Chapter 73 - The Reason Of Fear

Elius quickly returned, so Zaos's squad and the villagers left toward the Northern military base even in the middle of the night. Elius made sure to stay in the back in case something unexpected approached them from that direction. Meanwhile, Zaos stayed in the front to use Holy Light and make sure that everyone will follow the right path and not get lost. Fortunately, nothing happened along the way, but they only reached the military base at sunrise since the villagers couldn't walk at the same pace as them.

The guards at that entrance showed some surprise in their eyes since they didn't expect that a village would be evacuated. Still, they react quickly and give the order to some nearby soldiers to help the rookies.

"About what you saw today, don't talk about it with anyone," Elius suddenly said when the villagers were entering the base. "There are already too many unsettling rumors about our enemies and we don't need any more of them spreading around the recruits."

"… Yes, sir," Zaos said.

"Trying to keep you in the dark after seeing what you saw is a waste of time," Elius said. "But if you ask me, you shouldn't ask more about it, at least for the time being. You will lose a lot of sleep if you… but, if you can't control your curiosity, go ask the commander directly."

Zaos nodded after hearing that. In the end, he wasn't so sure if he wanted to know more. That being said, it was only a matter of time before he got involved with those criminals again. It almost looked like he was destined to face them time and time again.

"Today, neither of you are probably going to receive any orders, but don't think of this as an ordinary day off," Elius said to Zaos's squad. Rest in your rooms, but stay alert to any warnings that we might give.``

Everyone nodded and headed toward their rooms. Zaos did the same, and even though that much free time was rare, he didn't feel like doing anything. Zaos decided to sleep a little to clear his mind, but he failed at doing that thanks to that short fight. Still, after some time, the image lost impact inside his head.

In the end, Zaos managed to take a quick nap and woke up at noon. He then realized that he didn't write any letters in the last few days due to the weirdness of the situation… Still, he certainly couldn't tell his mother that he just killed three people. While Zaos was wondering about what he should write, some knocked on his door.

"Commander Ruvyn is calling you," A guard said.

"Understood," Zaos nodded.

It looked like the commander would talk with Zaos whether he liked it or not. Fortunately, that didn't bother Zaos and only made him make up his mind about the matter. He didn't have the mind of a child, after all. Besides, the sooner he learns about it, the faster he will get used to it, and the less that subject will bother him in the future.

"Your complexion is better than I expected I would see," Commander Ruvyn said when Zaos showed. "Sit down, this will take a while."

"Yes, sir," Zaos said and readily obeyed.

"My predictions were off and for that reason, a recruit was forced to do something you wasn't ready to do," Commander Ruvyn said. "I can't say that I am sorry about it, though. Since we all here are soldiers who have the single task of protecting the kingdom."

"I understand that sir," Zaos said.

"Well, let's start with you already know about our history," Ruvyn said. "What do you exactly know about the demon god?"

"Only his name, Elysus… if I remember correctly," Zaos frowned. "I also know a few rumors, that he was a living being that became a god after reaching the pinnacle of his magic skills."

"Those are more or less the same thing everyone knows about the demon god," Ruvyn said. "However, there is a lot more about him. People don't know that because we control the information about such matters. For example… The demon god's followers weren't killed on the same day he was defeated. They survived the great war and then escaped to a place where the humans of the time couldn't follow them…"

"And that is…" Zaos said.

"Up here, in the North," Commander Ruvyn said. "At that time, most of the human's civilization was located in the other parts of the continent. Since we knew too little about this region, we failed at finishing the matter. The people of that time concluded that with their small numbers, they wouldn't pose a threat, but they were wrong. After five hundred years, they grew in number and they began to torment the people of the world again… the criminals you and Elius defeated yesterday were their descendants."

That actually doesn't explain anything about those weird individuals. Zaos concluded that the group of assassins that invaded the castle and those creepies belonged to the same group, but their actions were far too weird.

"Thanks to your surprise attacks, you didn't have the chance to see that," Ruvyn crossed his arms and closed his eyes. "But the demon god's followers are extremely good at using magic, they also can brainwash others with their magic."

"Brainwash… that means… those six that Lieutenant Elius killed…" Zaos furrowed his eyebrows.

"Yes, they were once citizens of our kingdom that have been brainwashed by the heretics," Ruvyn nodded. "The three you killed were actually the true followers of the demon god… you shouldn't pitch them, though. We have tried to heal many of the brainwashed people over the last two thousand years, but we failed every single time."

That was just too surreal. Still, thanks to that, Zaos could understand several things that have been bothering him. Why some people disliked magic was one of them... since Zaos didn't want to abbandon the path he chose, it was clear his life in the future will be complicated thanks to it.