Chương 86: Chapter 66: Max - The Road Back Home

Three days passed before they were ready to leave Greenglade, and Alina spent the better part of the first two recuperating in the Temple. The Heal Spells Borin had managed on the field had saved her life and closed the worst of the wound, but there were things magic couldn't immediately replace. She'd lost enough blood that standing left her dizzy and walking across the room exhausted her, so the Temple healers refused to let her leave their care until she could manage both without looking ready to collapse.

By the second evening, though, the difference was considerable. The wound itself had largely ceased to be the problem, and with food, sleep, and further healing, some of the color had returned to her face. She still tired quickly, but a recovery that might otherwise have taken weeks was already being measured in days. The others fared better. Borin's Mana recovered quickly, and over the hours following the fight he dealt with what it had left behind.

Rulon's shoulder took the most work after Alina, the Undead Captain's sword having cut deeply enough that even after healing he moved the arm carefully. Alex's swollen wrist improved, Thomas's cuts closed, and the shallow wound across Max's forearm became little more than a memory. Clothing was replaced where it could be, torn leather was stitched, and armor went to Greenglade's smith before coming back patched rather than pretty, which was good enough for everyone involved.

Once the immediate injuries were under control, they gave Brenna the report she had postponed at the gate. It took two sittings. The first covered Stonebridge, the missing bodies, the battlefield outside Greenglade, the goblin hollow, the charms, and the eight undead that had waited outside her walls. The second went more slowly through the fight itself, particularly the Undead Captain and the two Spells it had somehow used. Brenna listened to all of it with the same hard expression.

When they were finished, she told them she would spread orders through every farm, patrol, and settlement Greenglade could reasonably reach. Bodies were to be watched or burned, battlefields cleared quickly, and anything resembling the carved bone charms reported immediately. Alex approached them on the second afternoon. The conversation was awkward, mostly because he seemed to have rehearsed it several times and forgotten every word the moment Max looked at him. The fight had given him a System prompt afterward.

Guardsman could become Skirmisher.

He had accepted the Class Change after only a little hesitation.

More importantly, he had apparently spent the better part of two days deciding that almost dying outside Greenglade had convinced him he wanted to become an adventurer. Max had stared at him for a few seconds after that. Alex had flushed and clarified that the almost dying part wasn't what appealed to him. He wanted to become stronger, to leave the walls of Greenglade, take contracts, help people, and see whether the life he had watched Max and the others living was something he could make his own.

He wasn't asking to join their party. He only wanted to travel with them to Brindleford, register with the Guild, and find his own way from there. Max agreed, provided Rulon and Brenna did as well. Both already knew what Alex intended, and Rulon gave his approval without much fuss. Brenna was less charitable, calling Alex six different varieties of fool with increasingly colorful language before eventually approving as well. By the second evening, Alina had finally been released from the Temple.

She still moved carefully when she entered the Green Stag, though there was no wound beneath the clean tunic anymore. Her hand nevertheless drifted toward her chest as she crossed the common room, fingers brushing the place where the blade had opened her before she caught herself and lowered it again. The inn was quiet that evening.

The previous night had been louder, with plenty of drinking and stories about the battle already beginning to grow larger in the telling, but the people who had actually stood on the field seemed less interested in celebrating it. Rulon sat near the hearth with Thomas and Alex when Alina approached their table.

"Mind if I sit?" Rulon nodded toward the empty chair, and Thomas shifted aside to make room. Alex straightened almost immediately as Alina lowered herself into the seat across from him. For a moment she said nothing, simply turning her cup between both hands.

"I wanted to thank you." Alex blinked.

"For what?" She stared at him, as if wondering if he was being serious. Thomas hid a smile behind his cup. Alex flushed.

"Right. That."

"You stepped between me and that Soldier."

"So did Thomas." Alina looked toward the older guard.

"That's why I'm thanking both of you." Thomas inclined his head.

"You were in trouble. We were there." Alex tried for something more casual.

"Wasn't much time to think about it."

"No," Alina said quietly.

"There wasn't." Something in her voice took the humor out of him. She looked down into her cup.

"When it cut me, I thought I was dead." The words were simple enough that the table went silent around them. Alina swallowed.

"I remember hitting the ground. I remember Borin coming over." Her fingers tightened around the cup.

"I couldn't breathe. That was the worst part. Not the pain. I kept trying to take a breath and there just wasn't enough air." Max had been crossing the room with Borin, Cass, and Elias. He slowed when he heard her, then pulled out a chair nearby.

"The first bad one stays with you." Elias sat down next to him with cup in hand. Alina looked toward him as he sat.

"So that goes away?"

"No." Cass dropped into the chair beside him.

"Comforting as ever." Max gave her a look.

"I was going to say you get better at carrying it." She considered that.

"That was marginally better." Rulon took a slow drink.

"Everyone's scared in a fight," he said.

"Doesn't matter how long you've been doing it. Anyone who tells you otherwise is either lying or too stupid to understand what's happening." Alex looked down at his cup. Rulon noticed.

"You too." Alex glanced up.

"You looked like you'd seen your own grave when those three dead things started running."

"I still moved." He nodded.

"That's the point. You were scared and you still did your job." Borin lowered himself into the remaining chair.

"Aye. Fear's useful. Reminds you whatever's in front of you can kill you." Alina gave him a tired look.

"I'd already worked that part out." That earned the first real laugh from the table. Even Alina smiled. Borin took a drink before continuing.

"Trouble comes when fear starts choosing for you. Same with anger. Same with hatred." Alina's smile faded slightly. Max noticed, but Borin caught his gaze and gave the slightest shake of his head. Alex stared into his cup for another moment.

"I was terrified," he admitted. Rulon nodded.

"When she went down, I didn't think about anything," he continued.

"I just saw those things coming for her and moved."

"That instinct saved her," Rulon said.

"It could also get you killed someday if you don't learn what to do after you move." Alex nodded slowly.

"That's part of why I'm going." Alina looked toward him. Cass leaned back in her chair.

"Still time to reconsider." Alex smiled faintly.

"You trying to talk me out of it?"

"No. Just making it clear that any terrible decisions you make after tomorrow are entirely your problem." He grinned slightly.

"That seems fair." Elias lifted his cup.

"A remarkably mature beginning to an adventuring career."

"Terrible decisions?"

"That, and accepting responsibility for them." That earned another laugh. The conversation drifted after that, not quite into celebration, but into something gentler. They traded stories about old mistakes and first fights, about bruises that had seemed catastrophic at the time before becoming funny later. Borin admitted how often he had struck his own shield while learning to wield his hammer in battle instead of in the forge.

Elias confessed to walking into a few doorframes while reading, and Cass eventually told a considerably exaggerated story about Max tripping over a dead goblin after insisting he had the battlefield completely under control. Max objected, which only seemed to convince everyone else that Cass's version was probably closer to the truth. Alina laughed with them, though later, when she thought no one was looking, her fingers drifted back to the place beneath her tunic where the sword had cut her.

Max noticed, but said nothing. Some things took longer than two days. Morning washed over Greenglade cold and gray. They met Brenna near the eastern gate shortly after breakfast, packs settled and weapons secured for the road. Alex was already there. His old Guardsman equipment had been adjusted for travel, and he carried considerably more than anyone who had spent much time on the road would have chosen voluntarily. Cass looked at the pack, then at him.

"You're going to hate that by midday." Alex frowned.

"I need all of it." She smiled.

"Of course you do." Rulon stood nearby, his recently healed shoulder hidden beneath fresh armor and a new cloak. Thomas had come as well, though neither man looked particularly interested in making Alex's departure sentimental. Brenna looked over the group.

"I've sent word south and north with what you told me. Rulon's changing how we handle bodies and battlefield cleanup. If anything resembling those charms turns up again, the Guild will hear about it." Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. Max nodded.

"We'll give them the full report as soon as we reach Brindleford."

"Good."

Her attention shifted to Alex.

"So." Alex straightened.

"You're really going through with this?"

"Yes, Headwoman." She fingers her arms.

"You nearly got yourself killed two days ago."

"Yes, Headwoman."

"And apparently decided you enjoyed the experience enough to make a profession of it." Alex hesitated.

"I wouldn't put it exactly like that."

"I would." Thomas coughed into one hand, and Alex shot him a look. Brenna stepped closer.

"When you discover how foolish this idea is, there'll still be a place for you on the wall." Her expression remained stern, but the edge had gone out of her voice.

"Provided you survive long enough to regret it." Alex stood a little straighter.

"Yes, ma'am."

He hesitated.

"Thank you." Brenna waved the gratitude away.

"Go earn it." She paused, then gave him a small, unexpected grin.

"If they ever start singing songs about you, make sure you're still alive to hear them." Alex smiled.

"Best of luck."

"Thank you, Headwoman." Rulon extended his hand. Alex clasped it.

"You did well," Rulon said.

"You also nearly got yourself killed." Alex smiled faintly.

"You've mentioned that."

"I intend to keep mentioning it until the lesson sticks." Alex nodded earnestly.

"It stuck."

"We'll see." Thomas clasped Alex's forearm next.

"Listen more than you talk." Cass glanced toward Max.

"I like him." That drew a few smiles, but whatever else might have been said seemed to have run its course. Brenna stepped aside at last, and the guards began opening the eastern gate while Alex shifted the weight of his oversized pack and looked out at the road beyond it. For a moment, he stood there with Rulon and Thomas behind him and the others waiting ahead. Then he adjusted the spear at his shoulder and walked through the gate with Max and the others.

The road east from Greenglade wound through rolling pasture and scattered hedgerows, the land slowly flattening as it stretched toward farmland. By midday, the clear morning had faded beneath a pale gray sky, and the group had settled into a quiet rhythm as the miles passed. Alex walked slightly behind Max and Borin, quieter than he had been the night before.

His eyes kept moving over the fields and hedgerows on either side of the road, lingering on distant tree lines and breaks in the fences as though he wasn't quite sure yet what deserved watching.

"Always this quiet after?" he asked eventually.

"Usually," Cass replied from the edge of the road.

"You either think or you ache. Sometimes both." Alex considered that, then nodded and let the silence settle again. Alina walked near the front at a steady pace, though her attention kept drifting toward the countryside around them. She kept checking the fences and distant tree lines as they walked, her gaze moving from one rise to the next before returning to the road ahead. When the wind shifted, she slowed.

Smoke drifted across the road from somewhere to the south, carrying the smell of burned grain, charred wood, and something sour beneath it. Alina drew a deeper breath, and her shoulders went rigid. She stepped onto the low rise beside the hedgerow and looked across the fields. A thin gray column of smoke climbed beyond the next hill.

"Goblins." Cass followed her gaze.

"You sure?" Alina was already dropping back down from the rise. She broke into a run toward the smoke, stringing her bow as she went, and Max took off after her almost immediately.

"Come on." Borin and Elias fell in behind him while Cass cut across the edge of the field after Alina. Alex remained in the road for half a heartbeat, staring after them.

"What? How does she..." By the time he realized nobody was stopping to explain, the others were already twenty paces ahead.

"Oh, hell." He hurried after them, one hand catching at the overloaded pack bouncing against his shoulders. They hadn't gone far when a figure stumbled onto the road ahead. The man almost fell when he saw them, catching himself against the ditch bank with one hand. Blood slicked his torn sleeve, and soot streaked his face.

"Help." Max reached him first and caught his arm before his legs gave out.

"What happened?"

"Goblins," the man gasped.

"They came out of the hedges. Ten of them, maybe more." He gestured weakly toward the smoke.

"Our farm. They set the barn on fire. My brother's still inside the house. My ma…" His voice failed. Max looked toward the others.

"Move." No one needed telling twice. Weapons came free as they cut across the fields toward the rising smoke. The farm came into view as they crested the hill.

It had once been tidy. A whitewashed house stood near the center of the yard, with a barn and two smaller sheds spaced around it. Fences divided pasture from the grain field running down toward a creek. Now the place looked as though something had torn straight through it. The barn burned fiercely, flames licking through the collapsing roof while smoke rolled overhead. One side of the pasture fence had been smashed flat where livestock had tried to bolt.

Two cattle lay dead near the broken gate, and split grain sacks spilled across the yard beside an overturned wagon leaning against the well post. Beyond them, the farmhouse door hung half open. Max slowed as they approached. Another farm, another yard, another place where everything had gone wrong too quickly. He glanced toward Alina and found her staring at the burning barn and broken fences.

For barely a heartbeat she went still, something of Crestwood passing across her face before she forced herself forward again. High, shrill laughter carried through the smoke. Something broke ahead of them, followed by the heavy crash of whatever had been knocked over. Alina moved first, and Max and the others ran after her.

"Through them. Don't let them reach the house." About ten goblins scattered through the wreckage, kicking open crates, overturning anything still standing, and shouting at one another in sharp bursts. They noticed the party too late. Alina loosed twice while running, dropping two before the others had properly turned, then cast the bow aside and drew her sword as the distance vanished.

Max and Borin crashed into the center a heartbeat later while Cass peeled toward the side of the yard and Elias struck from behind them. Alex stayed close to Borin rather than letting himself get isolated. When one goblin rushed him, he waited for it to commit and blocked easily before driving his spear through its chest with a clean thrust. The others scattered under the rush.

Max caught one trying to turn away and cut it down before it made three steps, while Borin drove another backward with his shield and crushed its chest with a hammer blow. A Mana Bolt from Elias caught a third near the overturned wagon and dropped it where it stood. Cass emerged from around a stack of split crates as another tried to escape the fighting, caught it from the side, and buried her dagger beneath its ribs before wrenching the blade free and letting the body crumple behind her.

Alina reached two near the well at a run. The first barely got its weapon raised before her sword crashed through its guard and bit deep into the side of its neck. She tore the blade free in a spray of blood and turned with the motion, driving the point through the second goblin's belly before it could retreat. It folded around the blade with a strangled cry. Alina ripped her sword free, stepped after it, and swung again as it dropped.

The edge tore through the back of its neck, severing the last resistance before its head came free and tumbled across the dirt. By the time the body collapsed, the last goblin was already running. Alina went after it.

"Alina!" Max's warning didn't slow her. She cleared the broken fence at a run and tore across the pasture, closing quickly as the goblin stumbled through the taller grass and looked back in fear. It barely had time to recover its footing before she caught it and cut it down with a single strike. For a few seconds, the only sound came from the burning barn behind them. Max stopped at the broken fence.

"Back. Now." Alina remained where she was for a moment, breathing hard, then wiped her blade and returned to the yard. Alex lowered his spear as he looked over the bodies scattered through the wreckage.

"That was quick."

"Goblins usually are," Cass said, her attention already moving along the far edge of the yard.

"One way or the other." Max watched Alina sheath her sword.

"You alright?"

"Good." The answer came quickly enough that he gave her another look, but there were more immediate problems waiting inside the farmhouse.

"Come on, we should check the house." Borin reached the door first and pushed it inward with the haft of his hammer. Smoke had begun creeping into the front room, where an overturned table had been shoved against the entrance as a barricade. One of its legs had shattered beneath repeated blows from outside.

"Hello?" Elias called. A weak voice answered from farther inside.

"In here." They found three people in the rear room. An older woman sat against the wall beneath a blanket while a young boy stood beside her, clutching a broken chair leg in both hands. Near the doorway, a young man lay motionless in a dark pool of dried blood, one hand still wrapped around the haft of a wood axe. Max knelt beside him and checked anyway, but there was nothing. Cass looked back toward the damaged barricade. Deep gouges scored the wood where something had repeatedly struck it from the other side.

"He held the door." Borin crouched beside the older woman.

"You hurt?" She shook her head.

"Just shaken." Her eyes moved toward the man on the floor.

"My son…" Borin rested a hand on her shoulder.

"We'll see to him." Max rose while the boy continued staring up at him.

"You're safe now."

"You killed them?"

"Yes." The boy's fingers slowly loosened around the broken chair leg. A moment later, the farmhand they had met on the road stumbled through the doorway behind them.

"Ma, they're all…" He stopped when he saw his brother. The room fell quiet as he crossed to the body and sank beside it, bowing his head while his shoulders shook with silent sobs. They eventually carried the dead man outside and laid him beneath an apple tree near the fence. The older woman followed them out and rested one hand against Max's forearm once they were finished.

"Thank you," she said, her voice trembling as she looked up at him.

"If you hadn't come…" Max glanced toward the farmhouse, then back at her.

"You held long enough." The farmhand wiped both hands over his face and looked across the ruined yard.

"It's been getting worse lately." Max turned toward him.

"The goblins?"

"Aye." The man's jaw worked for a moment before he continued.

"Used to be you'd see a few skulking around now and then. Steal a chicken, break a fence, maybe take a goat if someone was careless. Lately they've been coming in bigger groups. Getting bolder." Alina's attention shifted toward him.

"How lately?"

"Couple months, maybe. Hard to say exactly." He shook his head.

"Everyone around here's noticed it. Farmers talk. Traders too."

"Traders?" Cass asked.

"We sell grain and eggs to wagons when they stop through. Hear things that way." The farmhand hesitated, his attention drifting toward the road.

"Road's been bad for more than goblins." Max frowned.

"What else?"

"People disappearing." Max glanced at the others.

"Not many," the farmhand added quickly.

"Least, not that I know of. But there've been wagons that never showed where they were headed. One merchant passed through here maybe a week ago saying two caravans out of Brindleford had gone missing along the north road."

"Missing how?" Cass asked. He shrugged.

"Don't know. That's just what people are saying. Another driver claimed somebody found wagon tracks leaving the road near the old crossroads, but no wagon." Cass studied him more carefully, but let him continue.

"Could've been anything. Broken axle. Bandits. Folks getting scared and making stories out of nothing. But traders have started bunching up when they travel north. Nobody wants to take that stretch alone anymore." Max exchanged a glance with Cass.

"Where's the crossroads?"

"Couple miles north of here." The farmhand pointed beyond the fields.

"Old stone marker beside the road. Hard to miss."

"We'll keep an eye out," Max said.

"We're heading that way anyway." They stayed long enough to help the family secure what remained of the farm before returning to the road. By the time they climbed back onto the rise, the barn had burned down to a blackened shell, with only thin trails of smoke still rising from the wreckage. The road north carried them past scattered fields and another line of low hedges. They found the tracks before reaching the crossroads.

"Hold up." Max crouched near the edge of the road, where two wagon ruts left the packed dirt and curved into the scrub. What caught his attention was how cleanly they turned. The wheels hadn't skidded or dug deeply into the shoulder, and there was little sign that anything had been forced off the road. Cass crouched beside him for a moment before following the wheel marks into the brush. She disappeared beyond the first line of branches and returned a short while later.

"That wasn't goblins." Max looked up at her.

"You sure?"

"Look at the farm we just left." Cass gestured back the way they had come.

"Goblins smash things, grab whatever they can carry, and leave a mess behind them. This is careful. Hardly any broken brush, no churned ground." She glanced toward where the tracks disappeared.

"Whoever drove that wagon knew where they were going. Or went willingly." Elias folded his arms as he studied the ruts.

"So probably unrelated to the raid."

"Probably." Max followed the tracks with his eyes until the brush swallowed them. He considered going after them, but the ground beyond had already hardened, and what marks remained looked old enough that they would be guessing before long.

"We don't have enough to follow." Borin nodded.

"And we already have one urgent report for the Guild." Max looked back toward the road.

"North road." Cass rose and brushed the dirt from her hands.

"We mention it when we get there. See if anyone else has reported missing wagons."

"Agreed." They continued toward Brindleford. The road eventually bent east through open pasture beneath the dull gray sky. Alex walked farther back than before, quieter since leaving the farm, while Alina kept near the front with her bow unstrung across one shoulder. Borin eventually moved up beside her.

"You alright?" She took a few steps before answering. The wind coming through the hedges still carried a faint trace of smoke from behind them.

"No. Not really." Borin nodded. Alina adjusted the bow against her shoulder.

"But it felt good." He glanced toward her.

"Being there in time, I mean. Helping them." She looked back once, though the farm had already disappeared behind the rise.

"That house is still standing."

"Aye."

"Mine isn't." They walked several more steps before Borin spoke again.

"Three days ago, three enemies got you alone and nearly killed you. Today the fight was finished, and you ran after the last goblin by yourself." Alina's jaw tightened.

"It was running."

"That isn't the point."

"I knew I could catch it."

"And what if it had friends beyond that fence?" Borin asked.

"What if it hadn't stumbled? What if you chased it over that rise and found ten more waiting?" She didn't answer immediately.

"I know."

"No." His voice remained calm.

"You know now because nothing happened. We need you knowing before you run." Alina's fingers tightened around the strap of her bow.

"Stay with your people," Borin continued.

"Killing one more goblin isn't worth dying for." Her expression remained hard for several steps before she finally exhaled.

"You're right." Borin glanced toward her.

"I'll be more careful."

"Aye." He left it there. The road dipped toward the low hills on the final approach to Brindleford. Max glanced back once and could no longer see the farm itself, only a thin line of smoke rising above the distant fields. Then he faced forward again. Brindleford waited somewhere beyond the next few rises, along with the Guild and a report that seemed to be getting longer with every mile.