Chương 396: 391. Predicament - IV

Hyola tried to stand up, but the pain in her ankle wouldn't let her put weight on that leg.

"Oww…" The ex-mercenary looked back at her.

"What happened to your foot?"

"Got stuck in a hole and twisted my ankle. That's how these bastards caught me." Feroy put his sword away, then checked her ankle.

"Doesn't seem broken, at least." He helped her up.

"Thank you…"

"You really should've waited for me, you know?" he said, steadying her movement.

"I wasn't far when those two bastards were trying to take that girl away. If you'd waited just a bit, I'd have found you and we could've coordinated and taken both of them down together. Or thought of some other solution. I wasn't going to let anything happen to her." Hyola stumbled as she tried not to put weight on the injured foot, before Feroy stopped her from falling again.

"I know… I just couldn't think calmly at the moment…" Feroy helped her walk to the knight's empty chair.

"I understand you getting angry after seeing that, but in the future, keep in mind that there are always more solutions to any problem than going in headfirst. We just killed a knight —even if he was a retired one—and all his guards. Now we need to make sure there are no witnesses left here to report on that, or there would be a huge bounty on our heads within a week." He stared at her.

"Even if we do want slaves to come to our village, we need to do it secretly. We cannot highlight our village's name in front of the authorities. Tiranat simply cannot take that kind of scrutiny right now—you know that. But even if you didn't think about those big-picture things—as Lord Kivamus likes to say—you do realize that we were well outnumbered and the fight could have gone either way, right? If I was just a few moments late at the end, you would be dead now." Hyola just gazed downwards as she sat.

"But those bastards were going to..." The ex-mercenary sighed.

"I told you, I would never have let that happen." He glanced at the slaves who had started to get up after being huddling together in fear for so long, and were looking at them in curiosity.

"Well, all's well that ends well, I guess. The slaves aren't treated well anywhere in south Reslinor, but it wasn't this bad in any of the other farms we've been to." He snorted, looking at the dead bodies.

"I guess these bastards did deserve it, huh?" Hyola grinned.

"'course they did!" Feroy chuckled.

"Let me find something to bandage your foot with, then we'll think of what to do with the slaves. Still have some powder left up too. That'll take care of any pain."

A brazier had already been lit up to provide some light. By the time her ankle had been bandaged properly so it wouldn't move, the slaves had begun to roam around. Many of them had come to thank her and Feroy—including that young woman, although she still looked distraught—before they went kicking and spitting on the dead bodies, making sure they were dead, or perhaps they were just getting even with the local guards. Feroy seemed to be thinking.

"I think it is time for us to return. It's already been a week since we've been out, and I need to get back for… another thing." Hyola looked at him.

"What thing?" Feroy smiled.

"Later." She frowned.

"Then we aren't going to be spreading rumors anymore?"

"Of course we will. This is a long-term plan, but that's for after that thing is completed."

"Fine…" Hyola glanced at the slaves.

"But we aren't leaving them here, are we? What if they tell someone about us killing the knight?"

"I know," Feroy lowered his voice.

"At this point, we have no other choice but to take all of them with us now, and to… take care of anyone who doesn't come. We can't leave any witnesses, or our rumor-spreading tour will come to an end right here." Hyola grimaced, thinking about that grisly image.

"I'm sorry…" The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. Feroy shook his head.

"Don't worry, I won't let it come to that. These are people who are as down on their luck as possible. Trust me, I can easily convince them all to come with us. But we still have to make it seem like they're making that choice themselves. That'll keep them far more motivated for a new life in Tiranat." Hyola sighed.

"Let's hope they agree." Once she had taken some of the losuvil powder with some water from her waterskin, Feroy called up all the slaves. Once the whole crowd of nearly 20 slaves, including children, had gathered up, he pointed at the knight.

"That's your previous owner—dead now. So what to do with your life from today is your choice."

"What do you mean?" one of the female slaves asked.

"Aren't you taking us with you? You're rivals of that bastard, aren't you? Or are you bandits?"

"Shut up!" a man immediately reprimanded her.

"You can't say that to them!" Feroy immediately broke out into laughter, before Hyola joined him too. It was ironic, she thought, that after being a slave of bandits for most of her life, she had finally gotten the freedom and power to liberate other slaves, and now they were calling her a bandit.

"Hell no!" Feroy said.

"We're not bandits."

"Then…? Who are you?"

"We are…" Feroy glanced at Hyola for a moment before he looked back at the slaves.

"We are the guards of a certain baron, and we've been roaming around, looking for new people to join our village."

"Told ya…" the female slave muttered to the man.

"Well?" an older woman asked.

"At least tell us where you're taking us."

"We're not taking you anywhere," Feroy explained, "unless you want that. Like I said earlier, what to do with your life from today is your choice. You can come with us, or you can run away somewhere else, or you can stay back here—although I wouldn't recommend that. Someone else will visit the village sooner rather than later, and they'll blame the deaths of these bastards on you."

"I've never heard of bandits giving slaves an option to join them…" someone muttered.

"I told you we're not bandits!" Hyola retorted.

"And we're not taking you as slaves! If you come with us, you'll be free people." The people in front of them immediately became suspicious.

"What do you mean by that? You give us an option to come with you or not, and you claim we'll be free there? Just who are you people?" Feroy gave Hyola a side-eye for her outburst before he replied.

"I can't tell you the name of the place unless you decide to come back with us. But yes, those who do join us will be taken to our village, and they'll live as free people from that time." He described life in Tiranat for the slaves who already lived there—including Hyola's own history as a former slave—without taking the name of the village. He added, "But whatever you decide to do, make the decision quickly. I want to be away from this place before the moon sets around midnight."

The slaves muttered amongst themselves for a while, when one of the men looked back at them.

"I speak for all of us. We'll come with you. We have no other place to run to, and staying here will be a death sentence for all of us when these bodies are found. I still don't believe your tall claims, but even if you keep us as your slaves in that place, it's still normal for us. And I heard why you both started this whole fight. You can't be any worse than these bastards. So we'll all join you."

"Good choice," Feroy smiled.

"Then we'll all leave for Tiranat within an hour."

"Tiranat…?" one of the slaves muttered.

"I've heard it's a coal mining village…"

"It's a lot more than that," the mercenary snorted.

"But you'll find out more later."

"Wait, isn't it located in the southern forests?" someone else asked.

"Southern forests...? That's way too dangerous for kids!"

"We can't go to a place like that. Adzees will eat us alive in the night!" Feroy snorted.

"They can do that just as well right here. Don't worry, I promise you that place is far safer than you can even imagine. We don't have stone walls like Cinran or Ulriga, but we've lost no lives to an adzee there for... years at least. Bandits can't touch that place either. Trust me, they tried, and we have a large grave full of those bastards' dead bodies. Tiranat is as safe as a village can be. So make your decision now, and choose wisely."

The slaves muttered to each other for some more time, before their leader looked at the ex-mercenary.

"We'll come with you. We have no better option anyway." Feroy nodded.

"Good. Now start packing up any belongings you have. Only what can be carried on your own back is allowed."

"We don't have anything to our names other than the clothes on our bodies," the man shrugged, "but we can't leave tonight. Four of our group aren't here tonight. We have to wait until they return in a few days."

"What do you mean?" Hyola asked. She didn't think any of the slaves were missing from what she had seen in the evening.

"There are four more male slaves who live here. They've gone to Ulriga to smuggle Veydril to the city. There is also a guard of the dead knight who went with them."" Veydril …?" Feroy muttered with disgust. He looked around.

"So that's why this knight chose such an isolated farm. All this was for a drug-running operation…" Hyola remembered the name from her time at the limestone quarry, where some of the bandits had mentioned scoring some Veydril from Cinran the next time they went there. The knight had also mentioned the name earlier, but she hadn't connected it at the time. So it was a drug… Obviously banned by the authorities, but the knight was using slaves so he would stay safe. Damn that bastard!

At least he was dead now, which was exactly what he deserved.

"They should be back in a few days," the man continued.

"My brother is amongst them too. You have to wait until then!"