Chapter 284 - Oddball

Zaos imagined that they would need to cremate the bodies of the enemies, so he had prepared some materials to help with that. After all, he couldn't leave the bodies rotting when the villagers would return in a few months.

"How many did we lose?" Zaos asked when Cohnal approached after he had made a list of those who had died from the unit.

"42… it is a pretty small number if compared to the twenty-six thousand we killed," Cohnal said. 

"I suppose so…" Zaos said. "Do we have the addresses of their families?"

"Yes, Captain," Cohnal said. "Still, I think no one would blame you if you didn't go to talk with them. We all knew what we signed up for when we accepted this kind of job."

"That may be right, but I want to do things this way," Zaos said. "This is the type of commander who I want to be. When my first squad mates died, the kingdom only sent a few gold coins to the families, but that didn't change anything. Even if those families feel happy that their soldiers died fighting for the kingdom, they still felt some regret deep down."

"Right… we will bury them near the village, in their cemetery," Cohnal said.

Zaos also imagined that some of them would die, so he dug some graves by himself during those two weeks. Once his soldiers realized what Zaos was doing, they decided to help. No one knew who would die, but they knew that they wouldn't have much time for the funerals. After all, some of the mercenaries who escaped will inform the others in the town.

In the end, since everyone worked together, they managed to clean the area to some extent. While there was a lot of blood in the area, that wasn't something they could solve in just a few hours.

"What now, Captain?" Zaos asked. "Based on what we heard, the mercenaries in the town won't move unless those three individuals give them the order to do so. So, we have two days. However, they won't fall for another surprise attack."

"We will leave some scouts and then move our base to the next village," Zaos said. "We won't face them directly again, but I want to attack them from a certain distance and decrease their numbers with the mages."

"Well, I guess that is possible since you are with us," Cohnal said. "I will give the order to everyone to prepare to move."

After giving the orders to everyone, Cohnal and Melisse began to prepare their things as well, and once they left the house, they noticed that the whole group was a bit different than before. It wasn't because of the confidence of winning such a battle or because some of their allies died… it was because the groups were more mixed than before. After fighting by the side and watching their backs, soldiers of the kingdom and mercenaries felt more comfortable staying and working with each other. The same thing applies to mages and the others since their magic knocked down the riders who were about to attack the group's archers.

"I guess we can only improve from this moment onward," Cohnal said, trying to hide his excitement.

Although Cohnal was obviously talking with Melisse, she didn't pay much attention or even reply to Cohnal's words. She was a pretty quiet woman, but she was even quieter than usual.

"What is wrong?" Cohnal asked.

"I was just wondering if a boy of that age didn't try harder at the tournament," Melisse replied. "He was strong enough physically and mentally to defeat you and probably me, but he didn't use his magic against that other kid."

"Well, you heard the rumors. Apparently, they are good friends," Cohnal said.

"If you were his friend, wouldn't you want him to fight you seriously?" Melisse asked.

"I guess so," Cohnal said. "Still, the Captain's magic isn't something that he improved to use against his allies… Do you have any idea how many enemies he killed today?"

"I would say around three hundred, but that is not the point," Melisse said. "He could have become a royal guard if he had asked the king. He could have won the king's sword if he had used just a bit of his magic, but he didn't. It seems weird to say that after we saw today, but it seems that he isn't living his life fully."

"Who could have thought that you would get so worried about the Captain so soon…" Cohnal smirked. "Don't worry too much about it, he is a kid full of energy, but he will calm down once he finds a wife for him. He has that straight-laced face of his, but I believe that once he gets married, he will have many kids in the blink of an eye and will have his reason to live."

"After all this time, you still think that getting laid will solve all the problems of a man…" Melisse said and then sighed.

"Well, you can ask any man with trouble in their hands if they would avoid a nice lady just because they are a bit troubled," Cohnal said. "Still, now we talked about that… It is quite weird that someone that famous still is single. There is that mage-girl that he talks to a lot, but I didn't see them as a couple."

"I thought the Captain was gay, but he didn't act any different in front of any men," Melisse said. "He doesn't seem like someone who enjoys fighting all that much, so I can only see him like an oddball."

That was something that even Cohnal couldn't understand that well. Someone so strong, famous, and rich was single, didn't enjoy fighting, and never used the name of his family or his own name to have access to certain favors.. In any case, those two decided to stop talking about the Captain because they joined the other soldiers who were about to leave the village.