The mermans picked up my colonists and carried some of them up. When they arrived at the campsite, Kat looked around. Shortly after, a barking sound was heard. Rex approached his master with his tail wagging and tongue hanging out.
Kat--now wearing a shirt from Eric--knelt down and embraced the dog. Rex jumped into the amber-eyed girl's arms.
"You miss me, boy?" Kat closed her eyes, rubbed her dog's head with tears that were almost falling from the corners of her eyes.
Rex sniffed the wounds on Kat's body, then looked at his master's face with a sad expression.
"I'm fine, boy." Kat smiled slightly.
Manu comes to the girl. "Follow me. There's someone who can heal your wound, Kat." The man then looked at the others. "You guys also need to be treated... It looks like you don't need to, Leva."
"Yes, my broken left hand will soon heal." Leva looked at her forearm with a sneer. "Let the others be treated."
"Okay then, come on."
Manu led the others to leave, while Leva came to the center of the camp accompanied by several mermans.
There, Leva found the residents of the nomads already sitting on the ground with their hands on their heads. Luckily, the girls were already dressed. They were all guarded by mermans with spears and rifles.
I counted the number of those people. Nineteen for the women and only ten for the men.
Before approaching the nomads, Leva stopped in front of a merman lying on the ground. Their bodies and heads were covered with sheets of cloth.
Leva bowed to one of the mermans guarding the bodies. The merman replied with a slight nod.
Quite an extraordinary feat. The army of half-fish came in fifty, and not a fifth died. The damage taken by those who were still alive wasn't too bad either. However, some of their armor was cracked and even had holes, having to be patched up with something that looked like hardened cement dough. Some of the glass helmets they were wearing were also cracked.
However, the dead are still the dead. They may have family or close people who love them.
All of this is just to save a woman.
Leva moved in front of the nomads, who still looked timid.
"Is there anyone who can do psychic?" Leva asked while looking at the people. "If anyone can, please activate your powers now."
Leva said that, on my orders.
The nomads turned to a thin woman with brown hair and a face full of pimples. The woman looked confused but finally closed her eyes.
A transparent light-yellow figure appeared not far from the nomad members. He flinched when he saw me.
As soon as I pressed the pause button, he looked at the people who had come to a complete stop. I did that on purpose because I didn't know how strong the psychic power was. By pausing everything, I don't have to worry about the guardian spirit figure disappearing before I finish saying what I want.
"What? What happened?" The yellow figure let out a voice mixed between panic and fear.
"That is not important." I approached the figure. "My question is, why would you do such a crazy thing to your own people? Why do you allow men to torture women?"
"Wait a minute..." The yellow guardian spirit sounded even more panicked. He took a deep breath, then babbled. "Okay, listen to me. Believe it or not, I was only born a few months ago. I appeared in this world because Jia brainwashed some of the men of a colony to run away and kidnap the women of the colony. Then he and his group raided other tribes, brainwashing men and kidnapping women again. It keeps happening... Hey, are you listening to me?"
"Of course. I'm listening to you." I was surprised by the question.
"Well, I couldn't see your expression, so I was worried... Okay, that's not important. Anyway, since Jia created this nomadic group, I was born. I knew right away that my job was to direct the group, but..." The figure choked.
"But what?"
"I don't feel like I'm who I really am. They don't want to follow my orders, but they do what Jia says." The figure shook his head. "I can only watch them move, I can't guide them at all, I can't stop them from doing this heinous thing."
"How can I believe your story?" I asked in a sarcastic tone.
"So, you want to take care of all these people alone?" The yellow guardian spirit was on his hips. His tone changed drastically to a sharper one.
"What do you mean?"
The yellow figure shrugged. "From what you've said, I come to the conclusion that you don't want me to take care of them, do you? Because you think I'm evil and let all this happen? Well, you have two choices, take all these people, or kill them."
"Wow, you really are smart, aren't you?" I did laugh, but I admit what he said was true.
I'm not in a position to add members this much.
Suddenly the guardian spirit grabbed his knees and took a deep breath. With a trembling and discordant voice, he said again. "S-sorry. I've never interacted with other people before. I was so confused and just dared to say something like that."
"So, you will continue this group while still making it a nomad?"
"No." The guardian spirit straightened its body. "I decided to just make them stay here, the land is fertile, and I think there are enough wild animals to hunt."
"Are you sure you can handle them all? You said you weren't born long, right?"
The yellow shook his head. "Of course, I'm not sure."
I thought for a moment, facing the mech in the distance. "I feel these women don't deserve to die. They are very deserving of another chance."
"So, you're not going to kill them, are you?" The yellow one breathed a sigh of relief. "As expected, you are a good person."
"But I have some conditions.." I looked at the guardian spirit again.