Chapter 117 - Rumours

"I am having a hard time believing in my eyes and the things I heard," Arlen said. "Who is that kid? I never heard of a mage that can envelop a sword with such powerful flames?"

"It is thanks to him that I only received a few scratches," Verkan said. "I don't know what you heard, but the kid is a beast! A calm beast, I suppose, even amidst the battle, he never let his blood rush to his head."

"Totally unlike you, I see," Arlen said. "Then, answer my question."

"Sir, I believe this information should be kept as a secret for a while longer," Verkan said. "I will reveal that at an important time, a golden time. Where the information might change the tide of the whole battle."

"I don't believe I am having this type of conversation with you, Verkan," Arlen said and then sighed. "Just answer my question. If I think his identity must remain hidden, I will keep it hidden."

"I suppose it can't be helped…" Verkan said and then shrugged. "His name is Zaos… Sielders."

"Sielders… Do you really want me to believe that the son of that man can fight using a sword and magic at the same time?" Arlen frowned. "Do you take me for a fool?"

"It is the truth, sir," Verkan said. "I am sure you can see the similarity between them. The first time I met him, I also felt quite angry since he made me recall Laiex."

"… They do look alike, but… his eyes are different," Arlen rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"You heard of it before, eleven years ago, Laiex married the only daughter of the Mortensen family," Verkan said. "I believe she was called Mortensen's emerald for her beauty and astonishingly pretty green eyes. That explains the color, as for the glint that we can see in his eyes… Well, he is no ordinary kid and has a good head for battle. On the same day I met him, he said that we could use him as bait to lure the followers of the demon god. I decided to follow his idea until the last moment and see if he would change his mind. He didn't."

"Why would a highborn kid offer something like that?" Arlen frowned.

"Like I said, he isn't a normal kid," Verkan said.

Arlen considered what he heard from Verkan and the reports of the battle. He knew few men that could fight on par with Verkan, and all of them had twenty years of fighting experience. Yet, a ten-year-old boy did that, and Verkan himself said that despite his position on the battlefield, he didn't get hurt because the boy drew the attention of the enemies all by himself.

"I can understand why you want to keep his identity hidden now," Arlen said. "Still, this might backfire on us splendidly if something happens to him… I heard that his mother's health isn't that good, so it is very likely that Laiex won't have another male heir."

"If something happens, I will take full responsibility for it," Verkan said.

After a few hours, Zaos finally had the chance to stop and rest. He did whatever was possible to heal the members of his company. Despite that, that took him the major part of the afternoon. As expected, the idea of trying to heal others from other companies had been a crazy one.

"Oh, shit… this might not be good," Zaos said when he closed his eyes to take a nap and then saw that battle happening all over again.

Zaos tried to forget about it, but the moment where he splits the mercenaries in two or makes their necks snape with wind magic was strangely vivid in his head. Not taking other people's deaths lightly seemed like the best course of action for someone normal, but overthinking about the death of the enemies didn't seem like a bright idea either.

After a while, those scenes repeating themselves in Zaos's heads grew weaker. Maybe it was thanked for the repetition or because all the faces of those that Zaos killed had the faces of madmen who wanted to take his head as well.

"Whatever," Zaos thought. "A melee like that probably won't happen again since the enemies took a massive blow. They lost around seven hundred soldiers, but the number of wounded should be at least three hundred. The vast majority of them won't return to the battle for more than a few days." 

The soldiers stationed in that region knew how to fight under those climatic conditions, so they had the upper hand on open terrain. So, logic says that the mercenaries should rely on their siege weapons and slowly decrease the strength of the defender's side. Still, Zaos knew that they probably will try to surprise them with something different.

In the end, Zaos only rested his tired muscles but didn't have the chance to sleep even for a few moments. Without anything better to do, he began to sharpen his sword with a whetstone. While he cleaned the weapon earlier and his magic prevented the blade from receiving any real damage, that much maintenance was necessary.

"It looks like we aren't going to sleep anytime soon," Verkan suddenly appeared and then said while he noticed that his whole company was too tense to sleep. "Even someone cool-headed as you can't sleep here, huh." 

Zaos wondered if he should talk with Verkan about those scenes in his head that he could see whenever he closed his eyes. The last moments of almost every single mana he killed that day… in the end, he decided to keep quiet about it. Verkan seemed to respect Zaos, but Zaos didn't feel comfortable in sharing his troubles with anyone aside from his mother. Despite that, he always tries to keep her unaware of most of them.

Before sunset, Verkan managed to find forty more soldiers to join their company. That was weird, given that they probably would receive the hardest task on the battlefield.