest of them were happy at least, and they quickly agreed to the mayor's words.

"Please, you can return back to your home. The sun should be setting anytime now," the old man said

"Yes, thank you," the crowd said and walked away.

The mayor sighed after everyone walked away and shook his head. The 3 young men behind him tried to figure out what he was thinking, but they couldn't.

"Mayor, are we really doing a census?" one of the young men named Yusa asked.

"We have no choice," the old man said. "We need to find people that we can make work on the farm without the others being in fear of having to do the same. We need to nip this resistance in the bud."

The mayor turned around. "I'll have to think of exactly what to do for now, but we need to use this census as a means to find out just who exactly is trying to destroy the peace of this town," he said. "I'll brief the Defenders tomorrow about everything. It should be the perfect timing to implement what I have been planning on doing for the past 3 months too."

"Mayor… are you finally going to have the training Defenders work as well?" Bradley asked.

"Yes, we have no choice. We need the number," the mayor said. "Anyway, go back and rest. You've been through a lot today."

"Yes, you too, mayor," the three said.

The mayor turned around and had Illan place him on his right shoulder again. "Stay well, and try not to die before I do," the mayor said. "Otherwise, I won't have anyone to make the new mayor."

The three young men took a deep breath. "Yes, mayor. We'll do our best," the three of them said in unison.

The mayor then tapped Illan with his cane, who took him away.

The three stayed there until the mayor had gone far away, and then they returned to the veil to help with the dead and the injured.

* * * * *

Stanley walked down the road and saw Illan walking back up with the Mayor. He moved to the side and bowed toward the Mayor, who didn't even turn to look at him.

'Does he not recognize me?' he thought for a bit. However, remembering that there were hundreds injured when he was healed, it was normal that the old man wouldn't recognize him.

He turned to continue walking and in doing so caught sight of a young man who was walking back up the slopes.

'Isn't that… Gallan?' Stanley thought. The young man had very short cut hair and his colorless clothes didn't stand out much either. However, the young man had been in the Defender's training class for the first year only.

He suddenly left one day and never returned. Stanley hadn't seen him much, so he was quite surprised to see him right now.

The young man noticed Stanley too and paused for a moment. Then a sneer appeared on his face as he scoffed at Stanley and walked past him without saying anything.

Stanley didn't say or do anything. After all, that was the norm for most young men he met that knew he was a Dull. Nobody really respected him, even when his training scores were one of the best in his class.

'I suppose that's not true anymore,' Stanley thought to himself. He looked towards the veil and moved onward while taking his time since the fight seemed to be over.

He arrived by the veil sometime before darkness had fully taken over the land. The white light from the lamps helped him see better and he quickly found Bradley.

Stanley felt a sense of relief when he saw his brother. He didn't seem to be wounded either, so that was good.

"Brother!" he shouted for him and made his way toward him.


Chương 13: Help Me

The Defenders carried their dead and took them back to the town so that their families could hold a funeral.

Stanley walked a little further behind with his brother and looked at him worriedly. "Are you alright? You didn't get hit right?" he asked.

"No, I'm fine," Bradley said with a soft voice. He didn't even have the strength in him to put any emotion into his voice. Today had been very draining.

"Are you tired? Do you need some help walking?" Stanley asked.

"Don't worry about me. I'm your big brother; I should be the one worried about you," Bradley said. "What are you even doing here? What if there was a Crawler out here still?"

"I checked before I came," Stanley said. "I only came because it was over."

Bradley sighed and shook his head. He looked around the darkening farmlands and his eyes fell onto a distant lamp post that was already glowing.

"Do you want to go there?" Bradley pointed toward the light in the distance.

Stanley looked toward where his brother had pointed and his heart skipped a beat when he saw it. It was the cemetery, the place where their mother was buried.

Stanley quickly shook his head. He couldn't handle something so intense just yet.

"Because of the trauma?" Bradley asked.

Stanley could only nod in return.

"You need to deal with it," his brother said. "Unlike you, I had 3 months to get to terms with my mother's death, but you haven't even started unraveling the knot in your heart."

"Come, let's go to her grave and maybe you can start to be able to deal with it too."

Bradley turned around to walk toward the cemetery but Stanley quickly grabbed his brother's arm. "Brother, please. Not now," he said. "I can't do it right now."

"Dammit, how are you going to deal with your trauma, if you continue to—"

"Help me," Stanley quickly said.

"…what?" Bradley asked.

"Help me get over it," Stanley said. "I don't want to be helpless at every moment either. I don't want to be a burden to you either. I want to kill the Crawlers too."

Bradley looked at his brother and Stanley stared back with a burning passion in his eyes.

"I want to be a son that mom can be proud of."

Bradley froze for a few seconds before his face broke out into a smile while his eyes filled with tears. He suddenly hugged his brother while patting him on the back. "Finally, it's a single step forward but an important one," he said. "Of course, leave it all to your brother. I will do my best to help you."

Stanley gave a small smile. "Can we start training tomorrow then? I want to see if I really have powers or not," he said.

"Sure, tomorrow we can—" Bradley paused. "Right, tomorrow is the announcement. No matter, we can train around the time the sky gets bright. We will have to return by the time the sun is up though."

"Sure, I can do that," Stanley said.

The Defenders returned to their quarters, with a few separating to bring the dead to their loved ones.

Stanley and Bradley retreated to their rooms after having dinner and went to sleep.

* * * * * *

Bradley was just 11 years old and Stanley was only 10 at the time. Their mother was cooking dinner when the two kids ran into the house noisily.

"Go get cleaned up before you come for dinner," their mother said without turning around.

"Mom, mom, look," Stanley said loudly, making their mother turn around. She saw Stanley pointing at his brother who had a big smile on his face.

"What… should I look?" the woman asked.

Bradley locked his fingers and went cross-eyed. "Hit me," he ordered. Without hesitation, Stanley punched his brother in the face as hard as he could.

"Stanley! Don—" their mother's words stopped halfway when she saw her youngest son's fist go right through his elder brother's head.

"What?" she couldn't understand what had happened for a moment.

"Mom, I got my powers!" Bradley said proudly and started laughing loudly.

The woman remained flabbergasted as she couldn't understand how this could happen. "Bu-but your father was a Dull. I am a Dull, then… how?" she asked.

"Who cares mom," Bradley said. "All that matters is I now have powers too."

"I… I can't believe it at all," their mother said.

"Believe it, mom," Bradley said with his arms on his hip. "Just wait a few more years mother. I will become a Defender and then I will take you away to the town where you can live in a house that is a lot better and a lot bigger than this."

"Really?" their mother asked as she came up to her son and ruffled her hair. "I can't wait for that day, Bradley."

The scenery changed to one where the house was all destroyed, with two corpses below his feet. The day he promised had finally come, and yet…

"Mom?"

Bradley suddenly woke up from his nightmare. He wiped his face and realized that he had broken out in sweat again.

"That same dream again," he thought.

The dream had started after his mother's funeral once he had processed what he could process at the time.

That had been the day he had been called to the mayor's mansion along with the other 3. Had that not been the case, he would have most likely died in his house too.

He remembered, after all the fight and carnage had ended, he had gone and found his destroyed house that no one had even checked yet.

There he had found the half-destroyed corpse of his mother that had been crushed by a Crawler, as well as what he had at the time thought was his brother's corpse as well.

If he hadn't heard the breathing back then, he would've assumed his brother had died as well.

He shook his head to get rid of the thought and looked around. "What time is it?" he wondered. He went to the window and saw that the sky had started lighting up already.

"Oh, it's time," Bradley thought. "I should wake Stanley up."


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How are you guys liking the story? Is it slow? is it good? Do you think I'm showing too much of the brother's POV?

Give me some feedback if you have any. any comments will be greatly appreciated.

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